Event Horizon by Dean Crawford

Author:Dean Crawford [Crawford, Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adventure
Goodreads: 45418214
Publisher: Fictum Ltd
Published: 2019-04-28T23:00:00+00:00

*

‘Tell me how this happened.’

Ernie Walker sat down in a wicker chair on Henry’s back porch as the old man joined him, two glasses of lemonade in his hands. The morning sunshine was warm, and for a moment Ernie realized that he could have been back in 1954 again, but for the sight of a modern airliner climbing like a white dove into the perfect blue sky.

‘USS Bairoko,’ Ernie replied. ‘It got hit by the Castle Bravo blast.’

‘I remember,’ Henry nodded, glancing at his arms. Ernie could see there amid the old folds of skin the faint white lines of scars. ‘Got myself burned half to a crisp.’

‘How many died, Henry?’

The old man shrugged. ‘Man, I don’t know. We put into port right after, and everybody was sworn to silence. Half the damned crew were grilled by guys, I think they were from the army but they didn’t wear any insignia. The put us under a lot of pressure, and we were under no illusions about what would happen if we talked about Castle Bravo – charges of treason, Court Martial, life without parole, you name it. The crew was split up after that, so I guess they didn’t want us to know how many got out. My best guess is we lost maybe a hundred men.’

Ernie closed his eyes briefly as he thought of the lieutenant who got his eyes burned out.

‘They covered it all up?’ he asked.

‘Sure they did,’ Henry replied. ‘Bairoko supposedly enjoyed a blemish–free career and was broken up back in 1961, out in Hong Kong, I think. The only record I ever found of Castle Bravo said that a few crewmembers received beta–radiation burns from the blast test, nothing more.’

Ernie nodded. ‘There’s a lot more, Henry.’

‘I can see that. Where the hell have you been?’

‘Nowhere,’ Ernie replied. ‘I don’t understand it but I went into the water to escape the flames, and when I came up out of the water half a century had gone by. About the only thing I can say is that the blast was the cause, but beyond that I just don’t know. And I’m pretty sure the CIA or somebody else is looking for me.’

‘How did you get here?’

‘Fishing trawler picked me up,’ Ernie replied, ‘and I got a working passage out of Majuro, cash only, then another out of Lima, Peru. I don’t think that they’ve traced me but they must be searching. Henry, I’m gonna need help. I’ve got some cash but I don’t know half of what’s happened to the world, and I’m afraid that if I go to my children’s homes there’ll be people waiting for me that I don’t want to see.’

Henry sat up in his chair. ‘Anything you need pal, what’s your plan?’

Ernie smiled, but he hadn’t had a chance to figure out what he hell he was going to do about all this yet. Mostly he’d been concerned with surviving, nothing more. When the answer came to his lips, he was surprised at it.

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