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

by Marc James

  He wasn’t sure if he was lying to himself. Maybe he was but it didn’t change anything, if this is what it took to get back to Sharon then this is what he would have to do. She was his wife, his pregnant wife and she came first. If Faraday was required to do this for Jane undoubtedly he would do the same. Whilst he had been on the ship he couldn’t shake the thought that maybe he could persuade Abaddon to let them all go back. It’s not like they had anything to stay for now. They could maybe even go back and stop the explosion.

  He took a deep pull on his cigarette and shivered with the cold. What the hell was he doing on a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Why had Abaddon sent him? Sergei was a Soviet defector but he showed no signs of being a spy, on the contrary he seemed more than happy to be here. During the last week he had done nothing but complain about the Soviets, particularly there space program. America could take another two years to land on the Moon and they would still reach it first, based on what he was saying. He was excited to be part of the Apollo program, and when he had heard that Howard Hughes had taken over the program, he had been nothing but respectful.

  Abaddon must have had a reason to send him, he seemed to have planned everything out so well, he still hadn’t even mentioned the date of when Martin Luther King would be taken out. He had mentioned Cuba when they had spoken last, but as far as David knew nothing was going on in Cuba. It seemed so elaborate, at least when Lyndon Johnson had tried a coup he had made it simple, shoot JFK. Abaddon was making it so complex that there would be almost no way of tracing it back to him, unless David talked. But there was no chance that was going to happen, there was no way Kennedy could get him back to where he belonged. Abaddon had told him nothing about where the wormhole was, he had covered his bases.

  As he took another pull on his cigarette the ship seemed to sway violently and there was a loud crash. What the hell was going on out there? He got up, but was knocked back onto his bunk when the ship swayed violently again, there was the sound of an explosion. David’s heart was in his mouth, he again tried to get to his feet and this time he managed to stay on them. There was another explosion, they were under attack. The sound was almost deafening, David could hear nothing but ringing in his ears and he suddenly felt quite ill.

  He managed to open the cabin door as the ship swayed violently. He could not see any water entering the ship, but he was just one flight below deck. Had the submarine caused the explosion? He managed to struggle along the corridor towards the stairs, only being knocked over once.

  He ran up the stairs two at a time and when he reached the deck it was a scene of carnage, there were bodies everywhere. From what he could tell the ship wasn’t in too bad a state. There was the sound of another explosion, which threw David to the ground once more. He was going to die here.

  He looked around him, he couldn’t see many men walking around, they all seemed to be injured and that’s when he saw movement in the helicopter and the rotors began to spin. He struggled to his feet and ran towards it, he was again thrown to the ground as the ship gave a loud creaking noise. He pushed himself up again and ran towards the helicopter, the closer he got to it he saw that Howard Hughes was the man in the pilot’s seat. David was struggling to open the back door when the helicopter began to rise into the air.

  “Wait!” He yelled as he grabbed onto the skids of the helicopter. He had no idea what to do, it rose into the air much faster than he remembered it doing previously.

  “Help!” He screamed, he could hardly hear himself over the noise of the rotors and the sinking ship beneath them. He felt a hand grab his and try to pull him up, another hand then appeared nearer his shoulder and heaved him into the helicopter. He was lying half on Sergei and half on the floor of the helicopter, not daring to move.

  Sergei patted his back.

  “Your safe my friend.”

  David felt like kissing him.

  “Close the damn door!” Hughes shouted from the front.

  David still felt too petrified to move, but did what he was told. When he sat back in the seat he realised it was only the three of them.

  “What the hell happened?” He shouted.

  “The Soviets attacked the ship, that’s why we have the helicopter!” Sergei advised.

  “You knew this was going to happen?”

  “Of course, didn’t you?”

  “No!” David screamed. “How are we going to get back to the coast, it’s too far?”

  “Mr Hughes has a yacht, we will make it.” Sergei advised.

  “Why did we deliberately get attacked? What is the point of this?”

  Sergei looked stunned that David wasn’t in on the plan.

  “We’ll talk later!” Hughes shouted.

  Chapter 38

  They had been in the air for just over four hours, it was now close to midnight. The atmosphere on Air Force One was fractious. Bobby Kennedy had erupted into fits of screaming, the twenty or so Secret Service agents on board were tense and they seemed to be expecting another attack. Abaddon Wolf had been on the phone for the past hour or so trying to discover what was going on. Bobby, Faraday and Chase were sitting slightly overwhelmed by the evening’s events.

  “What!”

  They all turned their attention to Abaddon as he shouted down the phone.

  “How can the media know all this already? This is completely unacceptable! Why didn’t you consult me David! I don’t care if you didn’t have time! Anything related to NASA goes through me! How many survivors? Oh my God! Keep me updated, I need to speak with the President.”

  Abaddon hung up the phone and put his head in his hands. Faraday’s heart went out to him, whatever had happened certainly sounded bad.

  “Was that David Lewis?” Bobby asked.

  Abaddon just nodded.

  “Is he okay?” Bobby asked.

