Tesla's Signal (57 page)

“We can't make any promises,” Clara reminded them. “It's two of us, against thousands of Martians and their ships.”

Nobody said anything for a moment. Niko's eyes traveled over the row of blue tiles on the ceiling. He'd sure like to calculate the total number of tiles. That might take his mind off what Clara had just said.

For the first time, he regretted that he had dodged military service. He might have learned some useful tactics.
How do you fight an enemy with overwhelming advantages?
 

What are the odds of our success,
he wondered...
or even our survival?
 

Niko stood up. “For now, I'll give out some Amulets, and you can go out to collect supplies. How about you, Jerome, and you and you.” He selected a few railroad men and police officers, and Clara took a few Amulets from her pack. “When you go outside, pretend you're crazy...just murmur 'glory hallelujah' a lot. Make sure none of them follows you and discovers the entrance.”

The police officers immediately set up a plan. “There's a Macy's department store on Barclay Street,” he heard Officer Hanson say. “We can hit their canned-food section.”

“It wouldn't be stealing,” said another. “The city will compensate the merchants when this is all over.”

While they were still planning their food raid, Niko and Clara had slipped out with Hugo and Jerome to hook up several transformers. “Once I set up an energy relay, you can have electric lights, run a water pump and get the trains running.”

***

Now he reviewed his plans as they climbed up 10...20...30 flights of stairs. Since the advent of electricity, architects had been building taller and taller skyscrapers in New York. And without that electricity to run the elevators, a skyscraper soon became a vertical hell.

His lips moved as he calculated voltage, considered the best way to configure the whirling currents. He needed a power boost to replace the transmitter that had been destroyed on Tussey Mountain. Power for electricity...Master Amulet...the Saucer...Teleforce. 'Death ray'....

Last night he had calculated for a good three hours. There were so many variables.
Suppose the U'jaan add more Orbs, more ships? Suppose
... never mind. After he had calculated a number of scenarios, he wrote the numbers down for the benefit of Clara and other engineers.

When they finally reached the top floor of the New York Times office, they started assembling a device while Hugo watched in fascination. “Exactly what is it you're building...a new kind of radio?”

“Not quite.” Niko took out a screwdriver he had been holding between his teeth. “A radio can send and receive. This is similar, but instead of radio messages, it receives wireless electric power from our network.”  

“I'll be damned—wireless power! Just like those magazine articles I used to write. Tell you the truth, I thought it was pretty far out,” Hugo admitted, giving Niko a pat on the arm. “It made great magazine copy, but I never dreamed it would actually work. Especially since it's so small.” He peered at the apparatus, which as not much larger than a gentleman's walking stick—the kind with a jeweled knob for a handle. “And what's that you're attaching now?”

“This is a mask oscillator. It produces mirror phasing.” Clara's fingers flew, as she attached the small device. “It should mask our frequencies from the Martians' pet engineers.”

“By which we mean those traitors, Edison and Marconi,” Niko added.

“Really? You don't think they're smart enough to notice your wavelength and figure out your game?” Hugo looked worried.

“Ah, don't worry your head about those
pishers
,
”
said Clara, smirking. “They wouldn't notice a firecracker on the end of their nose.”  

The top of the stairwell led to a ladder, which gave access to a cupola. Niko tucked the apparatus under his arm and started to climb, but Clara restrained him. “Let me do it. You took a bullet in that arm a few days ago. Remember?”

He scowled. He had forgotten all about the injury.  

“Women.” Hugo gave Niko a wink. “Always have to be in charge. You may as well just relax, Nick. Enjoy the view.”

“Excuse me?
Which 'view' do you mean?” Clara turned back from the ladder with a glare. “Don't you go looking at my
tuchis!”
 

“Oh, I wouldn't dream of it,” Hugo shrugged, hiding a smirk. “Nothing to see there anyway.”

“Don't listen to him, ma'am, he's wrong. Here, don't forget this.” Grinning, Niko handed her a spool of wire.

“But seriously, how's the view up there?” Hugo called, after she had ascended to the top.

“I can see the whole city,” Clara called down. “There's an Orb just three blocks away. And another one on 42nd street. The readings are extremely powerful. Must be ten times as strong as Philadelphia.”

Their moment of levity quickly evaporated. “That's because we're so close to Wardenclyffe. Hurry up. It's going to be dark soon.”  

“Wait, I'm connecting it to the ground wire. All right. current on—charging up!” A faint hum could be heard, and Niko could feel the rush of the current spiraling through the air. “Done.” Clara came down wiping her hands on her overalls. “Another 50 million volts at your disposal, sir.”

“Now it's time for our main objective. Let's go over those readings you just took.”

They crouched over their meters and panels. Niko took out a pen and a scrap of paper. “All right. Here's the Wardenclyffe Tower. Here's our location...”

Clara took the pen and drew circles. “The largest Orbs appear to be
here
, and
here.
This other signal, I think it's coming from somewhere on Columbus Avenue, and that one there is probably the Flatiron Building.” 

They began to draw lines and swirls, connecting the circles.

“Whatever are you doing?” Hugo peered at the diagram.

“Trying to decide the best location for our master Amulet here.” Niko reached into another pack and exposed the edge of an Amulet the size of a large wall clock. “Someplace that will cancel the maximum number of Orbs. How about the Century Building on McKenzie Street?”

Clara chewed on the end of the pen. “Yep, that should liberate most of Lower Manhattan.”

“That gizmo will free everyone from those Martians?” Hugo eyed the gadget. “What do you s'pose folks'll do when they suddenly realize that... you know, they've been worshiping a pack of monsters?”

