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

“Where is it?” she murmured.

“Dr. Andrews,” the loudspeaker in the hall announced, “you have a visitor waiting at security.”

She looked over at Jia, who was pulling the book from beneath a pile of stuff on the bed and holding it toward her.

Thank you, she signed, and sat down next to her so they were eye to eye.

You’re nervous, Jia signed.

Everything’s fine, she replied.

You can’t lie to me, Jia said. I’m not a kid anymore.

Ilene couldn’t help but smile. Jia was constantly surprising her.

A few minutes later, she met Nathan at security. He looked better than he had on the video call. He had shaved the beard, for one thing, so the dimple in his chin was visible again. His light hair had been trimmed back, too, and his grey eyes seemed livelier. She tried to hide a grin as he pulled off his rain jacket; underneath he was wearing a brown puffer vest, just as he had when she first met him. She had remarked at the time that she hadn’t seen anyone wearing one of those since the eighties. He had just shrugged and smiled.

He noticed her expression and glanced down at the vest.

“It is a new one, at least,” he said.

“I didn’t know they still made them,” she said.

He smiled and they exchanged a perfunctory hug. Then he looked questioningly at Jia.

“This is Jia,” she said, signing along with her spoken words. “Jia, this is Dr. Lind.”

Kong isn’t sick, Jia signed. Neither am I.

Ilene smiled. “He’s not that kind of doctor,” she said. “He’s like me. A scientist.”

“I don’t do house calls,” Nathan said, smiling at the girl.

Ilene translated. He doesn’t travel around giving people medicine.

Jia frowned. You won’t hurt Kong, she signed.

Nathan looked to Ilene, confused.

“She just said she’s feeling fine,” she replied.

“Oh,” he replied. “I’m glad.”

“Can I get you something to drink? Do you want to see your room?”

“I’ll just get settled in,” he said. He nodded at the doors he had come through from the helipad. “I knew it was bad,” he said. “But this…”

“And it’s getting worse,” Ilene said. “And it’s our fault, you know.”

“I think I can help,” he said.

“Help?” Ilene said. “Help who? Kong? The Iwi? Because Jia is the last of them.”

“I know you’re skeptical,” he said. “But surely, if it really is getting worse, you must be willing to at least hear an alternative.”

She sighed. “Tell you what,” she said. “Let me show you where you’ll be staying. Then we’ll go.”

“Go where?” he asked.

“To the biodome,” she said. “To see Kong, up close. Get his opinion.”

While Nathan got settled and changed, she pulled a security clearance for him to visit the enclosure.

Is he a bad man? Jia asked.

No, Ilene said. He’s a good man. But sometimes he makes bad mistakes. Like all of us.

*   *   *

“Do you walk through this every day?” Nathan half shouted through the driving wind and rain. As Ilene watched Nathan struggle with the downpour, she realized how much a fact of life it had become for her. Like Kong, it had been a long time since she had seen the real sun.

“Not always,” she said. “Jia and I have a little prefab in the biodome. Sometimes we stay over. But the room in the Monarch facility has most of our stuff. So, tell me, now that you’re here. You want Kong for something. What?”

“Godzilla is active again,” Nathan said. “He attacked Pensacola.”

“I’m aware of that,” she said. “Godzilla doesn’t attack without reason. Maybe you should be looking into that.”

“Looks like this time, he did,” Nathan said. “If he did it once, he’ll do it again. We have to stop him.”

She turned and jabbed a finger at him.

“If you’re even thinking what I think you’re thinking—”

“No,” he said. “This isn’t about Kong stopping Godzilla. It’s about us stopping him. It’s about Hollow Earth.”

“Then I don’t follow,” she said, pulling the hood of her rain slicker to better protect her face from the downpour. “You said this has something to do with genetic memory. I assumed you meant Kong’s memory of an ancient feud with Godzilla’s species.”

Nathan shook his head. “I don’t want to throw Kong into a fight with Godzilla any more than you do. I’ve seen some new satellite scans of Hollow Earth. Good ones, taken by Apex. Life needs energy, Ilene. Plants use sunlight. Animals and fungi and bacteria break energy out of chemical compounds, from either living or non-living material. Like slow-burning fires. But in Hollow Earth, well—there’s an energy source, almost unimaginably powerful. I think the wellspring of life is down there, at least some of it. Waiting for us to discover it.”

Honestly, at the moment, she wouldn’t have been that unhappy if a flood swept Nathan off and buried him in the salt marshes. She’d been right about not liking what he would have to say.

“A power source?” she snapped. “In Hollow Earth? This sounds nuts even for you, Nathan.”

“It’s there,” he insisted. “We just need Kong to bring us to it.”

“The second you bring Kong out of containment Godzilla is going to come for him. You know that. Camazotz proved that beyond any doubt.”

They reached the biodome, cycled through the airlock. They were out of the rain, albeit soaking wet. Nathan gazed around, his face full of wonder. And purpose.

“This is amazing,” he said.

“Don’t change the subject.”

“You said yourself, you can’t keep him here forever,” Nathan said.

“No!” she said. “Our meddling has already wreaked havoc on Kong’s habitat—no way am I letting you drag him halfway around the world to use him as a weapon.”

“An ally!” Nathan insisted. “To protect us—lead the way down there.”

“And what makes you think he’ll go in?” she demanded, holding her palms up toward him. “And how do we get him there?”

Nathan paused. “I’ve seen what’s going on out there,” he said. “The storm is here to stay. This island will not recover from this, not as it was. Life will survive and adapt, as it always has, but the ecosystem that