He stops typing and turns to me, trying to hide a half smile. “Point taken. But...”
“But, what?”
“I get results,” he says, and he hits the Enter key.
I wait patiently for the big reveal, but nothing happens. Daniel looks momentarily concerned, but then picks up a headset and says, “Uhh, hello. This is...Unity Island. Is anyone out there?”
“I thought the communication satellites were down.”
“They are,” he says, staring at the screen, though I don’t think he’s actually reading anything on it. “But the island also has cables laid out into the ocean. I don’t know where they go, but—”
“Hello?” The voice is young, feminine and completely unfamiliar, speaking with a Chinese accent. Daniel and I share a wide-eyed glance. “This is Lijiang, China. Is someone there?”
I hold my hand out to Daniel and he gets the message. “Can we get video?” I ask, taking the headset from him and putting it on. He goes back to work, and I respond. “Hello, uhh, hi,” I say, sounding dumb, “This is Unity Island. Who am I speaking to?”
“Shen Jia,” she says, “but my American friends call me Pickle.”
The big screen at the front of Operations turns on. I see a room that looks very similar to the one we’re in now, occupied by a girl, no older than eleven, staring straight at us. She’s wearing a plain black flight suit, the kind we were wearing when we crashed.
“Who are you?” she asks, looking back and forth at the screen on her end.
“Daniel Chen” He points his thumb at me. “This is Effie.”
“Your hand,” she says to Daniel. “You’re a Base?”
He nods, and she shows us the back of her hand. “Me, too.”
I lean in closer to Daniel to make sure she can see me. “Pickle, listen, are we the first people you’ve talked to?”
She shakes her head. “Oh, no.”
“How many others?”
“People or—”
“Bases,” I say. “How many?”
“Fifteen,” she says, looking annoyed. “Each with thirty kids. That’s four hundred fifty people total, in case you wanted both numbers. But there might be more. We make contact with a new group every few days.”
“And none of them have tried fighting yet?” I sound more aggravated than I am, but it would be nice to know if someone else was having any success.
Pickle’s annoyance fades. “I’m sorry. I neglected to subtract the deceased. Four hundred and thirteen. Several Points have tried to repel the invaders, but were subdued with little or no fight. We’re not sure why they can’t fight back.”
Four hundred and thirteen, plus our eleven. Against ten thousand monsters, twenty-five to fifty motherships and untold numbers of smaller, spiky craft. A bit closer to the odds Leonidas faced against the Persian Empire at Thermopylae, but still, they all died.
“Can we network with that many people?” I ask Daniel.
“Yes,” Pickle says. “We can. And we do.”
“Good,” I tell her. “Get them on the line. Now.”
The girl squints at me. Whoever is in charge on her side of things must be a little more diplomatic. “Who are you again, Effie?”
I lean in close to the camera, holding up my right hand so she can see the Point symbol. “Listen to me closely, Pickle. We have lost a lot of people. We have watched the destruction of our homes. And we have engaged and killed our enemy.” The girl’s eyes go wide, and I know this is a message she has never heard before. The Points who tried to fight the daikaiju must have done so alone, vulnerable to the psychic attacks. “You want to know who I am? I’m the person in charge.”
I lean back, satisfied that the girl is impressed. I glance at Daniel and nearly laugh when I see his surprised expression mirroring the girl’s.
“Now. Both of you. I want everyone in on this call in fifteen minutes. We have a planet to take back.”
I stand and say, “I’m going to get the others.” I leave the room without another word, heading down the hall, the weight of it all slowly bending me forward until I lean my head against the wall, and weep. I’m not crying for the people we’ve lost, here and around the world, but for the four-hundred-and-twenty-four people who I’m probably going to lead to their deaths.
My sadness lasts about as long as it normally does—just a few seconds. Then it’s replaced by my old standby emotion. Defiant anger. I grit my teeth and punch the wall, letting the repressed me slip out for just a moment. If this is to be Earth’s Alamo, then we’re going to make Davy Crockett proud, and go down fighting—sans the raccoon hat. I punch the wall two more times, shake out my hand and head for the mess. Our counterstrike will start soon enough. Until then, we’re going to regroup, repair, heal and eat chocolate pudding. A lot of chocolate pudding.
