The Kremlin Phoenix by Stephen Renneberg Read Free Book Online Page A

label on the front
identified the ammunition as seven point six two millimeter. “He’s got an
assault rifle.”
    “That’ll punch through our body
armor at close range,” Harriman said grimly. “Better let Mooney know the perp
has a heavy caliber weapon.” Mooney was the officer in charge of Powell’s
protection unit. “And get some ESU guys out here in unmarked vehicles.” If this
did turn into a fire fight, Harriman realized, they’d need the heavier weapons
used by the Emergency Service Unit.
    “On it,” Woods said, heading for
the car radio.
    Harriman studied the approaches
to the warehouse, trying to assemble a picture of the killer. Expert shot, high
grade explosives, heavy caliber ammunition all pointed in one direction. This
was no mere contract killer they were dealing with, he was far more dangerous
than that.
    He was military.
     
    * * * *
     
    July 25, 2276
     
    “I thought you said Craig Balard wasn’t
in danger?” Captain Wilkins asked.
    “He wasn’t,” Mariena said. “He
lived until he was seventy six years old – before the second timeline reset.”
    “You mean, we got him killed?”
    “Yes. After I spoke to him, he
must have found the master list. That triggered the second timeline reset, which
our sensors detected. We know from the new historical record, the one that came
into existence after the second reset, that Craig Balard was murdered the day
after I spoke to him.”
    “We never saw that coming?”
    “How could we?” she said. “It
never happened in the original timeline.”
    Wilkins sighed. “We really don’t
know what we’re doing, do we?”
    “We have no choice,” she said. “I
wish my brother was here, but he isn’t.” Her brother had been Professor in
Temporal Mechanics at MIT, but he was dead, like everyone else on Earth.
    “How do you know Balard was
killed?” Wilkins asked.
    “I found his death certificate,”
Zikky said, “when I was scanning all data sources for our next reset point.”
    “So the first time you researched
him, he lived until he was seventy six years old?” Wilkins asked.
    “Yes, then I told him to get the
master list,” she said. “That changed the timeline, and got him killed. It’s
our fault.”
    “OK, so Balard found the master
list in the second timeline,” Wilkins said, “our current timeline?”
    “Third timeline,” Mariena
corrected. “Two resets, plus the original.”
    “The question is, do we care if
he lives or dies?” Wilkins asked. “I mean, from our perspective, he’s been dead
a long time.”
    “We absolutely have to save him.”
    “Why?” Wilkins asked.
    “Because in this current
timeline, he’s the focal point. We made him that! Before I used him to trigger
the second reset, he was irrelevant, because in the original timeline he never
found the master list. Now that he has found it – in the new timeline – everything
hinges on what he does with it!”
    “So we get him to hand the master
list over to the right people, they do what we hope they will with it, and he’s
off the hook. Right?”
    “He still might be killed, but we
can’t let that happen while he controls the master list, otherwise the whole
thing falls apart.”
    Captain Wilkins sighed. “So how
are you going to save this guy?”
    “After Zikky found Balard’s death
certificate, we started researching the location where he was murdered. It’s an
Italian restaurant called Romano’s,” Mariena explained. “To save him, this is
what we’re going to do . . .”
     
    * * * *
     
    Present Day
     
    “Do you have a table reserved for a Mr
Balard?” Nogorev asked a jovial little man standing behind the restaurant’s cash
register.
    “Yes sir,” Giorgio Romano replied.
“Please, this way.”
    Romano led Nogorev through the
cafe to a high backed private booth in the rear, far from other guests. A man sat
waiting, furtively glancing at the other customers, then at Romano and Nogorev
as they approached.
    Nervous
eyes! Nogorev