Plague of the Gargantuas
Part one
By John LeMay and Neil Riebe
Breaking the Ice
"Doctor, we have a heartbeat." The tech looked up from his station to give his boss the good news.
Though Dr. Who wasn't one to smile, the tech's words made him do just that. The giant body resting under the ice was his "Ace in the Hole." It would allow him to build a bioweapon that would shock the world. "Good. Begin digging. I want that body free of the ice by nightfall."
Dr. Who's men worked around the clock. The hydraulic pistons of their machines whined as they scooped chunks of ice from the frozen plain along Antarctica's coast. By nightfall they had several meters to go before reaching the prize. Then a tech inside the mobile command post called out to Doctor Who: "Sir, we have a problem. I detect a tremor in the ice. It's as if something is burrowing toward the work site."
"What? Put the sound over the speakers."
The tech put the noise the sound detector had detected on the speaker. A deep, crunching of ice roared over the speaker, and in the midst of the noise there was a husky sound of breathing. The technician was correct. Something was burrowing through the ice. A kaiju!
"Radio for my robot, now!" Dr. Who had been itching to test out his newest creation on a kaiju since Kong and that traitor Madame X had jointly destroyed his beloved Mechanikong.
"Right away, sir!"
Who turned his attention to the icy tundra outside and watched as the ground began to raise. Within moments the monster Baragon burst from the ice and let out a shriek that nearly busted out the windows. The men immediately began to scramble. "No," Who hissed, worried not so much for his men as the unconscious body in the ice. It was worth more to him alive than dead.
Baragon peered over the pit looking below at the prize he intended to feast himself upon. Only now it was Baragon's turn to be surprised. Vibrations in the ground alerted him to the footfalls of another giant coming toward him. Baragon looked up from the pit to see the form of what could only be described as a mechanical gorilla.
Baragon leapt at the machine monster's barrel chest and immediately regretted it. Though he knocked his opponent backwards, it was as if he had hit a solid granite wall. He shook his head and tried his next tactic: his atomic ray. Though not as powerful as Godzilla's, Baragon liked to think his orange beam packed nearly as much force. Once it hit Mechanikong II's upper torso, Dr. Who immediately felt relieved that he had done away with the previous model's grenade belt. Had the ray hit the grenades then his latest creation would have likely exploded.
Instead Mechanikong II stood un-phased by the heat ray. Baragon decided to leap at his opponent's legs in hopes of knocking him over. As he jumped, the giant ape's fist rocketed from its arm socket and hit Baragon square in the stomach, knocking the wind out of the prehistoric survivor. Dr. Who had designed the new machine to have a detachable fist that also doubled as a gauntlet. With the fist still attached via a chain to the machine's arm, Mechanikong began to bludgeon Baragon with his fist as though it were a medieval mace! Squealing in pain, Baragon began burrowing into the ground. Satisfied the monster was retreating, Mechanikong ceased his attack and turned his attention back to the specimen he had just uncovered. Dr. Who's prize was still intact.
Chapter One: The Plague Revealed
Malnik—assassin. With one bomb he wiped out the royal house of the Kingdom of Selgina. Thanks to him, Princess Selina Salno, who became queen after her father's assassination, made headlines one last time, as a corpse.
Hopto—head of the Selginan Democratic Movement. Publically, he championed representative government, suffrage rights for all citizens, all the things Western nations swoon over. Privately, he jockeyed for dictatorship. His assassin's crimes paved the way for him to become the first democratically elected president of Selgina.
Rogan—the pamphleteer. He rallied youth movements in the Selginan colleges, stirred up the workers, and courted the generals. He was Hopto's Trotsky.
Dr. Who knew these men well. They had ambition. They now had a country. What they lacked was an army. He would provide them with that army, on one condition: Money.
He finished his coffee and dabbed his lips with a napkin. "Miss Honeyblossom, what is the balance of my accounts?"
Miss Aki Honeyblossom adjusted her glasses and read from the doctor's financial spreadsheet. "Your savings account in Hong Kong has increased by 15%. Your stock of gold bullion increased by five hundred pounds and your Swiss accounts have increased by 20% each."
"Excellent. Our new clients have made their down payment. I shall now speak with them." He stood from the table. His dining room was all white and trimmed with silver and sparkling with crystal. It was a stark contrast to his black clothes and his even blacker heart. Aki straightened his collar and picked a strand of gray hair off his shoulder.
"Perfect," she said with a smile.
"As always!" Dr. Who smiled back. He handed Aki her clipboard and notes.
She handed him his presentation pointer and brief case.
They left the dining room and strode down the hall to a tapestry. At the press of a button a section of the wall slid aside behind the tapestry. They stepped through the aperture. On the other side was a tunnel. A guard snapped to attention.
The Doctor made a dismissive flick with his hand, letting his subordinate know he could stand at ease.
Their final destination was the auditorium. President Hopto, Rogan, Malnik, plus several officials who collaborated with Hopto's takeover of the Kingdom of Selgina—now The People's Democratic Republic of Selgina—plus a goon squad of security men were sitting, waiting patiently. They were all dressed in business attire. They looked more like corporate executives than thugs and cutthroats. That was fine, in Dr. Who's opinion. Everyone deserves a chance to look distinguished.
"Good morning, gentlemen," the Doctor said as he gave his briefcase to his assistant. "First, congratulations on your nation's smooth transition into a democracy. I am sure the people of Selgina will embrace your regime with as much affection as they had the Salno royal house."
Hopto cocked his brow. He appeared to be skeptical of Who's sincerity.
Dr. Who continued, "Eight months ago you asked me to provide you with a weapon that will make you equal with the world's super powers."
On cue, Miss Honeyblossom activated the view screen. A map of central Asia appeared.
Dr. Who pointed out Selgina on the map, a landlocked nation situated in the Himalayan Mountains. Nepal bordered Selgina on the western side. Bhutan on the eastern side. To the north was mighty China. To the south was India. Selgina was smaller than Luxembourg, with only 659 square miles to its name and a population of 259,000 with a standing army of 25,000. The nation had no heavy industry and because most of its mountainous topography it could support only one airstrip, and the airstrip was barely keeping up with the needs of commercial traffic. "What you need is a weapon which does not rely on the size of your army, your lack of industry, and can be contained within your borders. After eight months of work I have created the perfect weapon for you."
Miss Honeyblossom opened the briefcase. From the case she held up a phial of liquid.
