Mayday: A Kaiju Thriller

Chapter Eleven

It was still an hour from sunset, but the rain and the heavy clouds darkened the road in front of us as I drove across the bridge towards Psi Division. Priya had one hand on the dashboard and the other on the door grip.

“Do you have to go so fast?” she asked.

“The sooner this is over, the sooner you can get the hell away from me. I thought you’d like that idea.”

“What do you expect me to do?”

“I just thought you’d be able to introduce me to Tempest’s handler. What was his name again?”

“Miguel Garcia,” she said.

“He good?”

“He has to be to control Tempest.”

I nodded, easing off the accelerator just a bit to take a wide turn. The roads were empty over this side of the bridge. “Good point. I forgot to ask, how are your family doing?”

“Terribly, thanks for asking.”

I grinned. “No need to be snarky. Where’s the boy’s father? I take it he’s not in the picture?”

“How about you focus on the road and stop asking me about my personal life?”

“That’s no fun. You know me, I’m just nosy, that’s all.”

She shook her head and stared out the passenger window. Well, she could suit herself. The car’s headlights slashed through the rain and lit up Psi Division’s compound as I parked on a set of yellow lines right outside the front doors.

I got out, hurried to the doors, and leaned on the buzzer. Priya was slower getting out of the car. That was all right. She didn’t need to be excited. I had enough excitement for both of us. The nausea and clamminess had been replaced by a sense of exhilaration. This was what I needed. A break in the case.

The buzzer cut off and a voice came through the intercom. “Yes? Oh, Mr Escobar.”

“Curtis, I’ve got another favour to ask. I need to borrow Miguel Garcia.”

Crackly silence was the only response.

“This is not optional,” I said. “Tell him, Priya.”

She sighed and spoke into the intercom. “Just get him, Curtis. Indulge this son of a bitch.”

“What do you need Miguel for?” Curtis said.

“He’s going to help us with a crucial part of the investigation,” I said. “Get him ready to go. Now. Does he have a car?”

“Y…yes.”

“Good. I want him at Tempest’s pit in fifteen minutes. If he’s not, I’ll be cranky.”

I jerked my head at the car and we got back in. I peeled away from Psi Division, heading back to the road.

“You really expect this to work, don’t you?” Priya asked.

“Why wouldn’t it? Tempest’s pit looks directly over Yllia’s. He saw something. He must have.”

“And your plan is to, what, interrogate him?”

“Precisely.”

She shook her head. “You’re insane.”

“You yourself said you could communicate with Yllia. Well, it’s time to see what Tempest knows.”

We rounded a bend and Tempest appeared. The mist clung to him like a cloak. His massive bulk towered above us, so high I couldn’t see his head without leaning forward to peer upwards through the windscreen. His chest puffed in and out with long breaths, each one taking more than half a minute. Steam poured from the nostrils in the centre of his flattened snout.