Kaiju Preservation Society(10)

“Greenland?” Brent said to me, over video, on my phone.

“Right?” I said. I was sitting in the Chesapeake Club Lounge, which in normal times, as I understood it, was the lounge British Airways passengers used before they boarded their flights to London. Today, however, it was populated by a few dozen KPS staffers, many of whom, like me, were chatting away on their phones, presumably to friends and loved ones, while they still could.

“I guess they have polar bears there,” Brent said.

“And seals,” I reminded him. “They can get pretty big.”

“I suppose. I don’t know. I just assumed that when they said you’d be working with big animals you’d be going to Africa. As far as I knew, that’s where they kept all the big animals.”

“That’s your bigoted colonial cultural past showing,” Laertes shouted, off-screen.

“No, it’s not,” Brent yelled back, and then turned back to me. “I mean, it probably is.”

“I’m just worried that I’ve severely underpacked warm clothes,” I said.

“Gut a polar bear and crawl inside,” Laertes shouted, still off-screen. “Like a tauntaun.”

“Stop helping,” Brent shot back. “I’m pretty sure they won’t let you freeze,” he said to me.

“That’s what Luke thought,” Laertes shouted.

“Don’t listen to him,” Brent suggested.

I smiled and changed the subject. “Are you two going to be okay while I’m gone?” I asked.

“Are you kidding? Jamie, you’ve saved our asses. We don’t have to move, and we’re not going to starve. I could kiss you.”

“Spicy!” Laertes shouted.

“Not that kind of kiss,” Brent qualified.

“No, I get it,” I said. “Apparently, I’m doing a lot of ass-saving today.”

“Also spicy!” Laertes added.

“You’re going to miss his interjections to our conversations,” Brent promised. “And our conversations, come to think of it.”

“I know it. I’ll drop you updates when I can.” If I can was more like it, but I didn’t want to say that at the moment.

“Sounds good. Don’t let them give you shit because you’re the newbie. And if they do give you shit, let us know.”

“We’ve got firebombs!” Laertes shouted.

“We don’t have firebombs,” Brent amended. “But you know we can get some.”

I laughed and signed off, probably for the last time in a while. I glanced up and saw a young woman looking over to me.

“Sorry,” I said. “I should have had earphones on for that conversation.”

“No, it’s fine,” she said. “It’s nice to hear people having lives outside of this”—she indicated the lounge and the KPS staff—“whatever this is going to turn out to be.”

“Ah,” I said, getting it. “This is your first day on the job, too.”

“Yes,” she admitted. “There are a couple of other of us new people, too, over there.” She pointed to a pair of grad-school-looking sorts, animatedly chatting, and then turned back to me. “I’m Aparna Chowdhury. Biology.”

“Jamie Gray. Lifting objects.”

She smiled at that. “Would you like to come sit with us?”

I put my phone away. “I would,” I said. We walked over, and the grad-school-looking pair looked up.

“I found another newbie,” Aparna said, excitedly, and pointed. “Jamie lifts things!”

“That’s me,” I confessed.

“Well, at least one of us is useful, then,” the one closest to me said, and waved. “Kahurangi.” He pointed. “And this is Niamh. They do astronomy and physics, and I do organic chemistry and some geology. We’re nerds.”

“Hi,” Niamh said, waving.

I waved back. “I mean, I was doing a dissertation on science fiction novels, so I think I qualify under ‘nerd.’”

“Wow, you really do,” Kahurangi said. “And here I thought you were just here for the meat hydraulics.”

“Oh, I am,” I said. “The failed doctoral dissertation is just a bonus.”

“Tell Jamie what we were talking about earlier,” Aparna said.

“Oh, right,” Niamh said, and turned to me. “Greenland. What the actual fuck?”

I was going to respond, but someone started clapping their hands for attention. We all looked up to see a very authoritative-looking woman standing up. Everyone stopped talking, put their phones away, and gave her their attention. A couple of people started booing her, mockingly.

“Oh, shut up,” she said, fake irritably, and there was laughter. “For those of you who are back, it’s good to see you back. For those of you who are new—who is new here?”

The four of us raised our hands.

“Oh, clustered up already, very nice,” she said, and there were laughs at that. “For those of you who are new, I’m Brynn MacDonald, commander of KPS Tanaka Base Gold Team, which is what this is.” She motioned around to the room, which offered up slight cheers and applause. “Don’t get too excited,” she said, deadpan, and there was more laughter about that. “Now, I’m sure you new people have a lot of questions, including—” She motioned to the crowd.