Kirov III-Pacific Storm (Kirov Series) Read Free

Could you be mistaken,
Professor?”
    Turing smiled. “Not today…”
    “Of course. Then how does a
ship move that distance in a single day? After I spoke with you at the
Admiralty I gave considerable thought to what you were telling me about these
wonder weapons used by this ship. Yes, they were at least graspable. We’ve
known about rocketry and such for centuries. Yet both you and I know that the
rockets we saw used in the North Atlantic and the Med were clearly a cut above
anything we have in development now.”
    “Clearly.”
    “Yes…well the rockets I can live with,
Professor. But a ship that can move about willy nilly and travel such distances is something else
entirely—an impossibility I am not able to grasp in any wise.”
    “I’ll agree with you on that, sir,”
said Turing. “No ship could move that distance in space in a single day. No
ship could vanish from the North Atlantic and appear in the Med a year later,
only to vanish yet again. These things are all impossibilities, but if these
photos are indeed Geronimo then it moved there some other way, sir, and
there is only one explanation I can now offer you, strange as it may sound.”
    “I’ve become more willing to entertain
the impossible since all this business began, professor. Don’t keep me in
suspense.”
    “Well sir, the ship would have to move
in time . It’s the only thing that might account for this sudden
disappearance and reappearance half a world away.” He stared at Tovey, the two
men locking eyes for some time until it was clear to them both that they had
hold of the same elephant now.
    “You’ve held this view earlier, but
said nothing about it.”
    “I had my suspicions, sir,” said
Turing, “but it didn’t seem as though I might have any luck conveying an idea
like this to Admiral Pound.”
    “You were trying to put me on to it,
weren’t you—in that last conversation we had after the meeting at the
Admiralty.”
    “I was, sir. Without coming right out
with it. You see they pay us to reach for certainty here, not fanciful
speculation. They listen to us because they want facts, not imagination. I had
very grave doubts about this ship from the moment I first set eyes on it. We’ve
gone round and round on it, eliminating it from one navy after another. The
conclusion I was coming to was not likely to be well received, and I must say,
Admiral Tovey, that I am already shunned in many circles as it is. Somewhat of
a dreamer, they say of me. Somewhat of a peculiar odd fool is perhaps what they
really mean. Well they can say what they will. When they can crack the Enigma
code on their own let them play me for a fool. Our own Sherlock Holmes would
give me some comfort when he said that once you have eliminated every other
possible option, what you are left with must be the truth, as impossible as it
may seem. Things move in two ways, Admiral. They move in space and they
move in time . Now, while we’re accustomed to moving there and back again
in space, travel in time has been stubbornly in one direction—forward—until
this ship appeared in the Norwegian Sea a year ago. Not a German ship, as we
now know. Not an Italian or French ship, and now it’s half a world away
fighting with the Japanese!”
    “Moving in time? Well I have to say
that the notion did cross my mind—one for the likes of Jules Verne or H. G.
Wells, eh? Yet how can I believe this, Turing? It’s astounding!”
    “Can you explain it any other way,
sir?”
    At this Tovey frowned, clearly
perplexed. “They hit us at Darwin,” he said, steering a new compass heading for
the moment and hoping to find safer waters.
    “Yes, sir. I did hear that as well.”
    “Then let me share a little more,
Professor,” Tovey smiled, hoping to give the young man the comfort of
confederacy. “You see, I had the opportunity to have a little chat with the
Admiral commanding this phantom ship, and it was most enlightening. First off,
your suspicions expressed earlier were