Grand Alliance (Kirov Series) (31 page)

Karpov’s
mind spun round and round with that. Yes, that was where Volkov disappeared, in
the year 2021, so the man obviously knew about Ilanskiy if he was ever smart
enough to put two and two together. But what did Volsky and Fedorov have to do
with it? And how did Sergei Kirov learn of Ilanskiy?

“You
know everything? About that inn, the stairway there. You were behind that
mission to destroy it?”

“Destroy
it? Is that what was going on there?”

“That
was the result of that engagement. Whether Volkov intended to destroy it or
not, I do not know. Are you saying you had no part in that? If not, what was a
Soviet airship doing there, ferrying men off my old ship to the scene of the
crime?”

Kirov
knew the details of that mission. He had given his permission to use
Narva
,
sending the go ahead through Admiral Golovko, and he had been informed of the
results in a message from Admiral Volsky. Since frank truth seemed to be the
best way forward here, he was forthright again.

“The
mission was conceived by your former comrades. Admiral Volsky requested the use
of an airship, and I provided one. He has already been of great service to me
in return. I think I had better tell you about my stay at that inn, and then
everything will be clear between us.”

Kirov
continued, relating the strange events of that morning in 1908 when the loud
roar lit up the sky with a second sunrise, and a strange young man appeared at
his breakfast table—a man named Fedorov. He told him of his curiosity, and how
he ventured up to the second floor to satisfy that. And he told him of that
fateful whisper in his ear when Fedorov let him go.

“So you
see,” he said at last. “That curiosity of mine got me into some real trouble in
the past, but not this time. This time it put me here!” He gestured to the
setting all around them, the palace, the Kremlin, the Soviet State he now
ruled.

“I went
back to that inn, and took a few more trips up those stairs. It told me very
many things, terrible things, and they were centered on the name of one
man—Josef Stalin. I knew who he was, just a minor rabble rouser in the early
days of the revolution. The Okhrana was hounding us all, throwing us into the
nearest prison on trumped up charges, and I found out which one Stalin was in one
day… The rest is history, at least for the moment, unless someone else gets a
notion to try their luck on that back stairway.”

“Amazing,”
said Karpov. “Yes, now it all makes sense. Removing Stalin opened the door for
you here, but you did not count on Ivan Volkov.”

“Nor
did I count on meeting that man Fedorov ever again, until I received that
message. And to be honest, I did not count on you either, Karpov. They say knowledge
is a powerful thing, and I suppose knowing what the days ahead are likely to
bring is a good stiff vodka. So it doesn’t surprise me that this man Volkov outmaneuver
Denikin, or that you are going to replace Kolchak in due course. The only
question I have is whether you think you will be replacing me?”

Karpov
smiled at that. “I would never presume such a thing, but we must reach some
understanding, you and I. As you say, we seem to be common fated, our names
written in the same ledger of time.”

“It
looked to me like you had hoped to engineer something quite different at Omsk.
Yes?”

“That
was… Unfortunate.”

“Yes it
was. And now that Volkov has shown you his true nature, you come to me.”

Karpov
hardened, knowing this awkward issue would have to be dealt with, but pressed
on. “The Free Siberian State needs friends, Mister Secretary. You need friends
now as well. I tried to make peace with Volkov because we have the Japanese to
worry about at our backside. Volkov had other plans, and he has also chosen to
ally himself with Hitler, which is something I would never do. I know the man
from my time. He was a petty operative in Russian Naval Intelligence assigned
to inspect my ship, and a nuisance. My meeting with him was meant to sound out
his thinking and see what he had under his fingernails. Well he has shown me
that, hasn’t he, and he got a nasty surprise the other day for getting too
pushy. I won’t mince words here. You and I both know that Russia is in grave
jeopardy now. Volkov sits atop all that oil and curries alliance with Hitler.
At the moment the war is in North Africa, but you and I both know that it will
soon be here—and not the back stabbing civil war we have inflicted upon
ourselves, but the German Army.”

