Kirov Saga: Devil's Garden (Kirov Series) (12 page)

“They
have seen this book of yours as well?”

“No,
they don’t need my book, it is all the world they have always known, the world
they grew up in. It’s all history to them. You and I were the only ones in the
dark, Admiral, because we’re from another world, in a manner of speaking.”

“I
don’t understand. You are saying they already know what Karpov did?”

“Certainly,
just ask your Chief of Staff, or anyone else around here. They will know the
history you just read, though that reference mentions nothing about Karpov. It
was very vague, simply describing a Russian flotilla. They will know that
history recorded an engagement between Russian ships and the US Navy in August
of 1945, but nothing else—not the way the world used to be before Karpov
vanished and appeared in 1945, the world we came from. That is reserved for old
grey heads like yours and mine. For them, nothing has changed at all.”

“How
is it we know differently?”

“Think
about that, Admiral. You know a world where you sailed quietly out of
Severomorsk to conduct live fire exercises. Then you know the world you came
back to when you returned to Vladivostok. Now you know this world, the world
after Karpov’s intervention in 1945, though you have probably been too busy to
read up on things. Perhaps there are more worlds we will come to be acquainted
with. I have lost track of them as they go by.”

“But
Talanov does not know anything of
Kirov’s
displacement in time. He has
no idea what really happened after we left Severomorsk!”

“He
wasn’t even
assigned
here in that world. Talanov was in the Baltic, but
he doesn’t know or remember a single minute of that old life—the life before
Kirov
vanished. When it happens, when things change, no one knows it except a very
few. Talanov lives in the bliss of unknowing. He looks around at the world and
accepts it as a matter of fact. It was always this way, the history he knows.
Vladivostok was destroyed by the Americans in 1945. It’s history as it reads
now, at least for the moment, and he has never known otherwise.”

“Then
he could not perceive the change? Three days ago Karpov was here and nothing I
just read in that book had happened. Talanov knew that world too, and in that
world there was no such event as the destruction of Vladivostok by B-29
bombers. Are you saying he has no recollection of that either?”

“Precisely.
Yet how is it
you
know these things, but he does not? This is your next
question. Yes? Well, I cannot be certain, but I believe it is because you have
moved in time, Admiral. You are a member of a very select group of people on
this earth who have actually displaced in time. Somehow the contents of your
brain are not affected by these changes. It is as if you reside on some safe
spot in the time line of events now, like the eye of hurricane or the center of
a whirlpool on the sea. It is a dead zone, a zone of calm and stability, and yet
a place where any possibility could manifest at any moment. You are there,
safely aware of all your experiences and free from the ravaging hand that
rewrites history each time a crazy sea Captain decides to take on the world.”

Volsky
gave Kamenski a long look, his eyes narrowing. “You say I know these things
because I have traveled in time. Very well, let us assume that has something to
do with it. But how is it
you
know these things, Mister Kamenski? The
last time I looked you were not on the crew roster of
Kirov.”

“Well
said, Admiral. But the answer to that question should be apparent to you. I
know these things because I, too, have moved in time.”

“You?”

“Yes,
and it is a very long story. I told you something of it when I discussed the
odd effects we discovered with our nuclear test program, if you recall that.”

“You
mean the men who went missing, like our crew member vanished at the Primorsky
Engineering center?”

“Something
like that, though he was sent on his way by Rod-25, just like your Mister
Fedorov and all the men on the
Anatoly Alexandrov
you sent back to fetch
him home. Yes, we discovered some very odd things with those nuclear tests. The
most shocking thing was that time travel was possible. It was kept very secret,
of course, but we have been working on it, unbeknownst to the central
government, and much has been done over the years. Only a very few men will
know the whole story. I was one of them, being involved in intelligence my
entire career.”

“How
did you move in time? You must tell me.” Volsky was very interested now,
leaning forward over the copy of the book Kamenski had given him, his big eyes
searching the other man’s face.

