“Use the gyroscope to balance,” Pentecost said. “Ball up and hold on. I’m sorry. It’s going to hurt.”
Use the gyroscope, Raleigh thought. Duh. Gipsy Danger had a number of balance systems, but it wasn’t designed for operating in the air. Raleigh swiped through a series of quick commands engaging the gyroscopes to keep them steady in midair. That took almost a full minute. Then he and Mako crouched together on the command platform, and Gipsy Danger tucked into a ball.
The next twenty seconds were the longest of Raleigh’s life. Their passage through the lower reaches of the storm raised a freight-train roar, and neither of them dared to look up at the holodisplays, much less out the Conn-Pod’s windows. Raleigh heard someone counting down and thought it was him. Then he realized it was Tendo.
Jesus, Tendo, he thought. Shut up, already.
From the LOCCENT, Gipsy Danger’s impact looked like a meteor strike. It hit Hong Kong Stadium, collapsing one entire side and the nearest corner. Debris rained down for hundreds of meters in every direction, and a mushrooming cloud of dust and smoke rose from the site into the rainy night.
The Conn-Pod feed from Gipsy Danger was dark.
“Tendo,” snapped Pentecost. “Get that feed live.”
Tendo tried everything he knew, but the feed stayed dark.
“Jumphawks,” Pentecost said. “What can you see?”
Jumphawk searchlights stabbed into the cloud of dust.
“Not a damn thing, sir,” one of the pilots radioed back. “Too much dust. No visible motion.”
“Gipsy Danger, report,” Pentecost said over the open command frequency. “Mr. Becket. Ms. Mori.”
Nothing. The dust around the stadium started to clear thanks to the rain and swirling winds. Camera feeds from the circling Jumphawks picked out one immense mechanical leg.
“Come in closer,” Pentecost said. “Blow some of that dust away.”
The Jumphawks edged nearer to the impact site, the beat of their rotors clearing away the spreading column of dust. There was Gipsy Danger…
Standing up!
Cheers exploded in the LOCCENT. Even the notoriously taciturn Jumphawk pilots whooped before peeling away from Gipsy Danger as the Jaeger’s operating lights came on again and the Conn-Pod feed lit up over Tendo Choi’s workstation.
“Report,” Pentecost ordered.
Raleigh looked at Mako.
“You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said. Around them, the interior of the Conn-Pod was a wreck. But it didn’t seem to bother either of them. Mako, in fact, looked like she’d never been happier or more alive than at that moment.
“That… felt… good,” she said.
Pentecost closed his eyes and allowed himself a three-count to be proud of her. Proud of both of them. Happy at their survival, gratified that Hong Kong was still standing.
Then he opened his eyes again and turned to Tendo Choi.
“I want the two remaining Jaegers back to one hundred percent functionality within eight hours,” he said. “Sooner.”
KAIJU AND THE MARKETPLACE
PREPARED FOR PAN-PACIFIC DEFENSE CORPS BY [REDACTED]
The worldwide market in kaiju parts is certainly a multibillion-dollar industry. Practitioners of traditional medicines have made unsupportable claims about the powers of kaiju organs to cure various afflictions. Among the remedies sold on the black market are the following:
• Bone/exoskeleton powder, sold as an aphrodisiac.
• Cytophlegm, a chemically cured form of kaiju mucal secretions, known for its powerful adhesive properties. Can be moistened to loosen, then rehardens to previous strength when heated.
• Flaky Cakes, from skin of reptilian kaiju, are said to cure fever and headache when dissolved as tea.
• Headchangers, a hallucinogenic substance derived from the fluids of the kaiju’s tertiary pyramidal cortex.
• Totem jewelry made from shavings of kaiju teeth and claws.
• Cilia ropes, fibers often found in the aquatic portions of kaiju lung structures. Nearly unbreakable, these fibers can be woven together into personal armor.
Black-market applications, particularly Headchangers, are of course the most notorious uses of kaiju anatomical remains. However, a number of legitimate medical and scientific advances have also resulted from the study of kaiju anatomy and structure. Not least of these are the achievements of Kaiju Science, which routinely purchases kaiju parts as they become available. These kaiju tissues and cells, combined with Kaiju Science analysis of Anteverse energies and kaiju, have led to the development of more powerful anti-kaiju weapons systems for newer-generation Jaegers. Examples include the burrowing mechanism in the K-Stunner warhead and the adjusted plasma densities in the new generation of gauntlet-mounted I-22 energy weapons. Should funding for the Jaeger project be restored at some future date, these advances would likely accelerate. In the absence of new sources of funding, Jaeger command is advised to consider licensing Kaiju Science technological advances to responsible parties.
27
Newt watched Gipsy Danger fall out of the sky, tracked by searchlights. He felt the impact of its landing like a small earthquake, and then he saw Gipsy Danger stand up again. Incredible. Incredible!
Seconds later, the pieces of Otachi came tumbling down to their own crashing impacts in different parts of Hong Kong.
Now’s my chance, Newt thought. He ran back toward the corner of Fong and Tull, through the wake of destruction left by Otachi and Gipsy Danger. Emergency crews, sirens… bodies in the streets. Newt saw it, and knew it would bother him later, but right then he had one thing on his mind.
He caught Hannibal Chau coming out of his pharmacy with his crew of goons behind him.
“Okay, go for the wings first, the Germans go crazy for those things,” Chau was saying. Then he saw Newt and stopped.
Newt imagined what he must look like. Bloodied, covered in dust and grime, glasses broken, clothes torn and filthy. He’d seen a lot in the past couple of hours. He’d learned a lot from the kaiju-Drift hangover. And now was the time to put it into action.
“We made a deal,” he said to Hannibal Chau. “You owe me a brain.”
Chau didn’t like it, but he couldn’t back out… or maybe he could have and just chose not to. Newt didn’t care. What he cared about was a kaiju brain, and he was going to get one. This one, formerly belonging to the Category IV known as Otachi.
He was watching city sanitation trucks hose away blue kaiju fluids before they could completely melt the pavement around where this half of Otachi had landed. On the partial corpse, which included Otachi’s lower body and one of its forelimbs, work crews operating heavy equipment peeled back layers of flesh. Different layers and pieces were worth different amounts to different markets, but Hannibal Chau saw money in every molecule of dead kaiju. Acid smoke rose around collecting crews in hazmat suits as they plucked off skin parasites and put them in jars.
Chau himself was walking the perimeter of the work site, issuing directions and maintaining order. Newt had to hustle to keep up with him.
“I still can’t believe what you did to me,” Newt complained. “I could’ve been eaten.” His voice sounded funny because he’d stuffed tissue in his nose to stop it bleeding.
“That was the plan,” Chau said. “Fortunately for you it didn’t become necessary.”
Newt tried to snort, but it didn’t work because of the tissue. All it did was pressurize his head.