Kaiju Preservation Society(12)

“You’ll see,” Tom said. I was suddenly very annoyed at the smug secrecy of KPS.

A bit over an hour later and we were on the ground at Camp Century, hustled from the helicopters to transport trucks to a garage-like area that sealed up behind us. A KPS staffer told us to put any carry-ons, backpacks, or personal effects on a baggage claim–like conveyor belt. I looked over to Tom at this.

“It’s fine,” he said. “Sterilization. You’ll get everything back.” I shrugged and put everything on a conveyor.

Then we queued up and checked in at tables. When I got to the front, I was given a bundle of plastic-sealed clothes and shoes and a bag, and pointed to a shower area.

“Old clothes and shoes in the bag, including everything in your pockets, and any removable jewelry, and put the bag in the collection bin,” the KPS staffer said. “Shower thoroughly using the soap provided. Use it everywhere, including your hair and get down into the scalp. When you’re done, do it again, just as thoroughly. If you wonder if you did it enough, do it again. Then put on the new clothes and head to the waiting area beyond the shower room.”

I went in, stripped, and showered. The soap smelled like a combination of chlorine and raspberry, which was not a combination I ever really wanted to experience again. The new clothes were a jumpsuit of sorts, gray and with close elastics at the neck, wrists, and ankles, with shoes being a weird sort of light boot. Utilitarian underwear and socks were provided. I put it all on and then followed the signs to the waiting area. Eventually Aparna came in, followed by Niamh and Kahurangi.

“I don’t have a mirror, so you tell me,” Kahurangi said, and posed. “Flattering?”

“Sure,” I said.

“That’s funny, because it looks like shit on you.”

I smiled at that.

I heard my name, turned, and saw Tom waving me over. I excused myself from the newbies and went over to him. “Stick with me,” he said.

“Okay,” I said. “Why?”

“Because I want to see your face when it happens.”

I gave him a sour look. “This secrecy bullshit, I swear.”

“I know, I know,” he said. “Would you believe me if I told you it’s worth it?”

“It better be.”

On the far side of the room, a light came on, over a door. The door opened, rolling up like it was on a garage. “Come on,” Tom said, and guided us inside this new room, maneuvering us close to the similarly garage-like door on the other side of the room. Others filled in behind us until the room was packed with people in goofy gray jumpsuits. The door behind us rolled shut.

“I feel like someone is about to pull a prank on me,” I said to Tom.

“It’s not a prank,” he said.

The lights went out.

“You were saying?” I said back to him, in the darkness.

“You remember I told you about the nuclear reactor here?”

“What about it?”

“We’re using it now.”

“Using it for what?”

There was a huge, wrenching thunk. I instinctively hunched down in the darkness. Behind me, at least a couple of people screamed and yelled in surprise.

“For that,” Tom said.

I was going to remark how I was going to punch him when the lights came back on, and the door in front of us started going up. As it did, air rolled in from the outside, hot, heavy, humid, and so dense I could see light diffract in it as in poured in.

The door rolled up all the way.

Outside was a jungle.

I gaped.

“That’s what I wanted to see,” Tom said.

I ignored him and stepped out into a wide pavilion, obviously designed to accommodate arrivals. I went to its edge. The arrival area was ten or more meters up. Below was a base of some sort, shot through with green life that was obviously untamable; it might be cleared temporarily but it would come back faster and greener. That green built toward the perimeter of the base to an immense wall of vegetation that grew higher and bolder than any I had ever seen in my life, either personally or in documentaries. It made the Amazon rain forest look like a parking lot.

I took in a breath. It was like chewing on pure oxygen.

I looked to the left and saw the other newbies standing with me, mouths similarly agape.

“All right, where the fuck are we?” asked Niamh.

“Greenland,” Tom said, from behind us.

Niamh turned. “Mate, this is not Greenland,” they said. “It’s … green.”

“I promise you it is Greenland.” Tom held up a hand to forestall objections. “Just not the one you’re used to. I promise you there’s a good explanation. We have an orientation session that goes into it.”

“Or you could explain it now,” I said.

“Fine. This is Greenland. It’s just on a slightly different Earth.”

Niamh motioned emphatically at all the green. “Slightly different?”

“Gotta go with Niamh’s assessment at your use of ‘slightly,’” Kahurangi said.

“All right, very different,” Tom allowed.

“How different?” Aparna asked.

Tom pointed at the green. “Well, that’s not the wildest part.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, and then noticed a shadow cover me, the rest of the newbies, Tom, and the entrance pavilion.