Rabbit Hole: the Paradox Series--Book 1 by Garrett Smith

Author:Garrett Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Marcus thanked the tall, thin, black-haired young man as he accepted a bowl of goulash. “Tell me Nikola, what are you doing in Prague? You’re not Czech are you?”

“No. My family is Serbian, but we live in Smiljan, Austria. My father and grandfather are orthodox priests.”

“Will you become a priest?”

“I pray to God that I will not. My family expects me to be a priest, but I want to be an engineer. I had cholera last year. When he thought I was dying, my father promised me he would send me to engineering school if I lived. So I did.”

“Then why aren’t you in school?”

Nikola hesitated, looking out the window at the innkeeper, Tarik. “I was drafted into the Austrian army, so my father sent me to hide in Tomingaj. It’s a tiny mountain village in Austria, near Gračac. But, I couldn’t stand the tedium. So, Tarik Petrović, my father’s cousin, agreed to take me in here until I am accepted at university.”

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“Why engineering?”

“I love math, and I’m good at making things work. That’s really the only reason Tarik wanted me here. Everything on this property was broken when I arrived.”

“So, that’s what you want to do, fix things?”

“No, I want to invent things, and improve upon what has already begun, like the telegraph. You are an educated man, you must know about the telegraph. This isn’t the work of one man, but rather, many. Volte, Chappe, Gauss, Weber, Alter, Morse, Cooke and Wheatstone, they all added to what was done before. Today, messages travel through cables that run across the sky. There is even one on the ocean floor, it connects London to Paris.”

“Amazing! Is there anything left to invent?” Marcus asked with a smile.

“Yes, and I have many ideas, and they will all run on electrical current!” Nikola said reaching inside his vest and pulling out a pamphlet. “Here,” he said, holding it out for Marcus, “This is the first book I ever owned that is written in English.”

“What have you here?” Marcus asked. “On Physical Lines of Force by James Clerk Maxwell. What is it about?”

“Vector calculus, the mathematics of electromagnetism. Oh…how I can I explain it to the common person? It is the language of how energy moves through the universe. I don’t expect you to understand these things, but they make such sense to me.”

“Nikola you’ve never told me your last name.”

“Tesla.”

Marcus beamed. “Pleased to meet you Nikola Tesla. Do the men downstairs know your last name?”

“No, why would they care?” Nikola leaned forward. “Marcus, tell me, why are you here? Since you arrived, we turn away other customers, except for the two men who sit downstairs with guns in their coats. Now, we must keep the outer doors locked. Suddenly, Tarik is not worried about money. In the middle of the night, men come from the stable to see you, and then go back into the stable. I never hear a horse or carriage. You are American, but speak perfect German.

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