KICHI WATCHED THE SATELLITE FEED. He wasn’t a man given to being horrified. He’d seen and caused enough horror in his time that nothing on a viewer held to him by Thighs could compete. Unless it showed grainy network footage of a giant monster, an oil rig explosion, and a giant monster continuing on its way unfazed.
This was not a dream meant to come true. It was the end of known things and the beginning of truth.
“They’re on their way,” said Thighs.
Kichi commed his boys. “Milo, Ramses, whoever’s got ears out there: They’re on the way.” He waited a moment and was about to repeat when Ramses came through.
“Who?”
“Media.”
Out of respect for Kichi Ramses didn’t cuss. Out loud.
“Get word to Buford,” said Ramses. “Unless he wants to see everything he’s built disappear he’d better squelch every news outlet right now.”
Kichi hurried off to Buford.
~~~
Kichi handed Buford a cell phone after a brief explanation.
“Who do you need to call, and how will they know it’s you?”
“This funnels down from only one person on the planet, and only at my order. Three words: It’s too hot.” Buford prepared to dial the phone, which was undoubtedly monitored and undoubtedly scrambled to high hell.
Kichi stopped him. “Ain’t satisfied with the second part of my question.”
“No worries, old man.”
Kichi removed his hand. “Dial it, jackass.”
Buford did, said, “It’s too hot,” and disconnected, passing the phone to Kichi.
The thirty Agents of Change surrounding the two in the shielded bunker un-tensed.
On the receiving end of the communiqué, Aileen Stone announced to the head of the Food and Drug Administration and the acting chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that their meeting was over. The two fat men left with frowns on their faces but total silence on their lips. Aileen keyed the transponder in her neck.
“Pope-level communique: Kill that satellite image. Ground any crews thinking they were heading that way. Kill anybody dumb enough to make it out there. Get me terrorists and explosions in five cities, two today, one the next three days.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
So Buford’s alive, Buford’s well, the Thoom don’t have him, the vampires don’t have him. He’s current and he’s making calls.
That meant, one way or another, the Jetstreams had him. Game-over Protocol was simply to walk away. Pivotal moments in human history were few and well-guarded. Aileen sounding the Game Over would be one of them.
The only thing was, she wasn’t exactly ready to make that call. “God save the queen,” she said aloud, recalling a line from a book she’d read in high school, which ended, because the devil couldn’t do a thing with her.
~~~
“What now, Malat?” asked Buford. “The Thoom and Count Ricky will have everyone short of the Boy Scouts hunting you, and the United States isn’t as big as anyone thinks.”
“Quiet, jackass.” Everybody thought Kichi would hightail it to Atlantis, except they knew he’d know they’d think that, so he wouldn’t. Linear-thinking jackasses would try to play the Trapped Man game and close him in.
He told Thighs: “Get us as fast underground as possible, get Bubba Foom to meet up with us on the fly, get us the fastest transport to Atlantis, and keep him,” with a slight glance at Buford, “unconscious.”
Thighs had been learning how to smack the fye out of someone. He rubbed his ex-football player hands together.
“Be creative but effective,” said Kichi. “I need to talk to the boys a bit.”
~~~
Bodies. Bodies were strange balloons. You could let all the insides out of one and they still floated. The whales had been tempted to stand guard over the fallen but they knew there wasn’t a shark within fifty miles foolish enough to enter this scene, even for a meal as large as Polsus, whose heart had given out when Leviathan charged them. Three of the humans were dead, shot from long range. Bifrost broke off with two of the larger bulls straight for the assassin’s ship, the clones clinging underwater to their bellies.
Adam took aim at Bifrost.
The whales dove and separated, becoming for all intents and purposes Neptune’s trident on a collision course of godlike wrath. Bifrost did the math and angled downward on a straight thirty-seven degree trajectory which would put it directly below the interloper’s ship for when sixty-five tons of sperm whale decided to suddenly shoot upward with all its might. The other two stayed parallel to the surface, twenty meters below it.
We might have needed a bigger boat, thought Eve.
Maseef had already ordered the others to submerge. The clones were not to stop their mental sheep-dogging.
Adam shouldered his weapon and dropped his helmet in place. Eve was helmeted and braced for impact. The waters, given what was coming, were annoyingly calm.
Rhythmic breathing in both helmets provided the impact’s countdown.
Bifrost hit first, knocking the ship’s stern completely out of the water. Nnedi looped under and came up ramming starboard. Momentum carried the ship into Takra’s path at port; the heavily-scarred sperm whale smashed a hole in the hull half the size of its head.
The three whales regrouped. The three whales gathered speed. This was about to get messy.
The three clones disengaged.
Takra hit first, Nnedi second, Bifrost last, each time leaving pieces of the ship floating on the water. It would be whittled to nothing, and then the humans, who would be in the water, would be theirs. Granted they wore breach suits, but this was a good day to test a breach suit’s tolerances.
On the next pass Bifrost felt feet land near its blowhole then a searing slash across the hole, followed by another, a large bloody X forming on its head. The whale thrashed and dove, sending Adam into the water. Takra’s fluke slammed Adam with the force of a small truck. Eve was on Nnedi’s back, running awkwardly for its tail with vibrating sword steady in her hand. Bifrost rolled under its compatriot and charged Nnedi’s midsection, knocking Eve off. She no sooner made a splash than Nnedi twisted, clamped Eve’s sword arm in its mouth, and dove straight down.
Clones Luke and Iggy, taking advantage of Adam’s stunned confusion, whopped the shit out of him underwater using pressure points and holds. Then they tazed the shit out of him. Luke disabled Adam’s breathing apparatus. Iggy and Luke swam off, leaving Adam floating limply. Bifrost picked them up. Bifrost hurt everywhere, but far in the distance the waters were churning around Leviathan. The beast was getting annoyed. No amount of ramming it would amount to anything. Bifrost didn’t know what would do, but it hoped the humans did.