“They’re not going to be happy with you,” I said.
“They’re already not happy with me,” Satie said. “My radio to base has been off this entire time. They’ve probably been calling me since we left. The Shobijin crew are almost certainly on the lookout for us.”
“Remember to tell them to clear out. We don’t want them to be there if we get Bella back. They might spook her.”
“I’ll tell them. Whether they listen to me is another story.”
“I’m sorry you’ll be in trouble.”
“You’ll be in more trouble. I’m just giving you a ride.”
“Thank you anyway.”
“This is what we do,” Satie said. “Or what we’re supposed to do. I lost friends just like you did. Getting Bella back from those who took her and our friends is what they would want us to do.”
“I’m sure of it.”
“If you want to shoot a couple of them as well, I wouldn’t mind.”
I grinned at that. “You’ll have to talk to Kahurangi about that. He has the shotgun.”
“If it comes to that, I’m not going to use the shotgun,” Kahurangi said. He had been listening in because the headsets were on an open channel in the passenger area of Chopper Two. “I have something else ready for us.”
“Good enough,” Satie said. We were now almost over the site. “Let’s get you on the ground.”
He maneuvered us down, taking care to avoid the Shobijin as we went in. As we descended, I looked over at the airship and thought I could see its crew, waving frantically at us. I waved back.
Once down and the chopper away, Kahurangi and I first sprayed Aparna and Niamh and then each other with the “I’m a kaiju” pheromone, applying it liberally to ourselves and our packs.
“Mate, that shit is rank,” Niamh said to Kahurangi.
“Don’t blame me,” he said. “I don’t make kaiju biology, I just exploit it.”
“Do some genetic engineering. Make the kaiju smell nice. This whole version of Earth smells like a wet dog.”
“You know what actually smells nice? The pheromone that puts kaiju and their parasites in murder mode. If you smell something that reminds you of oranges, you should run.”
“I’m going to remember that.”
“Do.” Kahurangi put the spray back in his pack, hiked it up on his back, and took a look around. “This is amazing,” he said.
He was right. On the ground, the “glow” wasn’t a single blanket of light, but thousands and possibly millions of tiny light particles floating in the air, glowing slowly brighter in sync.
“They look like fireflies,” Aparna said.
“Not fireflies,” Niamh said. “Look closer.”
We did. The points weren’t points at all, but irregular rings whose size and shape changed as we looked. I moved, and the rings moved with me.
I mentioned this to Niamh, who nodded. “They’re not moving with you,” they said.
“They’re three-dimensional,” I said.
“They’re more than that, but that’s all you can see.”
“Pedant.”
“Physicist,” Niamh corrected, and pointed. “And they get larger closer to where Bella is. Was. Should be.”
I followed their finger. They were right. Incrementally the glowy holes took up more space, glowing commensurately more diffusely the larger they got.
“These are all where the barrier thins out,” Kahurangi said, of the holes.
Niamh nodded, and passed their hand through one, to no effect. “Not enough, though.”
“Not yet,” Kahurangi agreed.
They all flashed, and went out.
“Now we need a flashlight,” Aparna said.
The glow started up again, very low now.
“All right,” Niamh said, bleakly, to Kahurangi. “Where do you want to do this stupid attempt of your stupid hypothesis?”
Kahurangi motioned toward where Bella should have been. “The effect seems stronger near where Bella used to be. Let’s try it there.”
We set off in a group. Around us, creatures acted like we weren’t there, except for the insects that were always and forever trying to drain us of every drop of blood that we had.
“This looks good,” Kahurangi said, at one point. We were at a spot where the spectral holes were now almost as long as a forearm, and barely visible. “They don’t look like they’re getting any bigger from here. Any objections for trying here?”