John Schettler - 1943

“Correct,” said Fedorov. “We held a piece of that mirror, though our vision was far from complete. In many ways, Ilanskiy was also a way to see that future, and Sergei Kirov acted as he did because he went up those stairs to see Stalin’s world.”

“So which one would you prefer to live in, Fedorov? What do you think will happen here if we all take a bow and remove ourselves from this time? Is this world going to transform itself back into the one that led to the building of this ship?”

“Who could know that?”

“You seem to think Kamenski does. He’s so insistent that we do this, and your little theory on his true point of origins cements your belief in the man. Now you want to use that like a whip to compel me to do as the Director suggests, and if I don’t agree, Volsky is out there on Kazan . Well, we saw how that went down before in 1908. Do you honestly think I’ll let that goddamned sub get anywhere near this ship now?”

“But sir… How can you dismiss Kamenski’s warning? How can we dismiss the warning Fairchild reported—from our own future?”

“Yes, yes, very cryptic. Beware a ship… beware Kirov . Well, Mister Fedorov, the first part of that warning might obviously be aimed at us, but the second part might refer to Sergei Kirov himself—the man, not this ship. We came to that same conclusion ourselves, didn’t we, only we both lost our nerve and could not bring ourselves to kill the man in 1908. That would have certainly reset the pieces on the board. Yes?”

“Didn’t you do that for selfish reasons?” Fedorov accused. “You want to carve out your own little empire here, and all those ambitions are thinly masked by a veil you’ve taken from Mother Rodina—all this talk of defending the homeland and taking back what is rightfully ours. That’s why you’ve been hounding the Japanese, correct?”

“And why not? God cast Satan into hell, and so he decided to get as comfortable there as he could. What do you think will happen if we do as Volsky wants? Let’s assume I kiss the two of you on the cheek and we form a nice little alliance here. We have no way of knowing whether these control rods will take us forward, but for the sake of discussion, let’s assume they do. We get Kirov and Kazan back to 2021. How does Argos Fire get there?”

“They have the means,” said Fedorov without disclosing anything more.

“Very well, what about all your friends in the desert that have been Rommel’s bane these last few years?”

That got Fedorov, as he did not know all the details of what had happened at Tobruk. Karpov saw him hesitate, and went on. He already knew about the strange event at Tobruk. Tyrenkov’s network was very good, but he continued.

“Assume all those toy soldiers get put back in the box. As for Takami , I’ll find that damn ship and simply blow it to hell. Then all we have to do is find the replenishment convoy ships and wire them up for a shift to 2021. Yes?”

“It would probably be better to simply destroy them all,” Fedorov put in. “and take the crews aboard our ships.”

“Alright, now comes the clincher. How in God’s name do we get Ivan Volkov to go along with our little plan? Oh, excuse me, Mister General Secretary, but we’ve a ticket for you on the next plane to 2021? You see how thorny this rose is?” Karpov smiled. “Don’t you see how fruitless and futile Kamenski’s plan is?”

Fedorov was silent. When it was only Kirov and Kazan , the task they had before them seemed a doable thing. Now Karpov had laid out the cold logic of it all. Even if they could remove Takami and Kinlan and all the other ships, there was still Ivan Volkov to deal with. Karpov pressed his advantage.

“We leave, and then Volkov rules the roost. You’re already worried that the Allies could still lose this war. Well, if they do, it won’t be here in the Pacific. Japan loses here whether or not I beat them senseless. The American Navy will not be defeated, not unless the Axis finds a way to shut down US production sites. No, if the Allies lose, it will be because Russia is defeated, and right now, this very minute, Ivan Volkov is doing everything in his power to see that that happens. In fact, I would go so far as to say that our little club, you, me, and Volsky, are the only real counterfoil to Volkov’s tampering here. If we leave, let me tell you what is likely to happen. Sergei Kirov has managed to hold on this long, but Volgograd will fall soon, and the Soviet Winter Offensive of 1942-43 has already run out of steam. This year the Germans go for Leningrad.”

“I’ll admit I hadn’t thought about all of this,” said Fedorov. “But Kamenski might be able to sort it through—once we get home.”

“No, Fedorov, he won’t, because home may not even be there from what I’ve already seen. Yes, I’ll let you in on a little secret. As you know, that stairway at Ilanskiy goes both ways. Well I took a little stroll one day—and I went up instead of down. In fact, I got back to 2021 just in time to see the show, like a man slipping into the theater after the movie has already started. You know what I saw from the upper landing of that stairway—a mushroom cloud over Kansk.”

Karpov let that sit there, and neither man spoke for a good long while. Then he inclined his head and continued. “Let me tell you a little joke from that American comedian: ‘A guy walks into a psychiatrist’s office and says, hey doc, my brother’s crazy! He thinks he’s a chicken. Then the doc says, why don’t you turn him in? Then the guy says, I would but I need the eggs . ’ Well Fedorov, we can get all our chickens lined up here, but you’ve forgotten one of the eggs. You see, Kamenski aside, you and Volsky haven’t really thought any of this through—but I have. I ran all this through the mill long ago, before I made my decision to stay here and fight. But giving you the benefit of every doubt, suppose we even hatch a mission to kidnap Ivan Volkov and get him home with us, or kill him instead. There’s still one egg that’s fallen from the nest, and you have no idea where it is—Orlov.”

Orlov…Where the hell was Orlov, thought Fedorov? One moment he’s right in front of me on that staircase, the next moment he’s gone. Why? Where did he go? I just haven’t had time to try and sleuth that all out in the history. It was only sheer luck that I stumbled upon that journal entry he wrote that so clearly gave me a time and place for him. To do that again, I would at least need a better vantage point on the history. I won’t be likely to turn up anything here in the 1940s—unless he reappears here and makes his presence known somehow. I’m relying on Tyrenkov for that.

Think!

“If Orlov did appear somewhere, it would have to be beyond the year 1908, because we were going up the stairway when he vanished.”

“Logical enough,” said Karpov.

“Alright… We also know that there seems to be linkage to your point of origin when shifting through a fissure like that. I don’t know how it works, but perhaps you still harbor some residue, or even a vibration on the quantum level that associates you with a given period in time. All I know is that every time I traveled that stairway, I was returned to the time and place I was before. That’s how I got back here safe and sound, along with Troyak and all the Marines I had with me.”