B00DSDUWIQ EBOK (37 page)

Volsky
smiled, then the warmth fled from his eyes and he seemed to stare vacantly ahead.
“Mister Kamenski, I don’t think there is any place we can go to hide from what
is coming.”

“Don’t
be so gloomy, Admiral. One must have faith.” He was fingering something with his
left hand in his pocket as he spoke. The other still clung to a thick book beneath
his arm.

Yes,
he thought, a little trip. He really wished the Admiral could come with him. He
was already guilty enough with the thought of stealing away on his own, but something
had to be done, and it was clear to him that the Admiral, and all the other men
in their nice pressed military uniforms, seemed powerless to change the fate
they were shaping with their very own hands. It was as if they thought the war
was something that was going to happen to them, something that was coming like
a bad storm, as the Admiral seemed to believe…something inevitable. In the end
they will realize that it was all their doing.
They
were the war. That
was the hard truth they hid from behind those gold stripes and gilded caps, and
all the decorations on their chest. He sighed, feeling the weight of the key in
his pocket now. It seemed such a small and insignificant thing, but the doors
it could open…

“Well
Admiral, we may not have to wait all that time for Fedorov to appear. In all our
plans and discussions it occurred to me that the end of those operations would
soon be apparent to us here.”

“What
do you mean?”

“Our
plan…Fedorov’s plan, the whole business with Orlov and these control rods and the
helicopter. It still astounds me when I think that this was all we could consider
doing with the power we had in hand when Kapustin turned up those other two
rods.”

“We
still don’t know if they will even work. The one rod was proven—Rod-25—the others
have yet to meet the test. Dobrynin only just launched his mission.”

“Oh,
but they
have
met the test,” Kamenski said quickly. “That is if they were
ever put to use. You see, I shared this with the Inspector General, but never
took the time to share it with you, Admiral. We were so busy, but when things
settled down I decided to check up on the history.” Now he shifted the volume
from under his arm and placed it on the Admiral’s desk.

Volsky
looked at it, squinting to see the text on the spine. “The Chronology of the Naval
War at Sea. Fedorov’s book?”

“Not
the same he owned, but the same volume. A very curious book, Admiral. I was doing
some reading in the period relating to late 1945, just as the war ended. You
see, it occurred to me that if your Marines and Engineers did actually manage
to get those control rods to the Pacific, and contact your missing ships, then
we might soon know about it.”

“How
is that?”

“It
would be right there in that book, Admiral. It would all be history by now.”

“You
mean to say you think the book would… would change?”

“Precisely.
And I would not say as much if I had not already experienced that very thing happening
before. It does change. I’ve already seen it happen several times.”

“Your
book changed? This is what Fedorov told me as well. How is it possible.”

“I
really don’t know. All I
do
know is that the information I read on the closing
days of the war, and what happened in the Kuriles, is not the same now—not as
it was just a few days ago when I last consulted this book.”

“You
are certain of this?”

“As
certain as this old man can be. Yes, I know you will think I may have simply forgotten
what I read days ago. This is all very subjective. But I assure you, the
history has changed. When you see what I have discovered you will realize that
as well.”

“Then
you know what happened? You know the fate of Karpov and
Kirov?”

“See
for yourself, Admiral.” He opened the book, sliding the big volume so the Admiral
could read it more easily. “Turn the page, please. Yes…right there in the right
hand column. See for yourself…”

To
be continued…

Author’s
Note:

Dear
Readers,

I
come now to the last volume planned for the
Kirov Series
, and I thank you
all for staying with the story, making it what it has become with your interest
and continued support. If you had not raised
Kirov
up on your shoulders,
I might not have ever written the books that followed it. You have given me
countless hours of delight and satisfaction as I do the one thing I have most
loved—my writing.

Now,
as I work on the final volume, laboring in the Devil’s Garden, I invite you to sound
off and speak your mind on the story. If there was anything that you did not
understand or some question you want answered, some loose end tied off, just drop
me an email. Anywhere you would love to see the story go? Any stone you think
has been left unturned or unexplained? If so, throw your two cents in the hat
and let me know what it is, and I’ll make sure every question gets an answer in
the final volume,
Devil’s Garden.

With
deep appreciation,

[email protected]

The Saga Continues…

Kirov
Saga:
Devil’s Garden
~
Nine Days Falling-Vol. III

The
stunning conclusion to the
Kirov
saga continues the action, both past and
present, as the prelude to the Great War moves into its final days. The last
remnant of the Red Banner Pacific Fleet has fought its duel with Halsey in the
Pacific, resorting to nuclear weapons in the last extreme—but what has happened
to
Kirov
and
Orlan?

Now
the many story threads involving Fairchild Inc. and the desperate missions to find
Orlov launched by both Haselden and Fedorov all converge in the vortex of time
and fate on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Fedorov and Troyak lead an amphibious
assault at Makhachkala, right into the teeth of the German advance. Meanwhile, Admiral
Volsky and Kamenski read the chronology of events to peek at the outcome and
discover the verdict of history. Can it still be changed?

