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

by Marc James

  “I want to know if you are a war criminal.”

  “Do you really think a war criminal would have direct access to the President of the United States?”

  “I think if that war criminal could lead the country to victory in the Space Race, then perhaps he would. From what Hoover tells me, there are quite a few Germans working in the Apollo program. Would they not have a possible motive for killing US citizens?”

  “We are scientists. The war criminals were tried at Nuremburg.”

  “Well the ones that the other countries had no use for.”

  Wernher looked ready to kill Bobby. His usual smart demeanour was shaken by the insults. “You are being incredibly Xenophobic.”

  “I don’t think you are in any position to criticize others for being discriminatory.”

  “I am a scientist Mr Stinson.” Wernher got to his feet and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Bobby wasn’t sure why he had just done that. Could the Nazi defectors have caused the explosion intentionally? It made more sense that the Soviets doing it, how could the Soviets have gained access the rocket? He needed help, he knew there was only one person that could look into this efficiently. He was about to lift the receiver of the telephone, when his door was opened once again. This time it was Abaddon.

  “I just saw Wernher, he looked upset. What happened?”

  “I was just asking him some questions.”

  “About what?” Abaddon came across like an angry school teacher.

  “Apollo 8.”

  “And that made him cry?”

  “He was crying?”

  “Yes. So what were you asking him about?”

  “Which people had access to the rocket.”

  “And?”

  “Maybe you should take a seat.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “Well there are a lot of German scientists working on the space program, doesn’t that bother you?”

  “No.”

  “But they must have been Nazis before they came here.”

  “Does that matter?”

  “Of course it does! You know what they did. How can you even say that it doesn’t matter?”

  “Because they are the best in the world at what they do and we need them.”

  “Surely American scientists could do as just as good a job.”

  “Well are Faraday and Jane the only people that could work in your department?”

  “That’s completely different, they aren’t war criminals.”

  “We can discuss this later. In fact no we can’t, you will drop that line of enquiry, understood?”

  “Who else could have done it?”

  “It must have been the Soviets.”

  “How could they have done it Abaddon? Why would they risk nuclear war just to blow up a rocket that wasn’t even landing on the Moon?”

  “Well I highly doubt our scientists would blow it up. Why would they?”

  “Revenge for the war.”

  “So the Nazis are defeated and a group of scientists move to America in order to kill three astronauts.”

  Bobby suddenly felt quite stupid. “So say it was the Russians, what can we do?”

  “Well I would suggest war is the only option.”

  “You can’t be serious?”

  “We cannot allow these Russian aggressors to get away with this.”

  “But we have no proof. A war between the US and the Soviet Union could signify the end of the world.”

  “Or it could signify the end of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.”

  “I can’t believe you are saying this.”

  “It’s not really your jurisdiction. Anyway you need to come to the Oval Office, we have just found out that a friend of yours is appearing on television.”

  “Who?”

  “Lee Harvey Oswald.”

  Chapter 11

  Faraday tightened his grip on Jane’s hand. He wasn’t sure where to look, the silence in the room had been going on for almost ten minutes. He couldn’t quite believe what Oswald had just said. The recordings were damming and he couldn’t fathom how Kennedy could possibly remain President. Worse than that was the proof that he had cheated on Ethel, she looked absolutely devastated. She was sitting on the other couch with Nancy, whilst Faraday and Jane were sitting together. Everyone else had left and the children were upstairs.

  Jane wanted to talk but she couldn’t imagine how humiliated Ethel must be feeling. They had always seemed like the perfect couple and in many ways they were, but it must be awful to find something like that out on live television. The silence was broken by Nancy.

  “It was all lies, don’t listen to a word of it.”

  “They have recordings of it. The liar is my husband.”

  “It could be fake, we know that what they said about the assassination was a lie.” Nancy tried.

  Ethel scowled at Nancy. “It was my husband speaking.”

  Nancy chose not to argue. Jane looked at Faraday hoping that he would have something to say but he looked as worried as she felt. He stood up and said “I’ll be back down in a minute.” He then discretely gestured for Jane to follow him. He walked up the stairs to the bedroom that he and Jane had been allocated in the Kennedy’s home over the Christmas period. He sat down on the bed and put his head in his hands, what a mess.

  When Jane entered the room she saw Faraday looking desolate, she couldn’t decide which problem was the most pressing. She gently shut the door behind her and walked further into the room.

  “What do you think?” She asked.

  “I really don’t know what we should do.”

  “What can we do?”

  “Well I think we need to speak to Hoover, he might know a little more about Oswald’s reappearance. But I don’t see how Bobby Kennedy can possibly remain in the White House, which means Hoover and the rest of us could end up out of a job.”

  “Would that be the worst thing?”

  “We have important jobs Jane.”

  “I know but these aren’t our problems, we don’t belong here.”

  “But we are here! What choice do we have?”

  “Well I think we should head back home, maybe we can even get back to our own time.”

  “How would we go about that?”

  Jane was silent.