  “He is, but the country is under attack.” Abaddon replied, almost mournfully.

  Bobby Kennedy returned to sit across from Abaddon.

  “It’s been confirmed, I just spoke with Edgar, there was a man named Sirhan Sirhan on the plane. It was a Hughes Airwest plane.”

  “Mr President I don’t mean to pile on the bad news but I’ve been speaking with David Lewis. Would you prefer to talk privately?” He asked, gesturing to Bobby, Faraday and Chase.

  “No, its fine. What happened?” Kennedy looked as though he had aged twenty years in one evening.

  “Do you recall I mentioned the Soviet Defector, Dr Sergei Kravchenko?”

  “Yes, you told me that he worked on the Russian space program and that they were close to the Moon landing, you aren’t about to tell me that they’ve made it are you?” Kennedy seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown.

  “No, sir. Sergei informed us of the exact coordinates of a sunken Soviet submarine, containing launch codes and nuclear warheads. I was going to tell you about this over the weekend. As you are aware Howard Hughes has been doing some consultancy work for the OSS and as luck would have it he had a ship near the location.”

  “Why did Hughes have a ship there?” The President asked infuriated.

  “He is carrying out some Marine Biology research, the ship was there to extract manganese nodules from the Ocean floor.”

  “Okay. So what happened?”

  “Well we had spoken about using the ship to try and extract the submarine, but obviously I wanted to check with you. It seems that David Lewis thought they should go ahead and get it done quickly, in his defence he wanted us to be able to present you with a victory.”

  “So he authorized the retrieving of the ship?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well Hughes, David and the Russian flew out by helicopter a few hours ago and they were in the process of retrieving the ship when it was attacked by the Soviets.”

  “They fired on us?” Kennedy almost had steam coming out of his ears.

  “Yes, I’m afraid they sunk the ship.”

  “My God, so David survived?�
��

  “Yes, unfortunately only Hughes and the Russian were able to join him on the helicopter.” It looked as though Abaddon was about to collapse under the pressure.

  “I can’t believe this! What the hell were they doing, retrieving the ship without even asking?”

  “I was angry myself sir, but in their defence they were doing what they thought was best. The longer we waited, the longer the Soviets had to retrieve the ship themselves and once they found out about Sergei’s defection they would have undoubtedly moved in.”

  “It’s not their position to do what they think is best!” Kennedy barked. He turned his attention towards Bobby. “What the hell was he thinking?”

  “I didn’t even know he was out there, I thought he was in Florida.” Bobby answered defensively.

  Kennedy shook his head angrily.

  “Do you realise that you are now part of an agency working on behalf of the American Government?” Kennedy barked.

  “Yes I do.” Bobby replied.

  “What do you think I would say to Hoover if he told me one of his agents had led us to the brink of war and he knew nothing about it?”

  “Well for one thing sir, your Vice President is the one that sent David down there without even mentioning it to me first. Secondly after everything we have done for you and your family I would expect a certain amount of leeway.”

  Faraday and Chase could not quite believe the confrontation unfolding in front of them.

  “Abaddon, why was David sent there under your orders?” Kennedy yelled.

  “Sir I am working tirelessly to find Jacob Cohen. None of the agencies, be it the NSA, FBI or this sham that Stinson runs, have come close to finding him. I am using initiative, I asked David to look into Apollo 8 that was all.”

  Kennedy turned his attention back to Bobby. “Tell David I want him in my office first thing tomorrow. Same goes for Howard Hughes.”

  “Perhaps you should tell Abaddon, I still have no idea where David is because he broke the chain of command and then has the audacity to blame me for not knowing about what David is doing. Secondly I would highly doubt that David had the ability to order Howard Hughes to do anything.”

  “You can’t shift the blame to me Bobby, he is your agent.” Abaddon barked.

  “I’ve heard enough from both of you!” Kennedy snapped. “When we land I want Faraday and Chase to accompany Abaddon to the Flamingo. I will need to speak with Marty and the Soviets.”

  “Sir, I would just like to mention that the journalist Sarah Salmond has already broken the news that the Soviet’s sunk the ship.”

  “How can she possibly know that before even I do?”

  “I don’t know sir.”

  “This is unbelievable. All of your incompetence may lead us to nuclear war, I hope you are all aware of that!”

  Bobby was about to shout back when he noticed Faraday shaking his head. “What would you like me to do?” He asked.

  Kennedy looked at him in contempt. “You need to clean up this mess. Get on the phone to David and get me as much information as you can, if we are on the brink of war I need to know exactly what happened. Talk to Hoover and coordinate some kind of response, the world has never been closer to absolute annihilation than it is at this moment and we all need to work together. I don’t want any more bickering and I want a concise strategy on how we are going to catch Jacob Cohen.”

  Chapter 39

  As Howard Hughes began to explain the situation, David listened intently. They were sat around a small white table and each man had a cup of coffee.

  “There’s really no need to be angry David.”

