Day of the Assassins

by Johnny O'Brien

  Angus’s mouth was filled with cream cake. He tried to say, “No” but it came out as a sort of ‘Ooarg’ sound, and bits of saliva and cake spluttered out onto the tablecloth. Angus blushed and covered his mouth. “Er, sorry.”

  Mueller looked bemused, but pressed on, “Since 1273… 1273 I tell you! You English talk about the British Empire being the empire on which the sun never sets… but that title first belonged to our mighty Habsburg Empire – we stretched across Europe to Spain and even South America!” Another large smoke ring wafted up into the air as Mueller exhaled. Jack nearly gagged.

  “You’re a true Schwarzgelb, Mueller,” the professor said.

  Mueller snorted in acknowledgement, “But we need to watch out! Now, after the Balkan wars of a couple of years ago, of course, Serbia is much stronger… Turkey has lost most of its possessions in Europe, you know, Professor?” The professor nodded, not wishing to question Mueller. “We have so many Serbs within the empire. Serbia is becoming stronger by the day, egged on by their wretched students and revolutionaries and those damned Russians – they have their eye on Bosnia and Herzegovina next. A direct threat to our empire…”

  Mueller took another long puff on his pipe and then exhaled a curling wisp of blue smoke, adding sinisterly, “No, there’s no doubt, we will need to teach Serbia a lesson sooner or later…”

  Mueller paused and without warning turned to Jack and Angus, “Politics, I’m afraid, my young friends, a bit boring for you, I think. Anyway, let us change the subject. Tell me now, what did you think of Vienna – isn’t it a jewel?”

  Jack and Angus had not anticipated this. Contrary to the professor’s story, they had never been to Vienna in their lives. Jack looked at Angus nervously and blushed – he was stumped.

  “Well? Has my friend the professor not shown you the Belvedere, Schönbrunn Palace, and all the other wonderful sights? Don’t be shy. Come on what did you think of it?”

  There was a pained silence, then Angus suddenly blurted out, “It was cool.”

  Jack nearly fell out of his seat.

  Mueller frowned, “Cool? At this time of year? I don’t think so. It is typically very warm in June…” He turned to the professor with a confused expression on his face.

  “Professor? Was it cool?”

  “Er, yes Mueller, in fact it was unseasonably cold the day we arrived, but, er we did not stay too long as we were so keen to visit the mountains. We are saving the sights for our return.”

  Mueller eyed the boys with a puzzled expression for a moment, but then accepted the explanation and moved on.

  “Oh, I see. Well, you have much to look forward to.” Distracted, he withdrew a large chain watch from his breast pocket and grunted in satisfaction.

  “Professor – I think it might be that time. How about a brandy?”

  The professor sighed in relief, “Most kind, Mueller.”

  “Excellent! Anna – if you please?”

  At the entrance to the conservatory, for the first time, Jack noticed that a young woman, a servant, had been waiting patiently. She had a dark complexion and brown eyes. She appeared not to be listening to the conversation – but staring straight ahead. Jack noticed that Angus was staring at the maid admiringly. But Angus’s trance was broken as, with Mueller’s order ringing in her ears, the maid scuttled off to fetch the brandy. Jack thought it was a bit strange to have someone else in the room who was just an ornament – except when required to serve.

  The brandy arrived, and the professor had the presence of mind to excuse Jack and Angus, who gratefully grasped the opportunity. Not sure what to do, Jack stood and did an awkward little bow and thanked Mueller. He nudged Angus. Having never bowed before in his life, Angus’s attempt at the procedure was faintly comical – like he was lowering himself onto an imaginary toilet. They then left the room, trying not to appear in a hurry.

  Mueller looked at them with curiosity as they departed.

  “Friendly young men, Professor, your nephews… interesting, er, manners.”