"The liquid in this container contain cells to a living creature. A creature you will control." Dr. Who hopped down from the stage and handed the phial to President Hopto. A green-colored particulate matter floated inside the liquid. Hopto shook the phial, causing the liquid to take on a green tint. The Selginan leaders wrinkled their faces in disgust. After eight months and a king's ransom, this was all they had to show for it.
"Are you talking about germ warfare?" Hopto said. "No one in my country is trained to handle such material."
"What you are offering is illegal," Rogan added. "The UN will have us sanctioned. Our nation will be bankrupt before we could ever use that stuff."
Dr. Who laughed. "Gentlemen, you are jumping to conclusions. Allow me to show you what is inside that magic bottle." He swung his hand out toward the view screen.
Miss Honeyblossom replaced the map with news footage. What the men saw made them jump back in their seats. Their mouths opened in shock. On the screen, Sanda and Gaira, the brown and green Gargantuas, battled in the streets of Tokyo. Where their feet stepped, cars were crushed flat. Buildings collapsed into rubble in their wake. Tanks and maser cannons fired at the giant monsters. The gunfire slowed the Gargantuas, but did not stop them.
Hopto turned a deathly sheet of white. He looked at the phial again then carefully handed it back to Dr. Who.
"Where did you get this material?" Rogan asked. "The Gargantuas had been destroyed in a volcanic eruption."
The doctor smirked. It was better for him if they did not know. "Are you interested or are you not?"
Hopto glanced to his men. All of them shook their heads no, except Malnik.
"Listen to what the doctor has to say," the assassin stated firmly.
"We are not zookeepers," Hopto shot back. "How would we control a Gargantua?"
The doctor cleared his throat to get their attention. He hopped back up on the stage. His assistant handed him a twenty-page document from her clipboard. Dr. Who held it up. "This is a copy of the UN report on the Kilaak controller. No one has figured out how to reverse engineer this machine, except for me. I will equip you with a copy of the controller. With it you can make the Gargantuas do anything you want.
"Now, what makes the Gargantuas the perfect weapon? First, you can carry enough cells to create a thousand of these monsters in a three ounce bottle of shampoo."
Miss Honeyblossom took the phial from the doctor and pushed it inside a mock-up of a small bottle of shampoo, which a traveler can legally take aboard a passenger plane.
"A single person can travel anywhere in the world with these cells, plant them in open water, and raise an army in minutes. With one household refrigerator you can keep in cold storage a legion numbering in the trillions. Compact, easy to store, difficult to detect, yet once unleashed, the Gargantuas will be an unstoppable force. Are you interested, President Hopto?"
Hopto's lip quivered. Such power, if mishandled, could destroy his country. Could destroy him.
Malnik gripped the Selginan president's shoulder. He leaned close and spoke into his ear. "Mr. President, do not be afraid. He is offering us the key to world domination."
"What he is offering is a plague. A plague which may bring mankind to extinction."
"Exactly," Malnik said. "The fate of our species will be in your hand." He then whispered, "I worked too hard for you to throw away this opportunity. Take it! You know what happens to a soft-hearted ruler."
Despite Malnik's effort to keep his voice low, the doctor heard every word. He smirked. He knew what Malnik was hinting at. Hopto and his cronies regarded Princess Selina Salno as soft-hearted. Malnik killed her. He was not afraid to kill Hopto, too.
"All right," Hopto said. "I will accept your weapon provided that there is a way to destroy the Gargantuas when we no longer need them."
"That will be easy," the doctor said. "You control the Gargantuas. March them into a volcano. Well, Mr. President?"
Hopto nodded. "Fine. I accept."
"Good! Now I will give you a demonstration." Dr. Who snapped his fingers. The stage and the seats lowered into an immense cavern. Stalactites hung from the ceiling like fangs. Off in the distance the sound of water could be heard dripping. The stage and seats came to rest near a large pool. A copy of the Kilaak controller was already setup and waiting for use. The doctor positioned himself at the controller's panel.
Miss Honeyblossom took over the presentation from here. As the doctor fired up the controller, she pulled the phial out of the faux shampoo bottle. "This tube contains enough cells to grow one Gargantua. The cells, if exposed to protein, will grow. But growth will be slow if you leave them to nature. So we will be providing you with a high-potency solution which will allow the cells to reach maturity within minutes. Observe."
She took out of the briefcase a jar containing a tan-colored jelly. She spooned a bit of jelly into the phial and stirred the contents. Honeyblossom then poured the mixture into a rubber balloon. She tied the end and threw it into the pool.
The balloon floated for a few moments then shook, as if something wriggled inside. The mixture darkened, took on shape. It became something solid, alive. It burst out of the balloon, and continued to grow. It formed arms, legs, and a head. The face was hauntingly human, yet primitive, like a Pleistocene caveman. Its lips peeled back from dripping fangs, its eyes glared with hate. The Selginans hopped out of their seats and backed away from the pool as the beast grew, casting its shadow over everyone gathered in the cave. The Gargantua threw back its arms and let out a shrieking roar. The Selginans screamed in terror.
Chapter 2: First symptoms of the Plague
Goro Ibuki's knee bounced up and down nervously as he approached his destination via helicopter over the rolling waves of the Pacific Ocean. He smoothed out the crumpled letter in his hand and reread it:
Dear Goro Ibuki,
On behalf of your government I am pleased to announce that the United Nations has found a position for you and your marvelous invention, the robot kaiju Jet Jaguar, on Monsterland. As you may already know, Monsterland is located on Ogasawara Island in the Pacific Ocean, 1000 kilometers south of Tokyo. It is a nature reserve serving as a habitat for the world's kaiju. We feel the rapport your robot has struck with Godzilla will be instrumental in tending to the needs of the giant animals being kept there, and as a leader in your field of robotics we feel that you would be an invaluable asset to our team. Director Kyoko Manabe will inform you of your duties. Once again, congratulations!
Sincerely,
Ken Okitani, Ministry of Defense
Here was the rub. Goro had not applied for a position. He asked his lawyer what he should do. His lawyer said, "Take the job. If you know what's good for you, take it!"
He had already received requests from other countries, including state sponsors of terrorism, to create weaponized versions of Jet Jaguar. They promised money. Enough to ruin a man's soul. Editorials all over the globe were throwing suspicion on him as the next mad scientist. After all, it was a mad scientist who created Mechani Kong.
Yes, Jet Jaguar was benign. Yes, he was a hero. He helped save the world from Megalon, the kaiju god of Seatopia, and the space cyborg Gigan. None of it mattered. What mattered was that Jet Jaguar was more power than mankind could control.
