The Assassins by Alan Bardos (read novel full .TXT) 📕

to feel pretty edgy. He only had a few hours left before he was due to meet Breitner at the Governor's residence. A loud knock at the street door had raised Johnny's hopes for an instant; he’d thought that Breitner might have turned up with a posse of gendarmes to arrest the conspirators.

The sound of Mrs Ilic's voice calling for her son had soon dashed that idea. It was just a visitor for Danilo and whoever it was had made a heck of a noise banging around with great clod-hopping feet. Johnny watched from his window as the visitor left and then he glanced impatiently around the room for the thousandth time. He picked up the book of Serbian poetry that Breitner had given him and began to thumb through it.

'It's good to see you using your time wisely, Jovo.' Johnny looked up with a start - Ilic had come in unannounced.

'Do you need me for something, Danilo?' Johnny asked hopefully.

Ilic looked at the book of poetry and nodded. 'Yes, come with me.'

Johnny followed Ilic into his room. Ilic looked decidedly ashen as he pulled the Gladstone bag from under Gavrilo's bed. He took out two bombs and tied them around his waist with a piece of cord.

'What's going on?' Johnny asked.

'I've arranged to meet the second cell,' Ilic answered, putting two guns into the pockets of his jacket and padding them out with newspaper. Johnny assumed that he needed the paper to show the other cell the Archduke's route through Sarajevo.

They left the boarding house just after two and strolled through the busy streets of the old town. The rain had started to ease up and Johnny felt a tremendous sense of relief as he enjoyed the first sunshine he'd seen in days. Things were finally starting to happen.

They came out of the old town and passed City Hall. Ilic looked around wearily before steering them towards Bembasa, a quiet district on the edge of the city where the Miljacka river meandered into Sarajevo.

'Are you okay, Danilo?' Johnny asked.

'It is possible the police might have heard about our plans, Jovo.'

'How do you know that?' Johnny asked, trying to keep his voice steady. He was pretty sure that Ilic was just nervous and didn't suspect him of being an interloper who was counting down the minutes before he could betray him - not that Johnny felt much guilt about that. The simple fact was he had a job to do and that job was furthering his career. No matter what, he would not crawl back to Sir George empty-handed.

'Are you going to give me my weapons today?' Johnny asked, but Ilic ignored him. 'Am I to be finally told what the plan is? The tyrant is coming tomorrow, so it might be helpful if I knew what is expected of me.'

Ilic stopped and gave Johnny a stern look. 'We are about to meet the other cell, Jovo. They hold very strong views about the destruction of the Habsburgs and the political unity of the South Slav people and will not be so tolerant of your flippant manner.'

'I'm sorry, Danilo. I did not mean to sound flippant. I'm merely anxious to take action against our oppressors.' Ilic nodded acceptance of Johnny's apology and carried on in silence, brooding no doubt about the rightness of what they were doing.

Ilic led Johnny to a small cafe across the road from a large, tree-filled park, on the banks of the river. Two members of the other cell were waiting for them at a table. Johnny recognised them straight away by their black suits and trim moustaches.

Trifko had said that the other cell was made up of schoolboys, but they didn't look that much younger than the others. They were both about sixteen or seventeen and burnt with the passion that only an absolute faith in a cause can give.

'There are only two - where is the third, older one?' Johnny asked Ilic, looking round for a likely suspect.

'He is on his way. I'm meeting him later tonight,' Ilic replied and went to greet the two schoolboys. Johnny swore long and silently to himself; he was going to have to mess about to find out who the last member of the cell was.

'Jovo, this is Cvjetko Popovic and Vaso Cubrilovic. Jovo will be with us tomorrow,' Ilic said as he sat at their table. Johnny greeted them. Popovic seemed the friendlier, with sad, melancholy eyes that had trouble focusing on him. The other one, Cubrilovic, reminded Johnny of Gavrilo in both his physique and intensity of spirit, but he had a slightly more refined manner.

The formalities completed, Ilic turned to the youngest member of the group first. 'Popovic, are you ready to act for our people?’

Popovic didn't blink. 'Through Franz Ferdinand I will revenge myself on those who oppress the Slavs. Let our vengeance serve as a warning to the ruling circles.'

Cubrilovic took up the statement of belief, speaking as earnestly and unflinchingly as Popovic had. 'I consider the Heir to be an enemy of the Slavs. He represents the regime which harasses and oppresses my home.'

'Very good.' Ilic couldn't fault their zeal. Unexpectedly Ilic turned to Johnny. 'And you, Jovo. Are you with us?'

Johnny shrugged. 'Yes, I'm as ready as I'll ever be.' That wasn't quite the commitment they were looking for, so he tried to put more guts into his declaration. 'The Heir must not be allowed to stand in the way of my dream of freedom.' Ilic couldn't question his depth of feeling - he just didn't know that Johnny had a slightly different dream to the rest of them.

Johnny smiled smugly as Ilic unfolded the newspaper he'd put into his pocket. He had passed all of the tests and the full plan was at last going to be revealed to him. Then, to his horror,