The janitor stood next to her, looking down at the carnage. “Ay Dios mio.”
“No shit,” Lilly said. The Tsuchi was crushed beneath Nemesis’s girth, but the larger Kaiju was still moving, slipping its massive claws between her and the Tsuchi. What is it—? Lilly realized what Nemesis was up to just a second before the claws pierced two of the membranes on the Tsuchi’s belly. Exposed to the air, the fluid within detonated. The force of the blast struck the earth first, and then the Tsuchi, decimating the creature. Then, as the force met Nemesis’s body, it exploded outward in a razor-sharp ring of destruction, slicing the bases of four skyscrapers—including the KPMG building. All four buildings toppled inwards at once. As the ground below came into view, Lilly grabbed the janitor, whose calm demeanor was replaced by a high pitched scream, and they ran for the far side of the crumbling building.
Desks, chairs and other office detritus rolled toward them, tumbling out of cubicles and offices. As the building’s angle increased, the bombardment became airborne. Fighting gravity, Lilly dug her claws into the carpeted floor, using her legs and one arm to run, and the free arm to hold the man. As the floor’s angle passed forty-five degrees, an office on the far side of the building exploded, releasing a desk, a chair, two filing cabinets, reams of loose paper and a photocopier. It also opened a clear path to the windows on the far side.
Leaping over the desk and shoving off it, Lilly toggled her comm and was immediately greeted by Hawkins’s worried voice. “Lilly! Where are you!”
“KPMG building,” she replied, shouting over the cacophonous rumble of a crumbling skyscraper.”
“Oh God,” Hawkins said.
“I’m not dead yet!” Lilly spun around a water cooler, getting splashed in the face as it passed. She looked at the janitor. “What floor is this?”
“Treinta-tercer!”
“In English!”
“Thirty-third!”
“Thirty-third floor,” she shouted to Hawkins. “Near the middle of the building. We’ll be out in five seconds.”
She heard Hawkins yelling to someone and then to her. “We’ll be there!”
Lilly focused on running the distance, ducking, dodging and scaling up the sides of the floor-bolted cubicle walls when she needed to. A ream of paper struck a cubicle wall and burst open, obscuring her view. With no other choice, she pushed through it and was greeted on the other side by the falling photocopier. It struck her left side hard, knocking her back, clipping the side of her head, breaking ribs and her arm in two places.
Lilly roared in pain and frustration, but she didn’t fall. Her feet remained rooted in the floor. She turned to her passenger. “You need to hold onto me!” She put him in place beneath her, and the small man clung to her underside the way she had held onto Obsidian. With screamed exertion, she pulled herself back up and dug her right hand into the floor, which was now nearly vertical.
She glanced back. The ground raced toward them. Scaling the angled floor, Lilly charged upward. The way forward was empty of debris now, which had all fallen past them. Blue sky beckoned her upward. She roared again, pursued by the explosive sound of the building reaching the ground.
She leapt, slipping up and out of a window on the far side.
Smoke exploded up behind them.
Lilly looked for rescue, but didn’t see it.
Then, at the apex of her leap, the X-35 swung around, its hatch open, Maigo in the opening. Their eyes met, and for a moment, she saw anger in her adopted sister’s eyes, and then worry. They reached out in unison, catching each other’s wrists, and through mutual, superhuman strength, they swung Lilly and the man inside the cargo hold. The rescued duo sprawled onto the floor, and passed out.
31
“Pull up!” I shout to Silhouette, but it’s not really necessary. I’ve taken Obsidian’s place in the cockpit, so my view of the building toppling toward the X-35’s front end is the same as his. The towering building is mirrored glass from top to bottom, topped with a giant Deloitte & Touche logo, that’s now peeling away, one letter at a time. When all but the first and last five letters fall away, I nearly laugh, but then I catch our reflection in the windows. “Faster!”
“Everyone hold on!” Silhouette says.
The shifting reflection of the falling building is dizzying. For a moment, there is sky, then the distant city and then the destruction below. And then, in a sudden tunneling of my vision and crushing force against my chest, it all slides away.
I’m nearly unconscious by the time the X-35 comes to a halt. In seconds, we’ve traveled miles. Adrenaline fuels my pounding heart, returning blood to my brain. “Take us higher. I want to see.”