April 1906

Robert placed his hand on the cold glass of the observation room, willing himself to touch Elizabeth's unconscious body through it, to reassure her, to comfort her. Rosalind was inside, dressed in surgical attire, supervising the doctors as they injected her infusion into the girl's spinal column. Her eyes are worried as she watches the girl's pulse and respiration as the plunger is lowered and the fluid begins to circulate.

He is exhausted. One week ago, the tears started opening again, all over Columbia. No one but Elizabeth is able to open them, but it is still a source of deep concern, and they have been subject to continual inquiries from the press and concerned citizens. On Comstock's orders, they have been living in Monument Island, bent over ledgers in the cool darkness detailing the power levels from the siphon, looking for patterns and anomalies.

After several days in analysis, Rosalind summoned the man in charge of janitorial services to a private meeting in the small office they maintained. When they emerged from the meeting, she immediately dispatched telegrams to Comstock and Fink for an emergency meeting, then set to sketching graphs on the chalkboards and explaining her findings to him as practice.

He has not seen Comstock in about three months, and is surprised by how much he has thinned and grayed. There is a tinge to his skin that makes Robert wonder if the man is well, but this is hardly the time to inquire about his health.

Rosalind faces the three of them. He is, and she would hate him if he ever said this to her, proud of her calm bearing in the face of two such terrifying specimens, especially in light of the news she was about to impart.

"Gentlemen. I appreciate your presence on such short notice. I believe that I have determined the cause of the tears opening around the city and am prepared to propose a solution that represents the best of our knowledge at present."

"As you can see from the data, the correlation is more or less definitive, and is something I have been suspecting for a while. The development of secondary sexual characteristics has been the catalyst for a gradual tenfold increase in the girl's power. The basic mechanisms that have sufficed for some time are insufficient to say the least."

Comstock is staring at her. "Secondary sexual characteristics?"

"Yes. If you look at this graph, you can see that the girl's breast and hip development graph neatly with the recorded power levels."

"I consulted with the janitorial staff and have discovered that she has experienced menarche at some point in the last week. It is reasonable to imagine that these tears have been precipitated by this change."

Robert glances at the men. Comstock's face is lit up like a sunset, Fink less so. At the mention of the magnitude of the increase in power, the jovial mask he wears in public fell away for a split second to reveal the naked greed that drives him. It is a strange and intimate sight, and Robert regrets having witnessed it.

Comstock says, "What do you propose?"

Rosalind takes a deep breath. He is sure that the men cannot see it, but it drains her energy to say the next sentence. "One of the infusions that we have developed should make her less resistant to the siphon's power. It would be most effective injected into the spinal fluid."

"The injection will also contain a powerful sedative, enough to render her unconscious for several days. We will of course keep a team of doctors to monitor her around the clock during this time. While she is unconscious, we can drain her of a considerable amount of power, and make the needed alterations to the existing machinery so that it can handle a much higher power load."

"Please note, however, as always, that this is experimental. I say might and may because I do not know. We have checked the data, though, and this is our best guess among others. But I believe it will give us some breathing room. I do not think that it is a permanent solution, and as her hormonal levels continue to increase I think that we can expect additional power surges. Robert and I can draw up estimates of the load that the machinery will be expected to bear."

That was three days ago. They have slept but little, as Comstock is under pressure to show his power by making the tears disappear, and every passing minute erodes the people's belief in his omnipotence.

Rosalind's eyes have deep circles and he is sure that he looks no better. As they begin the application of the electricity, his heart rises in his throat. The girl's body jumps, and Rosalind backs off for a moment, then proceeds.

Robert shakes off his reverie and goes back to watching the control panel. They have drained the expected amount of energy and he signals Rosalind through the glass. She brings the power down and the doctors check the girl one more time before rolling her away to the recovery room that they had prepared down the hall.

Rosalind's face mask is falling off and strands of her hair are coming out of her surgical cap. He wants to tell her how beautiful she is, but it would come strangely right now. Once she is sure the doctors are gone, she slides into his arms and they hold each other until they both stop shaking.