“Oh, no,” he said. “More environmental crusaders?”
“Actually sir,” Bernie offered, “I’m a level-two engineering assistant for this company. Uh, provisionally level two but my evaluation was very encouraging…”
A guard nudged Bernie with his gun.
“Just sayin’,” Bernie said.
Simmons turned his quizzical gaze upon Madison. She straightened her shoulders and stared back as recognition dawned on his features.
“Where do I know you from?” he asked. He tilted his head fractionally. “Oh my goodness,” he said, “Director Russell’s daughter, yes?”
“You caused all this,” Madison accused.
Simmons raised his eyebrows a little, then seemed to acknowledge the comment with a cock of his head and a lifting of his arms to take in the room.
“If by ‘all this’ you mean I and I alone have given humanity a chance against the Titans, yes, I will proudly own that title,” he said.
“Godzilla had left us in peace!” Madison said. “You provoked him into war!”
“We couldn’t have known he would react as he did to the Mecha’s construction, that its energy signal would draw him like a whistle, but—there can be only one alpha, Ms. Russell … it seems to have been providence.”
“Providence?” Madison said. “He’s probably trashing Hong Kong right now.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Simmons said. “But, as you will see, we’ll put an end to that in a moment.”
“With that thing out there?” Madison said. “The real Godzilla will shred that.”
“Oh, you’ve seen that too,” Simmons said. “Well.” He frowned. “May I ask what brought you here? Let me be more specific. How did you get here?”
“We took the fast train from Pensacola,” Bernie said.
“And who are you?” Simmons asked.
Bernie straightened up. “Just a guy,” he said. “A guy who has been onto you for years. And just so you know, all of this is out there now. Viral, baby.”
“Wait,” Simmons said, gesturing with his drink. “You aren’t that blogger? Mad Truth? Oh, my God, you must be. This is just all so wonderful. I can’t tell you. Oh. Huge fan. I loved that four-part series on chemtrails. Gave me some seriously promising ideas for future projects.” He took another drink.
“Please,” he said. “Consider yourselves my guests for now. We’ve got quite a show coming up.”
He turned away, back to the window.
“He didn’t even ask who I was,” Josh grumbled.
But Madison was staring at one of the monitors. Godzilla was there, fighting . . . Kong? Where had Kong come from?
* * *
From their aerial vantage, Nathan and the others now had an unobstructed view of how the fight was going. Judging by the state of the city, they had already missed a lot of it.
Following the explosion that sent both Titans flying, Kong had stayed under cover, wary of the other Titan’s energy attack.
Jia was busily signing in the back.
“She says we have to help him,” Ilene translated.
“Yeah,” Nathan said. “I would love to. But we’re clean out of ammunition. No missiles, anyway. And I’m far from proficient at flying this thing. I’m afraid all I can do is get us killed. Anyway, it looks like Kong is doing okay.”
“He’s lost his axe,” Ilene said. “Without that he’s got nothing to protect him from Godzilla’s morning breath. Maybe we can find it for him.”
“Given the amount of energy released,” Nathan said, “it might have been destroyed.”
“We can try,” she said.
He nodded. “I’ll fly. You two look. Let me know if you see anything.”
“Okay,” Ilene said, as Nathan started a broad circle. From the air, it was clear Kong and Godzilla were no longer in each other’s line of sight, but Godzilla, obviously searching for Kong, still tended to move in the right direction.
“He senses him,” Ilene said. “Kong can’t hide.”
“Looks like that’s what he’s doing, though,” Nathan pointed out.
Kong had found a tall building, had climbed it, and seemed to be lying in wait, holding very still.
“Clever,” Ilene said.
“Clever is all he’s got right now,” Nathan said.
They watched as Godzilla stalked the city, drawing nearer Kong’s hiding spot.
“He still doesn’t see him,” Ilene breathed. Godzilla was almost on Kong.
From his perch on the skyscraper, Kong tossed a spire he had snapped off from another building. When Godzilla turned at the distraction. Kong leapt squarely onto the other Titan, throwing his arms around the big lizard and binding him in a headlock. Then he rammed Godzilla’s head into a building. The reptilian Titan writhed like mad, trying to escape Kong’s deadly embrace, but the ape held on, punching Godzilla in the head whenever he could get one arm free. The saurian snapped at Kong’s face and savaged his arm, but the ape held on like a bull rider, refusing to be thrown. Ilene was beginning to think he could hold on forever, but then Godzilla clamped down on his arm and yanked his head down, throwing Kong over and landing him flat on his back. Godzilla tried to stamp on him, but Kong rolled aside, and then they were fighting again in such flurry of arms and legs, it was difficult to tell what was happening. But then Godzilla tossed Kong across the city, crashing through multiple structures until he fetched up hard against the base of a building. Kong reached for his shoulder, groaning, but Godzilla gave him no chance to recover his wind. He came at Kong like a bull, head lowered. The Titan rolled away, and the gargantuan reptile plowed headfirst into the building, but that hardly slowed him down; his tail swung and slammed Kong against the pavement; Godzilla lunged. Kong, still sitting, retreated crab style, kicking at Godzilla with his stumpy legs, clearly very much on the defensive. Godzilla pounced, absorbing Kong’s kicks and slashing his claws across
