The Coast Guard cutter then opened up suddenly, spraying Napalm with machine-gun fire.

  To no effect.

  A military helicopter gunship arrived in a rush, tilted forward, a deadly, matte-black insect. It launched a missile that hit Napalm squarely in the shoulder, exploded, and blew smoking chunks of volcanic rock from him, baring a patch of fire like some inflamed scab. Napalm bellowed incoherently, wordlessly, at the helicopter, but did not slow his progress.

  Now the Coast Guard opened up with the Bofors gun. Its 57 mm shells carried less punch than the missile, but it could fire two hundred rounds a minute, three rounds a second, and its aim was accurate. The shells exploded against Napalm’s chest like a jackhammer: Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

  Napalm took a step back, took another, and dodged to his left, which placed the Okeanos’s superstructure between himself and the Bofors gun. The shelling stopped.

Monster, Chapter 23