Benjamin Franklinstein Meets Thomas Deadison

by Matthew McElligott

  …relax…

  “Mom, did you just hear something?”

  “Like what?”

  SKIP WEAVER’S FAVORITE COSTUME PROPS

  • Battery-Operated Bow Tie

  • Waterproof Tuxedo

  • Exploding Shoes with Sparkler Socks

  • Double-Breasted Overalls

  • Parachute Pants with Grappling Hook

  • Inflatable Thundershorts

  “Like a voice?” Victor asked.

  “No. Why, did you hear something?”

  Victor shrugged. “I thought I did.”

  A little after seven o’clock, the doorbell rang. Victor found his mom in the living room, still sitting on the couch. “That’s Scott. I shouldn’t be long.”

  Mrs. Godwin didn’t answer. Her book was open on her lap, but it didn’t look like she was reading it.

  “Mom?” Victor touched her shoulder. “Scott’s here.”

  “Huh?” Mrs. Godwin started. “Oh, sorry, honey. My mind must have been elsewhere. Have fun at your science club. I’m picking up a few extra hours at work tonight. Make sure you’re home by nine. If there’s an emergency, call Mrs. Vamos next door.”

  Victor felt bad about not being 100 percent honest with his mom about where he was going. But the Promethean Underground had to remain a secret. And technically it was a kind of science club.

  Downstairs, Scott was waiting at the door. Victor followed him to the WURP news van. “Howdy, Victor!” said Skip Weaver. He was still dressed as the Weather Wrestler.

  “Hi, Mr. Weaver.” Victor climbed into the back and sat next to Scott.

  “Did you catch my dad’s forecast?” Scott asked.

  “Only the beginning,” Victor said. “Who won?”

  “My dad, of course!” Scott said. “And guess what? He sent the cloud to the hospital—for real!”

  “It was only a minor sprain,” Skip said, sounding a little embarrassed. “So where exactly are we going?”

  “According to the text I got, we’re being called to a meeting at Promethean Underground Headquarters on the corner of 20th and McClellan.”

  “That’s near the place where I buy my capes,” Skip said. “Let’s go!”

  Mr. Weaver hit the gas and pulled out into traffic. He drove the same way he gave his weather forecasts—as if he didn’t care who was watching. The streets of Philadelphia flew by in a dizzying blur. For the second time in the same week, Victor wished he had brought a barf bag.

  “I wonder what Promethean Underground Headquarters looks like,” said Scott. “Maybe it’s—”

  …obey…

  Skip, Scott, and Victor all flinched at the same time.

  “Hey!” Victor said, noticing the others’ reactions. “Did you guys hear that too?”

  “You mean ‘obey’?” Scott asked. “Yeah, I thought it was just me. I’ve been hearing whispers all day.”

  “Same here,” Skip said. “Weird. Hey, here we are!”

  Skip parked the van on the sidewalk. “Are you sure you got the address right? This building looks kind of run-down for a secret headquarters.”

  “Read the text I got.” Victor pushed a few buttons on his phone and brought up the message:

  Skip scratched his head. “I don’t get it.”

  “Wait, it’s a code, right?” Scott said excitedly.

  “Exactly,” Victor said. “The trick is not to read it from left to right, but from top to bottom, one column at a time. Try it.”

  Slowly Skip sounded out the message: “‘Meet at PU…’”

  Scott snickered and held his nose. “Pee-yew!”

  “I know!” Skip laughed. “But there’s more.” He continued reading. “Meet at PUHQ on corner of 20th and McClellan at 7:30—Sunshine Laundromat. Alert the others.’”

  They peered across the street at the Sunshine Laundromat. Garbage littered the sidewalk. Its large plate-glass window was streaked with grease and mud. Almost every other letter on its neon sign had blown out, and the front door hung crooked on its hinge. A sign read CLOSED.

  They crossed the street and knocked.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Promethean Underground

  They waited a minute and then knocked again. They heard the sound of dead bolts unlocking and chains sliding from the other side. The door opened a crack and a hunched-over old woman peeked out. She frowned. “We’re closed,” she barked, pointing at the sign. “Can’t you read?”