Goro understood the subtext of the letter. His government considered him to be a liability and they wanted to tuck him and his machine some place where they couldn't get into any trouble.
He felt like an outcast.
The chopper continued its journey. Goro peeked out the passenger window. Jet Jaguar, now the size of an ordinary human, was flying alongside with his arms outstretched and his antennas extended. It was funny how others saw Jaguar as a weapon or a menace. To Goro, Jet Jaguar was his child.
"We're approaching the island now, sir," the pilot announced.
Monsterland had such majesty, with its mountains, lush forests, and bright sands soaking up the sun.
"If you look down below, you can see Godzilla's son. Weird isn't he?" the pilot said as they flew over the beach.
Goro looked down to see a creature that only vaguely resembled Godzilla. It stared up at them in wonderment. "Huh, maybe he's adopted," Goro joked.
Next he could see the giant spider Kumonga making its way through the trees. Even though Goro had seen kaiju up close he still felt a sense of wonderment. "Where's Godzilla?" he asked.
"Out to sea. He comes and goes as he pleases, even before the Kilaak controller went kaput. We think he's grown immune to it. Maybe that's something you can fix."
"Me?" Goro said, incredulous.
The pilot's face took on a guilty look as though he had said too much. "Uh, you'll see when you talk to the director. There she is now."
Goro looked ahead to see an attractive young woman waiting for him in the middle of a field.
The chopper touched down. Kyoko shielded her face as her hair whipped in the wind stirred up by the rotor blades. Shoving the letter into his pocket, Goro grabbed his suitcase and climbed out of the helicopter.
"Have fun," the pilot said and gave him a wink.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You'll find out!" the pilot shut the door with a laugh. He took off as Goro stared at him dumbstruck. Jet Jaguar touched down beside him and patted him on the shoulder to help him fortify his courage. The robot had an uncanny way of knowing when he was under a lot of stress.
"Don't let the pilot fool you. He just likes to joke," the young woman said as she approached. She extended her hand with a smile. "Kyoko Manabe, director of Monsterland."
Goro took her hand and shook it firmly. "Goro Ibuki."
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Kyoko's features took on a gleam of recognition as she shook his hand. "You don't have a brother do you…a marine biologist?"
Goro had to laugh. "I do have a brother, but he's no marine biologist. He's only ten."
They both laughed.
"Oh, and this is Jet Jaguar, though I'm sure you already knew that."
Kyoko smiled and bowed and Jet Jaguar bowed in turn and uttered a few of his signature electric syllables.
Kyoko looked amused. "Is he…saying something?"
"Jet Jaguar says he is pleased to meet you."
"Well, the feeling is mutual." Kyoko wasn't sure if Goro was serious or just being polite, but she folded her hands and said to Goro, "I am well aware of the circumstances that led to your being here. Let me assure you that you are not under house arrest. I consider you a part of our special family of zookeepers. You will find your stay rewarding. I promise."
"If I am part of the family," Goro eyed her reaction closely, "does that mean I am free to leave?"
Kyoko's lips smiled, but her eyes took on the glint of steel. "I doubt you will want to leave once you start your work."
Talk about evasive answers…
Kyoko walked over to a hatch sticking out of the ground that led to an underground bunker. "Please come inside with me, we have much to discuss. Jet Jaguar is welcome to look around the island if he pleases."
"Now wait a minute, if you think Jet Jaguar should be corralled on this island— "
Kyoko opened up the hatch. "I assure you it's nothing of the sort. But according to our radar Godzilla should be coming ashore soon, and I'm sure he and Jet Jaguar would love to get reacquainted seeing as how they are…would it be appropriate to say old friends?"
Goro looked to his robot and judging from his chirps reuniting with Godzilla seemed to excite him. "Well, if that's what you want. Just don't go getting into any more fights."
Jet Jaguar chirped, did a few strange hand gestures and flew off toward the beach.
"After you," Kyoko said and gestured to the ladder running down the hatch.
Several minutes later after a brief tour of the Monsterland control room Goro and Kyoko sat down in her office.
"Miss Manabe, not that I didn't enjoy the tour of the facilities but if, uh…"
"We could get down to business? Certainly. To cut to the chase, your purpose here is twofold. First, we need your expertise for repairing the Kilaak controller. A recent earthquake has damaged it, hence why the monsters are now running amuck again. Second, once they are recaptured we want Jet Jaguar to act as an intermediary between man and monster. Help keep things running smoothly."
Goro face contorted into a grimace that he did his best to pass off as a smile. "Funny, I thought my visit here was three-fold, not two-fold."
"Three-fold?" Kyoko said confused.
"Yes, the third reason you brought Jet Jaguar and me here. To keep an eye on us."
"I assure you it's nothing of the sort."
"Oh, and here I thought you were just trying to flatter Jet Jaguar and myself into a nice prison stay. So, if that's not the case…and not that I'm not flattered by the offer to be a part of your team, I will have to politely decline. The truth is, Jet Jaguar and I are happy where we are."
Kyoko sighed and folded her hands, leaning back in her chair. It was time to play hardball. "You know Goro, can I call you Goro?" She didn't wait for him to answer and continued. "The government asks nicely only once. I'd take their offer to fix the controller."
"That's what I thought."
Kyoko looked to a monitor where Jet Jaguar could be seen patting Minya on the head as Godzilla looked on.
"Goro, please see it from the government's perspective. You constructed a potentially dangerous artificial intelligence without our knowledge or permission."
"An artificial intelligence that saved the world I might remind you."
"Yes, but only after first being hijacked by a hostile nation."
"So were you once Kyoko. I can call you Kyoko, right?" Goro was referring to the time Kyoko had been controlled by the Kilaaks and had been used by them to wreak havoc.
She shot him a look and then gave him a defeated smile. "Touché." She stood up and walked around her desk. "Listen, Goro, I hate to be the bad guy—
"Then don't."
"I wish it were that simple, but nothing is simple where national security is concerned." She sat down on the corner of her desk and leaned in close. When she started talking again Goro didn't know if he wanted to kiss her or slap her. "I'll level with you. Right now the world considers you a dangerous individual. You just constructed a size changing robot in your garage more or less. Who knows what you might build next? Show us you're a team player by fixing the controller for us, and we'll let you and your robot go back home where you can live happily ever after if that's what you really want."
