Free Godzilla at World's End by Marc Cerasini Page A

memorial complex was built around the huge hangar and featured a museum, a science and learning center, and a broadcast and recording studio.
    The Maxwell Hulse Memorial Hangar was by far the largest structure, and it housed INN's airship itself. The entire complex had been an attraction for local high schools and colleges since it opened its doors nine months before.
    In a few minutes, the gargantuan hangar doors would open to reveal Mycroft E. Endicott's pet project - the INN airship Destiny Explorer .
    ***
    Nick Gordon stole a glance at Robin Halliday. She looked relaxed and composed, as usual. Nick wished he felt so calm. He glanced at his watch, surprised that it was already after two o'clock. Then he turned back toward the temporary arena and scanned the crowds that continued to fill the bleachers and swarm at the base of the raised stage.
    Oh, the humanity ... Nick thought, with his own brand of irony.
    In his career as a professional broadcast reporter - a career that began during Godzilla's destruction of Tokyo in 1998 - Nick had covered more than a few dangerous stories. As the premier investigative reporter on INN's Science Sunday , he'd been down the mouth of an active volcano, inside the hull of the sunken Titanic , and through the ruins of New York City's business center in the wake of Godzilla's battle with King Ghidorah.
    But despite those hazardous assignments, Nick couldn't help remembering a story he'd missed because he hadn't even been born yet. Nick remembered the news reports he'd studied about the last time an airship docked here in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
    It wasn't pretty.
    It was May 6, 1937 ... and that airship was the doomed Hindenburg . The passenger-laden zeppelin's complete immolation on this very airfield was captured on film, as was an emotional eyewitness account by Chicago radio correspondent Herbert Morrison.
    Ninety-seven people were aboard the Hindenburg ; thirty-five of them died.
    "Oh, the humanity," Herbert Morrison exclaimed tearfully as he watched the mighty German airship go down in flames. It was an on-the-scene news report that made history and is still heard today on documentaries about the disaster.
    Of course, if the Destiny Explorer crashes and burns today, at least I won't have to get on it! Nick thought. But he immediately cursed himself for having such selfish thoughts. It wasn't that he had anything against airships in general - it was just that the idea of leaving the ground in a ship held aloft by helium wasn't exactly Nick's idea of a good time!
    But at least Nick Gordon was enough of a science correspondent to study the vehicle in question. He had taken a secret tour of the hangar itself just a few hours ago. He understood all the science and engineering involved in the airship's construction, but it didn't help him feel more comfortable about riding in the thing.
    The sad truth was that Nick Gordon had always had a fear of flying - and he hadn't beaten it yet.
    Down on the main stage below where Nick waited, Mycroft E. Endicott was beginning the speech of his life. Most of the politicians' speeches had been mercifully brief this day, and the hangar doors were - Nick hoped! - just about ready to open.
    As soon as his boss's speech ended, the huge aircraft would be wheeled out for everyone to "ooh" and "aah" over. Then it would be Nick and Robin's job to introduce the young geniuses who would soon board the Destiny Explorer on its maiden voyage.
    Nick hoped that most of the crowd would depart once the Destiny Explorer was unveiled, so he and Robin could complete their part of this dog and pony show in a hurry.
    After the ceremony was concluded, the airship would depart for the Southern Hemisphere - with an unwilling Nick Gordon as one of its passengers.
    His knees suddenly turned to jelly, and Nick could already feel his gorge rise. He just hoped his employer had had the good sense to put a doctor on board.
    ***
    "What idiot scheduled the launch of this thing in New