  “I’m Victor Godwin, and these are my friends Scott and his dad, Skip,” Victor explained. “We were told to come here for a meeting.”

  “There’s no meeting here,” the old woman said.

  She slammed the door.

  “That didn’t go so well,” Skip said. “Maybe this is just a Laundromat, like the sign says.”

  Victor thought for a moment. “I have an idea.”

  He knocked on the door again. It opened.

  “Get out of here, you hoodlums, or I’ll call the cops!” the old woman snapped.

  Victor held up his phone and showed her the message.

  The old woman looked up and down the street. “Quickly, come in.”

  Skip and Scott looked at each other, then followed Victor inside.

  The old woman shut the door behind her and locked it. “Forgive me,” she said, leading them briskly down a hallway, “but we must take precautions. The Emperor has spies and saboteurs everywhere.”

  They passed through a dark, dingy room filled with a half-dozen washers and dryers. At the back, the old woman opened the glass door to an industrial-size washing machine. “Climb inside, please, Mr. Weaver.”

  Skip looked at the washer. “Seriously?”

  “Please,” the old woman answered.

  Skip shrugged and climbed inside. The woman pressed the Start button three times quickly and then held it for several seconds. There was a loud thunk, and the machine shuddered. When she opened the door, Skip was gone.

  “Cool!” Scott said. “I’m next!”

  Scott climbed in. The woman closed the door and pushed the button again. She opened the door and Scott had vanished too.

  “That leaves you, Victor,” the old woman said.

  Cautiously, he climbed inside the washing machine. The door clicked behind him. The machine began to shake, and a panel opened up. He fell backward and tumbled down a slide onto a basement floor. Skip and Scott were there, dusting off their pants, and next to them stood…

  “Ben!” Victor exclaimed. “They fixed you!”

  Franklin beamed at Victor. “New and improved—I even have a new battery belt, thanks to our fellow Promethean scientists! Now follow me, gentlemen. There are some people I’d like you to meet.”

  PUHQ SECRET WASHING MACHINE ENTRANCE

  Franklin led them into the next room. It was much bigger than the Laundromat upstairs. Machines and glass cabinets filled with chemicals lined the walls. In one corner a group of people were gathered around a large table covered with blueprints, maps, and computers.

  “Wander around and have a look,” Franklin said, “but don’t touch anything. Ms. Aldini will be here in a moment.”

  While Skip and Franklin chatted, Victor and Scott explored the room. Two Promethean scientists had disassembled a large piece of machinery. It lay in hundreds of pieces across the floor. Victor thought he recognized some of the parts.

  “Pardon me,” he said to one of the scientists. “Is that the Emperor’s harmonic transmitter?”

  The man eyed Victor and Scott suspiciously. “Are you boys supposed to be here?”

  The old woman from the Sunshine Laundromat approached them. “It’s okay, Dr. Anthony. These boys are here for the meeting. I have the distinct honor of introducing you to Victor Godwin and Scott Weaver.”

  Dr. Anthony smiled. “It’s a real honor, boys. You did a great thing in finding the harmonic transmitter. If you hadn’t…well, I shudder to think of it. I’m Dr. Walt Anthony, and this is my partner, Dr. Ella DeLacey.”

  “A p
leasure,” Dr. DeLacey said, shaking Victor’s hand.

  PARTS OF THE HARMONIC TRANSMITTER

  Scott looked at the pieces scattered across the floor. “You guys really broke it good. I bet the Emperor’s mad.”

  Dr. DeLacey laughed. “I’d like to think so. But we’ve received word that he’s building a new transmitter. Only this one will be much more powerful.”

  Franklin and Skip joined them, along with a scientist Victor recognized from the Promethean testing area. “Victor, Scott,” Dr. Gwynn said. He nodded toward the old woman from the Laundromat. “I see you’ve met Ms. Nina Aldini. She’s the leader of the Promethean Underground.”

  “Wow!” Skip said.

  “It’s not as impressive as it sounds,” Ms. Aldini replied. She gestured around the room. “I’m afraid this little group is all we have.”

  “And the Wright brothers,” Dr. DeLacey added. “They’re on patrol.”

  “Now I’m afraid we have little time,” Ms. Aldini said. “Please follow me.”

