The Master of Time Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  About the Author

  Also by David Wingrove

  Praise for The Empire of Time

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Character List

  Part 11

  Exiles

  Part 12

  Perpetual Change

  Part 13

  Pretzel Logic

  Part 14

  Loose Ends

  Part 15

  The World Tree

  Epilogue

  Six Endings

  One: Sideways Twice and Back a Step

  Two: Fate and the Gypsy Woman

  Three: A Few Short Words in Ge’not

  Four: Cherdiechnost B

  Five: Of Time and Tides

  Six: And the Ruination of Worlds

  Copyright

  About the Book

  The war for time is reaching its end.

  As the German and Russian forces seek to destroy a third, seemingly-unstoppable faction, Otto Behr reluctantly finds himself at the centre of all timelines, his very existence the catalyst by which reality itself will be reset or destroyed.

  But for Otto, the battle to become the Master of Time has become a fight for family, love and reality itself…

  About the Author

  David Wingrove is the celebrated author of the Chung Kuo series; co-author of Trillion Year Spree with Brian Aldiss; and the Myst novels with Rand Miller. He lives with his family in North London.

  Also by David Wingrove

  The Empire of Time

  The Ocean of Time

  Praise for The Empire of Time

  ‘Brilliant … I was gripped … most ingenious’

  Brian Aldiss

  ‘Wingrove is a master storyteller and ‘Empire of Time’ is a gripping epic that slingshots the reader across human history alongside characters enthralled by their own passions’

  Michael Cobley

  ‘It’s immense fun for anyone who likes their SF writ really large’

  SFX

  ‘[an] impeccable sense of setting … The Empire of Time could be the beginning of something brilliant: Blackout meets Bond in a relentless race war Wingrove depicts with deftness and deference’

  Tor.com

  To my dear friend Andy Muir,

  for forty years of fellowship.

  Awrabestfurnoo!

  Character List

  Angels — time agents from Up River. Not even born yet.

  Anna — daughter of Otto and Katerina.

  Aristotle — Greek philosopher and scientist, born 384 BC, died 322 BC.

  Arizhelika — female Russian time agent.

  Arminius — German tribal leader (died AD 21), chieftain of the Cherusci, also known as Hermann. Defeated the Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoberg Forest, AD 9.

  Augustus, Gaius Octavius — founder of the Roman Empire and first Emperor. Ruled 27 BC to AD 14.

  Aurelius, Marcus Anthonious Augustus — (reigned AD 161 to AD 180) Emperor of the Roman Empire.

  Baetorix — German chieftain, in AD 9. The warrior who fights Urte.

  Behr, Otto — our narrator. A German ‘reisende’ or time agent. Voted Meister by the veche, or ‘council’.

  Beskryostnov, Mariya — fortune-teller in Baturin, in 1808. Twin to ‘Jamil’.

  Blagovesh — the Bandit King; leader of the Marsh bandits in thirteenth-century Russia.

  Bobrov — Russian time agent and killer of at least a dozen German agents. Member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Burckel, Albrecht — German time agent, or reisende. A ‘sleeper’ in the Greater Berlin of AD 2747.

  Bush, George — Vice-President of the United States of America, November 1984.

  Charles XII — King of Sweden, defeated at the Battle of Poltova in 1709.

  Chkalov, Joseph Maksymovich — otherwise known as Yastryeb, ‘the Hawk’. Grand Master of Time for the Russians.

  Curie, Marie — Polish-born physicist and chemist (1867–1934).

  Dankevich, Fedor Ivanovich — Russian time agent, and archenemy of Otto. Member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Darre, Richard Walther — SS Obergruppenfuhrer and Reichminister of Food and agriculture, 1933–1942 (Born in Argentina).

  Darya — female Russian time agent.

  Da Vinci, Leonardo — Italian polymath. Inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, musician and mathematician (1452–1519).

  DeSario, Joseph P. — owner of the apartment in New York in November 1984.

  Dick, Kleo — wife of Philip K Dick. Deceased.

  Dick, Philip K. — President of the United States of America in November 1984. Also science-fiction writer.

  Diedrich — German time agent, and Four-Oh’s physics expert.

