Paradox Hour (10 page)

“Most unfortunate,” said Fedorov. “We know that key must be there, and yet it turned up missing when the ship finally reached Boston. It must have happened during the battle
Rodney
fought with
Bismarck
, but I can’t see how that could happen now.”

Even as he said that, Fedorov had a sinking feeling.
Bismarck
was out there this very minute, part of Lütjens’ task force attempting to break out into the Atlantic. They were rushing west for the Straits of Gibraltar in hot pursuit, but they were not the only ships maneuvering in this chase. Home Fleet, now being handled by Admiral Holland, was already counting battleships and nervously watching other movements of the German High Seas Fleet. Fedorov learned this when he suggested that Admiral Tovey order
Rodney
back to a safe harbor.

“The moment I heard this news,” said Tovey, “that was the first thing that entered my mind. Yet as simple as it may sound, getting it done may not be so easy. Yes, I may be commander of Home Fleet, and that charge will immediately revert to me from Holland the instant this ship enters the Atlantic, but
Rodney
is about the King’s business at the moment, and suggesting we turn it around will have the Admiralty asking a lot of questions, not to mention the King himself.”

“I can see how that may be uncomfortable,” said Fedorov through Nikolin as always, “but surely the stakes here are too high to risk the ship at sea until we have that artifact in our possession.”

“True, but I may not be able to offer an acceptable reason why the ship should be taken off active duty. In fact, if I suggest this, the Admiralty will say that is exactly what
Rodney
is about. Her decks are loaded with equipment and new boiler tubes for her refit in Boston, and I don’t think the government wants this other business delayed.
Rodney
is the goose with the golden gullet now. She’s carrying a good amount of gold bullion in addition to the Elgin Marbles.”

“What about Mister Churchill?” said Fedorov. “Now that we’ve let him in on the secret, he should be a powerful advocate on our behalf in this matter.”

“Yes, I suppose Winston can throw his weight in gold around when he sets his mind to it. But such a request will need some explanation before he can grasp the urgency as we have here. Churchill is in London. Would you advise that I attempt to relate all this to him over Admiralty signals channels? That could be very risky.”

“I understand,” said Fedorov. “Yet there must be something we can do.”

Tovey nodded. “I am thinking we might be able to solve this problem another way,” he said. “quietly, at sea. When things heat up in the Atlantic, I take command, and I can come up with any good reason to pull
Rodney
off by the collar. Then we can arrange a rendezvous at sea. We can go aboard and see about this business—why, you could do so personally if you wish, Mister Fedorov.”

Fedorov still seemed troubled, but relented. Yes, it would be too risky to try and explain all this through coded signals to Churchill. And that would likely take a good deal of time in any case. What Tovey was suggesting seemed workable, though he still had reservations.

“What if the ship gets involved with the Germans. I have listened in on German Enigma traffic, and there is a lot of movement in the north now.”

“Unfortunately so,” said Tovey. “Admiralty believes they will make another run at us with a second powerful task force. They still have
Tirpitz
up there, along with the Twins, and that aircraft carrier that bedeviled us before, the
Graf Zeppelin
. Put those ships together and it spells a lot of trouble for Home Fleet and Admiral Holland. We can match them. Home Fleet has four good battleships standing to arms right now, and the battlecruiser squadron is coming south to reinforce Force H.”

“Any word on that battle?”

“Not yet, but we should hear soon. That young man I put at the helm on
Glorious
has a head on his shoulders, but if he’s tangling with Lütjens, things could get out of hand. This business in the Mediterranean forced me to weaken Somerville considerably. Thank god the French moved all their heavy units from Casablanca to Toulon, otherwise things could get very ugly in the Atlantic.”

“We won’t get through the straits until the night of May 4th,” said Fedorov. “I plan to run the straits after midnight on the 5th. We’re a full day behind the action.”

