Einstein Must Die! (Fate of Nations Book 1) (46 page)

The men climbed in back, and the general tore away, running them down the streets of Boston, dodging bodies and burned-out cars along the way. They crossed Longfellow Bridge, then turned north and raced up the slope of Bunker Hill at an unsafe speed.

***

Madelaine ceased the mortar attacks as soon as the Americans closed with the British. Minutes later she heard victorious cries over the airwaves, and inside her electrical heart, she felt joy at their victory. Even if they misunderstood her intentions, she had played a large role in saving the city. She unloaded all weapon systems and retracted them.

The time for fighting was over.

Lieutenant Terry noted the tank’s cease-fire, but didn’t know what to make of it. A sergeant ran over from one of the cannon crews.

“Lieutenant?” he asked.

“Beats me,” he said. “Maybe they ran out of ammo. Regardless, that thing was working for the enemy. Have your cannons redeploy and aim for the same area as before. I think we opened a crack in its armor. Let’s tear this thing wide open.”

The sergeant saluted and sprinted back. The crews began moving the cannons into position to re-engage on the tank’s weak spot.

***

Madelaine had limited sensors inside the crew cabin, but she knew Tesla was hurt from the rapid, thin breathing she heard. “How is Nikola?” she asked.

Savannah watched his chest moving in shallow flutters. His face had lost color, and his eyes seemed to swim in their sockets, unfocused.

“Not good, honey. I have to get him out of here. He needs a surgeon. Right now, or he’s going to bleed out.”

“Don’t let him die, Mom. I couldn’t take that, OK? Save him!”

“I’m going to, baby. Don’t worry. Open the hatch for me. I’m going out there.”

“They’re shooting at us, Mom!”

Savannah nodded. “They’re shooting at a very scary tank. I’m hoping they won’t shoot at me. Now let’s go,” she said, watching Tesla’s mouth working soundlessly. “I don’t think we have much time.”

“It’s open,” Madelaine announced.

Savannah leaned over Tesla’s chest, her face just above his. “I’ll be right back. Stay awake.” Then she was gone, grabbing the still-wet lab coat and sliding down the crew ladder.

Her feet landed hard on the grassy hilltop, and she ran to Beowulf’s front, then stepped out from behind the ruined tread, holding her hands high above her head.

Several riflemen opened fire, startled to see a human on the field. Bullets whizzed past her, and she flinched, waving the white coat back and forth, forcing a smile on her terrified face.

She saw two cannons being pulled into new positions and set up to fire again.
They’re going to hit her power plant again
. She waved the white fabric frantically.

“Don’t shoot! Please don’t shoot!” she yelled.

Terry saw the woman step out into the open. “What the hell?” he muttered. She was unarmed and waving a white flag of some sort.

His brows furrowed together, wondering what was going on. The day’s fighting had taken a decidedly bizarre turn since they’d reached Bunker Hill.

He raised his arm, turning to his men. “Cease fire, cease fire!” he bellowed. The riflemen stood down, as curious as he was.

He joined the sergeant beside one of the cannons. “Sergeant, you get your guns aimed in on that thing. If it makes a move, you unload on it. Got it?”

“Absolutely, sir.”

Terry looked up. The woman was closer now, still waving the white flag.

“All right, stand by,” he said and began walking toward her.

She was pretty. Beautiful, even, despite being covered in several bloodstains. Seeing him approach, she ran toward him. She dropped the white fabric, but kept her hands clearly visible.

“Lieutenant!” she called out. “We need a surgeon! Now!”

As she grew close, he realized there was something familiar about her. He strode forward quicker, meeting her halfway.

***

Madelaine heard Thomas’s call to the
Orion
, and her joy melted. “We’re about to be bombed!” she cried.

Tesla was disoriented from the leg wound, but her words quickly sharpened his thinking. “What? How do you know?” he asked.

“Colonel Thomas just ordered it. Maybe from the same zeppelin that hit our home.”

“It’s on the way? Now?” he asked.

“It’s minutes away,” she answered. “And he specified a radiological bomb.”

“Oh God,” whispered Tesla.
Even if her treads were intact, we couldn’t outrun that blast radius, not out in the open like this
.

He glanced down at his throbbing thigh and saw a red bloom staining the white gauze. The motion made him feel lightheaded. He frowned, disliking the sight of blood, especially his own.

