Frankenstein Theory (4 page)

“
What is this…this thing?”

“
A new machine I requested from the French Academy of Sciences. It controls the amount of energy that flows from the lightning strikes to the electrodes attached to the body. I rushed to Henry’s side. “That is the difference between me and my father. I know my limitations. Instead of taking the time to learn the minutiae of electricity and trying to build a machine of my own, I have turned to others more knowledgeable about its power than myself. Also, I have hired a gentlemen to assist us.”

“
Victor,” Henry whispered sharply. “You cannot bring another person into this circle. What if he reports us to the constabulary?”

I smacked Henry on the shoulder. “Oh, my dear man, Igor will do no such thing. Though his knowledge of electricity is expansive, he is…how shall I put this…a denizen of an underground society. He won’t inform anyone of our work because his only God is coin. Both his services and his silence have been purchased. As far as he knows, we only need him to watch over this one piece of machinery. Beyond that, he will be absolutely loyal to our cause. Besides, he suffers from a physical deformity which ensures the public will want nothing to do with him.”

Henry pulled my face to his and kissed me on the lips. The act was so sudden and so surprising, I nearly cried out. “Victor, your brilliance is utterly astonishing. When do we begin?”

“
Tomorrow, first thing. I have already set the process in motion with the hiring of a pair of grave robbers.”

Henry moaned in protest.

“
Dear God, man, have you not learned we cannot undergo these sorts of experiments without the proper materials? We need flesh; we need organs, limbs…brains!”

“
But grave robbers? Why not thieves and murderers?”

“
Henry,” I interrupted. “It’s either that or we unearth the dead ourselves.”

I sensed a new layer of trepidation sealing Henry into a sarcophagus of doubt.

“
My God, man, if you’ve all of a sudden found your moral compass, feel free to step out of this laboratory and leave for home. I will undertake this task with you or without you. Should you depart, know this—you might well be giving up on the single most profound experiment in the history of science. Should I succeed with this work, my name will be a part of the everyday vernacular. Fame will fill my purse and yield to my every delight.”

I could feel Henry’s resolve melt.

“
You want that, don’t you?”

Henry nodded.

“
I want you by my side in this endeavor. Can you do this?”

Henry caved. “I can.”

“
Good man. Now, head off to your quarters; you’ll need a full night’s sleep before we begin the process. Our…deliveries will arrive this evening as we sleep.”

F I V E

I couldn’t wait for breakfast; nor did I feel like conversing with Elizabeth or Mother about the local gossip or of dinner plans. My mind was cast forward and downward—into the future and the laboratory below. I knew of a secret passage to the laboratory that would avoid any and all curiosity. The master bookcase in what was once my father’s study shifted to reveal a tunnel. Only Father and myself knew of this passageway. With a torch in hand, I made my way to the lab. The familiar, comforting echo of sound off the stone walls was a soothing balm.

Once the flames from the oil lamps danced light across the ceiling and walls, a cold chill shivered up my back to the base of my skull. Instead of a collection of corpses, ready to be molded into a man of my own design, Henry sat atop the surgical table, his arms crossed, his eyes hooded and sleepy.

“
I spent much of the night here, Victor.”

“
Why?”

“
I realized something terribly profound. It is not our place to play God. Death is not just some arbitrary occurrence; it exists to give life actual meaning. If every man and woman lived their lives knowing they could be brought back upon expiration, the truest fulfillment of life would be meaningless. No one would live with any sincerity. That is why I secreted myself in your laboratory and turned away the deliveries.”

My pulse raced; my blood thickened with anger.

“
That cannot be, Henry. You agreed with me. Just last night you were ready to take this first step together.”

“
As I said…profundity opened my eyes.”

My knees gave way, nearly tossing me down the great staircase. I caught myself on the railing and attempted to gather my strength and courage. Finally, I managed to pull myself back up, and slowly my legs carried me down the steps.

“
Henry, this cannot be. My father spent much of his professional life working toward this. I cannot allow his work to die along with his memory. Those deliveries were my only chance. Please tell me this is some kind of twisted, glorious prank you have pulled, and that the bodies are somewhere on the premises.”

Henry shook his head. “I cannot, Victor. All I can do is offer you the chance to make amends and give up this mad quest.”

When my feet hit the last couple of steps, I lunged out. My fingers found Henry’s throat and squeezed until breath threatened to cease.

“
What gives you the right to get in the way of my work? You speak of God to a man who abhors the very notion and dismisses religion as no more than a crutch for humanity to lean itself upon in times of woe. How dare you make such assumptions?”

I cracked Henry’s head down onto the table. His arms flailed upward to stop my assault.

“
For this, I cannot forgive you, Henry.”

Another crack. Henry’s arms flailed about more weakly.

“
Victor, please…I was only trying…”

Henry’s head came down for one final blow. I felt the crack of the cranium vibrate through my fingers and into my arms. The feeling, at first, was nauseating. When the rivulet of blood pooled in the palm of my left hand, I realized the gravity of my situation.

Murder.

“
Oh, Henry,” I whispered, “what have I done?”

There was no response. I knew there’d be no answer to arise from the lips of the dead. But coiled within the snake of tragedy, a gift was offered up. Henry had rebuffed my notion of life from death, and so it made for a poetic turn of fate that he would become central to that work. Within the ruined skull of the man who was my dearest friend, cooled the brain that would help to prove the Frankenstein Theory not only possible, but factual.

