Doktor Glass by Thomas Brennan Read Free Book Online Page A

and transmitted; the receiving station uses an ‘aerial’ to capture the transmitted waves and render them back into speech or information. This is the basic operation of radio.”
    Langton wondered how the Professor knew so much about the subject. But the Professor had only just begun; he didn’t seem tired in the least. In fact, his eyes burned with a keen intensity.
    “I could go into the minutiae of the matter,” he said, “and tell you about the waveforms, frequencies, amplitude, and so forth, but it isn’t necessary. In this instance, all you need to know is that certain people believe they can apply it to the animus, the very essence of humanity. To the soul itself.”
    Langton leaned forward. “How? How do they do it?”
    “They locate a container of glass or clay, some material that will not conduct electricity, near the subject. Then an aerial is inserted through the jar’s lid and carries a negative electrical charge. The subject is connected to a positive charge.”
    Langton remembered the faceless man. “The burns on his neck.”
    “Precisely.”
    “I don’t see—”
    “Watch.” The Professor reached across the table and pulled the electric lamp within reach. He switched it off so that only the light of the fire remained; it tinted the right side of his face red. “Imagine this lamp is the dying subject. Close to the end. The soul is the light contained within, contained only by a fading shell that will soon wither.”
    Langton stared, hypnotized by the words, as somewhere deep inside of him began a scream; Sarah had gone through this. Sarah had withered away as he’d watched.
    “Now the end comes,” the Professor said. “The soul is free.”
    The light blinded Langton and flooded the room.
    “See how it travels to every corner. The experimenters needed to isolate it.” The Professor manipulated the shade until only a narrow beam of light left the lamp. The beam focused on a decanter and made the claret within glow deep red. “The subject’s waveform carries the positive charge and gravitates toward the negative aerial of the waiting jar. In this way, the experimenters found, or so they said, that they could capture the final essence of a dying subject. Capture it and keep it alive.”
    Langton doubled over, fighting for breath. The Professor snapped on the overhead lights and knelt before him. “What is it, man?”
    “My wife…Sarah…” Langton said, the words shuddering as they left him.
    “Lord, forgive me.” The Professor bowed his head. “Forgive me for these petty theatricals. I had no idea.”
    Langton grabbed his claret and swallowed it in one gulp. The wine burned his throat but helped him recover his breath. “You were not to know, Professor.”
    “Even so.” The Professor got to his feet and swayed slightly. “Perhaps Sister was right: I need sleep.”
    “Before you do, please tell me something.”
    “Of course.”
    “Do they exist? The Jar Boys. Or are they mere fancy?”
    The Professor sat down and poured more wine. “As a surgeon and a scientist, I should tell you that they are a fiction, and a poor one at that. I would be lying if I did; I have seen the apparatus in action. For a short time, many years ago, I assisted Professor Klaustus in Frankfurt. He experimented with near-death patients for some years.”
    “And you saw this work?”
    “I saw
something
,” the Professor said. “A charged field did leave the subject’s body; Klaustus captured it in a heavy jar similar to a Leiden container. And there did seem to be some kind of Brownian motion within that jar. But his laboratory and its contents were consumed in the great winter fire of eighty-four, although the doctor himself possibly survived.”
    “But…a jar?”
    The Professor shrugged. “It’s not a new icon, Inspector. Consider the Holy Grail, most probably no more than a simple clay chalice. Or the Egyptian mummification process, where the organs of the deceased are transferred to canopic