Hammer of God (Kirov Series Book 14) (37 page)

BOOK: Hammer of God (Kirov Series Book 14)

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“That
would have been very foolish. For one thing, I would be clearly out of place in
that environment, and immediately suspect. But more importantly, I already knew
that if that was Volkov and his security detail, then they were eventually
going to search this inn. So I got back here as quickly as I could, to end my
time line in that moment. Every second I spent there was a second I could not
use when I go back.”

“When
you go back?”

“Of
course, sir. You see, we no longer have to waste days, weeks and months trying
to find Volkov here in 1909, because now we know exactly where he is, and
before he even traveled to the past! So I wanted every second possible available
to me. I’ll need all the time there I can get, because next time I go up those
steps, I can take a nice sniper rifle with me, and kill him—kill him right
after he steps off that train, and from that very window!”

My
god, thought Karpov. Tyrenkov is correct! If that is Volkov as he suspects,
than we have the bastard—I’ve got him at my mercy now, at long last. Tyrenkov
can do exactly that! He can go right back up those stairs and gun him down…

Yet
even as he thought all this, his elation faded, replaced by that strange sense
of impending doom again. Suppose I order Tyrenkov to do this. What then? What
happens to the world they came from, the world where he spent those years from
1938 scratching his way into the position of power he now held in Siberia?

If
I kill Volkov here, then he never goes back… He never outmaneuvers Denikin, and
it is then very likely that Sergei Kirov prevails over the Whites, and the
Orenburg Federation never arises. That may be a most desirable outcome, insofar
as our homeland is concerned. But how does it all happen? How do all the chess
pieces suddenly get to new squares in the middle of the game?

He
thought, and thought. What should I do? How does this affect my own personal
line of fate? Does Siberia remain independent, or does Kirov defeat Kolchak as
well, and unite the entire country as the Soviet Union? If all else holds true,
and I arrive at Vladivostok as I did in 1938, then what? I would have to do a
great deal more there to achieve the position I have now, and I would have the tall
shadow of Sergei Kirov looming over me the whole time.

A
queasy feeling stirred in his stomach now. When he first arrived here in 1909,
he realized he was perhaps the most powerful man alive on earth. Yes, Volkov
was here, but still unknowing, perhaps still wandering about in a fog. Sergei
Kirov was here, but still a young buck, and easily managed given all I know.
Yes. He was the most powerful man alive, a demigod. He could shape the contours
of the world from this day forward…. He had come to the edge of a cliff in his
mind, a precipice of doubt yawning beneath his feet. He had the power to change
everything, but what to do?

Strangely,
it was the words of an English poet that suddenly ran through his mind now,
Alfred Lord Tennyson… “
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing
grooves of change!”

He
decided.

The Saga Continues…

Kirov Saga: Crescendo Of Doom

Tyrenkov’s
trip up the back stairway at Ilanskiy has led him to a most unexpected place,
and now Karpov has a moment that could change all history within his grasp, and
a means of getting his revenge on Ivan Volkov. Will he seize the day? Yet
Tyrenkov has also brought something back with him that is of great importance,
and Karpov soon learns more of the days ahead than any man alive could ever
wish to know. Even so, Ivan Volkov has plans of his own, to take a massive
airship fleet to Ilanskiy and seize the day himself. Can he succeed, or will
Karpov become the ruin of all he had plotted and built in his long sojourn to
the past.

Meanwhile,
Anton Fedorov has a mind to become the next Lawrence of Arabia, and leads his
mobile force in daring raids against the old Hejaz rail lines from Homs to
Aleppo. It will bring him into contact with an old enemy, the wolf in the fold
he frustrated at Palmyra. As the battle for Syria continues, Erwin Rommel
launches a sudden new offensive in North Africa, and the Germans strive to
crush the British defense in the Middle East in a mighty pincer attack. As
these events play out, Hitler now plans to unleash his greatest attack of the
war, Operation Barbarossa. The storm clouds of war darken the Russian border,
and the thunder of the guns soon deafens the world, as the conflict rises in a
dreadful Crescendo of Doom.

