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

he said to him, without Breitner to verify his story, would only implicate him further in the conspiracy.

Viktor picked up Bogdan Zerajic’s skull from his desk. If the gesture was meant to be an intimidation tactic, Johnny felt it was a good one.

He levelled his close-set eyes on Johnny. 'You were acting under instructions from Belgrade and Narodna Odbrana. I can smell it on you. They told you to stop the Heir’s car in front of Princip.'

'No, some old duffer tapped me on the shoulder and told me to stop the car - Potiorek I think his name was - the Governor. He's the chap you need to speak to.'

Viktor put down Bogdan Zerajic’s skull and punched Johnny in the face. 'How dare you talk of the Governor in that way?'

'The only person I took instructions from was Laszlo Breitner, of the Joint Ministry of Finance,' Johnny said, through a cut lip. He’d taken quite a beating since he’d come to Sarajevo and was becoming increasingly concerned that it would spoil his good looks.

However, Viktor seemed satisfied that Johnny wasn’t a Serbian agent and began to change tack. 'Give me the names of all of the revolutionary scum you’ve been associating with. We need to clear them from our streets!' he shouted and punched Johnny again.

‘I’d be happy to cooperate fully, but I need to speak to Breitner first.’ The names were Johnny’s last bargaining chip and he was starting to worry that if he gave them to Viktor, Breitner would have no reason to help him get out of this disaster.

'Maybe you’d be more talkative after a little bath?' Viktor almost smiled.

'A bath?' Johnny didn't like the sound of that.

'Yes, I find submerging my subjects underwater to be an effective method of extracting information.'

'You don't really need to go to all that trouble. I've told you all that I can,' Johnny said in disbelief.

Two guards picked Johnny up and dragged him to a large tin bath in the corner of the room. They held him over it and blood started to drip off his face into the water. He could just make out his reflection and was glad to see that it didn't look too bad.

'Are you sure you don't want to tell me anything?' Viktor asked.

'Yes, damn it!'

'Very well.'

The guards dropped Johnny. He landed on the floor with a crash.

'What are you playing at, man?' Johnny groaned.

'I know who you are. I recognise the symmetry of your face from the last time we met,' Viktor said.

'Why did you go through this pantomime, then?' Johnny asked in dismay.

'I wanted to make sure you weren’t one of them. The indentations on your head suggest you are prone to deceit.'

Johnny was dragged into another interview room and after several hours Breitner entered with a face like thunder. 'What have you done this time, my English friend?'

Johnny pointed at his face. 'Look what they've done to me.'

'Never mind that, just tell me everything you know.'

'You've got to help me get out of here...'

'I've vouched for you - that's all I can do for the time being. I need to know what else you've found out,' Breitner said patiently.

'Well, I rather think you've missed the boat on that. They've done it.'

Breitner finally lost his temper, ‘I am willing to overlook your missing our meeting to go gambling - don’t try to deny it. I have found out everything. There is nothing I can do about that now, but if you stand in the way of justice and refuse to tell me the names of everyone who took part in the murders of the Heir Apparent and his consort I'll leave you to Viktor.'

Johnny told him what he wanted to know and for his trouble found himself back in the same white-washed cell that Breitner had left him in before. After everything he'd been through, he was in an even worse situation than when he’d started.

This time he had to share the cell with a number of leading Serb citizens who'd been rounded up and beaten after the assassination. If Gavrilo Princip's aim had been to unite the South Slav people through the outrage, he had dramatically failed. Johnny’s cellmates told him that the assassinations had caused widespread revulsion in all of Sarajevo's communities. Nonetheless, full scale reprisals against the Serb population had broken out all across Bosnia and Herzagovina.

Johnny's new cellmates were eventually transferred to the military prison and the bells of Sarajevo, which had been tolling for the Royal couple, finally stopped. Johnny was left alone and in silence, to rot.

All he could do was hold fast and wait for Breitner to return. He was worried about Libby; he'd heard that a mob had thrown stones at the Serb-owned Hotel Europe and he had no idea if she’d been hurt. However, his real concern was that she might leave Sarajevo without him. He'd abandoned her with all their money and rushed off. He tried to fight off his nagging doubts about her loyalty. She had, after all, come to Sarajevo to find him eventually, so that she could win back the money for her husband, but only once she'd bored of Barton-Forbes.

Johnny couldn't decide if he'd really seen her go into the bank of Austro-Hungary or not, after the bomb went off. Even if she had been there he was sure that there was a harmless explanation, but the thought that she'd banked the money beyond his reach, in her own name, was an unsettling one.

He had to get out of the cell before she did something stupid, like give the money to Sir George. There wasn't much point in Johnny going back to Paris; he’d totally failed to stop the Archduke’s assassination and all of the information he'd gathered for Sir George had been superseded by events.

Johnny