  She led them to the corner of the room, where Victor spotted a familiar face.

  “Hi, Jaime,” he called.

  Jaime Winters sat behind a computer, studying the screen. She looked up. “Hi, guys. Glad you made it.”

  “Let’s begin,” Ms. Aldini said. “We all know why the Modern Order of Prometheus was created. If civilization ever faced a Great Emergency, we could awaken history’s most revered inventors to save the day. Today, a Great Emergency is upon us. Unfortunately, the Order is that emergency.

  “Somehow, over the years, the Emperor has slowly taken control of the Modern Order of Prometheus. Our scientists have been disappearing, and we’ve lost contact with almost all of our Custodians and the inventors they cared for.

  “We don’t know who the Emperor is, but we do know that he’s devious. Thanks to our guests, his plan to force the Wright brothers to hypnotize Philadelphia failed. But since then, we’ve learned that he has devised another, more cunning plan. Jaime, bring up the video.”

  The WURP website appeared projected on the wall. Jaime clicked on a link that read Infinity Bulbs Free for Philadelphia. A video of the news conference began to run. It was the same one Victor and his mom had watched earlier.

  “Pause it right there, Jaime,” Ms. Aldini said. “Does anyone recognize that man?”

  “Absolutely,” Skip said. “That’s Ed Thomason. He’s a genius. He invented the Infinity Bulb.”

  Ms. Aldini shook her head. “That man is not Ed Thomason. Victor, I understand you know quite a bit about the inventors of the past. Do you recognize him?”

  “Of course!” Victor said, slapping his forehead. “Thomas Alva Edison—the inventor of the lightbulb. Why didn’t I recognize him before?”

  “Correct. Edison was preserved by the Modern Order of Prometheus in 1931. Now he is awake. But we did not wake him up.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Emperor’s Plan

  “We believe that the Emperor is able to awaken inventors from his headquarters using something called broadcast power,” Dr. Gwynn said.

  “I’ve heard of that,” Victor said.

  Jaime clicked a button and a diagram of an antenna appeared on the wall.

  “It’s an amazing technology,” Dr. Anthony explained. “An inventor named Nikola Tesla proposed it a long time ago. He believed that electricity could be transmitted through the air like radio waves. He even demonstrated it in public, but it was limited to low power and short distances. We believe those limits no longer exist.”

  “Victor,” Franklin said, “you told me that the night I awoke from my Leyden casket, there was a flash of lightning that struck only your house. These scientists believe it was actually a blast of broadcast power from the Emperor.”

  “I knew there was something strange about that lightning strike!” Victor said. “So that’s how he woke up the Wright brothers.”

  “And now Thomas Edison,” Ms. Aldini confirmed. “We believe the Emperor is controlling him, just as he once did Orville and Wilbur.”

  Victor had a curious look on his face. “But I still don’t understand, Ben. How come he wasn’t able to control you?”

  “Because of you, Victor,” Franklin said. “When each inventor awoke, power from our Leyden caskets still flowed through our veins for a short time. Our Custodians were supposed to recharge us and adjust the harmonic systems immediately. Without their Custodian, the Wright brothers’ power drained away, making them unexpectedly vulnerable to the Emperor’s control. Now Edison shares that same fate.”

  “But your Custodian was missing too,” Scott said. “Mr. Mercer died before you woke up.”

  “Murdered,” Franklin said grimly. “With him gone, I also should have become the Emperor’s puppet. But my power never fully ran out.”

  “The battery belt!” Scott said.

  “Exactly.”

  “Victor, you saved Ben!”

  Victor beamed.

  “So what happened to Edison’s Custodian?” asked Skip.

  “Custodians,” Jaime said softly.

  “Jaime’s parents were both in charge of Edison,” Dr. Anthony explained. “They vanished at the same time he did.”

  “I’m so sorry,” said Skip.

  No one spoke for a moment.

  Jaime broke the silence. “My mom and dad took their job very seriously. Just like my grandparents, and my great-grandparents before them. In a weird way, Edison has always felt like a member of our family.”

