"Well, for one thing, it's kind of obvious that another contraption just like this one was positioned here before. Where is it now? The question wouldn't bother me except for the fact that all we have left of the first are these marks that have been burned into the concrete."
"No scorch marks on the ceiling, though," Canfield said. "Nor on the furniture."
Good point, Jack thought. It made him feel a little better, but not a whole hell of a lot.
Zaleski stepped over to the couch and hefted an edge of the dome. "Let's get this sucker attached and see what happens."
Jack removed his warm-up jacket and dropped it onto the couch. He gripped the other side of the dome; together they raised it and set it on the base. A few minutes of tightening nuts and bolts, and the mini Tesla tower was reassembled. Light from the naked incandescents overhead gleamed off the dome's rows of copper globes.
"And now for the final piece," Canfield said, holding up one of the crystals.
"You really think that's all it'll take?" Jack said.
Canfield looked at him. "You have doubts?"
Jack pointed to the tower. "Where do we plug it in?"
"Tesla theorized that energy could be gathered free from the atmosphere," Kenway said. "That was why he was such a threat to the One-Worlders."
"Fine," Jack said, shrugging. "But a crystal? It seems so ... so New Agey. It's just a pretty rock."
"Not just any rock," Canfield said, twisting the crystal back and forth to catch the light. "It's quartzwhich has piezoelectric properties. You've heard of crystal radios, I assume?"
"Sure."
"And how many rocks do you know that can rotate the plane of polarized light? Trust me, a crystal is a lot more than 'just a pretty rock.'"
"Enough bullshitting," Zaleski said, grabbing the crystal from Canfield's hand. "Let's do it."
Standing on tiptoe, he inserted the crystal into the top center of the dome.
"Perfect fit," he said, then stepped back.
Jack did him one better. He retreated all the way to the steps. He didn't trust this thing. All he knew about this Nikola Tesla guy was what he'd been told, and one of the stories involved destroying half a million acres of forest on the far side of the North Pole.
Come to think of it, the stairs weren't nearly as far away as he would have liked. Albany might not even be far enough. But he stayed where he was and watched.
Nothing happened.
That didn't seem to faze the others. They kept waiting patiently in a rough semicircle.
Jack backed up a little more and seated himself on one of the steps.
How long do we wait before we call this a bust? he wondered.
Then he sensed a change in the cellar. He wasn't sure what was happening, but he could feel the hairs rising along his bare arms. Not from fear or alarm, but from the charge that seemed to fill the air. A little like what he'd felt in the hotel, but stronger, more concentrated.
Jack wasn't the only one to notice. He saw Ken way rubbing his arms, tugging at his shirt collar.
"Do you feel it?" Canfield said, grinning.
The lights flickered.
Lew looked around. "Did anyone just see ... ?"
The others nodded silently.
Then all four sixty-watt bulbs in the ceiling dimmed to about thirtyand stayed dimmed. As they lost power, the crystal atop the dome began to pulse with a faint amber light.
The air became more highly charged, and then the mini tower began to hum, low at first, but steadily rising in pitch. Jack saw the semicircle widen as all but Kenway eased back.
Where's that thing getting its power? he wondered, tensing on the steps. He didn't like this one bit.
The crystal pulsed more brightly, strobing distorted shadows against the walls; the hum rose further in pitch as the pulses cycled faster and faster, finally merging into a steady glow.
And then the tower began to rise off the floor.
"Holy shit!" Zaleski said. "This is too fucking much!"
Kenway looked grim, Lew looked puzzled, and Canfield ... Canfield looked absolutely rapt.
It continued to riseone inch ... two ... six ... a foot ...
Jack sat frozen, bloodless. This was no trick. No invisible wires on that thing. He'd set it up himself. The tower was really and truly floating in the air.
"Didn't I tell you, soldier boy?" Zaleski said, clapping Kenway on the shoulder. "Alien technology! This is how they make their saucers go!"
Kenway said nothing, but his quick glance at Zaleski was pure malice.
Jack fought the urge to pack it in and head for his car. The crawling sensation in his gut was more intense than ever, telling him he wasn't needed here, and didn't even belong here.
This isn't what you were hired for. Get out while you can.
The tower rose until the blazing crystal set in its dome was poised between two rafters. And then it simply hung there.
Jack felt a cool breeze against this back. Had somebody opened a door upstairs? He was about to get up to go look when Canfield's shout stopped him.
"Look!" he cried. He was pointing at the floor.
"Good Lord!" Kenway said, finally retreating a step.
A hole was opening. The concrete wasn't melting or crumbling, it was simply fading away. But no dirt was visible beneath, just ... hole. And the wider it got, the stronger the breeze against Jack's back, rushing toward the opening.
"Good God!" Lew said. "What is it?"
"What's it look like?" Zaleski said without looking up. "A pizza? It's a fucking hole."
A hole ...
Jack gripped the edges of the step that supported him. His dreams the past two nights had been nightmares about a hole ... one that looked like it wanted to gobble up the world.
"Hey, guys," he said, "I think we should call this off."
"Relax, Jack," Kenway said. "You won't fall in from there."
Idiot, Jack thought. "What if it keeps enlarging?"
"I gotta feeling this ain't the first time this hole has opened," Zaleski said. "And the house is still here, ain't it?"
Jack watched with mounting alarm as the hole kept expanding, widening until the concrete entrapping the rope ladder disappeared, leaving it hanging free over the rim and dangling into the opening.
And then it stopped enlarging.
Jack sagged with relief.
"I think that's it," Zaleski said.
Kenway leaned his body forward but kept his feet where they were. "How deep, I wonder?"
Zaleski inched forward, shuffling his feet nearer and nearer to the edge. "Only one way to find out."
He stopped with his toes perhaps half a foot from the rim, then craned his neck to peer over the edge.
"I see some light way down there andholy shit!" He jumped back from the edge.
"What?" Lew said. "What's wrong?"
"Look!" Canfield said, pointing to the ladder.
The ropes were moving, vibrating as they stretched over the rim.
"Something's coming," Zaleski said. "Climbing the ladder."
I hope he means someone, Jack thought, backing up another tread on the steps.
He sensed something ugly, something sinister slipping from that hole and coiling through the cellar. He held his breath as the gyrations of the ropes grew more pronounced, and then a single black talon rose above floor level and hooked onto the concrete ... followed by a head ... a dark-haired human head ... with a woman's face ...
"Melanie!" Lew cried and rushed forward.
He grabbed her arms and lifted her from the opening. Then he wrapped her in a bear hug that left her shoes a good foot off the floor.
"Oh, Mel, Mel!" he sobbed. "I've been so worried. Thank God, you're back! Thank God!"
Jack couldn't see Melanie's face, but her arms didn't seem to be returning Lew's hug with anywhere near his fervor. Especially the left arm ...
This was the first time Jack had seen Melanie's deformed forearm, and it wasn't what he'd expected. It seemed a little thinner than the right as it tapered down to the wrist; beyond that it stayed rounded instead of flattening into a palm. Lew had told him that all the fingernails had fused, leaving her with one large thick nail. But Jack hadn't pictured this big, sharp, black claw.