She clinks her bottle against mine. “Husband.”
Yeah, we eventually made it to Vegas. The brief ceremony was conducted by a stunned justice of the peace, who watched us land in what was essentially a bona fide UFO—which we are definitely keeping. The service was attended by Maigo and Woodstock. Alessi had been with us when we set down, but she had quickly disappeared into the city. The wedding was a quick and simple affair, followed by a flight back to the East Coast.
“I’m trying to think of a good honeymoon location,” I say. It’s a white lie, but a good subject to distract me from the truth.
“Someplace not marred by Kaiju attacks,” she says.
“Siberia? I hear it’s nice in the summer. We could spend a few weeks in the gulag. Just the two of us.”
“I’m thinking Rome,” she says. “And Greece.”
“Pretty sure that part of the world saw its fair share of Nemesis back in the day.”
“Good place to start if we’re going to find Atlantis,” she says.
I freeze, hard cider tilted, almost at my lips. “Are you serious?”
“This is our life now, Jon,” she says. “We might as well embrace it.”
The bottle lowers as I smile. “It would be a pretty epic honeymoon. But...we’re not roughing it. Search by day, fine food and four-star hotel at night.”
“Deal.”
“So,” Maigo says from above us. “We’re going to Greece?”
Collins and I look up. Maigo and Lilly are clinging to the brick wall above us. Lilly is healing quickly, but still acting like her bold self, despite the cast and bandages. She’s giving Maigo pointers on being super human, and Maigo is officially out of her shell.
She no longer feels the connection to Nemesis. Endo’s bonding to the monster seems to have broken it. At first, I thought she might be disturbed by the loss, but it really just set her free. She keeps her hair tied back now. She laughs more. And she’s embraced the parts of her that aren’t human. Lilly has taken to the task of schooling her ‘sister’ in how to push the limits of their abilities.
Maigo’s connection to me, however, remains. It might even be stronger. She promises she’s staying out of my head, but I occasionally see her laugh when I’ve thought of something funny. As long as she’s not in there all the time, especially when I’m alone with my wife, I can deal with it. Maigo is, after all, a Hudson. Holy crap...in the last week I’ve become a family man.
I’m about to tell Maigo that Collins and I will be going alone, but Collins beats me to the punch. “If we’re lucky, we’ll find Atlantis, too.”
I guess we’re all going.
Collins takes my hand, “But we need to check out the lay of the land first.”
“I know what they’ll be laying,” Lilly says, nudging Maigo with her elbow.
“Aww, c’mon!” I say, but I can’t stop from laughing.
“Lilly!” Maigo says, embarrassed.
Collins just laughs.
Our laughter is cut off by the sudden roar of a helicopter surging over the Crow’s Nest roof and swinging around toward the lawn below us. There is a landing pad on the roof, but it’s currently occupied by Helicopter Betty and Future Betty, from which we’ve taken armor, weapons and tech we’re still trying to figure out. The dark blue, Bell 525 Relentless is instantly recognizable, not only because of its resplendent appearance, but because the Zoomb logo is hard to miss.
I remain seated while the helicopter lands in the yard. It takes a lot to ruffle my feathers these days. So I sit and sip my hard cider, waiting to see what unfolds. The girls, however, are on guard. They climb through a window back into the building, and disappear.
I have to admit, I’m a little surprised when three figures exit the helicopter dressed in armor and facemasks that resemble the BlackGuard’s. The deck door opens. Joliet steps out, shotgun in hand. The ghost of Old Mrs. Rosen, who was known to chase trick-or-treaters off with a shotgun, is probably watching with a grin. Hawkins emerges next, limping, but carrying a KRISS rifle taken from the X-35.
“What’s the situation?” Hawkins asks.
“I’m just having a drink with my lady,” I say.
He squints at me. Lowers his weapon. Looks back at the girls in the doorway behind him. They both look a little sheepish and defensive. Who can blame them for being jumpy? Lilly had been hunted by men wearing uniforms a lot like these.
The three armored visitors stop at the bottom of the brick stairway. “Can we talk?”
I recognize the voice as Alessi’s. While Endo has always been on and off my shit list, Alessi hasn’t done too much to irk me, even if she is his half-sister. “Come on up.”
She removes her mask and starts up the stairs. While Joliet ushers the others inside, Alessi pulls a chair around, facing us. She sits, takes the cider from my hand and takes a drink.
And now she’s on my shit list.