  The professor shrugged. “English… you know… what they’re like…”

  Mueller snorted, took a gulp from his brandy goblet and busied himself with refilling his pipe. “Anyway, Professor, talking of the English, tell me about your work with the Royal Navy…”

  *

  Angus and Jack made their way up the old wooden stairs to their bedroom at the top of the chalet. The room had a low-beamed ceiling and, like the rest of the house, extensive wooden panelling. There were twin beds on either side of the room and two old pictures of local hunting scenes. Inevitably, the horns of some unfortunate animal had been pinned to one wall. Doors led out to a balcony with an elaborately carved balustrade. Beyond, shadows crept through the woodland as the sun sank below the mountains.

  Angus flopped onto one of the beds. “That was a near miss.”

  “You plonker. You could have said something better than that. ‘It was cool’.”

  “Least I said something.”

  Jack removed his jacket and lazily dropped it on to the floor before collapsing in his own bed.

  “Let’s take a look, then.”

  “What – the time phone?”

  “See if it’s changed at all.”

  Angus took out the device. He flipped it open. They inspected the miniature read-out:

  Date: Tuesday 23rd June, 1914

  Time: 07.47 p.m.

  Location: Achensee, Austria

  “Five more days until the assassination,” Jack said. “But still no yellow light.”

  “We’re still stuck. No escape.”

  “Does that thing ever light up?”

  Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Angus quickly closed the time phone and slipped it back in his pocket.

  “It’ll be the Prof…” Jack called to the door, “Come in!”

  But it wasn’t the professor. The door opened and the boys were surprised to see Anna, the maid who they had last seen being barked at by Mueller in the conservatory.

  Angus sprang from the bed as if he had received a mild electric shock.

  “I prepare room for sleeping,” she announced in broken English.

  Angus’s face lit up, “Sounds like an excellent idea…”

  Jack rolled his eyes. Anna either didn’t understand the remark or just ignored it.

  Jack said, “You really don’t have to… we can…”

  “No – my duty.”

  She moved into the room and stooped to pick up Jack’s coat from the floor. Embarrassed that she felt it necessary to do so, Jack also reached down for the jacket – trying to beat her to it. They both stooped simultaneously and there was a loud ‘crack’ as their heads banged together. Jack winced. Anna clutched her head. Then she giggled.

  “Nice one mate,” Angus said sarcastically. “Sorry – he was born in England.”

  “Are you OK?” Jack said.

  Anna grimaced, “No – not OK – you are clumsy Englishman…”

  Angus laughed, “You’ve got that right – you should see him play rugby.”

  Jack put out his hand, “Jack Christie – very pleased to meet you.”

  Anna smiled again and shook his hand gently, “I, Anna Matronovic.”

  Although she wore a maid’s white smock and cap she held herself with poise and looked Jack straight in the eye with a challenging self-confidence, yet she couldn’t have been more than eighteen years old. Close up, Jack could understand why she had caught Angus’s attention. She had dark, hypnotic brown eyes and was exceptionally pretty; Jack stared longer than he probably should have. As he picked up his jacket a piece of paper slipped onto the floor. Again, Anna stooped to pick it up. As she did so, she glanced at the paper and a puzzled expression slowly crept over her face. She did not return it to Jack but studied it intently.

  “What is this?” she finally asked. Her face was flushed.

  Jack looked at the paper Anna was holding and suddenly realised what it was – the photo of Pendelshape and the
plotters of the Black Hand. Jack had transferred it to the coat provided by the Muellers. Despite the drenching in the lake, it was still quite clear and Pendelshape and his ‘friends’ stared back at them eerily.

  “It’s mine. It’s just a photograph…”

  Anna’s brow furrowed.

  “Where you get it?”

  Jack faltered, “A friend…”

  Anna looked down at the photo again. “You know the English teacher, Dr Pendelshape? He said he would send help soon. You and the professor, you sent by him to help us… yes?”

  Jack and Angus couldn’t believe what Anna had just said. They looked at each other, stunned. “Hold on, what did you say… how do you know…?“

  Anna ignored the interruption and carried on quietly, urgently. “I understand now. I must talk to friends. I go now. But you in danger here. Big danger. We must go soon.” She was very agitated. “I get message to friends in Vienna, Belgrade, Doboj. You say nothing. We talk later…”

  And with that she left the room.

