Project Hyperion (A Kaiju Thriller) (Kaiju #4)

“Cardiomyopathy,” he said. “Weak heart. Barely moving enough oxygen to my brain as it is. Can’t run. Can’t get too angry. Can’t screw. The pleasures of life have been stolen from me. You’re going to give them back.”


Elliot cringed, wondering if he was alluding to her previous offer. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but she was fairly certain she would regret it in the coming weeks, if the General survived the operation.

“Here we go,” she said, focusing on the touch-screen image. The bump came into view. It was nondescript. A lump. “Could be excess bone growth. Could be a tumor. A side effect of the rapid growth. I still have no idea what was in that DNA sample you gave me. It’s hard to say, but I think we’ll be fine as long we don’t see any other strange growths in the next few hours.” Then an idea came to her. “It could be a vestigial tail.”

Gordon remained calm, as though this idea didn’t concern him at all. “A tail?”

“It’s rare, only twenty-three cases reported since the eighteen hundreds, but we’re screwing with nature here. We all have tails in the womb, as embryos, but they usually get absorbed into the rest of the body after the first thirty-five days. It’s a dormant trait, weeded out by evolution, and typically reduced to a normal coccyx. Your tailbone.” Elliot moved the camera a little closer. The ROV’s small light seemed to reflect off the surface of the girl’s skin. “But it’s not a problem. Think of it like wisdom teeth. People don’t need them anymore, so we sometimes have them removed. It’s cosmetic. Not functional. It’s a—huh.”

“What?” Gordon asked, leaning over the touch screen.

“The skin over the bump,” she said. “Watch.” Elliot turned the ROV light side to side. The skin around the bump glowed in the light, but the skin covering the aberration shimmered.

“The skin is reflective?” Gordon asked.

Elliot didn’t reply. Instead she worked the controls, getting even closer with the ROV. The view screen showed a needle-tipped limb stretching out toward the lump.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting a biopsy,” Elliot said. The camera zoomed in closer, blurred and then focused.

“Looks like goose bumps,” the general said.

Elliot guided the needle closer to the skin. “I would have said scales.”

“Too lumpy,” Gordon said.

The needle struck the skin and stopped.

“The hell?” Elliot said. “The needle couldn’t break the skin. Should have slipped right through.”

“That a problem?” Gordon asked.

Elliot ignored the general, focusing on the task at hand. She put the ROV in reverse, pulled back a foot and then pushed it forward again, charging forward like a knight with a javelin. The needle struck and this time punched through the skin.

Maigo flinched violently.

The sudden movement from inside the tank made Elliot jump so bad that she spilled out of her chair. When she recovered, she found Gordon standing a few feet back, one hand over his chest, the other fumbling with a pill bottle. But his eyes never left the tank.

“She doesn’t have a brain,” Gordon said. “Just what she needs to maintain basic functions?”

“Yes,” Elliot said. All of their subjects were designed that way. Helped to get past the moral loophole of the bodies they grew being actual people. No brain. No soul. “She shouldn’t feel a thing.”

Gordon got the pill bottle open, dropped two blue ovals into his hand and dry swallowed them. “Then what the fuck was that?”

Elliot picked herself up off the floor and got back into the chair. She looked back at the screen and frowned. The lump wiggled.

Vestigial tails in humans were functionless. There were no muscles to control them. They just hung. Useless flesh.

This was not vestigial. This was the real thing.

Maigo had a tail.

“Keep a close eye on it,” Gordon said. He looked strong and collected again. “If you see any changes to her skin anywhere else on her body we will go forward with the procedure right away. Otherwise, prep to have her moved to medical in two hours.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Elliot said. “We don’t know what changes are taking place inside her body.”

“That’s why we’re going to cut her open and take a look before it’s my turn.”

Elliot frowned. It was a stupid idea. And while she didn’t have strong feelings about whether or not Gordon died, she wanted him to live simply because Endo would pay her a visit soon after the General closed his eyes for good. Endo might very well liquidate everyone on site.

As though on cue, Endo’s voice came over a two way radio clipped to the General’s belt. “Longhorn, this is Hound, come in.” The sentence was followed by a chirp that let Gordon know Endo was done speaking.

Gordon lifted the radio to his mouth and spoke, “I hear you, Hound. Give me a sit-rep.”

“Sheriff Collins and the man with her have not yet been eliminated.”

Gordon grumbled to himself before replying. “Why the hell not? You’ve been at it an entire day.”

“They have proven to be...resourceful,” Endo said. “Elusive.”