The Dracula Caper - Time Wars 08 Read online

  A GUIDED TOUR OF HELL . . .

  Below them in the dungeon, behind thick iron bars set into stone, were scores of creatures bearing only a passing resemblance to men and women. Their clothes were torn and filthy, stained with blood. Some were completely covered with hair, looking like rabid, snarling beasts. They hurled themselves against the iron bars and howled like wolves. Some attacked each other, jaws snapping, claws slashing, and a few had fallen and were being greedily devoured by others in their cells. Still others looked almost normal except for their emaciated appearance, their hollow, staring eyes devoid of any sanity, and their abnormally long and pointed canine teeth, visible as they opened their mouths to emit throat-rending screams and thrust their hands out through the bars.

  "Here is the solution to your case gentlemen!" Dracula shouted over the uproar. "The dawn of a new race! The new breed brought forth by my creator!"

  "Enjoyable action adventure." —Fantasy Review

  Ace Books by Simon Hawke

  PSYCIHODROME

  PSYCHODROME 2: THE SHAPECHANGER SCENARIO The Time Wars Series

  THE IVANHOE GAMBIT

  THE TIMEKEEPER CONSPIRACY

  THE PIMPERNEL PLOT

  THE. ZENDA VENDETTA

  THE NAUTILUS SANCTION

  THE KHYBER CONNECTION

  THE ARGONAUT AFFAIR

  THE DRACULA CAPER

  This book is an Ace

  original edition, and has never

  been previously published.

  THE DRACULA CAPER

  An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PIIIN7ING HISTORY

  Ace edition / October 1988

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright C9 19801 by Simon Hake.

  Cover an by Neal McPheeters.

  This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part. by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. For information address: The Berkley. Publishing Group. 200 Madison Avenue. New York, New York 10016. ISBN: 0-441-16616-4

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  are trademarks belonging to Charter Communications. Inc. PRINTED IN THE UNTIED STATES OF AMERICA 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I

  A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF

  THE TIME WARS

  April 1 . 2425:

  Dr. Wolfgang Mensinger invents thechronoplate at

  the age of 115, discovering time travel. Later he would

  construct a small-scale working prototype for use in

  laboratory experiments specially designed to avoid any

  possible creation of a temporal paradox. He is hailed as the

  "Father of Temporal Physics."

  July 14. 2430:

  Mensinger publishes "There is No Future," in which

  he redefines relativity, proving that there is no such thing as

  the future. but an infinite number of potential future

  scenarios which are absolute relative only to their present.

  He also announces the discovery of "non-specific time"

  or temporal limbo, later known as "the dead zone "

  October 21. 2440:

  Wolfgang Mensinger dies. His son,Albrecht. perfects the

  chronoplate and carries on the work. but loses control of the

  discovery to political interests.

  June 15. 2460:

  Formation of the international Committee for

  Temporal Intelligence, with Albrecht Mensinger as

  director. Specially trained and conditioned "agents" of

  the committee begin to travel back through time in order

  to conduct research and field test the chronoplate

  apparatus. Many become lost in transition, trapped in the

  limbo of nonspecific time known as "the dead zone." Those

  who return from successful temporal voyages often bring

  back startling information necessitating the revision of

  historical records.

  March 22. 2461:

  The Consorti Affair—Cardinal Lodovico Consorti is

  excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church

  for proposing that agents travel back through time to

  obtain empirical evidence that Christ arose following His

  crucifixion. The Consorti Affair sparks extensive inter-

  national negotiations amidst a volatile climate of public

  opinion concerning the proper uses for the new technology.

  Temporal excursions are severely curtailed. Concurrently,

  espionage operatives of several nations infiltrate the

  Committee for Temporal Intelligence.

  May 1, 2461:

  Dr. Albrecht Mensinger appears before a special

  international conference in Geneva, composed of political

  leaders and members of the scientific community. He

  attempts to alleviate fears about the possible misuses of

  time travel. He further refuses to cooperate with any

  attempts at militarizing his father's discovery.

  February 3, 2485:

  The research facilities of the Committee for Temporal

  Intelligence are seized by troops of the TransAtlantic

  Treaty Organization.

  January 25, 2492:

  The Council of Nations meets in Buenos Aires, capital of

  the United Socialist States of South America, to discuss

  increasing international tensions and economic

  instability. A proposal for "an end to war in our time" is

  put forth by the chairman of the Nippon Conglomerat e

  Empire . Dr . Albr echt Mensinger, appearing before the

  body as nominal director of the Committee for Temporal

  Intelligence, argues passionately against using temporal

  technology to resolve international conflicts, but cannot

  present proof that the past can be affected by temporal

  voyagers. Prevailing scientific testimony reinforces the

  conventional wisdom that the past is an immutable absolute.

  December 24, 2492:

  Formation of the Referee Corps. brought into being by

  the Council of Nations as an extranational arbitrating hotly

  with sole control over temporal technology and authority

  to stage temporal conflicts as "limited warfare" to resolve

  international disputes.

