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  As the lights illuminated his bony spines, Godzilla rained radioactive death down on the tanks at its feet. Nick watched in choking horror as the heat began to melt the vehicles.

  The tanks glowed redly. The cannons went first - they slowly began to dip toward the ground as they turned to molten metal. Several of the tanks blew up almost immediately, their turrets flying into the air. Other tanks soon followed.

  In less than a minute, thirteen tanks had been reduced to melted steel. Their four-man crews had been incinerated where they sat. There had been no hope of escape.

  The attack was broken. The second and third lines of tanks backed up, turned around, and fled. They fired their cannons at Godzilla to cover their retreat, but the fire was undirected and ineffective. Godzilla stepped forward among the fleeing vehicles.

  Again and again, Godzilla's feet came down on the retreating tanks. The monster crushed men and machinery where they stood, grinding them into piles of mangled metal.

  The battle was almost over before it began. It was a rout for Godzilla.

  While Nick, Yoshi, and Lieutenant Takado watched helplessly, the best men and machinery of the Japanese Self-Defense Force were smashed by Godzilla's onslaught.

  Nick turned to Lieutenant Takado. She was near tears. She probably knows some of the soldiers down there, Nick realized. Just then, the lieutenant's radio crackled to life. She swallowed hard, regained her composure, and replied.

  A long conversation in Japanese followed. When she finally signed off, she turned to the two reporters.

  "We must go," she stated. "The attack is over, and as soon as the tanks are out of the area, the army is going to launch a long-distance rocket attack. We will be in danger if we stay."

  Nick and Yoshi exchanged glances. They saw the same determination in each other's eyes.

  "We're staying," the two men said in unison.

  Lieutenant Takado looked at them. "You will be killed," she stated simply. "Nothing can be gained by sacrificing yourselves for a news story."

  "But we have a job to do," Nick insisted.

  "Look up," she said, pointing. Nick and Yoshi turned their eyes toward the gray morning sky. The news helicopters were flying over their heads, away from the battle.

  "They have been ordered to leave, too." Lieutenant Takado said. "Soon this area will be a killing field, and hundreds of high-explosive fragmentation rockets will rain down from the sky."

  Again, Yoshi and Nick exchanged glances. They nodded.

  "Okay." Nick surrendered with a mock salute. "Where to, Lieutenant?"

  "On the other side of the factory, a rented off-road vehicle awaits us," she told the two.

  "Rented!" Nick said in surprise.

  Lieutenant Takado nodded. "I rented it myself. I did not want to trust the military to get us out of here if... things fell apart."

  "You're quite a gal, Emiko!" Nick said, his admiration real.

  She accepted the compliment with a nod. "We have fifteen minutes to get as far away from here as possible."

  CHAPTER 17

  "LAUNCH THE ROCKETS!"

  June 8, 1998, 8:01 A.M.

  Japanese field command post

  Somewhere on the San-yo plain

  "The tanks have been driven back, commander," the officer informed General Shuji Kamata grimly. "The forward wave of the attack has sustained heavy losses. Much of the First Battalion has been disabled or destroyed."

  The general's eyes narrowed. So many men gone, he thought sadly, and no time to honor them now. The general remembered that his first duty was to protect the living.

  The general spoke. "Warn the field commanders that a rocket attack will begin in fifteen minutes."

  Captain Honda, his second-in-command, saluted, then ran off to carry out the commander's orders.

  Glancing at the map spread out in front of him, General Kamata considered his options. At least I can cover the First Battalion's retreat, he told himself. But if the rockets don't halt Gojira's advance, then there is nothing that will stop him from reaching the nuclear power plant in the next twenty-four hours.

  General Kamata rubbed his tired eyes and planned his retreat.

  * * *

  Fifty yards from the command center, a line of unusual trucks waited under camouflage netting. The vehicles resembled ordinary trucks with green canvas tents mounted on the back, but these tents hid a deadly cargo.

  At Captain Honda's command, soldiers pulled away the canvas covering from each truck, revealing two lethal-looking rockets mounted on rail launchers. The rockets, called Type 68s, had two hundred-pound high-explosive warheads.