“Yes, we can’t offer Somerville any assistance just yet,” said Tovey, “and remember we still have to win through at Gibraltar.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Fedorov. “We’ll get through.
Kazan
will clear the channel of enemy U-boat activity. They’ll know we are coming, but we’ll run the straits in the dark, making enemy air strikes very difficult, particularly with our potent missile air defenses. As for the shore batteries, I’ll handle them. We’ll get through.”

“I like your confidence, Captain.” Tovey smiled. “Then once we do get through, the pickle will be this—how to arrange this meeting at sea with
Rodney
, while still staying in the hunt for
Hindenburg
. There are hundreds of ships at sea just now in the convoys. This is a maneuver the Admiralty did not expect. They’ll be burning the lamp oil late tonight trying to see how they can re-route convoys to avoid the worst. My job is to protect those convoys.”

“Do you think Force H can delay the German battlegroup?” asked Fedorov.

“Possibly. We’ll know the answer to that shortly. I’m headed straight for the W/T room to get at the latest signals traffic. My Mister Wells hasn’t got much to work with, a few cruisers and destroyers along with
Glorious
, but he’s a determined young man. Reminds me of you in many ways.”

“Can we count on any help from Admiral Holland?”

“He’s already dispatched the two battlecruisers,
Renown
and
Repulse
. I suggested
Hood
might go along as well. That ship has the speed we need in a chase like this, but Holland has his flag there, and wants this dance. I suppose it’s a wise decision. With
Hood
up north he can sail with
Duke of York
and cover the Faeroes passage, and then send
King George V
and
Prince of Wales
to the Iceland channel. It’s that same old game again. The Germans always have the edge at the outset, as they can pool all their major fleet assets together, and then pick one channel or another, while we have to cover everything, and we never seem to have enough ships for the job. So you can see how my suggestion that we retire
Rodney
in the middle of all of this would raise eyebrows in the Admiralty.”

“I understand,” said Fedorov. “Well, let us hope we can arrange this meeting at sea somewhere safely away from the action. What is your plan, Admiral?”

“That remains to be seen. Circumstances will dictate, as they always do at sea. We have to be ready for every contingency.”

“Well,” said Fedorov, “we have four ships here, counting
Kazan
. Any ship could make this rendezvous, though I would think we might want to keep our strongest assets in the hunt for the
Hindenburg
. Both my ship, and
Argos Fire
, have radar sets and our helicopter assets. We should have no trouble finding Lütjens at sea. And we have the speed to get after him, if he’s not too far ahead of us. Remember, our missiles have considerable range.”

“Indeed,” said Tovey. “Perhaps we could send the
Argos Fire.
After all, Miss Fairchild claims to be the keeper of these keys. I would think she would want to get to
Rodney
herself, and from her warnings in that meeting, she’ll want to find that key as soon as possible.”

“Agreed,” said Fedorov.

Tovey perceived some slight reservation in the Russian Captain now. “Ah,” he said, “I’m thinking you are very curious about this key, and what it might open, Mister Fedorov.”

“That I am, sir. But I can see that it’s not mine to meddle here. Our task is to get to
Rodney
, and keep the ship from harm until we do recover that key.”

“And after that?”

“I think you said it best earlier, sir. Circumstances will dictate, in all of this. I have faith that we’ll determine what needs to be done.”

“As do I,” said Tovey. “After all, I’m supposed to be the one who arranged this whole party, yes?”

He smiled, but Fedorov could see that Tovey was wrestling with demons of his own over all of this. He has to be wondering about that, he thought. How could he have written that note? What circumstance is waiting for us out there that sees that possibility made a reality? It would certainly keep me up at night, and Tovey must be at his wits end. Yet the man is a well of calm and reserve. I must give that some thought myself, if I can manage any time. Perhaps I had better enlist some help in all of this. Admiral Volsky suggested I go talk with Director Kamenski about it. Perhaps that would be wise when I get back to the ship.

“Very good, Admiral,” said Fedorov. “Please let me know the moment you hear news of Force H. If they are in difficulty, we might be able to offer support with our helicopters.”

