Kirov Saga: Hinge Of Fate: Altered States Volume III (Kirov Series) (33 page)

This
was his fate now, he realized, to be shadowed by the meddlesome Admiral Pound,
second guessed, with his orders countermanded at every turn. This was the price
he was paying for the hospital bill he had handed the Royal Navy on his first
major engagement—
Hood, Renown
and
Repulse
all laid up for
repairs.

When
the next message was brought in, it was a sad vindication in seeing his worst
misgivings confirmed.
R.A.F. Vagar in the Faeroes, the place where he
had learned the startling truth concerning the Russian ship and crew during his
meeting with Admiral Volsky, was being shelled!

“R.A.F. Vagar under large
caliber naval gunfire at 23:20 and taking heavy damage. Three planes destroyed
and base no longer operational. Casualties.”
He read the message slowly to
Captain Bennett. “By God, they’ve snookered us! The Germans are running the
inside passage! Large caliber naval gunfire—that can only be from a capital
ship, and here I am nearly 600 miles to the west watching the back yard while
Hindenburg
is skulking right past the front gate!”

He was over to his plotting table
at once, scratching his forehead as he eyed the position of Captain Patterson’s
battlegroup. “Send to
King George V
,” he said to a Watch Officer. “Tell
them to come about and steer 190 and come to full speed. The Germans will have
to steer that course to get down round Ireland… And my God, look here, Captain Bennett.
That’s HX-69 there, bound for Liverpool.” He fingered a spot on his chart,
right in the path of the oncoming threat.

“We’d best inform the Admiralty,”
said Bennett, “and have them scatter that convoy, dangerous as that may be in
those waters.”

“Agreed,” said Tovey. “Make it
so. He placed two rulers on the chart now, laying one along the suspected course
of the German squadron, and another from his own position to a point about 500
miles east of Glasgow. An equilateral triangle formed between the Faeroes, that
point, and his ship.

“We could get back into it,” he
said glancing quickly at Captain Bennett. “I could turn now and put on thirty
knots. Certainly the Germans will do the same, and they’ll have to steer this
course until they reach this latitude. Only then can they turn south around
Ireland.”

“Right through the Bloody Western
Approaches,” said Bennett. “Damn bold maneuver, wouldn’t you say?”

“That so,” said Tovey. “Well, we
must make them pay for that.”

“What about Patterson’s group?”
Captain Bennett eyed the position of
King George V
to the north.

“He’ll make 28 knots at his best
speed. The Germans have a slight speed advantage, only two knots, but that
means they’ll slip away unless we stop them.”

“And
what about our watch here?” Captain Bennett stated the obvious, and Tovey gave
him a look that seemed to see right through him, his mind obviously fixed on
some solution.

“I’ll
be in the W/T Room,” he said. “Come about to take that course and go to thirty
knots at once.”

“Aye
sir, off we go.” Bennett gestured to a Watch Officer and the order was passed
to the helm. HMS
Invincible
was heading south.

* * *

“Well
Fedorov,” said Admiral Volsky. “It appears we have not
worn out our welcome yet.” He had just received the message from Nikolin.
Admiral Tovey had sent a code on a special channel they had arranged and was
requesting that
Kirov
resume the Watch on the Denmark Strait for the
next 24 hours.

Fedorov
had seen all the other message traffic, and put the puzzle together. “I guess
we can tell
Narva
they will not be seeing anything north of Iceland,” he
said. “The Germans have just announced themselves at the Faeroes!”

“That
they have. What do you think this is, Fedorov? Could it be a diversion?”

“In
once sense it is,” said Fedorov. “They showed us
Alfargruppe
just north
of the Denmark Strait first. Now we know that is comprised of only two ships,
and I think that is the real feint here. This business at the Faeroes, that is
Jötnargruppe,
the giants, and from the list of ships we decoded in that Enigma signal it
will be
Bismarck
and
Hindenburg
. Yet in my opinion, this is also
a diversion.”

“Oh?
What else can the Germans throw at the British?
Hindenburg
is their
biggest ship. Yes?”

“They
can throw three crack regiments at Gibraltar, sir. I believe this is a ruse
aimed at keeping the British Home Fleet well occupied for Operation Felix.”

Volsky
sighed heavily, folding his arms.

“Correct,
Fedorov. The only question I have now is this: what should we do about it?”

Chapter 29

“I’m
afraid we are a little too far away to do much about
Gibraltar,” said Fedorov. “Besides, what could we do? It will not be a naval
operation. The French Fleet might also cause some trouble for Force H, but if
Admiral Somerville is sharp he already has his ships up on four hour steam. He
won’t want his battleships sitting at anchor if the Luftwaffe comes calling,
and this they will certainly do if they mean to attack Gibraltar.”

“But
surely that operation is of greater significance than our post here,” said
Volsky.

