Godzilla Returns Part 13

Scrambling to his feet, Brian climbed over the twisted debris of the wrecked catwalk. He reached the harpoon, which seemed to be intact despite the accident. Brian spotted a headphone/microphone set resting in a cradle. He put it on.

"Uncle Maxwell," he cried into the microphone. "Can you hear me?"

Up on the bridge, Admiral Willis and Nick had watched as the chopper took Buntaro's life. Then they watched as an unidentifiable figure ran across the deck and took the dead harpooner's station. The radio speaker above their heads crackled to life.

"Uncle Maxwell!" the voice cried "Can you hear me?"

Nick's eyes widened. "That's Brian!" He turned and saw Lieutenant Takado standing in the doorway. Their eyes met, and then she looked away guiltily.

"Brian, what the - what are you doing out there?" Admiral Willis barked over the radio.

Unfortunately, Brian's radio receiver had been damaged in the wreck. Brian knew he was listening to his uncle's voice, but the words were almost unintelligible.

"I can't hear you," Brian replied. "But keep circling G.o.dzilla... I'm sure I can fire this thing!" He grabbed the handle and elevated the harpoon. He tried to look through the sight, but there was a streak of red on the lens, blocking his vision. s.h.i.+vering, Brian wiped the blood away.

G.o.dzilla's back loomed in the gunsight.

"Brian, you have to hit G.o.dzilla in the neck, repeat, th...ck." His uncle's voice crackled in his ear. "Don't for...to release th...ty, remem... rel...saf..." Brian ignored the garbled command and squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Then the voice crackled into his ears again. "You have t...release...safety..." Brian looked at the harpoon. Of course - the safety switch! He located the b.u.t.ton and depressed it. A red light on the base of the harpoon gun lit up, showing the weapon was armed and ready.

Again Brian peered through the sight. He was still on target. Brian held his breath and squeezed the trigger.

The harpoon left the barrel with a loud whoosh. To Brian's surprise, the gun had a powerful kick that slammed into his shoulder. Brian ignored the pain. He watched as the harpoon arced into the air.

It struck G.o.dzilla right at the base of the neck, near the spinal column. The long, fiber-optic cable whistled through the winch and was strung along behind. When the harpoon hit flesh, smaller anchors, like super-sharp fishhooks, embedded themselves into G.o.dzilla's hide. The monster was so huge, its skin so thick, that it didn't even notice the harpoon striking its flesh.

Brian heard whoops of triumph over his headset. Suddenly exhausted, he slumped to the deck and started to shake uncontrollably. He still gripped the handle of the harpoon gun as the Kongo-Maru stopped circling the monster and took up a position behind it.

Brian was still slumped there - cold, wet, and s.h.i.+vering - when Lieutenant Takado and Nick came out onto the fuel-soaked deck to get him.

CHAPTER 13.

G.o.dZILLA 101.

May 31, 1998, 3:55 P.M.

Aboard the Kongo-Maru

Somewhere in the Sea of j.a.pan

Brian showered, rested, and dressed in fresh clothes before he stepped into the lounge of the Kongo-Maru.

The tiny room was empty. He boiled some water at the kitchenette and made green tea and an instant noodle pack he selected from the shelf. As he ate, Brian recalled his uncle's reaction to his stunt. He smiled at the memory.

When Brian had been dragged back into the s.h.i.+p, stinking of fuel and held up on his feet by Nick and Lieutenant Takado, it was a stern-faced officer of the U.S. Navy high command who greeted him.

"Just what do you think you were doing out there?" Admiral Willis barked angrily. "You could have been killed, boy! Just what was I supposed to tell your family? That I took their oldest son fis.h.i.+ng - for G.o.dzilla!?"

Brian was too weak, and too numb, to respond. But he smiled at his uncle - which really made the admiral mad!

Admiral Willis put his beefy hands on his hips. "And don't give me that smart-a.s.sed grin of yours, either! I'd tear your head off except for one thing - you did good!"

Then the admiral's craggy features broke into a smile. "Yes, you heard me. You did good.

"I'm happy to say we're getting solid data through the cable," he informed them all. "The Kongo-Maru will follow G.o.dzilla until he submerges too deep for our cable to reach, or until the cable is broken for some other reason. Every second that cable is feeding us information is precious. We're learning about G.o.dzilla, troops!"

