Chapter Twenty-Four #2
Julian approached her with the springy gait of an excited child. “It works?” he asked, unspooling a coil attached to one of the machines. Without needing instruction, he fastened it to the other machine.
“Better than we imagined,” Nikola said. “By basing our early prototype on radiance, we failed to consider that power can flow in more than one direction. Radiance is a direct current. I don’t believe it can flow back into a Conductor or Generator without harming them.
I’ve been testing an alternating current. ”
“I’m not certain of that,” Julian said, opening a little metal door to examine smaller cables that wound back and forth like miniature city streets. “About radiance, I mean. I have a few hypotheses regarding alternating flow. With Josephine’s help, I can test them.”
“I don’t recall volunteering for that,” I mentioned, despite the fact that the notion intrigued me. Could radiance flow into another person for a purpose other than injuring or killing them? If so, I certainly wanted to know.
“You will,” Julian said with maddening certainty. He turned back to Nikola. “This will allow us to transmit over much longer distances without needing additional stations?”
Nikola smiled proudly. “That’s my thinking, yes.”
Ezra appeared at my side. “Do you understand what they’re talking about?”
“Marginally,” I admitted, feeling as out of my depth as I had in my first machinist class. But I wasn’t ten anymore. I’d pick up the language of science. I’d ask questions and I’d learn. Oh, I wanted to learn.
“You look excited,” he said, smiling like he found it charming.
I could only nod, my fingers itching with the desire to put my hands all over the machine.
Nikola glanced at me and gestured. “Go ahead,” she said. “It’s not currently switched on. It won’t hurt you.”
I ran my fingertips along the thick cable Julian had strung up between the machines, following it to the cold coil. Knowing it would not respond to my radiance felt strange, like turning the lights off and feeling my way through a dark room. “Will you show us?”
“Of course. You’re my test audience. Step out of the way now. Concentrated electricity is powerful, and it doesn’t care if you’re a Child of Industry or not.”
Ezra and I stepped off the platform. Julian finished moving the tarps out of the way and rolled a utility cart over. On it stood an elaborate lamp with dozens of bulbs. I could see how the lamp, however impractical, would draw attention even in daylight.
Julian and Nikola exchanged a look, some wordless confirmation, and without a moment’s hesitation, Nikola’s posture shifted completely. She became a ringmaster, her shoulders thrown back and her arms making confident sweeping gestures. Her deep voice carried and echoed like a musical instrument.
“What you see before you,” she announced, “is the invention that will change the course of Industry. What you’re about to witness is a moment that will go down in history as a turning point.
The moment we release ourselves from the shackles of the House of Industry.
The moment Progress stops belonging to the wealthy, to the out-of-touch Elders who don’t have the courage to walk among the people.
What I’m about to show you belongs not to me, not to them, but to you. ”
She nodded to Julian, and he began to turn a crank. The machine buzzed to life, crackling with a sound like radiance but sharper. Its coils glowed brighter and brighter, like lungs expanding with a deep breath. “I give you electricity!” she shouted, flipping a heavy switch on the second machine.
Nothing happened.
“Is it supposed to do something?” Ezra asked.
Julian looked as if he wanted the machine to devour him whole. “Did I connect the cable incorrectly?”
Swearing with words I’d never heard in my life, Nikola adjusted dials on the machine. “Wait a moment,” she muttered. “This won’t happen tomorrow. I’ll do a full system check before we begin.”
Ezra took my hand. “You’re cold,” he said.
I squeezed his fingers in response, too tense to speak. Watching Julian and Nikola make adjustments to the machine dizzied me. We couldn’t afford to do anything that would erode trust tomorrow.
“There,” Nikola finally announced, wiping grease off her hands with a stained rag. “If that stars-forsaken capacitor overheats again, I’m drowning it and myself in the Sterling. Try again, Julian.”
This time, there was no speech. Julian once more turned the crank until the coil lit up, and then Nikola, muttering something that sounded like a threat, flipped the switch.
We flinched back, Ezra pushing me behind him as if he had some ability to shield us from the electricity sparking across the wire. The lamp illuminated, each bulb glowing from a tiny wire within, casting light as bright as any radiance-fueled fixture.
“Note the discharge phenomenon indicating that this cable is currently live,” Nikola said, once more adopting the posture of an actor onstage.
