Godzilla Returns by Marc Cerasini Read Free Book Online

and even a small group of Korean nuns. For a moment, Kim's gaze lingered on a young Caucasian man and a Korean girl. They were holding hands.
    Finally, the whistle blew, and the engine began to throb. Kim could feel the deck vibrate. He watched as men untied the thick ropes that moored the ship to the dock. The ferry pulled slowly away from the pier and out to sea. Soon she was steaming toward Korea.
    * * *
    Will Adams rubbed his tired eyes. What am I doing on the Pusan ferry - on my way to South Korea - at six-thirty in the morning? he asked himself for the hundredth time. And, for the hundredth time, he found the answer to his question.
    Because I'm with Soonji.
    Will shook his head and ran his fingers through his fashionably short hair and goatee. Face it, buddy, you're hooked. You'd go to the ends of the earth if she asked you!
    Will Adams had met Soonji Hwan-Duk three days ago while he was visiting Hakusan National Park with several friends from the American School. In the spring, the national parks of northern Honshu, Japan's main island, are a bustling tourist attraction. Will liked hiking, and Honshu had some of the best trails.
    On one of them, he met Soonji and her friends. Since then, the two of them had been inseparable. Fortunately for them both, they were on vacation.
    Will had just graduated from high school and would be heading back to America - and to Harvard - in the fall. Until then, he was spending a couple of months with his divorced father. Blackthorn Adams, Will's dad, was one of the science correspondents for INN. Soonji seemed very impressed by that.
    For Soonji, "vacation" was a permanent condition. Her father was a prominent politician in the current regime in Seoul. She had time - and money - to spare. At her insistence, Will had parted with his friends and followed her to Hakata. While they were in the city, they visited the museum and some Buddhist temples.
    Will wasn't much interested in temples, but he was interested in Soonji.
    "Wake up, sleepyhead," Soonji chided him, pouting. "Don't be tiresome. Talk to me!"
    "Sorry," Will said, shaking himself awake. He longed for a cup of hot coffee. He looked longingly at her, too, as she took his hand and gripped it.
    "Soon you'll see my homeland. It's much more beautifuller than Japan," she insisted.
    Will smiled. He found her malapropisms cute. In fact, he found everything about her cute. Will wasn't blind to Soonji's faults. He knew she seemed like a shallow teenage girl who was moody, self-centered, and spoiled rotten. But he also knew that she was very beautiful, and that, for the moment, he was hooked.
    "Finally the lazy sailors to get their stupid butts moving at last!" Soonji muttered impatiently in butchered English as the ferry pulled away from the pier.
    * * *
    The waters were calm, but the route was foggy as the Pusan ferry chugged its way toward the Korean peninsula.
    On the ancient ship's bridge, high atop the upper decks, the captain scanned the waters ahead. The ferry was already over an hour into its journey, and the Sea of Japan had remained calm. The visibility, however, was less than adequate. The rising sun had not yet burned away the fog. It was an unnatural fog that seemed to envelop the sea in eerie patches. The ferry had been sailing into and out of these huge banks all morning.
    "I can see more fog ahead," the captain announced. He lowered the binoculars from his weather-beaten face and turned to the man clutching the wheel.
    "Keep the collision radar running, but do not slow down," he commanded.
    The other man nodded, but was not happy with his captain's decision. The so-called "collision radar" on this old tub didn't always detect objects in the water ahead, especially objects that were low in the water.
    But I'm not the captain , the man thought bitterly.
    As ordered, the wheelman pushed the throttle forward and the ferry sliced through the waves at a faster rate.
    * * *
    Less than a mile ahead of the ferry, sea birds roosted