Time Riders

CHAPTER 45

1956, command ship above Washington DC

Kramer watched the nervous young Fallschirmjager officer and his two men leavethe room.

He had a million and one things to attend to, a steady stream of command decisions waiting tobe made, not only to do with this recently conquered country, but also with affairs of stateback home in Europe.

But his mind was now on this one thing, the report he’d just heard from the youngofficer, the report of a shimmering window of air among the White House trees. There had beeneye-witness statements that one man was ‘swallowed’ by it, only to be returned aminute later, his body appearing and instantly merging with that of another man who hadaccidentally stepped into the shimmering air.

These were eye-witness statements made in the immediate aftermath of a battle; themen’s blood was up, adrenaline flushing through their veins. Soldiers, after the rush ofcombat, have always been prone to seeing things. Military history is filled with the storiesof soldiers who saw armies of angels coming to their rescue. Kramer might have dismissed thisas the overexcited rambling of young soldiers, except the officer had brought themthis…

His eyes drifted across the twisted, mutated thing in the body bag between them.

Karl looked up at his leader. ‘You think this might have been theresult of another time traveller?’

Kramer said nothing in response.

How could someone else travel through time?

Waldstein’s carefully hidden prototype had been the onlytime machine. International law had come down hard and unanimously, and thoroughly closed thedoor on this technology. Any nation, any corporation, any individual caught developing it wassubject to the ultimate punishment: complete obliteration. No warning. No arguments. Nomitigating factors. Even in the chaotic troubled world of the mid-twenty-first century therewas an accepted understanding that, for better or worse, time could not be allowed tochange.

‘That machine was the only machine, wasn’t it?’asked Karl. ‘Paul…?’

Only Karl was allowed that privilege now — using his firstname, and then only when it was just the two of them.

‘Yes, Karl… it was the only one.’

By destroying Waldstein’s prototype behind him, Kramer had been certain that no one could follow them back in time and their efforts to change theworld for the better be undone.

But what if there was another machine?

The thought sent a chill down his neck.

And someone determined to come back after us?

If this twisted body on the floor was the result of a time window opening, then someone from the future had chosen to zero in on today. Someone fromthe future was trying to correct history and assumed today, 5 September 1956, was the dayhistory was changed.

But it wasn’t today.

History had in fact been changed fifteen years earlier, the day Kramer and his men had foughttheir way through SS guards to have an audience with Hitler. The day Kramer had explained thatHitler’s impending attack on Russia would be the beginning of theend of his dreams, an end that would come four years later in a bunker beneath Berlin with abullet in his temple and a cyanide capsule crushed between his teeth.

Kramer looked up from the corpse, out through the panoramic viewing windows. ‘Karl, wemust completely erase history.’

‘What?’

‘Everything before today… particularly everything since we arrived in1941.’

‘Covering our tracks?’

‘Yes. But we should present this to the people as a symbolic gesture.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘This day will be known as Day One, a new beginning for allof mankind. We will announce that after so many thousand years of bloodstained history — countries, kings, popes, emperors fighting each other for land or money, or faith — thatall war is over.’

‘No more wars, yes.’ Karl nodded. ‘It would be a popularmessage.’

Kramer pointed towards the city skyline through the broad window. ‘America was our biggest threat, and now it’s part of our Reich. Wecan’t be challenged any more. We’re now looking at the chance that every person inthis world can finally be united under one banner.’

‘The Russian and Chinese states still remain.’

Kramer shrugged. ‘Their time will come.’ He turned to Karl. ‘I think now isthe perfect time, anyway, to make this sort of a sweeping gesture.’

He turned away from the smouldering body, glad the young officer and his two men were goneand that he could turn his pale face from the awful sight.

‘But, Karl, you and I must never forget that we’re strangers in this time. Even though it’s been fifteen years since we time-travelled, we must beever vigilant of covering our tracks.’

‘I understand.’

‘By declaring today as the first day of a new era, we’ll be wiping the lastfifteen years clean, Karl. Leaving absolutely nothing. No clues for anybody in the future toclose in on. But, more than that, we’ll erase all of history. And why not? Isn’tthis also the reason we came back? To wipe the slate clean… A new beginning. A neworder?’

Karl nodded.

‘I will make an announcement over state television and radio. We shall decree a day ofcelebration across all the nations of the Greater Reich — a unity day of-’

‘Unity Day… it is a good name for it,Paul.’

‘Yes… yes it is. We’ll call it that, then. As well as this celebration,we’ll begin a systemic purging of history books, documents, relics. It all has to go. Itall has to be burned.’

Karl nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘And we’ll tell the people of America that there’s nothing to be afraid of.They will not be enslaved, but instead will be invited to join theGermans, the French, the British and all the other citizens of the Greater Reich.’

‘I will have a speech drafted for you,’ said Karl.

‘Thank you, old friend. This…’ he said, pointing at the body on the floor,‘is nothing for us to be alarmed at, do you understand? Wecontrol history now, Karl… you and I… it’s clay in our hands to be mouldedexactly as we want. There will be no way for anyone from the future to find our entrypoint.’

‘If this body was the result of an attempt by somebody to find us — ’ Karllooked at Kramer — ‘the fact that they tried today andnot back in the spring of 1941… this proves…?’

‘Yes.’ Kramer smiled. ‘That they have no idea what date we went back to originally.’ He patted Karl affectionately on the shoulder. ‘Ithink this shows that we’re safe.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Karl crisply saluted. ‘I shall see to your speech.’

‘Thank you.’

Kramer watched Karl go, closing the grand double doors behind him, and then turned once moreto look out of the panoramic windows.

Will that be enough, though… erasing history?

It would be a sensible precautionary measure, but Kramer still felt a chill of unease. Halfan hour ago he’d been certain that Waldstein’s prototype had been theworld’s one and only time machine.

Is it possible I’m wrong?

In the sky he watched a squadron of Messerschmitt Jetlanders swoop down from a higheraltitude and hover just above the deserted streets below, sweeping them with theirsearchlights.

What was left of the world to conquer would present even less of an obstacle than Americahad. His Reich was now unassailable, unbeatable, all powerful. The remaining countries wouldfall one by one. Russia and China, two large but backward nations, were isolated, blockaded onall fronts. Sooner or later he could finish them off and be done with war.

Nonetheless, it was an unsettling prospect that someone somewhere out there in the futurecould — if they got very lucky — find a way to get to him.

Or it might be something far worse, Paul. Do you remember what the oldman Waldstein once told you?

Kramer cursed, glancing at the body. He ordered his guards standing outside to take the thingaway and dispose of it. He’d seen enough bloodshed for one day… and there was muchto attend to now that the United States had officially surrendered.