Goro suspected that she was lying. "You know, Kyoko, you're not terribly attractive when you try to be intimidating. It just doesn't suit you." Goro stood up and looked back to the monitor at Jet Jaguar. "But, that robot is like a son to me, so if that's what it comes to, I'll fix your controller. But make no mistake, I built that robot because I'm a patriot, and if this is how my country rewards me for my act of valor, well, maybe when this is all over Jet Jaguar and I will go elsewhere."
xxx
Dr. Who scanned the headlines of the Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan's leading newspapers. On page three there was an article about Goro Ibuki, the clever youngster who built Jet Jaguar. The Japanese government released a statement that Ibuki had accepted a position on Monsterland as a technician. His robot, because of its ability to communicate with kaiju, would be utilized as an intermediary between man and monster.
How enterprising, Dr. Who thought.
He tried to read further but Miss Aki Honeyblossom had a copy of The Wall Street Journal. She kept interrupting his reading regarding his stocks. They were going up, up, and up!
The reclusive scientist could care less. Once you master insider trading you can make a profit anywhere at any time.
"More tea, my dear?" Dr. Who offered to refill her cup.
"Yes, thank you."
He filled the cup to the brim. Now that she had something to drink she would not be able to talk.
He resumed reading. He was amused by the story. Tokyo was in effect telling the world, "Don't worry! We put Goro Ibuki and his robot someplace where they won't cause any trouble."
It was a shame how the world feared great men, although the doctor had to admit that it was his fault Goro was an outcast. People were assuming that Jet Jaguar could become a tool for destruction, like his robot, Mechani Kong.
That got Dr. Who thinking. Goro must be resentful in how he was being treated. Could the young genius be persuaded to become his partner?
"Miss Honeyblossom, radio my agent on Monsterland. Tell him I want Goro Ibuki as well as the Kilaak Controller brought to me."
"At once, Doctor." Honeyblossom set down the paper and headed for the communications room.
"Hurry!" he called after her as he checked his watch. "We have little time before my plan goes into operation."
Once Dr. Who had his hands on the Kilaak Controller, no one would be able to stop his Gargantuas.
Luckily, President Hopto and his Selginan cohorts also wanted the controller taken out of the hands of the United Nations so they could proceed with their plans. Dr. Who offered to seize it for them for an additional fee. They agreed. Dr. Who was now being paid to do something he was going to do anyway!
xxx
Once the dust settled in the kingdom of Selgina and it became clear that Selgina was a democracy, as promised by Hopto's administration, and it was a stable country, the United Nations readily accepted the former monarchy into the fold. Rogan, Hopto's propagandist, took a seat at the UN as Selgina's representative. Tomoko Mahiko of Japan's NHK News reported on Rogan's speech:
"Ambassador Rogan of the former Kingdom of Selgina, now the People's Democratic Republic of Selgina, made a plea to the nations of the world to help restore lost territory to the new republic. Rogan claimed the British seized 600 square kilometers of their territory and made it part of India back in the 19th century. He claimed an additional 500 square kilometers had been seized by Mao Tse-Tung's forces during the Communist takeover of China. As proof he cited old maps, diaries of local landowners, and land deeds. It is a fact both of these regions border Selgina and that most of the population are ethnically Selginan. Regarding Nepal, Rogan said the Himalayan country was once a province of Selgina and gave the people of Nepal an open invitation to once again become citizens of Selgina. The ambassador of Nepal countered Rogan's claim by saying Selgina was actually a province Nepal and gave an invitation to Selgina to once again be under the rule of Nepal. Representatives from India and China had no comment to Selgina's claims at this time."
To those who watched this broadcast, this was an inconsequential border squabble. What no one realized was that this was a prelude to a global catastrophe.
xxx
A feeling of dread crept up on Shindo Yamaguchi. As a member of the Japanese secret service he saw things pass his desk that would whip the general public into a panic. In this case, his boss Goro Yamashita had handed him photos from a village in the Cook Islands. The photos had been provided by Yamashita's contact in New Zealand.
The village had been decimated. Its inhabitants devoured. Grass huts lay torn to shreds. Palms trees had been stomped flat. Cars had been found crushed like soda cans and tossed hundreds of meters from the roads. Blood stained the wreckage in crimson gore.
Three months ago, the kaiju on Monsterland had broken loose from the island's security. It would be easy to conclude that Baragon, Varan, and other flesh-eating monsters had made a smorgasbord out of the village's inhabitants, but they would have left foot prints and drag marks with their tails. The New Zealand police found no such evidence. They did find one foot print—humanoid in shape—and gouges in the soil, and this was the part that filled Shindo with dread. In the opinion of the New Zealand police, it appeared a number of humanoid giants had raided the village then erased their tracks with their bare hands. The only reason why one foot print had been found was because the giants had missed it.
"You know what this means?" Shindo asked his boss.
Yamashita folded his hands on his desk and nodded. He stared back at Shindo with a grim eye. "The intelligence of these creatures is greater than any known kaiju. They may be capable of making tools. Maybe even their own civilization. With the world already over populated, imagine competing for living space with a race of giants."
"That's assuming these giants are as impervious to modern weapons as Godzilla," Yomo interjected. Yomo was Shindo's partner.
"They are nearly as big as Godzilla," Yamashita said. "Measurements taken from the footprint imply they are in the range of 35 to 40 meters tall. Odds are they are as tough as Godzilla."
"Did the New Zealanders send us any other evidence?" Shindo asked.
"They did. Bits of organic tissue had been found in the wreckage." Yamashita snapped his fingers, signaling a man from the hazardous materials department to open a case. Inside were four sealed glass containers. Each contained a sample of skin tissue. One sample was more hair than skin. The skin samples appeared to have a hardened texture, similar to scales. The skin was green, like algae, and the hair was coarse and black.
Shindo and his partner took a close look at the samples. As a precaution they abstained from picking up the containers.
Yamashita nodded to the man that he could close the case. He then slid the photos into an envelope and placed it into a briefcase which contained all documented evidence that the New Zealand authorities had forwarded to Japan. "Deliver this material to Monsterland. Director Manabe and her team will be able to identify what type of creatures we're dealing with."
"I already have an idea," Yomo said.
"So do I," Yamashita rebutted. "But I want to hear from the experts before issuing a report to the prime minister."
Shindo had his suspicions, too. But he concurred with his boss. They should wait until Kyoko's science team had a crack at this case.
Yamashita excused the man from hazardous materials. Shindo took this as his cue that the briefing was over. He slid the chair back and was about to get up when Yamashita asked him to wait a moment.
