Rodana, Queen of the Sky
Neil Riebe © 1994
Chapter 5
"Regarding air-to-air missiles," said a man inside a darkened room, "the size of the warhead is not as important as a missile's ability to track its target."
Just as he finished his statement, film footage of a missile streaked across a projector screen and slammed into a fighter. Aircraft and missile erupted into a fire ball.
"This is why, back in '56," the man said, "your people failed to shoot Rodan down. Air-to-air missiles have no penetration capability.
"Now, using the data you've provided from Sado's project team, we developed a missile that should be effective against Rodan. What we did was re-engineer the rockets from the ground-based SADAT system, which has a dual anti-armor and anti-air capability, so they can be fired from a combat aircraft."
The stock footage stopped, and an outline of Rodan's body appeared on the screen.
"We recommend you fire the new missiles at Rodan's wings, where the skin is the thinnest. By tearing sufficient holes in the wings, your pilots can force Rodan to the ground, and then bombard his skull with laser-guided bombs. He's not particularly mobile on his legs, so you should have little difficulty striking the target. Even if you don't crack the skull, the repeated concussion will reduce Rodan to a senseless 15,000-ton slab of meat."
A different voice replied in broken English. "How soon missile be ready?"
"How soon?" The military man chuckled. "Our squadrons are already equipped, and we have shipments ready for delivery to your people."
The lights came on, revealing Mogutsu sitting in a conference room with U.S. Air Force officials. He settled back in his seat, most satisfied.
#
Hiroshi sat on his bed with more shadows brooding in his face than there were in his poorly lit room.
Kumi sat next to him and said, "What did you think you had going with this pteranodon?"
His eyes closed. Kumi made it all sound so silly. He then laughed, with a sour hint of resentment. She was right. He had let himself become too attached to the giant reptile. "I had this dream the other night. I was on a," he made a lopsided grin as his cheeks colored from embarrassment, "on this date with Rodana. It wasn't like she was huge. She was like us, yet still like a pteranodon at the same time. We went to this restaurant..."
"That's the point," Kumi said. "She is not like us." She sighed. "Life sometimes gives us moments we wish would last forever. But like anything else they come to an end to make way for something new." Kumi slid her arm around him. "You and Rodana had a wonderful time. But she is well now and wants to be with her own kind."
"I suppose," Hiroshi conceded. "Rodana probably does not even know who I am anymore."
"I am sure she remembers you. It's that she could never feel for you like another person could." Kumi nestled closer, and looked into his eyes.
Hiroshi shot her a cynical look. "I almost got married when I was in the air force. But my fiancée broke it off because she got sick of waiting for me to come off duty. And I was almost done with the service!"
"Ah, I understand the logic now. And I think you're right. I can't get anywhere with Sado. Maybe I should see what Godzilla is doing on his weekends." She giggled.
"Kumi!"
"It's just a joke." She nudged his knee with hers. "You get the point don't you? You can't give up on everyone. You will miss out on meeting new friends. Real ones." Kumi nuzzled his ear with a whisper. "One's who will never leave you." She gently laid her fingers across his chin and turned his attention to her.
The phone rang. Kumi sat back. Hiroshi grabbed the phone. It was Sado.
"Is Kumi with you?" Sado asked. "Both of you get down to the pier! Now!"
Before Hiroshi could get an explanation Sado hung up.
Outside, helicopters were flying over the building, rattling the room with reverberations. They could hear the doors being broken into downstairs. Hiroshi locked the door. Boot steps ran amok in the corridors. Kumi switched off the light and looked out the window.
"Hiroshi," she hissed. "Soldiers have Professor Hirata and his staff lined up outside the office center with their hands up! The soldiers aren't wearing Japanese uniforms!"
"We don't dare go out in the hall. We'll climb out the side window."
Hiroshi removed the screen and then squeezed through.
"Careful, Hiroshi!"
Hiroshi clung by his fingertips bracing himself. Then, taking a breath, he dropped... right into a tangle of bushes. He lay, waiting for a reaction. None came.
He disentangled from the bushes. "Come on, Kumi, I'll catch you!"
She lowered herself. Hiroshi held his hands up and caught her as she dropped.
A soldier hollered at them from the corner of the building. They scrambled for the grove. A shot went off, and the bullet snapped the tree branches as it whizzed by their heads.
"Not the trail!" Hiroshi grabbed Kumi's arm. "Through the trees! We don't want to give them a clear shot."
