The Top Secret Toys Read online

  “I never knew she liked Dalí,” Vincent said. “We spent most of our time in the Far East wing of the Met.”

  “Oh, I think it was something she preferred to do alone. She loved the surrealists and Postimpressionists. Van Gogh was another one of her favorites. She loved The Starry Night by van Gogh. You know she named you after him?”

  “Yeah, she told me.” Vincent smiled. He hadn’t heard his father mention his mom like that in a long time.

  The taxi pulled up in front of the Museum of Modern Art, just a mile south of the Met and the Carlisle. Norton handed the cabdriver five dollars and they climbed out.

  “Okay, I’ve got to meet with these guys for a little bit. Why don’t you look around the museum and I’ll come find you when I’m done?” Norton said as they walked into the museum’s stark white lobby.

  “Sure, Dad.”

  “Hey, Vincent,” Norton yelled as he crossed the lobby. “I think van Gogh’s Starry Night is on the fifth floor. And so is Dalí’s melting clocks. Your mom loved that painting too.”

  Vincent laughed when he saw Van Gogh’s Starry Night. He realized he had seen the painting before. But not van Gogh’s version. He had watched his mom recreate the painting in finger paints years earlier. She had dumped small piles of yellow paint on the paper and pushed her finger through it, creating brilliant thick stars atop a dark blue sky. Vincent still had the painting. As he stood a few inches away from van Gogh’s Starry Night, he wondered if van Gogh had used his fingers to make his thick, brilliant stars.

  Vincent walked past primal paintings by Paul Gauguin and strange distorted figures created by Pablo Picasso. And then he saw the clocks. There, hanging on the wall, was The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí.

  He stood in front of the small-framed painting. The brushstrokes were much finer than van Gogh’s. Almost invisible. And the colors were duller. The melting clocks actually looked more like soft rubber pocket watches. There was a large watch melting and running off the edge of a table. Another watch hung over a tree branch. Another was melting on top of a strange object on the beach. And a fourth watch was lying facedown covered with ants. Vincent thought about what Mr. Dennis had said about Salvador Dalí and the surrealists. How they would look for connections between seemingly unconnected things. He wondered what the painting meant. What did Dalí want him to see? What had his mother seen?

  Vincent stepped back and stared at the painting. He liked the van Gogh better. Why were three of the watches on Dalí’s painting melting? And why was the other one covered with ants? It didn’t make any sense. Was Dalí painting things he dreamed?

  Vincent noticed a fly standing on the face of the largest watch. The fly was casting a giant shadow. But the shadow seemed to be growing. Vincent moved closer. He heard a loud buzzing sound as the fly’s shadow quickly engulfed the entire painting. “Oh, no,” Vincent said out loud as everything around the painting went black.

  Sparks leaped from the top of the watch. The face of the watch melted away and the numbers straightened as if to form legs. The legs started to stretch and climb toward the sky.

  “HEY! GET AWAY FROM THERE, KID!”

  Vincent felt someone grab his shoulder. He spun around and fell to the ground. The watches were gone.

  “What are you doing? You can’t touch the paintings.”

  Vincent looked up to see a burly security guard. “What?”

  “You can’t touch the paintings,” the guard repeated.

  Vincent looked over at the Dalí painting, which was now hanging crooked on the wall.

  “Oh geez. I’m so sorry. I guess I got dizzy and—and I must have fallen into the painting. Is it okay?”

  “Yeah, it looks fine,” the guard said, straightening the painting. “You’re lucky, kid.”

  Three more men dressed in suits ran into the room.

  “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, everything’s fine. This kid accidentally got too close to the Dalí. It’s okay. We’ve talked.” The guard helped Vincent to his feet. “Are you okay, kid?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little dizzy, that’s all. I haven’t eaten dinner. Maybe that’s it.”

  “Who are you here with?” one of the men asked.

  “My dad.”

  “Well, where is he?”

