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

A sharp crack made Wilson jump. Then a bright red glow lit Endo’s face. The white mask made him look like ghost. A chill rose up Wilson’s back. He fought against it showing on his face, but Endo chuckled and shook his head.

Wilson was about to chew the man out—so what if Endo had saved them, no one mocked Lenny Wilson—but then Endo held the glow stick up, lighting the space around them, and this time, there was no stopping Wilson’s shout of horror.




Less than twenty-four hours after Wilson hauled himself out of the cave and lost the exercise, he stood outside the entrance once more with Endo by his side. They were joined by General Lance Gordon and no one else. The report of what they’d found had been fast-tracked up the chain of command until it landed on Gordon’s desk and stopped. He’d flown out of Washington D.C. within the hour and made his way to the frozen North.

“This is it?” Gordon asked with a huff that sent a cloud of steam from his mouth.

Gordon didn’t look like a general. He didn’t have the same rigid poise or clean cut look, especially for a man out of the Pentagon. What he did have was a commanding presence that said he’d lay into you like a Howitzer if you crossed him. Wilson answered quickly. “Yes, sir.”

“Who found it?” Gordon asked.

“Corporal Endo, sir,” Wilson replied.

The General turned his gaze to Endo, sizing him up. As men, they were opposites. The pale white Gordon stood at six-three, weighed two hundred fifty pounds, had rough skin on his face and was dressed in black thermal BDUs. Endo, dressed in his white BDUs from the previous day, was five-five, weighed one sixty-five and had a tan smooth-skinned face that Gordon doubted had ever felt a razor’s edge.

“Lead the way,” Gordon said to Endo, motioning to the sliver of black in the wall of stone.

Endo gave a curt nod and without a word, dropped to the ground and slid into the hole.

“You’re sure about this, General?” Wilson said. “You don’t need to go in there.”

Gordon craned his head around toward Wilson, a single eyebrow perched high on his forehead like a pterodactyl swooping in for the kill. “I didn’t fly over the whole damned country of Canada to stare at a hole in the ground.”

Wilson snapped to attention, gave a nod and followed after Endo, landing on his feet. Gordon entered behind him.

A light bloomed. Endo aimed the powerful beam at the floor, letting the reflected light illuminate the area around them. Wilson did the same with his flashlight, as did Gordon.

“Where is it?” Gordon asked.

Endo stepped to the side and raised his flashlight. The beam penetrated the darkness and lit up a wall of what looked like mottled brown marble. He raised the beam higher, stopping when it reached what looked like a hooked stalactite taller than Gordon.

With a sigh, Wilson added his light. “Know what it is?”

Gordon aimed his flashlight at the ceiling. It was fifty feet up. He found the top of the object and followed it down to the floor. Thirty feet tall. He played the light to the right, stopping when the beam’s reach faded, more than two hundred feet away.

“Did anyone else see this?” Gordon asked.

“No sir,” Wilson said. “Just the two of us. And not for long. The few details we saw before leaving are in our reports.”

“Your reports no longer exist,” the General said as he stared up at the empty eye socket big enough to drive a Humvee through. “As of right now, we are the only three people with any real knowledge of...this. And I would like it to stay that way. Do either of you have a problem with that?”

“No,” Endo said.

“No, sir,” Wilson added.

“Good,” Gordon said. “As of right now, you both work for me.”

Wilson managed to take his eyes off their discovery and looked at Gordon. “Endo’s Japanese, sir.”

The pterodactyl rose on the General’s forehead. He didn’t miss much, especially the plainly obvious. “I can see that.”

Wilson wilted a little and diverted his eyes back to the thing.

“I’ll need both of you here for the next few years before—”

“Next few years?” Wilson said in surprise, though he never took his eyes off the monster.

“You have a problem with that?” Gordon asked.

“Not if my family can join me,” Wilson said. “I’m scheduled to head home in a month.”

“Family.” Gordon said the word like it tasted bad coming out of his mouth. He turned to Endo. “You have family?”

Endo shook his head. “I am yours.”

The declaration was more intimate sounding than Gordon would have preferred, but when Endo turned his gaze back to the creature’s remains and the man’s eyes glowed with excitement, he realized the words had more to do with the beast than they did with him.

When Endo looked back at Gordon, the General waved him closer, but spoke to Wilson. “How many kids, Master Sergeant?”

“Two, sir,” Wilson replied. “Boys. Five and seven.”