From death to life.

ACT TWO

The Elixir of Life

S I X

From life to death. From friend to foe. Henry now lay on my table, his torso split with a textbook Y incision such that he’d become my latest illustrated man. I stood over my once beloved friend, gazing into the maze of intestine and musculature. Tears rained down from my eyes to mix with organ and flesh. Brother to brother, amen.

“
Doctor,” Igor rasped dark and rough, his voice just shy of failing. “The cathodes are prepared for insertion.”

I nodded, my eyes refusing to shift from the minutia of organs that had once orchestrated the ebb and flow of my dearest friend’s life.

“
What was is now…no more.” I proclaimed.

“
Yes, yes, Herr Frankenstein. Your poetry is as eloquent as it is fitting. But if your plan to send the spark of life coursing through those muscles has any chance of succeeding, we must act now.”

Igor shoved the cathode paddles before me. I turned to take in the hunched, rat-faced man, his tiny eyes magnified by Fresnel-lens goggles.

“
Ready yourself,” I whispered. My heart raced with expectation as a thunderous boom bounced off the walls of the laboratory. With each glorious dance of lightning, my machines of destiny promised life and mocked death.

“
Doctor,” Igor shouted over the crash of thunder, and nodded toward the unmade corpse.

I snatched the paddles from Igor’s outstretched hands, my thick rubber gloves bringing challenge to the slightest task.

Another rumble of thunder, this one fainter than the last.

“
Hurry, Doctor. We’re running out of time.”

I turned to the table and plunged the paddles on either side of Henry’s motionless heart. Unlike the cadavers from university, Henry hadn’t been drained of blood. The body, being dead a few days, had already ripened, the muscles beyond rigor, and the vitreous thickened.

“
Doctor,” Igor called out.

“
Now!” I shouted.

Fortune favored the moment. As Igor opened the voltage regulator to allow the passage of electricity through the cathodes to the paddles, a wicked bolt of lighting crashed into the iron rods protruding from the castle’s roof. Sparks danced about the laboratory, falling over much of the equipment and even into Henry’s vulnerable body. The slightest scent of cooked meat wafted into my nostrils. I could feel the power surging through the paddles and into the waiting heart, the vibration scintillating.

The lightning died. The sparks faded. Igor powered down the converter and raced to my side. The festering stench of his foul odor replaced that of the singed flesh.

“
Anything?” he growled.

With breath and thought paused, I waited.

Nothing. The heart remained still.

“
I don’t understand, Doctor. Every calculation was exact. I am never wrong with such things.”

Igor dismissed himself and returned to the converter. The machine was an iron wall of knobs, levers, gauges, and wires. Igor’s knowledge of the machine was as intimate as that of a lover. The wretched man knew nothing else. He saw Galvani as God and bioelectricity as his mistress.

I extracted the paddles and tossed them, unceremoniously, to the stone floor. They clattered and clanked to a stop. Igor lowered his goggles and blinked against the flickering lamplight.

“
What did we do wrong, Victor?”

Igor had only ever referenced me by title or surname. Hearing the monstrous tone of his voice wrap itself around my first name was disconcerting.

“
We did nothing wrong, Mr. Fishka. The spark of life was too long removed from the vessel. I knew this would be a profound obstacle.”

Igor shuffled in close to me. “How do we surmount the issue?”

I spun around to face the cadaver and plunged my gloved hands into the melange. What, only moments before, had been a sacred altar of possibility was nothing more than an offensive, rotting stew. I pulled away handfuls of gut and tissue and tossed them to the floor.

“
We feed the vermin to rid us of our misgivings.”

I turned to Igor and tilted my head slowly from one side to the other. “And we start anew—this time, however, without waging a war against entropy.”

Igor shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

To help explain our dilemma, I snatched up a scalpel, sliced the heart from Henry’s thorax, and held it toward Igor. “This is too far removed from life to be considered anything but meat. The heart that once beat so true within the breast of my dearest Henry may as well be nothing more than last night’s roast. What we need, Igor, is a donor that has yet to be blessed by the hooded figure of death.”

“
What good would it do to attempt to give life to the living?”

Igor’s ignorance brought a bout of much-needed laughter. “How well-connected are you to the local coroner?”

“
Why do you ask, Doctor?”

“
We are in need of a service only a man such as he can provide.”

Igor wheezed. “I’m listening.”

“
Would you say the office is held by a just and fair man?”

Igor unleashed a throaty laugh that punished his larynx. “How long has it been since you’ve had any dealings with the local government? It is as corrupt as any you will ever find. A slip of a coin and you can have your way with any official. Prostitution, gambling, profiteering, laundering…all welcome trade.” Igor revealed a smile filled with blackened and cracked teeth. “Tell me what it is you desire and I will endeavor to make it happen.”

I covered the corpse and removed my gloves in silence. Igor stood by my side, a patient sentinel, awaiting orders. When I turned back to the little man, I thought certainly he would soil his trousers with anticipation.

“
What we need for this study is a body with life freshly removed. Based on what I have witnessed thus far, I would say no more than twelve hours dead. Is it within the realm of the possible that you can, in some way, procure such a subject?”

Igor nodded. “It may require the greasing of palm with coin, but it can be done.”

“
The Frankenstein purse strings shall open wide for this endeavor.”