  Engines began coughing to life, and the air was filled with the smell of diesel fuel. The launchers slowly tilted upward, pointing their rockets at the overcast sky. There were twenty-five trucks, carrying a total of fifty Type 68 rockets, which were now being aimed at Godzilla.

  The monster was thirteen miles away.

  As the minutes ticked away, the rockets were readied for firing.

  * * *

  Two miles south of the industrial tower where Lieutenant Takado, Nick, and Yoshi were packing up their gear and preparing to flee, three tanks of the First Battalion were racing through the countryside.

  They were in full retreat.

  Having been fortunate enough to escape Godzilla's attack, the Type 75 tanks sped over the rugged terrain as fast as they could go - about twenty-five miles per hour.

  The turret hatch on the lead tank popped open, and Sergeant Tsuburaya, the tank commander, stuck his head out warily. He looked behind him.

  Damn! he thought. He could still see Godzilla. The monster's head towered above a line of factory buildings. Sergeant Tsuburaya wasn't sure what the range of Godzilla's fire was - and he didn't want to find out.

  "Drive faster!" he barked to the driver.

  The man looked up at his commander. His face was dripping with sweat - the tanks air conditioner had failed hours before. He fought the controls. "I could only drive faster over a paved highway!" the driver declared with more than a touch of insubordination.

  Sergeant Tsuburaya sneered at the man. "Then I'll find you one!" he cried. Sitting up in the hatch, the sergeant scanned the horizon. There! he said to himself.

  Behind a wall of trees and bushes, Sergeant Tsuburaya spotted a ribbon of roadway. "Turn right!" he screamed to his driver. Then he repeated the command to the other tank commanders. The three Type 75 tanks swung right. But when they neared the highway, they could find no opening in the tree line through which to drive.

  "Crash through!" Sergeant Tsuburaya commanded the driver. The treads skidded in the dirt as the fifty-ton tank slammed into the tree line.

  Suddenly, there was a flash of blue fire and a shower of sparks. Sergeant Tsuburaya ducked down into the tank as burning hot sparks rained down through the hatch and onto the crew.

  "What happened?" the gunner asked the sergeant as he brushed ashes off his uniform. Sergeant Tsuburaya shook his head.

  "I'm not sure," he said breathlessly. "I think we hit a telephone pole or something."

  Sergeant Tsuburaya's guess was close. His tank had actually hit an electrical transformer - a vital part of the power grid in the area. The collision had done minimal damage to the tank, which now sped down the highway with two others following behind. But much damage had been done to the transformer. In less than a second, the power had been knocked out in a ten-mile radius - a radius that included the factory tower.

  * * *

  Just as Nick, Yoshi, and Lieutenant Takado were about to leave the tiny hut, the bare overhead bulb suddenly went out. Nick looked up at it.

  "The power must have gone out," he remarked casually. Then he paled and looked at Lieutenant Takado. She had a horrified expression on her face.

  Yoshi looked up. He sensed something was wrong. Then it dawned on him, too. The elevator wouldn't work without electric power.

  "Are we trapped up here?" Nick immediately asked.

  Lieutenant Taka
do shook her head uncertainly. "There is a ladder," she said. "But I don't think it is very good... or very easy to get to."

  "Let's go see!" Nick said, rushing out the door and onto the catwalk.

  A minute later, they were at the ladder. It seemed to reach all the way to the bottom of the tower, all right. But the problem was that the ladder was on the other end of a missing catwalk. The railing for the catwalk was there, but there was no platform.

  "This sucks," said Nick. "What do we do now?"

  Yoshi dropped his gear and examined the problem. His eyes traced the maze of girders, pipes, and cables.

  "Look," he said after a moment. "I think we can climb up to that pipe there, swing over that girder there, then follow that thin pipe on the left... it leads right up to the ladder."

  Nick and Lieutenant Takado listened again as he repeated his instructions.

  "I can do it," the woman said at last.

  Nick swallowed hard. I hate heights, he moaned. Then he nodded. "Yeah, I can do it, too." He looked down at his wristwatch. "But we'd better abandon anything we can't carry and get started right now. We've only got eleven minutes!"

