by J M Bannon
“What I need from you all is to work together; to be a team, because there are no others in a better position to serve this purpose. We need to locate this enclave, identify its members and be certain we can safely rescue young Gerrard. Only then can we deploy the means to dispose of the one called Caiaphas,” finished Rose.
“Good Sister, I wholeheartedly agree and will support your plan. I pledge my fealty to this group of — Libertines you have assembled here today,” affirmed Azul.
“Thank you, Vizier. I don’t know if we need to be that formal, but the declaration is appreciated,” said Rose.
“I too will help, although I require some leeway as I need to plan a wedding and control my father from creating the most audacious social spectacle this century,” said Lorelei.
“Of course, I am available to help as well, just let me know how.” Preston committed.
“I’ll do my part as I want to stop these fellas as much today as I did the day I saw what happened in Harpsichord,” said Elmore.
The group all turned to Angelica.
“Well enough, I will follow your lead Rose and offer my service to you in this search for my son,” said Angelica.
“Back to my travels, Sister I believe that I must at some point get back to the Hermetic Brotherhood and see what they still have on record. I know where there may also be ancient texts that my new perspective may help in understanding his origins and weaknesses. I can begin my work here and help Preston with his hypothesis that there are others like Caiaphas, as they may hold the key to his undoing,” Azul suggested.
“And if he was behind the entombing, similar to that of Pruflas, then they may be all too happy to assist our cause,” offered Preston.
“That may be the case, and I plan to take a whack at constructing something to imprison him. It may only hold him for the short term, but I’ll feel more confident at our next encounter if I have something up my sleeve,” said Rose.
16
Chapter 16: Saturday the 15th of June, 1861
9:20 A.M Palazo Corsini, Rome, Italy
Young Gerrard sat quietly in the library. His eyes were shut and his breathing slow and steady. Within his stillness, he worked to be quiet within the mind of Dimetri. It was like sneaking into a room in the dark, to creep into another’s consciousness without them noticing. You had to navigate where you wanted to go without bumping into the furniture or knocking over a lamp. In the mind of another, you had to be careful not to crash into a memory or let one of your thoughts loose in the target’s head.
He had entered the mind of the Russian mute to spy on his thoughts. He wanted to understand the secret of Dimetri Pavlovitch’s portal transportation system. Caiaphas had asked Dimetri to share with Gerrard the work on the new portal system. On face value, Dimetri appeared to be sharing everything, but Gerrard didn’t trust him. He wanted to make sure that the mute wasn’t hiding anything from him and Gerrard’s psychic powers were growing stronger every day.
Caiaphas helped him to see how the occult techniques and pagan rituals were methods to attune to and manipulate metaphysical energy. A human thought was just that; invisible energy that could manifest in many different ways, a twitch of a muscle, the prose to start a revolution, or in his case, the manipulation of aetheric energy. He was an apt pupil, and his teacher was unencumbered by the human condition.
Gerrard concentrated. He was making this connection from a distance while Dimetri was working in the basement laboratory. This mind spying, and telepathy wasn’t anything that he learned from the tomes in the Palazzo library but working with his mentor Caiaphas. He knew Caiaphas wasn’t from this world and his interest in training Gerrard was to eventually have him explore worlds beyond earth. Gerrard’s ability wasn’t in areas like theurgy or alchemy. He didn't conjure or mix potions, instead Gerrard could sense the spiritual form of a being and tune into that energy. He could watch the thoughts of others or project his thoughts into their mind.
Dimetri was hard at work, he routinely worked through the night. The Russian was obsessed with the new design and had been tireless since his escape from the island lair in the Italian lake region where the inventor had built his first portal system. The new system was nearly complete and had included from what Gerrard could glean, a more powerful configuration.
He was shocked back to concentration when Caiaphas walked into Dimetri’s workshop. He suppressed his fear of being caught and his urge to run out of Dimetri’s mind knowing the act would certainly give away what he was doing. Caiaphas would be tipped off, and Dimetri may learn of his probes. If Caiaphas sensed him, it was too late, and he would be admonished later.
Instead, he tucked himself back further in the shadows of Dimetri’s mind and just listened to the two as they exchanged thoughts.
“Dimetri, how has your work been progressing?” asked the woman who entered.
Gerrard could see through Dimetri’s eyes that the new female form that Caiaphas possessed came into the room. He could sense Dimetri’s attraction to her beauty. Gerrard found this strange for his perception was that she was an empty shell, controlled by Caiaphas’s true form that lay in a pool in the catacombs of the palazzo. The woman wore a dark green bodice and a plaid skirt with her dark hair up. She carried a tray with coffee and the newspaper.
Dimetri looked up from his notebook and projected his thoughts. Caiaphas and Gerrard made this possible rather than watching him scrawl out words on a slate he carried.
