She wondered exactly what others felt when someone’s mouth moved, when language came from the tongue and lips—from the wind passing through them—instead of the hands, the face, the body. It would be useful, at times, to know what someone was saying when you weren’t looking at them. On the other hand, she could feel things that they did not. Like Kong’s heartbeat.
And … something else. What was that? Kong’s heartbeat was picking up; he was more alert. More than alert, worried. More so than when he had first awakened, tied down. And his heart continued to beat faster.
But Jia felt something else. Something that wasn’t coming from Kong, but which he also was aware of. The thing that was making him anxious.
She put her hands against the metal wall, and felt it more strongly, tremoring through the water and into the skin of the ship. She had never experienced the pulsation before, or anything like it, but she knew what it was. Because he knew what it was. Kong had heard this back on the island, when he stood and pounded his chest. He had told her about it, but it was too faint for her to feel back then. Or maybe she just hadn’t been ready to feel it. But now she did. A heartbeat, like Kong’s, but different. And there was another vibration, high, then sharp.
As if he had a star inside of him.
And he was close, almost here, strong, getting stronger. And Kong, even with the stuff they had given him to subdue him—was becoming frantic. He knew what was happening. The old war had come for him, the war her people once told of. And Kong was helpless.
Understanding, Jia didn’t hesitate any longer, but sprinted out of the room, searching for Ilene-Mother.
She ran into one of the many people on the ship; she signed, asking him where Mother was. He looked at her as if he didn’t or couldn’t understand.
Useless. She ran on, searching.
* * *
“I know Jia is only a child,” Nathan said. “But she’s the only one he’ll communicate with. And we need Kong to find that power source. The world needs him.”
Ilene was forming an answer when red lights began flashing and the ship’s alarms blared. She turned and saw Jia standing in the doorway, signing like crazy. One of the signs was a new one—fingers held up, spread wide. Ilene had no doubt what it meant. She suddenly felt heavier, as if every molecule in her body had doubled in mass.
“What’s she saying?” Nathan asked.
“Godzilla,” Ilene replied.
* * *
When they reached the bridge, the crew was working frantically. Something—something big—had appeared in sonar, only to vanish in radiation interference as it got closer.
“Radiation readings are off the chart,” someone said.
“Did we change course?” Ilene asked the Admiral.
“No,” Wilcox said. “We’re nowhere near the areas you flagged.”
Nathan was staring at the monitors. “Well, it looks like he’s coming for us anyway.”
“He’s not coming for us,” Ilene said.
“What?” Simmons said, looking at Kong. “Him? Then dump him! Dump the monkey.”
“Why don’t we throw you off instead?” Ilene snapped.
Set Kong free! Jia signed frantically.
Kong seemed to agree. He was testing his chains again, but he also kept casting his vision out to the waves.
Ilene knew Jia was right. Their plan had depended upon getting Kong to Antarctica without Godzilla noticing he’d left Skull Island. It was now clear that they had failed. She did not know if Kong could survive a confrontation with the other Titan under the best of conditions, but he certainly had no chance tied up like he was, all prepped for vivisection.
“We need to release him,” she told the others. “We have to let him go.”
“See?” Simmons said. “I knew you’d come around.”
“Not dump him,” Ilene said. “Set him free.”
“If we lose Kong the mission is over!” Nathan said.
“He’s a sitting duck out there,” Ilene said. “If Godzilla kills him, if he destroys this fleet, the mission is over. We have to let him protect himself. And us.”
Nathan looked down, then away.
“It’s your mission,” Admiral Wilcox told him. “Call it.”
But Nathan still didn’t say anything; he just pursed his lips and seemed to be looking at something that wasn’t there. The Admiral’s expression shifted; Ilene thought it looked like disgust.
“Do something, Nathan!” Ilene shouted.
An explosion shattered the air; out on the water, a destroyer went up in a fireball. Black smoke boiled toward the sky.
The Admiral turned away from Nathan, disdain now written clearly on his face. “Scramble fighters!” he commanded. “All stations, acquire target lock and fire at will, fire at will!”
* * *
Nathan watched, paralyzed, as missiles and shells fired from every part of the fleet converged on a distant, still unseen target. They ruptured in the ocean, hurling up plumes of water and smoke, sending a shock across the ocean and in the air. It seemed impossible any living being could withstand such power. But then he saw Godzilla’s fins appear as the monster cruised out of the smoke.
On deck, Kong was thrashing ever more desperately, trying to break his shackles, and for a terrible instant the Titan looked straight up at the bridge, directly, it seemed, at Nathan, both puzzled and angry at his helpless state in the face of his enemy. And there was something else in that look. Ilene believed the Iwi and perhaps other humans had gone to war with Kong in the past, and there was evidence that Godzilla, too, might have once had human followers. Did Kong feel … betrayed?
Or did Nathan just feel like a betrayer?
He glanced at the Admiral, who was no longer paying attention to him. Why should he? Nathan had shown what he was made of, again.
He should have known better than to let Dave bully him into continuing the Hollow Earth mission. He had known in his bones that something was wrong, that he didn’t have enough data, that his calculations were somehow off. He had let it happen anyway. He could not make
