Wolf of the Tesseract

Chapter 17

Bruce Cannon opened the steel door of the nondescript factory. Nestled in one the more run-down parts of Detroit, it possessed the perfect camouflage. Cannon bid Victor Adams and Jacob Sisyphus a warm welcome as the factory belched dark smoke into the air. The active pollution was perhaps the building's only distinguishing feature as its peers in the neighborhood had fallen largely silent following the economic downturn.

"I trust you found it easily enough," he made small talk as they wandered through the facility, until the grinding noises of the work overpowered any conversation. All the workers on the floor wore a lapel pin bearing a seven pointed star, identifying them as cultists from the Heptobscurantum.

Near a giant turbine, Cannon threw a combination of levers. A hatch hissed opened revealing a secret passage leading below ground. As the three walked ahead, the portal sealed behind them. Behind the door, the factory noise was all but eliminated enabling the men to speak freely.

"I think you will be quite impressed with Doctor Walther," Cannon stated. "Pietro Walther has been working in the psuedosciences for his entire career."

"If he's so brilliant," Adams said with a hint of warning in his voice, "then why is this the first time The Seven has ever heard of him?"

"Thornton has known of him all along," Cannon hedged. "He's financed the lab from his oil operations' R and D budget. But to answer your question, this is perhaps the first relevant breakthrough for our purposes. It could radically impact our chances of completing the Great Awakening, even should Nitthogr attempt to prevent us from moving forward."

The stairwell emptied out onto a large laboratory. Technologies both old and new scattered the grounds; equipment and notes lay heaped over benches and desks as if some scientific hoarder had nested below the factory.

Spotting the doctor as he worked on a project in the distance, Cannon paused with his accomplices. "I must warn you, neither Doctor Walther nor his assistants are members of the Heptobscurantum. He is interested purely in the science and accomplishment of discovery. To him, Sh'logath is an incorporeal idea... a philosophical ideal. Let us not mention the Awakening, or our true purposes."

Adams and Sisyphus nodded. They followed and Cannon made introductions, which Walther largely ignored as he tinkered; he only paused to do a double take at Sisyphus, but then discounted whatever thoughts had occurred to him.

The machine he tweaked looked like a hybrid of ancient artifacts that were attached to the internals of a space shuttle; a wheeled section of carpentry scaffolding contained the body of the turboencabulator-style machine. Circuit boards hung at random places and an entire spool of industrial copper wire had been emptied; the cables wrapped all around the scaffolding and snaked away in trails across the floor.

"I assume you gentlemen are here to see my work?" He glared sidelong at Cannon. "And if it doesn't perform adequately I suppose you will defund me?"

Cannon sighed and shook his head. "For the last time, Pietro, I am not going to pull your funding. These men are merely here to see it. And besides, I've already seen it work. You have nothing to worry about."

Walther finally looked at his guests. He glanced again at the newest of The Seven. "You. Has anyone told you that you look like Jacob Sisyphus?"

The massive man only grinned through his ever-present five o'clock shadow. He ran his fingers through his thick hair and shook out his mullet. Besides the growing paunch on his belly, he was a very recognizable figure in some circles. "I should. I'm the one and only. You are a fan from the golden, glory years?"