The Seventh Plague: A Sigma Force Novel (Sigma Force Novels) by James Rollins

Author:James Rollins [Rollins, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-12-13T07:00:00+00:00

4:17 A.M.

Simon Hartnell fought the angry trembling of his hand to insert the key into the case’s lock. He finally got it seated and opened the glass door. With great care, he removed the volume inside. He turned to the bound man in the seat.

He suspected Painter Crowe was purposefully trying to provoke him, but he didn’t care.

“This belonged to Nikola Tesla. It was his personal journal, a notebook that the U.S. government confiscated after his death. But they failed to appreciate or comprehend what was written inside here.”

“And you did?”

He smiled, calmer now as he held the book, refusing to be goaded. “Granted it took me over thirty years. And I still don’t know everything. The man could be damnably cryptic when he wanted to be.” He crossed over and sat at his desk. “And sadly he was more of a visionary genius than a practical one. It’s why everyone knows Thomas Edison’s name, but not so much Nikola Tesla. Edison was a man of his times . . . Tesla ahead of it.”

“And let me guess. Those times have finally come around.”

Simon looked sharper at the man, recognizing a keener mind than he first would have guessed, especially for someone working for the government.

“That’s right,” Simon said. “I intend to show what a genius he truly was.”

Painter stared off into the distance. “Your antenna array. It’s more than just a high-powered version of HAARP.”

“Indeed. It’s the realization of Tesla’s dream. A world without war, of cheap and limitless energy, and of a healthy, thriving planet.”

“And you can deliver all of that?”

“In time. We’re preparing for a localized test—a proof of concept, if you will—scheduled for the day after tomorrow.”

“What concept?”

“How much do you really know about Tesla’s Wardenclyffe project?”

Painter frowned. “Only that it was his failed attempt at building a network of wireless power generators. His tower was to be the first.”

“Wardenclyffe was going to be his proof of concept, to show to the world what was possible. He starting building the tower in 1901, but its engineering and design were based on theories and tests going back decades. At its simplest, he knew that to transmit energy wirelessly he would need a conductor that could carry that energy around the globe. He investigated two possible sources: the earth and the atmosphere. He believed it was possible to pump energy deep into the earth to stimulate the planet’s natural resonance frequency, which would magnify that energy globally. Alternatively, the same could be achieved by projecting energy up to a charged conductive layer of the atmosphere.”

“The ionosphere.”

Simon nodded. “Such a layer was only speculated about at that time. It wouldn’t be proven to exist until 1925.”

“So again Tesla was ahead of his time.”

“Unfortunately true. Because of this, Tesla looked to the only conductor he had access to: the earth. He designed Wardenclyffe to have three-hundred-foot footings, so his tower could better grip the earth, as he described it.”

“But it was a failure.”

“Only because he didn’t have the technology to explore the more promising approach: the earth’s ionosphere.

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