Things had been going poorly for the Black Hand ever since they first began targeting Bruno and his family. At least twenty-five percent of their leadership had either vanished or met a grisly and mysterious end.
No doubt somebody was targeting them all. In a way, it was their karma coming back to them for all the evil they had done both in this life and the one Bruno had come from. Currently, Dragutin Dimitrijevi?, better known by the name of Apis, was at a port in what would one day become the independent nation of Croatia.
He was looking at his ticket and passport carefully, as well as any other information he had, all of which was a false identity. He had taken rather extreme lengths to conceal his identity, going so far as to grow a full beard, permanently scar his face, and even wear an eyepatch over one eye.
Like the rest of his fellow conspirators, Apis was on the run. It was clear to him now that he was being hunted. Three attempts had been made on his life over the course of the past week, which, though they appeared to be mere coincidences, he was not convinced of such a lie.
No, one was a coincidence, two was suspicious, and three was a pattern. Someone was trying to kill him, though he did not know who. After failing repeatedly to harm Bruno and his family, and losing many talented agents in the process, the mysterious Balkans-based organization known by the name of the “Black Hand,” or “Unification or Death” depending on who you asked, had ultimately taken Bruno off their hit list.
It took some time for German Intelligence to properly discover the identities of the Black Hand and their agents. But after some, shall we say, extensive interrogation sessions between the various operatives that German authorities had captured from the shadowy syndicate, the Reich had more or less discovered the entire network and their political machinations.
Naturally, considering the extensive ties that Heidi had to German Intelligence via the distant half of her family’s exceptional bloodline, it was only a matter of time before she learned about those targeting her husband.
She had whispered a few words, and a few members of the organization went missing or found themselves the victims of an unfortunate and tragic accident. But it didn’t end there. No… Heidi was very angry, beyond displeased with the Black Hand for trying to harm her loved ones. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
And while she didn’t have the ability to take her vengeance against the von Wittelsbachs for their role in her mother’s untimely death, she did have the means to strike against these damned Balkan fanatics.
Because of this, what remained of their leadership was now on the run, trying to hide in distant countries outside of Europe’s immediate sphere of influence. After all, they didn’t know whether it was the Habsburgs, the Romanovs, or the Hohenzollerns who were targeting them, but Europe was the domain of the United Imperial Powers. At least central Europe was, and these three mighty Empires were more than capable of striking far beyond their own borders.
With this in mind, Apis was trying to get to Latin America, which he believed was free from the influence of these powerful and ancient dynasties. He hoped that he and his fellow conspirators could further foster and coordinate their movement for the liberation of the Balkan nations from the hands of their current occupiers, from the safety of the New World. And it was a plan that seemed to be working thus far, as at least a quarter of the Black Hand’s leadership had already fled to the countries south of the United States’ borders. Apis had just managed to hand over his fake passport to the customs official at the Croatian port.
The man barely looked at the passport before stamping it with his approval and handing it back to Apis while giving him some blanket statement or another about having a good trip. After which, there was still an hour’s time before the ship Apis had boarded would depart.
Since this was the case, the man decided to get himself a nice, hot cup of coffee from the ship’s mess hall. He quickly approached the worker and smiled at the young man who appeared to be brewing the coffee for the ship’s passengers.
The worker smiled back and nodded at Apis, treating him as if he were any other customer. While preparing the cup of coffee, he was quick to ask if the man wanted anything additional added to the beverage.
“Would you like some sugar and cream with that?”
Apis’ smile wore off as he looked at the man as if the question was obvious. People had been adding sugar to their coffee since 1625 when the Egyptians began experimenting with such concoctions.
However, much to Apis’ surprise, the worker did not add the mixture himself but rather handed him a small plastic packet of what appeared to be sugar, along with a sealed Bakelite cup full of cream. He then thanked the man for his business before moving on to the next customer.
“Thank you, sir. I hope you enjoy your trip!”
Apis mumbled something unintelligible in a disgruntled tone before shuffling off to his seat, where he broke out his newspaper and began to read the headline.
“German border fortifications prompt response from French Head of State.”
The man mindlessly opened the packet of what appeared to be sugar and added it to his cup of coffee before also pouring the cream inside. Once he had done so, he mixed the concoction together with a spoon before taking a hearty sip.
Perhaps because he was so entranced with the story in the paper, he did not notice the man who had served him his coffee staring at him from the corner of his eye, smirking something wicked immediately after he saw Apis sip the stirred coffee.
Apis didn’t realize it, but the man who served him his coffee was an agent of the Kaiser, or more specifically the German Foreign Intelligence agency. The sugar, which was handed to him sealed in a plastic packet, was laced with a deadly and damn near untraceable poison known as ricin.
Ricin, even in the smallest doses, was extremely lethal and could be absorbed into one’s skin. It was because of this that it was sealed in a plastic package, no doubt created by one of the factories which Bruno had invested in.
In addition to this, the man wore latex gloves while preparing the coffee, just to ensure that the laced sugar did not accidentally break open and afflict him with its poison. Because of this, Apis had unknowingly signed his own death warrant.
He would spend the next 36-72 hours coming down with the most brutal fever and sickness imaginable before finally expiring in a way that was inexplicable to those who were unaware of how ricin affected the body.
Needless to say, it was a far more disgusting mess than if he had been stricken with cholera. However, when the trip was finally over and his body was discovered soaked within its own putrid fluids, it was assumed that the man had simply caught a fever and died.
Nobody would have guessed that the leader of the Black Hand had been assassinated by the agents of the German Crown, nor that it was done at the request of Bruno’s wife. And while Apis’ death was a significant blow to the Black Hand, its actual effect on whether or not the timeline proceeded as planned was limited.
Apis, while the leader of the Black Hand, could easily be replaced by the existing leadership, and his death would not deter the fanatics also known by the name of “Unification or Death.” Rather, he would become a martyr for their cause, as they mistakenly blamed the Habsburgs for the murder of their fearless leader.
This prompted them to make preparations for retaliation. But that retaliation would have to wait. The year was 1911, and soon enough, the Balkans would come into turmoil as the Ottoman Empire sought to reclaim lost territory from the Young Turk revolution which had transpired years prior.
And when that happened, the Habsburgs would be an afterthought, because for the next two years, the Balkans would be embroiled in warfare, warfare that itself would eventually lead to
the Great War.
Apis would be remembered by the people of Serbia as a national hero following his death and would be honored by the Serbian King for his “good deeds.” But for those who were aware of his sinister activities hidden among the shadows, he would be condemned as a blackguard of the most reprehensible variety.
But his sins in this life, and those of the Black Hand, were still for the most part a highly regarded secret. They would not come to light for a very long time yet.