Designated targets: a novel of the axis of time

480 Pages·2005·1.87 MB·English

by  John Birmingham

A
BOUT THIS BOOK . . .
Designated Targets
Book II of the Axis of Time Trilogy
By John Birmingham
It's World War II and the A-bomb is here to stay.
The only question: Who's going to drop it first?
The Battle of Midway takes on a whole new dimension with the sudden
appearance of a U.S.-led naval task force from the twenty-first century, the result
of a botched military experiment. State-of-the-art warships are scattered across
the Pacific, armed to the teeth with the latest instruments of mass destruction.
Nuclear warheads, rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47s, computer-guided
missiles—all bets are off as the major powers of 1942 scramble to be the first to
wield the weapons of tomorrow against their enemies. The whole world now
knows of the Allied victory in 1945, and the collapse of communism decades
later. But that was the first time around.
With the benefit of their newly acquired knowledge, Stalin and Hitler rapidly
change strategies. A Russian-German ceasefire leaves the Fuhrer free to bring
the full weight of his vaunted Nazi war machine down on England, while in the
Pacific, Japan launches an invasion of Australia, and Admiral Yamamoto
schemes to seize an even greater prize . . . Hawaii.
Even in the United States the newcomers from the future are greeted with a
combination of enthusiasm and fear. Suspicion leads to hatred and erupts into
violence.
Suddenly it's a whole new war, with high-tech, high-stakes international
manipulations from Tokyo to D.C. to the Kremlin. As the world trembles on the
brink of annihilation, Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Hitler, and Tojo confront
extreme choices and a future rife with possibilities—all of them apocalyptic.
Designated Targets
B II T A T
OOK OF HE XIS OF IME
John Birmingham
Designated Targets is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all
characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures,
are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and
dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to
depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all
other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
A Del Rey® Book
Published by Ballantine Books
Copyright © 2005 by John Birmingham
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random
House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of
Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Birmingham, John
Designated targets / John Birmingham.
p. cm.—(The axis of time ; bk. 2)
eISBN 0-345-48606-4
1. World War, 1939–1945—Fiction. 2. Time travel—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9619.3.B5136D47 2005
813’.6—dc22 2005049371
www.delreybooks.com
18 Feb 2006 : Anther fine leech from #bookz - dunno whose scan/proof, but HTML was perfect.
Converted for .lit and edited for style by EvilRich, HTML not posted 'cause it was good for
BetterLit with almost no changes.
—EvilRich
D
EDICATION:
FOR MY PARENTS,
the first storytellers
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A big tip of the propeller hat is owed to the usual suspects. Cate Paterson and
Brianne Tunnicliffe in Sydney. Steve Saffel and Keith Clayton in New York. I’m
abashed by and indebted to Steve Stirling and Eric Flint, who took precious time
away from their own, much superior work to give me advice on mine. If I were a
better listener, this would be a better book. A special thanks goes to the lads in
soc.history.what-if who responded with scarifying enthusiasm to my off-topic
requests. You know who you are.
Finally, love and thanks go to Jane, Anna, and Thomas for putting up with me
while I’m on deadline. It’s not a good look. I owe them a treat.

D P
RAMATIS ERSONAE:
MULTINATIONAL FORCE COMMANDERS
Francois, Major Margie. USMC. Combat Surgeon and Chief Medical Officer,
Multinational Force. (USS Kandahar)
Halabi, Captain Karen. RN. Commander Deputy Commander Multinational
Force. Commander HMS Trident.
Jones, Colonel J. L. USMC. Commander 82nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.
(USS Kandahar)
Judge, Captain Mike. USN. Commander USS Hillary Clinton.
Kolhammer, Admiral Phillip. USN. Task Force Commander. OIC Special
Administrative Zone. (California)
Willet, Captain Jane. RAN. Commander HMAS Havoc.
Windsor, His Royal Highness Major Harry. Task Force Commander British
SAS contingent. OIC Special Air Service Regiment. (Training cadre)
MULTINATIONAL FORCE PERSONNEL
Ivanov, Major Pavel. Russian Federation Spetsnaz.
Nguyen, Lieutenant Rachel. RAN. South West Pacific Area HQ Intelligence
Liaison.
Rogas, Chief Petty Officer Vincente. US Navy SEALs.
Müller, Captain Jurgen. European Defence Force. Reassigned Special
Operations Executive.
MISC
Duffy, Julia. New York Times Feature Writer. Embedded 82nd MEU.
Natoli, Rosanna. CNN Researcher/Producer. Embedded 82nd MEU.
1942 ALLIED COMMANDERS
Churchill, Winston. Prime Minister, Great Britain.
Curtin, John. Prime Minster, Commonwealth of Australia.
Eisenhower, Brigadier General Dwight D. US Army. Head of War Plans
Division. Appointed Commander of US Forces, European Theatre of Operations,
June 1942.
Hoover, J. Edgar. Director Federal Bureau of Investigation.
King, Admiral Ernest J.USN. Commander in Chief of the US Fleet and Chief
of Naval Operations.
MacArthur, General Douglas. US Army. Commander Allied Forces, South
West Pacific Area. Headquartered Brisbane, Australia.
Marshall, General George C. US Army. Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of
Staff.
Nimitz, Admiral Chester. USN Commander in Chief US Pacific Fleet.
Roosevelt, President, Franklin D. 32nd President of the United States of
America.
Stephenson, William. Personal Envoy of PM Churchill, Head of British
Security Coordination Western Hemisphere.
1942 ALLIED PERSONNEL
Barnes, Brigadier Michael. Commander 2nd Cavalry Regiment, (Australian
Army).
Black, Commander Daniel. USN. Senior Military Liaison, Special
Administrative Zone. (California)
Curtis, Lieutenant (j.g.) Wally. USN. Military Liaison, Pacific Fleet.
Kennedy, Lieutenant John F. Commander PT 101.
Mohr, Chief Petty Officer Eddie. Transferred to Auxiliary Force Development,
Special Administrative Zone. (California.)
Molloy, Able Seaman Michael “Moose.” PT 101.
MISC.
Cherry, Detective Sergeant Lou. Honolulu PD Homicide.
Davidson, Fmr. Able Seaman James “Slim Jim.” CEO Slim Jim Enterprises.
O’Brien, Maria. USMC Captain. (Legal Services) (retd.) Chief Counsel Slim
Jim Enterprises.
SOVIET COMMAND
Josef Vissarionovich Stalin, Secretary General of the Communist Party and
Premier of the Soviet Union.
Laventry Beria, NKVD Chief and head of Special Research Programs.
AXIS HIGH COMMAND
JAPAN:
Yamamoto, Admiral Isoroku. IJN. Commander in Chief Combined Fleet.
(HIJMS Yamamoto)
GERMANY:
Göbbels, Reichsminister Josef. German Propaganda Minister.
Himmler, Reichsführer Heinrich. SS Chief.
Hitler, Reichschancellor Adolf.
AXIS PERSONNEL
Brasch, Colonel Paul. Senior Consulting Engineer. Ministry of Armaments.
Hidaka, Commander Jisaku. IJN. Chief Aide, Admiral Yamamoto.
Philby, Harold “Kim.” Fmr SIS officer. NKVD temporary liaison to Skorzeny.
Skorzeny, Colonel Otto. Waffen SS. Personal bodyguard to Adolf Hitler.
Commander of Special Operation Section.