The Ravens of Solemano or The Order of the Mysterious Men in Black

by Eden Unger Bowditch

  Lucy opened one eye. With what seemed like a great deal of effort, she opened the other, until she had both of her very large brown eyes opened fully. Jasper was not fooled for a moment, however. Lucy was still asleep. Even Lucy’s vast and seemingly endless memory would not have included this moment. If Jasper, believing her awake, would have stood and walked out, expecting her to follow, she would have simply closed those big eyes and flopped back onto her pillow,

  “Lucy?” he said. “It’s Jasper. Wake up.” And this time there was a blink and a wink and a twinkle in her eyes, followed by a yawn, “There you are,” he said, seeing the sleepy girl emerge from behind the rubbing and yawning and stretching,

  He looked out of the window. He smiled. “Look, Lucy.”

  Lucy perked up and climbed across the bed to the window.

  “That’s the biggest, fluffiest cow I’ve ever seen!” Lucy said, pointing to a very large bison. She squealed with delight. “That one, next to the smaller one with the patchy thing on its hind leg. See? That one’s dancing! I love it when they dance, prancing around like that!”

  Yes, Lucy was awake, Jasper thought. Lucy couldn’t keep her eyes off the dancing bison, rushing from window to window along the corridor as she and Jasper walked to the dining car, in which Jasper could hear the other three gathered for teatime.

  As they entered the dining car, Jasper noticed immediately that Miss Brett was not present. Leaving Lucy with the others, he went to look for her in the last car—the salon. Its large fireplace was still lit with a warming fire, and that’s where Miss Brett waited, sewing a ribbon onto Lucy’s bunny rabbit doll.

  Jasper walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “It’s time for tea, Miss Brett,” Jasper said, his voice cracking.

  “Yes, sweet angel, I know,” Miss Brett said after she bit off the end of the thread and put it back in her sewing box. “But I wanted to have Lucy’s bunny doll join us.” Miss Brett stood up and put her arms gently around Jasper’s shoulders, and he wrapped himself tightly around her waist.

  “Well, that is certainly a strong hold you have on me, Jasper,” Miss Brett said. “Were you afraid I would—” And she was going to say disappear, but she suddenly realized this was not the right thing to say at all. She knew, from the way he held onto her, that that’s exactly what he thought. And who could blame him?

  “Listen to me,” she said, pulling away just enough to look deeply into his eyes. “As much as I can say it, I am not going anywhere. Do you hear?”

  “I . . . I know. It was only . . . I was thinking of the night on the train, before Dayton, when our parents, before the morning, when they were suddenly gone, and . . . I’m sorry.” Jasper felt he was sounding like Lucy. “I’m being stupid.”

  “No you are not.” Miss Brett almost sounded cross. “As far as I can help it, I will not disappear. I will not leave you children.”

  Taking Jasper by the hand, she let herself be led into the dining car for tea.

  Miss Brett opened her window as the delicate light of early morning began to build its strength. She expected to see the rocky terrain, but instead, she was met with a cityscape coming fast over the horizon. She sat back down and watched. Had they gone from the plains to the city in that short a time?

  Where were they? This was a big city, to be sure. It was coming up fast, too. Within a few minutes, she recognized the Park Row Building against the skyline. Miss Brett knew what city she saw The Park Row Building was, after all, the tallest office building in the world.

  Miss Brett was looking at New York City

  She quickly dressed. It was best to be prepared. But she continued to watch as the train rolled past the city center, not slowing in the slightest. What on earth? Miss Brett thought. She could not think of anything that was out past New York City

  She jumped at the knock on her door. Goodness, she thought, catching her breath. She was rather on edge. She stood up, straightened her skirt, and opened the door. There were five faces looking at her. The children, like her, were all dressed.

  “That is a very big building out there,” said Lucy. “We’re certainly not in the fluffy cow land anymore.”

  “No, dear, we’re not,” said Miss Brett with a smile. Looking out, she added, “And I cannot imagine where we’re going.”

  “We’re headed onto Long Island,” said Wallace.

