John Case - Ghost Dancer aka Dance of Death

Burke chuckled. “No.”

“The Tunguska incident,” Ceplak said. “You know what this is, right?”

The word was familiar, but… Burke shook his head.

Ceplak took a deep breath. “Okay,” he said. “ Resonance. You know word,” Ceplak insisted. “It’s an English word. Please, to tell me what it means.”

Burke thought about it. “It has to do with sound. The way things vibrate.”

Ceplak squeezed his eyes shut and looked pained. “This is true, but… not just sound. Energy. ” Across the lake, the bell began to ring. Ceplak turned toward it. “I guess he made it!” Then he turned back to Burke, and sighed. “You didn’t study physics?”

Burke shook his head. “Science wasn’t my thing.”

“But mathematics?”

Burke nodded. “A little.”

“How little?”

“Math for Poets.”

Ceplak stared at him.

Burke looked sheepish. “It was a class for kids who were not so good at math,” he explained.

Ceplak filled his cheeks with air, then released it in a rush. Leaning forward, he placed his elbows on the table and put the palms of his hands together, as if he were going to pray. “To find Wilson, you need to understand Tesla, okay?”

Burke hoped not.

“Because Wilson, he’s doing something with Tesla,” Ceplak said. “I don’t know what. But until you know what he’s doing, you won’t be able to find him. So, first I’m telling you Tesla is about resonance. This is key to all Tesla’s work, okay?”

Burke looked uncertain.

“Don’t worry!” Ceplak told him. “I promise: Physics for Poets!”

“Okay.”

“So here we are: Tesla is manipulating electromagnetic energy – using resonance. Now, I ask again, what is this ‘resonance’? You guessed it has to do with sound.” Ceplak sighed. “And you’re right, it does, but not only sound. Sound is what? A kind of ‘wave.’ Correct? Correct! But what is a ‘wave’?”

Burke shook his head.

“Think of stone in pond,” Ceplak told him. “Throw stone in pond, what happens? Waves move out in every direction. What are these waves?”

“I-”

“Energy,” Ceplak said. “In the case of stone, impact creates kinetic energy, yes? And we can see this. Water was flat, stone hits, the energy radiates out from center, eventually dissipates on shore, yes?”

Burke nodded.

“Now I am telling you that electromagnetic spectrum – this is all waves. Twenty-four/seven, it’s waves! X-rays, gamma rays, microwaves, radio waves, infrared waves, light waves – all forms of energy. Yes?”

Burke nodded.

“Now, pay attention, Mr. Math for Poets! Now I’m reminding you of quantum theory.”

Burke looked aghast.

“Don’t worry,” Ceplak interjected. “I give you one highlight. That’s it. In quantum theory, everything is waves. Energy? Of course: is waves. But matter, too. Matter is waves.” He squeezed his face into a wince of a smile. “Well, not ‘waves,’ exactly. Waves and particles – we might say ‘wavicles.’”

Burke reached for the vodka.

Ceplak gave him an approving look. “Alcohol can help. This table,” he continued, “it looks solid.” He thumped his hands on the table, so hard that his coffee cup jumped. “It is solid. But inside the molecules of the table, electrons are in motion – so we know table has resonant frequency.”

“Now you’ve lost me,” Burke declared.

Ceplak pressed his hands together. “Just to listen, please. Will become clear.” He took a deep breath. “Every object has special ‘resonant frequency.’ Excite object, and object vibrates at that frequency.”

“Like a tuning fork,” Burke said. “You hit it and-”

“Yes! This, exactly. Also a rock, a bridge, a glass, a wall. I don’t care what! You give it the right push – maybe you hit it with a bat – it begins to vibrate. Put another way, we say it ‘oscillates at its own frequency.’”

“Okay,” Burke told him. “I get it.”

“Frequency in physics is number of waves per second, right?”

Burke nodded.

“Now ‘resonant frequency.’” Ceplak cleared his throat. “For this, I give you classic example. Kid’s swing. This is a system with single resonant frequency.”

Before Burke could say anything, Ceplak held up a hand. “I explain! Swing is pendulum, yes?”

Burke nodded.

“Okay, suppose man gives swing big push. Swing goes up. Comes back. Goes up again – but not so high. Comes back – but not so far. Goes up… You see what’s happening. Swing oscillates slower and slower as energy from push dissipates. Okay?”

Burke nodded.

“Now! Suppose man leaves, and swing is pushed by kid’s sister. This sister, she’s not so strong, she can’t push swing so hard. Little person, okay? But even so, if she push swing at right time, swing goes higher and higher. Higher than man with big push, even. Because each little push adds to energy already in system. We say, it ‘adds amplitude.’ In theory, swing could reach escape velocity, and bye-bye kid.”

“‘In theory,’” Burke said, getting into the spirit of things. (The vodka was actually quite good.)

“You understand? Little girl can push swing higher and higher, but only if she has perfect timing. She has to be in step with swing’s natural frequency. If she pushes when swing is only halfway back, she acts like brake, takes energy out of system, instead of adding to it.” Ceplak paused, and pursed his lips. “She push too soon, she push off-center, she disrupts swing’s natural frequency – and swing cannot oscillate smoothly. This is why we say swing is having only one resonant frequency.”

“Got it.”

“So! Each time, girl is adding a little bit of energy at just the right moment and in just the right spot. Okay?”

Burke nodded.

“Well, Tesla, too! He’s doing same thing – amplifying resonant frequency of oscillating system. Just like little girl with swing, he makes precise inputs of energy to system in oscillation. In his case, electromagnetic system, which after these inputs is much more powerful. More energy, yes?” Ceplak smiled. “Almost all maestro’s key inventions based on this.”

Ceplak poured another vodka, and downed it. “Last half of Tesla’s life, he’s working on the wireless transmission of electricity. He thinks he finds way to get free energy, using resonant frequency of earth.”

“The earth has a resonant frequency?”

Ceplak nodded. “Think about it. Earth is a bundle of different energies.” He ticked them off on his fingers. “Thermal energy from core. Gravitation. Plus gravitational pull of moon. Geomagnetic forces. Solar energy from sun. Gamma rays from outer space. Kinetic energy – earth rotating around sun, rotating also on axis.”

Burke nodded.

“Point is, Mother Earth, she’s a ball of energy, yes? Tesla believed, and maybe proved, that earth has natural resonant frequency. That earth is producing ‘standing waves,’ waves that do not progress through space. Like all waves – these are form of energy, yes? And maestro believes that if you are driving blade of conductive metal down into earth, you can tap into that energy.”

“Okay.”

“Maestro thinks he can attract this energy and magnify or amplify it, then send it around globe to peoples everywhere, without power lines.”

“And how was he going to do that ?” Burke asked.

Ceplak grinned like the Cheshire Cat. He gestured at the photograph of the strange tower. “The magnifying transmitter! He starts with the standing waves from the earth – and amplifies that energy by adding small bursts of energy at precise right time.”