Kingdom of Monsters by John Schneider (microsoft ebook reader .TXT) 📗

the chemical from your ape friend's blood.  And he has back-up files.”

Shanna knew what Shriver had.  She had been the one who sent in reports.  Her father's efforts had been theoretical – nothing put into physical practice.

Although, she supposed, the idea was simple enough, an approach intended to work not much different chemically than an analgesic.

But the idea that she could develop something workable, when her father hadn't even attempted it, within time enough to save Congo?

Shanna knew psychology well enough, and understood the big gorilla's life was being dangled in front of her as incentive.

She also knew she was going to try.

And so, she had settled down in Rhodes' mid-town lab/bunker – likely an intended act of kindness on the General's part – after all, she had always wanted to see the city.

She could still feel Congo, just across the river, his aura ever stronger as the chemical reaction within him continued to build.

And now, three weeks since his exposure on the island, his growth-phase was peaking.  Soon madness would start setting in.

Shanna knew she would feel his pain along with him.

And as she sat before her computer, trapped in simulations, no further along than her father in anything that might manifest, even experimentally, in the real world, Shanna knew that Congo was going to die, and that she wouldn't be able to stop it.  It was just a fundamental fact.

The hell of it was, she actually believed she had a viable idea.  Given time, she really thought a cure was possible – or at least she could stop the cycle of madness and death, and with it, the key to the chemical's transmissibility.

She believed it was possible.

But she knew it was in the early territory of someday.  The chances of saving Congo's life were non-existent.

Part of her had already started to grieve, on top of still mourning her father.

It was such a general sense of malaise, that it made sense she would be progressively on edge.

Except...

This was the sort of feeling of unease she'd felt on the island, right up to those last days.

But this was different.  It was bigger.

It was... everywhere.  From every direction.

There was nothing she could focus on – the pressure in her head was like an allergic reaction.

Except Shanna didn't have allergies.  She was genetically perfect.

She was picking up on something.

It actually felt more like a dampening sensation – like an antiseptic numbs a sting.

And Congo's presence, growing brighter by the moment, as the Food of the Gods continued to build within his blood, was also a blinding influence on what else might be more subtly lurking around her.

In fact, the big ape's aura had grown so strong, it almost caused Shanna to overlook the growing presence of another.

Congo had been the third creation that had been taken directly from her genetic footnote.  Otto had been the second.

The rex had been the first.

Shanna turned from her computer to the window.

Her vantage was high.  Rhodes had given her a view of the city, along with the southwest coast of Manhattan.  She could see the Statue of Liberty and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.

“Oh no,” she breathed.

Shanna tapped her intercom, her heart beating as realization dawned.

There was no answer.

“Hello?” she said, pushing the button again.  “Is anyone there?  I need to get hold of General Rhodes right away!  It's urgent!”

Then there was the ding of the elevator.  She turned, expecting to see her morning-shift guard.

But the elevator was empty.

Except as she looked, she saw that it wasn't.

The guard was crumpled on the floor, slathered in blood, his throat slashed.

Even as Shanna stood, she felt the sulfur-sting in her sinus.

Otto hopped off the soldier's body out of the elevator.

He was followed by two others.

They hissed, baring their claws, and without formality, they came at her.

Chapter 32

It all started in New York when a two-hundred-foot T. rex walked out of the East River, just north of the Brooklyn Bridge, into the lower East Side.

Night had fallen on the city, and New York’s nightlife was coming alive.  Crowds in the streets were filling up all the usual hot-spots.

Manhattan Island was about to receive a most unexpected visitor from out of town.

A low fog covered the water, and for all practical purposes, the creature was invisible.

Big Rex swam with surprising efficiency, its massive legs churning the water.  His craggy brow broke the surface like a giant crocodile.

And like a croc's eyes under a night-light, his eyes shined in the dark, glowing like an emerald jack o'lantern.

The rex' nostrils flared.  The water in the river was fetid – slimy and horrible – nothing like the sea's cool embrace.

But despite this particularly foul gateway, Big Rex knew he had reached his destination.  The beacon he had pursued unerringly, like a psychic north star, was bare miles ahead.  A light he followed like a flower follows the sun.

Her.  Shanna.

Just as clearly, he sensed the presence of the other – his rival.

Congo was here as well.  Someplace close.

And somewhere behind it all, that familiar sting in the sinus – that foul psychic stench...

Otto.

Big Rex would swim across an ocean for Shanna, but he would walk through fire to smash that little bastard.

But now he could sense them converging around her.

Just as he could sense it when she screamed.

And Big Rex' glowing green eyes saw red.

The energy within him was already building to a head as the growth-cycle peaked and the chemical started to eat at his primitive brain.

Now his pace quickened, bearing down on the very city itself, his body tensed in the water like a shark poised to attack.

The rex rose from the East River like a tidal wave.

Chapter 33

Across the river, Congo's reaction wasn't much better.

His keepers had been forced to administer progressively higher doses of sedatives in an attempt to compensate for both his steadily increasing mass, combined with the sheer energy pumping through his system.

At Shanna's scream, Congo's glowing green eyes snapped open.

His roar echoed through the facility and he immediately began banging away at the bunker