Turn
the page with Admiral Volsky and learn the fate of Orlov, Fedorov, Karpov and
the world itself. Follow the strange and enigmatic figure of Sir Roger Ames,
Duke of Elvington as he reveals a plot, and a plan, older than history itself
on the windswept shores of Lindisfarne Castle.

Coming
this fall from the Writing Shop Press!

OTHER
BOOKS BY JOHN SCHETTLER

Kirov

The
battlecruiser
Kirov
is the most power surface combatant that ever put to
sea. Built from the bones of all four prior
Kirov
Class battlecruisers, she
is updated with Russia’s most lethal weapons, given back her old name, and commissioned
in the year 2020. A year later, with tensions rising to the breaking point
between Russia and the West,
Kirov
is completing her final missile
trials in the Arctic Sea when a strange accident transports her to another
time. With power no ship in the world can match, much less comprehend, she must
decide the fate of nations in the most titanic conflict the world has ever
seen—WWII.

Kirov
II
– Cauldron of Fire

Kirov
crosses the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea
when she suddenly slips in time again and re-appears a year later, in August of
1942. Beset with enemies on every side and embroiled in one of the largest sea
battles of the war, the ship races for Gibraltar and the relatively safe waters
of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, the brilliant Alan Turing has begun to unravel the
mystery of what this ship could be, but can he convince the Admiralty? Naval
action abounds in this fast paced second volume of the
Kirov
series
trilogy.

Kirov
III
- Pacific Storm

Admiral
Tovey’s visit to Bletchley Park soon reaches an astounding conclusion when the battlecruiser
Kirov
vanishes once again to a desolate future. Reaching the Pacific the
ship’s officers and crew soon learn that
Kirov
has once again moved in
time. Now First Officer Anton Fedorov is shocked to learn the true source of
the great variation in time that has led to the devastated future they have
come from and the demise of civilization itself. They are soon discovered by a
Japanese fleet and the ship now faces its most dangerous and determined
challenge ever when they are stalked by the Japanese 5th Carrier Division and
eventually confronted by a powerful enemy task force led by the battleship
Yamato, and an admiral determined to sink this phantom ship, or die trying. In
this amazing continuation to the popular
Kirov
series, the most powerful
ships ever conceived by two different eras clash in a titanic final battle that
could decide the fate of nations and the world itself.

Kirov
Saga:
Men Of War

Kirov
returns home to a changed world in the year
2021, and as the Russian Naval Inspectorate probes the mystery of the ship’s
disappearance, Anton Fedorov begins to unravel yet another dilemma—the secret
of Rod 25. The world is again steering a dangerous course toward the great war
that blackened the shores of a distant future glimpsed by the officers and
crew. Fedorov has come to believe that time is waiting on the resolution of one
crucial unresolved element from their journey to the past—the fate of Gennadi
Orlov.

Join
Admiral Leonid Volsky, Captain Vladimir Karpov, and Anton Fedorov as they sleuth
the mystery of Orlov’s fate and launch a mission to the past to find him before
the world explodes in the terror and fury of a great air and naval conflict in
the Pacific. It is a war that will span the globe from the Gulf of Mexico to
the Middle East and through the oil rich heart of Central Asia to the wide
Pacific, but somehow one man’s life holds the key to its prevention. Yet other
men are aware of Orlov’s identity as a crewman from the dread raider they came
to call
Geronimo
, and they too set their minds on finding him first…in
1942! Men of war from the future and past now join in the hunt while the
military forces of Russia, China, and the West maneuver to the great chessboard
of impending conflict.

Kirov
Saga:
Nine Days Falling,
Vol. I

As
Fedorov launches his daring mission to the
past to rescue Orlov, Volsky does not know where or how to find the team, or
even if they have safely made the dangerous transition to the 1940s….But other
men know, from the dark corners of Whitehall to the KGB. And other men also
continue to stalk Orlov in that distant era, led by Captain John Haselden and
the men of 30 Commando. The long journey west is fraught with danger for
Fedorov’s team when they encounter something bewildering and truly astounding,
an incident that leads them deeper into the mystery of Rod-25.

Meanwhile,
Kirov
has put to sea and now forms the heart of a powerful battlegroup commanded
by Captain Vladimir Karpov. He is soon confronted by the swift deployment of
the American Carrier Strike Group Five out of Yokosuka Japan in a tense
standoff at sea that threatens to explode into violence at any moment. The fuse
of conflict is lit across the globe, for the dread war has finally begun when
the Chinese make good on their threat to secure their long wayward son—Taiwan.
From the pulsing bitstream of the Internet, the deep void of outer space, the
oil soaked waters of the Persian Gulf and Black Sea, to the riveting naval
combat in the Pacific, the world descends in nine grueling days, swept up in
the maelstrom and chaos of war.

This
is the story of that deadly war to end all wars, and the desperate missions from
the future and past to find the one man who can prevent it from ever happening,
Gennadi Orlov. Can the mystery of Rod-25 and Orlov be solved before the ICBMs
are finally launched?