“True
sir, but again, what could we do? Gibraltar’s fate now lies with the mettle of
its garrison. I don’t suppose you are contemplating putting Troyak and his
Marines ashore there.”

Volsky
smiled. “No, I think they have done enough with this latest mission. It is good
to have them all safely aboard the ship again—including Orlov. But I can see
that you were surprised it succeeded.”

“I
was,” said Fedorov. “Especially after what Director Kamenski suggested. If
Troyak could destroy the back stairway at Ilanskiy, then how did I find it and
go down it in 1941? How did Ivan Volkov do the same in 2021? But yet, Troyak
reports his demolition was a success.”

“How is
this possible, Fedorov?”

“It’s a
real mystery sir, like so much of what has happened in these last months. I
have been muddling over it for some time.”

“Yes, I
have seen you muddling, young man. I noticed your heart was not in the recent
fire drill exercises.”

“I’m
sorry sir, my mind was elsewhere, and it concerns Captain Karpov.”

“Or is
it Admiral Karpov now?” said Volsky. “That man sees no limits. In his present
position he can still do a great deal of harm.”

“Did
you see Troyak’s full report sir? He noted that there were several airships
present when they arrived; some belonging to the Orenburg Federation. I find it
curious that they would be that deep inside Free Siberian territory. Troyak
says there was a battle underway, both on the ground and between those
airships. Yet we only just learned of the Omsk accord. What was that about?”

“Apparently
that accord was not entirely successful.”

“Yes
sir. Fighting has broken out between the Siberians and Orenburg again. A major
offensive is underway.”

“It is
very likely that Karpov and Volkov met at that meeting in Omsk,” said Volsky.

That
gave Fedorov a start. “If they did meet,” he began, “do you think they would
have recognized one another?”

“Who
knows?” said Volsky. “Volkov was a young man when they first met aboard
Kirov
.
He would be a man of my age now, ready for the pasture.”

“Don’t
underrate yourself.” Fedorov said quietly. “You have many years of service
left. But this is what I was worried about when I hatched that scheme to send
Troyak off to Ilanskiy. If Karpov did realize Volkov was the same man he met on
Kirov
, then the next question he would ask would be a very dangerous
one. He would want to know how Volkov came to be here, and that could lead him
to discover it had something to do with Ilanskiy. That was, after all, where
Volkov would have first appeared if he went back to 1908 as I did.”

“True,”
said Volsky, “but haven’t we already solved that problem? You were just telling
me Troyak was successful.”

“Yes,
but I find it very suspicious that there was a battle underway at Ilanskiy. It
leads me to conclude that both sides must know there is something significant
about that place.”

“Well
now that that stairway has been destroyed, you can rest easier, Fedorov.”

“I wish
I could, sir. I was certain that something would happen if Troyak succeeded in
destroying those stairs, but… nothing happened at all! I thought it would have prevented
Volkov from finding them in 2021, and therefore prevented the rise of the
Orenburg Federation. In fact, I was deathly afraid that we would be swept up in
the whirlwind of change Troyak’s demolition would cause, but… here we still
are. So I can only assume the stairway must have been rebuilt sometime before I
first found it in 1941, and that prospect still has me very worried. For the
time being, we have eliminated the grave and serious threat that someone could
pass through that time rift to alter the past again, and by so doing compromise
our own status and fate here in this time. Yet we must keep a close watch on
this situation. The problem is not resolved.”

“Do you
expect me to send Troyak in a blimp every other month to have a look?”

“No
sir, that would be impractical, and dangerous. But this battle at Ilanskiy has
dark implications. I think it means Volkov and Karpov both know about that
stairway.”

 “They
had no great love for one another when they first met in 2021, so it does not
surprise me that any agreement they may have reached at Omsk has fallen apart.
Now they will tussle over Ilanskiy like a pair of dogs quarreling over a bone.”
Volsky smiled as he continued.

“That
accord, as you call it, would have been very bad news for Sergei Kirov. It
would mean Orenburg could have transferred all the forces it now has deployed
against Siberia to the Volga front. One side or another must have gone back on
their word. Perhaps it was Karpov, which would fit his character well. If so,
he has done us a great favor. You were telling Admiral Tovey about the possible
German attack on Russia in 1941, and we both know the Soviet Union’s chances of
surviving that are not good without the support of both Orenburg and Siberia.”

“Agreed.”
Fedorov shrugged, seeming very disconsolate.

“You
are looking as pale as Admiral Tovey,” said Volsky.

“I
suppose I am, sir. Your remarks to him about the problem we face come July next
year still weigh heavily in the equation. Yes, our candle is burning here. We
are the light that shines twice as bright in this era, yet we both know the
other end of that—we also burn twice as fast. Here we are talking about
Gibraltar and the ground war in Russia and, in spite of all the advanced
weaponry we possess, it seems we are powerless to influence these events, even
a minor division scale action like Operation Felix where no more than three
German regiments will make the actual attack.”

