She cocked her head, as intrigued by the emperor’s curiosity as he was by hers. I have a bad habit of being jealous, and that prickly emotion stabbed again. “But legend says Albert’s protégé, Thomas Aquinas, was horrified and destroyed the android,” she said. “He thought the machine infused with Satan. No one can truly know the future, he said, or should know.”
“But wait,” I objected. “You try to see the future all the time.”
Napoleon smiled. “As do I. Predicting the future is what makes us human. No other creature records its history, tries to learn from it, and anticipates what might come next. I want a reliable fortune-teller of my own: not a sideshow charlatan but a real machine of uncanny accuracy. Can you imagine knowing disaster before it occurs, and avoiding it? Or knowing of fortune before it occurs, and investing?”
I agreed with Thomas Aquinas: this was wicked. “Surely no such thing ever existed.”
“Just like the Mirror of Archimedes or the Book of Thoth never existed.” He watched me.
Since I’d found both those things, and Thor’s Hammer besides, I understood Napoleon’s real reason for offering alliance. He didn’t want sharpshooting tips. He wanted my expertise, or luck, as a treasure hunter. He wanted us to find this Brazen Head, just as he’d wanted an Aztec flying machine. My wife said the head had been destroyed. But she clearly didn’t believe so, or she’d never have researched it to begin with.
“We’re hundreds of years too late, aren’t we?” I tried.
“Perhaps,” Napoleon said mildly. “Or perhaps it wasn’t burned but instead secreted in a castle deep in Austrian territory.”
“And you want us to get this devil’s tool for you.”
“Just locate it, my armies will do the rest.”
“In the Austrian Empire?”
“Looking into the future, again.”
His army was pointed west, not east. Had I learned something of importance for Smith? Or, knowing me a spy, was Napoleon misdirecting me? “But a machine that predicts the future would give you unprecedented advantage.”
“Put to unprecedented good use.” A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle, Franklin had remarked.
“No, this is another of your goose chases,” I said. “You’re as mad as Sidney Smith. The Brazen Head? How could Albertus construct such a thing? And even if he did, why would we find it for you?”
“To avoid the massacre of your own family.” He walked to plop down in the sole chair, a portable wooden one with a green cushion. His threat was given plainly, without drama, as something so obvious as not to require repeating. His level tone emphasized his power more than a shout would have done, and his lack of emotion was as cold as a bayonet. “To solve a scholarly puzzle, which your wife loves to do. But most important, Gage, to cement your own place in history.”
“I don’t want a place in history. People who do have a tendency to be dead.”
“If I know the future I can outmaneuver my enemies and defeat them without war. You will end this conflict by helping me checkmate the British and their European allies with perfect foresight and, by so doing, save thousands and thousands of lives.” He set his fists on the green table. “If the android of Albert the Great still exists, we’re going to find it, harness it, and usher in a glorious new age of unity in Europe. Under my leadership.” His look was commanding. “Tell Sidney Smith anything you like about my army in Boulogne, but this is a mission you will keep from him, on pain of death.” He stood again, restless as a rabbit, and addressed my wife. “I was defeated by the sea, but the response to any defeat is a different attack. Come see my legion ceremony if you doubt my future, Ethan. And then attend my coronation, both of you. Your governess should make it quite a show.”
CHAPTER 13
Three weeks after his disastrous swamping of boats in the summer storm, Napoleon restored morale with a gigantic Presentation of the Crosses, a larger repeat of the ceremony I’d witnessed in Paris. This time expansion of the Legion of Honor would occur outdoors so that England could watch as well as France.
The rest of my household had already returned to Paris. Astiza left with letters of recommendation to begin researching in earnest. Catherine departed to excitedly consult on the coronation even while protesting that she did so under duress, “to protect little Horus.” My son said good-bye with tears