A Year to Forget (The Accidental Time Travellers Book 2) (20 page)

He looked over to the police cordon hoping to see a familiar face.  Standing right at the front was Meyer Lansky, he too was staring up at the building.  He had aged considerably since their last meeting in the Dallas Police Headquarters.  The last time they had spoken both men had vowed to kill the other, nothing had ever come of it.  Bobby had been curious as to why Lansky had never followed through on his threat, he had considered Lansky as a possible perpetrator of the car bombing, but it wasn’t his style.  He certainly would not have waited all these years to get his revenge.  He was dressed as dapper as ever in a pinstriped black suit and a white shirt.  As Bobby stared at the man, he felt a tap on the shoulder.

When he turned and saw Faraday and Chase he was delighted, it already seemed like hours since he had last seen his friends.

“Where have you been?”  Bobby asked.

“We were helping to coordinate the evacuation, the building should be stable for now.”  Faraday advised.

“Are we sure about that, we know what happened to the Twin Towers.”

“There’s been another attack?”  Chase said, startled.

“No, its fine.  Well the structural engineer said it will hold.  The building has almost been fully evacuated, luckily there are stairwells on each side of the building, so the escape routes are clear.  The firemen are just ensuring that it’s empty now.”  Faraday replied.

“Have you found anything out about how he took over the controls?”

Both men shook their heads.

“Okay well I’m going to try and talk with Lansky.”

“What did you find out about David?”  Faraday asked.

“I don’t know to tell you the truth.  I think something is going on with Hughes and Abaddon, if that’s the case then David may well have been compromised.”

“You think David has betrayed us, that’s ridiculous!”  Faraday protested.

“Listen I don’t want to be right about it but I’m worried I am, David would never have authorized the retrieval of that submarine.”

“He could just be covering for them?”  Chase suggested.

“He could have been hypnotised just like Sirhan, remember he was with Gottlieb for a day.  I refuse to believe he would be working against us willingly.”  Faraday stated.

“That could be it.”  Bobby agreed.

“Well how do we proceed?”

“I don’t want to go to Gottlieb yet, word would get back to Abaddon.  Perhaps another chat with Mengele would help.  Chase when we get back to Washington I want you to tail the journalist, she is getting this news from either Abaddon or Hughes, only they could have told her about the ship being attacked.”

“No problem.” 

“What about David?”  Faraday asked.

“We can discuss that later.”  Bobby replied, somewhat awkwardly.

He turned away from the two men and was happy that Lansky had not moved, he hobbled over towards the cordon, while subconsciously fiddling with the eagle at the top of his cane.  When Lansky spotted him his eyes widened.  Bobby was unsure as to how he would react.  When he reached the cordon he spoke.

“Can we have a chat Meyer?”

The old man eyed him as though he was expecting Bobby to assassinate him.  He nodded slowly.  Bobby gestured for the officer to let him through.

“Do you still smoke?”  Bobby asked when they were alone.

Meyer nodded.  Bobby took out two cigarettes from his pack, handing one to Lansky before lighting the other.

“You still haven’t aged a day.”  Meyer commented.

“You have.”

“What do you want?”  Meyer asked.

“Well I want to talk to you about the hotel being attacked, I would have thought that would be obvious.”

Meyer nodded.  “I forgot you worked on the other side of the fence these days.  Tell me how is Nancy?”  Meyer smirked.

“Did you do it?”  Bobby asked.

“Do what?”

“You know damn well what?”

“I was just asking how she was Bobby.”

Bobby stared hard into Meyers face, the old bastard didn’t give anything away.  “If I find out you were behind it Meyer, I swear to God I’ll kill you!”

Meyer laughed.  “I thought you were going to kill me if you ever got out of jail, yet here I am.”

Bobby glanced over to the Flamingo Hotel.  “Well it looks like someone else might do that for me.”

Meyer’s face gave away his anger.

“Who would have a reason to want your hotel out of the way?”

“I was under the impression this was some kind of terrorist attack.”

“I highly doubt a terrorist would pick your hotel at random, it’s hardly an American landmark.  Would Howard Hughes have any reason to want your hotel out of the way?”

“You think he was behind this?”  Meyer asked, looking slightly stunned.

“I think he might have been.  Why would he want to hit your hotel?”

Meyer shook his head.  “The nutcase is trying to buy up the whole strip just because he can, I told him he has no chance of getting his hands on the Flamingo.  If he’s behind this, I’ll kill him.”

“I’d quite like to deal with him myself.  Do you happen to know a man named Jacob Cohen?”

“Why?”

“We are looking for him, I think he is working for Hughes.  I believe he was involved in plotting to overthrow Castro, did you ever meet him?”

“Yes, I’ve not seen him in years.  I heard he busted out of Alcatraz a few years back.”

“What’s he like?”