Silhouettes and flashlights gathered in the grove. Voices were yelling at them in English. Hiroshi and Kumi pushed their way through the underbrush, descending the slope toward the pier. Another shot went off. The round smacked through the trees overhead. They dropped into the bushes for cover.
The soldiers closed in. Kumi looked to Hiroshi for the next plan. He looked back and shrugged. He didn't have a clue. Kumi swallowed hard, and then stood with her hands up.
Flashlights zeroed in on her as she approached the soldiers. They grabbed her and padded her down, asking a single question over and over, but she did not understand English well. Even if she did, she would never answer.
Hiroshi felt a pang in his heart when the soldiers yanked her by the arm. One trooper scanned the grove once more with his flashlight then joined the others heading up the slope.
Hiroshi got back up and went to the pier.
The soldiers were U.S. Marines. One squad opened the heavy door to Rodana's nest with confiscated keys. When they stepped onto the landing overlooking her nest, Rodana savagely screeched. She stabbed at them with her beak. They tumbled back into the cave corridor, slamming the door tight. One of privates exclaimed, "The Rodans are in there all right, Sergeant!"
Another squad of Marines pushed Sado back into his office. They systematically went through the cabinets and accessed his computer terminal. One unlocked his desk and pulled out his proposal.
An interpreter entered followed by General Hodge, who was operating under the banner of the United Nations. A Marine handed the proposal to him. He flipped through a few pages then nodded to the interpreter.
The interpreter spoke. "You and your staff are charged with violation of security of mankind as ratified in the UN code of law. You and your staff are under arrest and will be expected to cooperate fully."
Chapter 6
On TV, anchorwoman Tomoko Mahiko reported the latest developments before the Diet Building in Tokyo. "Five months ago the Defense Agency dispatched a research team to study an ailing giant pteranodon, known as a rodan, discovered on an uninhabited island 100 kilometers off the Honshu coast."
Shigeru's wife, Kyo, whistled to her yellow songbird. She reached into its cage and poured some feed into its bowl.
"Now sources say," the news broadcast continued, "the team had gone one step further in breeding more rodans. With us is Mr. Mogutsu of the Defense Agency to explain."
"That's what I said!" Shigeru exclaimed from the sofa.
"Then it must be true." Kyo sat beside him.
"You don't understand..." He listened to the news some more.
Mogutsu stepped into view on TV. "Our standing in the world community is threatened," he said. "But we are taking responsibility for this tragic oversight. Responsible parties are under arrest. Let me assure everyone that our intention has always been and always will be to effectively destroy the rodans."
Shigeru turned to his wife. "I was concerned Sado's passion was clouding his judgment. So I tried to get a reaction out of him. Now that very same line just so happens to come from the mouth of this bureaucrat. He is using my words to destroy Sado."
"How did Mogutsu know what you said to Sado?" Kyo asked,
"I don't know." The old miner shook his head. Someone from Sado's staff must have overheard me, and told Mogutsu. I'm sure Sado doesn't intend to overrun the world with monsters."
"Can you prove it?"
"I must. Kyo, remember your brother Goro. He died in the mines before his name was cleared of murder. We can never turn our backs on an innocent man."
#
Rodana assured Rodan the humans gathered at the base of the mountain were friendly. They fed her and the young. Kept the nest clean. They even coaxed her back into the air.
Even so, Rodan thought. These humans might be docile, but if they knew where the nest was, others of their species would, too.
Rodan didn't argue with his mate. He clucked in acquiescence and waited until she and their brood were asleep. The humans would attack soon. He was sure of it. So he would have to strike first.
That night he took to the air and headed for the Japanese mainland.
#
Back at his office in Tokyo, Mogutsu paged through Sado's proposal. "Something like this could really take the fire out of our crusade."
"So we can't use it against him?" Ichi asked, disappointed. He felt he had gone through a lot of trouble to help get this documentation into Mogutsu's hands.
"Of course we can," Mogutsu said. "It's proof. We have it and the Americans can back that we got it. It doesn't matter what it says. We can rewrite it. That is why I love politics. It's easy and fun. You have done well, Ichi. Consider yourself a part of my UN team."
Ichi broke out in a salivating grin and bowed. "Thank you!"
"Now your first assignment is to accompany General Hodge as my liaison. Make certain my orders are carried out while I assure the U.S. military the files they collected from Sado's office are now irrelevant and can clear their records. Sado's memory must be that of a madman." Mogutsu closed the proposal. "And as for this," he handed Sado's proposal to Ichi, "burn it."