  “Ah… he’s downstairs in a meeting.” Vincent immediately regretted telling them where his dad was. He hadn’t seen his dad this angry since the time Vincent had borrowed the ball bearings from his favorite fly-fishing reel. It took a lot to get his dad angry. But he was pretty sure setting off the silent alarm at the Museum of Modern Art would do the trick.

  Vincent and Norton walked into Aunt Bonnie’s apartment. Vincent raced to the back bedroom and closed the door.

  “What’s that all about?” Vibs asked.

  “Oh, don’t even ask,” Norton said. “I’ve never been so embarrassed in all my life.”

  “What happened?”

  “Vincent set off the museum’s alarm while I was in my meeting.”

  “Well, I’m sure it was an accident, honey,” Vibs said.

  “Of course it was an accident. But he knows better. The kid has practically been raised in museums. He knows better.”

  “How did the meeting go?” Vibs asked.

  “Good, actually.” Norton sat down on the couch. “They want all the Tesla stuff. I need to call Mr. Dennis and give him the good news. They want to do this ASAP. We need to get everything cataloged and ready to move.”

  Vincent pulled the pillow from his head and heard the knocking again. “Go away!” he yelled toward the bedroom door.

  “It’s me,” Stella said. “Can I come in?”

  “I don’t care.” Vincent rolled over and placed the pillow back on his head.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” he muttered.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes!”

  “What happened?” Stella asked.

  Vincent sat up in bed. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. One minute I’m looking at this painting and the next minute everything went weird and I’m lying on the ground.”

  “Did you see anything? Was it an idea?

  “No,” Vincent said. “At least, I don’t think so. Something was happening, though. But then it all stopped. And I guess I must have accidentally touched the painting.”

  “Yeah, I heard,” Stella said, smiling.

  “He’s pretty mad, huh?”

  “He’ll be okay.”

  “You know, it was really weird. I was looking at this Dalí painting, and all of a sudden it starts to grow these legs. Or stilts. They were kind of—” Vincent stopped talking and jumped up out of bed. He pulled Howard’s tie from his pocket. “Oh, man. Stella, I think this was it. I think the watches were changing into this.” Vincent pointed to the tower on Howard’s tie.

  “Watches? What watches?”

  “The melting watches in Dalí’s painting. Ah, never mind the watches.” Vincent started flipping through one of the Tesla notebooks Howard had sent him.

  “Look here!” Vincent pointed to some legs that disappeared behind one of Anna’s purple daisies.

  “Yeah?” Stella sounded confused.

  Vincent flipped the page to another drawing. “Here, look here,” he said as he held the tie up next to the drawing. “You see this leg here?” He pointed to some sketched lines that disappeared behind a monkey.

  “Yeah?”

  “Well it’s hard to see under Anna’s drawings, but I think the device in these sketches is the same as the device on Howard’s tie. And the same device I started to see at the museum tonight.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Stella said slowly, looking at the drawing carefully. “I think you’re right. But what is it?”

  “Call me crazy, but that thing kind of looks like Wardenclyffe Tower.”

  “What is a Wardenclyffe Tower?” Stella asked.

  “A giant tower Tesla built out on Long Island.
He never really said what it did, but he claimed it had some sort of amazing powers. They tore it down shortly after he died. They were afraid it was some sort of weapon. A death ray, or something.”

  “So you think Howard drew the Long Island tower on this tie?”

  “No. The Wardenclyffe Tower had a massive building at the base of it. Look at this drawing.” Vincent pointed to the monkey sketch.

  “No building,” Stella said.

  “Right. And no building on the tie either. I think this is some sort of device that acted like the Wardenclyffe Tower. Or maybe a model of the tower. Remember how I ran into Howard the night before the contest?”

  “Yeah. You said you talked to him in his private museum.”

  “Right, the Room of Firsts. There’s a big curtain hanging from the ceiling in the Room of Firsts and I asked Howard what was behind the curtain.”

  “What did he say?” Stella interrupted.

  “He said it was one of Tesla’s greatest and most misunderstood inventions. He said he was hoping that he and I would get a chance to work on it together. I bet that’s what Howard was working on. I bet he was trying to build a scale replica of Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower.”

