The Electric Messiah

ss spirits of past generations of scientists were flitting past the towering

re and more wine in an attempt to put them to sleep, but for hour after hour it had only made them noisier and more boisterous. He tensed up with fear every time one of them went to stare in pride and delight at the Arc Oscillator, their great achievement, fearing

s small town had been part of Carrow, and had been adapted to the pursuit of science when this whole part of the country had been taken over by Helberion fifty years before. For the most part the building served its new purpose very well, but the only room large and rainproof enough to contain the gre

efore, but Barlowe didn't think there was much chance of their being woken tonight. And if the alcohol wasn't enough to make sur

Once again he closed every window, but he left the inner doors open, allowing the air in the whole building to circulate freely. He looked down at the gently snoring form of Maxine Hester as he entered the room of the Master Scientist. There was the woman who had caused his recent agony, the woman who had so recently become the single most dangerous member of the human race. For a m

the doorway for a moment, looking back at the Master Scientist whose face was illuminated by a shaft of moonli

om had been set aside as the caretaker’s office and mess room, the place where he ate his lunch and had the occasional cup of tea. There was a comfortable armchair there, its arms threadbare and the colours faded but probably twice as comfortable as a new pie

mons, his name was, Barlowe remembered. He was wearing a grimy white shirt whose sleeves were rolled up to the elbows and his hair

e cigarette. “It's Tiger Man, isn't It? Wh

ling to think of a plausible reason for being there. “W

, and there’s nothing to go home to since m

hrough the building a few months ago, fuelling conversations for an hour or two before being forgotten. Mos

ly and efficiently that it's easy to just take you for granted. I don't want to be that kind of person

se. It stared around, twitching its nose, peered around in every direction. It looked down at the floor and tensed itself as if about to jump from his palm, but the caretaker closed his fingers

idn't know they did it here, though. Some people think it a bi

ome small creature to adopt them. A worm, a beetle. Then, when the glob’s raised to a worm or a beetle, you have to get something bigger to adopt it.

e. “A different human. His son, in fact, with

inside his shirt. He'd need a cat or something similar to take the creature up the next rung, the bookkeeper thought, but how would the ca

got stripes under all that pink powder. Why hide them? If I had tiger stripes, I'd show them off to the whole worl

wder might be washed away in little rivulets of sweat down his face. Of course, that didn’t matter here. He was going to kill this caretaker, so it didn't ma

this time of n

ng down and everyone was collapsing on their cots it occurred to me that I hadn't spoken to you for a long tim

s. Bloody scientists, making sparks fly and setting fire to the place.

he caretaker. “Anyway, well done.” The caretaker stared at the

A normal man would have found it impossible to do such a thing in a mere moment of time, but Barlowe was a wizard and had practised the control of his emotions ever since he’d been declared human. The parent bond was two way, of course, and the caretaker felt it too,

gh without Radiant parents to raise him the process would have gone awry, with his body becoming deformed and monstrous and his mind warping to insanity. He had done this on occasion, for his own amusement, when it hadn't been ne

, something bad, and he tried to snatch back his hand, but by then it was far too late and he could only wail in terror and misery as he felt, actually felt, his humanity being torn from him. Barlowe watched in fascination as years of uplift were undone in just a few seconds, the caretaker shrinking in physic

to him, something terrible. Barlowe opened the door for it and the dog fled, whimpering, it’s claws skittering on the tiled floor. Barlowe watched it go, then pu

ght fire. As the flames rose he threw in more wood, then more, until the furnace was filled with a blazing inferno. Then he closed the door again, lifting the latch with an iron bar that was leaning against the

ace, and through it he was pleased to see a thick accumulation of soot on the inner surface. Clearly Timmett had been neglecting the furnace’s essential maintenance, and that made his job a lot easier. He searched around, saw a broom leaning against the wall nearby, and used it to prod at the soot inside the chimney. A great slab of it fell away in one piece and came to rest jus

r intake, a safety feature that ensured that the building didn't fill up with toxic fumes in the event that the furnace’s chimney became blocked. It was hidden behind a clump of shrubbery, which the care

ok some and stuffed them into the air intake. He had to fill the smaller gaps with dead grass, but after a few minutes of careful effort he thought he had

toxic gases in the process. Barlowe thought that the floor to the furnace fitted closely enough to make a pretty good seal, but it had never been intended to be compl

ning to the main laboratory, he closed the doors between it and the rest of the building, then looked again at the Arc Oscillator. Most of it was made of metal and would be only partially melted and deformed by the fire. Other scientists would be able to reconstruct it with little effort, a

iculous record keeping would now kill them. He found a spark igniter, put it against the driest part of the paper and clicked the trigger until the spark caused a small flame to rise.

oor he left open as he passed through, wanting to make sure the fire had a good supply of oxygen, and then he paused a moment to watch as the flames spread up the wall and across the ceiling. When it reached one of the bottles of chemicals the bottl

d he turned and ran, suddenly afraid of what he’d unleashed. The fire was spreading faster then he’d ever imagined, fed by a bewildering variety of chemicals, and was already jumping to neighbouring rooms and up to the second floor. Everyon

of the road, shouting for help, already composing i

☆

that they were seen from twenty miles away. Volunteers from three nearby towns came to pump water fr

most too bright to look at and waves of heat washed over them every time the wind changed dir

in outbuildings. Cleaners, accountants and so on. All the brains slept in the building itself. Hopeful

Sh

ng collapsed and gasps of awe came from the cro

e come from anyway? We're

ic fascination for them. They see a glow on the

in the morning! Why a

here, ar

tators had gathered in small groups and were chatting with each other as if they were at a party. He laugh

town crier. One passed through yester

d or

them to stop. “There can't be anyone still alive in there,” he said. “Might as well leave it to burn. The sooner it

began the long process of sifting through the wreckage for any clue as to what had started it. Finding human

tons used by medical students too squeamish to want a real human skeleton in their dorms, but closer examination of them where the heat had cracked them open showed them to have a complex internal structur

his nose and mouth. “What do you make of this, Pete?” he asked, holding one

ted coil of copper wire in his gloved hands. “What on the nam

d that. Loo

m. “One end of a human femur. Wait a minute...” He held it clos

Ye

be one of them did this. Some kind of chemical r

ll that towered twenty feet over them. The heat had cracked and weakened it, though, and it was leaning inwards at

und convinced,

ing like this. I don't know. Maybe. Get the photographer in, get him to take some shots of this whole area. Then I'll send the whole skeleton off to Poonwell. Maybe they'll know what it is.” He laid the bone carefull