Chapter 7
The United States Air Force deployed three hundred aircraft to Sado's Island. One hundred fifty F-15 Eagles armed with the new air-to-air SADAT missile flew in the forward echelons. Ninety F-111 Aardvark bombers and their fighter escorts brought up the rear five miles back.
At an American airbase on the Honshu coast, UN General Hodge sipped coffee in the air traffic control tower. The radar operators were announcing the progress of the planes as they closed in on Sado's Island. "Mr. Shinichi," Hodge said, "your boss, Mogutsu, is wise to call on us for help. We'll show your monster Rodan what happens when the United States goes to war. When this is over, your boss will be a hero."
Ichi, who was now Mogutsu's new aid, smiled.
From the deck of a United States cruiser, Kumi gazed at the island. She and the rest of the staff had no word on when they would be released. She ran her finger under her eye to staunch the tears. Like an approaching storm, the roar of the jets gathered on the horizon.
Within the cave, the baby rodans screeched in agitation, fluttering from perch to perch in the massive rock chamber. They recognized the sound of the jets as a threat. Rodana narrowed her eyes. First the humans pampered her, now they will try to destroy her and her brood.
At the U.S. air base a radar operator said: "Sir, we have an unidentified object approaching from the southwest. It's not on any civilian route. Range: one hundred kilometers."
General Hodge set his coffee down. "It's Rodan. Recall the strike team to intercept."
"No!" Ichi turned to the General. "Destroy the nest first!"
"The mother rodan and her babies are probably not there anymore. They probably slipped into the sea at night."
"Range, ninety kilometers," the radar operator said, raising his voice. "The unidentified object is increasing speed."
Ichi laughed. "The rodans fly! They don't swim!"
"It's the only way they could slip past our radar." The general turned toward the communications officer. "Recall the fighters!"
Ichi rushed over to the com officer. "No! Everything on the island must be destroyed! Everything!"
"Unidentified object is now sixty kilometers." Sweat trickled down the radar operator's face. "Twenty kilometers!"
Hodge pulled Ichi away. "This may be a joint operation, but those planes still answer to me." The general shouted over Ichi's protests. "Recall the fighters!"
Then the windowpanes vibrated as a low rumble gathered outside. A cloud of dust rolled over the countryside from the southwest. The communications officer sent the recall, and then the radar operator closed his eyes and said: "One kilometer."
In the next breath, Rodan soared over the air base. The aftershock from his high-speed, low-flying pass exploded the glass in the buildings. The shards tore Hodge, Ichi, everyone to pieces. The hangars flew apart and parked aircraft tumbled across the tarmac. Rodan left behind a dark brown cloud of dust covering the entire airfield as he pulled up into the sky. His plan was to cause a stir so the humans would come after him.
Mogutsu knotted his face in frustration when he heard the news. The acting UN General was gone. Ichi, gone. A whole United States Air Force base had been blown to the four winds. "Replace Hodge with one of our Self Defense officers," he told his staffer. "And if the planes are diverted from striking Sado's research facility, send someone ashore and scour every office for any scrap of paper the Americans may have missed."
The staffer carried out his orders.
Screaming through the air at sonic speeds, Rodan flew a determined course along the Honshu coast. He had started at Wakayama, heading north, flying over Nagoya, Yokohama, and was now on his way to Sendai, which was a city about 200 miles north of Tokyo. Wherever he sensed radar waves pinging off his body, he swooped down and snapped the dish just as though he were snapping fish out of the sea.
General Hodge's replacement, Air Force General Mitsuyoshi Sasaki, joined his staff in the bunkered situation room in Tokyo. Mogutsu was also present watching like a nervous hen. Then the Prime Minister joined them. Mogutsu smiled and bowed to the Prime Minister. The PM didn't return the smile. In fact, he didn't look happy.
"Rodan has obviously conditioned himself to be sensitive to our radar emissions," General Sasaki spoke to everyone present. "He is clearing a zone in which he can move undetected. We have used radar and aircraft in conjunction for so long that when he encounters one, he expects the other to be near.
"So, we will deal with him before we destroy the nest. I want the American strike force to change course from Sado's Island and refuel at their base in Iwate. Inform the American base commander to be ready to receive them. Scramble Second Squadron to delay Rodan long enough for the Americans to refuel their planes."