“He’s nuts, spends half his life laughing hysterically at nothing.  I hear he was pretty handy in a fight, with or without guns.”

“Do you have any idea where he could be?”

“Well he hates communism more than any man I ever met, he’s probably plotting to overthrow Castro.”

“Well he seems to be trying to overthrow Kennedy.”

“If you like I could make some calls, try and smoke him out.”  Meyer suggested.

“That would be great.”  Bobby removed a card from his pocket.  “Give me a call when you find anything.”

“I can’t promise he’ll be kept alive for you if he was involved in fucking up my hotel.”

“He was definitely involved, we can kill him together.”

“Like old times.”  Meyer laughed after he spoke.

“I guess so.”  Bobby agreed.

Chapter 42

The flight back to Washington aboard Air Force One was a subdued affair, everyone on the plane was absolutely exhausted from the evenings events.  President Kennedy had been speaking with Alexei Kosygin on and off for the past six hours.  Abaddon had been fielding calls from various military leaders all evening. 

From the odd parts of conversations they had managed overhear, they had managed to establish that the negotiations were going well with the Soviet’s, but the length of time that it was taking was becoming disconcerting.  Faraday had spent the majority of the flight considering what Bobby had said about David.  It just couldn’t be true, if he was helping them they must have hypnotised him.  He was sitting beside Chase who had been drooling down his shirt for the last half hour.  Whenever he looked over at Bobby he seemed to avert his eyes, he wondered perhaps if it had been something Lansky had said.  Faraday couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe Meyer Lansky had been the one who ordered the car bomb, he has a motive, and he is a gangster.

“Do you know who ordered the car bomb?”

Bobby seemed startled by the question.  “What?”

“Did Lansky order it?” 

“I don’t know.”  Bobby conceded.

“What do you mean you don’t know, don’t you care?”  Faraday asked angrily.

“You know I do, it’s just with everything that’s going on, I haven’t been giving it much thought.”

“Well I have, I think it was Lansky.”

“It was probably Jacob.”  Bobby contended.

“Probably Jacob?  This is Nancy we are talking about, I thought she was your life!”

“She was, but I’ve lost her once before and I don’t know, I guess I knew it would happen again and now that it has, I feel a little relieved.”

“Relieved?  How can you say that?  My wife died!”

“I just mean I’m relieved that I don’t have to worry about her anymore, it’s over.”

“It’s not over until we get whoever did it and then I have someone else I need to deal with.”

“I actually need to talk to you about him.”

Faraday’s expression became one of rage.  “What about him?”

“Kennedy told me we need to use him.”

“What, didn’t you tell him what happened?”

“I did but he says that’s a personal matter and it shouldn’t change his position.”

“You have to be kidding me?  Was it a personal matter when we tried to save his brother, or was that just business?”

“Faraday I understand that you’re upset.”

“Upset!  I’m way beyond upset Bobby!”  He shouted, drawing looks from the Secret Service men dotted around the plane.

“Lower your voice.  I understand your point of view but Will is all we’ve got, we don’t know if we can trust David.”

“We can’t trust Will!”

“I’m going to get rid of him, but for the time being we need him to tail David, you won’t need to see him.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”

“I don’t have a choice.”

Faraday ignored Bobby’s protest, after all they had been through together and now Bobby didn’t trust David and was happy to use Will.  There was no one left now.

Chapter 43

It was 15:00 on Wednesday 26
th
February when David finally arrived back at the mansion.  He had been driven back by Howard Hughes.  As he looked out from the car window, onto the driveway and the charred remains of where Bobby’s car had once been, his mind turned to Jane.  He had always liked her and he had seen true love whenever she and Faraday had looked at one another.  He turned to look at Hughes.

“Did Jacob arrange the car bomb?”

“No, it wasn’t us.”

“You have any idea who it could be?”

“Well from what I’ve heard Meyer Lansky isn’t particularly fond of your friend.”

David nodded, he had believed Abaddon, but he was a gifted liar.  Hughes was quite good himself but David believed them, Meyer Lansky would make the most sense.  He wondered how he could explain what he knew to the others without giving anything away.  Perhaps they too would want to use the wormhole, there was nothing they could do to stop Abaddon and Hughes now.  He turned back to Howard.

“Do you know where the wormhole is?”

“I do, but you know I can’t tell you that.”

“Would Bobby and Faraday be able to come with me?”

Howard shook his head.  “You are earning your way home.”

“What if they earned their own way?”

“We don’t trust them David, you were chosen because we trust you.”

David sighed.  “Is Bobby at the meeting you are going to?”

“I believe he will be.  I am sure you will be attending one of these soon, we need you to corroborate what we are going to tell them about the Space Race.”

