“So how did you come to be with Ted?” he asked her as the Packard took them back to the old factory.
“I met him at a party in the village,” she informed him. “I didn’t have much else to do this week, so when he invited me to spend the weekend with him I decided to come along.”
“You are a spirited young woman,” Hearst spoke to her. Crowley noted it was only with great difficulty that Hearst kept his eyes off her.
“We only get one spirit,” she told him. “I decided after I left home that I would use mine the best I could. No working-man husband and ten babies for me.”
Crowley didn’t have to ask from where she came. He’d met many of these modern women in his time in America. They were full of spirit and drive, but he wondered what would happen if the economy dived again. With no landed class in the New World, the peasants were at the mercy of the glorious dollar and all it could buy.
“Factory is up ahead,” the heard the driver cry out as he slid the glass divider open between the front and back seat. “I see a number of people walking around out in front of the main gates. I don’t think they were there when we left.”
Hearst turned and looked at the young woman who sat across from him and Crowley.
“You can leave now,” he told her, “If you want. I don’t like the way it sounds up ahead. The last thing you want to find yourself in the middle of is a riot.”
“Oh, a riot!” she exclaimed. “I’ve heard about those! You think we might get to see one?” she appeared excited over the prospect.
Hearst glanced at Crowley. “Not if we’re lucky. However, you might get to meet Nikola Tesla.”
“The man who invented electricity?” she asked. “That sounds exciting!” Once again, her eyes shined.
“I’m certain Tesla would like people to believe he invented electricity,” Crowley laughed. “However, be careful around him. Tesla doesn’t like to be touched and I’m told he has a fear of women.”
The Packard slowed down to a crawl as it approached the gates of the old factory. None of the men who were walking around the street seemed to be concerned a car drove in their direction. Crowley watched as the car bumped into one man and he backed away from it. All of them had some kind of blank expression on their faces.
“I’ll call some people I know and get us help,” Hearst told the others as the car entered the lot in front of the old factory. “What about your people, Marcus? Why aren’t they here?”
“I told you,” Garvey spoke. “Most of them are working people. Once they are let out of work, they’ll arrive, but not until. I don’t expect to see any of them for another three hours.”
“Where did you find these people?” Crowley asked him.
“They belong to the same lodge,” Garvey explained. “When I first came to this country, they wanted me to join, but I had more pressing matters. I was able to find them a new lodge building when they outgrew their old one. They told me I could count on them whenever I needed help.”
“I didn’t know there were freemasons of color,” Hearst spoke to them.
“They belong to a lodge for black men,” Garvey explained. “Like many other institutions in this country, they can’t join the white version. Many years ago, someone decided that the only solution was to start one for non-whites. And now we have our own, although I do not think I will ever have the time to join it.”
“I’m a Freemason myself,” Crowley spoke up. “I belong to the true free masonic body that was rectified in Germany,” he explained.
“I wouldn’t brag about your German connections at this time,” Garvey countered.
“I don’t,” Crowley, answered. “But when this conflict is over, and someday it will be over, I can act upon them.”
The Packard came to a stop. “You should stay inside until we’ve determined it’s safe for you to leave,” Garvey told her. They exited the car; Anita remained.
When they agreed the men who stood outside the gates presented no immediate threat, Hearst had her leave the Packard. Crowley offered her his hand, which Anita accepted.
“Go lock the gate up,” Hearst told the driver. “There should be some padlocks with keys in the back of the car. Take a rifle with you in case the mood changes out there. We’re supposed to get some help, later on, so be ready to let them inside.” The driver nodded and went to the trunk of the car as the four of them walked up to the old factory building.
“Be careful around Tesla,” Crowley warned her. “Like Marcus said, he has some strange ideas about personal contact. If he acts cold, don’t take it personally.”
Chapter 9
They found a note on the front of the factory door that told anyone interested to come around to the back. Good thing for him, none of the men wandering around outside had made it inside the gates of the factory grounds.
“It’s increased in speed,” Tesla told them as the group walked up to him.
Tesla stood next to a mounted telescope on a cart with his back to them. He took notes with a pencil on a pad of paper. Crowley couldn’t understand how he managed to look at the heavens in the broad daylight. Wouldn’t the sunlight burn his eyes?
Tesla looked up from the lens of the telescope, turned around, and pulled off his glasses. He’d worn protective goggles with darkened lenses. This allowed him to use the telescope in bright sun, Cowley realized.
He wrote down some figures on the pad. There was an old table next to him piled with objects. It held several books and reams of paper for his observations. Tesla picked up a slide rule from the desk, made some quick calculations, wrote down the results and placed the slide rule back down on the table.
“What are you doing?” Hearst asked him. “How can you make any kind of observation in the middle of the day?” The air was still chilly, but the sun was shining. Garvey glanced up in time to see a cloud pass overhead. It obscured the sunlight and sky with it.
“It’s not hard to find the asteroid if you know where to look,” Tesla informed him. He still had his back to the group. “It’s not visible to the unaided eye, but you can find it with the right telescope. I have a telescope left over from my other work.”