  * * *

  The five-man crews of each of the rocket launchers were completing their final preparations. There was less than three minutes remaining before launch time.

  Captain Honda circled the camp, making final preparations, too. As the moments ticked by, he readied the radio for final orders. With less than a minute left, he returned to the command center and approached General Kamata.

  "All is in readiness," he informed the general.

  "And the area - is it clear?" the general asked.

  "The order to evacuate has been given to all field commanders, sir," he answered. "They have had fifteen minutes - and we are running out of time. Godzilla is closing in."

  "Has the observation aircraft reported in?" General Kamata asked.

  "Hai," Captain Honda said. "He reports no tanks or armored personnel carriers in the area."

  The general paused. Then he nodded his head grimly.

  "Launch the rockets!" he commanded.

  The order was forwarded to the vehicle commanders instantly. Within seconds, the roar of rocket engines filled the area as the first Type 68 solid-fuel rockets left their rail launchers and climbed into the gray skies.

  * * *

  Despite their fancy footwork, it had taken Nick, Yoshi, and Lieutenant Takado five minutes to reach the ladder, and another two minutes to climb to the bottom. Yoshi had reluctantly left behind his satellite link and the bigger of his two cameras. He had kept the small camera and all of his videocassettes strapped on his back as he made the precarious climb down the tower.

  Nick, too, had managed to keep his tape recorder and tapes.

  When they were all on the ground again, Nick checked his watch. "The rocket attack is supposed to take place in less than four minutes," he said ominously.

  "Let's go," Lieutenant Takado replied, taking off at a run. The three of them crossed the factory floor, running past huge machines and a maze of pipes and tubes, bins and vats. Once, as they ran past a window, Nick pointed.

  Godzilla was very close to the factory. They could hear the sound of explosions and the collapse of buildings in the monster's wake. Yoshi and Nick exchanged glances.

  They reached a huge doorway made of corrugated steel. Lieutenant Takado swung the door open.

  "The rental car is on the other side of that building," she said, pointing to another factory structure fifty yards across a paved, open area that looked like a parking lot.

  "Let's go -" Nick cried, but was interrupted when Lieutenant Takado grabbed his arm.

  "Listen!" she hissed.

  Nick and Yoshi paused. Then they heard it. A high-pitched whistling sound. It was getting louder - and closer.

  "The rocket attack has begun!" Lieutenant Takado cried. "Get down on the ground! Over there!" She pointed to a huge piece of heavy machinery. The three of them dived under the metal structure just as the first rocket struck the earth outside.

  "Cover your heads!" Lieutenant Takado cried as a terrible explosion rocked the entire factory complex. Another explosion followed, showering dust down on the cowering trio.

  Boom! Boom! BOOM! BOOM! BAMMMMMM!

  Blast after blast shook the building. One rocket struck the opposite end of the complex, blowing the roof right off it. After the blast, Nick could see the tower they once occupied through the hole in the roof. It was burning.

  Then another rocket struck the factory. More dirt and debris rained down on them. The burning tower twisted, then slowly fell like a giant tree chopped down by a lumberjack. In the noise of the rocket attack, Nick couldn't hear the sound of the tower striking the earth.

  Outside, Godzilla howled as rockets rained down on him. Explosions tore up the earth all around the creature. Some of the rockets struck Godzilla directly, bringing more roars of rage.

  Godzilla was knocked off his mighty feet by the power of high-explosive shells that kept on coming, and coming, and coming.

  In the skies above the terrible killing field, the two-man crew of a small military scout aircraft observed the destruction. As the plane circled the sky, the pilot and co-pilot tried to see through the billowing smoke and blazing fires.

  "Godzilla is down!" the man in the observer's position said. The pilot strained his eyes, but all he could see was the mighty beasts flashing tail. Suddenly, a blue-white jet of radioactive fire shot up into the sky from the chaos below them. The blast was undirected, but it startled the two men.

  "There is a factory down there," the observer noted after he regained his composure. "Some of the rockets are hitting it."

  "It's a good thing there's no one inside," the pilot remarked.