"General," one of his subordinates said, "Third and Fifth squadrons are equipped with the new air-to-air SADATs."
"I know." Sasaki leaned over the situation map and placed the markers for those two squadrons at Sado's Island. "Have them waiting with our AWACs here. When Rodan returns to the nest, I want Third and Fifth Squadrons waiting for him."
On his way north, Rodan spotted the glint of the sun's reflection off the metal skins of the F-15s of Second Squadron. They were flying in to engage him. He had no time to waste with such a small group. He dismissively screeched at them and then accelerated for altitude in a burst of speed.
"General Sasaki, Rodan ascended straight up seventy thousand feet. He flew over our planes! He's heading north toward the next air base, which would be the one in Iwate."
Sasaki thumped his fist on the map table. "Refuel the American strike force in the air." The General's countenance darkened. "Advise Iwate base to evacuate."
Sirens whined at Iwate Air Force Base as the crews ran across the tarmac for cover. Anti-aircraft missiles launched into the air. Rodan made a sharp twist, creating enough turbulence to send the missiles flying wild.
He landed among the buildings with the runways stretched out before him. He fanned his wings toward a collection C-5 Galaxy transport planes. The massive aircraft skidded sideways, flipping over on top of each other. Turning, Rodan fanned the open tarmac, sending loading vehicles skipping across the pavement and crashing through hangar walls. Air currents flowed like a roaring flood. Wreckage spread across the runways. Power lines snapped apart, sparking off fires. Rodan tore into the fuel dump with his clawed feet, ripping open the fuel tanks. He fanned the fuel across the tarmac, spraying the buildings, and then tipped a burning control tower onto the flammable liquid. Flames erupted. The consuming tongues of light engulfed the entire airbase.
Satisfied, Rodan took to the air leaving behind a churning column of black smoke. The guns and siren were silent and in their place was the crackling of the fires and explosions going off in the fuel dump. The humans had now lost their last place to care for their machines.
Back at the bunker in Tokyo, one of the staffers came up to the Prime Minister, speaking confidentially into his ear, and then showed him a thick folder.
Mogutsu watched them intently. The Prime Minister flipped through familiar looking pages. It appeared to be a copy of Sado's proposal.
"I want to see them immediately," the Prime Miniser said.
Mogutsu didn't hear who "they" were. He glanced again, and the Prime Minister was glancing back at him, giving him a brutal look.
Chapter 8
Rodan turned south and let up on his pace. Rodana and the young were safe. The past day had been so crazy he had not the chance to play with his children. Oh, and Godzilla! He could not wait to parade them past him! Godzilla would be stomping furious. The fun part was that Godzilla would still challenge them all at once! Rodan searched for the large flock of aircraft. They would be close to exhaustion by now.
A radar pulse tingled in his scales. He was surprised the humans had any radar left in the area. Furthermore it was emitting from the air. He spotted a flying machine way off in the distance. If he was going to get a jump on those planes he was not going to risk letting them know where he was.
In the bunker one of Sasaki's aids announced: "Rodan is closing in on our AWAC!"
Sasaki smiled.
In the AWAC plane, the copilot tapped the pilot and pointed to the clouds. Rodan soared into view heading toward them. The sheer force of his presence blew the clouds away like smoke. The pilots gasped, certain this would be their final mission.
Sasaki's crack Third and Fifth squadrons ambushed Rodan from behind, launching their SADAT missiles. Rodana heard them, but ignored them. Rockets never harmed him before. Then SADATs struck.
He bellowed in shock and pain. The missiles had actually pierced his skin. For the first time the humans wounded him!
A second volley streaked in.
Wiser, Rodan veered away only to be confronted by a third volley of warheads. He nose-dived at mach five straight for the ground then soared nap of the earth. His wake ripped trees from their roots and blew houses off their foundations.
Again, more SADAT missiles flew in to intercept. Three of them pierced him like hot needles and a fourth sliced like a knife across his face.
Rodan bellowed in rage and pursued the closest fighter—any fighter. Above, below, everywhere, F-15's darted around him like flies. The Japanese Third and Fifth Squadrons dispersed their numbers so when he attacked one the others attacked him.
He dived again. Humans had tougher time with low-level flight. He should be able to out distance them and escape their formation. The Japanese fighters closed ranks and launched. The smoke trails hissed in low and swift. Rodan braced himself, unable to drop any lower without impacting the ground. The missiles tore like crimson claws. Rodan could feel the wind whistling through his wings. He was losing altitude. He pounded his wings, gaining little momentum. The roar of the aircraft closed in behind him. They were catching up!
