“You look excited,” he said, smiling like he found it charming.
I could only nod, my fingers itching with the desire to put my hands all over the machine.
Nikola glanced at me and gestured. “Go ahead,” she said. “It’s not currently switched on. It won’t hurt you.”
I ran my fingertips along the thick cable Julian had strung up between the machines, following it to the cold coil. Knowing it would not respond to my radiance felt strange, like turning the lights off and feeling my way through a dark room. “Will you show us?”
“Of course. You’re my test audience. Step out of the way now. Concentrated electricity is powerful, and it doesn’t care if you’re a Child of Industry or not.”
Ezra and I stepped off the platform. Julian finished moving the tarps out of the way and rolled a utility cart over. On it stood an elaborate lamp with dozens of bulbs. I could see how the lamp, however impractical, would draw attention even in daylight.
Julian and Nikola exchanged a look, some wordless confirmation, and without a moment’s hesitation, Nikola’s posture shifted completely. She became a ringmaster, her shoulders thrown back and her arms making confident sweeping gestures. Her deep voice carried and echoed like a musical instrument.
“What you see before you,” she announced, “is the invention that will change the course of Industry. What you’re about to witness is amoment that will go down in history as a turning point. The moment we release ourselves from the shackles of the House of Industry. The moment Progress stops belonging to the wealthy, to the out-of-touch Elders who don’t have the courage to walk among the people. What I’m about to show you belongs not to me, not to them, but toyou.”
She nodded to Julian, and he began to turn a crank. The machine buzzed to life, crackling with a sound like radiance but sharper. Its coils glowed brighter and brighter, like lungs expanding with a deep breath. “I give you electricity!” she shouted, flipping a heavy switch on the second machine.
Nothing happened.
“Is it supposed to do something?” Ezra asked.
Julian looked as if he wanted the machine to devour him whole. “Did I connect the cable incorrectly?”
Swearing with words I’d never heard in my life, Nikola adjusted dials on the machine. “Wait a moment,” she muttered. “This won’t happen tomorrow. I’ll do a full system check before we begin.”
Ezra took my hand. “You’re cold,” he said.
I squeezed his fingers in response, too tense to speak. Watching Julian and Nikola make adjustments to the machine dizzied me. We couldn’t afford to do anything that would erode trust tomorrow.
“There,” Nikola finally announced, wiping grease off her hands with a stained rag. “If that stars-forsaken capacitor overheats again, I’m drowning it and myself in the Sterling. Try again, Julian.”
This time, there was no speech. Julian once more turned the crank until the coil lit up, and then Nikola, muttering something that sounded like a threat, flipped the switch.
We flinched back, Ezra pushing me behind him as if he had some ability to shield us from the electricity sparking across the wire. The lamp illuminated, each bulb glowing from a tiny wire within, casting light as bright as any radiance-fueled fixture.
“Note the discharge phenomenon indicating that this cable is currently live,” Nikola said, once more adopting the posture of an actor onstage. “Electricity has the power of radiance—but it’s completely nontoxic. Electricity will end the wasting that the House of Industry has irresponsibly and unethically subjected innocent people to. We will harness water, wind, and heat. We will reclaim Progress. Every one of us!”
Unable to help myself, I applauded. The sight of my unbridled enthusiasm made Julian duck his head and smile shyly.
Beside me, Ezra whistled. “The House isn’t going to love that little speech.”
“No,” I said, grinning. “They’re really not.”
Julian and Nikola ran through the demonstration over and over, making minor adjustments to the machines every time. After the first try, there were no more major malfunctions. That made me feel slightly more at ease.
“What is the plan for once the demonstration is finished?” I asked Nikola after she completed another rehearsal.
“We’ll abandon my equipment and slip into the crowd,” she said. “The goal is to time it perfectly so that the House’s ceremonial procession has started, but hasn’t gotten close enough to stop us until we’re done.”
Even before I’d left for Frostbrook, planning had begun for a parade of Children of Industry to enter the exposition grounds for all to see. It would consist of students and professors and Conductors—and Transistors. “That feels risky,” I said.
“Of course there’s risk involved,” Julian chimed in without looking up from the dials he was nervously polishing with a rag. “But there will be thousands of onlookers. We can easily disappear into the fray.”
“He’s right,” Nikola said. “We know the risks. And they’re acceptable.”
“Won’t the House destroy your machines when you abandon them?” Ezra asked.
Nikola looked wistful for a moment. “Most certainly. I have an even more efficient prototype in progress, but I will be sorry to see them go.”
