Goliath

“Indeed. They claim you’re pulling strings in the Ottoman Republic, and yet here you are aboard the Leviathan. Are you concealing the fact that you’ve become a Darwinist?”

“A Darwinist?” Alek dropped his eyes to the table, suddenly aware of the Leviathan’s officers in the room. “I don’t know if you could say that. But if you’ve read about me, you know that the Clanker Powers plotted my parents’ death. The Germans and my granduncle, the Austrian emperor, are to blame for this war. I only want to end it.”

Mr. Tesla nodded slowly. “We are both servants of peace, then.”

“A noble sentiment, gentlemen,” Captain Hobbes said. “But at the moment we are at war. We have twenty- eight extra mouths to feed, and we have dropped most of our supplies onto the tundra to make room for them.”

“Airships certainly have their limitations,” Mr. Tesla said.

Alek ignored the man, quickly translating Captain Hobbes’s words into French.

“If we head straight toward the airfield at Vladivostok, we’ll all survive,” Captain Yegorov said. “It’s two days away. We won’t starve, and for water we can scoop up snow without landing, as Russian airships have done for years.”

Alek translated, and Captain Hobbes gave a firm nod.

“We’re grateful that you have joined our side in this conflict, Mr. Tesla, and the czar has asked us to offer any assistance we can. But I’m afraid Captain Yegorov is right. We can’t take you back to Saint Petersburg just yet. We’ll have to keep heading east.”

The inventor waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter. I haven’t decided yet where I wish to go.”

“Thank heaven for small favors,” Dr. Barlow said quietly.

“After we resupply in Vladivostok, we may have to complete our mission in Japan,” Captain Hobbes said. “But I won’t be sure until the Admiralty’s orders reach us from London.”

“If you only had wireless,” Tesla muttered. “Instead of those ridiculous birds.”

Captain Hobbes ignored this. “In the meantime we shall have to ration our food carefully.” He looked at Captain Yegorov, and Alek repeated his words in French.

“We are airmen. Of course we understand,” Yegorov said. “We’ve all missed a few meals since arriving in Tunguska.”

“Tunguska,” said Bovril from the ceiling.

Dr. Barlow glanced up at the beast, then asked in French, “Is that the name of this place?”

Captain Yegorov shrugged. “The Tunguska River passes through this forest, but it hardly has a name.”

“Not yet,” Tesla muttered. “But soon everyone will know what happened here.”

Dr. Barlow turned to him, switching to English. “If I may ask, Mr. Tesla, what did happen here?”

“To put it simply, the greatest explosion in our planet’s history,” the man said softly. “The sound bke windows hundreds of miles away. It flattened the forest in all directions, and threw such dust into the air that the skies went red for months around the world.”

“Around the world?” Dr. Barlow asked. “When was this exactly?”

“The early morning of June 30, 1908. Back in the civilized world the atmospheric effects were barely noticed. But if it had happened anywhere except Siberia, the event would have filled all mankind with astonishment.”

“Astonishment,” Bovril whispered softly, and Tesla paused to give the beast an irritated stare. Alek glanced out the navigation room’s slanted windows. Even at this height, he could see that the fallen trees stretched out endlessly.

“I came here to study what happened, and soon I shall report my results.” As the inventor continued, he placed a heavy hand on Alek’s shoulder and turned his gaze to him. “When I do, the world will shudder, and perhaps at last find peace.”

“Peace? Because of an explosion?” Alek asked. “But what caused it, sir?”

Mr. Tesla smiled, and tapped his walking stick three times upon the floor.

“Goliath did.”

“He is quite mad, of course,” Alek said.

Count Volger drummed his fingers on his desk, his eyes still locked on Bovril. Dr. Barlow had handed the creature to Alek as the meeting had broken up, and Alek hadn’t stopped to leave it in his own stateroom. The news was simply too extraordinary to wait. But now Volger and the beast were staring at each other, a contest that Bovril appeared to be enjoying.

Alek pulled the creature from his shoulder and placed it on the floor. He stepped closer to the stateroom window. “Mr. Tesla says he did all this from America, with some kind of machine. Six years go.”

“In 1908?” Volger asked, his eyes still fixed on the beast. “And he’s waited until now to tell the world?”

“The Russians wouldn’t allow a Clanker scientist into their country,” Alek said. “Not until he switched sides. So he couldn’t study the effects firsthand. But now that he’s seen what his weapon can do, he says he’s going to make the invention public.”

Volger finally tore his eyes from Bovril. “Why would he test this weapon on a place he couldn’t visit?”

“He says this was an accident, a misfire. He only wanted to ‘create some fireworks’ and didn’t realize how powerful Goliath was.” Alek frowned. “But surely you don’t believe any of this.”

Volger turned to stare out the window. The Leviathan was nearing the edge of the devastation, where only the youngest trees had fallen. But the massive extent of the explosion was still apparent.

“Do you have another explanation for what happere out ere?”

Alek sighed slowly, then pulled out a chair and sat down. “Of course I don’t.”

“Goliath,” Bovril said softly.

Count Volger gave the beast an unfriendly look. “What do the Darwinists think?”

“They don’t question Mr. Tesla’s claims.” Alek shrugged. “Not to his face, at any rate. They seem quite pleased that he’s joined their side.”

“Of course they are. Even if the man’s lost his mind, he can still show them a trick or two. And if he’s telling the truth, he could end the war with the flick of a switch.”

Alek looked out the window again. The magnitude of the fallen forest, and the fact that Volger wasn’t laughing outright at Tesla’s absurd claim, made him feel queasy. “I suppose that’s true enough. Imagine Berlin after such an explosion.”

“Not Berlin,” Volger said.

“What do you mean?”

“Tesla is a Serb,” Volger explained slowly. “Our country attacked his homeland, not Germany.”

Alek felt the weight of the war settling on his shoulders again. “My family is to blame, you mean.”

“Tesla might well think so. If this weapon of his really works, and he uses it again, it will be Vienna that lies in splinters.”

Alek felt something dreadful rising up inside him, like the hollow feeling he’d carried inside since his parents’ murder, but greater. “Surely no one would ever use such a weapon against a city.”

“There are no limits in war,” Volger said, still staring out the window.

Then Alek recalled the dead airbeast, sacrificed to the fighting bears so that Tesla could complete his mission. The man was determined, it seemed.

Bovril shifted on the floor, saying, “Splinters.”

Volger gave the beast another withering look, then turned to Alek. “This may be an opportunity for you to serve your people, Prince, in a way few sovereigns can.”

“Of course.” Alek sat up straighter. “We’ll convince him that Austria is not his enemy. He’s read about me in those newspapers. He understands that I want peace too.”

“That would be the best solution,” Volger said. “But we must be certain of his intentions before we let him