“I’m off to the wireless room,” said Tovey. “But something tells me we may have some bad news waiting. I’ve a sixth sense at sea, and there’s something on the wind, Mister Fedorov. It doesn’t smell good.”

Fedorov nodded, saluted, and was on his way.

* * *

After making his report to Admiral Volsky, he excused himself, saying he would like to speak with Director Kamenski concerning the revelations made by Miss Fairchild at their meeting.

“Yes, do go and see Kamenski about all of this,” said Volsky. “And while you are there, ask him how his garden is doing. It seems he’s been having problems with gophers. We all have.”

“Sir?” Fedorov did not know what to make of that.

“Just mention it, Fedorov. You will be surprised by his answer, I assure you.”

Fedorov found the Director in the officer’s stateroom, quietly reading a book from the ship’s library, and smoking a pipe.

“There you are, Director,” he said with a smile.

“Ah, Mister Fedorov. I trust your meeting went well.”

“It did, sir, but I have learned something I need to discuss with you, if I am not intruding.”

“Not at all. Have a seat here if you can tolerate my tobacco. A pity it is one bad habit that I never really could shake. Then again, at my age, you do not fret over such things.”

Fedorov was seated, wondering how to begin. He decided to come right to the point. “Director, in our earlier discussions you revealed that our government, the Soviet government at that time, had made the alarming discovery that nuclear detonations disturbed time. Would it be a breach of security for me to ask what was done about that?”

“Oh, it probably would, but I do not think that matters, given the fact that we have all been sailing through the decades here together. You know, I am beginning to settle into this year, 1941, as odd as that may seem. As to your question, yes, once we confirmed these secondary effects after Tsar Bomba went off, a program was developed to test this further. In fact, that was the real reason there were so many tests in those years. We wanted to know how pronounced these effects were, what amount of force was required, and what might be moved.”

“And the Americans?”

“They were also involved, and even before we were! We do not know the full extent of what they learned, but we knew they had discovered the effect as well. There were all sorts of tests in those days, atmospheric and high altitude exoatmospheric tests in space revealed the EMP effect. Underground tests in tunnels and bore holes were also common. Then there were salvo tests to see what might happen if we ever did use multiple weapons on each other. I suppose the idea was to see how much abuse the world could take when we start tearing apart and destroying the fundamental particles of the universe. No one dreamed it might disturb the fourth dimension, as well as the other three that shape the contours of this world. But we learned. Things happened. Things disappeared, then reappeared weeks later, sometimes years later. That was when we realized they had moved in time. So how much mass might fall prey to these effects, we wondered? Then we recalled those underwater tests conducted by the Americans, and became very curious. It occurred to us that some of those nice little shows they put on in the Pacific were all intended to test one very interesting thing.”

“What was that, sir?”

“We believe they were trying to see if they could move something as massive as a warship.”

“Through time?”

“Precisely. Gives one a chill, doesn’t it? It’s a trick your ship manages quite easily, but that was not supposed to occur until 2021. Yet the Americans were testing this prospect with their Castle Bravo test off Namu Island, in the Bikini Atoll, and that was in 1954. Some say they were testing as early as 1946 in their Operation Crossroads detonations.”

“Yes,” said Fedorov, aware of that test. “That was where the carrier
Saratoga
died. It was anchored there, and was swamped by a 100 foot wave. A
Fuso
class Japanese battleship was also anchored for that test, the
Nagato
, and the American battleship
Arkansas
.”

“You are certainly very knowledgeable when it comes to naval history,” said Kamenski.

“But I don’t understand,” said Fedorov. “Are you suggesting they had foreknowledge of what would happen to
Kirov?”

Kamenski smiled. “It certainly seems that way. Don’t forget that the Americans witnessed a detonation like that first hand in the north Atlantic, and a ship they had been pursuing with the British suddenly vanished, along with a flotilla of their own destroyers. Things like that can get people very curious, particularly when the destroyers show up twelve days later with quite a tale to tell.”

“I had not heard about this,” said Fedorov excitedly. “You are referring to
Desron 7
, but I never knew what had happened to those ships.”