Kaiju Preservation Society(69)

I started the video.

“I don’t think I have much time,” Tom said, into the video. “We landed and started planting instrument packs when we heard a bang and saw the aerostat get hit by something. Almost as quickly, the helicopter got hit. Then we saw what looked like soldiers coming through with equipment, heading toward Bella. They saw us and some of them started firing at us. We all ran. They’re hunting us now. I think they’re going to kill us. I don’t know who they are or where they came from. I have this phone pointing at Bella. I’m going to let it run. Hopefully they don’t find it. Hopefully someone at Tanaka will. I don’t know what else to say. I’m walking away now.”

With that he picked up the instrument pack, stood, and walked purposefully away from the phone and out of frame.

A few seconds later someone else crossed into frame, wearing camo and carrying some variation of a military rifle, yelling at Tom to stop. The soldier crossed out of frame, still yelling. I paused the video.

“At this point the sound is a little difficult to follow so I’m going to have to turn up the volume,” I said. Everyone nodded. I cranked up the volume and then resumed the video.

The ambient noise was much louder, but the voices that came next were barely audible.

First there was Tom. “I’m unarmed.”

There was some not-quite-comprehensible growling on the part of the soldier, followed by Tom. “I came from Tanaka Base. Who are you, and why are you here? Where did you come from?”

More incomprehensible.

“We’re here to do science. What are you here for?” Tom said.

“He’s doing it on purpose,” Niamh said.

“What?” asked MacDonald.

“Talking clearly. Enunciating. He’s trying to make sure what he’s saying gets recorded.”

MacDonald looked ready to respond, but then Tom said something else, which was, “How did you come through? How did you know to come here?”

More growling in response.

“I’m just trying to understand what’s happening here,” Tom said.

There was more muttering from the soldier, like he was having a conversation with himself, and then a more aggressive set of mumbles.

“I can’t take apart the instrument pack,” Tom said. “We seal them up at the base and make them hard to destroy, so we can get data no matter what happens. Why do you want me to take it apart?”

Yelling, and this time, fuck was definitely part of the conversation.

“I’m not trying to argue with you,” Tom said. “I’m just telling you what I can and can’t do.”

More muttering.

“All right, I’m going to put the pack down over here, and then I’m going to step away from it,” Tom said.

Silence, and then the flat bang of the rifle being shot.

“I told you they were tough,” Tom said a couple of seconds later.

Another bang.

“I would like to go back to my teammates now,” Tom said, after a moment. “I know they are scared. I’m scared. You’ve destroyed our data, and you’ve made sure we can’t talk to our base. We can’t stop you from doing whatever you plan to do here. We’re not going to be a problem.”

Muttering, and a few seconds later, the soldier showed back up in the frame, walking backward to keep his weapon trained on Tom, talking urgently into a headset.

“Look, what the fuck do you want me to do with this guy?” he was saying, intelligibly now that he was closer. “We were told there weren’t going to be people here. We were told they wouldn’t be here until we were long gone. Now I’ve got this fucker, and others in my squad are babysitting his pals.”

He stood, listening into his earpiece.

“Well, but that’s my point,” the soldier replied to whoever he was talking with. “We already took down the helicopter. We don’t have to do anything to these assholes. Just strip them down and send them out into the jungle. They’ll be dead before any of their pals show up. Why waste the bullets?”

Another pause, and then a sigh.

“Jesus. Fine,” the soldier said. “We’re being paid extra for this. And I want even more for taking down the chopper.”

Every eye in the room turned to Satie, who sat there, grimly. He had already heard this part before.

“Yeah. Yeah. Fine. All right,” the soldier said, and then walked out of frame again.

A few seconds later, Tom said, “You don’t have to do this.”

Then there was another flat report from the rifle. And another.

The room was silent except for a few quiet sobs. Everyone knew what had just happened off-screen.

Unexpectedly the soldier returned into frame, looking about.

“Fucker is looking to see if he got caught,” Niamh said.

Before he could spot the phone, he had another problem on his hands; the jungle creatures, attracted by the noise and the sudden release of blood, were converging. The soldier raised his rifle, threatening, and went out the opposite side of the camera frame in a hurry. In a few seconds, there was the image of creature limbs hustling by, chasing him.

“I’d like to think they caught him and ate him,” Danso said.

“You didn’t see anything of Tom when you got there,” MacDonald said to me and Kahurangi.