The Stone of Madness

by Nick Baker

  ‘Yes, I’m aware of that, but I still don’t see how it could cause such devastation.’

  ‘Have you ever heard it said that soldiers are told to break step when they cross a bridge?’

  Saskia nodded.

  ‘Yes, well, it follows an incident when cavalry troops were marching in cadence across a bridge. It just so happened that their rhythm exactly matched the frequency of the bridge’s own natural resonance. Although the bridge only absorbed a small amount of cumulative energy with each step, it led to a slow increase in the amplitude of the bridge’s oscillation. Eventually, enough energy was added to cause the bridge to break up.’

  ‘Incredible, really.’

  ‘Yes, and a similar phenomenon occurs when the wind’s natural resonance causes a poorly constructed bridge to vibrate. Have you ever heard of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge?’

  Saskia shook her head.

  ‘It was a suspension bridge built in the States in the 1930’s. Unfortunately, not long after the bridge opened, people noticed it wobbling even in a gentle breeze. It wasn’t long before the locals renamed it Galloping Gertie. There was an inherent design fault in the structural aerodynamics of the bridge. It had only been open for four months when severe winds set up a mechanical resonance that caused the bridge to rock so violently it broke up.’

  A look of enlightenment appeared on Saskia’s face. ‘And you applied a similar physical phenomenon to the metal door?’

  ‘Precisely!’

  ‘You’re a genius! Any object, whether solid, liquid or gas, has its own inherent resonance, and you added your own energy to match it.’

  Price nodded. ‘Exactly. All atoms resonate, it’s in their very nature. The internal structure of a metal is uniform, and that’s what makes it susceptible. It would be extremely difficult to apply this process to a multi-composite structure, but a metal’s inherent regularity gives rise to its tremendous strength. Ironically, though, this is also its Achilles heel.’

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘You’ve witnessed me harmonise my mind with the internal structure of matter, and by applying alchemical lore in this way, I’ve been able to internally reconfigure matter, but I’ve long theorised that this technique could be applied in other ways, and this is an example.’

  ‘What exactly did you do?’

  ‘I focused on the inherent mechanical resonance of the door, and once I’d calculated its resonance frequency, I flooded the metal with more and more energy until it was completely overwhelmed. Eventually, the door split apart.’

  Price looked excitedly at Saskia expecting to see the exhilaration he was feeling mirrored in her own face. Instead, he was shocked to see an expression of pure horror. The colour had leached from her cheeks leaving a pale, waxy sheen that was ghost-like and translucent. She was staring behind him with her eyes fixed elsewhere. Her lips had fallen apart as if she wanted to say something but her voice would not respond. He shivered from the sensation, but did not immediately turn round, despite instinctively knowing that someone was standing behind him.

  ‘Very impressive, Henry. Were you expecting a round of applause?’ said another voice, delivered in a mocking tone that Price immediately recognised.

  Price had been half-expecting to hear this voice from the moment he arrived, but even now, the sound hit him like a sledgehammer. He turned round in a calm and collected manner that was at complete odds with the churning sensation in his stomach. He looked into the face of a man he had not seen for several years and noted that his appearance had not changed. His bright blue eyes were burning fiercely, fixed on Price with a combination of suspicion and hatred. The remnants of a smile lingered at the corners of his mouth below a thick, black triangular moustache that curled menacingly down at its ends.

  ‘Pearly! Not exactly the best of circumstances in which to meet,’ Price began conversationally, doing his best to mask his inner turmoil.

  ‘And just exactly what were you expecting?’ replied Black with a mocking sneer. ‘A formal invitation, was it? Perhaps that’s why you’ve brought the lovely Saskia with you, or perhaps you didn’t feel safe enough to come alone?’

  ‘Your insincerity does not become you,’ said Saskia softly. ‘You weren’t always like this, Pearly.’

  ‘Save your words,’ Black snapped. ‘I’ve not come to discuss the niceties of my behaviour. You’d be well advised to stay silent unless you have something worthwhile to say, which I would doubt.’

