“Well hell, we’ve got the Germans on the run, so now’s the time to keep moving. We let them settle into those mountains and it’ll be twice as hard to get around this flank.”
Bradley took a deep breath. “George, you might as well know this. Scuttlebutt has it that Kesselring moved heaven and earth to try and get permission from Hitler to make this withdrawal. They didn’t want Algiers, and they didn’t want M’Sila either. They were just locking horns with you there until they could convince the Führer to let them pull out.”
“Scuttlebutt,” said Patton, clearly unhappy. “Look, Brad, my men have fought hard out there. I won’t stand for somebody spreading a rumor that the Germans didn’t have their heart in this fight.”
“I feel the same way, but this fellow Kesselring is pretty cagey. Ike showed me the latest aerial photos. They pulled out alright, but now they’re setting up shop here, just west of Bougie on the coast, and the line will stretch all the way down to Batna. Now, you haven’t even made contact with them yet, but by the time you do, they’ll be dug in like Alabama ticks. This next push is going to need some muscle, because they’ve shortened their lines considerably with this move. All I’m saying is that when we do move again, we need to be ready. I saw trucks, jeeps, artillery strung out for miles east of here. We need to consolidate, and Ike sent me here to see that it gets done.”
“I see,” said Patton. “Brad, how about this. I could use a good Deputy Commander. Suppose you and I become allies? We’d make a great team out here. I’ll come up with the crazy ideas, and you see that I get the supply to do the job.”
“Thank you, George, but that will have to be up to Ike. Now why don’t we start by having a good look around. I want to see what your divisions look like. After that, you can make your pitch to Eisenhower, and I’d be honored to ride shotgun with you out here any time.”
That was what would happen, the beginning of a partnership that would see many battle lines ahead in this war. It was fire an ice, with Patton’s dash and headstrong nature tempered by Bradley’s caution and common sense. Little by little, the men, and the machines that would prosecute the war to a successful end in the old history, were now gathering in the parched terrain of Africa, which was becoming a testbed for the fledgling US Army.
But the real test was yet to come.
Chapter 18
“Come.”
Karpov knew who would come through that door. The Abakan had been seen approaching on radar long ago, and Tyrenkov had already contacted him to explain the situation. He had been on the bridge when the basked was lowered over the helo deck, swaying a bit with the wind, for Kirov was still in the cold northern waters of the Sea of Okhotsk, up north of Sakhalin Island. The cold was increasing, the ice already beginning to form, and he had been seeing to the last of the major supply convoys to the small port of Okha, delivering food, fuel, munitions, and trucks he had obtained from the Americans. Now he was in his stateroom, having given orders that Fedorov should report to him immediately.
And he was not happy.
The door opened, and in walked Fedorov, removing his hat as he entered, and tucking it under his arm. Karpov took a deep breath, looking up with a sour expression on his face.
“So,” he said, “the prodigal son comes home at last. Sit down, Fedorov. You and I have a great deal to discuss, and you can be thankful that I allowed you the dignity of coming here on your own two legs, instead of being escorted by a squad of my men.”
“I see your pet gorilla is posted outside,” said Fedorov, taking a seat. “Plan on turning me over to him after this?”
“If that is what it takes to get you to understand an order when you hear one.”
“That would have been a lot easier if I wasn’t desperately trying to save that KA-40, and everyone aboard. You put a goddamned missile on me, Karpov.”
“Just like you put five on Orlov when he jumped ship. That was, after all, what you were planning. Correct? But you didn’t really think you could get through my security to Ilanskiy, did you? So where in god’s name did you think you were going? Let me guess. You were so dead set on getting to Sergei Kirov, and if you couldn’t go kill him in 1908, you thought you’d go cozy up to him in 1942.”
“Initially, my only thought was to save my skin and see to the safety of my mission team,” said Fedorov. “What was I supposed to do? Comply with your order so you could take another shot at us? What would you have done in my place?”
Karpov smiled, raising an eyebrow. “I suppose I would have done the same, but you have become quite a nuisance. It was you who put Volsky on to me when I first tried to take the ship, and it was you who came after me in that goddamn submarine. Then you pull this little hide and seek routine this time around, until I saw through your little ruse. Now this.”
“You want to look at things from my perspective?” said Fedorov. “It was you who tried to unlawfully seize control of the ship, subverting Orlov to back you up and then locking Volsky in the sickbay so you could drop a nuke on the Allied fleets. And it was you who refused the Admiral’s direct order to cease operations in 1908 and return with us, and look around. Take a good look at the world that resulted. Your little operation out there on Sakhalin would not be happening now if not for your obstinate disobedience.”
“If I had finished what I started there, without your damn interference.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Captain. That’s your real rank, isn’t it? And it’s my rank as well. You forget that I accepted you as my Starpom, receiving your pledge to serve, just as I gave you mine when you offered me the job here. I did so in the hope that I could have some influence over these events, and also in the hope that you had sobered up a bit after that nightmare when you went after Admiral Togo. I thought we had reached an understanding. After all, I was acting on your orders to undertake that mission. Then you throw a missile my way, and all bets are off. Now… you can trot in your security men and stand up Grilikov to cast his big shadow on the bridge whenever you’re there, but you’ve forgotten one thing, Karpov—the crew of this ship. They were the ones that stopped you off Oki Island, not me and Gromyko aboard Kazan. I thought you had learned at least one thing in all of this, but it seems you haven’t. The crew—without their cooperation and support, this ship cannot operate. You arranged that clever little meeting at Murmansk, again undermining the Admiral’s authority, and commandeering this ship under false pretenses. Thought you could pull one over on a witless crew, except for me. I saw right through your scam, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it just then.”
“Is that what you were doing, biding your time here with this agreement to serve as Starpom? You thinking to bend a few ears and work up the crew against me now. You know damn well I won’t let that happen this time. Besides, the crew is witless. They don’t know what’s happened—only you know. Well, I can manage you easily enough, and after this latest insubordination, you don’t give me much choice.”
“I’m not the only one who remembers.” Fedorov threw that out like a cold stone in hot water, and Karpov’s face registered real surprise.
“What do you mean?”
“Just what I said. Now I don’t know how it was that I had my head filled with everything we went through before. Volsky was oblivious, as was most everyone else, even your other self. But I remembered. I went round and round with that, trying to figure out if all those memories were simply dumped into my head through some strange effect caused by the paradox—or if I was actually the same man who got slapped around by Orlov and sent down to sick bay on that very first sortie we made. I still can’t say which is true, but I can tell you one thing—I’m not alone.”