“We are
a naval power,” said Volsky. “There is only one thing we can assure wherever we
stand a watch, and that is control of the sea. In many ways that will decide
whether the Allies ever can begin their counteroffensive. They must control the
Atlantic and Pacific to bring the power they have to face their enemies on
land. At this point in the war, control of those seas is hanging in the
balance, and so you may take heart and believe we have some vital role that we
may play here. Nothing can match us on the sea. Yet all power has limits,
Fedorov. This is something you and I must know, and the one thing that Karpov
forgot while he was here.”

“He
remains a grave problem, sir—Karpov. Something tells me that there may have to
be a reckoning with him in all this if we remain here.”

There
was a moment of silence between them, as each one pondered that. Then Volsky
nodded, speaking the thing they were both now considering. “We are a naval
power,” he said, “but Karpov has established himself on land. And look now,
Fedorov. He is at war with Volkov and the Orenburg Federation! Yes, Karpov is a
threat, and a very dangerous one. But how is it said, Fedorov? The enemy of my
enemy is a friend.”

“I see
what you mean, Admiral, but given Karpov’s nature, the squabble between Karpov
and Volkov may not be permanent. He is an opportunist, and he will do whatever
is necessary to further his advance. One minute he signs an accord with Volkov,
the next sees the two sides battling at Ilanskiy.”

“Yet
this wedge between them is to our advantage,” Volsky pressed. “We must consider
how to use their newfound enmity to strengthen our position—Kirov’s position.”

“Are
you suggesting we try to contact Karpov and sound him out on this?”

“The
thought has crossed my mind. As you said yourself, he may suspect we are here
if he thinks we used Rod-25. He is now at war with Volkov, and though we do not
know how that will turn out, we do know one thing—as long as those two fight
one another, Sergei Kirov’s position is strengthened. You see, Karpov may call
himself an Admiral these days, but he is really a general. He’s a force on
land. If we could find a way to get him to see the importance of preserving
Soviet Russia, then we could do much to affect the outcome of this war. Perhaps
he can still be reasoned with.”

“Could
we ever trust him again?” Fedorov asked the most obvious question. “He’ll do
whatever it takes to further his interests.”

“So we
must show him that it is in his interest to preserve Soviet Russia. Otherwise
Germany will crush our homeland. Make no mistake, Fedorov. Hitler will smile
and shake hands with Volkov until he has defeated Sergei Kirov. But Volkov is
sitting on the one thing Hitler really needs—the oil fields in the Caucasus and
Caspian region. He wants that oil. Do you think he will simply ask for it
politely? No. Once he defeats Soviet Russia, Orenburg will be next on his list.
I think we can get Karpov to see this, and to realize his fate would be the
same unless he sides with the Allies.”

“You
forget how headstrong and arrogant he can be,” said Fedorov. “He knows what we
have in the magazine, and he will argue that we should use the full measure of
our power here. I can hear it now.”

“Indeed,”
said Volsky. “I suppose we could sail down there and deliver a nuclear warhead
on the German assembly area in Spain if they are staging for this operation.
The troops in Gibraltar would have quite a show, and the Germans would gasp in
utter awe when they see their elite regiments evaporate before their eyes. Then
I suppose we could send an ultimatum to Herr Hitler and tell him he gets more
of the same if he does not relent and call off the wolves.”

“That
is what Karpov would probably do,” said Fedorov.

“Yes,
Karpov sees power as a blunt instrument. He exercises considerable guile to get
himself into a position to use it, but when the time comes for its application,
he fails miserably. Do you think Hitler would make peace if we stop his attack
on Gibraltar this way?”

“No
sir, I do not. Look what the Americans did to Japan when they first firebombed
Tokyo, then dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and still that was not enough. It
required Nagasaki as a further demonstration that annihilation was at hand
should the Japanese not surrender. They did not know how many atomic weapons
America possessed at the time. There were only three, but they might have had
fifty for all the Japanese knew.”

“Interesting,”
said Volsky. “We have only three—the same power that the Americans will have
five years from now. Would they be enough to win this war, or at least bring it
to a halt? This is the nightmare I have considered ever since we made the
decision to stay here and side with the allies. Yes, it means that we might
kill a great many people if we use these weapons. Then I weigh that against the
millions that will die in this war, and think the cost may not be too high. It
is a real dilemma, Fedorov.”

Then
Volsky summed things up. “So on the one hand we see the limitations of our
Moskit-II missiles, and how powerless we are to effect events involving land
operations. Then on the other hand we hold a hammer that could smash Berlin and
probably even kill Hitler in one blow.”