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

by Marc James

  “I think we will be leaving sometime next year.” Jane replied.

  Faraday raised his eyebrows and took another pull on his cigarette. Teddy noticed Faraday’s reaction and managed a laugh. David did not seem to be aware of anything around him.

  “What’s with the face?” Jane asked, almost angrily.

  “Nothing, we can discuss it later.” Faraday replied.

  “No tell me.” She slurred.

  Faraday knew he would have to choose his words carefully, Jane had had a lot to drink.

  “It’s just that I don’t see the need to rush home. We have a pretty good life here.”

  “I want my children to be born in Scotland.”

  Faraday blushed. “You’re pregnant?”

  Jane snorted with laughter. “Of course not, I wouldn’t be drinking would I?”

  Teddy laughed again and so did Faraday. “So you guys are planning on having kids then?”

  Jane smiled and nodded eagerly, Faraday didn’t know how to respond. He still felt like a child, he couldn’t imagine raising one.

  “Best thing that could ever happen to you. I think that’s the only reason Virginia and I are still together.” Teddy downed his whisky and once again refilled his glass.

  “Are things still rough with you two?” Faraday asked.

  “Yeah, it’s like all women want to do is argue.”

  Jane looked furious at this comment. “Are you kidding me?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Maybe you should try keeping your dick in your pants.” Faraday couldn’t help but laugh at this comment.

  “You think she’s perfect? She spends half the day drinking.”

  “So do you!”

  Teddy looked towards Faraday for support, none was forthcoming.

  “What do you think David?” Teddy asked.

  To everyone’s surprise David had been listening. “I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to comment on someone else’s marriage. Everyone is different, everyone makes mistakes.”

  “Thank you David.” Teddy said before finishing his drink. Jane looked annoyed by David’s response, Faraday decided to stay out of it and changed the subject.

  “So what do you think happened to Apollo 8?”

  “It must have been a mechanical fault.” Jane guessed.

  “It seems a bit strange that it got all the way to inside the Moons orbit and then exploded, whilst on live television.” Faraday commented.

  “What are you saying?” Teddy asked.

  Faraday paused for a moment. “I’m not saying anything, I just find it strange.”

  “You think it was blown up intentionally?” Jane asked.

  “I don’t know. What do I know about space travel? I’m just saying that I would have thought it would have been more likely to explode after liftoff, or when it was leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. Don’t you think it’s a little odd that it was launched on the 21st and everything went according to plan and then three days later, it explodes during a live broadcast in front of the whole world?”

  The room was silent for a moment as Faraday’s words sunk in. “How could anyone plant a bomb on space rocket?” Teddy asked.

  “I don’t know, I’m not even saying anyone did but I think it’s a possibility. It could have been the Soviets.”

  “How could the Soviet’s plant a bomb on a NASA spacecraft?” Teddy asked.

  “Well look at what the CIA did a few years back. I’m sure the KGB probably has moles in the US, someone posing as a defector, maybe a scientist, he gets a position in the space program and has access to the rocket.”

  “You can’t be serious?” Jane asked.

  “I’m just saying it’s a possibility, we will have to wait and see what the others find out.”

  Chapter 3

  As Christmas Day turned into Christmas Night, Lee Harvey Oswald stared up at his attacker. Who was this man? Lee had been living in Cuba with his wife and two children since the JFK assassination, he had never intended to return to America. It was a cold night, Oswald was only wearing a pair of white y fronts and a white vest. His hands were bound and his ribs were in agonising pain, they had been beaten badly.

  The man had appeared as if from nowhere and had thrown a hood over Oswald’s head, he had been bundled into the back of a van and had been brought back to America. His captor was around 5ft 10in, he had slicked back brown hair and heavy stubble on his face. His eyes looked akin to a sharks, it was as if he was the walking dead. He hadn’t even asked Oswald any questions, he had just beaten him. Oswald looked at the man and the man looked at Oswald. What did he want? Lee tried to shift himself into a more comfortable position. He was sat just below the window in a large apartment, he was leaning against a radiator, which felt like it was piercing into his spine. The man was sat at a table just staring, as if waiting for Oswald to do something.

  Not much really scared Lee Harvey Oswald. He had been through so much in his life that he felt like he could handle himself pretty well. Lee may not have been the biggest of men but he had been trained in combat, he had managed to win fights against much stronger men in the past. But this man was like no one Lee had ever met. He punched with such force that each time a shot connected, he felt like part of his ribs were going to break, oddly the man hadn’t punched him in the face, not even once. When the man had first grabbed Oswald, he had known where to apply pressure and put him effortlessly into the van. There was no way this man was a mobster, he fought like a professional. But why wasn’t he asking Lee anything? Oswald wondered whether he should begin the conversation, but what if he turned violent again?

  The man suddenly opened a newspaper that was sat on the table and began to look through it. The room was quite dark, Oswald had no idea how the man could see the words. The man began to laugh whilst looking at the paper. Oswald didn’t know how to react, the laughter was almost manic. He still wasn’t sure if he should speak, he didn’t want to anger the man. The man almost doubled over as he continued laughing. He then folded the paper and put it down on the table, he seemed to be holding back more laughter. The man stared at Oswald once again.

