But none of them had seen Jules, running at full speed from under a nearby catwalk. She barreled into Lambert and tackled him out from under Titan Redeemer just as the toppled Jaeger slammed into the bay floor. A moment later, the Morning Star Hand smashed down, embedding itself into the steel plate of the Jaeger bay dock. The shock of the impact knocked the cadets off balance, and Jules landed on top of Lambert in an accidental embrace.
“Hey,” she said after a beat.
“Hey,” he said back.
Jake was incredulous. “Seriously? Now?”
Lambert disentangled himself, still feeling the electricity between him and Jules. He held the look as long as he could, but their comms lit up with warnings. The Drones were taking out unprepared Jaegers all over the world.
It was time to fight back.
24
JaegerWatch:
THOUGHTS ON KAIJU
Everybody’s got theories about these Kaiju rumors, and they’re all wrong. Know how I know? Because by definition you can’t know anything about aliens unless you happen to believe they think and feel as we do.
The thing you have to remember about the Kaiju, and I know this sounds stupid, but it’s simple: They’re aliens. That means you don’t know how they think, what they want, what they feel or what makes them sad or even if they can be sad or if they can see the color blue or what philosophy they might have about the relative abundance of elements in the universe.
They’re alien. ALIEN. Then we have to consider the Precursors, whatever they are. They live in another dimension, or a distant planet, and it’s so different there that the particles that came back clinging to Raleigh Becket’s drivesuit don’t even have names. There are PPDC scientists who will spend the rest of their careers just figuring out what they are.
So don’t tell me—this goes for both the Kaiju zealots and K-Science—don’t tell me you know what the Kaiju want. Because you don’t.
Because you can’t.
Because you’re human.
Unless you aren’t, and that would be a whole other problem.
Newt and Gottlieb stood together in the elevator, boxed in by Kang’s officers. Kang himself stood close to Newt. The elevator was headed down, presumably to the street level where Newt and Gottlieb would be handed over to the police on some charge Shao would trump up to make them look responsible for the Drones going haywire. Newt could see it all now. What a story Shao would tell, a tragic tale of two scientists who had once saved the world, but were corrupted and driven insane by the fact that they’d Drifted together with a Kaiju brain. Shao would pledge to make amends, putting the entire weight of her company behind the effort to counter the Drones and rebuild in the wake of their destruction. And as a result, Newt and Gottlieb would rot in jail forever while Shao’s schemes went on…
They had to do something. Newt had an idea. He caught Gottlieb’s eye and then looked down at Gottlieb’s cane. Hermann didn’t understand what Newt was suggesting. Newt tried again, adding a little dip of the chin this time to make sure Gottlieb knew he was indicating the cane. Then all he could do was hope Hermann put the rest of it together. It was time for desperate measures.
He saw understanding dawn in Hermann’s eyes, and also fear… but then determination. Hermann coughed loudly, bending over with the simulated spasm—and then came up violently swinging his cane. It smashed across the face of the nearest security officer, breaking his nose with a splatter of blood.
Newt was already moving, too, grabbing Chief Kang’s arm as Kang went for his gun.
Hermann flailed like a man possessed, his cane doing serious damage in the confined space of the elevator. Newt wrestled with Kang for possession of the gun. In the fight, the gun went off, the bullets punching holes in the floor but missing all the combatants. Kang had combat training, but Newt had the primitive advantages of surprise and desperation. He wrenched the gun out of Kang’s hand and hit him in the face with the butt. Kang staggered, and Newt hit him again. This time Kang went down. Newt looked up and saw that while he had been subduing Kang, Hermann had taken care of the other officers. Amazing, he thought. Who would have believed prim, brainy Hermann Gottlieb capable of that?
He stabbed at the elevator’s control panel and it stopped at the next floor. He and Hermann stepped out, leaving the elevator full of unconscious security guards. Newt dabbed at his lip, split in the scrap. Gottlieb had a bloody nose. But both of them were exhilarated by what they’d done. It was like something out of an action movie, but they’d pulled it off. “Thank you, Newton! I’d hug you if I didn’t have a rule about public displays of affection—oh to hell with it!”
Gottlieb hugged Newt, surprising him. He was also surprised that it didn’t bother him. He had a lot of affection for Hermann, and despite the awful circumstances, he was glad that they’d been brought back together.
“You’re welcome, Hermann,” Newt said. “Now if you’re done groping me, we need to take care of those Drones.”
* * *
They burst back into Newt’s lab, where Daiyu and the rest of the techs were still trying to get control over the Drones. That wasn’t going to be possible for them, but Newt had an idea. “Out!” he shouted, brandishing Kang’s gun. Then he added in Mandarin, “Go! Now! Or shoot! Shoot!”
The lab erupted in pandemonium as the techs ran for the door, past Newt and Gottlieb. Daiyu was one of the last to exit. As she passed, she said, “I always knew you’d go nuts.”
“You’re fired,” Newt snapped back.
Then he and Hermann had the lab to themselves. “What do we do?” Hermann asked. “How do we stop this?”
“Back door!” Newt proclaimed. He set the gun