  Jack fingered the edges of the photo nervously, looking back to the door that had closed behind Anna.

  “She knows Pendelshape. It’s incredible,” he said.

  “And what’s this stuff about Belgrade…?”

  “Belgrade. Belgrade – doesn’t that tell you anything?”

  “No,” Angus said stubbornly.

  Jack sighed impatiently. He was a step ahead, “It’s where the photo was taken. Belgrade is the capital of Serbia. Remember, that’s what all this is about – Austria and Serbia are enemies. Just like Mueller was saying.”

  “But what’s that got to do with Anna, and how does she know Pendelshape?”

  Jack sighed, “Keep up, Angus. ‘Matronovic’. ‘Belgrade’. Anna’s a Serb. What she’s doing in the house of a rich Austrian like Mueller, though, I have no idea.” But suddenly he had a brainwave, “Of course! The name – Matronovic.”

  Jack flipped the photo over. The names written in Pendelshape’s distinctive scrawl could still just be made out – ‘Princip Matronovic’.

  “Dani wasn’t it? Dani Matronovic.”

  “You don’t think…?”

  “Yes, Anna has the same name, Matronovic, and recognised the people in the photograph. Pendelshape said the picture was taken by Dani’s sister – Anna!”

  “Incredible!”

  “Yeah, incredible all right. Anna is a Bosnian Serb working here, for some reason. She and Dani met Pendelshape when he travelled back, testing the Taurus, and now she must think we have been sent by Pendelshape… to help them.” Jack exhaled slowly. “Angus – it looks like you, me and the professor are going to have to make that decision we talked about.”

  “What?”

  Jack sighed, “Come on Angus, you were the one who was going on about it. What Dad said. It’s what we talked about last night – up in the gorge.”

  “What, you mean try to stop the assassination?”

  “Yes. Anna can probably lead us to the assassins. In fact, she is expecting us to help them – because of what Pendelshape promised when he was here. If we make contact with the assassins we can probably somehow stop the assassination from happening. Just like Pendelshape and Dad want.” There was a pause, before he added, “That is… if we want to get involved at all…”

  “Well – you know what I think already. I think we should,” Angus said. “And anyway,” he grinned, “I’m happy to help Anna as much as she wants.”

  “Come on Angus. This is serious. Listen – I know what Dad and Pendelshape want to do. And I also know that the professor agrees with them.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe it’s not as simple as that. I’m thinking maybe we should just wait until we’ve got a signal on your time phone… if that ever happens… and then, we’ll travel back to Dad… and work it out with him… Or, maybe just give ourselves up to the Rector again.”

  “NO WAY. If you do that – you’re on your own. You saw what they did to me… and to poor old Pendelino.”

  “I’m not sure, Angus. Is it really up to us?”

  “We’re involved whether we like it or not. And anyway, if you’d heard what your Dad said about it, you’d know the right thing to do was to help them. I think your Dad would expect you to.”

  “Maybe. But see, I’m not even sure I know how we could stop the assassination even if it is the right thing to do. We have no idea how Pendelshape and Dad had planned to stop it…”

  “Well I’m not hanging around for those VIGIL nutters to catch up with us again and lynch us…”

  “I don’t know Angus… the Rector seemed to make sense at the castle… He was OK.”

  “Yeah? Well, I’m sorry, he wasn’t that sensible when I saw him last with his bunch of thugs back at school…”

  Jack had no answer.