  “We need to decide what we can do to help Jane. We can’t leave the others now.”

  “But there’s always a reason to stay, if we get through this then something else will happen.”

  “But what is it you want in Scotland?”

  “Home.”

  “No one we know is even alive yet!” He barked.

  “But look at what this country has done to us, you lost your eye, David tried to kill himself and Bobby was stabbed.”

  Faraday was silent for a moment before he changed the subject. “I think we need to go and see David.”

  “What about everything else?”

  “I don’t know, but what can we do? Bobby is dealing with Apollo 8, Will is dealing with Mengele and I’m sure Hoover will be looking into the Oswald situation.”

  “Should we phone Bobby first?”

  “Go for it.”

  Chapter 12

  Will Carter and Chase Gibson were sat in the car debating over their next move. Chase was an attractive looking young man. He had long blonde hair and light blue eyes, he was shorter than Will and not as well built.

  “I think we need to head up there.” Chase stated.

  “But we don’t know how many others are with him.” Will replied.

  “Well we know there’s Mengele and we know there was that Arab guy, I’m guessing Oswald is with them.”

  Will was silent for a moment. Why would Lee Harvey Oswald have come back to America with a Nazi? Who the hell was the Arab?

  “We can’t just sit here.” Chase stated.

  Will ignored Chase and stared out at the cold New York afternoon, the snow was beginning to cover the ground, it was incredibly
picturesque. “We are outnumbered and for all we know there may still be journalists up there.” Will eventually replied.

  “Well if that’s the case they are unlikely to open fire.”

  “True. But it might look a little suspect if we go in there with Oswald having released his statement this morning, it might look like we want to shut him up.”

  “We are only here for Mengele.”

  Will considered this point, they needed backup. “Let’s sit tight just now.”

  Chase tried to hide his disappointment. This was his first mission in the field and he was eager to impress. He had been surprised to be chosen for such an important task, it really showed that they trusted him. He had only been with the department a month and they had told him it would be at least six months until he would be out in the field. Will had seemed annoyed that Chase had been chosen for such an important mission, but that wasn’t his concern. He watched as the snow covered the sidewalk completely but was interrupted by Will.

  “What do you think about Oswald?”

  Chase considered this for a moment, it certainly was a strange one. “I don’t know what to make of any of it. I don’t believe that Bobby Kennedy allowed the people that killed his brother to move into positions of power. He’s a good man.”

  “But he was on tape saying he covered up the autopsy, that isn’t the actions of a good man. He cheated on his wife, that isn’t something a good man would do. What about Oswald being alive? He must have known about it.”

  “Well maybe he did know about it, but if Oswald didn’t do it maybe he just let him go. Imagine how hard it would be to live a normal life when you had previously been arrested for killing the President.”

  “I don’t believe for a second that Oswald is an innocent man.”

  “Well if that’s the case, we should take whatever he says with a pinch of salt.”

  “He had proof, remember the recording.”

  “It could be a fake.”

  “Well what about Hoover and Stinson, do you not believe that either?”

  “No I don’t believe it for a second.” Chase replied, a little surprised that Will seemed to believe everything Oswald had said.

  “Well we know Hoover has dossiers on half of the country, it is possible that he knew about Marilyn Munroe and used that to blackmail the Kennedy’s.”

  “So what you think he and Bobby planned the hit?”

  “It’s possible.” Will replied.

  “It’s crazy Will.”

  “The world is a crazy place. We have a Nazi sitting in an apartment with an Arab and Lee Harvey Oswald, that’s pretty crazy.”

  Chase didn’t respond, he turned back to look towards the apartment building they were watching. They saw the red door open and Josef Mengele walked out into the street on his own. Chase glanced over to Will who seemed to be shaking.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine it’s just seeing that bastard, I want to kill him.”

  “Try and stay calm, you know we can’t do that.”

  Will didn’t reply he just stared at Mengele, The Angel of Death. He was in his fifties and had dark brown hair, he was wearing a white shirt underneath a black jacket and he wore grey trousers. Will couldn’t believe the nerve of the bastard, just walking down the street like a regular man.

  Will opened the driver’s door and stepped from the car. Chase followed suit and walked towards Mengele. He was completely unaware he was being watched. As Chase walked towards the man, Will ran at Mengele and punched him hard in the face.

  “Will, calm yourself.”

  Will pulled a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and slapped them over Mengele’s wrists.

  “Do you remember me you Nazi fuck?”

  Mengele seemed too surprised to answer, his cheek already showed signs of swelling from the punch.

  “Do you?” Will yelled.

  “Should I?” He asked with a German accent.

  Will looked as though he wanted nothing more than to beat this man to death. Chase decided to grab Mengele by the arm and walk him to the car. Will reluctantly allowed him to do so. They reached the car and Chase opened the back door in order to put Mengele in the car, but as he did so all three men let out a scream as the car was flattened by something falling from the sky.

