Blood Red City (46 page)

‘She killed two men when they found her,' the guard captain explained. ‘Another as they put her in the cage.'

‘And she does not wound?'

‘No, comrade. We have tried shooting her, stabbing her…' He shrugged. ‘I've never seen anything like it.'

‘Then you are one of the lucky ones. You say she was found in Stalingrad?'

‘Impaled on wooden joists in a ruined basement. God knows how she got there. The injuries healed as soon as my men removed her.'

‘And then she killed them.'

‘Yes … What should we do with her, sir?'

‘Take her to the Kremlin Archives,' Stalin ordered. ‘Tell Archivist Vasilov that I want her stored with the items recovered from Tunguska.'

*   *   *

‘Tunguska?' Brinkman shook his head. ‘I've never heard of it.

‘It's a place in Siberia,' Elizabeth Archer explained.

The two of them were sitting either side of her desk in the vault beneath the British Museum. Elizabeth had Vasilov's letter in front of her.

‘And why is this place relevant?' Brinkman asked.

‘There was an explosion there.'

‘There
is
a war on,' Brinkman pointed out.

‘This explosion was in 1908,' Elizabeth told him. ‘On 30 June, to be exact. Vasilov says that the archive the Vril broke into was where the Russians stored what they recovered after the blast.'

Brinkman nodded. ‘He thinks the Vril were somehow involved?'

‘He does,' Elizabeth confirmed. ‘Because this wasn't just a bomb going off. Luckily it was in an uninhabited area, but even so it devastated the forests.'

‘Is this what Jane Roylston saw in her vision?' Brinkman asked.

Elizabeth shook her head. ‘What she saw was on a much smaller scale. The Russians estimate that the Tunguska explosion destroyed eighty million trees.'

Brinkman stared at her. ‘Eighty
million
?'

‘Over an area of about 800 square miles.'

Brinkman leaned back in his chair. ‘That's a hefty blast. I'm surprised there was anything left to recover.'

‘Not much,' Elizabeth admitted. ‘But, according to Vasilov, they found something buried under the ground right at the epicentre of the blast. He doesn't know much about it. He says they spent years examining the device, but without learning much.'

‘It wasn't damaged by the explosion?'

‘Probably, but Vasilov's working assumption was that it was somehow involved in
causing
the explosion.'

Brinkman let out a long breath. ‘I can see why Stalin and his comrades would be interested in finding out how it works. And this device was created by the Vril?'

‘If not, then they certainly know about it,' Elizabeth said. She picked up Vasilov's letter, quickly reading back over it. ‘And now, they have it.'

‘What?'

‘That device is what was taken from the Kremlin Archives. Vasilov couldn't learn its secrets, but we have to assume the Vril already know them.'

‘It's a weapon,' Brinkman said grimly.

‘Obviously. But what, or whom, are they planning to use it against?'

‘And when?' Brinkman added. ‘And how do we stop them?'

 

Also by
Justin Richards

The Suicide Exhibition

(The Never War: Book One)

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Justin Richards
is a British writer. He has written many spin off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and he is Creative Director for the BBC Books range. He has written for television, contributing to Five's soap opera
Family Affairs.
He is also the author of a series of crime novels for children about the Invisible Detective, and novels for older children. His Doctor Who novel
The Burning
was placed sixth in the Top 10 of SFX magazine's “Best SF/Fantasy novelization or TV tie-in novel” category of 2000. You can sign up for email updates
here
.

 

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CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Also by Justin Richards

About the Author

Copyright

 

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin's Press.

THE BLOOD RED CITY
. Copyright © 2014 by Justin Richards. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Richards, Justin, author.

Title: The blood red city / Justin Richards.

Description: First U.S. edition. | New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2016. | 2014 | Series: Never War, book 2

Identifiers: LCCN 2015043226 | ISBN 9781250059215 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781466863781 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1939–1945—Fiction. | Human-alien encounters— Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Science Fiction / Military. | FICTION / Science Fiction / Adventure. | FICTION / Alternative History. | GSAFD: Alternative histories (Fiction) | Science fiction.

Classification: LCC PR6118.I365 B58 2016 | DDC 823/.92—dc23

LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043226

Our books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact your local bookseller or the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at
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First published in Great Britain by Del Ray, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, a Penguin Random House Group company

First U.S. Edition: March 2016

e-ISBN 9781466863781