The Antagonists Origin Chapter

This week I’m sharing the original chapter where I introduce the Antagonist, Giovanni Rosso and his enabler, Rex Purson. It shows where they came from and reveals their motivations, but this is another chapter that got cut because the first act of the novel was too long. Please send me an email or a tweet if you enjoyed this and want to know more about Giovanni and Rex.

MR. TESLA’S GREAT LOSS; All of the Electrician’s Valuable Instruments Burned. WORK OF HALF A LIFETIME GONE Firemen Unable to Save His Laboratory in South Fifth Avenue — He Loses $50,000…

“I am in too much grief to talk. What can I say? The work of half my lifetime, very nearly all my mechanical instruments and scientific apparatus, that it has taken years to perfect, swept away in a fire that lasted only an hour or two. How can I estimate the loss in mere dollars and cents? Everything is gone. I must begin over again.” (The New York Times: March 14th, 1895)

Alchemy Lab Under Louisenlund Castle, Güby, Schleswig-Holstein: Germany
Friday, February 27th, 1784 – 11:04pm

Rex Purson entered the laboratory with a cigar and scorching with confidence. He took a puff and stared at the man bustling about, arms filled with glass containers and corked vials that were hastily tossed into a large wine barrel. Amontillado was burnt into its side, the word upside down. This man was desperate to eliminate all evidence after faking his death. Rex would fully take advantage of that desperation.
“Guten Tag, Herr Alchemist,” said Rex.
He startled and dropped a flask that cut the meaty skin under his little finger, then grabbed a rag and tied it around his palm.
“You again, Herr Person,” the Alchemist said as the blood-soaked cloth unraveled from his hand. The low rumble of the furnace filled the silence as Rex approached.
“Let me get a closer look,” said Rex. “Yes, the elixir worked perfectly.”
“People tell me I don’t appear a day over forty-five,” he said. “You haven’t aged either.”
“Why are you in such a rush?”
“I don’t want anyone to learn my secrets if this laboratory is discovered. I’ve had much success here.” The Alchemist presented an uncut diamond the size and color of a robin’s egg. “I heard that the waters of the West Indies are brilliant shades of blue. I think I’ll call this The Eye of the Caribbean.”
Rex hefted a sledgehammer onto the table that landed with a thud.
“What is that?”
“The only way out of here.”
“I have a carriage waiting outside. It will return me to France.”
“Not this time, Herr. It seems you’ve run out of luck in this century.”
“Karl von Hessen-Kassel has been an earnest ally and gracious host. I’ve even taught him the secrets of alchemy.”
“He’s turned against you, and neither King Louis the 16th nor Marie Antoinette will take you back.”
“I don’t see you in decades, then you emerge the day I fake my death?”
“Fortuitous, ja?” Rex picked up the sledgehammer and walked towards the Alchemist, who backed into the brick wall covered with empty shelves. Rex pulled back the hammer and swung it down, shattering the thick planks into toothpicks.
“Do you intend to…kill me?”
Rex scoffed. “And ruin that perfect face and hair?” He swung the sledge like a baseball bat and punched a hole in the wall. Bricks tumbled into an empty chamber. When he turned around, the Alchemist was tugging at the door.
“If you go outside, there’s a battalion of British Regulars with muskets and bloodthirsty Hessian mercenaries wielding swords to greet you. They have orders to arrest you. And if you try to leave the grounds of Schloß Louisenlund, they’ll kill you.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“I’m incapable of lying, and you swore an oath the day I stopped your aging.”
“That was 43 years ago when I served in the court of Nader Shah Afshar.”
“Persia was last week for me.”
“What do you want?”
“You showed promise in the Shah’s court,” Rex said before he punched in another cluster of bricks. “And after that you didn’t disappoint.” Rex widened the hole with each swing while listing each name in the Alchemist’s history. “King Louis the 15th of France; William the 5th, Prince of Orange; and Katherine the Great of Russia. The skill you showed in bringing Katherine to the throne was political art on par with Michaelangelo’s finest painting.”
“Thank you, Herr Purson, but my passion is alchemy and music, not politics.”
Rex wiped his hands with a rag and rolled his left sleeve back to reveal an intricately crafted tattoo of a serpent that coiled around his forearm. The snake’s mouth opened at the top of his wrist as if ready to bite his hand. He tilted his neck to the side, popping the vertebrae so loudly it echoed across the room.
“You’re an average musician and alchemy is a parlor trick. I need your skills to bring down the great Satan, America.”
“Why?”
“I’ve been exiled from my kingdom, and the only way I can regain command of my 22 legions is if I collapse the United States of America.”
“But they just separated from Great Britain, the real Satan.”
You have no idea, thought Rex. “We’re never coming back to this time period, anyway.”
“Time period?”
“Bring the lantern.” Rex gestured to the hole.
The Alchemist shone the light through the punched-in hole. Straight ahead was a large metal cage; its only contents on the cold, shiny floor was a pile of books flanked by two Leyden jars.
“It looks like a jail cell.”
“It’s how you’re escaping.”
“There must be a trap door underneath. Brilliant!”
“No.” Rex picked up Nikola Tesla’s notebooks. “We’re using the calculations I stole from the Serb before burning down his New York City laboratory. Then we’ll use the Leyden jars I stole from that Philadelphia ginger to convert this Faraday cage into a time portal.”
“Time machine?”
“Portal – this thing stays put. The contents don’t.”
The Alchemist picked up a Leyden jar. “I’ve never seen one with number dials.”
“Careful with that. It’s one of the world’s first compact nanogenerators, capable of producing nearly a terawatt of energy. The numbers set the year you’re traveling to.”
“Let’s set it for a year from now. The soldiers outside won’t wait that long.”
“You’re doing my bidding now.” Rex produced a cage containing three live mice. “We’re moving hundreds of years into the future. You’re going to need a new name.”
“If we’re going that far ahead, why bother with a new name?”
“Because I’ve been there and believe it or not, the historical records of 2049 marks today as the date of your death.”
“Then we should go to 2049.”
“I wouldn’t choose that date. The United State’s economy and government is about to collapse, but I need it to happen before 2024 if I’m to regain my rightful throne.”
“How do you know this time portal won’t kill me?”
“That’s what the eggs are for. We do a trial run first and if they come back unharmed, then it won’t kill you.”
“What if I go to a place where I meet myself in the future?”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re future isn’t a stage play one’s destined to perform word-for-word. The future is unwritten, and today you must leave this time and all your old aliases – Earl Saltikoff, Darwin Fraser, Ritter Schoenig. None of them. A new name is needed for your next act.”
“How about making my future by going into the past, perhaps the time of King Solomon. We could witness the greatest power and wealth the world has ever known.”
“It doesn’t work like that. You can only go to a time when the Faraday cage exists. This one was built in 1774.”
“In America, what year can I gain the most wealth and fame?”
“I like 1992.” Rex smiled and rolled the numbers to that year on the Leyden jar. He then pulled up the plunger, exposing a polished brass rod and placed a chicken egg inside. “When I push this down, it activates the cage and everything inside gets sent to the year on the dial.”
“Even the gemstones I created?’”
“Take all you can carry, but you won’t need them. The wealth you can generate in the future far exceeds anything you’ve been able to produce in this lab.”
“How long will it take to reach 1992?”
“In the blink of an eye.”

