Episode 8: At the Rubedo Meeting

THE SCIENTIST: Experiment 31E, supplemental notes continued.

Date is still October 14, 1843.

When John told me someone was at the door, I…for a moment there I feared it was Herman, making good on his threat to visit. But thankfully it was only Solomon and Rahul. I was…happy to see them, I must admit. And they brought some…intriguing news that I will get to in a moment.

But first I must return to my notes on the Rubedo meeting.

After escaping from Herman, I continued on my way. The meeting was being held in a building that had once been a wealthy family’s manor but had since been repurposed into a private library and meeting hall. The city had built up around it, the grounds now replaced with shops and warehouses. One needed permission to use the private library and women were not allowed in any of the meeting rooms—but of course, I had my ways around that. The meeting would be held on the second floor—or the first floor, as they say over here. Now, I couldn’t just waltz through the front door and make my way unimpeded upstairs. But luckily there was a window along the side of the building near the second-floor meeting room. I just needed a bit of a boost.

I had wound my spring-heeled boots before leaving my manor—and walking the streets helped wind them further. My mother had laughed when I’d first shown the invention to her—probably because when I’d demonstrated them, I accidentally launched myself into the side of a barn. But after years of practice, I have much better aim. Activating the springs, I leapt to the ledge outside the window on the second floor. With the spiked gloves I’d brought, I caught myself on the frame (it had taken many attempts in my initial experiment for me to realize the gloves were a necessity—leaping is only part of the action, steadying myself so I don’t fall back down is the other). Rahul had left the window open a crack the day before, so I didn’t have to worry about picking the lock. Carefully, still hauling the heavy canister of Shadow Solution, I slipped inside.

The meeting hall had several entrances, which suited my needs nicely. Solomon had found a side door coming from what had once been a bedroom. It was just out of the way enough that I could release the Shadow Solution and sidle into the room unseen once it took effect. Cracking that door open slightly to lay the nozzle of the canister in place, I could see a group of two dozen men seated in a circle. From my vantage point, I could not tell if there was someone—or something—in the center of that circle.

The lights in the hall were low, a scattering of candles. I could hear murmuring. Had the meeting already started? Had Herman delayed me for too long?

I checked my pocket watch. I had three minutes until the start time, but perhaps their watches read something different. Donning my black mask and a respirator to prevent myself from being affected by the Shadow Solution, I released the gas.

In a room this size, it would take about five minutes to reach everything. Keeping an eye on my watch, I waited.

Two minutes in, a man out of my sightline said, “I believe we are all here. Let us begin.”

It was too soon for me to enter the room. I had hoped to have enough time to set up the Solution before they started. Damn that Herman for making me late.

There was some shuffling and more murmurs as the meeting came to order. There was a roll call followed by a bit of chanting—all of which I couldn’t care less about—but then that same man from earlier said, “We have called this meeting to address the current situation with the Nexus.”

Only four minutes had gone by since I’d activated the Shadow Solution, but it would have to do. I needed to be in that room…

Slowly, carefully, I eased my way through the door, keeping it as closed as possible while I slid through. The room was in shadows, and hopefully I was merely one of them. I crept to a darkened corner where I could observe the men gathered in the circle.

I could see now that there was a man standing in the middle, a table set up behind him. Two candles and a red leather book lay on the table, but he was facing outward, toward the gathered men. I stayed in the darkness and hoped he could see nothing beyond his circle.

“Our attempt at eliminating the Nexus has failed,” the man in the center said. He wore an all-black suit, not unlike my own in style, with a high, starched neck on his white shirt, a black silk cravat tied overtop. His hair and mutton chops were a dark brown streaked with white. He reminded me of a skunk.

“The suspect still lives,” the man continued. “And I don’t believe she will trust anything else given to her by the Acolytes.”

“Did the shopkeepers give her a warning somehow?” asked one of the men in the circle. “Can we be sure they didn’t betray our intent?”

“We cannot,” the man in the center said. “But they are unimportant now. I fear she may suspect the vial we gave her had been tampered with.”

“I told you we should never have tried this,” said a third man, his hair fully gray and a cane in his hand that looked well used as a walking aid rather than a fashion accessory. There was a hoarseness in his voice, like a man recovering from illness—or a man who had reached the point in his life where the next illness would be his last. “We should have gone to her, spoken with her,” he continued. “Verified our suspicions diplomatically, rather than acting violently on a hunch.”

“It is more than a hunch, Lord Harrow,” said the man in the center. “She fits all the criteria the Seers have discovered. She is from the Americas, she is a scientist with a history of inventing things far beyond what others have yet accomplished, and she bears Italian ancestry with the name of a black bird. Looking at the Divergence lines that intersect with hers, the changes caused by her movements through this world are more pronounced than anyone else’s. She must be the Nexus. Something she’s done—perhaps something she doesn’t even realize—has unmoored history from its rightful port.”