  Chapter 13

  Bobby and Abaddon were sat in Bobby’s office, neither man really knowing what to say. Oswald’s television appearance had put the entire country at risk. Not only had he blamed the assassination of JFK on Bobby and Hoover, he had revealed that the President had cheated on his wife and covered up a murder. Then Oswald had blamed the Soviets for Apollo 8 leaving the country in a state of alert, the news channels were talking about nothing else.

  The President had asked them to deal with the situation whilst he went to visit Ethel, Abaddon had advised him that the country comes first but Kennedy could not be persuaded to stay. Abaddon had thus far avoided asking Bobby any direct questions regarding the validity of Oswald’s words, but he knew that was about to change. They were about to have a meeting with Teddy Kennedy, J. Edgar Hoover, Wernher Von Braun, Robert McNamara the Secretary of Defence, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marty Moon.

  “Are you ready for this?” Abaddon asked.

  “I really don’t think we should be having this meeting without the President.”

  “Well neither do I but this is what he wanted.” Abaddon rose from his seat and Bobby struggled after him. Each step he took felt like it was bound to be his last, Abaddon smiled sympathetically as he watched Bobby hobbling towards the door. They headed out of the room and towards the Fish Room, a large meeting room in the White House. It got its name when Franklin Roosevelt installed an aquarium and hung several mounted fish on the wall, Jack Kennedy continued this tradition when he hung a mounted Sail Fish on the wall. The aquarium had since been removed.

  As they entered the room they saw a long wooden table in the middle with around twenty seats around it. Teddy, Edgar, Wernher, Robert and Marty were already sat around the bottom end of the table. Abaddon took the seat at the end of the table, to his left was Wernher, then Robert and then Marty. To his right was Teddy, and then Edgar and Bobby sat beside him.

  “So we all know why we are here, obviously Apollo 8 exploded last night on live television in front of the entire world. We have had a meeting this morning and Wernher has explained that the only possible cause of the explosion would be an act of sabotage. We believe the Soviet Union may be behind the attack, but we don’t know how they did it. Then this morning we all saw Oswald on television blaming you Edgar, and you Bobby, for the assassination of Jack Kennedy, he then informed the world that the President had not only had an affair with Marilyn Munroe but had actually covered up her murder. Finally he told the American people that it was the Russians that blew up Apollo 8. I don’t think I need to explain what a serious predicament this puts us in, the people are scared and angry. So what do we do?”

  As Abaddon finished speaking he looked around the room, there were a lot of worried faces.

  “Well I think I speak for the American people when I say that an attack on Apollo 8 is an act of war, we cannot allow this aggression to pass.” Marty stated.

  “But we don’t know if it was the Russians, we can’t just start a conflict on a hunch.” Bobby stated.

  “I thought you said that it could only have been an act of sabotage?” Marty said, looking to Abaddon.

  “There were not any technical faults with the rocket, nothing went wrong during the mission. We had orbited the Moon multiple times before the explosion. Obviously without being able to recover the wreckage, it is hard to say exactly what caused it. But nothing went wrong on our end, it could only have been a controlled explosion.” Wernher replied.

  “That does not mean it was caused by the Soviets.” Teddy stated.

  “I agree, it could have been someone inside NASA.” Bobby argued.

  “I would say that is more likely, but they ma
y have been working for the Russians.” Hoover concurred.

  “No one within NASA would do such a thing.” Abaddon shot back.

  “Precisely.” Wernher stated.

  “So it must have been the Russians.” McNamara argued.

  “Which means that we must retaliate.” Marty concluded.

  “We can’t do anything until the President comes back.” Abaddon warned.

  “Where the hell is he?” Marty asked, almost shouting.

  “He is talking to his wife.” Teddy replied defensively.

  “He’s the damned President.” Marty shouted.

  “Let’s not turn this into a shouting match.” Abaddon warned.

  “Do we know how the President is planning to deal with the Oswald situation?” McNamara asked.

  “He asked me to take care of it.” Abaddon replied. He turned his attention towards Hoover and Bobby. “So would you care to fill us in on what happened?”

  “Before I do I’d like to point out that if you hadn’t restricted my wire tapping this would never have happened.” Hoover said, obviously irritated.

  “Are you for real? You were using them to blackmail people, just like Oswald said you were.”

  “I only used them on legitimate threats to our country.”

  “Like Martin Luther King?” Abaddon yelled.

  “I think it is important people know that he is a communist and that he has sex with any woman that will allow it.”

  The room was in stunned silence, Hoover had previously released information to the media regarding Martin Luther King’s affairs.

  “What is the truth about the Kennedy assassination?” Abaddon asked.

  “The truth is what everyone already knows.” Teddy barked, a little emotional about the way his dead brother was being discussed.

  “Well we all thought Oswald was dead?” Abaddon continued.

  “I helped him get out of the country because he is an innocent man, it was the only way.” Hoover replied.

  “Was he one of your agents?”

  “No, he was CIA.”

  “I must say I will be recommending that the CIA be re-established, this would not have been allowed to happen if they were still in existence.” Abaddon stated.