The admiral paused again. Then he slapped his nephew on the back. "Congratulations, son." he said. "I'm proud of you. And I'm sure your father will be proud of you, too."

With that, the admiral turned and headed back to the bridge.

Brian finished his noodle pack and tossed the cup into the garbage bin. Then he picked up the remote and switched on one of the televisions.

This monitor was tuned to CNN, where an attractive anchorwoman was updating world financial news.

"...Word of the tragic attack and the j.a.panese Navy's failure to stop G.o.dzilla has the financial markets of the world - which were already jittery - near panic. The j.a.panese stock market is in meltdown. The Nikkei average has plunged almost twenty percent since noon, Tokyo time. The yen is also down against the dollar and the pound.

"There is fear that the economic panic will spread to other financial markets when the New York and London stock markets open in the morning. In other news -"

Brian turned it off. I've heard enough.

At that moment, Nick entered the lounge.

"Hey, if it isn't our international star!" he quipped.

"Huh?" Brian replied.

"Our pal Yos.h.i.+ - the eye behind the camera who never misses a shot - was filming the attack from the top of the bridge," Nick informed Brian. "He's got the whole battle on tape: the destruction of both s.h.i.+ps, the helicopter crash... everything!"

Brian swallowed hard. "Everything?" he asked weakly.

"Yup!" Nick beamed. "Including your little stint as a harpooner. Yos.h.i.+ sent those pictures back to INN through a satellite uplink.

"Your homage to Moby-d.i.c.k has been broadcast worldwide on INN. You're a star, son!"

Brian's mouth dropped open. Then he actually giggled. He began to laugh uncontrollably. Soon, Nick joined in. Their laughter echoed throughout the s.h.i.+p.

Lieutenant Takado and Yos.h.i.+ were pa.s.sing through the hallway. They peeked in, exchanged puzzled glances, and left again, unnoticed by the laughing duo.

For Brian, the laughter washed away the terrible tensions of the day. When he was finally finished, he rubbed his tired eyes. He discovered that he actually felt better.

"How do you feel, old man?" Nick asked when they calmed down.

"Not bad for someone who was in a sea battle, a helicopter crash, and a close encounter with G.o.dzilla, and gained international stardom - and all before noon!"

"Well," Nick said, "you've got to admit it's more exciting than covering the Winter Olympics." They laughed some more.

"So" Brian said, sighing. "Yos.h.i.+ got it all on tape, did he? And he sent it back to headquarters..."

"He did," Nick nodded. "He'll probably win an Emmy."

"It'll be awarded posthumously," Brian said. "'Cause I'm gonna kill him."

He's aged a decade since this morning, Brian thought when Dr. n.o.beyama entered the crowded lounge two hours later. The j.a.panese scientist was tense with anxiety, and the weight of the world seemed to be on his stooped shoulders.

The old man nodded to the a.s.sembled officers and technicians of the Kongo-Maru. They were packed into the lounge, along with Nick and Brian. Everyone was anxious to hear what Dr. n.o.beyama's experiments had revealed.

The j.a.panese scientist took a seat at the head of the table. Admiral Willis stood at the old man's shoulder. His face, too, was grim.

Lieutenant Takado entered last, carrying a videoca.s.sette. She slipped a tape into the VCR and pressed PLAY. Instantly the four television screens were filled with an image of G.o.dzilla, taken just that morning. She froze the picture, turned to the a.s.sembly, and spoke.

"Before Dr. n.o.beyama speaks, I've been asked to give you an update on the battle - and on G.o.dzilla's movements," she said in English. Though most of the technicians present were j.a.panese, some were from other countries. English was the scientific team's language of choice.

"Four American airmen were lost in the initial air attack," Lieutenant Takado said grimly. "Two j.a.panese s.h.i.+ps were lost with almost no survivors - there are over five hundred j.a.panese dead, including Admiral Toyohas.h.i.+, the commander."

Everyone gasped. One of the technicians - a j.a.panese woman who was engaged to an officer aboard the Iwase - began to sob. Tears rolled down her cheeks as the lieutenant continued her briefing.

"Less than an hour ago, the fiber-optic cable broke and we lost contact with the probe imbedded in G.o.dzilla's body."

This information was greeted with disheartened moans. Lieutenant Takado pressed on.

