A pity he’s not here to help us sort things through. So you say this American fellow wants a meeting in the Azores?” Tovey raised an eyebrow. “Well I certainly have no objection. In fact, I believe I’ll send for someone I would like to include on the guest list. You know that Churchill will have to be informed.”
“Churchill?” said Elena. “You’re going to ask him to attend?”
“No my good woman. That would be just a tad too risky given the present situation. I was thinking of another man, a chap from Bletchley Park with a good head on his shoulders. I’ll want his take on all of this, and I can use him as a liaison to Churchill. In that regard, there is something I would like to ask of you. I hesitated to press the matter with the Russians, and I know it may be a rather delicate request, but I’ll ask it nonetheless, since we’re all in the family here. You people have been mucking about for some time now, for good or for ill. Needless to say, it has had quite an effect on the course of this war, and it will likely continue to do so. Well then… In for a penny, in for a pound. As to the course of this war. I’d like to know what we can expect in the years ahead.”
He waited, watching them closely. MacRae looked at Miss Fairchild, obviously deferring to her judgment on a question of this magnitude. “Perhaps I can have Mack here put together some information for you, Admiral. Mack?”
“Certainly, Mum. Any particulars you might be thinking about?”
“My beat,” said Tovey. “A general sense of things would be most helpful. I understand that knowledge is a dangerous thing, and I assure you that anything you may divulge will be kept under my hat, and not revealed to anyone who is not already privy to this… situation we find ourselves in.”
“I understand, sir. Yet from what I’ve been able to determine, things are just a wee bit skewed here. The Germans have already attacked Soviet Russia, and that wasn’t supposed to happen until late June. As for the broad strokes, this war is only just beginning. The Americans and Japanese will be in it soon enough, and at each other’s throats. I’ll fill you in sir.”
“Good enough,” said Tovey. “Now then, as to this American fellow. You say he’s come from your time, and willfully? His presence here was not an accident?”
“Apparently not,” said Elena. “He deliberately infiltrated Rodney in the guise of that American officer, and he was looking for that key we’ve been keen to get our own hands on.”
“Yes,” said Tovey… “The key. Everyone is looking for that bloody key! Strange to think that I have something to do with this, but I can’t imagine what it may be at the moment. Well, I think we better hear this man out. If he can come and go as he pleases, that alone is something we’ll want to hear about. The Russians seemed to believe their arrival here was an accident, until they gained some means of control over their movements. Yet I find it hard to believe they would slip out the back door like this without so much as a by your leave, or a goodbye.”
“Then you believe their disappearance was an accident?”
“It may have been unintentional,” said Tovey. “That is fair to conclude. Yet we also have no word from their submarine. That could mean any number of things, though I can’t say any of them bode well. I think we must assume that this submarine may have either been lost in action, or else it suffered the same fate that befell Kirov. You say there was another interloper out there—another submarine?”
“Astute Class,” said MacRae. “Aye, we got the call on that from the Russian sub. This class is a modern day Royal Navy boat, state-of-the-art, and one of the very best in the world. Miss Fairchild here has explained how this Brigadier Kinlan managed to slip through to this time. That was another of those atomic weapons, Admiral—fired in our day. It seems it blew Kinlan’s boys all the way here, and now we’re coming round on a heading to think the same thing may have happened with these ships, and that Astute Class sub of ours. They would have made a very ripe target in our day. If something similar happened, it might explain how that sub of ours got