“Maddy,” he asked. “Can you shoot down that zeppelin?”

“I think so,” she said. “But it’ll spook the hell out of those guys outside.”

Tesla laid his head back down on the steel floor, staring up. “We’re dead if we don’t. Seems a worthy gamble.”

“I see your point,” she said.

She turned the radar panel up to the sky, sweeping back and forth for a return signal.

***

“Who are you?” Terry asked the attractive blonde woman.

She smiled, happy to not be shot by friendly forces. “Savannah. I am Savannah Browning.”

Terry frowned. That name
was
familiar. He scanned her face and saw no deception, only earnest concern.

Then he gasped. “Colonel Browning’s girl?” he asked, his brows rising.

“Yes!” she cried. “I’m his daughter, Savannah!”

“But—” he said, cocking his head to one side. This didn’t add up. “You’re firing on American troops. Edison said so.”

She shook her head. “No way. Edison’s broadcast is false.” She pointed back at Beowulf. “We just shelled the British strongholds. Call General Houston. He’ll confirm who we’re fighting for.”

“General…” he began. “My God, we very nearly blew you to pieces.”

“Yeah, I know! Now we need a field surgeon immediately. Nikola Tesla is aboard that tank, and he’s bleeding badly.”

He took that in, then nodded. “All right, follow me. We’ll get this sorted out.”

Together they began running back to the lieutenant’s men.

***

Captain Montgomery watched her bridge crew handle the huge zeppelin like the professionals they were. They worked together smoothly, bringing the airship down.

Madelaine scanned the skies for anything larger than a flock of birds. Soon she found it. Her voice had bounced off the massive airship and returned back to her, giving her a precise angle and range.

The zeppelin was still hidden in the clouds, but descending quickly. It surged forward at maximum speed, nearly directly above the city’s center, barely a half mile from their position on the hill. Based on the damage to Fort Hamilton, they were well within the lethal blast area. And as soon as that zeppelin got visual confirmation they were on target, they’d release their payload.

“I found it, Nikola,” she said. “It’s coming down fast.”

“If you move that main gun, they’re going to open fire,” he said, glancing up at the jagged gash of sunlight already streaming through her hull.

“Yes,” she replied. “I know.”

He gritted his teeth and propped himself up by his elbows. “Time to be heroes, then.”

She understood the reference to self-sacrifice.

“I love you, Nikola,” she said, then ordered her main turret to acquire the airborne threat.

***

The sergeant was watching his lieutenant talking to the woman. Things seemed to be going all right.
Maybe they’re surrenderin
g?

Then the huge tank began moving its main gun. His eyes locked on the enormous barrel, rising and turning.
Fine, then
.

He turned to the cannon crews and bellowed, “Fire!” At each cannon a private stood ready to ignite the fuses, and they stepped forward.

Beowulf’s gun continued, tracking up and away from them, aiming for the clouds.

KA-BOOM
! The tank’s massive gun exploded, sending its 440-pound shell skyward. The cannon crews, along with everyone else on Bunker Hill, recoiled from the deafening shock wave.

A brief second later, the sky came apart in a dazzling explosion of fiery orange streaks. The zeppelin
Orion
detonated at 6,300 feet, sending huge fireballs of flaming hydrogen gas arcing through the clouds.

Everyone turned and gaped at the display as the metal superstructure fell to earth, already twisting and breaking apart.

The sergeant realized the truth then. That zeppelin had tortured them for days. His head snapped around to the cannon crews.

“Freeze!” he commanded.

One private heard the order and stood down, nodding acknowledgement. At the other cannon, the soldier’s ears were still ringing from the recent explosions, and he moved to the cannon, oblivious of the countermanding order.

As he prepared to ignite the cannon’s fuse, the sergeant sprinted toward him and dove at the cannon. The private jammed the igniter forward, just as the sergeant slapped his hand over the fuse, getting a nasty burn on the back of his palm.

“I said stand down,” growled the sergeant at the startled man.

His mouth open in shock, the private dropped the igniter. “Sorry,” he said meekly.

***

Terry arranged for his doctor to climb inside Beowulf and treat the wounded inventor. The blood loss was harrowing, but the surgeon had seen much worse during the past days.