  Dietrich — Grand Meister of Altenberg, responsible for Prussian crusades in the thirteenth century.

  Dimitri — Russian time agent from Up River.

  Dirac, Paul – English theoretical physicist and specialist in quantum mechanics.

  Do hu — ‘domesticated humans’, genetically adapted servants, from Greater Germany.

  Doppelgehirn — experimental use (in Greater Germany) of two heads connected to a single body. Preliminary tests AD 2320–2370.

  Edison, Thomas — American inventor and businessman (1847–1931). Invented the light bulb and photographs.

  Eichel, August — silver-haired master of genetics. Professor at the Berlin Akademie (where he laid the foundations that allowed the development of the Guildsmen).

  Eicke, Theodore — Commandant of Dachau (1892–1943).

  Einstein, Albert — German-born theoretical physicist, famous for his general theory of relativity (1879–1955).

  Ernst — see Kollwitz.

  ‘Ernst’ — a parallel timeline version of Otto’s best friend, a gang boss who does not know Otto’s Ernst.

  Feynman, Richard Phillips — American theoretical physicist. Developed the theory of quantum mechanics (1918–1988).

  Fischer (Theoretician) — leading figure at the Scientific Akademie in Berlin in 2343. Expert in genetics.

  Frank, Karl Hermann — prominent Sudeten German Nazi, stationed in Czechoslovakia (1898–1946).

  Franke — second ‘personality’ that makes up the doppelgehirn known as Reichenau.

  Franklin, Rosamund — English chemist and X-ray crystallographer (1920–1958). Partly responsible for the discovery of DNA’s double helix.

  Frederick The Great — King Frederick II of Prussia, known more commonly as ‘Old Fritz’. Fighting against overwhelming odds, he helped Prussia survive the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) where he was faced with the alliance of France, Austria and Russia and defeated all three. A hero of Europe.

  Freisler — German reisende or time agent. Meister Hecht’s special henchman – his ‘Jagdhund’ or bloodhound – responsible for doing all of Hecht’s dirty work.

  Galileo Galilei — Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher and mathematician (1564–1642).

  Gehlen, Hans — aka, ‘The Genewart’. Architect of Four-Oh, scientific genius and inventor of time travel. Has existed for two hundred years as a gaseous presence in the midst of Four-Oh’s artificial intelligence.

  Golitsyn — the Regent Sophia’s lover.

  Golubintzev — cossack in Baturin, 1708.

  Gress, Ulrich — senior member of the Schufzstaffel – or SS – in AD 2343.

  Grigor — time agent from Up River.

  Hammill, Kurt — Master of the Guilds, Greater Germany, twenty-fifth century.

  Haussman — geneticist and author of Against Random Choice. Chief progenitor of future Greater Germany.

  Hecht, Albrecht
— Master Hecht’s older brother and keeper of the archives at the haven, way back in time.

  Hecht, Meister — ‘The Pike’; Master of the Germans back at Four-Oh. Deceased.

  Heinrich — ex-Russian time agent. Reichenau’s right-hand man from the twenty-eighth century. Also Burckel’s friend. A revolutionary (Undrehungar). Also present in 1950s California.

  Heydrich, Reinhard Tristan Eugen — high-ranking Nazi – one of the main architects of the Holocaust. Assassinated 4 June 1942.

  Himmler, Heinrich — Reichsfuhrer of the Schutzstaffel [SS]. Leading Nazi.

  Von Hindenberg, Paul — German Field Marshal and President of Germany (nineteenth–twentieth centuries).

  Hitler, Adolf — Fuhrer (‘leader’) of the National Socialist or Nazi party in the twentieth century.

  Huber, Franz Josef — (1902–1975); Chief of the Munich Police. Prominent Nazi.

  Hypatia — (female) Greek mathematician, astronomer and philosopher – originally from Egypt (b. AD 415).

  Ilyusha — Kolya’s helper at Krasnogorsk.

  Iranov — ‘priest’ at Cherdiechnost in the thirteenth century.

  Irina — daughter of Otto and Katerina.

  Izolda — female Russian time agent.

  Stewart, James II — King of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, early seventeenth century.

