Steam City Pirates (4 page)

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Doctor Adler placed his hand on the wall and light immediately flooded the room. This sanctuary was about 100 yards long and 200 yards wide. It extended the length of the temple’s basement, and the gas lanterns seemed to be arranged so they were ignited in a series, similar to the way stage lights were lit inside one of the big theaters downtown. This room was covered with copper on the walls, and inside in the center of the room was a long table filled with all sorts of lab equipment. Magnets, microscopes, flasks, beakers filled with many kinds of chemicals, test tubes and a chart of the elements, were all laid out neatly on top of the table.

In addition, there were many devices I had never seen before. The doctor walked over to one of these inventions and placed his hand upon it. It looked like a circular device that could hold something in several holes that were located around the periphery. To demonstrate, the doctor walked over to the table and picked up three test tubes filled with liquid and were capped with corks. He brought them over to this device and placed each tube inside one of the holes. He then pushed a button and the device began to spin the tubes rapidly around and around until they were spinning so fast they were a blur of glass and liquid.

“This is a centrifuge. Seth was able to see this invention in the future, and we copied it. This runs with an electro-magnetic generator. We can use it to mix drugs and chemicals to develop all kinds of elixirs and medicines that Mount Sinai is now using. We also want to find other inventions and mixtures we can use to cure diseases and other maladies. Seth has told us there are cures in the future that we can bring back to put to our use. But first, we need to find out how these cures are made and what tools we need to create to develop them.” Doctor Adler stopped the electric spinning and walked over to another device that was standing along the wall.

“This is our time machine,” he said, matter-of-factly. “Seth was able to see it being used far in the future, and we were able to create it. It was quite easy to create, as I believe things must have become simpler as technology advanced over the years. Look. All one need do is step between the beams of light transmitted by these magnetic force field amplifiers. I can see you are excited. Your rival, Miss Hester Jane Haskins, has this ability as well, does she not?” Doctor Adler smiled.

I believe Doctor Adler mistook my shaking in fear for excitement.

“Yes. She disappeared. The police destroyed her killing machine, but she demonstrated how she was able to travel in time to bring back the inventor of this device which was murdering poor orphans for profit. I would, indeed, like to see how this machine of yours works,” I said, and I moved over to put my hand on one of the magnetic transmitters. “When could we try it?”

The device had two tall columns of metal facing each other. Each one had a globe at the top. Connecting the two pillars was a large crystal capsule with a set of levers on a panel inside the capsular container. Doctor Adler placed his right hand on one of the columns. “My father always told me that necessity is the mother of invention, so I suppose we should first have an immediate need to use this machine. Inside each of these columns is the magnetic force field amplification system. Seth observed how these were assembled, and we were able to duplicate the process. The key was the circulating of light beams between the amplifiers by using gamma and magnetic fields to warp time.”

“My mother always told me to believe in guardian angels, and now I have an angel to guard,” I said. “In fact, it would seem I will be solving cases in quite a different manner now that Seth is my assistant. On our way over here, Seth related a crime in the future that will be committed by pirates in a flying balloon. We have no clue as to how these air balloons are being used and what weapons they might have to force a merchant ship into submission. I can only apply my detective analysis to what I know now and in the past. Seth’s vision into the future is limited by its scope, as you probably must know. The boy gives me just enough to begin compiling theories. If this time machine could get us into the future with some degree of control, then we might be able to ascertain a much better degree of discovery to use in our case.”

“Yes, I understand,” said Doctor Adler. “The fact of the matter is that I don’t know how this machine works, and only Seth really understands its design. Your antagonists seem to have a much more developed method of visiting the future. You said Jane Haskins brought somebody with her to design a death machine?”

“That’s correct. She must have a time travel device that allows her to bring another person back with her. My guess is that what Seth saw alludes to a new criminal conspiracy, and these adversaries of ours are once again using inventors from the future to design devices they can apply in the 1860s, when our technology does not possess the advanced features to counter theirs. The only clue I have now is the use of balloons. I do know that General McClellan used balloons in the war to spy on the Rebels and provide directions for our artillery to accurately shell the enemy. Thaddeus Lowe was the name of the gentleman who headed the balloon corps, and I can visit him to see what has since been evolving in our government’s research into using balloons for warfare.”

“Excellent idea! In the meantime, I will work with Seth on our own time machine. Perhaps we can discover exactly how it functions and to what use we can put it in order to advance our cause.” Doctor Adler placed his arm around the boy’s shoulders.

“Can I go up in the balloon?” Seth asked.

I looked down at the boy and smiled. “I’ll ask Mister Lowe. We need you to keep looking out for developments in the future with these pirates you saw. Can you do that for us?”

“Of course! These visions come to me. I don’t look for them,” Seth pointed out.

“That has always been the way with Jews,” said Rabbi Adler. “We are called by the Creator to go forth and accomplish His will. We are always reluctant heroes. We shall work to piece this puzzle together because we have been called to do so.”

“I also want to visit my other friends. Missus Mergenthaler, Rebecca Charming Jones, and Walter McKenzie and his men have all become part of this supernatural adventure. We can still use the same analytical skills to solve problems, but this new challenge will require the best from everyone in our group. On behalf of our group, I want to welcome you, Doctor,” I said, walking over to him and once again shaking his hand.

Doctor Adler said, “Do you mind if I show you something I created in honor of your new presence inside our temple? I want to hang it upon our wall to symbolize our struggle.”

The rabbi walked over to a wooden chest and opened the top. He bent down and pulled out a large tapestry and brought it over to the wall near the laboratory section of the cavernous room. “Mister O’Malley, would you mind holding this against the wall while I hammer it into place?”

