The Technologists by Matthew Pearl

Author:Matthew Pearl [Pearl, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Historical, Thrillers, Literary
ISBN: 9781410448293
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

XXIX

Third and E

IF ONLY HE COULD STOP TIME, thought a frustrated Marcus the next evening. Just now it was against them in a mighty way. This was the second consecutive night that he was strolling the city in a roundabout manner, watching by gaslight for any signs of enemies on his track. He traded greetings with tradesmen and beggars, talking of nothing more important than what an outrage it was that the snow shovels were still out in May. He periodically stepped behind a wall or into a doorway, to use Bob’s opera glass to examine the vicinity, in an attempt to recognize a face he might have seen the hour before or the evening prior after he parted from Agnes; and to see if those whom he had approached were questioned by any other night wanderer.

He liked to think that if Hammie had not been standing beside him when that strange false prophet had appeared at the Institute, he would have given chase and at least gained some basic information about him, but the visitor had so taken him by surprise it was hard to be sure how he would have reacted. Then there was Professor Runkle. Had he witnessed the confrontation unfolding below his window, which Marcus had afterward noticed was open? Marcus had walked past Runkle in the corridor several times since then, but the professor, who was busy tending to Rogers’s duties as president pro tempore, didn’t glance his way.

After a thorough examination of their chambers in the basement when the others were not present, Marcus had satisfied himself that the speaking tubes had not been redirected or tampered with, and that their conversations could not be overheard through the ventilation fans. That meant either they had a traitor in their midst or someone out there was watching them.

But with this second night of rambling through the city, he still found no sign of the hooded man or his carriage, or, as far as he could tell, his agents. There was also the stranger’s threat to expose them. If the stranger reported the Technologists to the authorities at the Institute, it would mean expulsion. Worse still, if the stranger went to the newspapers and city authorities, it could mean the most serious kind of trouble for themselves and the entire Institute, not to mention leaving the citizens of Boston vulnerable to the experimenter, with the matter entirely in the hands of Louis Agassiz and an overmatched police department.

Marcus knew he had to find the scarred man before any of that could happen. But despite all the considerable determination he mustered, the menace remained at large. Finding the narrow, labyrinthine streets more and more desolate, Marcus started back for Mrs. Page’s, taking a detour to Temple Place. He checked whether Agnes had deposited another note for him in the hidden spot at the garden fence. She had left a message earlier, detailing various complications in her quest to obtain the list of chemical purchasers, but she had

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