  Of course, Miss Brett thought. Wallace is from Long Island. She wondered if Wallace’s house was going to be on the way. She knew he lived there with his father. Wallace’s mother had died several years before.

  “Wallace, do you know where we are? Does this look familiar?” Miss Brett asked.

  “Not yet,” he said, distracted as he watched intently through the window. Adjusting his glasses as he watched the city rolling by, he added, “I mean, not so as I recognize the neighborhood, ma’am.”

  “Well, I’m sure we’ll all know very soon,” said Miss Brett in a positive tone. “Let’s be sure we feed Noah before we head off on some adventure, shall we?”

  “That’s right,” said Noah, rubbing his belly. “I need feeding every few hours. Otherwise, I might catch flern.”

  “You are flern,” said Faye. “I thought you were a human being, but, clearly, I was wrong. You belong in a cage in a zoological park.”

  “Not so,” said Noah. “As long as you feed me, I can be quite human.” And his stomach growled on cue.

  “Are you like a hummingbird?” asked Lucy with concern. “A hummingbird needs to eat every few minutes or he can starve to death.”

  “Uh-oh, Luce,” said Noah, pretending to take out a pocket watch. “You had better feed me before I expire.”

  With their sandwiches and biscuits and cakes barely finished, Faye was the first to notice. She stood up abruptly and pointed out the window. “Goodness, what is that?”

  They all stood to see what Faye saw,

  It was a tall tower. It appeared to be close to two hundred feet high. It rose from a brick building hardly visible from behind the trees. The structure was not far at all from the train tracks,

  “We must be in Wardenclyffe-On-Sound,” said Wallace, now standing by the window, marveling at the sight,

  “What on what?” asked Noah, standing behind him.

  “It’s a community on Long Island. Really, it’s a resort,” said Wallace. “But there have been rumors about a scientific project.”

  Everyone was standing by the window now, looking out at the strange sight.

  “Rumors, huh?” Noah smiled as the train slowed. They all stumbled slightly, bumping into one another as the train stuttered to a stop. “Looks like we can confirm those rumors right here and now.”

  The bunny ear-wearing man came into the dining car

  “We stop,” he said, and departed.

  Scrambling to get to the door, the children were stopped by the arm of Miss Brett,

  “Please, children,” she said, not scolding, but firm. “Let me lead, if you please. We don’t know what’s out there.”

  Miss Brett led her charges to the door of the dining car. Will it be locked? she wondered. Will we be prisoners on the train? But when she pressed against the door, it opened. She led the way out.

  Descending the steps, each of them felt the ground beneath their feet, or at least they tried.

  “I can still feel the train in me,” said Lucy. “I’m still on the train from my ankles down, and a bit of my tummy.”

  Because they were not under duress and running for safety, they had the time to step upon the rocks and actually look around.

  “Wardenclyffe-On-Sound is a lovely place,” Miss Brett noted. Although there did not seem to be visitors, the place was tidy, and the flowerbeds filled with colorful blooms.

  But it wasn’t the blooms that Faye noticed. The huge tower rising above them was a very un-resort-like sight. And it really was massive. They all stood, staring upwards. How ugly, thought Faye.

  “Amazing,” said Wallace. “To think
, it is real and it is here.”

  “It’s your neighbor,” said Lucy.

  “That’s right,” Noah said. “Do introduce us, Wallace.”

  “Well,” Wallace said, adjusting his glasses, “the train line was extended here around 1895. Then Mr. Warden, who is a very rich man, bought the land to build a resort. But he also seemed to be interested in inventions. This tower is going to be one of many.”

  “What does it do?” Miss Brett asked.

  “Amazing things you cannot possibly fathom,” came a voice that did not belong to any of them. But it was a voice they had heard before.

  “It’s you!” Lucy said enthusiastically. “It’s really you, and you’re not exploded!”

  “I most certainly am not exploded, young lady,” said the skinny man with the white handkerchief who they had last seen leaving the rubble of his laboratory to enter the train, just before it exploded.

