Rocketman: Agent Kiesler's Secret War, #3

By Blaze Ward

Eva rescued the clone and then thwarted the German invasion. Now she faces her greatest challenge: she must stop Nazi agents from kidnapping the most brilliant rocket scientist in America.

With Nik Slate and her team behind her, Eva must dash cross-country to rescue the very future.

Be sure to also read other Eva and Nik stories: The Rescue (#1) and The Machine (#2)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Knotted Road Press
• Release date: Jul 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781540131225

Blaze Ward

Blaze Ward writes science fiction in the Alexandria Station universe (Jessica Keller, The Science Officer,  The Story Road, etc.) as well as several other science fiction universes, such as Star Dragon, the Dominion, and more. He also writes odd bits of high fantasy with swords and orcs. In addition, he is the Editor and Publisher of Boundary Shock Quarterly Magazine. You can find out more at his website www.blazeward.com, as well as Facebook, Goodreads, and other places. Blaze's works are available as ebooks, paper, and audio, and can be found at a variety of online vendors. His newsletter comes out regularly, and you can also follow his blog on his website. He really enjoys interacting with fans, and looks forward to any and all questions—even ones about his books!

Book preview

Rocketman

Rocketman

Agent Kiesler’s Secret War: #3

Blaze Ward

Knotted Road Press

Manhattan

High Tea was one of the few English customs Eva had adopted, since she usually found the American way of doing many things, the more forthright approach, to be so much better suited to her temperament.

Her normally-aloof companion approved of the event, regularly surfacing from his basement laboratory to join her. Dr. Nik Slate was the younger clone of the famous scientist N. Tesla, a reproduction sharing all the great man’s memories until they underwent mitosis in 1922. More importantly, the new version, while apparently only forty years of age, had all the man’s European manners.

They were alone today in the ground floor conference room, seated at one end of the big, maple-wood table. The rest of her team would pretend that they were elsewhere, having seen the tray with the accoutrements, including the electric tea kettle.

Like her, the Serbian scientist generally preferred the American mentality, but he still required formal wear for the event: pinstriped suit, crisp shirt, silk tie. He had at least modernized somewhat, moving daringly to the modern collar, not an easy adjustment in a man whose mind still thought of itself as eighty, even as it had been reborn and was only now approaching forty physically.

Eva was not as committed to the fashion aspects as Dr. Slate. Today, she wore what she liked to think of as her commando uniform, although she wasn’t technically in any army. Tough-knit, black pants, tight in her thighs and belling out over the lace up boots she had gotten an old friend in Hollywood to make her. A matching military top that fashionably split the difference between a nice blouse and a British Army jacket, for cut and fabric, with a dark gray t-shirt underneath, completed the outfit.

Her nails and black hair were short, a requirement of the physicality of keeping up with her team of British commandos, but she would probably still win a vote for the most beautiful woman in Hollywood, had she stayed.

Eva fought not to roll her eyes at the memory of boredom that had driven her to take the Brigadier up on his invitation to quit Hollywood and fight the Nazis more directly.

But the coming war could wait while she indulged in Tea. Today, cucumber sandwiches with dilled cream filling on rye bread. Not entirely traditional, but oh, so very English, and the layers of taste complimented the black tea.

Good, dark stuff, as the English approached it. One lump. Two spoons of cream. Steeped hard and steaming in a pewter tea set she had gotten from Mr. Mayer, the producer. He had been trying oh-so-hard to bribe her into staying on when she finally decided to quit acting. The scent filled the room and took her back years, to the ocean liner crossing, where she had stalked Mr. Mayer for an invitation, even as the Brigadier had attempted to recruit her.

Unsuccessfully for the military man, but only at that time.

Even Dr. Slate smiled in approval, from what was normally a very dour and focused man.

The door to the room was closed, but it did not lock. Eva did that mostly for the benefit of the rest of her team, the Brigadier’s men. They were still uncomfortable with the science that might clone a man and create a young adult copy with all his creator’s memories and experience. Eva wondered when the apparently forty-year-old man might replicate the experiment.

Would she be interested in a copy of the genius closer to her age? Should she look forward to doing something similar in another twenty or forty years?

The original N. Tesla had been wedded to science his entire life. The younger now had potentially all of human history laid out in front of him, if he approached his aging carefully enough.

I’ve done some research on your…predecessor, Eva hinted as she took another sip of tea.

Dr. Slate raised one dark eyebrow to convey the lightest laughing mockery of the topic, without ever edging too close to pomposity. A brief, silent smile was all the response she would get.

You are not the man your…father was, in many ways, she continued.

Indeed, Special Agent Kiesler?