David stepped out of the car and slammed the door.  As Hughes pulled away David lit a cigarette, he hadn’t been allowed to smoke on the drive back.  He took a deep pull to prepare himself for seeing Faraday, it was hard having to lie to these men, they had been like family.  He opened the front door and the house felt so quiet, even though it was a mansion it was never quiet with so many of them living there.  Now it was just the three of them.

He walked through to the kitchen, he needed a drink.  When he entered he saw Faraday sitting on the couch, hunched forwards, he hadn’t even noticed David coming in.

“Good to see you James.”  David announced.

Faraday looked up slowly, he wasn’t startled.  His eye looked like it contained nothing but sorrow.

“Are you okay Faraday?”

“Am I okay?  What do you think David?”

“Do you want a whisky?”

Faraday nodded but did not speak.  David went into the kitchen and poured two whiskies, he took one to Faraday and carried his and the bottle to the other couch.

“Want to talk about it?”  David asked.

“Yes.  I miss her so much David.”  Tears began to run from Faraday’s brown eye.

David moved over onto Faraday’s couch and put an arm round him.  “I know you do mate.”

“She didn’t even love me David.”

“Faraday what are you talking about, of course she did.”

“She slept with Will!”  Faraday screamed.

“She slept with Will?  That can’t be true.  Will Carter?”

“Do we know another Will?”  Faraday yelled.

“Did he tell you that?”

“Yes!”

“He must be lying Faraday, she wouldn’t do that to you.”

“Why would he lie David?”

David didn’t have an answer to that question.  “When did you find this out?”

“The day she died.”  Faraday spoke through the tears.

“I’ll fucking kill him!”

“I’ll do that myself.”  Faraday sobbed.  “But thanks David, Bobby is keeping him on.”

“You can’t be serious?”

“David tell me, what you are doing?”

“What?”  David could feel himself blushing.

“We know you are working with Hughes and Abaddon.”

David was stunned.  “How do you know that?”

“We guessed David, we knew there was no way you would have ordered the ship to retrieve the submarine.  I thought maybe you had been hypnotised, but I’m guessing you haven’t been?”

“No.”  David could feel his heart pounding in his chest.

“So what are you doing and why?”

“Are you going to tell Bobby?”

Faraday suddenly stopped crying and looked at David.  “Why would I?  He has chosen Will over me, I want to help you.”

David was stunned.  “Faraday I don’t think you can.”

“Just tell me what’s going on David, we can work it out!”

David didn’t feel right about betraying Bobby but he knew that it was the only way.  “They approached me the night I was released from hospital.”

“Who did?”

“Abaddon.  He told me that he can send me home.”

“Home?  As in the future?”  Faraday asked, his eye widening.

“That’s right.”

“How?”

“There’s this Physicist called Edward Teller, apparently he worked on the Manhattan Project, he has learned how to harness the power of wormholes.”

“And they are sending you back?”

“As long as I do what I’m asked.”

“Which is what?”

“Well it started off as me killing someone, but then they sent me out on that ship, then they said I had to take the blame and now they want me to help them convince Kennedy to fake the Moon landing.”

“They are going to fake it?”

“Yes they say that it isn’t actually possible to land on the Moon.”

“So how does Jacob fit into this?”

“They are trying to force Kennedy out of office.”

“Why don’t they just kill him?”

“Abaddon said they didn’t want him to be remembered as a great President the way JFK is.”

“So who do they want you to kill?”

David sighed.  “Martin Luther King.”

“And you are going to do it?”  Faraday asked in surprise.

“I have to, it’s the only way they will let me go back.”

“Okay well I’m sure they will want my help.”  Faraday concluded.

“I asked Hughes, he said that they don’t trust you.”

“You need me.”  Faraday protested.

“Why?”

“Because Bobby is on to you, he is planning to have Will tail you.”

“Has he told Kennedy?”

“I think they have discussed it.  He seems to have completely changed his priorities, he told me he was relieved that Nancy was dead.”

“Do you have any ideas of who planted the car bomb?”

“I think it was Meyer Lansky.”

“Howard Hughes said he believed it was Lansky.”

Faraday shook his head.  “Bobby is working with Lansky to find Jacob.”

“This is unbelievable.”

“When he gets back from the meeting I will go and tell Abaddon what I know, then we’ll see if I can join you.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, he might not trust you, maybe I should go.”

“If you go Will can tell Bobby, it has to be me.”

Chapter 44

Bobby chose the seat beside Hoover, it was a sign of how messed up everything had become, normally spending prolonged periods of time with Hoover was not an enjoyable task.  But he was the only man in the room besides the President and his brother that Bobby felt he could trust. 

The President was sitting at the top of the table looking exhausted, the phone calls with the Soviets had continued well in to today.  There was still no guarantee that this disaster was not going to end in nuclear war.  To his left was Abaddon Wolf, he too looked absolutely exhausted, his black suit appeared wrinkled as if he had been sleeping in it.  Beside Abaddon, were Robert McNamara and Marty Moon.  On the other side of the table were Teddy Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover and Bobby.  The meeting was supposed to be underway ten minutes ago, but Howard Hughes had not yet arrived.