  “Well, it’s really nice that you are not exploded,” said Lucy politely. “We’re ever so glad.” She smiled. The man, however, merely twitched his lips, and only Lucy knew that behind that twitch was a less-than-a second smile.

  “Good to see you’re not dead,” said Noah, reaching his hand toward the man. The man offered his handkerchief. Noah took it and shook it vigorously, as if it were the hand of an old friend.

  “Well, I suppose it is a good thing not to be dead,” said the man, now offering his handkerchief to Wallace, who did not understand what to do with the gesture and, therefore, looked the other way

  “Nice place you have here,” Noah said, looking around.

  The man harrumphed at Wallace, then looked at Noah and the others. He seemed resigned to something.

  “Very well,” he said. “As you are here, I shall show you my tower.” The man shook out his handkerchief and placed it in his pocket.

  “Sorry to be rude,” Miss Brett said, “but who exactly are you?”

  “Exactly?” The man’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead.

  “Well, I mean . . . that is . . . well, I’m Astraea Brett. And you are . . .?”

  “I am Nikola Tesla,” the man said. “I would have thought you all would know that, if nothing else. Nikola Tesla. But you can call me Mr. Tesla.”

  “It is, um, a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Tesla,” Miss Brett said, pulling back her hand when she remembered the man obviously did not like to shake.

  “Nikola Tesla?” Noah’s own eyebrows shot up his forehead.

  “The one and the only, yes.” Mr. Tesla, without humor, presented himself with a gesture.

  “Then—this is your tower!” Noah was clearly excited.

  “Mr. Tesla is a brilliant inventor,” Wallace said, looking up at the man and adjusting his glasses,

  “Yes, my father and I were reading about you back in Toronto,” said Noah.

  “What did you read?” asked Jasper.

  “Well, that he’s been building a tower,” Noah said. “Something of a radio tower, to create electricity, and—”

  “Now, now,” said Tesla, “don’t attempt a feeble explanation of something about which you know only tiny portions. This tower will change the world, as will most of my inventions.”

  “Oh, lovely!” Lucy said, clapping her hands together. “A story!”

  “Well, if you think I shall tell you all . . .” But Tesla seemed to reconsider. “I suppose as you are members . . .”

  “Members?” Miss Brett looked confused.

  It was then that the man in black bunny ears came over. He bowed, slightly, toward Mr. Tesla.

  “Is it loaded?” Tesla asked.

  “Near but more need,” the man in bunny ears said.

  “Well, I am needed,” Tesla said dismissively, pulling a pair of gloves from his pocket and putting them on as he spoke. “I will have to tell you about my death ray another time.”

  He turned to follow the man in black toward the building.

  “Death ray?” said Noah, Jasper, and Wallace all at once.

  “Did you have something to do with the explosion?” Miss Brett called to him.

  “All of the sparkly bits and stuff?” said Lucy.

  “Yes, it was mine, the lightning ball,” he said, not bothering to turn around. “It was mine, my creation. My terrestrial stationary waves.”

  Then Jasper shouted, “Do you know Komar Romak?!”

  Tesla seemed nearly to trip over his feet as he stopped dead in his tracks. He gasped, catching his breath. “Do I know . . . why on earth would you ask . . . I . . . well, I . . .” But then he turned to the man in black next to him. The bunny-ears man shook his head, his ears flapping on either side of his face.

  “No, and I will not speak of them.” Tesla turned on his heels and continued walking toward the building that sat below the formidable tower.

  “You blew up the shiny thing and the contraption,” Lucy said.

  “I did nothing of the sort,” Tesla said, stopping, arms folded in protest. “I was the shiny thing.”

  “You were . . .” And then Jasper got it. The “shiny thing” was a ball of lightning, hovering across the field. The contraption was the target, and it succeeded. “How did you create a lightning ball?” he said. “It is said to be impossible.”

  “Hmmph,” said Tesla with a wave of his arm as he walked away.

  “Then you blew up Komar Romak,” Jasper said.

  “But if you did that, then why is everyone still so worried?” said Noah.