“It’s
too long a story to go into it all now. But suffice it to say that some of the
ships and planes that have turned up missing over the years were not lost in
accidents at sea or because their compass failed them as they searched in vain
for a friendly airfield. All this has been kept very quiet, of course; very
secret. And only those who actually
do
move in time really know about
it. You are a new member of that very exclusive club, Admiral, which is why I
take the liberty of revealing these things to you now.”

The
ticking of the clock on the wall was the only thing to break the silence, its
unfailing round marking off the seconds of that impossible minute. “This
happened in the old world? The World I left at Severomorsk?”

“It
did…”

“Then
it was possible that world had been altered as well. What did these other ships
and planes do, eh? Did they affect the history just as
Kirov
did?”

“In
some ways. Yes, we actually tried to do this, but with very mixed results. Most
simply thought nothing had happened. They didn’t know, you see, but I did. I
took the time to study the history after each and every experiment, and I had a
good number of references I could consult to see what might have changed. I
knew things were happening, even if most of the project team itself was in the
dark because they never displaced in time. So they still believed the world was
the same as the one they were born to, yet I knew different. I knew the real
truth. Believe me, Admiral, this can be a very heavy burden to carry.
Kirov,
however
,
was not planned. We had no idea that Rod-25 would cause
such effects. It was an entirely unexpected event.”

“My
God… then the world I came from—”

“Yes,
it has changed many times, but in all those events you were one of the
unknowing who changed right along with it, and were never the wiser—just like
your Mister Talanov. After you displaced in time aboard
Kirov
, however, you
fell into the void, the nexus point where every possible outcome of events
intersect to choose a final course and destiny. Once you fall, Admiral, you are
there to stay. You have been thrown out of paradise and now you have the
privilege of knowing, or the burden, depending on how you look at it. This is
why you now know the world has been changed when you read things like that
book—because you still remember the old world you came from, and the world before
you sent the Red Banner Pacific Fleet out to challenge the Americans—before
your Mister Karpov did what you just read in that book.”

“Amazing…I
…I don’t know what to say.”

“As
I said earlier, you have been too busy trying to manage this new war to have
paid any attention to how the last one turned out. Now you know, and if you
were to investigate further in a good library, you would find out a great many
things have changed. I don’t know which is the unkindest fate—to live in a
world of unknowing where ignorance is bliss and the world under your feet seems
solid and sure, or to taste of the forbidden fruit of knowledge, and yet never
have the peace of certainty. I have made it a point to consult my references
each and every day, Admiral, and I must tell you that much has changed over the
years. More than we have discussed here.”

“It
is enough to drive a man mad.”

 “I
felt the same way when all this first dawned on me. In fact, I believed I
was
going insane at one point. Then I found out what was really happening. It has
been my lifelong business to know what really happens in this world. Very few
men alive know the real truth of many events reported as history in all those
library books.”

“So
Kirov
was sunk along with
Orlan
. And the destroyer the American
battleship hit must have been the
Admiral Golovko
. God go with them.
That was a good ship and crew.”

“Was
it sunk, Admiral? Is that what the passage says there?”

Volsky
looked again, and now he saw that the wording was deceptive. The passage read
that during the Russian occupation of the Kuriles, a small task force of the
Russian Pacific Fleet armed with advanced new weapons deliberately attacked US
ships and planes and was subsequently engaged by the US Third Fleet under
Admiral Halsey. In that battle the Russians successfully deployed a small yield
atomic weapon to destroy the battleship
Iowa
, possibly as a threat
intended to get the US to back down over Soviet aspirations to occupy the
Island of Hokkaido. A large US fleet retaliated by air and sea, hitting another
Russian warship which resulted in the detonation of a second bomb. All ships in
the Russian flotilla were presumed destroyed.

“Presumed
destroyed—it says that right here,” said Volsky.

