Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 189: Assassination Attempt

"How’d you go Baer?" said Alton.

"I don’t think I was noticed as out of place by anyone. It’s in place. As good as it can be. It fit into the brackets neatly. I think it’s stuck against the side of the box nice and firm so even if they drag the carriage box around a bit before he dismounts, it won’t rattle loose. It shouldn’t explode without a detonator either, but it is highly volatile and if it happened to get too close to an ignition source, it could go off."

"Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen," said Alton. "Alright, let’s settle down here so we can keep an eye on things until he arrives."

The three men waited in tense silence, cursorily stirring at their sewer hole, conversation dried up in the face of what they were about to do.

Brenner’s voice rang out over the market hubbub. He had a drum machine playing and was playing a low bass guitar that thrummed across the distance.

"Seven Nation Army, huh?" said Niko. "Well, I guess it’s a war song of sorts."

They were all thankful for the distraction.

"He’s gathering quite the crowd of women," said Niko, grinning as he looked over towards where a crowd was starting to swarm around Brenner.

"Figures," muttered Alton tersely, "he’s even more of a ladies’ man than Cormac".

"Cormac’s been tamed by Ruby," said Baer. "I’m not sure we’ll see the same guy when we get back to civilization."

"How can he play lookout when he’s drawing a crowd like that?" Alton griped.

"He’s standing on some kind of box thing, so I think his view’s pretty good," said Niko.

"Yeah. I helped him make a collapsible platform so it looks like a stage, but really so he can see across the crowd," Baer defended the man.

He liked Brenner, he was a lot of fun, and besides, he had an arrangement of sorts with his sister now. He hadn’t found the opportunity to take his ’payment’ yet, but the build-up was very pleasant, and he was very much looking forward to it.

"That’s the advance guard," hissed Alton.

"Six men incoming," reported Niko.

"Alright men, looks like we’re definitely on," said Alton. "Good luck. You know what to do if anything goes south. Time to look busy."

Alton and Baer crouched down and opened their toolbox, laying out some tools and pretending to do ’work’ on the manhole, whatever that could be. Hopefully the sewer put anyone off approaching them to check, thought Alton.

Niko stood up, playing both supervisor and lookout.

"First of the consort’s carriages in sight now," he whispered, making use of his sunglasses to appear to be watching Baer and Alton, but actually looking in the direction of the royal entourage.

The guards were everywhere now, shoving the crowds backwards and clearing the markets, just as they’d done last time.

They ignored the three rebel soldiers, who weren’t in the royal path and clearly only had tools not weapons on them.

Brenner had finished his rendition of Seven Nation Army and moved onto Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell.

"What’s that fool doing?" hissed Alton.

"No one will draw that long bow, Sir," said Niko. "Look at him, he’s managed to keep a crowd of girls around him when they’d normally be running off to see the Emperor. Respect," he tipped his hard hat at the man. "Okay, the first carriage is pulling up. They’re using the box," he reported with growing excitement.

Alton nodded with determination. "Shit’s about to get real boys. Hold onto your hats."

Brenner looked over at Niko and he signalled the man to hold. Five-minute countdown. Brenner nodded his understanding, belting out his song without missing a beat.

"Second carriage pulling up, still using the carriage box," reported Niko. "Third carriage. Okay Baer. He’s in the fourth carriage. ETA two minutes."

Baer crouched, facing the direction of the carriage box, though he couldn’t see anything through the crowds.

"The guards have cleared a large area," said Niko. "I think it’s big enough not to involve any innocents."

"Thank God," said Alton.

"One minute ETA, Baer," said Niko.

Baer engaged the detonator timer. "Still tracking?" he asked Niko tensely, as the timer rushed from sixty seconds down to thirty seconds.

"Still on track," Niko affirmed.

"Ready to run, boys?" asked Alton, and they both nodded.

"Five, four, three, two, one!" counted Baer.

"He’s stepping out. Go now, Baer!" shouted Niko, his voice lost in the roar of the crowd as the Emperor stepped out of his carriage.

"Something’s fucking wrong," said Baer tensely, "it should already have detonated".

Niko signalled Brenner to get ready to run.

"What the fuck?" cursed Alton. "What could it be private? Is there anything we can do?"

"Hold on, let me try something."

Baer reset the timer for thirty seconds and watched the precious seconds ticking down.

"He’s stepped off the carriage box," reported Niko. "He’s moving away Baer, last chance," he said with frustration. "Target’s one metre from the box, two metres, three metres, four metres, five metres, six metres, seven metres, he’ll be out of range soon Baer," said Niko urgently.

"I know man, I’m on it," said Baer feverishly plugging away at the ancient smart phone.

Without warning, there was a huge "boom!" as the bomb suddenly exploded.

The box disappeared in a puff of smoke, and as Niko watched, the Emperor’s carriage blew off the ground and fell on its side, smashing to pieces.

The Emperor was immediately surrounded by guards, but from Niko’s vantage point, he could see blood on the man. But then, the Emperor lifted his head from the road and started shouting orders.

"Shit! He’s injured but not dead," yelled Niko.

They packed up their equipment and walked cooly away from the scene, like they hadn’t just heard an explosion, and were off to their next job.

Brenner also took advantage of the screaming pandemonium to pack up his equipment and disappear into the surging crowd of people, slipping down the alley that lead to the safe house.

The moment they were out of sight, they all started to run, sprinting to the door of the house where they collected the women and kept on running.

"Injured but not dead," said Alton, before they could ask.

"Shit!" cursed Delphi.

"Something went wrong with the detonator," Baer reported to her as they ran. "It went off, but it was delayed by a few critical minutes."

"You guys did amazing," she replied. "With any luck he dies from his injuries."

"Could you see how badly injured he was, Niko?" panted Indy as they ran.

"There was a lot of blood, but he was able to raise his head and start giving orders to his guards."

Delphi pursed her lips. That didn’t sound like a fatal injury.

She thought back on her history. Was Heydrich the Nazi who didn’t die in the assassination attempt but later died when his wound became infected? Maybe they would still be lucky...