Project 731 Read Online Free PDF Page B

mentally pat myself on the back. This parenting stuff isn’t too bad. Of course, we haven’t yet addressed the non-standard stuff. “So...what can you do? Besides eat people.”
    Maigo flinches away, but she’s smiling. She gets my sense of humor, which can sometimes be morbid and is almost always inappropriate. She swats my shoulder, and for the first time, I can see just how much she’s holding back. “Dad!”
    Whoa...
    Dad.
    This is new.
    While Lilly jumped right into dubbing everyone uncle, aunt and in Maigo’s case, sister, Maigo has never once called me anything other than ‘Jon.’ She’s almost formal with people, her emotional boundaries strict and rigid.
    I play it cool. “So let me guess. You can see in the dark. Any other sensory stuff?”
    “Mostly just the eyes. I can see really far, too. And I can feel this... I don’t know what it is. But I remember what it felt like to be me. To be just human. And the me now, in my head, is different. I feel something like static, but faint. Sometimes I feel it pulse, but most of the time it’s just a steady pull. I’ve gotten good at ignoring it.”
    “Huh.” I have no idea what this could be, and I’m certainly not the person to figure it out. That’s more up Joliet’s alley. “And you’re strong, right? Dug a hole all the way down here.”
    “Yeah,” she says, smiling this time. “I’m strong.”
    “ How strong?”
    “Stronger than you.” She laughs, and I feel a weight fall away. She’s returning to herself. Quiet. Reserved. And sometimes funny, but usually only when it’s just the two of us.
    “Stronger than Lilly?”
    Her grin widens.
    “Really?” I’m genuinely surprised.
    “Don’t tell her,” she says. “I don’t think she’d like that.”
    “Lilly doesn’t like a lot of things, but she gets used to it. Speaking of which, we beat her today.”
    “Then definitely don’t tell her about this.”
    “We’ll keep this between you and me until you’re ready,” I say, “But if you’re worried about changing, Joliet can probably run some tests...or wait...did Ash have the feminine talk with you yet?” I make air quotes with my fingers when I say ‘feminine.’
    “And now things just got weird.” She steps around me and heads for the door.
    “Really? We can talk about eating people, ancient goddesses and what it feels like to be a Kaiju, but we can’t have the feminine talk?”
    “If you say ‘feminine talk’ one more time, I’m running away.” She heads into the hallway and walks out of view. She’s seriously embarrassed and fleeing, which is a good thing. Once again, the day is saved by Jon Hudson’s wry wit. Emotional bomb defused.
    As I follow her back up the tunnel, my mental defenses fade. The seriousness of what we’ve just discussed seeps into my gut, twisting it. We’ve got some hard times ahead of us. She really has endured an inhuman amount of torture, from the returning memories of Nemesis Prime, to her time as a Kaiju and now, trying to figure herself out as a human being, while somewhere in a Boston graveyard, the original Maigo lies dead. Could there be a more screwed up situation?
    After we reach daylight again, I help Maigo dust off. I’m expecting cheers and a “How did you find her,” from Lilly. Instead, I hear my name shouted by Collins. “Jon!”
    “Here!” I step out from around the rubble, Maigo beside me, once again folded into herself.
    Collins stands beside the Suburban with Joliet and Hawkins. She’s on the phone. Lilly is perched on top of the vehicle. None of them were looking for us. Either they had complete faith in my ability or whoever Collins is talking to has bad news.
    My phone chimes. I glance at the screen. Cooper and Watson both called me. I must have lost my signal while underground. “What’s happening?”
    Before Collins can answer, Hawkins speaks up. “It’s them. It’s DARPA.”
    This puts me on guard. I spin around, looking for danger. “They know you’re