"The good news is that over ninety percent of Dr. n.o.beyama's probes, tests, and experiments were successfully performed. We managed to collect valuable data on G.o.dzilla's physiology.

"The bad news is that G.o.dzilla has s.h.i.+fted direction once again. The creature is currently moving through the s.h.i.+monoseki Straits."

Almost everyone in the room was shocked at this bombsh.e.l.l. Brian gasped, too. The s.h.i.+monoseki Straits separated the j.a.panese island of Kyushu and the main island of Honshu.

"My G.o.d," Nick blurted out, "that will take him into the Inland Sea!"

"Yes." Lieutenant Takado nodded. "G.o.dzilla is now moving into the most populated area of j.a.pan." A map of j.a.pan appeared on the television monitors. A red line traced G.o.dzilla's possible path, through the s.h.i.+monoseki Straits and up along the Inland Sea. Lieutenant Takado continued.

"The monster will likely pa.s.s the cities of Ube, Tokuyama, Hiros.h.i.+ma, Kure, Okayama, Kobe, and Osaka - as well as Matsuyama and Takamatsu on the island of s.h.i.+koku. If G.o.dzilla comes lo land near any of these major cities, many thousands will perish.

"Worse still, there are dozens of nuclear power plants along the creature's route. Plants with reactors that could attract G.o.dzilla. If the monster destroys just one of these facilities, he will feed on the radiation and grow even stronger."

Admiral spoke up for the first time. "Even now, Yuus.h.i.+o-cla.s.s subs of the j.a.panese Maritime Self-Defense Force are trackin' G.o.dzilla. They'll serve as an early-warning system if the s...o...b.. decides to come ash.o.r.e."

The admiral paused. "There is, I'm sad to say, no way to stop G.o.dzilla's progress."

"You mean that we've found no weakness to exploit?" one of the j.a.panese scientists asked. "No way to halt or kill the creature?"

Admiral Willis said nothing. It was Dr. n.o.beyama who replied in a quavering voice. "I am afraid that all of my theories about G.o.dzilla have been proven," he said, shaking his head. "There is nothing humanity can do to stop G.o.dzilla - short of vaporizing him with a nuclear weapon."

The room exploded into a babble of contentious voices. Dr. n.o.beyama raised his quaking hand and called for silence. "Please look at the television monitors," the old man said when everyone calmed down. "Watch the tape we have prepared."

All eyes turned to the screen. The map disappeared, to be replaced by an image of G.o.dzilla. The picture showed the monster facing the camera as he moved ponderously through the Sea of j.a.pan.

"The creature's bones are denser that t.i.tanium steel - they are perhaps the hardest material in the universe, capable of carrying his entire weight without shattering." The picture froze. A computer-generated image of internal organs was superimposed over G.o.dzilla's body.

"G.o.dzilla is, of course, highly radioactive. But the amazing thing is that the creature somehow controls the amount of radiation he gives off," Dr. n.o.beyama continued, his voice gaining strength.

"When G.o.dzilla is angry or threatened, he gives off increasing amounts of intense radiation. This energy surge is climaxed by the ray that he fires through his mouth. The creature has a heart, lungs, a stomach... but he also has this..."

A red pointer appeared on the tape, highlighting a strange bundle of tissue between the heart, lungs, and stomach.

"This organ acts much like a nuclear reactor," the aged scientist said. "Radioactivity is generated there in much the same way as it is generated in a nuclear reactor. This organ is connected to the lungs, and is the origin of G.o.dzilla's destructive ray."

More startled voices were heard. Brian looked at Nick, who seemed stunned at the revelation.

"As amazing as all this seems, it pales beside our next discovery." Dr. n.o.beyama paused. Lieutenant Takado handed him a cup of green tea. He drank, then set the cup down slowly.

"Please look at the monitors," he said.

The image had changed. Now G.o.dzilla could be seen taking hits from the guns of the j.a.panese fleet. Explosions erupted at various points on the creature's arms, torso, and legs. The picture focused on a small section at the base of G.o.dzilla's neck. As that portion of the creature expanded to fill the screen, a sh.e.l.l struck it, exploding.

Suddenly, the picture went into reverse, then forward again, but at very slow motion. "When this 127mm sh.e.l.l from the Iwase struck G.o.dzilla, it caused a ma.s.sive wound - look." The picture froze again.