“What have you discovered?” Crowley, who tried to hold onto his hat in the latest gust of wind, asked the inventor. “You told us it was on a direct course with Earth. Is there anything else we need to know?”
“Yes,” Tesla told them in a firm voice as he whirled around to face them. “The asteroid has increased its speed. It’s accelerating faster than I’d imagined. From today’s calculations, I know it will intersect with the path of this world sooner than I thought.” He stopped when he saw the woman with the trio.
Tesla narrowed his eyes at her. “Who is this?” he demanded.
“Anita,” Crowley replied. “She is a friend of mine.”
They could tell Tesla fought every inclination he possessed to keep from showing his displeasure. He backed up a few steps and returned to his calculations.
“How much sooner?” Hearst asked him.
“Less than two weeks,” he spoke. “It could arrive earlier if the speed increases again.”
“Do you think your first set of calculations might be in error?” Garvey asked the inventor. “Perhaps it always did travel at this speed.”
“Makes no difference,” the response came from Tesla. “Once it arrives, this world will cease to exist as far as we are concerned.”
The others were silent.
Finally, it was Garvey who spoke. “What can we still do?” he asked. “Don’t you have the rocket ready to send up there and destroy it?”
“We have time,” Tesla spoke, “but it must be used efficiently. I’ll need a team of skilled workers who know how to form metal to help me with the final touches on the rocket. Can any of you find such men?” He busied himself picking up the papers used for the final calculations and loaded them on the table.
“I know a few people who can help,” Hearst offered. ”Do you have a phone inside this place?�
�
“I had one installed in the former production office,” Tesla replied, as he got behind the mounted telescope. He began to push it up the walk, back to the front of the building.
The other men helped him move the telescope into the old factory. Anita, mindful of Tesla’s attitude, stacked up the paperwork. She carried the pile with her as the others walked ahead.
Once inside the factory, Hearst walked into the office and turned on a light. On the old wooden desk was a modern phone, still new. He picked it up and asked for a connection. Minutes later, he was busy talking to someone named Sam.
While Crowley showed Anita around the old factory, Tesla called Garvey to his side. “You should have asked me before bringing that woman into this place,” he grumbled. “She’ll be in the way.”
“I wasn’t positive about her coming along,” Garvey replied. ”But I see no harm in Anita being here.”
“Do you know anything at all about her?” Tesla demanded. “I don’t like her with us, but I’ll go along, so long as she doesn’t get in the way.”
Garvey stared at the inventor and wondered what made him like this. Tesla didn’t like to make body contact and he didn’t seem to care for women around him. Had the man experienced something bad when he was coming of age?
Meanwhile, Crowley was busy with his latest infatuation.
“You seem quite young to have such knowledge of the world,” he told her, as he made sure a large pillar blocked their view from the rest of the plant. “Have you traveled much?”
“Only up to Maine and back,” she told him. “A gentleman took me up there one summer after he spotted me in the chorus line. We had fun. Then his wife showed up and he put me on the first train back to New York.” Anita looked off into space. She chuckled a bit at the thought.
“You should come and sit for me some time,” Crowley told her. “Among other things, I am a painter. You would make a fine subject.”
“Why Mr. Crowley,” she told him. “Are you suggesting I take all my clothes off and sit naked so you can stare at me all day?” She ran one finger down his chest.
“That would be charming,” he told her. “Incidentally, I need your cooperation for something very important.”
Anita looked sly at him again and spoke in the sweetest voice. “You want me to get down on my knees, right? This is one of those ‘royal art’ things you wrote about for the Germans, correct?”
Crowley was taken back. The American women never ceased to surprise and amuse him; but this woman…She knew a lot more than she knew the average village artist he entertained. For a few seconds, Crowley thought she might be the Scarlet Woman he’d searched for so long. The woman who would complement him and usher in the new eon. Those eyes were dark and drew in his soul.
Yet…every time he’d thought one was close, Crowley was disappointed. First, there was Rose, but she turned to drink after their daughter passed away so suddenly. There were others, sometimes he was infatuated with them for only a few days. No one turned out to be what he wanted or needed. Crowley took his hat off and looked at the wooden floor. It was made of hard blocks, all the better to cushion any machine part that might fall.
“You’re not Babalon,” he told her. The woman could take many forms, he’d learned, but this was not one of them.
“Never been there,” Anita, told him. “I have been to Ithaca in the summer. New York, that is.” She chuckled.
“I didn’t think you were Her,” he told the woman. “I need to contact something else besides. My own personal guardian angel. He’s been absent for a long time and I think Babalon’s latest appearance has something to do with it.”
“So you want me to get naked?” she snickered.
“Not in front of everyone. At least not with Tesla present. It would push him over the edge and we can’t risk that right now. Too much is at stake.”
