Up From The Deep Vaughn Jackson (book club suggestions TXT) 📖

“Already planned that way.” She eyed him suspiciously. “Why?”

“On the off chance that Ms. Jia Ming is present I would like an attempt to explain the situation behind her sister’s demise.”

Greenwood gave him an incredulous look. “Are you insane? She wants your head on a pike.”

The general held up a hand to quiet Greenwood. “And if she isn’t inclined to listen?”

“I will do what I need to do to defend myself.”

“Captain Dehane,” General MacPherson narrowed her eyes and dropped her voice to a whisper, “if she is unwilling to cooperate, my men would shoot her dead. I expect the same from you.”

A thin, somber smile crept across Raymond’s face. “I’m afraid you have no jurisdiction over me or my actions. With all due respect of course.” He watched the general’s right eye twitch slightly before she turned to address the other soldiers in the room.

Greenwood pulled him aside and hissed, “What are you doing?”

“My duty is, and has always been, to serve and protect. I took this job knowing my life is on the line. But to resort to violence is always foolish, and wasteful.” The sad smile reappeared on his face. “I won’t shoot, ideally, ever. But if need be, I’ll never shoot first.”

“If you don’t shoot first, these people will kill you.”

“And that assumption has led to how many wars?”

Greenwood clenched her jaw. “Just come back to me, okay?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in close. He could smell the vanilla shampoo in her hair. It brought a real smile to his face.

The door slid open behind them, and Brannigan sauntered in. “Oops. Sorry to interrupt…whatever’s happening here,” he said. “General, you called for me?”

“Captain. How are you feeling?”

“A couple of things click a bit louder than I’d like, but the world ain’t spinning and breathing doesn’t make me want to hurl quite as much. You got a mission for me?”

“I do.”

“If it involves fist-fighting giants, I’m going to have to hard pass, ma’am.”

“How about kaiju hunting?”

Brannigan glanced up at the screen, on which Inkanyamba had nestled down in a city-sized crater where a large portion of San Francisco had once been. “Found her.”

“I don’t appreciate a smart-ass, Captain.”

“Yeah, you do, else I wouldn’t still be here.”

The general seethed silently. “You and a team will be going back to Alcatraz Island to exterminate Inkanyamba’s newly hatched young. Spencer Chaplin will join you again, and this time you will be accompanied by Captain Dehane.”

“And me,” Arnett dropped his bag on the floor as he walked into the control room.

“You came back,” the general said.

“I said I would.”

“And I thought you wouldn’t.”

“I had to drive,” he said. “After what happened in Vegas, the army guys weren’t so keen on giving me a ride.”

“Well that’s practically a dream team right there,” Brannigan said. “Who else?”

“No one else.”

“Excuse me?”

“All remaining hands will be needed on deck to handle the assault on Inkanyamba, the incumbent threat of a secondary nuclear strike—”

“We were nuked? How did I not feel that?”

“Small bomb, and we’re underground, and people will also be needed to guard the base, just in case. We’ve lost a lot of men, soldier.”

“Four people against…a fuckton of baby’s first kaiju? That’s impossible.”

The general held his gaze silently. “Jet, the welder has military experience. We can probably spare him.”

“Ah. Five. Perfect.” Brannigan grimaced.

“We make do with what we have, Captain. I have faith in you. Prep your team.” She glanced at the video screen which indicated an incoming transmission. “I have to take a call.”

Brannigan glanced at Raymond with a lazy smirk. “Ready to die, old-timer?”

“Always.”

“So Zen,” Brannigan scoffed. “Come on, Siddhartha, let’s go find the others.”

Raymond gave Greenwood one last look of longing and a wave before turning and exiting the command room. He’d barely made it a few steps down the hallway before Greenwood called out and jogged up to him. Before he could speak, she had him, her lips pressed against his, hands running through his hair. He returned her passion just as fervently. When they finally broke apart, all he could manage was, “Well then.”

“Consider that a see you later,” she said before jogging off to prepare for her portion of the mission.

“Goodbye,” he whispered when she was no longer within earshot.

#

Don’t think about him. Don’t think about him. Don’t think about him. Greenwood trudged her way back to the hangar. He’ll be fine. She cleared her throat and focused on the general’s newest addition to the dehydration plan. Industrial-sized heating coils used in the removal of moisture from grains. The copper coils would be set around the arches that pinned Inkanyamba and heated to the point that even rain would evaporate before touching her skin. It would also theoretically speed up the dehydration process.

“One kaiju raisin, coming up,” she mumbled to herself, “I hope.”

She watched as Gunner, Skid, Tungsten, and Bunk set about reforming the arches from their first attempt. When they finished, they’d wrap each structure in as much inch-thick copper tubing as possible.

“You’re gonna have a problem with this though, lady,” Gunner said as he scaled down from atop the structure. “Too hot.”

“Too hot?”

“Steel won’t be as strong. The bitch might just tear her way right through it.”

Greenwood ran a hand through her hair. “Solutions?”

It was Bunk who spoke up. “Personally, I think we should make use of her weakened state to penetrate her limbs and pin her to the ground. Tungsten rods would probably work.” He scratched his head thoughtfully. “It’s brittle but she won’t be able to move enough to break it.”

“I got your Tungsten rod right here,” Tungsten chuckled. “And it’s damn good at penetrating.”

His joke received an uproar of laughter from the other men. Greenwood pursed her lips.

“While the joke is funny,” she said, “it’s not really the time. Bunk, can you make those spikes happen?”

“It will definitely take more time, given the size, any order will have to be custom made.”

“You have two days.”

“I hope that’s enough,” he said.

“It better be.”

He shrugged. “It’s out