Read Online TW12 The Six-Gun Solution NEW by Simon Hawke - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Simon Hawke
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lived back then. How do we keep you from becoming famous as the Montana Kid, fastest gun in the West?"
"That's the very least of our problems," Forrester said, before Neilson could reply. "It's nothing Archives Section couldn't handle. It would be time consuming, but we could easily assign a team to make sure that the Montana Kid remains unknown to history. Our first priority is to determine the nature of what's happening back there. Is it the Network, engaged in one of their clandestine operations, or is it an infiltration through an undiscovered confluence point by agents of the S.O.G.? If that's the case, we could be faced with a situation similar to what happened in the Khyber Pass in 1897. It could be a prelude to a full-scale invasion from the parallel timeline. Compared to that, any minor disruption Neilson's presence could bring about would be insignificant."
"Let's not forget Drakov," Lucas said, softly, feeling that he had to bring that up, but hating to. Forrester was plagued with guilt and self-recrimination over what his son had become. "He's always the wild card. And we still haven't tracked down all his clones, or the genetically engineered hominoids he's scattered throughout history."
Forrester nodded, grimly. "Yes, we can't afford to overlook him, either." He took a deep breath and let it out in a heavy sigh. "The trouble is, we need to capture him alive, so we can track down all his clones. That won't be easy, but it's the only way we can be certain that we've got the original Nikolai Drakov. Only the original would know where all the copies are."
Forrester never referred to Drakov as his son. Privately, it had to be an agony for him. Years ago, when Forrester had been a rookie serving his first hitch in Minus Time, he'd been injured and separated from his unit. Unable to clock back, he had believed that he was trapped forever in the past. He had been found and nursed back to health by a Russian gypsy girl with whom he fell in love. He was later found and rescued, but by that time, Vanna Drakova was already pregnant with their child.
Forester had broken all the rules and he had made the situation worse by keeping Vanna's pregnancy a secret. He knew if he reported it, it would have been necessary for the child to be aborted and he had not been able to bring himself to do that to the girl he loved. Or to the child. The result was that he went back to the future, after trying to explain to Vanna as best he could exactly who and what he was and why he had to leave her, and the necessity for her never to reveal that knowledge to anybody else.
But the simple gypsy girl had not been able to grasp the meaning of everything he told her. The concept of temporal physics was beyond her and when young Nikolai became curious about who his father was, the story she had told him was a bizarre mixture of truth and fantasy, richly embroidered with her colorful imagination. The poor boy hadn't understood and was left believing that he was the result of a supernatural union between his mother and some kind of demon. Unknowingly, his mother had traumatized him deeply and the harsh lives that they led as Nikolai grew up had only served to make things worse.
They were taken in by a young Russian officer and they had lived through Napoleon's invasion and his disastrous retreat. Then Nikolai's adoptive father had been arrested as a Decembrist and exiled to Siberia. They had followed him there and it was in that harsh, forbidding country that Vanna met her death at the hands of a savage rapist, who had given young Nikolai the knife scar on his face when he tried to go to her defense. With her death, Nikolai Drakov had been left all alone in the world, frightened and tormented by the question of his own existence.
He never became sick. He didn't seem to age. He did age, of course, but at a rate that was far slower than normal. He had inherited a strong constitution, with an immunity to all known diseases and a lifespan that was
"That's the very least of our problems," Forrester said, before Neilson could reply. "It's nothing Archives Section couldn't handle. It would be time consuming, but we could easily assign a team to make sure that the Montana Kid remains unknown to history. Our first priority is to determine the nature of what's happening back there. Is it the Network, engaged in one of their clandestine operations, or is it an infiltration through an undiscovered confluence point by agents of the S.O.G.? If that's the case, we could be faced with a situation similar to what happened in the Khyber Pass in 1897. It could be a prelude to a full-scale invasion from the parallel timeline. Compared to that, any minor disruption Neilson's presence could bring about would be insignificant."
"Let's not forget Drakov," Lucas said, softly, feeling that he had to bring that up, but hating to. Forrester was plagued with guilt and self-recrimination over what his son had become. "He's always the wild card. And we still haven't tracked down all his clones, or the genetically engineered hominoids he's scattered throughout history."
Forrester nodded, grimly. "Yes, we can't afford to overlook him, either." He took a deep breath and let it out in a heavy sigh. "The trouble is, we need to capture him alive, so we can track down all his clones. That won't be easy, but it's the only way we can be certain that we've got the original Nikolai Drakov. Only the original would know where all the copies are."
Forrester never referred to Drakov as his son. Privately, it had to be an agony for him. Years ago, when Forrester had been a rookie serving his first hitch in Minus Time, he'd been injured and separated from his unit. Unable to clock back, he had believed that he was trapped forever in the past. He had been found and nursed back to health by a Russian gypsy girl with whom he fell in love. He was later found and rescued, but by that time, Vanna Drakova was already pregnant with their child.
Forester had broken all the rules and he had made the situation worse by keeping Vanna's pregnancy a secret. He knew if he reported it, it would have been necessary for the child to be aborted and he had not been able to bring himself to do that to the girl he loved. Or to the child. The result was that he went back to the future, after trying to explain to Vanna as best he could exactly who and what he was and why he had to leave her, and the necessity for her never to reveal that knowledge to anybody else.
But the simple gypsy girl had not been able to grasp the meaning of everything he told her. The concept of temporal physics was beyond her and when young Nikolai became curious about who his father was, the story she had told him was a bizarre mixture of truth and fantasy, richly embroidered with her colorful imagination. The poor boy hadn't understood and was left believing that he was the result of a supernatural union between his mother and some kind of demon. Unknowingly, his mother had traumatized him deeply and the harsh lives that they led as Nikolai grew up had only served to make things worse.
They were taken in by a young Russian officer and they had lived through Napoleon's invasion and his disastrous retreat. Then Nikolai's adoptive father had been arrested as a Decembrist and exiled to Siberia. They had followed him there and it was in that harsh, forbidding country that Vanna met her death at the hands of a savage rapist, who had given young Nikolai the knife scar on his face when he tried to go to her defense. With her death, Nikolai Drakov had been left all alone in the world, frightened and tormented by the question of his own existence.
He never became sick. He didn't seem to age. He did age, of course, but at a rate that was far slower than normal. He had inherited a strong constitution, with an immunity to all known diseases and a lifespan that was
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