< You shocked me. I am not used to your new look, nor did I know you had returned from your travels. I too wanted to discuss with you my ideas about my visit to London and seeing the number loom of the gangster.> thought Dimetri.
Gerrard could almost see Caiaphas pressing into the Russian’s mind. It was similar to what he was doing but more sophisticated. It concerned Gerrard that he was about to be discovered. He fought his urge to flee knowing Caiaphas would undoubtedly see him break away. He thought deeper, if he were noticed that would mean Caiaphas wanted him here. Very little seemed to happen without his mentor either planning it or knowing of the outcome.
“Tell me,” Caiaphas urged.
“Have the dreams I’ve sent you helped your understanding? Not that you sleep much —”
< They have been inspiring. I now have a thought for how we can navigate an invisible realm, but it will require numerous trips to map out and give my navigation system more points of reference. What I have not resolved is the power to project the distances required, and at the frequencies you’ve shown me of these world’s existence.>
“Dimetri, I can sense your doubt, don’t forget how I was there in the Tsar’s study when you broke in with your first portal. I saw what you would accomplish before you did.”
“As I had planned. What if that whole episode was something I put into motion? While I didn’t foresee the Haitian enchantress, the outcome is as I had anticipated and with that she has inadvertently helped you.” The woman set the tray down before him then began walking through the lab casually.
“It is time for the world to recognize your mechanical genius. However, it means you’ll be required to work with some others, take on new responsibilities and continue your clandestine projects.” The beautiful woman stopped in front of a locked glass cabinet, within it was a strange apparatus that had its own reddish glow. It was a Necronist device that Dime
tri had taken with him when he escaped from his laboratory.
“I have Allard’s plans and journals. I will need you to look at them and develop a method for transferring these souls into new vessels.”
“Look at the newspaper I brought,” she said without turning around.
Dimetri saw a picture of the Mechanist Man with his creator, Alfred Fletcher and a group of other English dignitaries on the front page of the paper.
“Yes— I have his creator going to Haddon Hall to work with Giuliani. Together they will develop copies of that thing that you can pump these souls into. Is that too much to ask?”
Gerrard could sense Dimetri’s curiosity, he could see the mental images forming not of the solution but of the accolades he would receive for his genius. No wonder Caiaphas could control others so quickly when he could see their desires and fears by looking into their mind. It made him think how he needed to build defenses against that thing in the basement.
“What you won’t read about in the paper is that the English have stolen your idea. Rose Caldwell, the one you call a witch was able to comprehend your work with her gifts and she along with this Fletcher and others have built a more powerful portal system,” said the woman turning and walking back to Dimetri. “Why couldn’t you use their device to amplify this portal system?” suggested the Countess. She walked back to the table and poured him a coffee from the pot on the tray.
Now the Russian’s thoughts flew around Gerrard. A wild mosaic of numbers, mental images, feelings, and recollections whirling about and forming into a rough concept of how it might work.
“You are smart enough to know that I am not what I seem and the only reason I don’t share everything with you Dimetri, is frankly, you would go insane. Just as Allard did when I opened his mind to my true nature, and hundreds of others have when exposed to my mind. This shell is as much to protect you as it is to please your eye.” Caiaphas explained.
“I do not control events, but not being of this plane of existence I see things differently. Much as a bat can navigate with sound, I can see the aetheric energies and read them. Your eyes are capable of seeing only certain things. It does not mean that what you don’t see doesn’t exist, just that you are oblivious to it. I am able to see possibilities, and because of this facility I can influence outcomes, but I still need the players to act out the play. The witch thinks she is on a path to stop me. How can she hinder what she knows nothing about and is involuntarily helping me to accomplish?” she said.
< I can do it. I just can’t do it all at once. I have to recreate— no I need to reinvent the Nexus to coordinate with their portal system. I will need access to it to make alterations and synchronize them, and finally, we will need to test them. Once that is done then we can address the issue of harmonizing the frequencies of two dimensions. There is the time and cost, and you say I need to work with Giuliani and travel, this will take time and money and —>
She touched the Russian’s wrist, and as a calming effect, flooded Dimetri’s mind, Gerrard instantly reacted and jumped out before Caiaphas had a chance to sense him. He snapped out of his meditation not calm but excited and anxious that he was nearly caught snooping. Gerrard worked to calm himself. His first thought was to look in the library for literature on protecting the mind. He thought something of an eastern flair would be a good start and got up from his chair and walked to that part of the library.
The youth ran his finger along the spines of the old books on the shelf in front of him. Giving them little thought when he heard the heel clicks of a woman’s boot on the marble floor it was Caiaphas.
“Countess” He greeted with a nod and waited for admonishment for skulking around in the mind of the Russian.