#
Back at the island, to add insult to injury the American's returned Sado's staff to the island and ordered them under gun point to destroy all record of their work. Kumi opened her case containing the remains of the paper carp. She ran her fingers through them remembering how the baby rodans mistook them for real fish. Why does everything have to be burned, she asked herself silently.
"Kumi."
She looked toward the whispered voice.
"Hiroshi!"
"Shh!" Hiroshi stepped into her office grinning, looking a little wild-eyed.
"What are you doing here? Mogutsu and the UN declared you a fugitive!"
Hiroshi took a hold of Kumi. "Listen. They almost got Rodan down to where they can bomb him. You got to help me get the plane prepped."
"Hiroshi, you could get yourself shot down!"
"Kumi, remember what Sado said if we didn't make some sort of breech with them?"
"It's too late now. Whatever domesticating we accomplished is ruined. I'm sure Rodana and her babies have gone wild again."
"Come on, you said yourself she would not forget me!"
Kumi searched Hiroshi's eyes for the truth. "It's her you're trying to save. Isn't it? You're doing this for Rodana."
Hiroshi pulled away, checking security from the window. "Will you help me?"
Kumi ran her hand through the konobori again. "Yes."
The marine at the F-4 turned around to a fist in the face. He staggered for his balance trying to unsling his M-16 from his shoulder. Hiroshi hammered him across the back of the skull with a wrench. The marine was out. Kumi checked his pulse.
"Alive?" Hiroshi asked.
"Yes."
"Good." Hiroshi instructed her on how to fuel the plane while he got into his flight gear. Kumi pushed the hangar door open as he climbed into the cockpit.
"Hiroshi," Kumi climbed up the ladder to the cockpit, "I feel terrible letting you go. I guess I want the baby rodans to live as much as you want to save Rodana."
"It was my idea. Look you have the raw end. You're going to have to live with what I talked you into."
Kumi embraced him, holding him tight. "Just come back in one piece!"
Hiroshi spoke quietly in her ear. "Good-bye, Kumi." His tone was final.
The F-4 rocketed to life. Kumi pulled the marine clear. Security ran across the tarmac to the hanger. The UN officer in charge stepped up to the window in the tower. "What is going on?" In answer the Phantom taxied to the runway with the marines scampering alongside. One of them got on the walkie talkie.
"Sir, the men want to know what they should do."
"Try to raise the pilot. Find out who he is and talk him down." The officer snapped his fingers for the interpreter to take the head set.
Hiroshi switched off communications. He pulled back the throttle and accelerated to the sky. His last flight in the first plane he fell in love with. It would be like dying in his mother's arms. The odds of surviving against armed fighters was nil. Which was fine, because he did not care to be around people anymore. Giving the rodans a chance was all that mattered to him.
#
Rodan reached the Kitakami Mountains, flapping blood. Out of missiles, the Japanese F-15's dogged him with their cannons. Now they were close and in tight formation. Rodan twisted around and bashed into them. The fighters tried to evade, making turns their air frames could not handle. Planes tumbled across his back and belly. Metal crumbled like paper. Rodan reduced Third and Fifth squadrons to the size of one.
He circled around and returned to the mountains. Behind him the airplane debris fell like mists of smoky rain.
In Tokyo, the Prime Minister kept shuffling through the photos in Sado's proposal. The old miner and his wife were gone. Their names were already forgotten. He just stood at his desk shuffling the photos. A man and woman posing with a dour looking baby rodan. The next shot: A jet flying beside the mother. If Sado's team befriened these creatures, why were good men dying now?
The Japanese SDF fighters regrouped and withdrew. Rodan sighed in relief. Then his brow furrowed.
The sky dotted with black objects and the air reverberated with the thunderous combustion of engines. The US aircraft under the UN flag were refueled and approaching in full force. SADAT missiles plumed ignition smoke from under the fighter wings, and then trailed toward him.
Rodan waited between the peaks. The SADATs closed. He watched them till he could see their canards. Then with a half hop and a weak flap he dropped behind the mountains. The missiles shattered against the opposite slopes. The planes roared over the mountain peeks, being to close to change course. Rodan flung himself up into their path. Five hundred feet tip to tip, Rodan clapped his wings, smashing scores of fighters. Explosions rippled like thunder, echoing into the valleys below. A black cloud hung over the mountains, visible to witnesses as far away as the villages on the coast.
