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

And then, everything happens at once.

The first grenade strikes the creature’s leg, pitching it forward. This action causes the A-10 gunfire to strike the back of the monster’s head, which would have been great if it hadn’t then twisted away, allowing the bullets to streak past and reduce Humm to sludge. The deadly barrage of bullets streaks past Collins and me, triggering our flight. We stand together and run for the side of the highway where a guard rail protects drivers from a fifteen foot gulley.

The second grenade strikes the creature’s gut, pitching it forward and dropping its head and neck into the trajectory of the final explosive round.

Collins leaps over the guard rail without slowing.

I follow, diving on the grassy slope and rolling onto my back as I slide down the hill.

There’s a whump, like the Earth itself has become a sub-woofer.

Then a shockwave that throws bodies, limbs, weapons and Humvees into the warehouses beyond the highway.

A ball of fire follows, roiling out, bright orange in all directions. It passes over our position, but its heat singes the hair on my arms.

A secondary explosion follows and a high pitched wail streaks past. It’s the A-10. On fire.

Boom!

Its gas tank bursts and explodes, sending the plane down into some unsuspecting neighborhood.

All of that is followed by an agonizing, rage-filled roar.

As pain fills my head, I see the creature again, this time from below, as it steps over the gulley. Seeing it up close, from beneath, is beyond comprehension. As the tail sweeps past, I feel queasy. Then light headed. I put a hand to my head and it comes away warm and slick with blood.

Something...something...

I’m unable to complete the thought.

As my vision fades to black, I hear a repetitive booming, like fading thunder. And then nothing.





30



Katsu Endo believed in loyalty, perhaps to a fault, but he was at least aware of this personality flaw. So he made it a habit to scrutinize every order he followed and determine whether it fell within the range of what he believed was acceptable. So far, the seven people he had killed, starting with Master Sergeant Lenny Wilson, had been at the command of General Gordon. He had no real reason to kill any of his victims other than the fact that Gordon had asked him to. But each and every one of those deaths were acceptable because they kept Endo close to the one thing in his life that gave him a sense of purpose.

And it wasn’t Gordon.

It was the creature unearthed from the frozen cave in Alaska. He needed to know what it was, where it came from and why. Those were the questions that drove him since laying eyes on the behemoth. As a child in Japan, Endo had spent a good portion of every day watching cartoons and movies that were filled with giant monsters called “kaiju.” Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra and so many more filled his imagination, and when his parents died, they kept him company. The giant monsters of his youth were remembered with the same fondness as his parents, but like them, the monsters would always be intangible.

But then he saw the giant creature in Alaska, and he knew he was wrong. Kaiju did exist, they’d just been killed, or were hiding in the ocean or were simply waiting to be created on a secret island somewhere. The possibilities were endless, and his desire to uncover the truth about kaiju drove him like a religious zealot.

But in five years he hadn’t learned very much at all. Then, somehow, the General told him he had acquired a sample of the creature, and suddenly all of their work at BioLance came into focus. Gordon had no real interest in micro-biology, transplantation technology or organ growth—he simply wanted to build a lab capable of studying the creature. That’s what Endo had believed, anyway. Then he found out about the General’s heart and how he intended to use an organ grown using the creature’s DNA to save his own life.

Endo had never experienced anger so primal before, and he had nearly acted on it. But killing the General fell outside his range of what was acceptable. If Gordon died, Zoomb would have no need for Endo. It would mean never getting his answers. Keeping Gordon alive had been and would continue to be his first priority. The man was his only avenue to the knowledge he sought.