The Tesla Legacy Read Online Free PDF Page A

beginnings, and he didn’t believe in the system. The first computers he hacked were in the library. Even now, the machines he worked on were probably stolen. He was no white hat hacker, and his connection to financial hacking schemes for profit could bite Spooky in the ass. Still, Ash was attracted to the edgier members of Spooky, becoming bored by those who simply wanted to do right and do good. They weren’t as effective as someone like Quantum, who was willing to take big risks.
quantum: doesn’t matter. oscillator doesn’t exist
    Geezer sat back in his chair, bushy brows drawn down in what looked like frustration. He bent down to get something out from under his desk, and his face disappeared from the screen. Behind him, bright sun fell through his window onto what looked like a scale model of the Mars rover. He returned with a sheet of yellowed paper in his hand and a thoughtful expression on his face. For a few seconds, he studied the paper, as if trying to decide whether to reveal it to the group.
    Ash’s heart started to race. He had a hunch they needed to see that piece of paper, and he always followed his hunches. He entered the chat room.
ash: care to put ur $ where ur mouth is? show us proof
quantum: hi, ash!
ash: hello, fellow troublemakers
quantum: no proof. just words
geezer: Here’s your proof.
    He tapped a few keys, and a file link appeared in the chat room. Ash opened the image file. A yellowed piece of paper with writing appeared on his monitor. He quickly zoomed the image to a readable size.
    The writing was unmistakably Nikola Tesla’s. Ash recognized the classic Old World lettering and the forward-slanting N. Dots of darker ink showed in the corners of some letters where Tesla’s fountain pen had paused at the end of a stroke. The document was an original, or a damn fine copy. But it looked like a shopping list.
ash: that’s not for oscillator
geezer: It’s from a larger collection. Plans for Oscillator in that collection
quantum: u can get it, old guy?
geezer: It belonged to another old guy, and was written by yet another old guy—Nikola Tesla himself.
    Ash had been through every known collection of Tesla memorabilia, but he never read the document currently on his screen. Geezer must have access to previously unseen material.
ash: what collection?
geezer: A friend of the family. I know them. I can get the plans
quantum: if they let u out of the home to look for it
    Ash stared at Geezer’s lined face and wondered what secrets it was hiding.
    Ash would have to keep an eye on him. If the Oscillator was out there, he wanted it for himself. Spooky’s job was to shake things up, maybe knock things down. The Oscillator might be a devastating tool—something that could save the world, or destroy it. The possibilities were limitless.
    And the Breakers didn’t have one.
    He laid his palm against the cool glass shell that separated him from the hot and polluted world outside. With the Oscillator in hand, this building would be fragile. He could wound the Breakers with an act of great physical and metaphorical power, and save countless acres of the most pristine country left in the United States. He could buy himself the time he needed to fight back against their lobbying machine.
    What a glorious symbol the Empire State Building laid low would be! American hubris brought to the ground for the world to see by destroying the most iconic building in the city, perhaps the country. The repercussions would be more than financial—the entire modern world would again feel at risk.
    What could he grow from the ashes of that destruction?
     

Chapter 4
    Together Joe and Edison climbed the Employees Only stairs onto Grand Central Terminal’s Track 42. The numbers triggered Joe’s synesthesia (green for four and blue for two). He’d been five (brown) before he discovered everyone else didn’t see colors in their heads when numbers were mentioned, eight (purple) when he realized it let him understand