Holding onto Jenny, her dad whispered a Bad Word. Throngs of stunned and speechless people staggered into the ravaged streets to gaze in awe at the devastation. Native Hawaiians wept and cursed at the loss of their homes and businesses. Jenny just wanted to go home to Seattle. This vacation wasn’t fun anymore.

She had to wonder, though. Where had the monster come from? And where was it going?

* * *

The Green Berets staggered away from the burning remains of the crashed F-35. Thick black smoke made Captain Cozzone grateful for his gas mask. A quick head count confirmed that all his men had survived, although the same couldn’t be said for the unlucky fighter pilot. Cozzone spared a moment to wish the pilot’s soul godspeed and hoped that his sacrifice would not be in vain.

What the hell just happened there? he wondered. How did that creature bring the plane down?

Aware that his team was still in danger from the MUTO, he rallied his men, who responded immediately as trained. Rifles at the ready, they shook off the shock of the crash and peered up through the smoke, trying to achieve a fix on their inhuman adversary. The MUTO had not shown any interest in attacking them yet, but Cozzone wasn’t about to lower his guard.

A movement in the smoky jungle canopy alerted him to danger. He heard branches and tree trunks shattering loudly as a great black shadow tottered toward them. Diving to one side, he shouted hoarsely at his men.

“Watch out! Incoming!”

The men scrambled for safety as the fourteen-ton Russian submarine came crashing down like a falling redwood. The Alexander Nevsky, its reinforced double hull torn open like flimsy tin can, slammed down onto the forest floor, shaking the earth for acres around. Nearly six hundred feet of resin-encrusted sub crushed the verdant undergrowth. Broken branches and trees were strewn around him.

But where was the MUTO?

Cozzone jumped to his feet, armed and ready, while his men did likewise. His night-vision goggles penetrated the murky night, revealing a leveled stretch of jungle leading down to the coast. His heart sank as he spied the flickering lights of the Honolulu Airport in the near distance. Thousands of civilians passed through that airport every hour.

And the MUTO was on its way.

* * *

Gasps of relief echoed inside the train as the lights began to flicker to life throughout the airport. It appeared that the power had been restored and the blackout was over. The train even started moving forward again. Ford felt a little better now that he and Akio weren’t stuck in the dark anymore. He was still concerned about the battle apparently being raged in the nearby hills, but maybe there was still a chance to get the lost little boy back to his parents. He could only hope that the military could destroy—or at least contain—the winged creature from Japan.