THE DECISION · 28 JUN 1914 · SARAJEVO
A wrong turn, corrected, at Sarajevo
28 June 1914. A bomb has already missed the archduke once this morning. His route changes; in our timeline, nobody tells the driver, the car stalls two paces from Gavrilo Princip, and the century catches fire. This is the timeline where someone says one sentence in time.
28 JUN 1914 · 10:10
Sarajevo, the morning of 28 June 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary, rides the Appel Quay in an open Gräf and Stift touring car, his wife Sophie beside him in white. Six young conspirators wait along the river with bombs and pistols. At ten past ten, one of them throws. The bomb bounces off the folded canvas roof, and it is the car behind that bleeds. The heir rides on to the town hall, alive by the width of a rooftop.