Satie considered this for a moment. “You know what, I think we’ve had enough science for one day,” he said, and started to wheel us around to home.
As he did so, the radio sparked to life. “Tanaka Chopper Two, come in,” someone said, from base. It sounded to me like it could be MacDonald, but I couldn’t be sure.
“This is Tanaka Chopper Two, go ahead,” Satie said.
“Chopper Two, we need you to check out an untagged kaiju forty klicks southwest of your location,” base said.
Satie glanced at his instruments. Apparently, being chased by a kaiju will take a lot out of a helicopter. “Base, what’s the nature of the issue?” he asked. “Is this a spot and identify?”
“Negative, Chopper Two. We think we have a venting issue.”
Satie paused. “Say again, base.”
“We think we have a venting issue, Chopper Two. Request visual confirmation and estimate of severity. Acknowledge.”
“Acknowledged. Heading out, over.” He turned to me. “Well, shit,” he said.
“Is this a problem?” I asked.
“Let’s hope not,” Satie said, turned to Kahurangi, and motioned for him to put his headset back on.
“What is it?” Kahurangi asked.
“We just got another mission. Emergency. We have to head southwest forty klicks.”
Kahurangi frowned at this. “Are we likely to get killed on this one, too?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“I could let you out here if you want,” Satie said. “You could walk back.”
Kahurangi rolled his eyes and took off his headset again.
Satie looked at me and smiled. “He’ll get over it,” he said, and set us on our way.
CHAPTER
11
We spotted the smoke before we spotted the kaiju itself; the smoke curled into the sky and hung in thick and listless air. There was more than one area offering up smoke. Dark smudges traced a path toward the creature, and we followed it.
“Do they usually set things on fire?” I asked. Satie shook his head. “Then why is this one doing it?”
“It can’t help it,” he said.
“There it is,” Kahurangi said as we came around a hill. He’d put his headset back on as we traveled. He was pointing to the edge of a largish lake. The creature stood there, motionless, looking for all the world like it was trying to catch its breath. Behind it, things burned.
Satie maneuvered the copter out of the path of the smoke, and we hung motionless in the sky about a kilometer away from the kaiju.
“We’re not getting closer?” I asked.
“Not if we can help it, no,” Satie said.
Kahurangi snorted. “That’s new.”
“That is new,” I agreed. “Why are we holding back this time?”
“We’re here to see if it’s venting,” Satie said. “If it’s venting, we don’t want to be anywhere near it.”
“What’s ‘venting’？” Kahurangi asked.
Satie didn’t answer directly. Instead he looked down at my wrist, which had a smartwatch on it. “That thing have a stopwatch on it?”
“Sure.” My smartwatch had multiple functions, about 90 percent of which I, like most people, never ever used. The stopwatch was one of them.
“Get it ready.” Satie looked back at Kahurangi and motioned with his head to a console in between my seat and his. “There’s a small set of field glasses in there. Get them out and use them.”
Kahurangi nodded.
“Stopwatch is up,” I said. “What am I using it for?”
Satie motioned with his head to the kaiju. “The next time that thing vents, start the timer as soon as it stops, until the next time it vents again.”
“And this venting will be obvious?”
The kaiju split its head open, and a blinding stream of light came out of it and hit the surface of the lake, vaporizing it instantly.
“Pretty obvious, yeah,” Satie said.
The stream of light stopped and I started the timer. “That thing has fire breath,” I said.
Satie shook his head. “It’s weirder than that. It’s an ionized stream of particles. A plasma. It’s several thousand degrees Celsius.”
“I can see why you didn’t want to get close to it.” If a stream of plasma interacted with the helicopter, it would be a bad day for it and for us.
“How does the kaiju survive that sort of heat?” Kahurangi asked. He had the field glasses out, and was training them on the kaiju.