  ‘What do you mean by that?’ demanded Saskia.

  Black turned to look at her. ‘Do you remember why I allowed you to come with me when I left the Academy? Let me remind you lest you’ve forgotten. You had the knowledge to aid me, but as I neared my goal, you were superfluous to my needs. You do know all of this, of course, but … well, now this is a surprise …’ he said suddenly, pointing a finger at Price. ‘It seems you’ve never had this conversation with him, judging by his expression,’ he said, enjoying the moment.

  ‘Don’t deceive yourself, Pearly. There are no secrets between us,’ Price replied.

  Black sneered. ‘How touching! If only I could believe you. Your loyalty is admirable, Henry, but don’t you try and fool me. I trust my eyes. Now, let’s not waste time. What are you here for?’

  ‘What am I here for?’ said Price, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Don’t be naive, Pearly. You may have gained much ground these past months with all the adoration of a misguided public, but you don’t fool me. I understand the reasons for your scheming and your need to dominate.’

  Black shook his head and smiled sardonically. ‘You know, Henry, I’ve always found it such an enigma that you and I were born on the very same day, yet we should end up being so completely different.’

  ‘What difference does that make? Don’t tell me that you’ve been practising astromancy to go with all your other crazy ideas,’ said Price humourlessly.

  ‘You think you’re so smart, don’t you, Price? What do you know of me?’ spat Black, his temper rising. ‘You have the temerity to stand in front of me and accuse me of the will to dominate. Look at yourself before you cast your accusations, driven as you are by your misguided jealousy. You’ve never been able to compete with me and you just can’t take it. You’re only fooling yourself with your pathetic Council. How did you manage to persuade all those other fools to believe all the petty half-truths you made up about the Order? Let me tell you so that you clearly understand: you know nothing of my plans or what I aim to achieve; even you’d be impressed if you did.’

  ‘As deluded as ever I see, Pearly. Well, go on then, impress me,’ goaded Price.

  ‘You can’t fool me, Price. Now’s not the time for this conversation, but you’ll see,’ Black said, displaying a crazed-looking grin. ‘I can assure you, though, I’ve not been wasting my time on building pathetic contraptions like you. They’re puny in comparison with my theurgical research. I’m almost there now. Just a few last pieces, and I shall have the ultimate prize,’ he said, looking to the sky as if in supplication to an unseen god.

  ‘I hate to bring you down to planet earth,’ said Price sarcastically, ‘but how do you plan to extricate yourself from your present circumstances?’

  Black shrugged his shoulders.

  ‘Perhaps I should remind you that we’ve got you surrounded. When news of this gets out, your oh-so-carefully built reputation will be in ruins,’ Price said, accompanying his words with a self-satisfied smirk.

  ‘I’m glad you brought that up. As it happens, I have a message for your superior. I assumed you’d come to collect it,’ replied Black smugly.

  The smile on Price’s face vanished as Black reached into his jacket and pulled out a small object that was masked by his clutched fist. Seconds later a muffled crack echoed in the distance while Price stood impotently by, paralysed by the knowledge that nothing would ever be the same again.

  *

  The screen inside the Historoscope turned blank. Price wondered whether the machine had malfunctioned,
but when it started to thrum and vibrate in his hands, he knew it was still working. Once again, the screen lit up, but this time, as the scene on the rooftop took shape, the view had shifted perspective while foreign thoughts coalesced inside his head, repressing the amalgamation of his own memories and those of Nicolas Fox.

  *

  Magnus Law was closely observing the distant figures from his vantage point on the rooftop across the street from the factory. He was aware of the dark, brooding figure of Henry Price through his leadership of the Council and his dealings with his own boss, Nicolas Fox. He knew little of the woman Price had arrived with, but she was irrelevant. Of the three, it was Pearly Black who interested him most—successful, charismatic, famous—attributes he could only ever aspire to.