  He could obviously tell from David’s expression that he was furious. “No need to be angry! I was sent to keep watch over Sergei and as it turns out you all knew that we were going to be attacked by the Soviets, I didn’t get a word of warning and you were going to leave me to die!” He yelled.

  “The plan was never to leave you to die, but you disappeared. We needed to get away as quickly as possible.”

  “You condemned the rest of the crew to their deaths.”

  “It was necessary.”

  David turned his attention to Sergei who was sitting silently watching the argument unfold before him. “Why would you defect and then cause a war?”

  “There will be no war.” Sergei replied.

  “What have they offered you?”

  Sergei looked to Howard who nodded in approval. “I was contacted by Abaddon some months ago, he told me of the opportunities in America. He said that if I helped him, I would be put in charge of the NASA space program and that I would have unlimited wealth at my disposal. Life in the Soviet Union did not provide me with career fulfilment or the ability to become wealthy. So I am here.”

  “I don’t understand what the point of this was, why put our lives at risk and put the world on the brink of war, its complete insanity.”

  “The point of this was to show the American people what a spineless coward we have in the White House. He will refuse to escalate the conflict, proving that he is weak. People will question the reasoning for trying to salvage the submarine in the first place, proving he is clumsy. Given what should have happened in Las Vegas this evening, the pressure on Kennedy will be at a new high.”

  “But why did you need me?”

  “You will be blamed for authorising this mission.” Howard replied bluntly.

  “Are you out of your mind? Why should I take any blame for this?”

  “We are all in this for our own reasons, I am aware of the arrangement you have with Abaddon, I would have thought it would provide reason enough. You will also be required to present your findings on the NASA program.”

  “What are you talking about, my findings on the NASA program, I haven’t even looked into the NASA program?”

  Howard smiled. “Abaddon told you none of this?”

  “No, he told me I was here to babysit Sergei.”

  “Well in a manner of speaking I suppose that is true. You will need to tell the President that Sergei has warned us the Soviet’s will be able to land on the Moon within the year.”

  “But Sergei has told us the exact opposite, what is the point in lying about it?”

  “We are going to lie because we need to lie. The technology simply doesn’t exist that would allow either the Soviets or the United States to land on the Moon.”

  “What are you talking about?” David asked stunned.

  “In order to reach the Moon the rocket would be required to pass through something called the Van Allen Radiation Belt. It is held in place by the Earth’s magnetic field and it doesn’t move, it is always in the exact same location. We cannot send a rocket through the belt because the large quantities of radiation will simply speaking, melt the astronauts and the rocket.”

  “So why not just tell Kennedy the truth?”

  “Well as you are aware David, we want Kennedy removed from office but we also want to ensure that our country is in the strongest possible position. For the good of America we are intending to fake a Moon landing. If we tell Kennedy the Russian’s will be able to land on the Moon in the coming months, then we can convince him to authorize the fake.”

  “But wouldn’t that help Kennedy?” David asked, still baffled.

  “Yes it would, but if it was to ever get out, he would go down in history as a crook. He won’t want that and he certainly wouldn’t want America to be humiliated, which is why he will do the honourable thing and step down, rather than allow the truth to get out.”

  “But didn’t Apollo 8 orbit the Moon?”

  “It was a fake.” Howard replied with smile.

  “So how did it blow up?”

  “Explosives.” He smiled again.

  “But why are you doing this? What difference does it make to you if Abaddon is President?”

  “I will admit he is hardly my first choice, I am a Republican. But Kennedy has embarrassed our country by allowing the threat of communism to spread and that cannot
continue. Abaddon has assured me he intends to take a much stronger stance against this threat, and I am sure the money spent on military equipment will find a home in my pocket.”

  “So you’re doing this for money? You are already rich.”

  “I am doing this for the country, the money will be earned fairly by providing materials that this country will need.”

  Howard’s attention was diverted to the ringing telephone. He pulled a tissue from the box on the table and walked over to the phone. Once he had answered it he called David over, as David approached the telephone he was given his instructions.

  “It is your friend Bobby, he needs to speak with you. Just remember, you authorized this mission, just explain that we were attacked and if he asks what you’ve been working on you can explain that the Russians are close to winning the Space Race.”

  David nodded his understanding and was glad to be getting the chance to speak to Bobby.

  “Bobby, its David.”

  “David what the hell has been going on?” Bobby sounded furious.

  “It’s quite a long story to be honest Bobby. How are you and Faraday?”

  “Are you kidding me David? How do you think we are? You disappear and then Jacob organized the terrorist attack and then we find out you have put us on the brink of nuclear war.”

  “What terrorist attack?”

  “I thought Abaddon had spoken to you about this?”

  “Abaddon?”

  “We heard him speaking with you on the phone.”

  What was Bobby talking about? “We spoke, but it was mainly about the ship.” David lied.

  “He never told you about Vegas?” Bobby asked, sounding surprised.

  “No.”

  “Sirhan Sirhan hijacked a Hughes Aircraft plane and flew it into the Flamingo Hotel.”

  “The Flamingo Hotel, why do I recognise that?”