The Black Crow Conspiracy (12 page)

Next to the door, an electric lantern was fixed to the wall, two sliding panels of glass masking the bulb. One of these was coloured red, the other green.

“Are we not in London any more?” Monty grumbled. “What does this blasted sign say?”

“Danger,” the German sailor translated. “When the red light is on, entry is strictly prohibited.”

As Amsel opened the steel door with a grunt of effort, Penny noted with relief that it was the green panel that was currently slid into position, Professor Röntgen’s presence at the reception seemingly preventing him from conducting any more experiments tonight.

The sailor flicked a light switch and, as this illuminated the room, Penelope stepped forward to join him, letting out a low gasp of surprise as she took in her surroundings. She was standing in a large chamber, larger even than the grand lecture room in which she had first set eyes on Professor Röntgen.

In the centre of the room, two rows of ten chairs were set in parallel lines and although their arrangement reminded Penelope of the theatre, the design of these appeared more suited to a Bedlam cell. Heavy leather straps hung from the armrests, whilst similar restraints were fixed to the foremost legs of each chair, their construction seeking to confine completely whoever chose to sit in them.

Above the chairs, an array of peculiarly-shaped glass tubes was suspended from the ceiling. Induction coils and uranium interrupters connected the tubes, whilst rubber-insulated cables ran from this apparatus along the ceiling
and down the walls, skirting past the chairs to lead to a lead-lined box that stood facing them on the other side of the chamber. This mysterious box was over seven feet high and approximately the same width. A room within a room, but for what purpose Penelope could not say.

A sudden clattering sound caused Penny to turn in alarm. Her anxiety quickly turned to annoyance as she saw Monty peering inside a tall wooden closet, a lead-lined apron crumpled on the floor beside him. As he stooped to retrieve it, he glanced up apologetically.

“I thought there might be another way out of here,” he said, placing the apron back on its hanger inside the closet. With a weary sigh, Penelope turned back to face Amsel.

“What is this place?” she asked him.

“It is a torture chamber,” the young sailor replied, a look of animal pain in his eyes. “This is where Professor Röntgen turns men into ghosts.”

At this statement, Monty closed the closet door with a shudder.

“What do you mean?” he enquired, eyeing the leather straps and restraints dangling from the chairs with a nervous air. “Is he some kind of Dr Frankenstein?”

“He is more of a monster,” Amsel replied darkly. Then in a bitter voice he began to recount the events that had brought him to this place.
“I am a Sea Cadet on His Majesty’s Yacht
Hohenzollern
– the pride of the German fleet. On the announcement of King Edward the Seventh’s coronation, the Kaiser sailed for London and, when we berthed here, he selected twenty of the sea cadets to form a shore party to carry out a mission for the glory of the Reich. I made sure that I was chosen – eager to serve my Emperor at last.” He shook his head angrily. “What a fool I was.”

The young sailor glanced around the chamber, Penny following his gaze as he stared at the rows of empty chairs.

“This is where they brought us. Down into the depths of this laboratory, hidden away from human sight. I know why now, of course – they could not let anyone see the blasphemy that they would create here. We were the youngest of the ship’s crew, more used to feeling the wind on our faces, now locked inside this airless place while the light outside glowed red.” He turned back to face Penelope, his eyes glistening as he relived the memory. “Professor Röntgen inspected us like laboratory rats – probing and measuring us, even connecting our bodies to strange machines that listened to our blood. And then when he was finally satisfied as to our fitness for his experiment, he instructed us to sit in these chairs that you see here.”

With an absent-minded gesture, Amsel rubbed
his wrists as if he could still feel the straps chafing his skin.

“He said it wouldn’t hurt,” he said sullenly, his voice dropping to a low whisper, more like a child than a sailor of the Imperial German Navy. “He said that the straps were there to protect us.” He stared up at Penny, his eyes black with betrayal. “He lied.”

