Page 7 - Unlikely Stories 5

The Forteana Suppressor

“Look. Femilius built his own small-scale Forteana suppressor and
buried it right here. That’s because he calculated that this is one of
those places that will manifest the electromagnetic surge when the
effects of Tesla’s global suppressor are gone. That will happen soon,
so he has effectively blocked it from happening by duplicating that
reverse field mechanism precisely on top of it. When he’s ready, and
has the world watching—if it cares to show up—then he will shut off
the generator. Supposedly all these things stuck here by gravity will
then take off like a rocket launch, reach some altitude and come
down again, either close by or at a distance, depending on what
they’re made of.”
“What about the net?” Kapil was staring intently at it.
“Oh, I guess that is supposed to keep his spectacle from being
ruined prematurely if his apparatus fails. He’d have no way to show
he had been responsible for controlling the anomalies.” Spiro was
busily taking shots of the layout from many angles. “Sounds about as
half-baked as the rest of his theories.”
“I’ll say. It looks to me like the netting has been gnawed on by rats.
It’s frayed everywhere. The sun hasn’t been kind to it either. I’ll bet
he got it at some army surplus store. He may be a weird genius in
electronics, but he’s no sailor when it comes to rigging.”
At that moment the generator coughed and died. Larry looked at
Keith, as they both remembered why Femilius had gone to town on
an errand. The anvil trembled.

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