The Gatekeeper: Tx34 — Samuel T. Fuller

The story opens in the autumn of 1954, where a flat, fat rain beats a tattoo on Peter Stolland as he stumbles away from the Gate, then kneels to get his bearings. Nothing seems to have changed in the three years since his last visit. The night sounds and smells of Norfolk's coastal marsh at Cley close around him. The wretched weather that greeted his arrival quickly saturates both his clothes and his appetite for making an untimely visit to Alan Brandon, Head of Norfolk's CID. This time, the reason for his appearance through the Gate is not as simple as a hunt for one man. Now his mission involves a military research establishment: a place where the absolute need for secrecy can so easily breed duplicity. Stolland must recruit help to unravel a web of deceit fuelled by political ambition and criminal greed. However, first our traveller from the year 2105 must interrupt a man who is busy playing host at the wedding celebrations of his beloved daughter. Lightning can strike twice in the same place, as Stolland is about to find out.