  *

  Later, Jack lay back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He felt very tired and slowly closed his eyes. Images from the last two days flickered randomly through his head as he fell into a light, dreamy sleep. In his dream, Angus and the professor were marching ahead of him down a muddy track. He was trying to keep up, telling them to slow down, to wait… but they kept going and going and seemed to know exactly what they were doing. Coming towards them on the same track, marched a column of bedraggled men. On the horizon, way beyond, the air lit up with white-and-orange flashes of artillery fire. The earth rumbled beneath their feet. The line of men stumbled on past them. Their uniforms were dirty, bloody, ripped and torn. Each one of them rested a hand on one shoulder of the soldier in front… and for the first time he noticed that they were blindfolded – a single grubby white bandage was tied around each head.

  Without warning, as he hurried on after the professor and Angus, one of the soldiers stopped, broke from the line and squatted down in front of him. His face was dirty and lined… the pale skin hanging heavy with fatigue. Then, to Jack’s surprise, the soldier put out one hand towards him and his lips curled up into a weak smile. Suddenly, to Jack’s horror, the blindfold was whipped away and he found himself looking straight into two bloodied pits where the eyes should have been…

  Jack woke with a start. His sheets were wet with sweat. The room was dark. It took him a moment to understand where he was. He heard a gentle knocking at the door and then a whisper – a young woman’s voice, “Jack! Jack!”

  Coming to his senses, he crept over to the door and opened it a fraction. Two big brown eyes peered back at him. It was Anna.

  She eased him to one side and sneaked into the room, “Wake your friend and listen carefully… I have plan.”

  *

  Mueller had decided that he would drive them personally from Achensee to the train station in Innsbruck. He was keen to show off his new Mercedes Benz. Picking up where he had left off the evening before, he continued to chatter away, starting off by pointing out all the features of the large motor car. Somehow they had all managed to squeeze in, together with Anna. Marta had been left at home, and was a little tearful to see them go, but there was no room for her, and anyway, she was “afraid of motor cars”.

  The mighty machine took three hours to phutt and lumber its way down from the Achensee valley to the town of Innsbruck. They had to stop several times. Mueller’s excuse was that the radiator needed a refill, or something under the bonnet needed adjusting. But his main objective was to rummage in the boot of the car for ‘refreshment’. These stops proved good opportunities for Angus and Jack to surreptitiously inspect the time phone. The distinctive yellow bar remained stubbornly blank – just as it had since they escaped from the castle. On one occasion, at Mueller’s insistence, they descended on a village café where their host downed at least a litre of beer. By the time they entered Innsbruck, he was somewhat inebriated, and as they worked their way towards the station, the car slewed uneasily from side to side as he attempted to avoid pedestrians, horse-drawn carts and other vehicles.

  *

  The stat
ion was busy. The massive black Vienna train was steaming gently alongside the platform as people boarded. Mueller had kindly supplied them with a small hamper for the trip and he had even given the professor some money to replace what had been lost in the lake. As they prepared to board the train, Mueller shook them each warmly by the hand. Anna stood a little behind Mueller, eclipsed by his massive bulk, which swayed gently from the effect of the alcohol.

  They climbed aboard and found a compartment all to themselves. It was small, but comfortable and smelled of coal smoke. They spread themselves out on the neatly upholstered bench seats. Mueller was also sending Anna to Vienna with a long shopping list, but she had been banished to one of the third-class carriages further down the platform. Soon, the train was rumbling through the Austrian countryside, which looked greener than ever. It was hard to believe that this was a country on the brink of war.

  *

  With each kilometre that the train put between them and Innsbruck, they became more relaxed. The professor was relieved to have left the Mueller household without arousing unnecessary suspicion.

  “You did well boys…”

  “Funny chap, Mueller…” Jack said.

  “We were lucky, he and I go back a long way. He…”

  Jack interrupted, “We should explain, Professor.” Jack said. “Anna, the maid, she’s not what she seems. She’s a Serb.”

  “More – a spy,” Angus added.

  The professor looked shocked, “What? What do you mean?”

  Jack took out Pendelshape’s photograph from his pocket and placed it on the little wooden table next to the window in front of the professor.

  “Remember this, Professor? Well – Anna took the photograph. She told us all about it this morning.”

  “What?” the professor exclaimed. “But…”