Rodan dropped to his back skidding down the side. He coughed from the dust stirred up around his face. Rodan forced himself to his feet and pecked the metal fragments out of his shredded wings. He kept an eye on the regrouping straggles. The fighters kept their distance. Just the same he could not repeat that maneuver again. When he thought of Rodana and his offspring, the sacrifice was worth it.
But that was only the first half of the American force.
Laser guided bombs rained from the sky and pounded Rodan like iron fists. His vision blurred. He screeched in pain only to be out-shouted by the whistle of another falling bomb.
The first wave of F-111 bombers dispensed its ordnance. The next wave followed.
Rodan shielded his head with a tattered wing, but the holes allowed the bombs to hammer his skull. Blow after blow, the bombs kept coming. Blood flowed into his eyes. He could taste it in his mouth. A perpetual ring numbed his hearing. His sense of balance wavered.
The aircraft let up. They circled the range in scattered packs letting the smoke dissipate enough to get a fix with their Pave Tack sensors. Three bombers and two escorts leveled in.
Lieutenant Williamson flew the lead bomber. "This could be the one that downs him!"
"We'll make certain they spell your name right in the history books!" Hatcher, his escort chimed.
Williamson spotted a single speck gradually coming into view. He glanced to his copilot. "Who's this? Someone ID him."
The speck glimmered in the sun as it altered course right for them. "What the... Incoming! Incoming!" The bombers scattered as an unarmed F-4 Phantom soared through their ranks. It was Hiroshi!
The Prime Minister returned to the situation room in the bunker. Mogutsu smiled, trying to pry a positive reaction. The Prime Minister shot Mogutsu a look that made the corners of his mouth drop.
"General," Sasaki's subordinate said, "UN forces report they are under attack by an unarmed aircraft painted up to look like a pteranodon. Sir, I think... "
"It is," Sasaki stated. "It's Hiroshi. Can we raise him yet?"
"No."
"We can't risk letting Rodan escape." General Sasaki paused with the words turning bitter in his mouth. "Shoot him down."
Two F-15s closed in on Hiroshi. He kept twisting around to prevent lock on. Another F-15 swung in and launched an AIM-7 Sparrow missile.
Without ECM there was no way to shake the missile. Hiroshi banked towards their bombers. The extra heat sources could confuse it. He glanced back. It was already too late.
His F-4 violently shook from the missile's blast. But it was not breaking apart! It was shaking from mere concussion. Rodana swung into view, trailing smoke from her beak. She had snatched the missile out of the air.
"Yes!" Hiroshi was almost ready to cry. "You haven't forgotten me!"
Loki and Himiko pounced the first bomber group they came across. Hiro smashed Williamson's plane; then pursued the other planes in his squadron with the wreckage spilling out his mouth. Peep followed her mother. Stumpy landed by his bleeding father and chirped that they have arrived then perched beside him on the mountain slope.
Rodana called Stumpy back into battle. She and Himiko flew wing tip to wing tip headlong at full speed into the bombers. The planes scattered, becoming easy pickings for the other little ones.
Peep bit into one bomber. Its ordnance popped off around her, scaring her. She fled to her father.
Loki nipped at one plane just as another flew by in the opposite direction. He reversed course. The first slipped away. He tried to get it, letting the second escape.
Hiro herded one pilot right into another. Both pilots ejected from their planes only to be chewed up by Loki.
Stumpy took a pelting from one F-15. The pilot used up his Sparrow missiles and switched to Sidewinders. Stumpy finally got fed up and spun on him. The shocked pilot suddenly found himself and his entire cockpit chomped in Stumpy's beak.
The news of the battle poured into the situation room, all of it bad.
"We have done all that we could, General," the prime minister said. "Pull them out." He headed for the door, passing Mogutsu. "Meet me in my office." The Prime Minister did not even look at him as he passed.
Mogutsu stood alone while everyone else busied at trying to get the planes home. He closed his palms to fists. The sweat in his palms could just as well be blood of the pilots. That was how it was going to look before an investigation committee.
Williamson's escort pilot, Hatcher, heard the order and ignored it. He flew into Hiroshi's blind spot. "Since you see fit to side with the enemy..." He shredded Hiroshi's plane with his auto cannon.
