Amara had a faraway look in her eyes as she remembered something, and it took her a moment to speak. “I built her because one day they’re gonna come back,” she said, all her bravado melting away. “The Kaiju. And when they do, I’m not gonna be stuck waiting for someone else to come save my ass. Not like before.”
Jake absorbed that. It wasn’t what he’d expected. She was different when she let the tough facade slip for a minute.
He didn’t have more time to consider that, though, because PPDC officers were at that moment opening the cell. “You,” one of them said to Jake. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Holo emitters on different sides of the interrogation room flickered to life and a hologram appeared. Ah, Jake thought. The old remote interrogation. Usually they got started that way, then brought a real cop into the room when they thought you needed to be scared a little.
Not that Jake had spent a lot of time talking to cops over the past few years.
The hologram took a moment to resolve, and then Jake found himself looking at the last person in the world he’d have expected to see at that moment:
Mako Mori.
She looked great, in her PPDC Secretary General’s uniform. After she’d survived the closing of the Breach, she’d risen through the ranks fast, eventually surpassing her father—well, their father—to become head of the PPDC.
“There she is!” Jake said brightly. He was happy to see her. He also hoped she might help him get out of this jam. “My sister from another mister! You make some calls, pull some strings, I gotta sign some paperwork?”
She didn’t answer him right away, and when she did, the air went right out of his initial exuberance. “I was really hoping to not see you like this again.”
“Just a stretch of bad luck,” Jake said, feeling a little abashed. “I’ll figure it out.”
She wasn’t buying it. “Father used to say we make our own luck.”
That was the wrong approach to take with Jake, bringing up their father. Last thing in the world he wanted to talk about. “Yeah, Dad said a lot of things.”
He was being flippant to get a rise out of her, but it didn’t work. Maybe she was too grown up for that now. “You were in a rogue Jaeger with stolen PPDC tech.”
“Wasn’t mine.”
“You have priors. This is serious, Jake.”
Jake’s charming act faded a little. Was he in real trouble here even though his sister ran the PPDC? “Which is why I need my big sister to get me the hell out of here,” he prompted.
“They’re not going to let you just walk out,” she said. “But there might be another way.”
“Great. Love it. What do I gotta do?”
“Re-enlist,” she answered without missing a beat. “And finish what you started.”
This wasn’t what Jake had expected. He couldn’t help it. He laughed at how ridiculous the idea was. “I’m a little old to be a cadet, Mako.”
“I don’t want you to be a cadet. I want you to help train them.”
Train them? Jake had barely gotten past the cadet stage himself. How could he train anyone in anything? “What’s behind door number two?” he asked.
She ignored the question, like she always did when she’d made up her mind. “The transport is standing by to bring both of you to Moyulan.”
Moyulan. The big Shatterdome. China. She was serious. But… “Both of us?”
“You and your new recruit,” she said. “Enjoy your flight, Jake!”
“Mako? Mako!”
She broke the connection and the hologram disappeared. “Sonofa—” Jake was all by himself again.
4
MEMORIAL SERVICE DISRUPTED BY KAIJU CULTISTS
FROM WIRE REPORTS
Agitators from several Kaiju-worshipping sects disrupted a ceremonial dedication of a memorial to siblings Stacker and Luna Pentecost in their home city of London. The long-planned memorial, delayed by conflict over its siting and design, was approved after years of wrangling for a corner of Bruce Castle Park, near White Hart Lane in the Tottenham neighborhood where the Pentecost siblings were born.
Luna Pentecost, a pilot with the Royal Air Force, was killed in the first battle of the Kaiju War, when the creature later dubbed Trespasser came ashore in San Francisco Bay. RAF support elements assisted the American Air Force, and both suffered heavy losses. She was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Stacker Pentecost, also initially a RAF pilot, later became one of the founding Rangers in the fledgling Jaeger program, and piloted the Jaeger Coyote Tango on a number of missions, including the famous encounter with the Kaiju Onibaba in Tokyo, during which Pentecost saved the life of current PPDC Secretary General Mako Mori. Sickened by radiation from Coyote Tango’s poorly designed reactor, Stacker moved into PPDC oversight, becoming Marshal. His final mission, to close the Breach in March 2025, was successful, but at the cost of his life and that of his copilot, Chuck Hansen.
Police quickly broke up the demonstration and the memorial dedication proceeded without incident. The Metropolitan Police declined to say how many arrests they had made or characterize the amount of property damage.
By sunset, the PPDC transport carrier had crossed the Pacific Ocean, bringing the Moyulan Shatterdome into view. Jake took it in with what might charitably be called mixed feelings. He’d seen Shatterdomes before, and his memories of them were not all positive. Moyulan was a newer location, built in the round of consolidations and relocations following the end of the Kaiju War. It occupied the largest of a group of mountainous islands in Qingchuan Bay, about four hundred kilometers south of Shanghai. The main Shatterdome, containing the Jaeger bay and mechanical operations, was at the center of the complex. To the left as they approached was the main body of the base, a bunker-style complex eight to ten stories tall and hundreds of yards long, reaching from the Shatterdome out to a large parking area for Jumphawks, V-Dragons, and the transport helicopters that made up the bulk of the PPDC’s aerial fleet. The Jumphawks looked much like