“Gerrard,”
“Is there something you need?” He asked waiting for a comment.
“It is time for your training, shall we begin?”
17
Monday the 1st of July, 1861
10:15 A.M. Saint James Park, London, England
In the resting pool, the true form of Caiaphas lay. The basin possessed the largest part of the east end of the cellar. The vast chamber was decorated in bright mosaic tile to please the eyes of the humans who used to frequent this room. Now it was impossible to see the scenes made up of ceramic chips as the chamber was unlit, and mildew was propagating over the damp surfaces. The room was only occasionally tended to by the female minion Caiaphas possessed, but now she was hundreds of miles away.
The only sound in the space was the occasional drip of water from the ceiling when enough condensation collected causing water to drip back into the pool. The droplet would hit and ripple across the water surface just as the sound would reverberate through the air. The mound of corrupted flesh that lay in the pool felt it all. The sensations of the air and the water, its vector and intensity, the understanding of its cause, the time it happened, were all as important to Caiaphas as was the events he had put in motion or the minds he was connected to around the world.
Caiaphas was not of this earth or this universe. It was something else, and while his followers saw him as an eternal God with limitless powers, he felt isolated, trapped, and powerless.
“I am Edmund Dennison, and what brings you to London?”
Caiaphas heard the words of his target through the ears of his minion Elena Corsini. Of course, there was no real Elena, he had found a favorable mind in a country girl in Uzbek. For a subject to be favorable, they had to have a pliable mind. One that he could manipulate and subdue without devouring. It was a practice he had developed over the centuries, a way of controlling the humans and using them as a host to act as a physical form. It allowed movement among the creatures on this planet. Most were so fragile, encountering him in his true form they would go insane. In the last fleeting moments of a witness’s mind ripping apart the emotion was horror not for seeing the amorphous blob of flesh and tentacles that lay in the pool, but from being opened to his thoughts.
The beautiful girl from the countryside was perfect. She had a pliable mind and her physical form was pleasing to the male organisms. Focus went to within her and filled him with the sensations of a London Park where the Countess had just met the target. She had strolled along the path he took to work through the park.
“The Countess Elena Corsini, a pleasure to meet you. I am here on business.”
“Business, what business might a fair woman be engaged in within a ruthless city like London?”
“Many, my family has numerous interests here and abroad. And what is it that you do Mr. Dennison?” asked the Countess.
He pointed to the skyline, “you see the Parliament clock tower?”
“I do sir,” she purred.
“I designed it,” replied Dennison.
“You’re an architect?”
“Oh no. I am a lawyer by practice, but also an amateur horologist. I designed the inner workings of the tower. You see it is no mean feat to build a clock that is so big and so accurate. Quite scientific, you see, with accounting for the weight of the hands and the wind,” Dennison explained.
“You may be interested in some of my collection. I have several chronographs from the Petrovitch works in St. Petersburg.”
“Really! They are the watchmaker to the Tsar.”
“I know, and I assure you that the clock I have is far more interesting than anything that the Tsar has,” said the Countess.
“I would very much like to see it.”
“Well, I would very much like to see the inside of that clock tower,” she retorted, motioning upward.
The man smiled.
“I don’t wish to be too forward, but I would be happy to host you on a private tour of the Westminster Palace clock tower.”
Caiaphas was always pleasantly surprised with how easily men would become beguiled by the form of the Countess.
18
Monday the 8th of July, 1861
3:20 A.M. Dimetri’s Laboratory, Palazzo Corsini
Through his magnifying monocle, Dimetri watched the screw driver turn the tiny fasteners. Once tight he dabbed a tiny drop of glue to fix the fastener. With the last one tightened and fixed, he pushed back from the complex clock mechanism and moved the magnifying lens out of his view. The chair he sat on was wheeled and allowed him to push back further and take in his work in its entirety, quite exquisite. It was a suit, and at first look, one would assume it was armor, it had a medieval quality. It had the protection of a suit of plate armor, but that would be completely missing the purpose. Not designed to protect the wearer from blows in combat, intended instead to protect a human against the harsh elements of the aetheric planes. The construction was another joint effort of the parties in Caiaphas’ Brotherhood of One. Dimetri had not built the armor, that was the work of Luca Giuliani, but the integration of the clockwork was all his idea.
The metal had a green tint to it almost luminescent. Certainly, like nothing Dimetri had seen, but the Italian was able through his electrochemical processes to mix metals into alloys as well as attach exotic coatings. Dimetri was unsure if this material was the result of alloying or plating; it was likely to be both. The metal that made the plates while resembling steel was lighter, yet just as rigid. Where some of the plate was an inch thick, in other places it was paper thin. Layered and articulating plates combined with an underlying webbing provided protection and flexibility.
