“Good enough, but may I ask… As to the chain of command.” O’Connor gathered his thoughts, then came out with it. “Are you and your men prepared to fall into line behind our current leadership?”
Kinlan had thought about this, and knew the question might soon arise. O’Connor was a Lieutenant General, and the ranking officer present in the British chain of command. “It seems you are a couple rungs up on the ladder, General O’Connor. Yet you must understand my position here is… rather unique. You saw the inside of that tank, and I daresay that the methods we use have changed somewhat when it comes to war fighting. I have the greatest respect for you, and for the chain of command, and intend to do all in my power to cooperate and achieve victory here. But we fight a new style of maneuver war, General. I think it is one you would take to easily enough. In fact, your tactics and maneuvers are well studied in our training schools.”
O’Connor seemed to glow at that, very pleased.
“That said,” Kinlan continued, “if the General would grant me the license of a free hand here, I think it would best serve the interests of all concerned.”
“The Captain has a point on that,” said Popski. “Aside from yours truly, General O’Connor is the only man here in theater that knows what we have been discussing. He says that General Wavell will most likely have to be briefed, but wonders where the line should be drawn.”
“Secrecy,” said Fedorov on his own in English. “Is very important.” Then Popski translated further.
“Some men must know the truth I have shared with you. Certainly all the men of your brigade will know in due course. As to the men of this time… I think the less they know the better. The true nature of this unit, and its origin, must be kept the most closely guarded secret. This may mean that it would be best, as General Kinlan suggests, if this unit remains a separate fighting entity.”
“Yet you’ve told us your own ship now flies the flag of our own Horatio Nelson,” said O’Connor. “You sail right alongside HMS Invincible.”
“Yes, but we remain the sole authority insofar as the operation of our ship is concerned, and there are no British seamen aboard Kirov. Only one man in the Royal Navy knows we are from your own distant future, Admiral Tovey himself. And he has even held this secret from the Admiralty, and from your own government.”
“I see… Somewhat cheeky, wouldn’t you say?”
Popski found a Russian equivalent for that, and Fedorov smiled. How could he impress upon this man the utter seriousness of this situation. “General,” he began. “Suppose knowledge of our presence here became generally known. I would say you have a thousand unanswered questions in your mind about what the future holds, and as I have told you, not all of that future is rosy. The war in Asia ignites into a new conflict just five years after this war concludes. It continues for over a decade, then the oil wars begin, the struggle for resources and energy that has its roots even in this conflict. Yes, there are marvelous things in the future, like that digital map there on General Kinlan’s television, but there is poverty, inequality, racism, disease, and yes, there is war. Any knowledge of these events can become a poison in this world. There are wonders ahead, but also darkness and terror, and like our Ivan Volkov, and Captain Karpov, there are men who would use the knowledge of the future for personal gain, and many others who would stop at nothing to obtain this knowledge. Understand?”
“I think I follow you. I understand the importance of secrecy, as you have urged.”
“Your own Mister Churchill said once that ‘In war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.’ It is a well turned phrase, and carries the essence of what I am trying to tell you now. Yet Churchill may never utter those words. They were spoken to a man named Joseph Stalin-a man who no longer exists in this world of yours. So you see, things have changed. Our knowledge of what is to come may seem a solid thing to us, but in reality, it is becoming more and more insubstantial with each passing day. I told you that you should be in an Italian prison now, but here you stand, and your freedom, and the knowledge you now have, makes you one of the most significant men alive. Here we stand, discussing all this, like three kings on a raft at sea. Yet those waters are turbulent, and the tides of war are flowing even now as we speak. Rommel is not waiting on our decision. One day soon he will factor our potential choices into his war planning, but for the moment, he is ignorant. That will soon change, because even now he is driving east against the last few reserves General Wavell has managed to scrape up.”
“Then we’d best see about that,” said O’Connor.