“We'll leave it to Jake and Davey to restore order,” said Niko. “People will catch on quickly.”

“The Martians will catch on too. They'll go berserk and smash everything,” Hugo said. “A lot of people will die.”

“They are already dying,” Niko said. “Slowly, and degradingly, they are being turned to animals. Better to die free. All right, let's be on our way.”

“My knees are killing me,” Hugo complained, as they descended the thirty flights of stairs. “Going down is worse than going up.”

Clara turned to Niko. “I can't wait to smash all those Orbs and free everyone from those
schmucks
.
”
 

“We'll smash as many as possible. But don't forget we must survive to accomplish our most important objective. It will be easier if we can just get the Light-Bender working properly.”

“Light-Bender?”
Hugo looked from one to the other, mystified. “If I didn't know better, I'd think the two of you were actually planning a big battle with the Martians.”

“Oh, we wouldn't do anything like that, would we, Niko?” said Clara.

“Of course not. We are ordinary, law-abiding citizens.”

“If you two are law-abiding and ordinary,” said Hugo, “then I'm the king of France.”

By the time they reached the bottom floor and emerged, the sun had set. It was already becoming quite dark in the streets with no electric lights. The city looked like a giant graveyard; the buildings' black shapes resembled tombstones. Jake and Davey met up with them, and they stuck as close together as they dared.  

Niko's feeling of gloom deepened when he almost tripped over several bodies on the sidewalk.
Asleep?
He hoped so.
..
but then he looked more closely, and drew back in horror. “By the saints...these people are dead.”

With shaking hands, he took out the smallest of his wireless lights as his companions drifted up and joined him. Cupping his hand around the light, he inspected the bodies. “Hmm. No decay...must have just died today.”

“Niko, look at their eyes,” said Clara. “Why do they have those holes in their eyes?”  

Niko looked again, trying not to be sick. The bodies had a peculiar caved-in appearance, like empty paper bags. A faint alien odor clung to them: it awoke a subliminal memory, which he couldn't quite access...

“The U'jaan did this,” he muttered. “The filthy bastards. What did...”

“Hey! You there!” A voice called out from the street. “You got permission to be out here?” Two men stepped out of the shadows to confront them.”

Jake turned. “Who the hell are you?”

“Angel Enforcer,” came the answer. “Now answer my goddamn question. You ain't allowed to have them lights. What you got in them there sacks?”

Niko's heart sank. He'd seen these men before, with their arrogant scowls, their low caps and coarse tobacco odor.
Kirk's gang.

Well of course there would be spies everywhere, looking out for disobedience, making sure no one dared to install a device, drive an automobile, read a book. And of course their boss would be 'Professor' Kirk.

He pulled the scarf up to conceal his face. “The Angel Masters gave us a secret assignment,” he snapped, drawing himself up to look tall and intimidating. “They gave us glowing power wands to light our way. How dare you question our Holy Celestial Masters?

Jake muscled right up into Kirk's face. “Listen here,
kaker punim,
don't fool with us or the Holy Angels will make you into sausage links—” he broke off, as they heard a hum above and a ship sailed into view.

This one was much larger than a scoutship; it looked to be as large as a zeppelin. It made a slow descent and hovered just above the tops of the buildings.

Niko's group took advantage of the distraction to flee from the Enforcers and take cover in a recessed doorway.

“
Oy,
what's happening now?” Clara gripped Niko's arm.

An opening appeared in the ship, and a large hover-platform floated toward the ground. Several of the Martians stood on its surface, looking like monsters that a child would draw, with deformed-looking helmeted heads and oddly-proportioned limbs. They carried large wand-like devices. Niko and his group clung together, trying to shrink into invisibility, as the invaders touched down to Earth.

The aliens stepped off the platform and onto the expanse of Park Boulevard: giant, looming shapes that towered over their human subjects. A chiming noise sounded. Shambling, blank-eyed people began to stream in from every direction. “Holy Angels!” they murmured, falling to  their knees.

A squad of Angels strode out among their worshipers. They pulled people to their feet, hauling them toward the platform and shoving them onto it. Another Angel guarded them there, but none of the tightly packed humans made a move to escape.

“What in God's name—” Clara gulped.

Niko watched as the Angels grabbed a willowy blond woman. He gave a sudden start. “Dear God—I know that woman! It's Katharine Johnson!”

His heart wrenched. For a second his memory flashed back to the good times: dinners, poetry and sparkling conversation with lovely Katharine and genteel Robert...Katharine's chaste kisses; Robert's bemused tolerance.

But ...
they tried to lynch me. She came after me with a garden stake!
 

And now Katharine was barefoot, her dress torn and filthy, her face a vacant shell. “Holy...blessed... glory...holy...” she murmured, as the Angel grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward the platform. She tripped over her dress and fell face-down. The Angel did not wait for her to get up; merely hauled her by her hair as if she were a slab of meat.

Niko had seen enough. Before he could restrain himself, his hand whipped out the electric gun and he squeezed the trigger. It seemed to have no effect on the Angel, who continued to drag poor Katharine by her hair. Niko's rage rose another notch and this time he pulled out the Smith & Wesson.

“Let go of her, monster!” he cried, and fired a shot. It shattered the Angel kidnapper's helmet. The alien gave a low shriek and fell like a puppet with strings cut.

The crowd erupted in screams. The Martians, completely taken by surprise, scattered from this unexpected threat. Without a moment's thought, Niko rushed up and seized Katharine from the dead Martian's grip. Amid pandemonium, he picked her up and fled at top speed.