He stuck a leather wrapped piece of wood between Tesla’s teeth, and working quickly, he removed the bandage, poured an antiseptic over the wound, and slid a pair of silver forceps inside Tesla’s thigh, digging for the lead slug within.

Tesla’s howls of pain shook Madelaine, but she stayed silent, not wanting to surprise the doctor.

In minutes the slug had been removed, and the bleeding artery sewn closed. The doctor applied clean field dressings, and gave Tesla a shot of morphine to dull the pain’s edge.

He had several soldiers assist in getting Tesla down the ladder smoothly and onto a waiting gurney.

Savannah raced to his side, clutching his hand in hers. He smiled up at her, and returned the squeeze.

A jeep approached then, and the slamming of brakes made Savannah turn. Her eyes lit up brightly when she saw General Houston climbing out of the vehicle.

“Savannah!” he cried, taking her in a bear hug and lifting her feet from the ground.

“Now you show up!” she said, laughing. Then she glanced over his shoulder and saw Thomas in the back of the jeep. Her smile wilted, and she broke the hug, standing back.

“Ah yeah,” said the general. “Sorry to spring that on you. We just took him into custody.”

Thomas sat upright, his spine like a steel rod. His eyes darted from Savannah to the behemoth tank behind her, then back again.

“Archibald,” she said, her voice coolly distant.

Thomas stood and jumped down out of the jeep, facing his ex-wife. A range of emotions played across his face. Surprise and disappointment at seeing her alive, an odd satisfaction that he’d failed to kill her, and a melancholy longing for the past they’d shared. She was still beautiful, which added to the sharpness of the moment.

“I’ve missed you, Savannah,” he said, his voice catching in his throat.

She smiled sadly. “I know you have.” She started to turn and leave, but then froze.

“There’s someone you should meet,” she said, waving him to follow her over to Beowulf.

Confused, he let himself be led forward as the guard kept a pistol aimed at his back.

They stopped in front of the humongous tank, and he looked up at it, acutely aware of how small it made him feel.

“So this is the mythical beast I’ve heard so much of,” he mused.

“Mythical?” She smiled.

“My men have sworn that the thing is alive, that it fights like a man.”

“No, not a man,” she said. “A little girl. Your little girl.”

“What does that mean?” he said, frowning in confusion. “Explain.”

Savannah looked up at the looming tank. “Say hello to your father, Madelaine.”

“You’re…my father?” asked Madelaine, her voice projecting strongly from her external speakers.

Thomas leaped back as if he’d been burned. He crouched, glaring up at the talking machine.

“What? What is that? Savannah!” he yelled.

“That is our daughter,” she told him. “To save her life, Nikola Tesla put her mind into this machine. Otherwise, she would be gone now. Killed in your attack on our base.”

Thomas paced, his eyes locked on the steel beast. “No. No! That’s impossible. You’re lying to me, Savannah!”

“She’s not lying. It’s me, Madelaine. I just have a different body now.”

Thomas’s mouth fell open, hearing her words, but his mind could find no way to process them.

“I have memories of you, Father. They’re vague. I think I was three or four. But I remember your face, looking down at me in my crib.”

“Shut up!” Thomas screamed. He jabbed a finger at her. “Shut your bloody mouth. I won’t hear this!”

“Hear it, or don’t,” said Savannah. “The truth remains the same.”

Thomas staggered backward as if the words had physically shoved him back. He felt the guard’s pistol against his back. None of this could be true, not even a bit of it. His only daughter was now a monster. His military ambitions were crushed. There was no life to return to, and no freedom to even try.

He looked into Savannah’s eyes, and the final, stabbing defeat was the pity he saw looking back at him.

“No!” he bellowed, spinning around. He shoved the guard’s pistol to the side as it fired, missing his hip. He wrenched the gun from the man’s hands and launched a vicious kick into the guard’s stomach, sending him staggering back.

Thomas wheeled around, the pistol in his hands. He cocked the hammer back and swung the weapon at Savannah, aiming down the iron sights between her piercing blue eyes.

Madelaine snapped a forward shredder toward him and made ready to fire, but then remembered she’d cleared all weapons systems of ammunition. She told a subsystem to load the gun, but it would take at least three seconds to obey the command.

Thomas’s mind screamed for him to pull the trigger. But he didn’t. Despite their history, or because of it, he couldn’t kill her. Impotently, he screamed, raging at the destruction of his hopes.