Amsel fell silent for a moment, as if the memories flickering across his features were too painful to express. Penelope held his gaze, seeing the depths of suffering that lurked there.

“What happened to you?” she asked, her own voice an echoing whisper.

“Once Professor Röntgen had made sure that the straps were secure, he retreated inside that lead-lined box to throw the switch that would bring his infernal machine to life.” Amsel raised his gaze to the curious arrangement of tubes above their heads. “There came a sudden buzzing sound like thousands of bees hammering at the glass, but all I could see was the light glowing green.” His hands trembled, reliving every moment of the experience again. “And then I felt the pain.”

“It could only have lasted moments, but it felt like a lifetime. It was as though the room was flooded with an invisible fire. I heard the screams of my comrades, too painful to bear – my fellow sea cadets reduced to snivelling wrecks in mere seconds. As the buzzing ceased and the
luminescent glow slowly faded from the glass, I looked down at my skin to see the same radiant fire running through my veins.” He lifted his hand in front of his face. “Panicking, I tried to free myself and somehow found that I could slip from the restraints that held me without a struggle. I saw my comrades do the same, their limbs melting through the leather straps as they hauled themselves upright, every face a glowing green mask of pain.”

Penelope and Monty listened aghast, the faint buzz of the generator the only sound that could be heard as the young sailor continued his story.

“When Professor Röntgen emerged from the safety of his antechamber, he clapped his hands together in delight. ‘It worked!’ he cried, his dark eyes ablaze as we stood there with a living fire burning in our veins. Then he told us what he had done to us – how his machine had made us into ghosts of men.

“From this moment on, we were kept prisoners in this laboratory – unwilling subjects for the professor’s endless experiments. At first, their effects only lasted for mere minutes – the strange glow quickly fading from our skin – but as Professor Röntgen tinkered with his infernal equipment the effects endured for longer with every experiment. We listened in fear as he increased the voltage of the electrical current and knew that when he next flicked the switch the
pain would be even worse than the last time. I watched my friends, their touch turned to living fire as they tried to control this curse that had been cast upon us.”

Amsel turned to face Penelope, his glistening gaze unable to disguise his distress.

“Professor Röntgen said that we alone were young enough to bear the strain of his experiments. That on the Kaiser’s orders, he was transforming us into the ultimate fighting machine. Under his tutelage, he showed us how we could use our minds to control this accursed gift and then sent us out across London to carry out the Kaiser’s commands: spying on government papers in Whitehall, stealing the Crown Jewels, even kidnapping the King.”

Before Amsel could explain further, the distant sound of footsteps echoed from the corridor outside.

“Quick,” he said, turning in alarm. “Someone is coming.”

Penelope looked around in desperation, no sign of any place to hide as the footsteps echoed ever closer. She could hear the sound of German voices: the low rumble of Professor Röntgen’s words answered by the clipped tones of the Kaiser. Amsel paled, their discovery imminent.

With a low whimper of fear, Monty clambered inside the closet. With fumbling fingers he wrapped himself in the folds of the aprons hanging
there in a desperate attempt at disguise. Monty’s bulk meant there was no room for Penny to hide there as well, the actor meeting her gaze with a shame-faced look of apology. Darting forward, she closed the closet door on Monty with a click and then turned to try to find her own hiding place.

“How about the box?” she hissed, catching hold of Amsel’s arm to gesture to its lead-lined walls.

The young sailor shook his head, his own gaze desperately searching for sanctuary.

“If Röntgen is here to perform his experiments, then that is the last place we should hide.” He dragged Penny towards a packing crate, standing in the shadows of the antechamber. “This was used to transport equipment from the
Hohenzollern
.” Lifting the lid, he gestured for her to climb inside. “It is our only chance.”

There was no time for Penelope to argue, the nearing voices announcing their imminent arrival. She clambered inside the packing crate, covering herself with the heavy blankets left as ballast at the bottom of the case. Then the young sailor climbed in beside her, silently drawing the lid of the crate over them both as the sound of footsteps entered the room.

