The Lazarus Curiosity by Colin Edmonds

Author:Colin Edmonds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: steampunk novels, historical novels, victorian london thrillers, magic, steampunk magic thriller, dystopian, scotland yard, steampunk, illusionist, jesuit, special branch, psychopaths
Publisher: Caffeine Nights Publishing
Published: 2017-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

~27~

...sparking and smoking the antenna poking up from The Metropolitan Theatre of Steam, Smoke and Mirrors. Yes, I was the cause of this meteorological maelstrom, sitting up in the roof space, cocooned in the glass transmission dome of the PSYKE communicator.

“Octopus!” shouted Nikola Tesla. His image shimmered in the glass dome opposite mine.

While the spectacular storm above the Theatre was waking half of Paddington, I knew in the low pressured dry air of Colorado Springs the din would be even more diabolical.

“What of your new Wardenclyffe Tower!?” I shouted.

“The progress, it is satisfactory!! Mr Morgan confirms he shall provide the balance of the funds and I am drawing my design requirements for the new facility!” Tesla was visibly relieved by this extra financial muscle from J.P. Morgan. As was I. We were all now finding our remarkable brain-power was not enough. Between us we were still unable to achieve what we needed and more cash was the key.

“Nik, I call you up because I need to ask you a serious question...” I stopped shouting mid-sentence. My third dome, the vacant dome, had begun to flash and spark, exactly as it was in Nik’s equivalent dome four and a half thousand miles away, something he quickly confirmed. Damn! We both knew what was occurring and why. Our informal PSYKE chatter would now become an official, full-blown three-way conversation. Something at this time of night I had hoped to avoid.

The skies above the north west corner of Glasgow clouded and bubbled and tumbled as the spectacular storm suddenly raged from nowhere. In Scotland, phantasmagorical images of Nikola Tesla and myself were building line by line in William Thomson’s vacant domes. At the same time, the image of that great Lord of Science, immensely bearded, not quite bald and with mischievous eyes, began forming in ours. Yes, there it was. In the chair. The vague shape, then the detailed image of Professor William Thomson, also known as Baron Kelvin of Largs in the County of Ayr, if you don’t mind. Seventy-five years of age and, many claimed, still in possession of the finest scientific brain in the world. Despite the plaudits he remained a gentle, polite man, unless something annoyed him.

“What’s this, you buckie bletherskites?”

A buckie bletherskite is a perverse person who talks ‘ridiculous’ apparently. No, me neither, I had to look it up.

“Convening a meeting of the Brethren of the Invisible College behind my back?!” shouted Lord Kelvin, waving a friendly fist.

“Never so, dear William!” protested Tesla. “It is Octopus there who makes the impromptu contact with me!!”

Kelvin laughed. “Beware, Nikola, that cadger Artemus will be angling for a favour.” How well he knew me. His easy accent was a rough blend of original Irish and adopted Hibernian. I hadn’t banked on Kelvin still working in the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow University at this ridiculous time, but he was and saw the communication lamp glowing, slipped into the locked storage room which concealed his PSYKE chamber and signed in. And while Kelvin’s interventions were always welcome, this was going to be awkward.

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