"Professor Goro Ibuki and his robot Jet Jaguar are at Monsterland. Shindo, I want you to keep an eye on him for the next three weeks. Send Yomo a report each week on his activities. Yomo, report to me and to no one else. I want the information loop on Professor Ibuki restricted to us three. "
Shindo frowned at his boss. "Don't tell me the government is getting swept up in the hysteria! I haven't met Ibuki, but if we start suspecting our own citizens of criminal intent without proof we'll kill incentive for our best and brightest inventors from excelling at what they do."
Yamashita put his palms up to stymy Shindo's outrage. "I agree. The rest of the world insist he's a security risk because he created a powerful robot, just like Dr. Who. So they're assuming he's cut from the same cloth as Dr. Who. What we need is an official record proving Professor Ibuki is a decent, trustworthy citizen. This is about creating a buffer zone between him and his critics. Are you up to the task? Both of you?" Yamashita included Yomo with his hard gaze.
Shindo exchanged looks with Yomo. His partner appeared to be up for the challenge. "That's much more reasonable. Consider it done, Chief."
Chapter 3: The Plague Unleashed
Despite not having fought any major battles in the past several months, Godzilla felt groggy. Sometimes he swore beating up giant insects and cyborgs wasn't nearly as difficult as entertaining a hatchling. Minya needed near constant entertaining. Having Jet Jaguar drop in for a visit had helped, but now that he had shrunk back down to human size and gone inside, Minya had already grown bored again. The robot's ability to shrink in size seemed to fascinate Minya. If Godzilla didn't know better, he'd think Minya envied this ability to shrink down to human size. Why Godzilla didn't know, but the kid could dream about it at least.
At the moment Godzilla, his son and Kumonga were the only monsters left on the island. A fortunate break came for the others in the form of an earthquake that ravaged the island. This earthquake was the result of an underground nuclear test which provoked the insect monster Megalon to attack the surface world. Now all the monsters were free again, and the humans had yet to develop a means to recapture them. Godzilla staid on the island only because Minya was still too young to swim long distances. Plus, it wasn't such a bad place to be when one wasn't trapped there.
Minya tugged at one of his puffy silver dorsal plates yet again wanting to play a game of jump tail. It was a simple enough game wherein Godzilla swathed his tail back and forth and Minya jumped over it with glee. But not now, now was a time for sleep. Godzilla roared at Minya to be quiet and to take a nap and laid his head down. Before he could fall asleep he heard the "thwack-thwack" of one of the human's flying machines called a helicopter approaching the island. Little did Godzilla know, but the chopper carried Shindo Yamaguchi, a man who had been involved in many of Godzilla's adventures including his battles with the Super Allosaurus, Noregon, Gigan and Tryga.
The chopper dropped off Shindo at the landing site where Kyoko Manabe and her security chief were waiting. He handed his credentials to the security as per procedure. The security man verified his identity and returned his credentials.
Kyoko smiled. "Welcome to Monsterland."
Shindo returned her greeting. The briefcase containing the intelligence reports of the monster attack on the village in the Cook Islands was manacled to his wrist.
Security delivered the tissue samples to the lab as Shindo and Kyoko reconvened in her office. She signed the paperwork acknowledging receipt of the tissue samples and the intelligence documents. Shindo then unlocked the manacle and slid the briefcase over to Kyoko.
"How much has Tokyo told you about what happened at the Cook Islands?" Shindo asked.
"All I have been told was that there was a kaiju-related incident. Nothing more."
"Tokyo has not given me instructions to brief you on the situation but I am to remain available to answer questions. Everything you need to know is in here." He tapped the briefcase.
Kyoko frowned. The same dread that had filled Shindo was filling her, too. "How serious is this?"
"I am not at liberty to say."
Kyoko gasped. "That serious."
"Read the documents and draw your own conclusions. This incident is a New Zealand concern. They will decide what will be disclosed to the public and when. The only reason why we are involved is because our country has the experts on kaiju. Once your team has reviewed the evidence, deliver their report to me. I will forward it to Japan. From there it will be forwarded to the New Zealanders. Beyond that there is to be no discussion except between you and me, and only when necessary. In the meantime," Shindo smiled to help bolster her courage, "I'll just hang around the base. I would appreciate it if you do not disclose my purpose here."
"Of course," Kyoko said, understanding perfectly.
"As far as anyone is concerned I'm just another nosy bureaucrat," he added to be sure she understood.
Kyoko had a member of her staff show Shindo to his quarters. His suit case was waiting for him on the bed. He showered, shaved, and put on a change of clothes then checked the safety on his service pistol and hid the weapon in the secret compartment in his suit case. From the same compartment he extracted a tag and credentials which identified him as an auditor from the labor safety board. He pinned the tag to his jacket, straightened his tie, and went out for a stroll of the grounds. Might as well reconnoiter the layout of this place.
Kyoko met up with him later in the day and offered to introduce him to the star member of the team, Professor Goro Ibuki.
"Lead the way!" Shindo said. Part of his mission was to keep an eye on Ibuki-san.
As they entered the control room Goro was on his knees with what looked like some sort of futuristic socket wrench securing the Kilaak controller atop a pedestal. "Jet Jaguar, hand me that 9/16ths will you?"
Kyoko cleared her throat to alert Goro to their presence. He and Jet Jaguar both turned around.
"Goro, this is Shindo Yamaguchi." Shindo could tell by the way Kyoko spoke to Goro that she liked him.
Goro wiped off his hands on a rag as he stood up. He sized Shindo up as he walked towards him.
"Oh, are you another one of my babysitters?" Goro asked as he shook Shindo's hand.
"In a manner of speaking, yes. I am an auditor for the labor safety board. If you have a complaint about your working conditions, give me a call." Shindo handed him his business card. The card was whipped up by the secret service to reinforce Shindo's cover. However, the contact information was legitimate. If Goro had anything to say, the secret service wanted to hear about it. "And this must be the famous Jet Jaguar."
Jet Jaguar stood and confronted Shindo. It was strange staring eye to eye with a pair of polarized lenses. It seemed as though there was actually someone alive within this whirring machine. The robot offered its hand.
Shindo hesitated to shake it.
"It's all right," Goro said. "He knows his own strength."
Shindo grasped Jet Jaguar's hand. He felt the steel talons under the soft rubber skin. Jet Jaguar could pulp his hand with ease, if the robot wanted to. The robot shook his hand firmly, but carefully, and nodded.
"He's a remarkable machine," Shindo said to Goro.
"He can do almost anything. But if you want to know how he changed his size I can't help you. It's a mystery to me as much as anyone else."
