"Hmm. Moving pictures people can watch in their own homes? It's a nice idea, but I don't see how anyone's ever going to make money off it."
Then he shrugged, turned the page, laid the notebook and pencil back on the arm of his chair, and bent down to pick up the ball bearings again.
"Excuse me, Mr. Edison," his assistant interrupted. "Inquisitor Wolf is here to see you."
"Ohâof course!" He hurried over to shake Wolf's hand. "Welcome, Inquisitor! And let me say what an honor it is to meet you. The great Maximillian Wolf, bane of witches, bulwark of freedom, defender of the American way! In short, a real American hero!"
"Er ... quite," Wolf answered coolly.
Edison didn't appear to notice Wolf's lack of enthusiasm. "I've arranged a little demonstration for you. Nothing formal, you understand. The etherograph is still in its early stages. We've got our work cut out for us before the grand
Â
opening. Oh, yes, we'll certainly be burning the midnight oilâor rather the midnight electricity."
"Actually," Wolf said, "I was hoping to ask you about last night's attack."
"A triviality," Edison said with an airy wave. "Never mind that, the etherograph's the thing!"
He led them over to the back corner of the lab. Sacha realized that this must have been where the fire was: a faint smell of smoke hung in the air, and the floor showed signs of hasty cleaning. Edison pointed to a cluttered lab table. But there was no etherograph on it. There were only advertisements for one.
They came in all shapes and sizes. There were ads for billboards, ads for subway stations, ads for omnibuses and trolley cars and railway sidings. The etherograph in the ads looked a lot like the Edison Portable Home Phonograph Sacha had seen in ads all over the city for the last few months. It had the same fluted speaker horn and the same lunch-box-shaped metal body, the same hinged top that you flipped up to insert a fresh cylinder. But the etherograph's top was emblazoned with a screaming eagle that looked just like the eagle on an Inquisitor's badge, and beneath the eagle was stamped
EDISON ETHEROGRAPHS
Portable Etheric Emanation Detection System
Instead of the two blond girls from the home phonograph ads, the etherograph ads featured a dark-skinned wizard cowering in front of a heroic blond Inquisitor. This Inquisitor was too handsome to look much like Inquisitor Wolfâor, for that matter, any other real person Sacha had ever met. But the artist had made the wizard very realistic in a mean-spirited, nasty kind of way.
That long, pointed nose that arched like an eagle's beak. Those unhealthily thin cheeks with their sharply carved worry lines. The dark eyes, with even darker circles of exhaustion under them. They all looked terribly familiar to Sacha. In fact, the wizard looked like Sacha's father. Or like his father would have looked if he were in the habit of going around with a five-day beard and dressing up in ridiculous penny-opera Kabbalist's robes embroidered with satanic symbols.
It was a brilliant ad. There wasn't a thing that Sacha could have improved upon.
He hated it.
"Thrilling," Wolf said, though he couldn't have sounded less thrilled if he'd actually slipped into a coma right in front of their eyes. "And is there an actual etherograph to go with the advertisements?"
"But you saw it yourself at Morgaunt's libraâ"
Wolf silenced Sacha with a flick of his wrist.
"Of course there's an etherograph ... or rather, that is to say, there will be." Edison gave a nervous little laugh. "Mr. Morgaunt has placed a great deal of operating capital in my hands, and I don't intend to disappoint him!"
Edison turned away from Wolf to fix the two apprentices with the piercing blue gaze for which he was famous. "What can you tell me about etheric force?" he asked them.
Sacha thought this was a pathetically obvious attempt to change the subject, so he hesitated and glanced at Wolf instead of answering.
Lily, on the other hand, was way
Then he shrugged, turned the page, laid the notebook and pencil back on the arm of his chair, and bent down to pick up the ball bearings again.
"Excuse me, Mr. Edison," his assistant interrupted. "Inquisitor Wolf is here to see you."
"Ohâof course!" He hurried over to shake Wolf's hand. "Welcome, Inquisitor! And let me say what an honor it is to meet you. The great Maximillian Wolf, bane of witches, bulwark of freedom, defender of the American way! In short, a real American hero!"
"Er ... quite," Wolf answered coolly.
Edison didn't appear to notice Wolf's lack of enthusiasm. "I've arranged a little demonstration for you. Nothing formal, you understand. The etherograph is still in its early stages. We've got our work cut out for us before the grand
Â
opening. Oh, yes, we'll certainly be burning the midnight oilâor rather the midnight electricity."
"Actually," Wolf said, "I was hoping to ask you about last night's attack."
"A triviality," Edison said with an airy wave. "Never mind that, the etherograph's the thing!"
He led them over to the back corner of the lab. Sacha realized that this must have been where the fire was: a faint smell of smoke hung in the air, and the floor showed signs of hasty cleaning. Edison pointed to a cluttered lab table. But there was no etherograph on it. There were only advertisements for one.
They came in all shapes and sizes. There were ads for billboards, ads for subway stations, ads for omnibuses and trolley cars and railway sidings. The etherograph in the ads looked a lot like the Edison Portable Home Phonograph Sacha had seen in ads all over the city for the last few months. It had the same fluted speaker horn and the same lunch-box-shaped metal body, the same hinged top that you flipped up to insert a fresh cylinder. But the etherograph's top was emblazoned with a screaming eagle that looked just like the eagle on an Inquisitor's badge, and beneath the eagle was stamped
EDISON ETHEROGRAPHS
Portable Etheric Emanation Detection System
Instead of the two blond girls from the home phonograph ads, the etherograph ads featured a dark-skinned wizard cowering in front of a heroic blond Inquisitor. This Inquisitor was too handsome to look much like Inquisitor Wolfâor, for that matter, any other real person Sacha had ever met. But the artist had made the wizard very realistic in a mean-spirited, nasty kind of way.
That long, pointed nose that arched like an eagle's beak. Those unhealthily thin cheeks with their sharply carved worry lines. The dark eyes, with even darker circles of exhaustion under them. They all looked terribly familiar to Sacha. In fact, the wizard looked like Sacha's father. Or like his father would have looked if he were in the habit of going around with a five-day beard and dressing up in ridiculous penny-opera Kabbalist's robes embroidered with satanic symbols.
It was a brilliant ad. There wasn't a thing that Sacha could have improved upon.
He hated it.
"Thrilling," Wolf said, though he couldn't have sounded less thrilled if he'd actually slipped into a coma right in front of their eyes. "And is there an actual etherograph to go with the advertisements?"
"But you saw it yourself at Morgaunt's libraâ"
Wolf silenced Sacha with a flick of his wrist.
"Of course there's an etherograph ... or rather, that is to say, there will be." Edison gave a nervous little laugh. "Mr. Morgaunt has placed a great deal of operating capital in my hands, and I don't intend to disappoint him!"
Edison turned away from Wolf to fix the two apprentices with the piercing blue gaze for which he was famous. "What can you tell me about etheric force?" he asked them.
Sacha thought this was a pathetically obvious attempt to change the subject, so he hesitated and glanced at Wolf instead of answering.
Lily, on the other hand, was way
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