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

into drinking jug after jug of wine, for the sake of the plot. Ilic was starting to doubt the prudence of recruiting Jovo into the cell. He'd picked up all the licentiousness and none of the culture of Northern Europe. The drinking had at least provided Ilic with a temporary escape from the doubts and anguish he felt about the assassination.

He firmly believed that people had a right to take action against an unjust ruler, as was happening all across Europe. These were acts of desperation, of despair against tyranny - unselfish acts, to reclaim the moral order which a tyrant had corrupted. Kropotkin wrote of a moral urge that would destroy authority and create a free society.

Tyrannicide is the principal part of the moral urge to destroy such authority, but that didn’t dispel Ilic’s philosophical misgivings about assassinating the Archduke. He’d tried to express these doubts in a recent review he'd written of 'The Seven Who Were Hanged' by Leonid Andreyev. The book examined the meaning of death through the stories of seven people sentenced to die, five for a failed political assassination, and it looked at the spiritual crisis each underwent as they strove to overcome death in the name of a higher goal. It was a crisis that was mirrored in Ilic.

Ilic was also uncertain as to whether now was the right time for such direct action. He shared the same view as his friend and mentor Vladimir Gacinovic, who was considered to be one of the key thinkers in the Young Bosnia movement. Gacinovic believed that there was a need to form a political party to fill the power vacuum that a revolution would cause. Only after this party was established should a political assassination be carried out to instigate a revolt.

Lost in thought, Ilic barely registered the arrival of Major Tankosic's envoy, Djuro Sarac. Ilic understood that this was going to be more than a progress report if the Major had sent his former bodyguard and the person who’d been entrusted with Gavrilo’s training. They greeted each other and Sarac signalled for coffee. Ilic also realised it could be a golden opportunity to gain an insight into Gavrilo's capacity to commit tyrannicide.

'You taught Gavrilo to shoot?' llic asked.

'Yes,' Sarac answered tersely.

'What were your impressions of him?' Ilic asked, as their coffee arrived. He looked at it wearily.

'Gavrilo is a fair shot,' Sarac said noncommittally, placing a sugar cube in his coffee.

'But do you think he will be able to act when the time comes?' Ilic decided to leave his coffee, dreading the corrosive effect it would have on his stomach.

Sarac shrugged. 'Gavro is certainly driven, but you can never tell about a man until he’s placed in the moment.' Ilic's heart sank; Sarac's tone suggested that Gavrilo wouldn't falter.

Sarac leaned forward. 'But that is neither here nor there. The central committee has ordered that the attempt on the Heir be cancelled.'

Ilic couldn't believe it. This was more than he could have hoped for. 'How - why?' he asked.

'The government has discovered the plot and is concerned about Austro-Hungarian reaction to such an outrage.'

'I understand.' It was a qualm Ilic also harboured.

'However, I've been told to tell you that this message does not come from the Major himself.'

'I don't understand - who does it come from then?' Ilic had heard that Sarac had trained to be a priest before joining the Partisans. He judged from Sarac’s ability to dissemble that he might have done well in that vocation.

'I was told to relay the decision of the central committee, but also to tell you that it wasn't the Major's choice.'

Ilic was unsure whether this meant that Tankosic didn't back the decision to cancel and that they should continue, or just that the Major didn't agree with the decision. His ulcer began to settle. He decided that like most things told to him by a priest, he would ignore it.

Chapter 25

Johnny strolled along Appel Quay, enjoying the summer sunshine and trying desperately hard not to scratch his moustache, which was really starting to irritate. He’d grown it in an effort to blend in with Gavrilo and Ilic, but the thing itched remorselessly.

The Young Bosnians didn't seem to go in for the big, bushy Empire moustache that he’d been unable to cultivate, but which his contemporaries in the Diplomatic Service twirled with effortless charm. They opted instead for pencil type efforts and keeping the thing in trim was proving to be extremely tedious. The worst part was that he couldn't stop self-consciously touching and smoothing it, making him feel like a gigolo.

That idea inevitably caused his mind, with a lonely pang, to drift to Libby. The thought of her elegant contours and the journey they'd taken him on focused Johnny's mind and brought him back to the task at hand. He only had a small window of opportunity to act.

Ilic was due back from one of his jaunts and Gavrilo had arranged to meet him on his return, with one of their out of town cronies. Johnny had been expected to go, but he'd told Gavrilo that he needed to see another relative about money. Gavro had understood, as he was also desperately short of cash, although he'd managed to borrow a few crowns from Ilic, a courtesy not extended to Johnny.

He concluded his turn along the embankment and double backed on himself, heading for home, as he thought the coast should be clear by then. He briefly toyed with the idea of following the embankment up to City Hall and dropping in on Breitner; he wanted to see a friendly face, or at least a face that knew him for who he was. Breitner was the first person Johnny had met who he didn't have to pretend with and with whom he could truly be himself.

He would have to find some way