  “Curious.” He muttered, before rising to his feet and walking across the wooden floor out of the room.

  Oswald knew this was his chance. He managed to rise to his feet and walked over to the table, hoping to find a weapon of some kind, or at least something he could use to remove the rope from around his wrists. He could hear the man padding in the hallway, what was he doing? Lee looked down at the Washington Post on the table and saw that it was dated 26th December 1968. It was tomorrows newspaper, below the date was a picture of Oswald’s mug shot from his arrest in Dallas. The headline read “Oswald Escaped Dallas.” He could feel his heart pounding against his chest. He began to read the article.

  “Lee Harvey Oswald, one of the possible conspirators in the Assassination of JFK faked his own death and escaped Dallas with the help of so called American Patriots, J.Edgar Hoover and Bobby Stinson. Lee Harvey Oswald’s body was found in a New York apartment last night. It is believed that Oswald committed suicide and a note was found beside the body. It read “I cannot stand by any longer and watch as this county is run behind the scenes by the real killers of JFK. J. Edgar Hoover and Bobby Stinson were the real men behind the Kennedy assassination.”

  Lee was interrupted by the man returning to the room. He hurried back to his corner and sat down, which seemed to make the man laugh once more.

  “Did you see anything that might be of interest?” He said with a smile. The man’s voice was one of condescension.

  “You brought me here to kill me?” Lee asked, he felt resigned to his fate already.

  The man laughed again before responding. “Perhaps.”

  “So what are you waiting for?”

  “Mr Oswald this is ultimately your decision. Your fate is in your hands.” The man picked up the newspaper. “At which point did I interrupt you?”

  “What?” Oswald replied.

&nb
sp; “How much of the article were you able to read before I interrupted you?”

  “I wrote a suicide note blaming Bobby Stinson and J. Edgar Hoover for the death of JFK.”

  “Wonderful. So it is your choice to make Mr Oswald, do you want to die?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “That is excellent Mr Oswald. I’m afraid that in order to stay alive you must do something for me. Actually I misspoke, you must do something for your country.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “It is not I that want you to do anything Mr Oswald. Your country needs you to go on television and make a statement saying that J. Edgar Hoover and Bobby Stinson were behind the plot to kill JFK. You will also state that the current President is aware of that fact. It would also be excellent if you mention that Apollo 8 was blown up by the Soviet Union.”

  “Why?”

  “Well Mr Oswald, it will save your life. Your children need a father.”

  “But what is it you want?”

  “I desire nothing. I am just a little anxious Mr Oswald. There is a war coming and it is imperative that the men walking the corridors of power will do everything they can to win it.”

  Oswald had no idea what the man was talking about. But what choice did he have? He didn’t want to turn on the two men that had saved his life, but if he didn’t he would die anyway.

  “If I say what you want, you’ll let me go?”

  The man laughed. “You have my word Mr Oswald.”

  Chapter 4

  The atmosphere in the Oval Office was tense. President Kennedy had thus far not set a foot wrong during his Presidency. The public trusted him to do what was right for the country and thus far he had done exactly that. Bobby Stinson had been asked to sit in on the meeting by the President. This only ever happened if the President was worried. He seemed to think that Bobby was a good sounding board.

  The President was sat behind the desk. To the left of Bobby, sat Abaddon and to his left sat the two men that knew more about technology than the rest of the world put together, Howard Hughes and Wernher Von Braun.

  Howard Hughes was without a doubt the most intelligent man that Bobby had ever met, he was also the richest. He had made his fortune primarily through aviation, he had also directed films. It was the first time Bobby had seen Howard looking so dishevelled, he had heard rumour of Howard’s OCD and various episodes in which he did not put on clothes or bathe himself. He was dressed immaculately in a grey suit and a white shirt, but his hair looked long and unkempt, it was wiry and grey, as was his beard. His nails were similar to a dogs claws and they seemed to stretch almost as far as his fingers did. Howard did not seem to be particularly with it, his attention seemed to focus on certain objects for minutes at a time. Howard was certainly a man of extremes, on a good day he was excellent, he was a man with drive, passion and an incredible intellect. On a bad day he struggled to function, unfortunately for Howard, the times that they lived in were not quite as enlightened as the time that Bobby had been born in. People still didn’t really understand how debilitating mental illness can be, in essence it is like any other illness, although no one can see what is going on inside another person’s head, which in some ways makes it a more difficult. On the other hand Howard was so rich, that he had employees that were specifically hired in order to carry out tasks that helped his OCD.