  Joe — owner of the bar in New York City, November 1984.

  Von Jungingen, Hockmeister Ulrich — (1360–1410); twenty-sixth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, from 1407 to 1410.

  Kabanov — Russian time agent. Traitor.

  Kaminski, Nikita — Russian time agent both from the period of Catherine the Great (1762–1796) and the Mechanist Age (c. 2450–c. 2650).

  Kavanagh, John Patrick — American agent and gun salesman, based in New York in November 1984.

  Kepler, Johannes — Italian astronomer and mathematician (1571–1630).

  Klara — female Russian time agent.

  Klug, Hans — from AD 2343. German geneticist and scientist, responsible for creating the ruling royal family’s bloodline.

  Koch — President of Greater Germany. Assassinated.

  Kollwitz, Ernst — a reisende or time agent. Otto’s best friend and travelling companion; damaged in the Past. Member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Kolya — archenemy of Otto Behr.

  Krauss, Phillipe — German reisende, or time agent. A traitor to his own agents.

  Kravchuk, Oleg Alekseevich — agent of the Mongols in thirteenth-century Russia and – in some timelines – married to Katerina.

  Kroos, Meister — Fake ID/alias Otto uses when in AD 2343 Greater Berlin.

  Kurdin, Igor — Russian time agent and member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm — German polymath and philosopher (1646–1716).

  Lersch — Friend of DeSario’s, New York, November 1984.

  Lishka — a haulier in thirteenth-century Russia.

  Loki — god of Norse mythology and a malicious troublemaker.

  Ludendorff, Erich Friedrich Wilhelm — German general, victor of the Battle of Liege (1914) and the battle of Tannenberg (1914). Chief architect of German military activities in the First World War.

  Ludmilla — female Russian time agent.

  Makarov — Moscow Central’s expert for the period of Russian history that includes Fredrick the Great.

  Malya — Kolya’s helper at Krasnogorsk.

  Mannfred — King of Greater Germany, and tenth in his genetic line.

  Maria — woman in the apartment next door to Otto, in New York, 1984 – with son and daughter.

  Martha — lost daughter of Katerina and Otto.

  Master, The — owner of Cherdiechnost B.

  Matveyev, Artamon — influential friend of Frederick the Great, murdered by the Streltsy in the Moscow Uprising of 1682.

  Maxim — Russian time agent from Up River.

  Maxwell, James Clerk — Scottish scientist specialising in mathematical physics. (1831–1879).

  Meisner — German time agent and member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Meitner, Lise — experimenter on radioactivity and nuclear physics (1878–1968).

  Menshikov, Alexander Danilovich — Russian general and friend of Peter the Great, victor of Poltova (1709).

  Mondale, Walter — Democratic opponent to President Dick, November 1984.

  Moseley, Henry — English atomic physicist (1887–1915).

  ‘The Mouth’ — Mafia soldier, New York, November 1984.

  Muller, Heinrich — Chief of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany (1900–1945).

  Muller, Kurt — German time agent, responsible for de-briefing Galileo and Einstein.

  Natalya — daughter of Katerina and Otto.

  Nemsov — Russian time agent and member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Nevsky, Alexander Iaroslavich — Russian Orthodox Prince of Novgorod in the thirteenth century. Victor of the Battle on the Ice (on Lake Peipus) in April 1242, a battle that effectively ended the expansive Northern crusades.

  Newton, Isaac — English physicist and mathematician (1643–1727).

  Otto — see ‘Behr’.

  Patricia — woman Kavanagh is seeing in New York City, November 1984.

  Pauli, Wolfgang — Austrian-born theoretical physicist (1900–1958) – the father of quantum physics.

  Pavlusha — Russian time agent.

  Peter the Great — six foot six ruler of Russia from 1672 to 1725. Architect of modern Russia.

  Petr — Alias Otto uses in Cherdiechnost B.

  Postorsky — Russian time agent and traitor.

  Publius, Quinictilus Varus — Commander of the three Roman legions in the campaign into the northern forest in AD 9. Lost the Battle of the Teutoberg Forest.

  Puskarev, Kebba — big African from the Gambia. A ‘free man’ at Cherdiechnost in the thirteenth century.