Goro shifted his gaze from Shindo to Kyoko, who was surprised to see the controller already functioning. "Don't worry. It's ready, I think."
"You think?" Kyoko looked concerned.
"Well, I did my best with it, but we're still talking about alien technology. And I feel it's only fair to caution everyone. I couldn't calibrate the controller to the exact same frequency as before." Goro warned.
"So you're saying—"
Goro shrugged his shoulders. "Different frequency, different results."
Kyoko and the techs exchanged a few concerned looks. "Well, there's only one way to find out. Mr. Yamaguchi, do you have any reservations about being on the island when we reactivate it?"
"None at all," Shindo said.
Kyoko walked over to the alien device. "Here goes nothing." She switched it on and it came whirring back to life.
In less than a minute a blip appeared on the radar. The tech at that station addressed Kyoko in a surprised tone, "Ma'am, we have our first asset approaching the island." The radar blipped again, and then again, so now three dots rapidly approached the island from the Southeast. "And two more," the befuddled tech muttered.
Kyoko was shocked. Maybe Manda, Varan and some of the other monsters hadn't wandered too far after all.
The radar screen lit up like a Christmas tree with seven more blips approaching from the north.
"Well, that must be the Rodans," Kyoko said nervously.
"Um, not exactly," the tech said worriedly. "Our radar indicates all these monsters are coming from the water, not the air."
Kyoko shot Shindo a concerned look. Only she and he knew that perhaps the mystery of the Cook Islands would be solved sooner than they thought.
Elsewhere on the island, Minya was playing a game, jumping over his father's twitching tail as he slept. Suddenly he felt frightened as if something evil were approaching. He had encountered evil before in the form of King Ghidorah the space monster, and whatever these monsters approaching were had a similar aura about them. Kumonga noticed it too, the giant spider had stopped his foraging through the jungle and crept down low, listening to the vibrations in the ground.
Inside the control room Kyoko bit her lip as Goro named off various monsters. "Let's see then, Manda, Varan, Baragon, Anguirus…no that doesn't make sense, there's still too many. And if they're not a flock of Rodans…"
Three more blips appeared on the screen meaning ten large bodied creatures were converging on the island. Previously the island had consisted of ten monsters plus Rodan's growing brood of pterosaurs. So unless the Rodans were inexplicably traveling by sea the island was about to get some new visitors that no one anticipated.
"There's more blips on the screen now than we have monsters. Are you sure it isn't a school of whales?" Kyoko asked the tech.
"No, ma'am. The radar is set for beings 30 meters and larger. These are kaiju, which kaiju though I don't know."
"Ebirah, Kong, Megalon, Gigan perhaps?" Kyoko's deputy director kept on naming every monster in the book while Kyoko looked to Shindo again.
"No, Gigan and Megalon would never travel by sea. We don't know what we're dealing with. Let's shut it down," Shindo said anxiously.
A loud thud erupted above them as though some large being had jumped from the sea landing right on top of the bunker. The tech jumped in his seat and Kyoko threw her hand over her heart. "Too late! They're already here," the tech said. He looked to Kyoko. "What do we do?"
"Visual!" Kyoko shouted.
The tech did as ordered and the snarling visage of a green Gargantua filled the screen. "Gaira!" Kyoko shouted in disbelief. Finally, she and Shindo's suspicions were confirmed: the Gargantuas were back.
"He was supposed to have been vaporized in a volcanic eruption," Goro interjected.
In the next instant video snow blotted out the image on the screen.
"Camera 8 is offline," the tech said, his voice tense with urgency.
"Switch to cameras 6 and 7," Kyoko ordered. "I want to see what's out there."
No sooner she spoke, the techs lost contact with both cameras. Systematically the whole camera system went offline. They were now stuck underground, blind to what was happening on the surface. A feeling of being under siege filled the control room.
"Orders, Director?" the techs asked.
Kyoko bit her nail. Her youth and inexperience were beginning to show.
Goro interceded. "Jet Jaguar's photo receptors double as cameras. We can send him outside to be our eyes and ears."
Grateful, Kyoko accepted his help. Goro set up a monitor to receive a transmission from Jet Jaguar.
Jet Jaguar headed to the surface. On the monitor the control room team could see what was happening through his eyes.
At the moment nothing seemed to be happening. They saw the woods slowly pan across the screen. Everything appeared to be calm, peaceful.
Goro spoke into the mike. "Jet Jaguar, grow to full size."
Jet Jaguar grew from human height to his full 50 meters. As he did so, the view expanded across the clearing and over the tree tops.
Again, everything appeared to be calm, until Goro turned up the sound reception.
Godzilla's roar reverberated over the speaker followed by the crash of huge bodies striking the ground. Everything may have been calm by the bunker, but elsewhere on the island was an all-out war…
xxx
Before the humans down in the bunker had detected the giant monsters on their radar, Minya picked up their scent on the wind. He shook Godzilla's arm to wake him. Godzilla's eyes fluttered. When he too picked up the scent his eyes opened wide, he bared his teeth, and stood, letting loose a heart-pounding roar.
The scent had a different musk from other kaiju. It reminded Godzilla of a simian, like the giant ape King Kong.
To protect the younger kaiju, Godzilla shoved Minya into a cave and brought down the entrance to seal the cave. This should hide Minya's scent from the approaching simians.
He scaled the rise and scanned the horizon. Out in the ocean he spotted several apelike creatures swimming toward the shore. They were as green as a fresh water lake. Godzilla waited for them to come to him. He would torch them with his atomic ray the moment they set foot on the beach.
Then his ears picked up sounds scurrying through the forests. The wind blew in only one direction. So he could not detect the scent of these other intruders. He relied on the noise they made. From what he could tell there were four more, running in single file. They were not far, yet he could not see them. That meant they were ducking low. Such behavior was indicative of a hunter.
Godzilla grunted. Being a carnivore himself, there was something insulting about being hunted. It was like these hunters were presuming he was too stupid to know the tricks of the trade.
A flock of birds burst from the branches. That marked where the hunters were.
Godzilla let loose a searing blast with his atomic ray. The trees erupted into a bonfire. The hunters screamed in rage and bolted for the sea. When they reached the beach he could see them clearly. They were of the same species as the three creatures swimming toward the shore. The two groups met out in the shallow water, outside the range of his atomic ray. That was fine. Godzilla could wait for them to come to him.
The four he had chased out of the woods waved their arms angrily and pointed up at him.