I walked over to where he stood and took the left side of the square tapestry. It was made of blue wool, and it had gold silk sewn on the top of it with what looked like letters of some kind. I held the half up to the wall. “Here?” I said, ready to move it if it did not look to be in the proper place.

“One more inch to the right and up about another two inches,” said Doctor Adler, standing in front of the tapestry holding his hammer and nails.

I moved it accordingly until he said, “There!” The rabbi walked over, reached up, and hammered the first nail into the corner of what now appeared to be a flag or pennant of some sort. He then moved down to the lower left corner and hammered the second nail into the wall.

I picked up the other side of the cloth and carried it over until it was ready to be hammered against the wall.

“Up one inch!” Doctor Adler instructed me.

I moved it up. He came over and hammered in the final two corners.

We both moved back to look at the final result. The Hebrew letters for what was to be our symbol of victory over evil looked like this:

“It’s quite striking. What does it mean?” I asked.

“It is Hebrew, and it means ‘who is like God?’ In English, it is the name Michael. In Jewish, Christian and Islamic teachings, he is an archangel, one of the highest angels, who is a messenger and warrior for the Supreme Being.”

“Oh, yes! We call him Saint Michael the Archangel. He’s supposed to fight the devil at the end of the world, correct?” I asked.

“Correct. Michael is mentioned three times in the Book of Daniel, one as ‘the great prince who stands up for the children of your people.’ The idea that Michael was the advocate of the Jews became very popular in our culture even though there was a rabbinical prohibition against appealing to angels as intermediaries between God and His people. It is similar to the evil eye, is it not? Michael is the supreme protector against the evil eye, one might say,” said Doctor Adler.

“In Catholic school, the nuns taught us that in the Book of Revelation Michael will lead God’s armies against Satan’s forces and defeat him during a war in heaven,” I said, remembering the times that the nun would admonish me when I did not remember a lesson from Catechism.

“Quite right. In fact, Christian sanctuaries to Michael appeared in the 4
^th
century, when he was first seen as a healing angel, during plagues, and then over time as a protector and leader of the army of God against the forces of evil. By the 6
^th
century, devotions to Archangel Michael were widespread both in the Eastern and Western Churches,” Doctor Adler said.

“I can see why you chose him to be our protector,” I said. “Do you think we are facing the satanic forces of evil?”

“The rabbis declared that Michael entered upon his role of defender at the time of the biblical patriarchs. Thus, according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob, it was Michael who rescued Abraham from the furnace into which he had been thrown by Nimrod. It was Michael, the ‘one that had escaped’ who told Abraham that Lot had been taken captive and who protected Sarah from being defiled by Abimelech. Michael announced to Sarah that she would bear a son and he rescued Lot at the destruction of Sodom,” said Rabbi Adler.

“Those are plenty of good deeds,” I said.

It was Seth’s turn to show his knowledge about this divine protector. “Michael protected Isaac when his father Abraham was going to sacrifice him. He put a ram in his place to be killed. And he also saved Jacob in his mother’s womb when Samael, the evil one, was going to kill him. It was Michael who wrestled with Jacob and later blessed him.” Seth smiled, “Of course, Michael is a completely divine angel, and I am only one-half of what he is. He cannot really die the way I must.”

“Let’s not talk about such things, Seth. You are our little angel,” I said. “Thank you very much, Doctor Adler, for this symbolic gesture. I hope we can live up to the image that Michael represents.”

As if on cue, our angel began to stare off into space again in his transfixed way. It was exactly the same as when he had seen the vision from the future about the pirates and the air balloon. Seth’s diaphragm began to expand and contract, and his eyes grew wide with horror.

“What is it, Seth? What do you see?” I walked over to the boy and picked him up. He was breathing rapidly, and his eyes were fluttering. I took him over to one of the padded chairs and set him down inside the cushion.

Doctor Adler came over and placed the boy’s wrist between his fingers to feel his pulse. “His heart is racing. I hope he doesn’t lose consciousness.”

Seth shouted, “Watch out! It’s coming toward you!”

His eyes began to water, and he sat up straight in the chair as if he had accepted some horrible fact of life. His face took on a very adult aspect, and his brow furrowed in concentration. His brown eyes penetrated mine with a stark seriousness that he had only one other time before. We had just left the theater after seeing the play
The Black Crook
on Broadway. Seth related to us about what a
mazikeen
was and that there were also evil
mazikeen
who could “burn down your houses and rip the flesh from your bones!”

This time, Seth was speaking about something he saw through his telescopic future vision. “It was a gigantic fish, I thought at first, but it had no scales or fins. It was certainly not kosher!” he giggled, and Doctor Adler smiled and wiped the boy’s perspiring brow with a handkerchief.

“This mechanical whale was beneath the waves, and it gave birth to another, much smaller fish. This fish shot out of the mother and sped through the water faster than a shark attacking a seal. It looked cold, black and hard, and I knew it was going to explode when it reached the ship. That’s why I screamed. Then, it all became dark again. I don’t know what happened after that.”

“That’s all right, my boy, you have seen enough for one day,” said Doctor Adler.

“Yes, I want to take you back to your mother,” I said, and I lifted Seth to his feet. He stood straight, and he seemed to be in good shape once again. There was a sparkle in his eyes, and color had returned to his face.

“Thank you again, Doctor Adler. I will be moving in here tomorrow, if you don’t mind. I look forward to working with you,” I said, and I shook the rabbi’s hand for the final time.