  Watching Black only heightened his great sense of bitterness that stemmed from a miserable upbringing followed by years of disappointment and failure. He recalled his early years as a time of isolation and neglect, living with parents who did not care for him, brought up by a procession of nannies who came and went with monotonous regularity. At school, he failed to integrate, watching his classmates with envy as they formed friendships that never came naturally to him. Inevitably, he became increasingly lonely, and although his bright intelligence shone fiercely in class, this only served to alienate him further from his peers.

  University was no different, forever on the fringe of the carefree students that surrounded him. After graduating with a first in physics, he was approached by Internal Security, an organisation he had only ever heard of spoken in whispers. He was told that he would make the perfect recruit because of his innate intelligence and solitary existence, and not surprisingly, he jumped at the chance.

  Earmarked for rapid promotion, he had at last found a surrogate family to which he truly belonged, but after a brief interlude of happiness, an inability to teamwork under duress resulted in his progress repeatedly being overlooked for less experienced recruits, engendering a festering resentment that grew each time he was passed over.

  These were the same old thoughts passing through his head as he sat on the cold rooftop watching his target through the telescopic viewfinder of an MQ-4 assault rifle—a weapon used by Internal Security for its reliability and accuracy. His orders were explicit: he was to keep Black trained in his sights at all times and only fire on receipt of the requisite order that would arrive via the earpiece nestling in the conchal bowl of his right ear.

  Magnus could sense his anger rising. The unfairness of it all galled him to the core; he was an overlooked nobody, a bit-part player, watching people who really counted. He felt the weight of the rifle in his arms, and with it, a sudden surge of power arising from the injustices of his life.

  All of a sudden, a burst of static erupted in his earpiece at precisely the moment Black reached inside his jacket. Was that an order he had just received over the airwaves? And was that a weapon Black had pulled from his pocket? It was all over in an instant; Magnus squeezed the trigger and let the bullet fly.

  His heart was pounding as he waited for Black to fall, but once the burst of light that flashed in the night vision scope of his rifle dissipated, he frowned. Something was wrong. The bullet should have ripped Black apart, yet he remained standing in exactly the same spot seemingly untouched.

  Magnus’ mind turned over at a frantic rate. Black could never have survived a shot of that magnitude, and he was positive that he had not missed his target. It was unthinkable that Black had been wearing body armour bearing in mind that he had only come to rob a refrigeration plant. No. He could not possibly have foreseen being cornered like this. There had to be another explanation, and as he racked his brains for an answer, he recalled all he had learnt through diligent study during his induction into the ranks of Internal Security. A seasoned operative had instructed him about the inexplicable acts the likes of Black could perform, ranging from the transmutation of matter to the awe-inspiring manipulation of energy, and his training had prepared him to deal with any such eventuality.

  He knew that an accomplished alchemist could monitor the environment and detect a change in the surrounding equilibrium, and thinking about it now, a bullet travelling at over 900 feet per second would be about as apparent to Black as a tsunami rushing towards him across a flat, calm sea. Forewarned by this knowledge, all Black would need was a fraction of a second to invoke an electromagnetic field to protect himself, thus explaining the flash Magnus had observed in lieu of Black’s demise.

  The impact had been like a coruscation of fireworks, hissing and fizzing inches in front of Black’s body, but as the bullet decelerated and gave up its energy, like a phoenix from the ashes, it rebounded, picking up momentum and veering off in search of another, unsuspecting victim.

  Serendipity, fate, chance—call it what you will—the bullet pitched and yawed into the woman standing in front of Black with all the force of a charging bull elephant, but for her, there was no protection. The incredulity on her face merely confirmed that she had no idea what had hit her. She staggered, and then, for the briefest of moments, she stood upright before toppling backwards, dead even before she struck the rooftop.

  Magnus watched in slack-jawed terror. He felt the rifle tumble from his hands and clatter onto the rooftop. Like an automaton, he rose, turned and started to run.

  *

  As the thoughts of the panic-stricken man dissipated, the Historoscope’s screen flickered and briefly turned blank before it flashed back into life, returning the perspective to the factory rooftop at precisely the moment Price had been viewing it earlier.