“I am aware of all that, Lord Newcome,” said Lord Harrow. “But I still don’t understand why we couldn’t have approached her logically, explained it to her—”

“You want us to reveal our secrets to an outsider?” Lord Newcome said. “You want us to tell the greatest threat to this world our plans for how to stop her? The Nexus must be eliminated before we can correct the timeline. Do you truly believe speaking plainly with her would result in her willing to sacrifice herself?”

“We’ll never know, will we?” Lord Harrow said. “Any hope of working with the girl to amend the Divergence vanished when we tried to kill her.”

“We don’t need to work with her,” Lord Newcome said.

“Why not?” asked Lord Harrow. “If she caused this Nexus, perhaps she could find a way to fix it.”

Lord Newcome sneered. “We do not need to stoop so low,” he said. “We can repair the damage ourselves.”

“But what if we can’t?” Lord Harrow asked. “What if there is no way to correct the timeline? According to the Seers, Queen Victoria should still be alive, France should never have been split in twain. You can’t correct your course if the original course has been destroyed.”

“We shall do what we can,” Lord Newcome said.

“Do you even realize the full implications of this undertaking?” Lord Harrow asked. “People are dead who shouldn’t be—we can’t bring them back. And then, there are those who are alive who shouldn’t be.”

“Yes, Lord Harrow,” Lord Newcome drawled, “thank you for explaining what we all already know—”

“I’m one those, you know,” Lord Harrow interrupted. “I should have died, a couple decades ago, in a shipwreck with my son. This is what the Seers say. I should be dead, my son should be dead. I should never have had grandchildren, they should never have been born. Do you intend to kill my grandchildren, to correct our course? Do you intend to kill me? Are you prepared for the chaos that fighting the flow of time will bring about? You can’t untangle this knot, and if you intend to cut it with your sword, there will be blood on your hands—millions and millions of lives—and you will still not have what you are seeking. The port we have been unmoored from is gone, Robert. We would be wise to find a new one.”

“You want us to accept the Divergence? Live with this bastardized timeline?” Lord Newcome asked, folding his arms in either disgust or disbelief.

“I fear we may have no other choice,” Lord Harrow said.

“No choice?” Lord Newcome roared. “If we allow this version of events to continue, you know what you are condemning us to! You know what she will do to this world—”

“We do not know for certain that it will come to pass,” Lord Harrow croaked, his voice becoming hoarser with emotion. “It is only a potential future—”

“A potential future we must prevent at all costs!” Lord Newcome snapped back. “Our best Seers took a decade to learn how to tap into this new timeline—the rapid changes have clouded their Second Sight, but they overcame that to see where this Divergence is taking us. You recall what they saw, do you not?”

Lord Harrow held Lord Newcome’s gaze and said, “I do.”

“They saw Armageddon!” Lord Newcome shouted. “They said the Nexus shall create an abomination that will bring about the end of the world!”

My heart stuttered in my chest. If I am this Nexus, then I must be the one to bring about this apocalypse. But what abomination do they refer to? How could I possibly destroy the world? I’m merely a scientist…all I want to do is make improvements to life on this earth, not harm it… What did these Seers see exactly…?

Harrow continued to stare Newcome down. “Yes, I remember what they saw,” he said. “But I also remember they said the future was in flux. It is unstable. Each change in the present sends the future spiraling further and further out. We may not be able to know what it holds for us until the timeline settles—”

“We can’t allow it to settle,” Lord Newcome said. “You spoke of the millions who will need to be sacrificed to correct our course, but what of the millions more who will suffer and die in this wretched future the Nexus will bring. The longer we wait to repair it, the worse things will become and the harder to fix it. We must act now.”

There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the men in the circle.

Lord Harrow shook his head in disappointment. “So do you intend to attack this girl in her home then?” he asked. “Take her life because of the potential she could cause?”

“She’s caused enough chaos as it is,” Lord Newcome said. “She acts and dresses indecently, donning a man’s attire and attitude. She ignores her social duties as heir to the Trafford family. She consorts with a resurrectionist, hiring him to bring her illegally obtained bodies. She wants to reanimate the dead—we cannot allow her to succeed in this.”

“I’ve heard these arguments before,” Lord Harrow said. “But you still haven’t answered my question. How do you intend to kill her now that your first attempt failed? She’ll be more alert now. Do you plan an ambush? An execution?”

“We have our top men working on that now,” Lord Newcome said.

“Are we not Rubedo’s top men?” Lord Harrow asked.

“There are those of the Society with special skills,” Lord Newcome replied. “They have been tasked with this…unpleasant duty. When they have devised a method, we will strike. We can’t let her see us coming. It is best if we hide the attacker among those she trusts.”

“Abrams and Smith are not on our side here,” Lord Harrow said. “Reports say they have become nervous in recent meetings. Do you plan on one of her servants becoming a turncoat instead? She surrounds herself with very few others.”