  “What do you think the tower does?” Stella asked.

  “I don’t know. But I almost peeked behind the curtain on my first day at Whizzer. I’ll bet we find a tower just like this one behind the curtain tomorrow,” Vincent said as he looked down at Mr. Whiz’s hand-painted tie.

  “Oh, Vincent. I heard your dad talking to Mr. D on the phone. Some museum wants to buy all the Tesla stuff. It sounds like they’re moving it all right away.”

  “Well, we’ll have to beat them to it.” Vincent pushed the tie back in his pocket. “We just have to get there before they do.”

  “Stella? Stella? Wake up,” Vincent said, poking Stella in the shoulder. “Wake up.”

  Stella sat up quickly and banged her head on a table of salt and pepper shakers. “Ouch!”

  “Sshhh. You’ll wake someone.”

  “What time is it? You’re wearing the same clothes. Did you sleep at all last night?”

  “It’s 4:29. Sshhh, come on. Let’s go before Aunt Bonnie wakes up.” Vincent tiptoed toward the door.

  “How are we going to get there?” Stella asked.

  “We’ll grab a cab. Now sshh, you’ll wake everyone up.”

  Vincent and Stella stood in from of the Carlisle.

  “How are we going to get in?” Stella asked.

  “Calli gave me a key,” Vincent said.

  “I’m not sure about this, Vincent.”

  “It’ll be fine,” Vincent said as he opened the door. “The Room of Firsts is on the second floor.”

  Vincent and Stella climbed the grand staircase and walked down the hallway.

  “What are you going to do with the tower?” Stella asked.

  Vincent pulled out a bunch of sketches that he had cut apart and taped together. “I think I finally understand what Howard was trying to do. You see?” Vincent pointed to several shapes taped under a drawing of the tower. “It’s all related. The tower, the Tesla stuff we saw at the Met, even my windless kite. They’re all connected. They’re all pieces of Tesla’s brilliant plan.”

  “Your kite was part of Tesla’s brilliant plan?” Stella asked, skeptically.

  “No. Not my actual kite, but the high voltage that powered it. I just need to convince Mr. D that Howard was close to discovering something. Something great.”

  “Wow!” Stella said as they entered the Room of Firsts.

  “Yeah. Pretty cool, huh?” Vincent looked up and saw that the Tesla artifacts that had been behind the velvet rope were gone. “Oh, no!” He ran to the large red velvet curtain hanging from the ceiling. He pushed it out of the way. Nothing. “It’s gone! It’s all gone! Come on, Stella!”

  Vincent ran out of the room. Stella chased after and caught up with him at the elevator. They got in and Vincent pushed the sixth-floor button several times. Stella didn’t say a word. She didn’t know what to say.

  The elevator door opened at the sixth floor and Vincent jumped out and ran down the hallway to Howard’s private lab. “NO! NO! NO!” he yelled.

  “What is it?” Stella asked as she ran into the empty room, out of breath.

  “It’s gone! It’s all gone! All the Tesla stuff is gone!”

  The room was empty. The only evidence of the Tesla inventions were the stains on the cement floor. The walls were bare and all of Howard’s toy prototypes had been neatly placed in boxes next to the door.

  “Unbelievable!” Vincent paced the empty room.

  “They might be over at the Met,” Stella offered.

  “What?”

  “The Tesla stuff. It might be over at the Met. Your dad said something about cataloging and packing them ASAP. Maybe they moved the stuff last night?”

  “Yes! I bet you’re right!” Vincent grabbed one of the boxes of toys. “Come on, Stella. Grab a box. We don’t have much time.”

  “Well, well, well. Good morning, Vincent,” the guard said. “Where’s your Aunt Bonnie?”

  “Ah, she’s on her way. We’re supposed to take this stuff downstairs and put it with the other stuff,” Vincent said, lifting up the box of toys for Mr. Wooler to see. Vincent hoped Stella was right and that the Tesla collection was indeed in the basement of the Met and not on its way to the Museum of Modern Art.

  “Oh, yeah,” the guard said, holding the door open. “Go on down. You know the way, right, Vincent?”

