Kaiju Preservation Society(63)

I frowned at this. “For how long?”

“Since we’ve been here to complain about the aerostat feed being down.”

“So not that long.”

“No, but it’s weird to have both the aerostat feed down and a helicopter out of contact at the same time,” Kahurangi said.

“Especially near a kaiju,” Aparna added.

I nodded. I hadn’t quite made that connection myself. Something or someone might have bothered Bella enough that she roused herself out of her brooding torpor. If that happened, that could be very bad news for the aerostat, the helicopter, and everyone on the mission, which included Kahurangi’s Blue Team counterparts. Niamh’s, too.

And Tom Stevens, I just remembered.

MacDonald came out of her office, looking displeased. She was about to say something to Aparna and Kahurangi, saw me, and stopped.

“I know about the feed and the chopper,” I said to her.

“Then I want you to go to the airfield and talk to Martin Sa tie,” she said. “Quietly and discreetly. The airfield has its own radio equipment, maybe he can raise Chopper One from there.”

“And if he can’t?” I asked.

“One thing at a time,” MacDonald said. She turned to Aparna and Kahurangi. “I need you not to talk to anyone else about this yet.”

“Niamh Healy knows something’s up, too,” I said. “I just came from talking to them.”

“We can talk to Niamh,” Kahurangi said.

“It’s not something we can keep quiet for long, though,” Aparna warned. “We’re not the only ones with access to the aerostat feed. Ion will be back in the lab soon, and looking for that data.”

“It’s not the aerostat I’m worried about,” MacDonald said. “They go down every now and then. It’s Chopper One out of communication that bothers me.” She looked at me. “Why are you still here? Go.”

I headed out the door and went to the airfield in enough of a rush that I almost forgot to grab a hat and gloves.

Martin Satie did not seem surprised to see me. “You come from Administration?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“They can’t raise Chopper One either.”

“No. The aerostat feed is down, too.”

“How long?”

“As long as Chopper One’s been out of contact.”

“Anything on the feed before it went out?”

“I didn’t see it. I was talking to Dr. Healy, who was looking at it before it went out. They didn’t see anything either.”

Satie nodded. “Okay. Well, let’s go, then.”

“What?”

“We have a chopper out of contact and an aerostat down near a kaiju,” Satie said. “We need eyes. You have eyes.”

“You have eyes, too,” I said. “I need to report back.”

“Right.” Satie pulled out his phone, opened the screen, and texted something. “Okay.”

“What was that?” I asked.

“I just texted Dr. MacDonald and told her I was borrowing you for a moment.”

“And she knows what that means?”

Satie looked at me. “Dr. MacDonald sent you here instead of texting. She wants this quiet. She also wants answers. If I tell her I’m borrowing you, it says to her that I am going to give her answers, and anyone looking over her shoulder when she gets that text isn’t going to know there’s a problem. I’m always borrowing someone.”

“Got it,” I said.

“Thought you might.”

“What do you think happened?”

“I have no idea what happened, that’s why we’re going out there. But if we see that kaiju on the wing, I know exactly what we’re going to do.”

“What’s that?”

“Hope she doesn’t see us before we get the hell out of there. If she’s up and moving around, something’s really pissed her off. If she sees us, she’ll drive us right into the ground.”



* * *



“Tell me what you see,” Satie said as we circled the site.

Here’s what I saw.

Chopper One, a wreck on the ground, still smoking and burning, near the shore of the lake.

The ground near the kaiju site and the crash, crawling with jungle creatures. If anyone had made it out of the helicopter crash, those creatures had already taken them.

Our friends were dead.

I told this to Satie.

He nodded. “Now,” he said. “Tell me what you don’t see.”

“I don’t see the aerostat,” I said.

“What else?”

“I don’t see the eggs Bella laid.”

“What else?”

“I don’t see Bella.”

She was gone. Her eggs were gone. All her parasites and companion creatures were gone.

Everything was gone.

“This isn’t right,” I said.

“It’s not,” Satie agreed. “Now tell me why.”

This was why: Because when I looked down at where Bella used to be, it didn’t look like Bella had been there and had left.

When I looked down at where Bella used to be, it looked like Bella had never been there at all.