  Razumovsky, Katerina — eternal love of Otto Behr. Daughter of Mikhail Razumovsky in the thirteenth century at Cherdiechnost.

  Rakitin — Russian time agent.

  Reagan, Nancy — widow of President Ronald Reagan.

  Reagan, Ronald — President of the United States of America. Assassinated in November 1984.

  Rehnskjold, Carl Gustav — Field Marshal of Charles XII’s Swedish army. In command at the Battle of Poltava (1709) and captive of the Russians until 1718.

  Reichenau, Gudrun — daughter of Michael Reichenau (so he claims).

  Reichenau, Michael — doppelgehirn, also supervisor of Werkstatt 9. Somehow involved in time travel. Product of a genetic experiment, he has two skulls ‘hot-wired’ together.

  Rutherford, Ernest — British physicist, known as the father of nuclear physics (1871–1937).

  Samsonov, Alexander — defeated Russian Marshal at Tannenberg.

  Saratov, Sergei Ilya — Harbourmaster at Tver in thirteenth century Russia. Time agent on some timelines, and member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Schafer, Adelbert — President of Greater Germany.

  Schikaneder, Jakub — ‘sleeper’ time agent in 19th century Prague. Painter and exile. Also known as Klaus Hecht.

  Schmidt, Hans — German time agent and member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Schnorr — ‘Old Schnorrr’, Master at Four-Oh in charge of the project to trawl time for common/familiar faces. One of the Elders and a member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Schwab, Meister — Speaker of the Reichstag and President Schafe’s Chancellor (twenty-fourth century).

  Schwarzenegger, Arnie — Hollywood film actor, November 1984.

  Shafaravich — Russian time agent; henchman to Yastryeb (the Hawk), Grand Master of the Russians.

  Shaklovity, Fedor — Russian diplomate of the seventeenth century.

  Shakespeare, William — also known as ‘Will’. Poet and playwright from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

  Shelley, Peter — UK punk singer/songwriter, November 1984.
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  Shepnikov — Steward at Cherdiechnost B.

  Simon — the smith at Cherdiechnost B.

  Sofia — female Russian time agent. Senior member of a squad of five.

  Sophia — Regent of Russia in the seventeenth century (on behalf of Peter).

  Stahlecker, Walter — doctor in charge of Einsatzgrupen A.

  Stalin, Joseph — AKA Iosif Vissarionvich Dzhugashvili; leader of the Soviet Union until 1953.

  Steiner, Felix Martin Julius — General of the Waffen-SS and prominent Nazi (died 1966).

  Svetov, Arkadi — Russia’s chief agent in the twenty-fourth century. Member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Talianov, Sergei — Russian psyche expert.

  Tavener, Jason — character in a Philip K. Dick science-fiction novel.

  Tesla, Nikola — Serbian–American inventor and electrical engineer/physicist (1856–1943).

  Todd — Boy-actor in Shakespeare’s troupe of players.

  Tomas — young German student at Four-Oh.

  Tupayeva, Alina — Russian time agent and member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Turing, Alan — pioneering British computer scientist, cryptoanalyst and theoretical biologist (1912–1954).

  Tyutchev — Russian time agent.

  ‘Ugly Fucker’ — Mafia soldier in New York, November 1984.

  Urte — one of the women at the platform in Four-Oh (and subsequently Moscow Central). Also an expert physicist, technician and mathematician. Member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Vasilia — Russian agent and markswoman.

  Wallis, John — Mathematician who originated the use of ‘infinity’ (the lazy eight) as a mathematical symbol in 1655.

  ‘Will’ — see Shakespeare.

  Yastryeb — see Chkalov, Grand Master of Time for the Russians.

  Yusupov, Irina — Russian time agent and member of the veche, or ‘council’.

  Zarah — fifth and youngest daughter of Otto and Katerina.

  Zarah — most senior of the women who run first Four-Oh and then Moscow Central’s operating systems. Sweet on Otto.

  Zasyekin, Petr — Russian time agent.

  Zieten, Hans Joachim von — Cavalry general in Prussian army and advisor to Frederick the Great.

  Part Eleven