  “Yes. Thanks, Mr. Wooler.” Vincent and Stella headed for the stairs and hurried to the basement. They walked down a long hallway and entered a large room.

  “It’s kind of déjà vu, isn’t it?” Stella asked as they walked into the basement room full of Tesla inventions.

  “Yeah… Look, Stella!” Vincent pointed to a five-foot tower in the far corner of the room. It had six white wooden legs and a shiny metal hemisphere on the top.

  “You were right, Vincent.” They set the boxes of toys on the floor. “What do we do now?”

  “First, we need to find the vacuum tube Tesla coil.”

  “What does it look like?” Stella asked.

  “It looks like this.” Vincent showed her the sketch he had taped to the tower drawing.

  “Hey, this part here kind of looks like that thing that shocked me last time we were down here,” Stella said, pointing to the sketch.

  “It is the thing that shocked you last time. But it will have more parts on it now. Howard was able to finish it.”

  Vincent and Stella walked up and down the rows of inventions. Vincent couldn’t believe all the stuff Howard had managed to collect. There must have been over five hundred inventions in the room. “It’s hard to imagine one person could’ve built all of this,” Vincent said.

  “Here it is, Vincent!” Stella bent down and touched the Tesla coil. “The handle is gone, but I remember these plates.”

  Vincent ran to Stella. “Yeah, that’s it all right. Let’s get it over to the tower.” They carefully carried the device to the tower at the far end of the room.

  “Now we just need to find this part.” Vincent pointed to the sketch of a long skinny tube with holes drilled in it.

  “What is it?” Stella asked.

  “I’m not one hundred percent sure, but it might be part of Tesla’s turbine tube. I think Tesla used it to connect the vacuum tube coil to the tower. But Anna’s monkey is in the way, so I can’t say for sure.”

  “OH, THERE YOU ARE!” Aunt Bonnie said, entering the room. “John said you were down here. Everyone is worried sick about you two. You can’t just go running off like that without telling someone. Good heavens, Vincent! You scared us half to death.”

  “I’m sorry, Aunt Bonnie. I just wanted to get an early start and I didn’t want to wake anyone.”

  “Well, I’ll go upstairs and let your dad know you’re okay,” Bonnie turned toward the door.

  “My dad? He’s here?” Vi
ncent’s voice cracked.

  “Yes. They’re all upstairs waiting to meet some gentleman about all of this stuff. And they’re worried sick about you, Vincent. Your dad feels awful about yelling at you last night. I’ll go get him. He’s going to be so relieved.” Aunt Bonnie walked out of the room.

  “We’re so dead, Vincent.”

  “Come on, Stella. We’ve got to find that tube.”

  “They’ll be down here any minute! Just tell Mr. D about your secret lab and we’ll save Whizzer that way.”

  “No way, Stella. Everyone will go on thinking Mr. Whiz was crazy at the end of his life. Just like Tesla. We can do this. I have to do this.”

  “Okay.”

  Vincent and Stella started running up and down the aisles of inventions looking for the tube with the holes.

  “There is too much stuff. It all looks the same,” Stella said. “How big is this tube we’re looking for?”

  “I don’t know.” Vincent was crawling on the ground looking under several tall machines. “Maybe two or three feet? I told you, Anna’s monkey is blocking the sketch, so it’s impossible to say.”

  “Could it be this?” Stella held up a narrow metal tube.

  “No. It will have holes in it.”

  Stella dropped the tube and it clanked as it hit the floor.

  “Careful, Stella. They’re going to hear us.”

  “Sorry, but I’m a little nervous right now.”

  Vincent stood up. “Maybe if you start on that side of the room, and I start over there, we can—”

  “Is this it?” Stella interrupted, lifting a three foot tube with holes in it.

  “I think that’s it.”

  They both ran to the far end of the room to see if they were right.

  Vincent bent down at the base of the tower and handed Stella a cord. “Here, can you plug this in?”

  Stella looked at the old cord. “Are you sure this is safe? This thing has to be a hundred years old.”