  April 21, 2493:

  On the recommendation of the Referee Corps, a

  subordinate body named the Observer Corps is formed,

  taking over most of the functions of the Committee for

  Temporal Intelligence, which is redesignated as the

  Temporal Intelligence Agency. Under the aegis of the

  Council of Nations and the Referee Corps, the TIA

  absorbs the intelligence agencies of the world's

  governments and is made solely answerable to the Referee

  Corps. Dr. Mensinger resigns his post to found the

  Temporal Preservation League, a group dedicated to the

  abolition of temporal conflict.

  June, 2497 -

  Referee Corps presides over initial temporal confrontation March, 2502:

  campaigns. accepting "grievances" from disputing

  nations, selecting historical conflicts of the past as "staging

  grounds" and supervising the infiltration of modern

  troops into the so-called "cannon fodder" ranks of ancient

  warring armies. Initial numbers of temporal combatants are


  kept small, with infiltration facilitated by cosmetic

  surgery and implant conditioning of soldiers. The results

  are calculated based upon successful return rate and a

  complicated "point spread." Soldiers are monitored via

  cerebral implants, enabling Search & Retrieve teams to

  follow their movements and monitor mortality rate. The

  media dubs temporal conflicts the "Time Wars." 2500-2510:

  Extremely rapid growth of massive support industry

  catering to the exacting art and science of temporal conflict.

  Rapid improvements in international economic climate

  follows, with significant growth in productivity and

  rapid decline in unemployment and inflation rate. There

  is a gradual escalation of the Time Wars with the

  majority of the world's armed services converting to

  temporal duty status.

  Growth of the Temporal Preservation League as a peace

  movement with an intensive lobby effort and mass

  demonstrations against the Time Wars. Mensinger

  cautions against an imbalance in temporal continuity due

  to the increasing activity of the Time Wars.

  September 2. 2514:

  Mensinger publishes his "Theories of Temporal

  Relativity," incorporating his solution to the Grandfather

  Paradox and calling once again for a cease-fire in the Time

  Wars. The result is an upheaval in the scientific community

  and a hastily reconvened Council of Nations to discuss his

  findings, leading to the Temporal Strategic Arms

  Limitations Talks of 2515.

  March 15. 2515:

  T-SALT held in New York City Mensinger appears

  before the representatives at the sessions and petitions

  for an end to the Time Wars. A cease-fire resolution is

  framed, but tabled due to lack of agreement among the

  members of the Council of Nations. Mensinger leaves

  the T-SALT a broken man.

  November 18, 2516:

  Dr. Albrecht Mensinger experiences total nervous

  collapse shortly after being awarded the Benford Prize.

  December 25, 2516: Dr. Albrecht Mensinger commits suicide. Violent

  demonstrations by members of the Temporal

  Preservation League.

  January 1. 2517:

  Militant members of the Temporal Preservation

  League hand together to form the Timekeepers, a

  terrorist offshoot of the League, dedicated to the

  complete destruction of the war machine. They

  announce their presence to the world by assassinating

  three members of the Referee Corps and bombing the

  Council of Nations meeting in Buenos Aires,

  killing several heads of state and injuring many

  others.

  September 17, 2613:

  Formation of the First Division of the U.S. Army

  Temporal Corps as a crack commando unit

  following the successful completion of a

  "temporal adjustment" involving the first serious

  threat of a timestream split. The First Division,

  assigned exclusively to deal with threats to

  temporal continuity, is designated as "the Time

  Commandos.”

  October 10. 2615:

  Temporal physicist Dr. Robert Darkness

  disappears without a trace shortly after turning over

  to the army his new invention. the "warp grenade,"

  a combination time machine and nuclear device.

  Establishing a secret research installation

  somewhere off Earth, Darkness experiments with

  temporal translocation based on the transmutation

  principle. He experiments upon himself and

  succeeds in translating his own body into

  tachyons. but an error in his calculations causes

  an irreversible change in his sub-atomic structure,

  rendering it unstable. Darkness becomes "the man

  who is faster than light."

  November 3, 2620:

  The chronoplate is superceded by the temporal

  transponder. Dubbed the "warp disc." the

  temporal transponder was developed from work

  begun by Dr. Darkness and it drew on power

  tapped by Einstein-Rosen Generators (developed

  by Bell Laboratories in 2545) bridging to neutron

  stars.

  March 15, 2625:

  The Temporal Crisis: The discovery of an alternate

  universe following an unsuccessful invasion by

  troops of the Special Operations Group. counter-

  parts of the Time Commanders. Whether as a result

  of chronophysical instability caused by clocking

  tremendous amounts of energy through Einstein-

  Rosen Bridges or the cumulative effect of

  temporal disruptions, an alternate universe comes

  into congruence with our own, causing an

  instability in the timeflow of both universes and

  resulting in a "confluence effect," wherein the

  timestreams of both universes ripple and

  occasionally intersect, creating "confluence

  points" where a crossover from one universe to

  another becomes possible.

  Massive amounts of energy clocked through

  Einstein-Rosen Bridges has resulted in

  unintentional "warp bombardment" of the alternate

  universe, causing untold destruction. The Time

  Wars escalate into a temporal war between two