Godzilla vs. Kong by Greg Keyes (e books free to read TXT) 📗

the most famous people in the world. There was no mistaking the widow’s peak, the salt-and-pepper beard, the slightly crooked smile. Inventor, entrepreneur, a man who thought so far out of the box that boxes were now all but obsolete: Walter Simmons, founder and CEO of Apex Industries. Nathan watched, struggling to understand what was going on, as Simmons approached his book, the one with the ungainly title Hollow Earth Gravity Paradox and Our New Frontier.

“I’ve been fixated on Hollow Earth as long as you have,” Simmons said. “Your theory that it’s the birthplace of all Titans is fascinating.”

“Your book was very impressive,” the other guy said, finally proving he could speak. “Brilliant ideas.”

“I’ve got about thirty unsold boxes in my apartment if you want some,” Nathan replied.

“Walt Simmons,” Simmons said. “Apex Industries.”

“Y-yeah, yes, sir,” Nathan stammered. “I know who you are. It’s an honor.”

“The honor is mine,” Simmons said. “As is the urgency. Godzilla has never attacked us unprovoked before. These are dangerous times, Dr. Lind. Allow me to introduce Apex’s Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Ren Serizawa. He has an … interesting thing to show you.”

Nathan watched as Serizawa pulled something up on a pad and then placed it on the table. A holographic globe appeared above the pad—the Earth but depicted in MRI imaging. As Nathan studied the digital globe, he began to pick out density representations, lines of magnetic force—and something else. An energy signature that was substantially different than anything else he had ever seen—but which was also oddly familiar. He had seen similar data before, but it hadn’t gone nearly as deep into the planet.

Oh, Lind thought.

“Magnetic imaging from one of our new satellites penetrated the Earth’s mantle,” Simmons said. “You know what this is.”

“Hollow Earth,” Nathan breathed, his gaze still picking over it, now identifying hollow spaces, some very large, others smaller but nevertheless distinct.

Simmons nodded. “An ecosystem as vast as any desert or ocean, beneath our very feet.”

Nathan continued tracing the contours of it, hardly believing what he was seeing. His theory predicted this, all of this, right down to the global electrostatic barrier, the boundary that certainly marked the gravitational reversal, the Swiss cheese nature of the interior of the world. Although that one central pocket was a little larger than he had imagined.

And that unknown energy represented … he couldn’t be sure what it was exactly, but the sheer power it signified agreed with his prediction that there must be some vital force to sustain life in lieu of sunlight and chemical outflow.

“This energy signal,” he said. “It’s enormous.”

“And almost identical to readings from Gojira,” Serizawa said.

“As our sun fuels the planet’s surface, this energy sustains the Hollow Earth,” Simmons said, “enabling life as powerful as our aggressive Titan friend. If we can harness this … life force … we’ll have a weapon that can defeat Godzilla.”

That was it. That made it all snap into place. Monarch scientists had been debating the nature of Godzilla’s metabolism since he had first reappeared in 2014. It was clearly linked to radiation—after all, Ishiro Serizawa had used a thermonuclear bomb to jump-start the Titan—but many speculated that Godzilla converted conventionally understood radiation into some other form of energy, which manifested into the beam of unknown energy he discharged from his mouth. Which did not closely resemble the nuclear particles and waves discharged by a fission or fusion reaction.

Here was the proof, another sort of energy, perhaps not nuclear in origin, but tied more closely to quantum states…

He noticed Serizawa and Simmons exchange a quick glance. Then, as if they had reached some tacit agreement, Simmons met Nathan’s gaze.

“I need your help to find it,” Simmons said.

Nathan’s first reaction was stunned disbelief, followed quickly by suspicion that they were mocking him. But that seemed like a weird thing for a billionaire tech giant to do, slum down to a basement office just to make fun of a has-been geologist. That left him with the possibility that they were—as impossible as it seemed—serious.

Hell, yes, Nathan wanted to say. What came out instead was a bitter laugh.

“I don’t know if I’m the right guy for the job,” he said. “Did you read the reviews?” He picked up one of his books. “‘A sci-fi quack trading in fringe physics,’” he quoted. Then he nodded at their surroundings. “Look where they put my office—I’m in the basement right across from the flute class. Besides, I’m not with Monarch anymore. And Hollow Earth entry is impossible. We tried.”

His throat caught on those last words. Simmons softened immediately and glanced at the news clipping about Dave.

“I’m sorry about your brother,” Simmons said. “He was a true pioneer.”

“Thank you,” Nathan said, trying to put on a polite smile, but it was, in fact, all he could do not to break down. He took a steadying breath. Simmons gave him a moment, then motioned toward the holographic globe.

“All forward scans suggested a habitable environment down there. So … what really went wrong? Your brother’s mission.”

Nathan took a moment to try to distance himself from the subject. To try to explain it dispassionately.

“When they tried to enter,” he finally said, “they hit a gravitational inversion. A whole planet’s worth of gravity reversed in a split second. Like flying a Volkswagen into a black hole, so … they were crushed in an instant.”

Simmons nodded, as if he’d just heard something he already knew. “What if I told you that we at Apex have developed a phenomenal craft that could sustain such an inversion?” He nodded at Serizawa. The technology officer pulled up something on the tablet that turned out to be specs for some sort of machine.

“The Hollow Earth anti-gravity vehicle,” Simmons said. “HEAV.”

“The right tool for the job,” Serizawa added.

Nathan stared at the specs, instantly overwhelmed by the design. This was his dream vehicle, the one he’d seen the possibility of but could never harness the technology to build.

And Simmons had built it.

“We can make the Hollow Earth entry possible,” Simmons said. “We just