***

Because the three mice survived the round trip, the Alchemist entered the cage with pockets bulging like the cheeks of a giddy chipmunk. Rex joined him, closed the door, then depressed the plunger on the Leyden jar. Before it got too loud, Rex asked, “Have you decided on your new name?”
The energy from the Leyden jar filled the room with light as they started to float above the metal floor. The noise started at a low hum that escalated quickly to a deafening roar. Air swirled around the cage as ice crystallized on every metal surface. Despite the strange sights and sounds, the Alchemist took in the experience with the unmistakable look of fascination. The levitation went on for nearly two minutes until a great rush of cold air hit Rex’s face, blowing back his lion-brown hair. 

***

The noise and light extinguished with a pop, dropping Rexa and the Alchemist onto the iron floor. It smelled completely different than it did minutes ago, more musty and damp, and the air seemed much thinner and colder. Not a sparkle of light penetrated the room. He wondered, Did it work?
He felt for the latch to open the door and found it was no longer smooth and clean. The iron bars were covered with tiny pimples of oxidation, which luckily didn’t rust the door shut. A creaking noise filled the room as he stepped onto the dirt floor. He shuffled to where Rex broke the opening in the wall, but couldn’t find it. Some stonemason must have closed it up.
“Hello!”
No answer.
He pounded his fists on the rough mortar and shouted, “For the love of God! Let me out of here!”
The response was a loud thud that vibrated against his injured hand. After backing from the wall, he heard another loud noise. This time, it sounded like metal against stone. The pounding continued until three bricks tumbled into the room. The Alchemist felt a stream of cool, fresh air.
A bright light shone through the hole and Rex shouted, “Stop being such a dramatic princess or I’ll come in there and I’ll pull the strings on your corset so tight, it’ll rupture your liver!”
“I can’t breathe anyway.”
“Back up. Leo’s going to break the wall down.”
“Ist das der Alchemist?” Leo asked.
“Who else would it be, Neanderthal? Now get this wall down, schnell! He needs the injection.”
Leo, the young East German bodybuilder, took minutes to break through the wall. The winter air felt good, and the shot Rex gave him melted away the nausea and lightheadedness.
“Where’s the laboratory?”
“Can’t you see it was a success? We’re still under Schloß Louisenlund, but your laboratory and Prince Karl are long gone.”
“Wilkonnen im Jahr 1992, Herr Alchemist.” Leo bowed.
“Nein, Leo und Rex. My new name is Rosso, Giovanni Rosso.