They crouched there together, uncomfortably close, not even daring to breathe. Turning her head, Penelope peered through a crack in the
packing case, trying to make out the identities of the figures still entering the room. She could see Professor Röntgen’s rail-thin frame, his upright mane of unruly black hair dwarfing the figure of his Emperor. The Kaiser’s personal guards stood sentry behind him, Wilhelm’s lip curling in satisfaction as a platoon of black-coated boys marched into the room.

“
Zurück zu Ihren Posten!
” he barked. “
Ihre letzte Mission für den Ruhm des Deutschen Kaiserreiches ist es, die Britische Krone gefangen zu nehmen
.”

Penelope’s grasp of German was even worse than her French, the Emperor’s words holding no meaning for her.

“What is he saying?” she murmured softly, angling her mouth towards Amsel’s ear in the cramped confines of the packing case.

“Their final mission,” the sailor replied, his own voice barely a whisper, “is to capture the British throne for the glory of the Imperial German Empire.”

Turning back, Penelope watched as the radiant boys saluted in reply and then marched to take their places in the empty chairs. Next to her, she felt Amsel stiffen with fear, but her own heart pounded with anticipation. Now she would see for herself the secrets of Röntgen’s invisible rays.

But Penelope’s sense of excitement was short-lived, as through the crack in the crate she saw
the professor approach the store cupboard where Monty was hiding. She heard the sound of its door opening followed by a guttural exclamation.

“
Ach du meine Güte!
”

The Kaiser’s guards rushed forward as Röntgen fell back in surprise, Monty emerging from the closet with a sheepish smile.

“Ah,” he said, glancing nervously at the armed guards. “I appear to have taken a wrong turn. Would one of you gentlemen be kind enough to point me in the direction of the Emperor’s reception?”

XIX

“It is him!” Professor Röntgen exclaimed as the guards seized hold of Monty. “The man I was telling you about, Your Highness.” Röntgen peered inside the dark cupboard, pulling back the aprons hanging there to reveal its furthest recesses. “But there is no sign of the girl.” He turned back to face Monty. “Where is she?”

“Steady on,” Monty protested, struggling to maintain his composure as the Kaiser’s guards held him captive. “There is no need to treat an honoured guest in this way. Surely, sir, you remember me from the reception?”

“I remember you,” Professor Röntgen replied, meeting Monty’s gaze with a suspicious stare. “But what are you doing in my laboratory and where is your niece?”

From her hiding place, Penelope held her breath, fearful that he would give them all away.

“My niece Penelope was feeling rather unwell,” Monty replied. “I escorted her outside to hail a
hansom cab, tipping the driver handsomely to return her home safely. But when I attempted to return to the reception, I think I must have taken a wrong turn and, after all manner of diversions, I found myself in this place.” He wrung his face into a grateful smile. “Thank goodness you have found me.”

The Kaiser stepped forward, his upturned moustache quivering with outrage.

“Do you really expect me to believe this, Mr Flinch? I am not one of your credulous readers. Now, tell me,” he said, clutching the hilt of his sword with a malevolent air. “What really brought you here this evening?”

Monty quailed in the face of the Kaiser’s iron glare.

“I swear that I found my way here by mistake,” he insisted. “But I must admit that when I found this laboratory, I was somewhat intrigued. My compatriot, Mr Herbert George Wells, has had great success of late with his stories of scientific romance, and I saw here the chance to find my own inspiration. When I heard your footsteps approaching, I was unsure as to how my trespass would be received, so I took the precaution of hiding myself in this wardrobe.” Monty raised his gaze to the array of gleaming tubes and coils suspended above their heads. “I so wanted to see what wondrous discoveries you have made here, professor.”

Professor Röntgen scowled darkly at Monty’s impertinence, but the Kaiser just laughed out loud.

