Godzilla vs. Kong by Greg Keyes (read people like a book .txt) 📕

“Wait here,” he said. “I know a place we can go.”

*   *   *

The “place” was a Chinese restaurant, lit almost entirely by red neon. Madison was surprised at how hungry she was and realized she hadn’t had breakfast, or anything since. The three of them ate, mostly in silence, with Bernie eying them furtively from time to time. But when they were done, Bernie pulled out a notebook and leafed through it. From what she could see, it was filled with rambling notes and clippings. He stopped on a page labeled “Emma Russell.”

“Before we go any further,” Bernie said, “I’ve got one question—tap or no tap?”

That was an easy one, if you had listened to any of his podcasts.

“No tap,” Madison said.

“Excuse me?” Josh said. “What is tap?”

“Water,” Bernie said. “They put fluoride in it. Learned it from the Nazis.”

“The theory is it makes you docile,” Madison said. “Easy to manipulate.”

“I drink tap water,” Josh admitted.

“Yeah,” Bernie said, “I kinda figured that. But she does the thinking for both of you, so it should be all right.”

“Thanks?” Josh said.

“Okay,” Bernie said, turning his attention back to Madison. “Whatya got?”

“I believe Godzilla’s most recent attacks haven’t been just random,” she said. “I think he targeted Apex.”

Bernie looked her over. He seemed to like what he heard, but he also seemed … well, paranoid. Of course, if half of the stuff he laid out in his podcasts was true, he had a right to be.

“I’m of the same opinion,” he finally said.

“But why?” Madison asked. “What is Apex up to that’s provoking him?”

She didn’t want to bring up her own suspicions just yet; she wanted to hear what he had to say before giving up that much.

Bernie lowered his voice further. “You know,” he said, “for five years I’ve embedded myself inside this company. Trying to figure out what their game was. I started at a plant in Port Huron making ELF transmitters. Not like the elfs from the North Pole, which is something they tried to cover up for years…”

“Got it,” Madison said. She had heard the North Pole stuff. Bernie had done three podcasts about it. Mad Truth—Bernie—could get really derailed by the North Pole stuff.

“Okay,” Bernie said. He looked like he was trying to focus. “Then one day the design changed—they wanted us to create a circuit that conducted bone. Bone! Did some snooping, found out those transmitters were being sent here, to the Pensacola factory. So I asked for a transfer.”

He produced a thumb drive, holding it like it was the most valuable thing on Earth.

“Then last week I stole this—a manifest of heavy cargo sent from here to Apex headquarters in Hong Kong, which makes no sense because we are not equipped for heavy shipping.”

He smiled slightly and leaned back in the booth. Like the case was closed.

“And then what?” Josh asked.

“And then, boom, Godzilla shows up. Caved in half of the facility, but gave me a quick look at some suspicious tech inside a secret bunker—some pretty suspicious tech.”

Bernie had been leaning closer to Josh as he spoke; Madison saw Josh’s eyes flick down and widen.

“Yeah, but, uh … what is that?” Josh asked.

Madison saw it too—a concealed gun holster.

Bernie reached into his jacket and drew out a flask.

“This?” he said. “Katzunari single malt whisky.”

“Yeah,” Josh said. “But it’s in a gun holster.”

Bernie looked at him blankly for a moment.

“It was a gift from my Sara,” he finally said.

“You have a Sara?” Josh said.

“Had,” Bernie said. “She was my wife. She passed on.”

He flipped through his notebook until he came to a picture. He held it so they could see. It was the two of them together. She looked happy and sweet, and the smile on her face could have lit up ten rooms at least.

“Lost her in a car accident,” he said. “Happened a week after she left her job … at Apex Industries.” He let that hang for a second, his eyes on the picture. Then he looked back up at them. “She was my rock. My true love. I’ll tell you something,” he said, indicating the whisky. “The day this is empty, that’s the day you’ll know I’ve given up.”

Bernie stared back at the picture of Sara, and Madison knew that look. It was what she probably looked like when she saw the old family pictures, the ones with Andrew and Mom. Still alive, still smiling.

She had read a book once that said that every time a person died an entire universe was lost, a universe with planets and stars and infinite space and unlike any other universe that had ever or ever would exist. That was how she felt when she thought about Mom and Andrew. And she could see that was how Bernie felt about Sara. He had lost a universe; they had that in common. But what Madison had trouble imagining was how lonely Bernie must feel; because no matter how screwed up things got for her, she’d always had someone. Yeah, her dad was dismissing her right now. But he was there. And even though school in general was awful, she did have Josh.

Bernie didn’t have anyone but an audience. He needed a partner in crime. And she needed that, too. And loss was not the only thing they had in common. There was also Godzilla.

“Bernie,” she said, “I think we can help each other.”

“Okay,” Josh said, a little nervously. “I guess, now we’re a team, I feel like we should have a plan.”

To Madison, that part was obvious. And she knew Bernie was on the same page just as surely as if she could read his mind.

“We’re breaking into Apex,” she told Josh.

“Wait, what?” Josh said, as Madison got up and headed toward the door.

“You heard her, Tap Water,” Bernie said.

“Well … shit,” Josh said.

Tasman Sea

Ilene watched as Kong tucked into the several metric tons of fish one of the trawlers accompanying them deposited on the deck. They had packed away a ship’s