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

the Mostar Café's garden. The motorcade was late and the veteran seemed tense. Ilic wondered again if Mehmedbasic might have lost his nerve that day on the train back from Toulouse, panicking when he saw the policeman searching the train.

He pushed the idea to the back of his mind - Mehmedbasic was the linchpin, the trigger. When he threw his bomb, the others would join the attack. Cheering could be heard from the direction of the station; it wouldn't be long now and he needed to get back to his short-sighted comrade. If Jovo wasn't going to act as Popovic's eyes then Ilic would do it.

“Be strong, be brave,’ Ilic told Mehmedbasic and started to work his way back through the crowd. He passed Vaso Cubrilovic just before the corner of Cumurija Street, but before he could cross the road, the man Apis had sent came out of the shadows and blocked his path.

'Have you seen the English spy?' he asked.

*

Johnny was frantic as he pushed his way through the crowd. He didn't know where to start. There wasn’t time to go to City Hall and find Breitner - the Royal couple were here.

He thought about going to the place Ilic had assigned for the assassination and stopping Popovic from acting, but Popovic was only one of the conspirators. There were five others, plus Ilic himself, for all the good he was, Johnny reasoned. He considered approaching a gendarme, but it would have taken too long to explain himself and even if he was believed he'd probably end up getting arrested.

Johnny was furious with himself for being so easily led by Libby. He knew that it was all too late and it was all his fault. Then Johnny saw the onion spire of the triangular doctor's surgery, on the corner of Cumurija Street, and he started to pull himself together. He wasn't being fair - any right thinking man would have behaved in exactly the same way as he had. ‘Play up and play the bloody game!’ he reminded himself, and decided that this wasn't much different to the time he had won the inter-house cup, leading the comeback to overturn a twenty eight nothing lead.

He could take two of them out of the game. He knew where Cubrilovic would be, and Popovic was too short-sighted to be of any danger to anyone apart from the people immediately around him.

*

Breitner watched as Franz Ferdinand and the senior regional commanders finished the tour of Philippovich Barracks without any incident.

An unseemly scramble ensued as the Archduke's security detachment and the local police argued over seats in the first car. The motorcade began to leave and Breitner saw, to his horror, that the Archduke's special security detectives had been pushed out.

The motorcade turned onto Appel Quay and in compliance with the Archduke's request, proceeded at a steady ten miles an hour along the embankment. Breitner scanned the crowds that had gathered under the shade on the city side of the embankment, which he thought would be the most likely place the assassins would strike from. Not that there was much that he could do to help, squashed next to the Colonel in the front of the car. To all intents and purposes he was merely a passenger.

*

Franz Ferdinand was gratified that black and yellow bunting had been hung across Appel Quay and that the Imperial flag was flying from every building - some even had photographs of the Archduke himself in their windows.

The Governor, sitting opposite Franz Ferdinand, pointed out the Herren Club and the new post office, magnificent examples of Austrian culture and architecture. The Archduke waved at the crowd, enjoying the prestige he and Sophie were receiving. It wasn't a huge crowd but they were cheering enthusiastically enough, actively demonstrating their appreciation of what the Monarchy had done for them. Franz Ferdinand wondered whether given time, the people in this wild and remote place could be tamed and fully absorbed into the Empire.

He turned to his wife and whispered, 'At last you're receiving the respect you deserve, my Sopherl.' It had been fourteen years to the day since he'd taken the Morganatic Oath that had allowed their marriage. Sophie smiled and brushed his jacket; he had also worn the uniform of a cavalry general for their wedding ceremony.

She suddenly jumped at the sound of an echoing explosion and Franz Ferdinand put a reassuring arm around her.

'A twenty-four cannon salute,' Governor Potiorek said, pointing ahead of them to a small, round tower overlooking the city, surrounded by tell-tale gun smoke. 'The Yellow Bastion, Your Highness,' he explained and indicated a fort behind it. 'That is the newly enlarged Prince Eugene Barracks, headquarters of Fifteenth Corps.'

The Archduke inclined his head to show that he understood the information. Fifteenth Corps had taken part in the manoeuvres he had been attending.

*

Johnny found Vaso Cubrilovic at his position under the onion spire of the doctor's surgery, on the corner of Cumurija Street.

'You're late, Jovo,' Cubrilovic snapped.

'So is the Archduke, by the look of it,' Johnny said, trying not to sound relieved.

'What are you wearing?' Cubrilovic eyed him suspiciously. Johnny looked down and realised he'd put on the evening dress from the previous night.

Johnny shrugged, 'I don't want the tyrant to think we're peasants.'

Cubrilovic nodded, accepting Johnny’s explanation. He was also smartly dressed, with a clean collar on his shirt. 'Why aren't you with Cvjetko? My eyesight is fine.'

Johnny sensed that the schoolboy was trying to hide his nerves with bravado. He had seen it a hundred times before big games and he drew strength from it.

'Ilic said we could stand where we wished if...' Cubrilovic motioned for Johnny to be quiet; they could hear cars approaching and the cheering of the crowd was intensifying.

*

Mehmedbasic prepared himself as he saw the Royal motorcade. He took the bomb