The three that had just arrived from the sea stood up, carrying tree trunks with boulders tied to the ends with vines.
Tools! They were carrying tools. Up until now Godzilla had only seen the tiny humans carry tools. This was something new. Something dangerous.
Godzilla crouched down, tossing his tail menacingly.
The three green simians, or Gargantuas, as the humans called them, spread out and approached, slowly, brandishing their stone hammers. They were so far spread, Godzilla could only fire at one at a time. Godzilla showed them what he thought of their tactics. He drew in his breath. His fins flashed as he brewed up his atomic ray, and spewed his ray as a steady beam, firing at the leftmost Gargantua and swinging toward the other two.
The Gargantuas reeled in terror and splashed back into the water. Smoke billowed off their scorched flesh.
Godzilla roared triumphant.
But it was a short-lived victory.
The battle on the beach had distracted him from the commotion which was happening behind him. He turned and saw down by the cave a Gargantua ripping away the dirt and rock sealing the cave opening, trying to get to his son inside. Suddenly the creature clutched its neck as though it had been shot with a dart. Kumonga had stung the green menace just as it had him once on Solgel Island!
Godzilla gave the spider a surprised look. If anyone eats that little tyke one day it will be me! The spider chirped.
An avalanche of boulders came tumbling down the slope, crashing upon the giant arachnid eight-legged kaiju. A half dozen Gargantuas, three green, two brown, and a red one, were up on the mountain slope, prying loose rocks out of the slope with their spears. The spears were made from longer, thinner tree trunks and stone tips that had been chipped to a sharp point.
Godzilla fired his atomic ray at this fresh group of attackers. Kumonga had defended his son, so he felt it was only right to defend the giant spider in turn.
Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the group on the beach charging toward him. He turned. The armed Gargantuas threw their hammers at him. He ducked from their weapons, but they gave the four unarmed Gargantuas time to close in on him. They leaped upon him, clawing his scaly hide with their thorny nails. Godzilla flipped them off his back. Their bodies hit the ground. The impact sounded like thunder. It was at this point Jet Jaguar came outside and heard the sounds of battle.
The giant robot flew toward the skirmish. It was easy to find with the amount of dust being kicked up in the air. What Jet Jaguar saw when he arrived look like a scene from a dinosaur movie. The Gargantuas were like cave men with their stone age tools. They surrounded Godzilla and Kumonga, making use of the high ground and ambush tactics. Jet Jaguar dropped down beside Godzilla. He countered the Gargantuas' prehistoric savagery with his programmed martial arts moves, chopping, blocking, flipping, and kicking. Three of the Gargantuas retrieved their stone hammers. Before they could regroup, Jet Jaguar summersaulted into their midst and delivered another series of kicks and chops. One Gargantua swung its hammer. The giant robot seized its wrist, grabbed the hammer, and proceeded to bop all three monsters on the head with their own weapon.
Back at the control room the situation had gone from bad to worse. No sooner than Jet Jaguar had left to help Godzilla the base had fallen under attack. Since Jet Jaguar was not in the area, Kyoko and her crew had to assume more Gargantuas had rushed out of the woods. They dug away the dirt covering the bunker complex and began hammering the top of the bunker.
"We've lost power!" the tech shouted as the room went dark. Shortly the emergency power kicked in bathing the room in an eerie red glow. "Back-up generator is now online."
"Why is this happening?" Goro asked, "This island is meant to withstand giant monsters is it not?"
"I don't know!"Kyoko shouted. "We've never had monsters like these before, they're so…vicious. The other monsters are peaceful, but with these, it's like they're trying to tear the island apart."
"The controller!" Goro exclaimed, "I think they want to get to the controller. Think about it, the Gargantuas are more humanoid than the reptiles, it must be affecting them differently."
"I agree," one of the techs stated. "Perhaps it would be best if we disconnect it and then evacuate the island."
"Perhaps he's right. Goro, disconnect the controller," Kyoko said.
"Have you given any thought on how you are going to get the controller off the island?" the helicopter pilot asked.
"The SY-3, of course." Kyoko switched on the monitor overlooking the hangar bay for the giant space plane.
The base then rocked. Dust sprinkled from the ceiling. Alarms wailed throughout the control room.
"The monsters have penetrated the bunker!" a tech yelled. "We have cave-ins on levels two, three, and four. Causality reports pending."
"Raise the SY-3 crew," Kyoko ordered.
"No response from their quarters. They may have been crushed in the cave-in."
Kyoko cursed.
"I can get the controller off the island with the chopper," the helicopter pilot said. "And Ibuki-san, too. As soon as I am clear I can contact the mainland and tell them to send a rescue ship for the rest of your team."
"Forget it." Goro said. "No special treatment for me. If the rest of you can't go, I'm staying."
Shindo noticed the helicopter pilot tense up.
"You figured out how to get the controller working again," Kyoko said. "For the sake of the rest of the world you are going to have to be evacuated with it."
Goro thought hard. The pilot stared at him, wanting to interject. But it would not be his place. The pilot did say, "If you're coming along with the controller, Ibuki-san, it's now or never. Wait any longer and the helicopter may be destroyed. Then no one is getting off this island."
Then an idea struck Shindo. "Ibuki-san, you claim that robot of yours can do anything, right?"
"Well, mostly anything."
"Close enough. Call him. I want him to fly us out of here."
"Are you crazy? He can't exactly carry all of us in the palm of his hand. There are too many."
"No, I mean I want him to fly us out in that," Shindo pointed to the monitor displaying the SY-3 on its screen.
Kyoko's eyes lit up. "Let's try it!"
"Will that suit you?" Shindo asked Goro.
Goro appraised him. "You're clever for a pencil-pushing bureaucrat."
"This is the computer age, Ibuki-san," Shindo retorted smartly. "We bureaucrats traded in our pencils ages ago."
"Are you sure you want to put all of your eggs in one basket," the helicopter pilot interjected. "If those creatures take down the SY-3 you will lose the Kilaak controller, Professor Ibuki, and Jet Jaguar."
"The SY-3 is fast and armored," Shindo countered. "It won't be taken down easily, like your helicopter."
"I am speaking to the director," the copter pilot retorted.
Kyoko thought hard. Did she want to package all of the islands assets into one vehicle? The SY-3 in of itself was of great value. "This is what we will do. We will use the SY-3 to attract the monsters' attention." To the pilot she said, "You get Goro and the controller out of here with the helicopter."
"Yes, ma'am!" The helicopter pilot saluted with a smile.
