I turned to see Gunny standing behind me. He was as calm as if standing in the lobby of his beloved hotel greeting guests. He looked at me with his warm, knowing eyes and said the one thing that made sense. It was a phrase I had heard many times before. It was supposed to help explain our lives and the lives of all Travelers. It was supposed to give the feeling that all was well with Halla, and we were on the side of right. It was supposed to explain our sorrow and loss. I heard it when my uncle died, when Osa died, and when my family disappeared. It always seemed to come at the worst possible times.
Gunny said softly, “This is the way it was meant to be.”
I held his gaze for a second. He smiled. I looked back at the rocket. A million thoughts flashed through my head. But one thought rose above all the others. I couldn’t let those people die. I didn’t have it in me.
“I’m sorry, Gunny,” I said. “I can’t do it.”
I took a step toward the rocket, prepared to kick it away. I’d worry about the consequences later. I was a second away from saving theHindenburgwhen I felt Gunny’s arms wrap around me in a firm bear hug.
“Then let me do it,” he said softly.
He was stopping me from kicking the rocket! I struggled to get away. All day I had been desperate to get here to make sure history played out the way it was supposed to. Now I was desperate to save that ship and those people.
“Gunny, let go!” I pleaded. But Gunny held firm.
“No!” screamed Spader in anguish.
An instant later the fuse hit the powder, and the rocket flamed to life. It blasted off its wooden launch pad and streaked into the sky, headed toward a very big target.
(CONTINUED)
FIRST EARTH
How do you describe a nightmare?
A nightmare is an exercise of the mind. It digs up your deepest fears and throws them in your face with only one purpose-to terrify. You can’t control a nightmare. The ghastly images come at you like a raging storm. The best you can do is ride it out and hope it will end. And it does end. When you wake up, you know that as real as the frightening experience may have seemed, it existed only in your mind.
The next few minutes could best be described as a nightmare. The only difference being, it wasn’t happening in my mind.
We watched as the missile shot toward the dark shadow that was theHindenburg. For the few seconds it took to streak upward, it was like time stood still. I wanted to grab those few seconds and hold on to them, because once they were gone, the horror would begin.
The rocket hit the blimp in front of the tail section. Start the clock. In thirty-seven seconds it would be over.
Gunny said softly, “We should go.” His voice cracked. He was shaken as badly as I was. Winn Farrow had already released Spader. The four of us quickly backed away to get out from under harm’s way. We knew what was coming. It was going to be ugly. As we moved back, I kept my eyes on the airship.
The fire spread impossibly fast. First the burning material from the exploded rocket sprayed over a large section of the zeppelin. Then the coating of the balloon caught fire. The flames spread quickly over the skin of the airship, gobbling up the soft, silver covering. In seconds the skeletal frame of the ship was exposed. Then it began to fall, tail first. Once the tail sank, the flames spread up toward the nose, fueled by the burning hydrogen gas that was now being released.
I saw both of the swastikas on the tail crumble into the ground and burst into flames. It was a symbolic moment and the one small victory I took from this calamity.
People scattered, running for their lives. The ground crew dropped their lines and fled in terror. It was all they could do.
Then the passenger gondola under the burning zeppelin hit the ground. Instantly people inside smashed out the windows and jumped to safety. Amazingly, a few people walked down the access stairs and simply stepped off. They were the lucky ones. As soon as their feet hit the ground, they ran for their lives, as bits of burning material fell around them like fiery rain. These people would survive. But there were many people still trapped inside who wouldn’t be so lucky.
I had seen all this before, in the computer library on Third Earth. But now I was seeing it for real. Close-up. I felt the heat. I saw the shocked, terrorized faces. I heard the screams. But the most horrible feeling of all was that we could have stopped it from happening…and didn’t. I then saw something that was hard to believe. While all the people were fleeing from the disaster, there was one person who actually ran toward it. At first I thought it might be a brave rescue worker who was going to valiantly try to pull people from the dying ship. But as he got closer, I saw who it really was.
It was Max Rose. I had no idea how he got there. Maybe it was the police who picked him up from the scene of the crash, or maybe some of his gang found him on the side of the road. It didn’t matter. He was now running crazily toward the doomed gondola. We’ll never know what was going through his mind, but I can guess. He was going to try and save his money. As insane as that was, it was the only possible explanation. His mind must have snapped. Or maybe he knew his world was going to crumble anyway, so why not make one last ditch effort to save it?
Nobody tried to stop him. Everything was happening too fast, and there was only one thing on anyone’s mind: survival. Max Rose actually made it all the way to the gondola and climbed aboard. It was the last time he was ever seen. In a way, history had returned to normal. Max Rose was destined to die on May 6, 1937. The only difference was that it wouldn’t be in a car crash. It was in the burning wreckage of theHindenburg.
A second later the huge, flaming airship collapsed. The framework that was still in the shape of a zeppelin crumpled in on itself. A storm of sparks flew into the air, and the once majestic airship was reduced to nothing more than a giant heap of burning embers.
Thirty-seven seconds.
As I stood there feeling the heat from the massive fire, I saw something that actually gave me a chill. It was a bird. A large, black bird. It soared over the flames like a shadow, made a sharp turn, and shot over our heads. Then with one quick snap of its wings, it flew off into the night. Was it Saint Dane? Had he been there to witness his latest failure?
I didn’t think so. I thought he was there to mock me. The Travelers had won, yes. We had insured that history would play out the way it was supposed to. The Earth territories were safe. But did Saint Dane truly care? Or like he said, was this about me?
The truth came clear to me in that one, horrible moment. Everything that had happened, all of Saint Dane’s manipulations, were about putting me here, in this exact spot. When the critical moment arrived, I didn’t have the strength to stop the rocket. He knew I wouldn’t be able to do it. He knew. He wanted to see me fail.
The Travelers may have won the battle here on First Earth, but Saint Dane has won the war. He proved that I was no match for him.
Winn Farrow laughed. He actually laughed. The guy really was a psycho. To cause this kind of disaster just to get revenge on one person is nothing short of lunacy.
“Payback,” he said with glee. “Sweet.”
“You animal!” Spader shouted, and lunged at the guy. But Gunny caught him and held him back.
“Let it go,” Gunny said. “He’s none of our concern.”
“Yeah,” Farrow laughed. “None of your concern.” He looked at Gunny and gave him an oily smile. “Thanks, pal,” he said. “Couldn’t have done it without you.”
Gunny winced as though he had been hit. My heart went out to him. He did what he knew was right. He did what I couldn’t do. But this poor man who couldn’t bring himself to fire a gun had just allowed the destruction of theHindenburg. No matter how right it was, he was going to have to live with that for the rest of his life.
Farrow then turned and ran into the darkness. I didn’t care where.
Spader stepped right up to Gunny and looked him in the eye. His face was twisted with anguish. “You