Bobby had chosen to wear a black pinstriped suit and a white shirt, he was fiddling with the gold eagle at the top of his cane.  If truth be told he would rather be anywhere else, the crooks at the top of the political structure in this country were beginning to make him feel disillusioned.  His mind kept wandering to Faraday and the way he had reacted to hearing that Will would be following David.  He felt terrible about it but there was nothing he could do, this was bigger than a personal grudge, he had to work with Meyer Lansky, so Faraday should be able to work with Will.

The door opened suddenly and Howard Hughes appeared in the room, he looked much better than he had on the last occasion they had met, his hair was now short, but still wiry and he had a neatly trimmed moustache.  His finger nails were cut short but he was holding five or six tissues, from what Bobby could tell.  He took his seat next to Marty Moon without saying a word.

“Well now that everyone is here we can begin.”  Kennedy glanced at Hughes in annoyance.  “Now as you are all aware, last night a ship that was being used to raise a Soviet submarine from the Pacific Ocean was torpedoed by another Soviet ship.  There were only three survivors from a crew of over one hundred men.  The survivors were Howard Hughes who has kindly joined us today, David Lewis and a Russian defector named Sergei Kravchenko.  This mission had not been authorized by myself and from what I am told David Lewis gave the authorization.  Howard, can you tell us what happened?”

Hughes coughed to clear his throat.  “We were working at the Kennedy Space Centre looking into what caused the Apollo 8 explosion, Dr Kravchenko told us about the exact location of the submarine.  I had a ship in the area doing some marine biology research.  So we took my yacht and then a helicopter to land on the ship.  We were in the process of bringing the submarine up, when we were fired upon by the Soviet ship.  The three of us were able to get onto the helicopter and made it safely back to the yacht.”

“Why did you go for the submarine without contacting this office?”  Kennedy asked, struggling to contain the anger in his voice.

“We had to act quickly, David Lewis gave us the go ahead and Abaddon was aware of the situation.”

Abaddon glowered at Hughes.

“Abaddon, why was I not told?”

“I did not authorize the retrieval of the submarine, but I did suggest that would be our probable course of action.”

“How could you know what our route of action would be, when I was never made aware of the situation?  Did you even discuss it with Marty?  The Navy would have been far better equipped to deal with the situation.”

“Sir we could not go to the military because we did not want the Russians to know that the American Navy were trying to recover the submarine.  I had intended to recover the submarine using the Office of Strategic Services.  I believed a civilian ship would have a better chance of retrieving the submarine, without the Soviets being aware of the situation.”

“But you did not authorize any action?”

“No sir.”

Bobby could not believe the lies that were pouring out of Hughes and Abaddon.  “If I may interject, this cannot be true.  I have known David for nine years and he would never have authorized this mission.  He does not even have the authority to authorize this mission, it has nothing to do with our department.”

Kennedy turned his attention to Bobby.  “So who did?”

“I would suggest that Abaddon and Howard Hughes acted on their own accord and are now backtracking in an attempt to cover their tracks.  The media knew about the Soviet attack before even we did, it could only have come from one of these men.  It was the same journalist that has been working with Jacob Cohen, which I think would suggest that both of these men are guilty of treason.”

Abaddon stared at Bobby, looking like a lion eyeing an antelope.  “Sir this suggestion is absolutely insane, I have proven myself a loyal Vice President time and again.  I am only thirty five, what reason would I have for trying to unsettle your position? I have a long political career ahead of me.  This in my opinion is an example of a man trying to cover his own ass.”

“I would have to agree with Bobby, I do not believe for a second that David Lewis would break the chain of command and put the country at risk of nuclear war.”  Teddy interjected.

“I would also like to agree, do we have any written proof that David authorized this operation?  I wouldn’t have thought so because he couldn’t have done it.  I would suggest Abaddon authorized this without consent.”  Hoover stared at Abaddon as he spoke, enjoying twisting the knife.

“Mr President I am being attacked because these men have proven themselves to be incompetent.  They are aware that they are the reason behind both of last night’s disasters and they are now trying to cover their tracks.”

“Mr President, whilst it is important that we discover who gave the order, I believe we are focussing on the wrong issue.  What we should be discussing is how do we go about responding to the Soviet attack.  The military are currently at DEFCON 2, I believe that we cannot allow any attack on any US citizen to happen without retribution.  The Soviet’s have demonstrated time and again how little they care about sanctions imposed by the West.  The Berlin Wall is a prime example of this, we cannot allow them to treat America as a weak country.  We are the greatest country on this planet and we must act accordingly.”  Marty Moon announced.