The Assassins by Alan Bardos (best novels in english txt) 📗

However, the ultimatum had clearly been a clumsy attempt by Austro-Hungary to provoke a war and was bound to incite their Russian cousins to take action. The rejection of the ultimatum had been delivered to the Austro-Hungarian legation at 5:55 pm that evening. Serbia was now preparing to receive a declaration of war and the inevitable attack that would follow.

Apis poured his brandy onto his burning files, and a huge flame jumped out of the smouldering fire. 'If the Russians stand with us, this will be the start of an all out fight to the death which can only end in our victory and the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Even if it results in my losing the struggle with Pasic, even if we both die, we will finally get back what we have been dreaming of since Kosovo.'

Chapter 44

Johnny arrived at Paris's Gare de l'Est to the sensational news that Madame Caillaux had been acquitted of murdering the newspaper editor, Gaston Calmette. The story appeared to be on the front page of every Paris paper.

Johnny turned away from the headlines to catch a last fleeting glimpse of Libby, as a swarm of porters and Embassy officials escorted her through a group of French soldiers. They'd travelled back to Paris separately, for the sake of discretion, with Johnny safely secured in second class.

Johnny waited at the newsstand until the last Embassy flunky cleared off. He couldn't see anything about the Balkans crisis in the papers: obviously, nothing critical had happened during his glorious three week sabbatical with Libby.

He smiled contentedly to himself. Libby had bestowed every possible reward on him that her mischievous and creative mind could devise. A pretty brunette behind the counter saw the look on Johnny's face and grinned back coyly.

At nine o'clock the following morning, and fully reacquainted with the hurly burly of Parisian life, Johnny presented himself to Sir George Smyth in the Imperial finery of his Chancery Office.

Sir George was too incensed to speak for a moment, his face flushing with rage. The undertone was clear - how dare Johnny have the barefaced cheek not to get his bloody head blown off, when a better man had been killed.

'If you haven't got anything tangible to report, God help you, Swift,' Sir George managed to say at last. Without going into the 'whys' and 'hows', Johnny explained that he'd liaised with the Austro-Hungarian Joint-Ministry of Finance to investigate the Young Bosnia Movement, who he felt were the main threat to Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia, their aim being to unite the South Slav people through a revolution that would overthrow their Imperial masters. They believed, Johnny continued, that such a revolution would be sparked by the assassination of a leading Austro-Hungarian personage. It was this belief that led to the outrage in Sarajevo.

Johnny was about to explain his role in foiling Nedjo's attempt to throw a bomb into the Archduke's car, when Sir George interrupted him.

'Yes, that's all rather by the by now. The Austrians have already given us the findings of their police investigation, in German. I believe it's still in the basement of the Foreign Office, unread. Did you actually manage to find out anything useful?'

Johnny's stomach clenched in frustration. 'With respect, Sir George, you sent me to Bosnia to investigate the nationalist question.'

'Did I indeed? Was that really the reason?' Sir George let that dangle, like a noose around Johnny's neck.

'I have paid off all of the debts...' Johnny said, taking the wire receipts out of his pocket. Sir George went red and got up from behind his desk to properly express his indignation.

'Don't be so damned vulgar, boy!' Sir George shouted and then regaining his composure, he sat down and in the correct manner of a British gentleman addressing his staff, asked, 'What were your exact instructions, Swift?'

'I believe my exact instructions were to "ferret about a bit",' Johnny replied as tonelessly as possible.

Sir George smashed his fist onto his desk. 'I believe you were instructed to make yourself useful to the Vienna Embassy, with a view to understanding the spread of pan-Slavic nationalism in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy - not to charge about the Balkans swilling wine and chasing women!' Johnny tried to maintain a straight face, but he could tell Sir George knew his assumption was correct. Johnny may have been able to pass himself off as a Bosnian revolutionary, but one whiff of moral indignation from his betters and he went to pieces.

'I did report to our Vienna Embassy but they didn't know anything about me, or why I had been sent there.'

'Are you contradicting me, Swift?' There was nothing Johnny could say; Sir George was leading him into a trap. Johnny could continue to disagree with him and Sir George would get one of his cronies in Vienna to say that Johnny hadn't been within a hundred miles of the place, and God help him then.

He looked around the office for something that might help him, but all of the scandal in the papers had played itself out.

'Well, have you got anything to say for yourself, before I initiate a formal disciplinary?' Sir George asked mockingly.

Johnny remembered his letter of commendation, from Count Tisza. 'Well, there is this.'

Sir George snatched the letter out of Johnny's hand and scanned through the few lines that thanked Johnny for making himself useful in the general investigation around the murder of the Heir Apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne. It was the last part that Johnny hoped might turn things around for him. No one was more conscious of royalty, even foreign royalty, than a minor aristocrat trying to further his power and influence.

Sir George looked at Johnny steadily as he carefully folded the letter and passed it back. 'A letter of commendation from a country with whom our allies could well be at war in