Shindo tried to give a counter-suggestion but Kyoko cut him off. "We have no time to discuss this. The decision is made. Everyone move out!"
The helicopter pilot and Goro, with the controller in his arms, rushed for the underground hangar for the helicopter. Kyoko lead everyone to the hangar sheltering the SY-3.
Back at the mountain, Godzilla and Jet Jaguar fought back to back. Boulders, spears, and whirling hammers flew at them. Godzilla fired back with his ray. Much of the forest had become a raging inferno. Jet Jaguar caught one of the boulders and hurled it back at their attackers.
The robot paused amidst the battle. He received a message from Goro: "Jet Jaguar, meet Director Manabe at the SY-3. Pilot her and her team to safety."
He looked to Godzilla apologetically.
It's Ok, Godzilla roared to him. Protect the humans. I can fend for myself.
Jet Jaguar took to the air.
Godzilla grunted. No, he could not fend for himself for much longer. His lungs ached. After firing his atomic ray so many times he was running out of breath.
Another of the Gargantuas leapt onto his back, and this one had the audacity to bite into one of his dorsal plates! To counter Godzilla flared his fins searing the Gargantuas mouth with their heat.
Underground, Shindo and the motley band of survivors piled into the SY-3's cramped cockpit. In a macabre way it was fortunate there were so few survivors, as the SY-3 was capable of only transporting a dozen or so people. Shindo buckled himself up in the co-pilot's seat while Jet Jaguar naturally took the captain's chair.
Shindo looked back to Kyoko, who seemed nervous. "What's the matter Kyoko, Captain Yamabe never took you for a ride in this thing?"
"Of course I've flown in the SY-3 before, only the pilot isn't usually a robotic version of Jack Nicholson!"
The robot leaned forward and switched on the ignition. Everyone immediately jolted back into their seats as the massive spacecraft began to take off. Jet Jaguar turned to Shindo and Kyoko and gave them a thumbs up.
Outside the Gargantuas took note of the vibrations coursing through the mountain. All heads turned toward the giant silver object rising from the top of the mountain. To the Gargantuas it looked like an ocean going vessel, only one that sailed through the sky. One thing the Gargantuas knew was that ships carried people, and people meant food. Immediately a swarm of Gargantuas bolted for the giant ship.
The SY-3 shook with a violent clang! Shindo jolted in his seat. "Something tells me that's not part of our flight plan. Kyoko?"
She turned to look out the window. "It's one of the Gargantuas! No, three of them! Jet Jaguar, try to shake them off!"
Jet Jaguar did his best, pulling up on the controls and taking the SY-3 high into the clouds to thinner atmosphere, but it was to no avail. The humanoid monsters retained their hold on the ship.
High in the clouds Rodan, Rodana and his brood consisting of five hatchlings soared towards Monsterland, slaves to the signal that had been emanating from its core. Though the signal had stopped, Rodan decided to fly in close and investigate. Something big was happening, a battle from the looks of things.
Elsewhere, Rodan could see the silver flying ship that frequented the island skimming erratically across the sky. Some of his younglings took note of the strange dark forms clinging to its surface. To them these new humanoid looking creatures meant a possible new delicacy of food. Stumpy veered off first as Rodana called to him to come back, it was dangerous. But he and Loki paid their mother no heed and veered for the ship to check it out.
Kyoko was watching from the window as she saw two of the hatchlings flying toward the SY-3. "Thank God, one of the Rodans is coming straight for us!"
"Well, there's something I never expected to hear you say," Shindo quipped.
Loki and Stumpy's three siblings followed them toward the SY-3. They fluttered about the heads of the Gargantuas, pecking at them to get a taste of their flesh. Satisfied with the flavor, the baby Rodans teamed up to pluck the Gargantuas off the space plane. They had figured out that when prey without wings hit the ground they don't get back up—they stay down and become easier to eat. Each Gargantua they plucked they let fall to the island below. The last Gargantua punched its fist through the ship's hull to get a hand hold. But it was to no avail. The blow to the spacecraft sent it spiraling. The Gargantua ended up being flung from the craft.
The Rodans left the SY-3 to its fate as they sored down to the ground to feast.
Inside the SY-3, warning lights flashed across the control panel. Jet Jaguar managed to level the plane, but they were losing altitude.
"Jet Jaguar, can you land this thing?" Shindo asked.
The robot shook his head and Kyoko backed him up. "He's right, the SY-3 can't put down on the water. And besides, if we did it would flood so fast we would all drown with the escape hatch already blown."
The escape hatch gave Shindo an idea, if there was enough time that is. "Jet Jaguar, do you think you can fly people out of here two at a time and drop them safely in the water?"
The robot shook his head no. When Shindo asked why the robot held up a finger and then motioned for him to take over the controls.
"What's he doing?" Kyoko asked, "Isn't he going to fly us out?"
"He has a plan. We will have to trust him." Shindo took the controls as Jet Jaguar popped the hatch and jumped out.
"He left us!" Kyoko said in shock, but then suddenly fell back into her chair as the ship began to regain altitude rapidly.
Shindo chuckled. "Look outside!"
Kyoko did as Shindo asked and could see that the ingenious robot had grown to giant size and was now carrying the ship! Jet Jaguar took the SY-3 to the naval base on Hachijo Island. Kyoko reported to the base commander what happened. She asked about her helicopter.
"It has not arrived," the base commander said. "We can try to raise it to be sure Goro and your pilot are safe."
"Do so." Kyoko joined the commander in the radio room. The signals officer tried to raise the chopper.
Nothing.
The chopper was not even on the radar scope.
"Your chopper may have been destroyed by the monsters," the commander said. "I will send out a search team."
Kyoko thanked him. She stood before the window overlooking the ocean, praying for a sign to appear over the waves to show that the helicopter was safe. The last she wanted to do was stand before the United Nations and have to explain how she lost the Kilaak Controller, the one machine that kept the world safe from the giant monsters, and Professor Goro Ibuki, the one man who had the skill to maintain it.
xxx
Hachijo Island was due north of Monsterland. Kyoko's helicopter pilot flew due west and landed aboard the landing deck of a ship.
"Where are we?" Goro demanded.
The pilot merely smiled and unbuckled from his seat. Goro hopped out, too.
The ship's crew wore black uniforms and yellow helmets. They rushed forward to lockdown the helicopter.
Another man came forward, a skeletal figure wearing black clothes. He flung aside his cape and reached out to shake Goro's hand. "Welcome aboard, Professor Goro Ibuki. I am Dr. Who."
To be continued…