“Your audacity astounds me, Mr Flinch – if only more of your compatriots had the daring you have shown, then Britain would not be in need of a saviour to restore the greatness that my grandmother bestowed. We will have to furnish you tonight with the inspiration you require for your astounding tales.”

He turned to Professor Röntgen, the scientist now slipping a lead-lined apron around his neck. “Please explain to Mr Flinch the nature of the discoveries you have made,
mein Professor
.”

“Are you quite sure, Your Highness?” Röntgen replied, glancing up at the Kaiser in surprise. “If my discovery was to be revealed in the pages of this ‘Penny Dreadful’ magazine…”

“Do not question me!” the Kaiser snapped in a sudden burst of anger. Then, recovering his composure almost as quickly as he had lost it, he spoke again in a more measured tone. “It will soon be time for the world to learn of the magnitude of our achievements as we enact the final stage of my master plan tonight. Mr Flinch may as well have the privilege of being one of the first.”

An arrogant smile crept across the Kaiser’s face. “And besides, I do not think he will have the chance to betray our confidence.”

At the Kaiser’s words, Monty looked nonplussed, but Professor Röntgen nodded his obedience, gesturing upwards towards the apparatus suspended from the ceiling.

“You see here, Mr Flinch, my own unique invention, the product of many years of research and countless experiments. This is the Röntgen Ray Generator – an X-ray machine like no other.”

“Aren’t X-ray machines rather old hat now?” Monty replied, glancing nervously at Röntgen’s machine. “A circus trick allowing the curious to photograph the bones beneath the skin, but of little practical application.”

The scientist bristled at Monty’s off-hand dismissal of his life’s work.

“You do not understand the true potential of these invisible rays that will soon take my name. Imagine if the X-ray could be manipulated, not merely to take shadow photographs but to transform the human body into its shadow form. The flesh imbued with the same penetrative power that the X-rays themselves possess – the power to pass through solid matter without any harm.”

Monty laughed nervously. “I’m afraid your proposition is too far-fetched, professor – even for the pages of
The Penny Dreadful.
I can see that I will have to seek inspiration for my next tale elsewhere. Now, if you would please excuse me—”

“Stay where you are,” the scientist hissed, the Kaiser’s guards tightening their grip on Monty’s arms. “What I am telling you is true!

“After my discovery of the X-ray, I became convinced that its remarkable power could in some way be harnessed to challenge the laws that govern the natural world. These rays are able to seep through all manner of matter – wood, stone, metal and more – their penetrative power is without parallel. Through a process of careful experimentation, I discovered a means by which I could manipulate their creation and thus harness their power. Using the application of radiation to their generation, I found that I had created a completely new form of invisible ray: no longer merely X-rays, but now radioactive Röntgen rays with the power to transform living beings into ghosts who can walk through walls.”

Monty gasped in fear but, ignoring his reaction, the professor pressed on with his explanation.

“When the Röntgen rays are fired directly at a living man they have the power to transform his constitution as the atoms that make up the physical body are saturated with their penetrative power. Drawing on Dr Jackson’s research into how electrical impulses from the brain control a subject’s movements, I discovered that the effects of these Röntgen rays could also be controlled by the power of thought. With the application of his own mind, a subject can momentarily loosen
the bonds that hold the very atoms of his body together, allowing him to pass through any object unharmed.”

Professor Röntgen glanced at the men seated beneath his machine. “The mental effort required to control this strange power is quite considerable, but fortunately with His Majesty’s support I have the fittest of subjects for my experiments.”

The Kaiser fixed Monty with a malevolent stare, seemingly enjoying his discomfort.

“Do you see what this means, Mr Flinch? With this power at my command, the German Empire will be invincible. My armies will be able to march through a hail of bullets and bombs without harm, my naval ships will steam through any blockade unhindered; no nation’s defences will be able to resist the strength of my New Atomic Army.”