  Wernher was a German that had moved to America at the end of World War Two. Bobby did not particularly like him, he wasn’t sure if it was down to the latest member of his department, Will Carter. Will had survived the hell that was Auschwitz and the stories he told had certainly affected Bobby’s opinion of Germans. He knew that not all Germans were Nazis, but he could not understand how a country could have elected Adolf Hitler, he had outlined what he wanted to do in Mein Kampf, which had been released in the twenties. Yet apparently the German people did not know what was going on with the expulsion of the Jews. Previously he had always believed that the Nazis were as much of an enemy to Germany as they were the rest of the world. But since meeting Will he had changed his opinion. The stories Will had told about Auschwitz had been hard to believe initially, Bobby had no idea how humans could treat other humans the way that the Nazis had. Every time he heard Wernher speak he wanted to get up and punch him in the face. He had fortunately not been forced to spend much time in his company. Bobby found himself resenting the man, he had been informed by the President that Wernher was never a member of the Nazi party, but Hoover had told him the exact opposite. Although Bobby had never managed to completely understand Hoover’s motives for anything he did, he believed him. Hoover was almost a friend to Bobby now, if it wasn’t for him Bobby would probably be dead. But that certainly didn’t mean he trusted him. Bobby realised that he hadn’t been paying any attention to what was being said and decided to focus.

  “So what you’re telling me is that nothing went wrong with the rocket?” Kennedy asked.

  “Correct. Everything was working perfectly well, we have no reason to believe something went wrong on Apollo 8.” Wernher replied.

  “Then why did it explode? What do I tell the people?” Kennedy asked.

  “I do not know. It was certainly not a fault with the ship. It could only have been something we did not account for in the atmosphere, or a deliberate act of sabotage. I do not believe it was the atmosphere, the ship had already orbited the Moon a number of times without issue.”

  “So you’re saying someone blew up the rocket?” Kennedy asked.

  “It is the only logical explanation.”

  “Well only NASA had access to it. So who did it?” Kennedy asked, raising his voice slightly.

  “Mr President, I must interject, there is no way that this was done by someone within NASA.” Abaddon stated.

  “Well who then?”

  “It must have been the Soviets.”

  “How could they destroy Apollo 8?”

  “We don’t know how far along they are sir, not with any degree of certainty, perhaps they had a ship nearby.”

  Kennedy looked shell shocked. “Is that what you think Wernher?”

  Bobby watched as Werner shifted uncomfortably, he noticed Abaddon nodding at Wernher. “I think it is a possibility.”

  “What about you Howard?” Kennedy asked.

  “You have dirt on your table.”

  “Sorry?”

  “There is dirt on your table.” Howard repeated. He then pulled a tissue from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and began to wipe the desk. “Do you have a dustbin?”

  “I’ll take that.” Abaddon interjected with a smile.

  “Where is the nearest bathroom? I need to wash my hands.”

  “I’ll take you.” Abaddon again replied. The two men left the Oval Office and left the two Bobby’s and Werner alone.

  “So what do I tell the public Wernher?”

  “I’m sorry Mr President, but I do not know. There was no fault with the ship.”

  “Bobby?” Kennedy asked.

  “Well you don’t want to cause panic. Perhaps just say that you are looking into what happened.”

  “But what do we do about it?”

  “This isn’t really my area of expertise.” Bobby replied.

  “Well if this was an attack on the ship, then I’m afraid it is your area Bobby.”

  “So what do you want me to do sir?”

  “Well I want you to do your job.” Kennedy replied bluntly.

  “I know nothing about rockets.”

  “Well Wernher and Howard do. If they say this was an attack on the US, then you need to find out who was behind it.”

  Bobby sighed, if the two people who knew the most about the space race didn’t know, then what chance did he have?

  Howard and Abaddon entered the room, once they had taken their seats Kennedy spoke again.

  “Howard what is your take on this?”

  “Well I don’t know what to tell you. The Apollo rockets aren’t designed by Hughes Aerospace, we
design the Surveyor rockets. None of our ships have ever had technical difficulties.”

  “Well perhaps you should be designing the Apollo rockets.” Kennedy replied, almost shouting.

  “We could certainly do that.” Hughes said with a smile.

  “I don’t want any more accidents.”

  “I think Hughes Aerospace is the right choice Mr President.” Abaddon interjected.

  “Well, alright then.” Hughes replied in his Texan accident.

  “Good. I need to call a press conference. Bobby I want you to go with Wernher and Abaddon to look into this further. If this was a Russian attack we need to know.”

  Chapter 5

  David was sitting at the dining table alone. How he wished he could sleep, just to escape his thoughts for a little while. It had been eight years since he had last slept, with the exception of a few minutes when he had been knocked unconscious after the assassination of JFK. He lit a cigarette and took a long pull.

  He replayed the shooting again in his mind’s eye. He felt like he couldn’t go on like this anymore, but he had to stay alive to save Sharon. She needed him, if he could last until then he might be reunited with her. But what would Sharon see in him? His personality felt nonexistent and by the time he would meet her, he would be an old man. He took another pull on the cigarette and could feel his hand shaking as he did so.

  He needed to confess to the murder, surely that would be the best way to relieve his guilt, but what would happen to him? He could get the death penalty, what good would he be to Sharon then? He had come close to telling Bobby what had happened on a number of occasions, but he had never managed to utter the words. He knew it had been an accident but that wouldn’t bring the dead man back. He knew he had been trying to do the right thing but that wouldn’t bring the dead man back either. If only he had told the truth in the immediate aftermath, he would have been able to explain exactly what had happened, he would probably have received a Presidential Pardon like Bobby had. But it was too late for that now, you can’t murder someone and stay quiet for five years before admitting to the crime.