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Dear Reader,
Thank you for giving Unity a chance. If you enjoyed the book, and want to help the genre continue to grow, please show your support by posting reviews at Amazon and Goodreads. Amazon works on algorithms, meaning the more people review Unity, the more the Amazon will recommend it to other readers. And the more people buy Unity, the more books I will be able to write, and the more Hollywood will pay attention.
If you run a review blog, a website, or podcast, I’m also available for interviews. You can connect with me at JRobinsonAuthor@gmail.com, or on Facebook at: facebook.com/JeremyRobinsonAuthor
Thank you!
—Jeremy Robinson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeremy Robinson is the international bestselling author of over fifty novels and novellas including MirrorWorld, Uprising, Island 731, SecondWorld, the Jack Sigler thriller series, and Project Nemesis, the highest selling, original (non-licensed) kaiju novel of all time. He’s known for mixing elements of science, history and mythology, which has earned him the #1 spot in Science Fiction and Action-Adventure, and secured him as the top creature feature author.
Robinson is also known as the bestselling horror writer, Jeremy Bishop, author of The Sentinel and the controversial novel, Torment. In 2015, he launched yet another pseudonym, Jeremiah Knight, for a bestselling post-apocalyptic Science Fiction series of novels. Robinson’s works have been translated into thirteen languages.
His series of Jack Sigler / Chess Team thrillers, starting with Pulse, is in development as a film series, helmed by Jabbar Raisani, who earned an Emmy Award for his design work on HBO’s Game of Thrones. Robinson’s original kaiju character, Nemesis, is also being adapted into a comic book through publisher American Gothic Press in association with Famous Monsters of Filmland, with artwork and covers by renowned Godzilla artists Matt Frank and Bob Eggleton.
Born in Beverly, MA, Robinson now lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children.
Visit Jeremy Robinson online at
www.bewareofmonsters.com.
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ALSO by JEREMY ROBINSON
Standalone Novels
The Didymus Contingency
Raising The Past
Beneath
Antarktos Rising
Kronos
Xom-B
(aka: Uprising or Freeman)
Flood Rising
MirrorWorld
Apocalypse Machine
Unity
Nemesis Saga Novels
Island 731
Project Nemesis
Project Maigo
Project 731
Project Hyperion
SecondWorld Novels
SecondWorld
Nazi Hunter: Atlantis
(aka: I Am Cowboy)
The Antarktos Saga
The Last Hunter – Descent
The Last Hunter – Pursuit
The Last Hunter – Ascent
The Last Hunter – Lament
The Last Hunter – Onslaught
The Last Hunter – Collected Edition
The Jack Sigler/Chess Team Thrillers
Prime
Pulse
Instinct
Threshold
Ragnarok
Omega
Savage
Cannibal
Empire
Jack Sigler Continuum Novels
Guardian
Patriot
Centurion (2016)
Cerberus Group Novels
Herculean
Helios (2016)
Chesspocalypse Novellas
Callsign: King
Callsign: Queen
Callsign: Rook
Callsign: Bishop
Callsign: Knight
Callsign: Deep Blue
Callsign: King 3 – Blackout
Chesspocalypse Novella Collected Editions
Callsign: King – The Brainstorm Trilogy
Callsign – Tripleshot
Callsign – Doubleshot
Horror Novels
(written as Jeremy Bishop)
Torment
The Sentinel
The Raven
Refuge
Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Novels
(written as Jeremiah Knight)
Hunger
Feast
Famine (2017)
Viking Tomorrow (2016)
Copyright ©2016 by Jeremy Robinson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Jeremy Robinson at
jrobinsauthor@gmail.com.
Cover design copyright ©2016 by Jeremy Robinson
Visit Jeremy Robinson on the World Wide Web at:
www.bewareofmonsters.com