Godzilla - The Official Movie Novelization Read Online Free PDF

rebooting!”
    “
Calm
,” Joe insisted, trying to maintain order. “No yelling.”
    Takashi got the message, settling down. He regained his composure as Joe raised his voice to be heard over the clamor.
    “All personnel not needed for SLCS procedure should begin to evacuate the plant,” Joe announced. “You know the drill.” SLCS referred to the Standby Liquid Control System, which could be deployed to shut down the reactors in case the control rods failed to insert. He waited long enough to see his order being carried out before raising the walkie-talkie to his lips. A recorded announcement blared over the intercoms in the background. He placed a hand over his ear to tune it out. “Sandra? Sandy, can you hear me? You need to get back up here!”
    At first there was no response, as he urgently spun through the channels, but then he heard his wife’s voice over the receiver, broken up by bursts of static:
    “—ear me… anyone co… this is… report… damage to t—”

FOUR
1999
    The sub-level monitoring station was practically useless. Every screen was either flickering or dead, making it practically impossible to get reliable readings on the reactor core and cooling systems. Sandra kept one eye on her team, who were trying unsuccessfully to bring the equipment back on-line, as she worked the walkie-talkie.
    “It’s shaking hard down here, Joe. Do you copy?”
    Yamato stepped away from an uncooperative screen. “We’ve lost the monitors!” he reported. He was sweating visibly behind the visor of his helmet.
    “Sensors are down,” another technician confirmed.
    The team turned toward Sandra, waiting for her to make the call. She hesitated, knowing how much Joe was counting on her to get him the data he needed, but it looked like that wasn’t going to happen. The escalating tremors and blackouts had thrown a monkey wrench in their plans, and forced her to put the safety of her crew ahead of her mission. This was no place you wanted to be during an earthquake… or whatever this was.
    “We’re turning back,” she declared. “Let’s go!”
    * * *
    Yet another tremor shook the control room, nearly throwing Joe off-balance. He grabbed onto the table to steady himself. Overhead light fixtures swayed violently even as the fluorescent bulbs went dead. All the electronics crashed again, while dust was shaken loose from the ceiling. The discarded coffee cup vibrated towards the edge of the table. Joe lunged for the mug, hoping to rescue it in time, but he was too late. It crashed to the floor and shattered.
    So much for “#1 DAD.”
    The tremor subsided and the lights blinked back on. Everybody held their breath, waiting for the next shock, before frantically trying to resume the shutdown procedure, if it wasn’t too late already. No one, least of all Joe, knew when the next tremor would hit—or how big it might be.
    “Joe, are you there?”
Sandra’s voice broke through the static.
“We’re heading back through the containment seal—”
    He clutched the walkie-talkie to his ear.
    Hurry
, he thought.
Please hurry!
    * * *
    Sandra and the others raced back the way they’d come, moving as fast as they could in the heavy radiation suits. She prayed that was fast enough.
    “You need to get out of there,”
Joe urged via the walkie-talkie.
“If there’s a reactor breach, you won’t last five minutes, suits or no suits.”
She could hear the fear in his voice even through the static.
“Do you hear me?”
    “I hear you,” she responded, breathing hard. “We’re coming—”
    A sonic pulse cut her off, thrumming louder than before. The floor quaked beneath her feet, causing her to miss a step. She threw out a hand to brace herself against a wall, and could feel the vibration even through her insulated gloves. The lights flickered and—
    * * *
    A massive jolt rocked the building to its foundations, as though it had been struck by a titanic sledge hammer. In the control room, Joe and the others were