bluntly may I? Invent us a
countertransformer. Some piece of equipment that will detect one of these Tesla
rigs in operation, and then broadcast something equal and opposite that’ll
nullify its effects.”
“Hmm. It would help to see Dr.
Tesla’s drawings and calculations.”
“Precisely why Pierpont’s in on this.
That and his arrangement with Edison—but there I go again spilling
secrets. Bankrolling Tesla has given Morgan’s access to all Tesla’s engineering
secrets. And he has operatives on the pot, ready day and night to rush us
photographed copies of anything we need to know.”
“Well in theory, I don’t see any
great obstacle. It’s a simple phase inversion, though there may be nonlinear
phenomena of scale we cannot predict till we build a working Device—”
“Tell me the details later.
Now—how much do you reckon something like that would actually, um,” lowering
his voice, “cost?”
“Cost? Oh, I couldn’t
really—that is, I shouldn’t—”
“Come now, Professor,” boomed Foley
Walker, holding a hotel whiskey decanter as if he meant to drink from it, “to
the nearest million or so, just a rough guess?”
“Hmm . . . well . . . as a figure
to start from . . . if only for
symmetry’s sake . . . say about what
Brother Tesla’s getting from Mr. Morgan?”
“Well, ringtailed rutabagas.” Vibe’s
eyes with a contemptuous twinkle which colleagues had learned meant he had what
he wanted. “Here I figured you fellows spend your time wandering around with
your thoughts all far, far away, and Professor, why, you’re just a damn horse
trader without mercy’s what it is. Guess I should summon the legal staff,
before I find myself hanging in a poultryshop window, two bits away from
getting fricasseed. Foley, would you just crank us up long distance there on
the telephone—get us Somble, Strool & Fleshway, if you’d be so kind?
Could be they’d share some ideas on how best to ‘spring’ for a project of this
scale.”
The call went through immediately,
and Scarsdale, excusing himself, withdrew to an instrument in another part of
the suite. The Professor was left to stare into the depths of his ancient hat,
as if it were a vestiary expression of his present situation. More and more in
recent weeks, he had found himself approaching likewise the condition of an
empty cylinder, only intermittently occupied by intelligent thought. Was this
the right thing to do? Should he even be here? The criminality in the room was
almost palpable. Ray certainly didn’t care for any it, and the boys today, even
in their usual unworldliness, had regarded him with something like
apprehension. Would any sum the New York lawyers might be suggesting now be
worth the loss of that friendship?
he Chums of Chance could have been granted no more
appropriate form of “groundleave” than the Chicago Fair, as the great national
celebration possessed the exact degree of fictitiousness to permit the boys
access and agency. The harsh nonfictional world waited outside the White City’s
limits, held off for this brief summer, making the entire commemorative season
beside Lake Michigan at once dreamlike and real.
If there were any plots afoot to
commit bomb or other outrages upon the Fair, the Inconvenience was ideal
not only for scanning the grounds fence to fence, but also for keeping an eye
out against any seaborne assaults contemplated from the Lake side. Fairgoers
would see the ship overhead and yet not see it, for at the Fair, where miracles
were routinely expected, nothing this summer was too big, too fast, too
fantastically rigged out to impress anybody for more than a minute and a half,
before the next marvel appeared. Inconvenience would fit right in, as
one more effect whose only purpose was to entertain.
The boys began regular surveillance
runs the next day. The “spotter” from White City Investigations showed up at
dawn, packing a small observatory’s worth of telescopic gear. “Broke these
countertransformer. Some piece of equipment that will detect one of these Tesla
rigs in operation, and then broadcast something equal and opposite that’ll
nullify its effects.”
“Hmm. It would help to see Dr.
Tesla’s drawings and calculations.”
“Precisely why Pierpont’s in on this.
That and his arrangement with Edison—but there I go again spilling
secrets. Bankrolling Tesla has given Morgan’s access to all Tesla’s engineering
secrets. And he has operatives on the pot, ready day and night to rush us
photographed copies of anything we need to know.”
“Well in theory, I don’t see any
great obstacle. It’s a simple phase inversion, though there may be nonlinear
phenomena of scale we cannot predict till we build a working Device—”
“Tell me the details later.
Now—how much do you reckon something like that would actually, um,” lowering
his voice, “cost?”
“Cost? Oh, I couldn’t
really—that is, I shouldn’t—”
“Come now, Professor,” boomed Foley
Walker, holding a hotel whiskey decanter as if he meant to drink from it, “to
the nearest million or so, just a rough guess?”
“Hmm . . . well . . . as a figure
to start from . . . if only for
symmetry’s sake . . . say about what
Brother Tesla’s getting from Mr. Morgan?”
“Well, ringtailed rutabagas.” Vibe’s
eyes with a contemptuous twinkle which colleagues had learned meant he had what
he wanted. “Here I figured you fellows spend your time wandering around with
your thoughts all far, far away, and Professor, why, you’re just a damn horse
trader without mercy’s what it is. Guess I should summon the legal staff,
before I find myself hanging in a poultryshop window, two bits away from
getting fricasseed. Foley, would you just crank us up long distance there on
the telephone—get us Somble, Strool & Fleshway, if you’d be so kind?
Could be they’d share some ideas on how best to ‘spring’ for a project of this
scale.”
The call went through immediately,
and Scarsdale, excusing himself, withdrew to an instrument in another part of
the suite. The Professor was left to stare into the depths of his ancient hat,
as if it were a vestiary expression of his present situation. More and more in
recent weeks, he had found himself approaching likewise the condition of an
empty cylinder, only intermittently occupied by intelligent thought. Was this
the right thing to do? Should he even be here? The criminality in the room was
almost palpable. Ray certainly didn’t care for any it, and the boys today, even
in their usual unworldliness, had regarded him with something like
apprehension. Would any sum the New York lawyers might be suggesting now be
worth the loss of that friendship?
he Chums of Chance could have been granted no more
appropriate form of “groundleave” than the Chicago Fair, as the great national
celebration possessed the exact degree of fictitiousness to permit the boys
access and agency. The harsh nonfictional world waited outside the White City’s
limits, held off for this brief summer, making the entire commemorative season
beside Lake Michigan at once dreamlike and real.
If there were any plots afoot to
commit bomb or other outrages upon the Fair, the Inconvenience was ideal
not only for scanning the grounds fence to fence, but also for keeping an eye
out against any seaborne assaults contemplated from the Lake side. Fairgoers
would see the ship overhead and yet not see it, for at the Fair, where miracles
were routinely expected, nothing this summer was too big, too fast, too
fantastically rigged out to impress anybody for more than a minute and a half,
before the next marvel appeared. Inconvenience would fit right in, as
one more effect whose only purpose was to entertain.
The boys began regular surveillance
runs the next day. The “spotter” from White City Investigations showed up at
dawn, packing a small observatory’s worth of telescopic gear. “Broke these
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