“A
presumption that was easily made under the circumstances. No trace of
Orlan
or
Kirov
was ever found, at least not there in 1945 in the waters southeast
of the Kuriles. There was some gun camera photography of the final American air
strike. It has never been published but I was able to get hold of this
photograph.”

Kamenski
reached into his pocket and produced a faded photo, handing it to the Admiral,
who studied it closely.

“That
is
Orlan
. Note the unitary hull and superstructure. There is no question
about it.”

“Well,
I’ve had some time to look into it a little further, and I believe that
Kirov
survived that battle.”

“Survived?
In 1945?”

“No,
I believe the ship was again displaced in time.”

“Where?”

“That
remains to be discovered. I am waiting for more information, but our time grows
short here. This war is very inconvenient.”

“How
long have you known all this?”

“That
the world is uncertain, always changing, liable to take a new and startling new
shape at any moment? I have known since the Tsar Bomba event I spoke of
earlier. That was in 1961, but I do not think that was the first instance. The
interesting new twist on all this is Rod-25, a whole new factor in the
equation. This connection to the Tunguska event is most intriguing. That may
have been an event capable of producing these same effects where time is
concerned. We stumbled on the secret that displacement in time was possible
years later, in 1961, but how to control it? That was the real challenge. I
only wish we had more time to investigate this Rod-25 business now. Perhaps it
was foolish of us to send those other two rods back on the
Anatoly
Alexandrov
. Yet in doing so we may have changed more than we intended.”

Volsky
suddenly remembered Fedorov, and wondered if Kamenski knew the fate of that
mission as well. “I suppose if Karpov did all this, then that mission was not
successful. All his letter did is send us off on a wild goose chase. The idea
to use the Mi-26 sounds preposterous now. What about that, Kamenski? Do you
know what happened to Fedorov and Dobrynin?”

“To
some extent. I can tell you that the
Anatoly Alexandrov
got back to 1942
safely, just as you planned it. Then things began to happen. Some very unusual
things…because I just came from the special code room. We have received another
message.”

Chapter
11

They
sailed alongside the
Empress of
China
for ten minutes, both sides gawking at one another through binoculars
and telescopes. Yet Karpov saw no reason for any further contact. The steamer
had told him what he needed to know, the date and time, and now he realized
that the opportunities inherent in this moment were west, in the Sea of Japan,
and not the wide Pacific.

“Ahead
full,” he said calmly. “We head west now. In fact, I think we may even pay a
visit to Vladivostok. Stalin would be a young man in 1908, and of no
consequence. The Tsar rules now, but he is very far away. It was a three week
journey to St. Petersburg from the Pacific coast. The Siberian railway had only
just been completed. So we are in charge of Russia’s fate in the Pacific now, gentlemen.”

“We
are in charge sir?” Rodenko raised an eyebrow at that.

“Who
better? I intend to reverse the misfortunes suffered at the hands of the
Japanese and set us back on our rightful course.”

Again
Rodenko hesitated before he spoke. “Is that wise, sir? We could affect the
history in ways we cannot yet see if we intervene here.”

“That
is precisely the idea, Rodenko. No man can ever foresee the real consequences
of his actions. If he tried to do so he would be forever frozen in inaction. If
you want to change the world, you have to act. Admittedly, I have sometimes
acted badly, but that was only because the challenge was simply too strong for
a single ship to overcome. The American navy in 1945 was much bigger than I
expected, and much more determined. That will not be the case here. The men of
this era are no match for us now. This ship can impose its will on the Pacific
and make it stick.”

“What
do you intend to do, sir?”

“I
believe one error I made in 1945 was not first securing the cooperation and
support of our homeland. So I am setting my course for the Golden Horn Harbor
at Vladivostok.
Kirov
is going home again. It may not be the city any of
us know and recognize, but it will be home nonetheless. I intend to offer my
services to the Tsar as the flagship of Russia’s new Pacific Fleet. With the support
of the Russian Army, we will see what we might accomplish.”