  * * *

  After an eternity of explosions, of choking smoke, of dust and dirt, the attack subsided.

  Warily, Nick opened his eyes and raised his head. Smoke billowed through the factory, which was mostly shattered now. He saw Yoshi, who was bending over Lieutenant Takado. She was not moving.

  Nick jumped up and crawled to her side. He looked at her.

  "Is she okay?" he asked urgently.

  Yoshi nodded. "She was hit on the head by debris," he told Nick. "I have stopped the bleeding."

  Nick and Yoshi heard the woman moan. Then she opened her eyes and stared up at them.

  "Welcome back, Emiko," Yoshi said in Japanese.

  She smiled up at him. "The attack is over?" she asked.

  "Hai!" Yoshi replied.

  She sat up immediately. "Then we have to go," she said. "If Godzilla has not been stopped, this attack will be followed by others."

  At that moment, Godzilla's distinctive roar echoed across the San-yo plain. All three of them shivered.

  "Come on," Nick said. He and Yoshi helped Emiko scramble to her feet. They warily stepped out into the gray morning - made even gloomier by the smoke and dust that still lingered in the air after the rocket attack.

  Again, Lieutenant Takado pointed to the building on the other side of the parking lot. The building had sustained some minor damage, but remained mostly intact. "The car is over there."

  Together, the trio ran across the pavement and circled the building. When they got to the other side, Nick halted in his tracks. Emiko and Yoshi stopped too.

  A red rental car, its finish still shiny, sat next to the battered building. Unfortunately, much of the damaged structure had collapsed - and was lying on top of the car.

  Behind the mostly intact engine and front seat, the rental car had been totally crushed by tons of steel.

  Nick stared at the unwelcome sight. "I don't think you'll get your deposit back."

  At that moment, they heard a high-pitched whistling that sounded ominously familiar.

  "The second wave of the rocket attack has begun," said the lieutenant.

  Nick looked at Yoshi. "Not again!"

  "Come on," cried Emiko. "We must seek shelter!"

 
CHAPTER 18

  THE BATTLE ON THE BRIDGE

  June 11, 1998 9:16 A.M.

  INN newsroom

  Tokyo, Japan

  Brian stepped into the crowded newsroom. He took a look at the television monitors, then he looked around the room. He spotted Mr. Takao's grizzled features. The newsroom chief was approaching Blackthorn Adams's office. Brian quickly cornered the older Japanese man.

  "Any word?" Brian asked eagerly.

  The man frowned. "Still nothing."

  "Brian! Over here!" May McGovern cried from the elevators, her auburn ponytail bouncing as she rushed toward him. "Mr. Endicott wants to see you immediately."

  Brian followed her back to the elevators, and May held the door open. When the elevator began to rise, she turned to Brian. Her expression was hopeful. But Brian shook his head sadly.

  "Sorry, May. Still no word from any of them." he informed her. May's expression quickly turned grave.

  "Don't worry," Brian added, trying to cheer her up. "If anybody can take care of himself, it's Nick. And with Lieutenant Takado and Yoshi with him, he'll be fine."

  "Then why haven't we heard from them?" she asked, a catch in her voice.

  "Since the rocket attack three days ago, that whole section of Honshu is in total chaos," he said. "The highways are choked with refugees, and only military vehicles are permitted into the area. There's no communications in or out, no flyovers are permitted, and no live news reports either." Brian paused.

  "Look, May, I was going over the reports this morning. The military can't evacuate people fast enough. The wounded are still out in the fields, and emergency procedures have completely broken down.

  "It makes sense that Nick and Yoshi are just stuck out there somewhere in the middle of that mess," he said as the elevator doors slid open on the executive floor.

  "I'm sure that they're just fine." Brian tried to sound more confident than he really felt. But by the expression of torment on May's pretty face, he could see he'd failed miserably.

  The fact was, Brian hadn't told May everything. There were unconfirmed reports of looting, and even murder, coming out of the emergency areas. One story going around was about a bunch of yakuza gangsters - the Japanese version of the Mafia - who had hijacked a military helicopter, killed the soldiers, and used the chopper to safely carry out the booty they'd looted from abandoned towns.