Johnny O'Brien - Day of the Assassins

“I hate to admit it…”

“What?”

“I was wrong, Jack. And your Dad and Pendelshape are wrong. I was taken in by them.”

“Got to say, Angus, I think I agree with you. It all sounds too risky. But not only that…” Jack turned to Angus, shaking his head, “ever since we’ve been on this mad trip, death and destruction have followed us around… it doesn’t feel like we’re supposed to be here. Doesn’t feel right.”

“I’m with you on that.” Angus picked up a pebble from the dirt floor and flicked it at the wall, “And there’s Anna… we can’t betray her, can we?”

Jack got to his feet, dusting himself down. “No Angus, I don’t think we can. In which case, Dad’s not going to be happy with us.”

Angus shrugged, “Just say we felt we didn’t belong here — you know, none of our business.” He reached into his pocket to retrieve the time phone.

“Don’t tell me, still dead, right?”

Angus flipped it open. “Dead — apart the usual stuff.”

Date: Friday 26th June, 1914

Time: 6.03 p.m.

Location: Ozren, Bosnia-Herzegovina

“Still on our own.”

“Apart from Pendelshape.”

“Yeah. If he’s still out there. But we’re doing the right thing coming here with Anna. Pendelshape will want to come to this place… or Sarajevo. He’ll know that’s where Anna will be taking us.”

“Well, I hope he pitches up sooner or later — I want to hear him explain himself — properly this time.”

“Right,” Jack nodded at the two Harleys, “Will those things work?”

Angus looked them over. “Incredible: keys in the ignitions…” He unscrewed the fuel gauge of one of the bikes and peered in. “Full tank of petrol. They look like they’ve never been used.” He grinned at Jack, “What do you reckon?” He continued in a mock southern US accent, “Shall I fire up this Harley — this old ‘Haawg’?”

Soon they had managed to haul both bikes out of the shed. Angus deftly climbed aboard the nearest. “Here goes!”

He turned the ignition and the engine fired immediately. “Bingo!” He revved the engine, “Nice sound, better than my insect two-stroke bike back home.” He revved a couple more times and then cut the engine. He shrugged, “So they work… what next?”

“Let’s go back up and think about it — decide what to do.”

They walked slowly from the shed returning up through the small orchard. The long grass swayed gently in the early evening breeze. At this point the circular outer wall of the monastery was much lower and you could see over it across the untended fields towards the woodland beyond. Angus paused to take in the view.

“Nice here. Bit like home. Hotter though. Look over there — they’ve even got sheep.”

Jack cocked his head, “Miss them, do you?”

“Ha, ha — I’m in stitches.”

Jack stopped in his tracks, “Hold on, Angus, what did you say?”

Angus looked at Jack blankly.

“Sheep. You mentioned the sheep,” Jack smacked his forehead. “What an idiot I’ve been!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Sheep… your sheep farm back home… your home… your family… your dad… your great grandfather… you know on the mantelpiece… Ludwig?”

Angus was staring at Jack as if he was mad, “What are you on about?”

“Ludwig. You said that he met your Great Gran Dot, after he was captured by the Brits in the war. This war coming — the First World War.”

“Yeah. So?”

“We’ve been going on about my dad and Pendelshape on one side wanting to stop the war and the Rector, Inchquin and VIGIL on the other side trying to make sure nothing disturbs the past and worrying about who’s right and stuff. But that doesn’t matter!”

“Doesn’t it?”

“Well, yes, it does, of course, but there is something else, much more important — to us… in fact to you, mainly.”

Angus was none the wiser.

“Let me spell it out. No assassination equals no First World War equals Ludwig doesn’t become a German soldier equals he doesn’t get captured by the Brits equals he doesn’t meet Great Gran Dot equals they don’t get married equals they don’t have kids equals you don’t exist equals bye bye Angus.”

Now Angus got it. He had a look of panic on his face. “What will happen to me?”

“No idea. Maybe you’ll go up in a puff of smoke… or be zapped by lightning or, more likely, you just won’t exist.”

“I don’t fancy that much. I mean, I quite like existing…”

“Exactly — mind you it’s tough on the rest of us.”

“So…”

“So that seals it. Unless Dad and Pendelshape know something that we don’t… messing with history will have consequences. And in this case one consequence we know for certain — you won’t exist. I can’t believe we didn’t think of that before.”

Angus tried to assimilate the consequences of what Jack had said. He looked thoughtfully at the scrawny sheep chewing away on the hillside, and then lowered his eyes to the trees that fringed the far side of the fields.

Jack frowned, “What’s up? He followed Angus’s gaze and suddenly his eye caught a glint of metal from within the woods. He narrowed his eyes. There was something there.

“People — there are people in the…” But before he could finish the sentence there was an explosion and a plume of mud erupted from the field just outside the monastery wall.

A moment later there was a second explosion. This time closer. A whole section of the monastery’s outer wall was blown apart. Ahead, Zadok and Anna were pelting towards them, shouting, “Soldiers! The Austrian army’s here!”

A third shell whistled overhead and landed in the refectory building, which promptly collapsed.

“They’ve got artillery. We’ve got to get out of here!” Angus shouted. “Only one option.”

“You mean the bikes.”

Jack’s heart sank as they turned back to get their bikes. He remembered his motorbike experience back at Angus’s farm. It hadn’t gone well. The Harleys were bigger and heavier. And there was another difference — on Angus’s farm they hadn’t been under artillery bombardment.

The field gun in the woods had found its range and its crew was now delivering projectiles into the monastery with impressive regularity. The troops in the wood stayed low — they wanted the occupants of the monastery cowed into submission before moving in. They were not in a hurry.

Angus had his bike going. Jack copied Angus but felt very precarious perched high above the ground on the saddle. It took all his strength to hold the machine at an angle so one of his feet could touch the ground. With a light push from his left foot he checked neutral and turned the ignition. The Harley roared into life beneath him.

“Let’s go!” Angus yelled.

They powered back up the path through the orchard towards Anna and Zadok. Angus halted his bike expertly next to Anna and scooped her up to ride pillion. Jack realised that he was expected to repeat the procedure with Zadok.

“Angus — I can’t manage a passenger!”

Angus swivelled round, “You must!”

There was another explosion, this time in the bell tower. With a muffled, distorted clanging, rubble and timber crashed down around the old bell. The whole structure swayed, but for the moment the tower and the arched entrance beneath stayed intact.

“Come on then.”

Zadok clambered aboard. The extra weight dampened the suspension and made the bike lower and marginally easier for Jack. He pulled in the clutch lever, kicked down to select first and pulled back the throttle. The engine roared. Angus was already away, heading for the archway, Anna clinging on behind him. Jack let out the clutch lever, but this time far too quickly, and the whole machine jerked forward, the engine immediately stalling. He groaned.