  “And we have a plan to get them all back,” Ms. Aldini said. Jaime clicked a button and a picture of an Infinity Bulb appeared on the wall. “Ella, can you fill everyone in on where we stand?”

  Dr. DeLacey stood up. “We believe that the Emperor awakened Edison in order to make him invent the Infinity Bulb. Together, they have done an astounding job of installing these bulbs throughout Philadelphia. They are in homes, stores, traffic lights—everywhere.”

  “They even installed all new lights at the TV station,” Skip added. “No charge!”

  “What’s so special about the bulbs?” Victor asked.

  “Our theory,” Dr. DeLacey said, “is that the Emperor is using Infinity Bulbs to spy on people. We think they’re listening devices.”

  “But you don’t listen with lightbulbs,” Scott said. “You listen with microphones.”

  “We believe Infinity Bulbs are a kind of microphone,” Dr. Gwynn explained.

  “But it’s easier to convince people to put free lightbulbs in their houses than free microphones,” Jaime said.

  “Besides, these aren’t ordinary microphones,” Ms. Aldini continued. “We suspect they are monitoring more than just sound.”

  “Like what?”

  “We’re not sure. The Emperor may be able to see through them, monitor people’s locations, tap into their computer networks…The possibilities are endless.”

  “What does he want?” Scott asked.

  “Knowledge is power,” Jaime answered. “He can use all of that secret information to control the city.”

  “Nefarious!” Franklin declared. “A diabolical corruption of science.”

  “We’ve been struggling to understand exactly how Infinity Bulbs work,” Ms. Aldini said. “You’re here because we need your help—all of you.”

  “What can we do?” Skip asked.

  “Mr. Weaver, you have access to WURP’s news feed. We need you to monitor the situation from the station. If you hear reports of anything strange happening, contact us immediately.” Ms. Aldini handed him a cell phone. “Use this. Just press 4-3-2-1 and I’ll answer.”

  “Right,” Skip said. He pulled a notepad out of his pocket and mumbled as he wrote: “Four, three, two, one…”

  “Victor, we need for you and Dr. Franklin to study what makes Infinity Bulbs work. You might be able to learn something that we missed.”

  “What about me?” Scott asked.

  Ms. Aldini thought for a moment. “Hmm, yes. Scott, your task is very important
. It’s, uh…We need you to, uh…”

  “You’re emergency backup, Scott,” Jaime said. “In case any one of us needs help.”

  “Like a volunteer fireman?” Scott said.

  “Exactly!” Ms. Aldini said. “In the meantime, a couple of us plan to sneak into the Infinity Unlimited factory tonight. Jaime, bring up the computer model and show them what we’ve got so far.”

  A three-dimensional image of the Infinity Unlimited factory appeared on the wall.

  “It’s based on photographs that Orville and Wilbur took from their gyroplanes.” Jaime clicked and twirled the building around. “There are four visible main levels, and probably a basement.”

  “We’ll know more tonight, once we’re inside,” Dr. Anthony said. “We’ll collect as much information as we can. Hopefully, that will help us stop the Emperor.”

  “That sounds dangerous,” Scott said.

  “Extremely dangerous,” Ms. Aldini confirmed. “Let’s meet again tomorrow at four to share what we’ve all learned.” She looked at the clock. “Now you boys had better get home. It’s late.”

  INFINITY UNLIMITED SURVEILLANCE DIAGRAM

  During the drive home, Victor leaned his tired head against the window as the night’s revelations whirled around inside his brain. The secret entrance into Promethean Underground Headquarters…lightbulbs that spy on you…and Thomas Edison? It was a lot to take in.

  Skip stopped the van at a red light.

  …concentrate…for instructions…prepare…

  “There it is again,” said Scott. “Creepy.”

  Franklin snapped his head up. “You all heard that?”

  “You too?”

  “I’ve been hearing voices in my head all day,” said Franklin. “Orville and Wilbur as well. I asked Dr. Gwynn about it. As far as he knows, the Wright brothers and I are the only ones hearing them. He thought it might have something to do with our harmonic biology. But if you’re hearing them too, there must be another reason. We should let him know.”

  Victor looked up at the red light. “Didn’t Ms. Aldini say that all the traffic lights had been replaced with Infinity Bulbs?”