“True
enough,” said Kirov. “They moved another infantry corps to the border near
Moldavia. That is where they will cross soon, and drive on the Crimea. They
would be fools to try and push for Moscow.”

“They
did both in the history I know,” said Karpov.

“Yes… I
learned that the hard way on one of my excursions up that stairway. They swept
all the way to the Volga!”

“Where
you have divisions presently facing down Ivan Volkov. If they do this again,
they will bring misery and hell to your world, Kirov, and eventually to mine. Hitler
and Volkov—what a pair they make. I wonder if Volkov is smart enough to realize
what Hitler will eventually do to him after he gets his oil. So yes, I came
here to seek an alliance. There is much I can offer you. I can bedevil Volkov
on his eastern front and force him to keep a substantial military presence
there. You don’t want him free to use those divisions against you, do you?”

“Certainly
not, but as I see things Volkov has already decided what he wants to do with
those divisions, and that is to crush you.”

“Let
him try. He’ll get more of the same medicine I gave him at Novosibirsk—and
that’s another way I can help you. I have information, Kirov, knowledge of how
this war played out once, and knowledge of all the advanced weapons systems
that were born from it. I can be very useful to you and your war industries.
Your tanks, for example. Most of your units are still equipped with older T-26
infantry tanks, and the light BT-Series tanks. They will not do the job when
the Germans come.”

“Don’t
worry, we have other designs on the drawing board.”

“Yes,
the new T-34. But your generals want more of the older tanks, do they not? You
must silence them and shift all production to this new tank. Believe me, Kolchak
found out the hard way in our skirmishes with the Japanese. The T-26 is a metal
coffin in battle. It is prone to catching fire, because you don’t use diesel
fuel. Beyond that, the welding is bad, and the riveted armor plating is a
faulty design. One hit from an enemy shell and the rivets break off and become
steel bullets inside those tanks. They are all but useless, and this was
against an inferior tank fielded by the Japanese. If you do not quickly build
this new T-34 tank, you will be crushed when the German Army comes east. I can
tell you what to do, warn you of wrong turns in the production cycle. I can be
very useful.”

Kirov’s
eyes narrowed as he considered this. “I could get this same information from
your Admiral Volsky.”

“Possibly,
but I am here, and Volsky is out to sea. The war will be won or lost here,
Kirov. Hitler will not invade England, and at the moment he has no more than a
few divisions deployed in North Africa against the British. You think he is
serious about that little side show? No. He is planning to move on the Crimea,
just as you say. That will stop your drive into the Caucasus. You want the oil
at Maykop. Yes? Well you had better hurry, because once the Germans invade you
will have a very short lease there.”

Now
Kirov began to hear things that struck close to the bone. This man knows why I
have opened my offensive in the south. He knows I need the oil too! Maykop is
nearly within our grasp, but what he says is true. How long can I hold it? And
if the Germans take it, then where do I get my oil?

“Go
on,” he said quietly. “What do you propose, Karpov?”

“It’s
very simple. You can build these new tanks, but you’ll need the fuel to keep
them operating, Just like Hitler covets the oil Volkov is sitting on. Well you
may be interested to know that I’m sitting on billions of barrels of oil at the
moment. Reserves are found in Siberia that make Russia one of the top producing
oil countries in the world in my era. I know exactly where these fields are,
but we do not have the means to drill for them, nor the equipment. You can
provide that, and if you do so we can get you all the oil you would ever need.
And we have men who will fight, tough, hardy soldiers. The Siberian divisions
were among the very best in the war. But we lack the heavy industry to give
them the tanks and artillery they will need. Don’t you see? By cooperating we
are much stronger together than we could ever be alone, and if we do not join
hands now, we will fall under Hitler’s shadow, and that is a certainty. Oil and
industry, Kirov. That is what will win this war. How many of these new tanks do
you have in production?”

“That
is classified.”