“We’re considering many avenues at the moment,” Lord Newcome said. “Of particular interest is a boy she employs. We are uncertain what role he plays in her experiments, but he accompanies her into town. We have begun investigations into his connections to find weak points—and there are many. His family struggles—his wages help support them.”

“It sounds to me he has no reason to lose those wages then,” Lord Harrow said.

“We believe the right amount of pressure could persuade him,” Lord Newcome said.

I did not realize my shaking hands had curled into fists until I felt the pain of my spiked gloves piercing the skin. They would use John against me? Hurt his family to force his hand? And they’re acting like I’m the monster…

Lord Harrow sighed. His shoulders slumped as if he had given up hope of this conversation going a different way. “I still feel,” he said, “that we should have spoken with her. Made her understand… We could have worked together—”

“We cannot work with an aberration,” Lord Newcome said. “She is an error, a mistake. Her entire existence is wrong.”

Something…something snapped in me at that. I…wrong…they dare call me…wrong… I wanted nothing more in that moment than to sprint across the hall and rake Lord Newcome across the face. Gouge out his beady eyes, paint the white of his shirt the same red as the book behind him. Somehow though…my logic held fast. I kept myself in check. But I yearned to make Newcome suffer for his words…

“She must be destroyed,” Lord Newcome went on as my brain whited out with fury. “There is no other option. We are in the process of creating a new plan, and that is where we are currently in concern to the Nexus. Now, let us move on to the next part of the agenda…”

Lord Newcome turned around to the table behind him. He reached for the book then paused, his hand hovering over it. I wondered in that moment if there would be more chanting—or more threats of my demise. Was there anything more I needed to hear or was it time for me to escape this meeting, to make my own plans back at the manor?

Lord Newcome picked up the red book and held it close to the light.

“Something…is not right,” he said. “The book…it’s gray…”

Well, it looked like it was time for me to make my escape. I began sidling closer to the door I’d come through.

Lord Newcome swung around holding out the book. “Is it just my eyes?” he asked. “Can anyone see the color of this book?”

There was a growing murmur from the circle of men, but I was focused on getting the hell out of there before any of them noticed me.

Unfortunately, I would not be so lucky at leaving as I had been at entering.

“That shadow is moving!” shouted one of the men.

The Rubedo may be a group of cruel and tyrannical fools, but apparently they are not complete idiots. I glanced back to see the men getting to their feet, Lord Newcome staring straight at me.

Time to flee.

I threw open the door and ran, leaving my canister behind. I could build another one, so it was no great loss. I could hear the men running after me as I sprinted back to the window to make my escape.

“Stop him!” Lord Newcome shouted.

It gave me slight pleasure to hear that. With me being covered head to toe in black, they didn’t realize who I was—although I imagine it wouldn’t take a significant leap in logic for them to figure it out.

Speaking of leaps…

With the men drawing closer, I used my spring-heeled boots to leap from the window to the roof of the building next door. I heard gasps as the first few men reached the window I had left behind, but I did not bother to glance back. I ran across the rooftop and leapt to the next, over and over, roof to roof, until I was far enough away that I felt safe to climb down to the street. I’m sure a strange, masked figure all in black with claws leaping across the roofs of Manchester in broad daylight must have been quite the sight for the people on the streets below, but I had greater concerns in the moment.

Hiding myself in an alley, I stripped off my gloves, mask, and cloak, bundling them all together. Then I walked as calmly as possible back to where my coach was waiting. I was merely on a stroll, that was all. Nothing to see here.

I made it back to the manor without trouble. I began recording what I had encountered almost as soon as I arrived…then Solomon and Rahul paid an unexpected visit. They had some news they insisted on sharing with me immediately.

This was an overwhelming day, filled with horrible revelations and threats against myself and those close to me. And the bit of news from Sol and Rahul…it was a mix of good and bad.

They had managed to procure a full list of the ingredients of the panacea the Rubedo had tried to use to kill me. The moment they offered it to me, I snatched it out of their hands and scanned it avidly. The list matched what I had found using my Separator. And at the end of the list, there it was. The mysterious ingredient that had enhanced my formula and had eluded my best efforts at discerning its origin.

Breutelia pendula, a species of moss. Such a simple, innocent-seeming little thing…

But I realized then why it had eluded me so. It was not an ingredient I had encountered before. It is not common to America. It is not common to Britain.

It exists only in the southern part of the world…

Rahul had said the Rubedo have spread across the earth…they must have a contingent down south. Because there is only one known source of this plant in Britain, and that is in the samples brought back by Joseph Hooker from James Clark Ross’s Antarctic Expedition. A sample that will be on display at Lady Carmichael’s…

I fear…in these dire circumstances…I have no other choice…

I must make an appearance…at a ball…