Kirov
Saga:
Fallen Angels ~
Nine
Days Falling-Vol. II

The
war continues on both land and sea as China invades Taiwan and North Korea joins
to launch a devastating attack. Yet
Kirov
and the heart of the Red Banner
Pacific Fleet has vanished, blown into the past by the massive wrath of the
Demon Volcano. There Captain Karpov finds himself at the dying edge of the last
great war, yet his own inner demons now wage war with his conscience as he contemplates
another decisive intervention.

After
secretly assisting the Soviet invasion of the Kuriles and engaging a small US scouting
force in the region, Karpov has drawn the attention of Admiral Halsey’s
powerful 3rd Fleet. Now Halsey sends one of the toughest fighting Admirals of
the war north to investigate, the hero of the Battle off Samar, Ziggy Sprague,
and fast and furious sea battles are the order of the day.

Meanwhile
tensions rise in the Black Sea as the Russian mission to rescue Fedorov and Orlov
has now been expanded to include a way to try and deliver new control rods to
Kirov
from the same batch and lot as the mysterious Rod-25. Will they work? Yet
Admiral Volsky learns that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has engaged well escorted
units of a British oil conveyor, Fairchild Inc., and the fires of war soon
endanger his mission.

All
efforts are now focused on a narrow stretch of coastline on the Caspian Sea, where
men of war from the future and past are locked in a desperate struggle to decide
the outcome of history itself. Naval combat, both future and past, combine with
action and intrigue as Volsky’s mission is launched and the mystery of Rod-25
and Fedorov’s strange experience on the Trans-Siberian Rail is finally
revealed. Can they stop the nuclear holocaust of the Third World War in 2021 or
will it begin off the coast of Japan in 1945?

The Meridian Series –
Time Travel Adventure!

Book I:
Meridian
–
A Novel In Time

ForeWord Magazine’s “Book of the Year”

2002 Silver Medal Winner for Science Fiction

The adventure begins on the eve of the greatest
experiment ever attempted—Time travel. As the project team meets for their
final mission briefing, the last member, arriving late, brings startling news.
Catastrophe threatens and the fate of the Western World hangs in the balance.
But a visitor from another time arrives bearing clues that will carry the hope
of countless generations yet to be born, and a desperate plea for help. The
team is led to the Jordanian desert during WWI and the exploits of the fabled
Lawrence of Arabia.

Book II:
Nexus Point

The project team members slowly come to the
realization that a “Time War” is being waged by unseen adversaries in the
future. The quest for an ancient fossil leads to an amazing discovery hidden in
the Jordanian desert. A mysterious group of assassins plot to decide the future
course of history, just one battle in a devious campaign that will span the
Meridians of time, both future and past. Exciting Time travel adventure in the
realm of the Crusades!

Book III:
Touchstone

When Nordhausen follows a hunch and launches a
secret time jump mission on his own, he uncovers an operation being run by
unknown adversaries from the future. The incident has dramatic repercussions
for Kelly Ramer, his place in the time line again threatened by paradox.
Kelly’s fate is somehow linked to an ancient Egyptian artifact, once famous the
world over, and now a forgotten slab of stone. The result is a harrowing
mission to Egypt during the time frame of Napoleon’s 1799 invasion.

Book IV:
Anvil of Fate

The cryptic ending of Touchstone dovetails
perfectly into
this
next volume as Paul insists that Kelly has
survived, and is determined to bring him safely home. Only now is the true meaning
of the stela unearthed at Rosetta made apparent—a grand scheme to work a
catastrophic transformation of the Meridians, so dramatic and profound in its effect
that the disaster at Palma was only a precursor. The history leads them to the
famous Battle of Tours where Charles Martel strove to stem the tide of the
Moorish invaders and save the west from annihilation. Yet more was at stake on
the Anvil of Fate than the project team first realized, and they now pursue the
mystery of two strange murders that will decide the fate of Western Civilization
itself!

Book V:
Golem 7

Nordhausen is back with new research and his
hand on the neck of the new terrorist behind the much feared “Palma Event.” Now
the project team struggles to discover how and where the Assassins have
intervened to restore the chaos of Palma, and their search leads them on one of
the greatest naval sagas of modern history—the hunt for the battleship
Bismarck
.
For some unaccountable reason the fearsome German battleship was not sunk on its
maiden voyage, and now the project team struggles to put the ship back in its
watery grave. Meet Admiral John Tovey and Chief of Staff “Daddy” Brind as the
Royal Navy begins to receive mysterious intelligence from an agent known only
as “Lonesome Dove.” Exciting naval action and top notch research characterize
this fast paced alternate history of the sinking of the
Bismarck
. Note:
Golem
7 is the book that led author John Schettler to continue his exploration of
alternate history naval fiction in the breakthrough Kirov series trilogy.

Historical Fiction

Taklamakan ~
The Land Of No Return

It was one of those moments on the cusp of
time, when Tando Ghazi Khan, a simple trader of tea and spice, leads a caravan
to the edge of the great desert, and becomes embroiled in the struggle that
will decide the fate of an empire and shake all under heaven and earth. A novel
of the Silk Road, the empire of Tibet clashes with T’ang China on the desolate
roads that fringe the Taklamakan desert, and one man holds the key to victory
in a curious map that guards an ancient secret hidden for centuries.