“Oh?
Let me guess. You produced about 400 last year in 1940. Correct? Before this
war ended in the history I know, it took over 35,000 to beat the Germans. And
that is just for the initial design with the 76mm main gun. A newer model with
a better 85mm gun comes later, and it took nearly another 30,000 of those too! And
that is just for the T-34 model tank. Now do you begin to see the urgency of
this moment? 400 tanks? That is bird feed! You must scale up production
dramatically, and make this a matter of the highest priority. Don’t you see
what’s about to happen? Hitler will sweep into the Ukraine, take the Crimea and
make a quick end of your little adventure in the Caucasus. Then the combined
might of Orenburg and Germany will turn north. You won’t last a year, and once
the Soviet Union falls then they’ll come east and finish me. They could do all
this before the United States even enters the war, and that will be that.
Hitler will dominate all of Europe, and he will join with Japan in the far
east. The Axis empire will be invincible. Even with the United States and
Britain allied, it took them until mid-1944 before they could muster the
strength to invade the continent. And that was with a united Russia still
locked in combat with 80% of the Wehrmacht.”

“I must
say that I have considered all this, and you describe the nightmares I have
been having very well, Karpov. I know full well how vulnerable Soviet Russia
is. This man from the upper floor, Volkov, has made German victory almost
inevitable.”

“Yes?
Well you have been up those stairs, Kirov, and I am a man from the upper floor
as well.”

Karpov
thought for a moment. He still had a few cards in his hand to play, cards that
might trump all others. Should he speak of this? Kirov was no fool. He was a
shrewd and determined leader, and he could be ruthless when pressed, even as
Stalin was. So he will certainly not fail to understand the power I hold. Power
is one thing he knows well enough. He pressed on.

“As to
the matter of my disagreement with Admiral Volsky,” he began. “It centered on the
power inherent in the ship we commanded. Volsky was taken ill, and I assumed
command. I immediately realized the power I had at my disposal, and I was determined
to use it. Volsky was not so inclined.”

“So you
tried to seize the ship?”

“I did
take it, but the crew eventually sided with Volsky, damn them all. They could
not see what I saw—the necessity of using power to the fullest when necessary
to achieve your aims. They wanted to dawdle about, thinking they could prevent
changes in the history. Me? I wanted to write it all anew. Well, we have seen what
their dawdling has produced. If they had done things my way, Russia would be
supreme today, and not the broken, fragmented state it is now. Power, Kirov.
You are no stranger to that bedfellow if you fought your way to the top here.
Well… Before this war ends there will be weapons designed and deployed that
will trump all others—weapons of unimaginable power. Volsky has them aboard
that ship at this very moment, but he is too timid to use them. I know how they
will be designed and built, Kirov. Understand? The Germans and British are
tinkering with these weapons programs even as we speak. The Americans too! Yes,
they will all be in a race to see who can deploy these weapons first.
Thankfully, that time is many years off, but beware. Ivan Volkov knows this as
well. He may have a similar weapons program underway too, and if he is
successful…”

Karpov
did not have to say anything more. Kirov was listening, his mind focused, his
thoughts darkened with the burden of impending war.

“And I
have one more thing…” Karpov hesitated, then pressed on. “Ilanskiy,” he said,
“that lonesome railway inn. You wanted to know why Volkov would throw away a
couple old Zeppelins and a few battalions of troops to raid Ilanskiy? Well, I
learned something during our conference at Omsk. That was where Volkov went
missing in our time—he was foolish enough to tell me so. After the conference
ended, I got curious and went there to have a look around. It was only by
chance that I ventured up that back stairway, and discovered what could happen.”

“I
see,” said Kirov. “Yes, Ilanskiy. I begin to see why Volkov is so interested in
driving east now. It is not merely to settle his flank so he can turn his full
force on me. He wants Ilanskiy.”

“Correct,
and he was stupid enough to think he could take it with this raid and drive all
the way from Omsk in one fell swoop. Well he failed, on both counts. We are stronger
on the ground than he realized. He won’t get over the Ob easily, if at all. I
can stop him, Kirov, and I have Ilanskiy. Do you understand what I am saying
now?”