Johnny O'Brien - Day of the Assassins

After a while, out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw the unmistakable figure of Princip furtively cross the Appel Quay and disappear into Moritz Schiller’s delicatessen. The entourage had passed on its way to the presentation at the Town Hall and Princip thought that he had missed his opportunity. Bizarrely, he had decided to get some early lunch. Jack followed Princip and took up position next to the shop, just back from the road. Angus followed a few paces behind. Jack scanned the crowd. If VIGIL guards were in Sarajevo, they were well hidden.

“Jack, we must do something!” the urgent voice startled Jack.

It was Anna. She had left her position by the Cumurja Bridge. She was out of breath. Her face was flushed and her dark hair dishevelled.

“Our bomb missed, Cabrinovic is captured, the others have fled. It is only us and Gavrilo left…” She was distraught.

Jack reassured her, “It will be OK.”

She looked pleadingly into his eyes with the same desperate expression on her face that she had had as she held her brother’s lifeless head.

The mayor’s car rumbled round the corner and passed them as it turned into Franz Joseph Street. It was leading the procession back from the presentation at the Town Hall. A second car followed carrying the Archduke and Sophie. The big headlamps and fender of the Graf und Stift lumbered round the corner from the Appel Quay. It was slowing down — the driver had taken a wrong turn and was not following the route straight out of Sarajevo, which had been hastily rearranged following the earlier bomb assault. They could clearly see all the occupants, including, in the rear, perched up high, the Archduke and, to his left, Sophie. A man was leaning over to the driver telling him something.

Gavrilo Princip emerged from the delicatessen, a sandwich in one hand. There was a look of astonishment on his face as the Archduke’s car ground to a halt, delivering Princip’s target to within a couple of metres. He dropped his sandwich and reached into his coat pocket. He quickly looked around, and as he did so, just for a split second, his dark, wild eyes caught those of Jack only feet away. Jack felt a sudden twinge of doubt. He could stop Princip right there and now. His mind flashed back to the family holiday when he was small — the visit to the war graves. He remembered the endless sea of white crosses and in his head the image fused with the pictures of the war from his father’s history book — all the horror and suffering laid out in black and white. He could feel the pistol that had been given to him the day before nestling next to his chest. He could shoot Princip now. He slipped one hand into his inside pocket and felt the cold metal. His fingers closed round the weapon…

Suddenly, from across the road, two burly police officers broke from the crowd and advanced towards Jack. They had spotted the suspicious movement of his hand to his inside pocket and, taking no chances, they were now moving menacingly towards him. Jack spotted them and quickly snatched back his hand, leaving the gun snugly in place. But Princip had ignored Jack and had already turned towards the Archduke’s car. He levelled his pistol, then he fired — two shots in quick succession.

Sophie slumped onto the knee of the Archduke. For a moment, the Archduke remained upright, but then blood from his neck wound started to spurt from his mouth and he listed into unconsciousness.

Chaos. The crowd quickly realised what had happened and turned on Princip. Jack, Angus and Anna were engulfed by the angry crowd and Jack felt himself being jostled and harried. The officers were wading into the melee to make sure no one escaped.

“Run!” Angus shouted.

He lowered his head and barrelled through the crowd. Jack and Anna followed in his wake. The crowd thinned, and in an instant they broke free into the open street. For a moment Angus hesitated, not knowing which way to turn. Anna took up the lead. Jack stole a glance behind him and saw that two officers were hot on their heels.

“Down here!”

Anna sprinted down a dusty side street where a market was in progress, Jack and Angus still following closely behind. Quite unexpectedly, a cloaked figure stepped from the shadow of a doorway, into their path. They clattered straight into him. Without hesitation, the man somehow bundled them each through the doorway and into a small storeroom. The man checked each way up the street, and, satisfied that the pursuers had been temporarily shaken off, stepped back into the room and closed the door behind him. His hair was ruffled, his face was a little dirty and his clothes creased and in places were torn. But the face was unmistakable. Dr Pendelshape.

Anna was breathing hard but she was also smiling and had a tear in her eye. But this time it was a tear of happiness. She rushed over to hug Pendelshape.

“We did it,” she said.

Anna, of course, had no idea what horrors her friends, the assassins of Sarajevo, had unleashed. She only knew that some sort of justice had finally been done for the crimes against her family.

Pendelshape smiled, “So it would seem, my dear, but I’m afraid I arrived a little late for all the action.” He looked across at the boys, who were dusting themselves down, “Well, I am glad to see that you have all become acquainted — it was just as I hoped.” He gestured to some crates in one corner of the storeroom, “There, take a seat. We will be safe in here for a short while — but not for long. The police will be here soon, I’m sure. But first things first.” He removed his cloak and turned to Anna, “Now my dear, I fear that the authorities will be quickly upon you and your friends. You must flee Sarajevo immediately. Now I am here, I will take care of the boys. Don’t worry about us.”

Anna opened her mouth to speak, but Pendelshape put up his hand to silence her.

“There is no time, my dear. Trust me Anna — you are in great danger. Look here, I have brought you some money,” he presented her with a leather wallet, “please — take it. You will need to start a new life… away from all of this. I’m sorry this is so sudden, but it is the only way. You must go. Now.”

Anna looked at the wallet and then at Pendelshape, not knowing what to do.

Pendelshape chided her, “Please Anna… you must go. You are in danger. They will be searching all the cafes and houses. You have done what you came here to do.”

She nodded and reluctantly took the wallet, “I understand. Thank you.” She smiled, turned and without looking back slipped through the door into the dust and heat of Sarajevo. Anna was gone.

“How did you get here?” Jack asked.

“Probably like you. With difficulty,” Dr Pendelshape replied.

“We didn’t stop the assassination, you know… as you wanted.” Angus said.

“I know. It was perhaps too much to expect. I’m afraid I arrived too late from Vienna to help.” Pendelshape reached into his jacket, pulled out his time phone and flipped the device open, “The good news is that we have a time signal. Now we are together, we can finally travel back to your father’s base, get you safely away from VIGIL and then think about how we can complete our objective. We will be coming back to 1914 — as soon as we have dealt with VIGIL once and for all.”

Jack felt numb. He could hear Pendelshape’s words but they did not register. He could only think about the murder he had just witnessed. The wild look in Princip’s eyes before he turned his gun on the Archduke, the flashes from the muzzle of the pistol, the muffled cracks as the shots rang out, Sophie slumping forward and the blood from the Archduke’s neck… The sequence repeated itself again and again in his head.

Pendelshape had no idea what they had been through these last few days. The deaths that Jack had seen on their journey — the professor, Dani, Zadok and now, finally, the Archduke and his wife… it was too much. Jack glanced over at Angus. He sat on the dusty crate, just staring into the gloom of the musty storeroom. He looked pale and drawn. This wasn’t like playing some sort of super bonus round of Point-of-Departure , where you had to get three gold stars on every level. This was real.