  *

  Price watched with mounting terror as Black pulled something from his pocket. Moments later, the sound of a distant report preceded a flash of blinding light that cast Black in an impenetrable shadow like the corona around an eclipsed heavenly body. The beatific radiance dispersed in an instant, but the muted crack that followed was the only sound as Saskia fell to the ground, immobile and lifeless.

  Price launched himself towards his fallen angel, staggering to his knees beside her crumpled form. With mounting panic, he placed his hands on her forehead and forced his mind deep inside her own, frantically searching for signs of life.

  The small entry wound in Saskia’s chest was no indication of the huge cavity of devastation that lay within and from which Price knew there could be no recovery. He withdrew his presence and scrambled to his feet. He stared at the blurred image of Black, barely registering the look of shock on his enemy’s face obscured behind a thin veil of his own tears.

  ‘You bastard,’ Price snarled. ‘Why?’

  Black held up a hand. ‘It wasn’t me! It was an acci—’ he began, pointing into the distance.

  Price was no longer listening and was already on the move. ‘QUIET!’ he yelled, throwing himself at Black, yearning for the need to tear him apart and assuage the hatred that poured forth from him like magma from a volcano.

  Black visibly tensed, but before he could steady himself, Price was on him, punching and tearing like a wild animal. Price drove him back and knocked him from his feet. He pinned him to the ground, yet paradoxically, he felt Black relax. As blow followed blow, a thunderous pulse of energy erupted from Black’s hands, sending Price flying through the air. He crashed into a knee-high parapet guarding the roof, gasping for air, all wind forced from his lungs. Flames licked around his clothes, releasing plumes of dirty grey smoke that rose hungrily into the sky while the smell of singed flesh pervaded the air, nauseous and repulsive.

  Price hauled himself up amidst a cloud of smoke rising from the charred remnants of his clothes. A livid scorch mark was visible on his chest where his shirt had melted away, yet despite the damage he had sustained, he still summoned a terrible power of his own, materialising in his hand as if he had plucked it straight from the core of a nuclear reactor. He took aim and launched the bolt of seething energy as Black backed towards the shelter of a broad chimney. The flaming missile sliced through the air, leaving a trail of go
lden vapour lagging in its wake, but just when the collision seemed inevitable, Black vanished, allowing the raging hellfire to pass harmlessly by, ploughing into the chimney and dissipating in a shower of fiery reds and yellows.

  In the blink of an eye, Black re-materialised mere feet away from where he had last been visible. He smiled malevolently at Price, who had fallen to his knees, all energy spent following his fruitless attack. Black raised his arms in triumph. As he savoured the moment, a low rumbling as of thunder arose behind him, building into a terrifying roar. The chimney disintegrated into a raging torrent, engulfing all that stood in its path. The victorious look on Black’s face morphed, first into shock, and finally fear, as the avalanche of bricks propelled him over the parapet. He spun head over heels into a free fall amidst a mass of tumbling masonry and dust, and before he could react, he crashed into the ground with a sickening thud. After a reflexive gasp, his lifeless form came to rest on a sea of rubble four storeys below.

  Price felt the weight of a hand on his shoulder as he sat with his head bowed, cradling the motionless form of Saskia. He looked up to see the face of Nicolas Fox staring down at him and wiped away the tears streaking his face. He regarded Fox dully before bowing his head once more.

  ‘Henry … I need to know what happened. Where’s Black?’ said Fox uncertainly.

  Price did not look up, sweeping away a strand of hair matted with blood. He pointed in the vague direction of the shattered chimney. ‘Gone … over the edge,’ he muttered.

  Fox approached the parapet and peered over. Streaks of light were visible in the sky to the east, but in the lee of the factory wall, it was impossible to see the ground with any certainty.

  ‘Into the building!’ Fox yelled at the group of men who had appeared behind him. ‘Black’s gang won’t have the stomach for a fight now. Quick! Flush them out.’