Crowley stepped back around a rear wall and found several vacant rooms. There was an old lantern on the floor. He picked the lantern up and checked it. Good. It had a wick and plenty of fuel. It would be perfect for what he had in mind. He’d need to draw several geometric symbols on the ground. This he could do with a stick if there was a dirt floor nearby. However, he could do it with a piece of chalk or pencil if the floor was made from wood.
He leaned back and peered into the main factory floor. The tall object blocked the others from seeing what he was up to. He’d need to conclude things before they became suspicious.
Crowley was in the process of finding a room big enough when he heard Anita speak behind him.
“Hello, there!” Anita said. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced.” Crowley spun around to see who it was.
It was Babalon. Dammit.
This time she wore a Roman toga. The white fabric flowed down her body and gathered around at the sandals she wore. Her fiery hair was gathered into an intricate pattern and she held both hands together in her sleeves. It was possible to see the pale skin of her face and the emerald green eyes that bored right into him.
“I saved you the trouble,” she told him. “You were about to introduce her to Mr. Johnson, weren’t you?”
“Well, I did need her to try and contact the higher forces,” Crowley attempted to explain. “I can’t bloody well depend on you for anything.”
“If it wasn’t for me,” Babalon fired back. “You’d be dead of an overdose or from some disease for which no one’s found a name. Now please stick to the job you’re supposed to do.”
“This is Babalon, Anita,” he told the young woman. “She’s supposed to help me usher in the new eon, but works on her own schedule.” He glared at the red-haired woman.
“Uncle Al,” Anita cooed at him. “I do think you had some naughtiness in mind back here.” Once again, she snickered.
“He’s managed to convince himself it’s necessary to carry out his True Will,” Babalon explained to her. “Don’t let him take advantage of you. If I didn’t check up on Mr. Crowley, he’d be worse off than he currently is.”
“If you’re so powerful,” Crowley snapped back at her. “Why don’t you stop that asteroid yourself?”
“Not part of my job,” Babalon returned. “I’m here as your legal guardian, Baldy. I sensed you might be up to the old smooth talk and I was right. Besides, why would your species be worth saving if it can’t even keep away an attack from another one? Now get back to work and help the other three. The work day is almost over and I expect you to get busy.”
“You think this is just a game you can play?” Babalon continued. “How many women have you treated roughly? How many men have you led astray? You didn’t like it when you followers in Vancouver sent all those telegrams, did you? Found them too much to handle with everything else going on in your life?”
This time Crowley started to tremble. She knew everything. Why hadn’t the secret chiefs warned him about her? She seemed so different the first time she manifested in the desert after he crossed the abyss. Victor was sleeping off the opium and he never saw her. Crowley thought something had emerged from the pit and fled in terror. She tracked him down and informed him that great things were about to take place, but she had to listen to him.
“I told you not to listen to that German opera singer, didn’t I?” she yelled at him. Babalon’s hair began to flow as if she was in the middle of a hurricane.
Crowley looked over at Anita and saw her frozen. Had time stopped for this interview? He wanted to hide, go away, and find a monastery that would take him into the fold. His friend Allen had managed to get away to Ceylon, he could do it too. Just make this nightmare end.
“You never listen to anyone, Aleister!” she screamed at him. “I know everything, keep it in mind. How would you like me to let the world know about you fabled Book of the Law? You want me to really tell the way it was written? Not at all how you’ve told it. How many versions are we on now? Two, three?”
“I didn’t want this,” he told her. “I didn’t want any of this. All I wanted was a
slot at the top of the Golden Dawn. And they had to destroy it all! I tried; you must know I tried to keep it together for them!” He lowered his head, tears streamed down his cheeks.
“You have one final chance,” Babalon continued. “To make things right. If you mess it up this time, the world and humanity will cease to matter. Trust me, in the wide universe, none of you make much of a difference. There are intelligences out there we would prefer to work with that doesn’t cause us a fraction of the trouble.”
“Then why are you here?” he asked her. “Why not let the asteroid continue on its course and strike Earth? Wouldn’t it solve everything?”
“Because you humans went and developed Free Will,” she snapped back. “Alone of all the creatures we’ve found, you have agency, dammit. We lose you; we might as well shut down everything. At least this is my faction’s view. There are plenty of others out there that would be happy to see the asteroid finish the job.”
“So get out there and give those men some help,” she concluded. “And don’t take advantage of this child, she’d barely eighteen.”
Crowley stood there and watched Babalon fade away. It didn’t matter, she could return any time she felt the need.
Anita blinked her eyes a few times and looked at the empty space where Babalon once stood. There was still the shifting outline of the angel’s body in the dust that the fading light illuminated.
“I’m not sure what she is,” Crowley explained. “Angel, devil, savior, air sylph, or anything else. I do know it’s not smart to make her angry. One of the reasons I’m in the United States is because I didn’t follow her early enough. I should have gone back to Britain when the war started.” He brushed off the dirt on his coat and looked back into the main room.
“What happened to her?” she asked. “Wasn’t that lady standing there a few minutes ago? You some kind of Thurston rehearsing for an act?”
The Apocalypse Four: 93 Million Miles To Gotham Page 9