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

train. Panting, he pulled her aside and fought to get his breath back. It had been a hell of a run.

'Johnny! How dare you manhandle me?' He didn't let go, despite her indignation.

'We can't go to Paris, Libby,' Johnny eventually managed to say.

She scowled. 'Johnny, we've been through this. I've got commitments. I'm not running away with you.'

'No, you don't understand. We have to go to Switzerland first.' If he was going to do this, he thought, he might as well get it right.

'Switzerland?' Libby lit up. 'You want to take me to Switzerland? You're trying to trick me! You know I simply adore it there.'

'The last of the money I lost in Vittel came from Sir George's bank account in Zurich.'

'The secret naughty fund - so that's why you were so funny when we lost. You sneaky little fibber! Yes, we’d certainly better go to Zurich and pay the money back into his account. You can keep your fortune safe from the tax collectors, but not from Johnny Swift. I can see that George is going to have to take a firmer hand with you in future.’ Libby frowned, remembering Sir George’s other condition for letting Johnny back into the fold. ‘I hope your report’s going to be up to scratch.'

Johnny smiled weakly. He’d accepted that he’d have to pay the money back, but he didn’t really care if Sir George found his Balkans report up to scratch or not. It was the information that he’d discovered since leaving the Balkans that really mattered. Johnny now planned to take that straight to the British Ambassador in Paris, with the letter of commendation from Tisza to prove its authenticity. He had no doubt that what he knew could change the course of events in Europe, forever.

'We can't stay in Zurich for long, Libby - things are happening. I need to get back to Paris and impress people.'

'Well, we needn't go straight back, surely. It is the start of the season. Nothing can happen - all of the diplomats are on holiday. I mean, even the Kaiser's gone off on a cruise around Norway. I don't see why we can't have a holiday as well.'

Johnny shrugged. He had helped stop a war, or at least helped stop the Austrians from going off, half-cocked. He deserved some sort of holiday, after everything.

Chapter 43

Breitner put down his copy of von Wiesner's report and sat back to contemplate the special emissary’s findings on the assassination of the Heir Apparent. The report had just been dispatched to Vienna and for the first time since he’d learnt of the plot, Breitner felt as though everything was now out of his hands.

He had arrived in Sarajevo with von Wiesner three days previously and had done his best to assist the industrious lawyer, but his presence had been largely resented by both von Wiesner, who quite rightly saw him as a mole for Count Tisza, and General Potiorek, who was determined that the report should prove the Serbian Government’s guilt.

Von Wiesner had carried out a speedy, two day investigation into the assassination and the circumstances around it. Working in his hotel room until four in the morning each day, he waded through the mountain of paperwork produced by the civil and military authorities. Von Wiesner also held a number of conferences with General Potiorek, his chief advisors and the lead investigators. Potiorek did his best to shut Breitner out of these meetings but credentials from the Hungarian Prime Minister were hard to ignore.

In any event, there was little Breitner could add to what was said. The main focus was on the extent to which the Serbian Government had been involved in the outrage in Sarajevo, and that proved to be impossible to determine with the information at hand.

Breitner was inclined to believe that the assassins had been acting independently of both the Serbian Government and the Black Hand, although the assassination was certainly supported and approved by officers within the Serbian Army. Whether or not the officers were acting officially or had gone rogue, he doubted anyone would ever know for sure.

Breitner felt the assassins and their confederates might have been able to spread some light on the mystery. Apart from Mehmed Mehmedbasic, all of them had been arrested, including members of Narodna Odbrana, which ran the underground route into Bosnia.

The most senior member of Narodna Odbrana to have been caught was Veljko Cubrilovic, who was the brother of one of the assassins, Vaso Cubrilovic. They’d both taken part in the conspiracy without the knowledge of the other. Veljko was a teacher, with a family, who’d helped Princip and Grabez during their journey to Sarajevo and had directed them on to his friend, Misko Jovanovic, a rich and very nervous merchant from Tuzla. The assassins had been given Jovanovic’s name by their contact in Belgrade before they left, as someone who could help them once they’d crossed the border.

Breitner had thought it might have been possible for von Wiesner to do a deal or to apply pressure to get more information about Belgrade's involvement, as had been done in the case of Danilo Ilic. Ilic, Veljko Cubrilovic and Jovanovic were over twenty and would hang, and Breitner had felt that this fact could have been used to pry more information out of them. Veljko Cubrilovic and Jovanovic certainly had a lot to lose; they might have been persuaded to cooperate in return for a lighter sentence. By the terms of Austro-Hungarian law, people under twenty could not be executed. However, Princip and his accomplices would be sentenced to twenty years in prison, an intimidating prospect for teenagers, even assuming they survived the sentence.

Von Wiesner evidently felt that the conspirators had said all that they were going to say to the police and he had declined to interview them, which was largely why Breitner had accompanied him