The F-4 shuttered from the hits. Hiroshi tried leveling the F-4 from listing to one side. A second cannon burst went through the fuel and shattered a wing. His hand dropped on the ejection release lever. He shot out of the plane as it exploded into black smoking debris.
Loki spotted his chute opening. He snagged Hiroshi out of the air. The chute drifted behind him, wafting on the breeze like a feather.
Shigeru pulled the car along the shoulder of the road. He and Kyo exited. A downed American fighter smoldered in a nearby rice field. They watched Rodan's brood gather around him. Rodana gripped his shoulders with her feet. Hiro and Himiko each grabbed a wing. They lifted off with Stumpy bringing up the rear. Momentarily the sun was blotted out over Shigeru and Kyo as they passed overhead.
"What do you think will happen to the rodans, Shigeru?"
"They will find a new home. Their young will grow and be strong."
"What about us? Will we be able to co-exist with them?"
"I don't know, Kyo. Let's not assume the worst."
#
When it was all over Sado went into custody. Kumi visited him. "I was really looking forward to going before the UN World Court," Sado said. "It has been awhile since I've done any traveling."
"Sado versus the rest of the world," Kumi mused.
"I suppose the United Nations dropped their charges after seeing all those pilots killed. Mogutsu's crusade was turning into an embarrassment."
"No, that was not it."
Sado raised his brows in interest.
"It was Shigeru. He and Kyo showed the copies of your work you gave them to the Prime Minister. I met Shigeru just the other day. He told me all about it."
Sado plopped back into his chair exasperated. "Well, you just never know who your real friends are. What about Hiroshi? Have you heard anything about him?"
Kumi shook her head silently. "According to the press, after Hiroshi bailed from his plane one of Rodan's young regarded him as food, just like a bird spotting an insect, and ate him."
Sado snorted. "If you believe that then you learned nothing."
"I don't. I really don't know what happened to him."
They sat quiet in their thoughts. Sado and Kumi sensed their thoughts were going in separate directions. His was on defending the project. Hers was on Hiroshi. They looked at each other realizing they had nothing left to keep them together. "Find him," Sado told her. He leaned forward on the table. "Find him and bring him back. Prove them wrong, Kumi."
Kumi nodded. She understood. The tone of his voice told her she had his blessing. If she wanted to be with Hiroshi, she should.
The guard looked at his watch. "Visiting time is over." Even though the UN dropped its charges, the Japanese government, in a show of taking responsibility, expected Sado to appear before a hearing.
Kumi stood up from the table. "Good-bye, Sado."
"Be seeing you. Save copies of the newspapers. I always wanted to see my name in the headlines. And tape the news. I always wanted to do television, too." He gave her a thumbs up before being led through the door.
With a sad smile Kumi gave him a soft wave. The door shut.
The street was streaming with traffic. Kumi stood outside the building being jostled about by the people bustling up and down the sidewalk. There was no where to really to turn, or go. So she picked a direction and headed up the river of people. No matter what she knew her heart would lead her right to Hiroshi.
#
Stumpy perched on the ledge of the cave of their new island home. Hiroshi, unshaven and with no shirt, joined him on the ledge. Being carried in Loki's mouth did not help is sanity any, nevertheless he considered himself happy. Stumpy was nearly a hundred feet tall making Hiroshi look like a mite. The sun was warm and bright. The sea was just another shade of blue under the clear sky. Hiroshi loved it. He slapped Stumpy on the ankle. "No one can touch us out here, Stump!"
Kumi.
Just when he thought he left the rest of the world behind him she came to mind. His feelings were mixed. Yet he did eject from his plane rather than going down with it. Were the two thoughts connected? Was she a reason why he chose to live? Could he admit how he really felt about her? Hiroshi did not feel like sorting it out right now. He only wondered if he would see her again.
The rest of the rodans soared around the mountain chasing each other, screeching all kinds of noise.
Rodan looked up at them flying overhead. He was very proud of them. He looked at Rodana thinking they should have some more.
Rodana scowled at him remembering how rough the last pregnancy was. She shook her head and clucked. Five offspring were good enough.
The End
Rodan's adventure continues in The Wrath of Gigan. Godzilla and Aguirus have just defeated King Ghidorah and Gigan, but they do not return to Monster Island. Rodan goes looking for them only to become embattled with a new monster, Noregon. And what about King Ghidorah and Gigan? Did they really flee the Earth? Or is one of them skulking around?