  “Komar Romak?” Tesla laughed, stopping and turning back around. “One does not simply blow up Komar Romak.”

  “So he’s not dead?” asked Wallace.

  “Not he,” the bunny-ears man said.

  “And not dead,” Tesla mumbled, almost to himself.

  “But it was you who blew up our train,” Noah said. Then, upon rethinking: “Or didn’t blow up the train, or . . .”

  “Yes, you told us not to look,” Lucy said. Tesla had indeed warned the children not to look at the train.

  “I have no time for this.” Tesla stomped his foot and turned away from them. “Load up!” he shouted to the men in black. They followed him into the building.

  “But . . .” began Faye. Without warning, she ran after them. The rest of the children followed. And far from stopping them, Miss Brett joined in the chase,

  They entered what was clearly an unfinished laboratory. It housed gadgets and machines the likes of which the children had never seen. There were gears of enormous size and strange rods and wires everywhere.

  “What is this place?” asked Faye, distracted from the object of her pursuit.

  “This will be the brain, the epicenter, the very heart of the operation. It is here that the conduit and energy—the power—will be conducted to its ends.” Tesla stood, full of pride, his arms spread as if introducing the greatest thing on the planet,

  “What does it all do?” asked Lucy.

  “Do?” Tesla’s moustache quivered. “Do, child? It does everything. It is the power source and the power itself.”

  “Oh,” Lucy said timidly, for she still had no idea what all this did.

  “Well, is it safe to be in here?” Miss Brett asked.

  “Safe?” Tesla seemed to recoil. “Are you one of that thieving fool’s spies? That blue-collar genius of an idiot, Edison, tried to prove that my current was unsafe, but he was filled with lies, as you all know.”

  “Um, no,” Miss Brett said. Her question had seemed logical if this was, indeed, the center of immense power. “No, I am not, and no, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Well, he shall never have my death ray! I will find the thieves!” declared Tesla. Miss Brett and the children were now certain that Mr. Tesla was more than a little mad.

  “You really have invented a death ray?” said Noah, trying to keep a straight face.

  “Must you speak so loud?!” Tesla covered his ears. “I am working on perfecting the defense mechanism.”

  “Defense mechanism?” asked Jasper.
>
  “Yes. It is a mechanism to prevent the weapon from being used for anything but defense.”

  Tesla leaned against a wide, low vat. It was no more than three feet high, but probably twice that in diameter. Lucy walked over to the vat. In it was what looked like a massive silver soup. “Mercury!” said Lucy in excitement. She touched the strange substance. It jiggled slightly. She giggled and touched it again. “It’s my favorite metal, since it wiggles. Other metals are not anywhere as funny.”

  “Get away from that!” shouted Tesla. “That is the ammunition!”

  “The mercury?” asked Jasper, pulling his sister to him and grabbing her hand as it moved toward her mouth. He’d have to warn her about touching things and then putting her hand in her mouth. Whatever the death ray was, mercury was poison and she had touched it.

  “Yes, indeed, the mercury. It is genius,” Tesla said. “The electrostatic generators require such turbines as I have yet to create, although, yes, we know how the idea came to be . . . yes, and I’m sorry for it.” The man seemed to retreat into his thoughts, turning to the bunny-ears man, who put a hand on Tesla’s shoulder.

  “It is true. A weapon from my hand should never be used to attack, only to defend. But as we know . . .” Tesla looked at the bunny-ears man. “As we know, the most brilliant inventions borne of the best intentions can sometimes be the end of the world.” Tesla suddenly broke into tears.

  “We all protect,” said the bunny-ears man.

  “Yes, but we cannot unknow things, eh, brother? Once we bring something into the world . . . and, yes, I have learned from the long, long past, but still, as we know, we cannot uncreate something once it burns a hole for itself in this world.” And he burst, again, into tears.

  “Sir . . .” Lucy began, stepping toward him.

  “No!” he said, startling the little girl back into her brother’s embrace. “No, it is true. I am to blame for this, but it will not matter, yes? No. It is for the best, for now, to be taken to safety. Yes, secrecy and safety—a powerful pair.”