“Electricity has the power of radiance—but it’s completely nontoxic.
Electricity will end the wasting that the House of Industry has irresponsibly and unethically subjected innocent people to.
We will harness water, wind, and heat. We will reclaim Progress. Every one of us!”
Unable to help myself, I applauded. The sight of my unbridled enthusiasm made Julian duck his head and smile shyly.
Beside me, Ezra whistled. “The House isn’t going to love that little speech.”
“No,” I said, grinning. “They’re really not.”
Julian and Nikola ran through the demonstration over and over, making minor adjustments to the machines every time. After the first try, there were no more major malfunctions. That made me feel slightly more at ease.
“What is the plan for once the demonstration is finished?” I asked Nikola after she completed another rehearsal.
“We’ll abandon my equipment and slip into the crowd,” she said. “The goal is to time it perfectly so that the House’s ceremonial procession has started, but hasn’t gotten close enough to stop us until we’re done.”
Even before I’d left for Frostbrook, planning had begun for a parade of Children of Industry to enter the exposition grounds for all to see. It would consist of students and professors and Conductors—and Transistors. “That feels risky,” I said.
“Of course there’s risk involved,” Julian chimed in without looking up from the dials he was nervously polishing with a rag. “But there will be thousands of onlookers. We can easily disappear into the fray.”
“He’s right,” Nikola said. “We know the risks. And they’re acceptable.”
“Won’t the House destroy your machines when you abandon them?” Ezra asked.
Nikola looked wistful for a moment. “Most certainly. I have an even more efficient prototype in progress, but I will be sorry to see them go.”
“Will we come back here?” I asked.
“Not right away,” Nikola said. “We’ll meet at a safe house and regroup.”
I’d never been one for backing down from a challenge, so I found that I couldn’t argue with the plan. But letting someone else take a risk felt much more uncomfortable than taking one on my own.
As the day progressed, Nikola’s associates visited the warehouse, hauling large packages off the shelves that lined one wall. A small group collected so many packages that they had to use a cart to carry them out.
“What are they doing?” I asked Nikola.
“Getting pamphlets for tomorrow,” she told me, wiping her forehead. I was almost relieved to see that she perspired the same as anyone else. When she noticed that the group with the cart had returned for more packages of pamphlets, she waved one of them over. “Columbia!”
I was confused when a pretty boy trotted up to us.
But as the figure got closer, I realized it was one of the girls who worked above the gambling den—the one who had let us use her room.
She had her glossy brown hair pulled up and hidden in a cap, and she wore baggy clothes that concealed the shape of her body.
I started to thank her for allowing us to displace her when Nikola pulled her close and pressed a hard, hungry kiss to her lips.
“Oh,” I managed to say.
Columbia wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and grinned at me. She had an amber-beige complexion, and even without makeup, she was stunning. “You’re awfully cute,” she said.
I could hear Ezra muffling laughter nearby, and I fought the urge to throw something at him. “Um, thank you,” I said, trying not to stutter. “For your hospitality. And … that gracious observation.”
“My word,” Columbia said to Nikola with a giggle. “They really are all like that.”
“Hopelessly,” Nikola agreed. “Josephine, you’ll be distributing pamphlets with Columbia before we begin the demonstration so that everyone watching has supporting materials to read and take home. Try to get them to your former schoolmates. We have plenty.”
“Radicalizing your old friends?” Columbia asked appreciatively.
This time I did stammer. “Y-yes, I hope. That’s my goal.”
“Good,” she said. “We could use more support from within the House.”
I grew bolder in response to her casual confidence. “It’s more than that,” I said. “I want to save them. They don’t understand what radiance is really doing. The House is all they’ve ever known.”
“Cute and smart,” Columbia said, giving me a wink. She dashed off, yelping playfully when Nikola smacked her bottom.
Nikola watched me as I tried to collect myself. She looked like she expected me to comment on what had just transpired.
I said, “She seems nice.”
“Don’t get the wrong idea,” Nikola said with a snort. “She’s an absolute terror. Would you like to go see the exposition grounds? I could use some fresh air.”
“Do we really have time for that?” Julian called to us nervously. He had an uncanny ability to monitor everything happening around him at all times.