The Girl in the Clockwork Collar (Steampunk Chronicles #2)(76)
“The lot of you are going to need suitable clothes for the event,” Griffin informed them. “Sam, you and I and Jasper will go off to the tailor tomorrow. Surely there will be some ready-to-wear items that we can have altered for the pair of you, though Sam’s shoulders might prove a hindrance. Finley, you and Emily should go shopping, as well. Get gowns and all the necessary accessories. Have the boutique send the bill to me here at the hotel. If they give you any grief, act like an offended aristocrat.”
Emily made a face. “I have to wear a dress?”
Sam slipped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “If I have to wear a bloody cravat, you have to wear a dress.”
She elbowed him in the ribs.
Griffin turned to Finley. “Get yourself whatever else you need, as well. We probably won’t be able to retrieve the clothes you had to leave behind.”
In her head, Finley swore. They were only clothes, and they were replaceable, but she hated taking advantage of his generosity.
As if reading her thoughts, Griffin rolled his eyes. “Finley, you could shop every day for the next ten years and not even come close to breaking me. Please, buy yourself whatever you need. I trust you.”
Her gaze locked with his. “Not yet,” she replied confidently. “But you will.”
Chapter 16
Tesla met Griffin and Emily at the door with a smile peeking out from beneath his moustache. If he’d been rubbing his hands together, he would have looked just like a villain out of a penny dreadful. Griffin made a mental note to tell Sam about the comparison later.
“I am very pleased that you deigned to allow me to study you, Your Grace,” Tesla said in his soft tone. “I expect to learn many wonderful things from you.”
“It is no trouble, sir. I thank you for allowing me to practice Aetherically controlling the machines you’ve designed.” If it would help him take out Dalton and his machine, it was worth being treated like an experiment. He frowned when he noticed the inventor’s strange clothing. “Whatever are you wearing?”
Tesla spread his arms so that both Emily and Griffin might admire him. He wore a bizarre one-piece suit, which enveloped him from head to toe. Valves, switches and several telephone dials covered the torso of it, while wires and coiled tubing connected to the hood, out to the arms and down the legs. He also held a mask in his hand—one that was designed to cover the face—but he had attached a hose to it, which was attached at the other end to a small metal canister.
“I call it my Aetheric Mortality Disambiguation Suit.”
Griffin stared at him. Even Emily seemed at a loss for words. “Are you saying that this thing will kill you?”
“Almost,” the genius replied with uncharacteristic glee. “I constructed it immediately after our last meeting. It will drop all of my body’s functions to the brink of death and, therefore, fool the Aether so that I may see what you see.”
Griffin nodded, still not quite believing his ears. “It makes you a ghost.”
“Exactly, Your Grace! Exactly.”
Griffin and Emily exchanged a glance. He didn’t want to insult Tesla, but the suit was one of the most foolhardy devices he’d ever heard of. Inviting death was never the intelligent choice, no matter how bloody smart you were. “Mr. Tesla, that sounds very dangerous.”
“Oh, no, it’s quite safe. And we will have Miss O’Brien here to assist should any complications arise.”
Emily paled just enough that her freckles stood out against her cheeks. “Of course,” she said, but it was obvious she didn’t want the responsibility of making certain Tesla stayed alive, though she would do everything in her power to make certain he did just that.
“Mr. Tesla, sir,” Emily began. “You said a person wouldn’t have to be holding your machine to work it, correct?”
“Yes. The device is designed to focus on a specific target. Your villain could do that most easily from anywhere with a clear view.”
“What if there were multiple targets?” Griffin asked. “Say, if he wanted to render more than one item intangible?”
Tesla looked dismayed. “I designed it so that it could be used Aetherically using what I call radio waves. If he also has the controller or has made one, he could leave the device anywhere within range and simply activate the controller in the direction of whatever he wished to move through.”
Griffin raked a hand through his hair. “Wonderful.”
“However, he could not use the machine on more than one target at a time. He would have to wait at least five seconds for the charge to build once more.”
If he had been standing by a wall, Griffin would have banged his head against it.
“On the bright side,” Emily piped up, “is that, even if you can’t pinpoint the machine itself, you may be able to disable the device by focusing on the controller.”
“Very true,” Tesla agreed. “Miss O’Brien, you are most certainly the most intelligent female I have ever met.”
Griffin bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. For a second, Emily looked as though she didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended.
“Thank you, sir,” she said with a tight smile. “Shall we get started?”
Poor Emily, Griffin thought. She had been so excited to meet Tesla, but the man hadn’t turned out to be exactly what she had hoped for. There was no denying the inventor was brilliant, and he had been fairly polite and considerate, but there was something slightly cracked about him, and his fascination with the military applications of his various devices was … creepy.