Tobias dipped his head like a simpleton being ordered by a superior and went silently to the kitchen. Blake watched him go with mixed feelings. He couldn’t help thinking Tobias was a pansy compared to the man he’d known growing up and he had trouble reconciling the differences. Would he ever be able to?
Blake went down the steps that led to the laboratory. Doctor Amhurst was in the middle of cleaning up ashes from the floor. Tables had been rearranged in the large open space and Satoshi’s body had been hauled off as well.
Amhurst looked up as Blake descended the stairs. “How did it go at the beach?”
Blake leaned against one of the tables and tried to cross his arms, but the posture sent a sting of pain through his limb and he let them both drop. “It was a wasted trip. But I had some productive thoughts while I was there.”
The doctor raised an eyebrow. “How productive?”
“I’ll get into that later, but first, let’s start by you telling me how all this works.”
Amhurst propped the broom in a corner and hesitated before answering. “I’m guessing you know why this all started.”
“Dead wife and child,” Blake said.
It had been almost three decades but the wound was still raw, given the look of pain on the other man’s face. Blake had never felt like more of an ass. “I’m sorry, that was out of line. It’s natural to try and save the ones we love. Tobias and I are cases in point.” Apologies didn’t come naturally to him, and this one felt pathetic at best, but Amhurst seemed to accept it.
After a moment more of silence, the doctor said, “The seed began as a mere thought of, ‘what if’? I started following the work of Nikola Tesla, a true genius and good friend.”
“You didn’t just work with him; you were friends with Nikola Tesla as well.”
“Yes, and it pains me that the death of his mind came before that of the body. Senility strikes many of us in the end. Pigeons.”
Blake’s eyelids flickered as he tried to follow the sudden shift in Amhurst’s monologue. “I’m sorry, did you say pigeons?” He couldn’t suppress a chuckle.
“It was all the man cared about near the end; feeding the birds.”
“I do hate to bring you back on point,” Blake said — and silently congratulated himself on not rolling his eyes or sighing loudly. “I can understand the loss of a friend, but this time travel idea … where did it come from?”
Amhurst looked mildly surprised, as though Blake had missed something obvious. “From Tesla, of course. Have you ever heard of the Tunguska event?”
“No, what’s that.”
“In 1908, something fell from the sky in Russia. Tesla went to investigate, and this is what he found.” Dr. Amhurst indicated the chunk of rock that had been Blake’s mission priority. “It was Tesla’s team that found it,” he continued. “Later, when I proved myself to the man, he allowed me to help in the pursuit.
“In the beginning, Tesla had hoped to channel the energy that could be stored and was going to harness that power for something he called ‘The Peace Ray’. It was to be an instrument so powerful that it could end all wars. Not until later — and quite by accident — he discovered its true potential.”
“That’s pretty ironic, don’t you think?” Blake said. “End all wars, my ass.” He gestured to the iron beast in the corner. “This thing ends up causing World War III.”
Amhurst didn’t respond.
“Alright, continue with the story then,” Blake said impatiently. “What was its true potential?”
Something haunted shimmered in Amhurst’s eyes. “That it could tear open a hole in a time stream and theoretically push something forward or back. Unfortunately, the corruption of his mind began to hinder our progress and the solution was left to minds not as great as his. Mine.” The doctor shook his head with sadness. “The world had a treasure with him, and didn’t even know it.”
“And this brought you here,” Blake said quickly, lest Amhurst get lost in reverie again.
“Yes, I moved back here after I plundered all of Tesla’s writings and work from his safe. I couldn’t allow them to fall into the wrong hands.”
“So they fell into your unstable hands.” Blake grimaced, disgust evident in his face.
Amhurst said nothing to that, just stared down at the floor.
“You do realize if you hadn’t started messing with such things, none of this would be happening now and I wouldn’t be here.” Blake started pacing in agitation. “I could be in New York, sipping whiskey.”
“That is not entirely true. You would be the man upstairs cleaning this house.”
Dammit, the old man has a point. His fate would have never altered course in the first place, and he’d be the pansy of a man that was Tobias, who was now brewing coffee in the kitchen.
Amhurst said, “I know it is hard, but we shouldn’t dwell on what has happened. It is done and over.”
“It’s not nearly over for me.”
“Fair enough,” the doctor conceded. “Now where were we?”
“Tesla’s plans falling into your unstable hands.”
“Ah, yes,” Amhurst said without reacting. It seemed he’d already built a solid tolerance for Blake’s jibes. “I moved back here and continued to work on the research. Tesla had many other fantastic ideas and plans that I feel mankind would have been better off with.”
“All I’m concerned with is the one I’m staring at that we could have done without. If it wasn’t my ticket home, I’d destroy the damn thing now.”
“It is still an option,” Amhurst reminded him with a look of dare.
“Don’t think I’ve taken it off the table. The only thing holding me back is the Russians. They have a large piece of that Tuskegee rock, so they’ll still be able to time travel at some point.”
“Tunguska.”
“What?” Blake snapped.
“You said Tuskegee. It’s Tunguska.”
“Whatever,” he said, feeling like a child but not giving a shit. “Tobias and I need to leave 1948. We both can’t fit into that hulking Iron Man suit together. If one goes in the suit, the other is stuck here.” Blake pushed away from the table and beckoned the doctor. “Follow me.”
Blake led him to the freezer and opened the door. “I need you to take this.” He reached inside and pulled out his severed arm.
“Your arm?” Amhurst’s face wrinkled.
“Not the arm. The watch. Tobias should have one too. You’ll need to see if you can get them both to send us forward in time. Can you do that?”
A spark of interest flared in the man’s eyes. “I’ll certainly try.”
He took the arm from Blake and began fiddling with the watch. It wouldn’t come off easily at first, but he managed to wriggle a bony finger under the hooks and pry them loose from the pallid skin. Blake suppressed a shudder.
Amhurst handed the appendage back to Blake, who stared at it with remorse for a few seconds before looking back at the other man. “I have one more question, Doc.”
“And that is?”
“Do you have a knife?”
46
The Geiger Sanction
Blake had taken his coffee to go and headed back to his rented room. With the pain returning to his body and sleep not an option, that meant another injection. As before, moments after the injection, the feeling of weightlessness and renewed vigor flowed into him, and he sighed with pleasure. This could turn into an addicting habit.
He collected his belongings and checked out of his room at The Lion Inn, then made the trek back to Amhurst’s and parked himself in one of the upstairs rooms. After washing up, he went back to the lab, where it felt like class was now in session. Amhurst started babbling on about the intricacies of his personal experiment and it was all Blake could do not to break into a series of yawns. Either the second injection wasn’t lasting him as long, or the good doctor was boring him to sleep. He rubbed his eyes to clear the tiredness from them. Sleep had to wait for later.