Monty paled, tiny droplets of sweat beading his forehead. “You talk of war,” he said. “There is no way Great Britain would allow it.”

“Great Britain is already mine,” the Kaiser roared, rattling his sabre with his withered hand. “Once my troublesome uncle is disposed of, there will be a new King on the throne and I promise you that my reign will be a glorious one.”

He turned again to Professor Röntgen, who was poised at the entrance to the antechamber. “Now, let us not delay any further; the tide will soon be turning and these young men must be
prepared for their final mission.”

With an obedient nod, the scientist hurried inside the lead-lined box. There came the sound of switches being flicked followed by a humming noise slowly rising in volume.

“Your Majesty,” Röntgen called out. “I think it would be prudent if you joined me inside this protective shield.”

With a nod to his guards to follow him, the Kaiser retreated to the antechamber’s interior, its lead-lined door slamming shut once Monty had been dragged inside. The humming sound grew louder still as the coils of the Röntgen Ray Generator began to crackle into life.

Hidden inside the cramped confines of the packing crate, Penelope listened in fear. The giddy whine of the generator was reaching a crescendo and, through a crack, she could see the suspended glass tubes begin to glow with a flickering green light. She felt Amsel’s hand clutch her own.

“Be brave,” the boy whispered. “You must steel your mind against the pain.”

Penelope stared up at the strange apparatus. With a snapping sound, electrical currents shimmered from its coils, passing through the uranium interrupters as the invisible rays surged through the long glass tubes. She watched spellbound as a yellowish-green light spread over their surface in a rolling, cloud-like wave; the eerie luminescence growing stronger with the
snapping of the discharge.

Beneath the machine, the radiant boys were bathed in the same glowing green light, their expressions frozen in pain as the rays shone through.

Penelope closed her eyes against the horror, but the uncanny light was imprinted on her retina; the indelible image of a coiled green snake slithering inside her mind. She felt a burning sensation pulse through her veins, and as Amsel’s body twisted in the narrow space next to hers, she knew he felt the same. The pain was almost unbearable; a soul-searing torment transforming every atom of her being. Biting her lip to try and stifle her own cry, Penny tasted blood on her tongue, the clamour of pain reaching a crescendo as she slowly slipped into oblivion.

From the ceiling, the crackling whine of the Röntgen Ray Generator snapped into silence, the iridescent glow slowly fading from its long glass tubes. But beneath these, the radiant boys were rising from their chairs, the features of every single cadet a vivid glowing green.

With Professor Röntgen by his side, the Kaiser emerged from the lead-lined antechamber, Monty still struggling in the clutches of the guards as they dragged him back into the laboratory.

“My Lord,” he murmured, staring in horror at the shining features of the radiant boys. “What have you done to them?”

“They have been transformed,” the Kaiser replied, his blue eyes sparkling with delight. “It is a shame that you will not be able to write this tale of the triumph of science.”

“What do you mean?” Monty asked, blanching in fear as the guards released him.

Ignoring his question the Kaiser turned to address the cadre of radiant boys.

“Take him with you to the Tower,” he barked. “Dispose of him in the same dungeon that my uncle calls home. The
Hohenzollern
will sail with the tide and you must return there with my precious royal cargo before we raise anchor.”

The radiant boys raised their arms in salute, stepping forward as Monty shrank back in terror.

“No, please! I beg of you—”

Monty’s protest curdled into a cry of anguish as the radiant boys seized hold of him, their glowing green fingers causing the actor to faint. Pulling their scarves across their faces, the black-coated figures dragged him from the room, the Kaiser and his guards following close behind.

With a last look around his laboratory, Professor Röntgen hurried to the door. Stepping outside, he reached up to the electric lantern that was fixed to the wall, sliding the green panel of glass into position in place of the red. Then the scientist pulled the door shut with a clang, turning his key with a click to keep the secrets of the Röntgen rays safely locked away.