Reading the Kirov Series

The
Kirov Series
is a long chain of linked novels by John Schettler in the
Military Alternate History / Time Travel Genre. Like the popular movie “The
Final Countdown” which saw the US Carrier
Nimitz
sent back in time to
the eve of Pearl Harbor in 1941, in the opening volume, the powerful Russian
battlecruiser
Kirov
is sent back to the 1940s in the Norwegian Sea where
it subsequently becomes embroiled in the war.

Similar
to episodes in the never ending Star Trek series, the saga continues through
one episode after another as the ship’s position in time remains unstable. It
culminates in Book 8
Armageddon
, then continues in
Altered States
,
which begins the third trilogy in the series, which will extend to at least 16
volumes.

How To Read the Kirov Series

The
best entry point is obviously Book I,
Kirov
, where you will meet all the
main characters in the series and learn their inner motivations. The series
itself, however, is structured as sets of trilogies linked by what the author
calls a “bridge novel.” The first three volumes form an exciting trilogy
featuring much fast paced naval action as
Kirov
battles the Royal Navy,
Regia Marina (Italians) and finally the Japanese after sailing to the Pacific
in Book III. The bridge novel
Men Of War
is a second entry point which
covers what happened to the ship and crew after it returned home to
Vladivostok. As such it serves as both a sequel to the opening trilogy and a
prequel to the next trilogy, the three novels beginning with Book V,
9 Days
Falling.

The
9 Days Falling
trilogy focuses on the struggle to prevent a great war in
2021 from reaching a terrible nuclear climax that destroys the world. It spans
book 5, 6, and 7, featuring the outbreak of the war as Japan and China battle
over disputed islands, and the action of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet against
the modern US Fleet. It then takes a dramatic turn when the ship is again
shifted in time to 1945. There they confront the powerful US Pacific Fleet
under Admiral Halsey, and so this trilogy focuses much of the action as
Kirov
faces down the US in two eras. This second trilogy also launches several
subplots that serve to relate other events in the great war of 2021 and also
deepen the mystery of time travel as discovered in the series. The trilogy ends
at another crucial point in history where the ship’s Captain, Vladimir Karpov,
believes he is in a position to decisively change events.

The
next bridge novel is
Armageddon
, Book 8 in the series, which continues
the action as a sequel to Book 7 while also standing as a kind of prologue to
the
Altered States
trilogy. In this third trilogy,
Kirov
becomes
trapped in the world made by its many interventions in the history, an altered
reality beginning in June of 1940. The opening volume sees the ship pitted
against the one navy of WWII it has not yet fought, the Kriegsmarine of
Germany, which now has new powerful ships from the German Plan Z naval building
program as one consequence of
Kirov’s
earlier actions.

Altered States
also covers
the German attack on the carrier
Glorious
, the British raids on the
Vichy French Fleets at Mers-el Kebir and Dakar, and the German Operation Felix
against Gibraltar. Other events in Siberia involve the rise of Karpov to power,
and his duel with Ivan Volkov of the Orenburg Federation, one of the three
fragmented Russian states. (And these involve airship battles!)

The
sequel to the
Altered States
Trilogy and the bridge novel leading to the
next set is volume 12,
Three Kings.
It covers the action in North
Africa, with a decisive intervention that arises from a most unexpected plot
twist at the end of that novel. Book 13,
Grand Alliance
continues the
war in the desert as Rommel is suddenly confronted with a powerful new
adversary, and Hitler reacts by strongly reinforcing the Afrika Korps. It also
presents the struggle for naval supremacy in the Mediterranean as the British
face down a combined Axis fleet from three enemy nations.

The
Grand Alliance Trilogy continues with
Hammer of God
, covering the
campaigns in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, and
Crescendo of Doom
, the German
response on the eve of Operation Barbarossa.

You
can enter any of these trilogies that may interest you, though your
understanding of the characters and plot will be fullest by simply beginning
with book one and reading through them all!

The Kirov Series:
(Military Fiction/Alternate History)

First Trilogy:

Kirov
-
Kirov Series - Volume I

Cauldron Of Fire -
Kirov Series - Volume II

Pacific Storm -
Kirov Series - Volume III

Bridge Novel:

Men Of War -
Kirov Series - Volume IV

Second Trilogy:

Nine Days Falling -
Kirov Series - Volume V

Fallen Angels -
Kirov Series - Volume VI

Devil’s Garden -
Kirov Series - Volume VII

Bridge Novel: