The story of a killing

Six assassins set out to kill the crown prince of the colonial power that had subjugated their land. 

Their plan: Assassinate him when he is visiting the capital city of the occupied land. Helpfully, the crown prince has decided to have a procession through the city upon arriving. The assassins line the route of the procession, a road running alongside the river. The assassins are among the huge  crowds that have turned up, armed with guns and bombs. Six chances to kill the prince.

As the prince moves past the first and second would-be assassins, they do not act. Maybe it was nerves? Maybe there was too much of a crowd for them to get close enough to the open top car where the crown prince is travelling. 

The car approaches the third assassin. He throws a bomb, but it bounces off the car of the crown prince and lands in front of the car behind them in the procession, and explodes. Several people in the car behind the crown prince are seriously hurt. Mayhem. But the crown prince is fine and his car and the rest of the procession zoom off in a hurry. 

The unsuccessful third assassin swallows a cyanide pill and jumps into the river nearby. The cyanide pill doesn’t work and a scorching summer has meant that the river is only 13 cm deep. He neither dies nor drowns. Caught by the crowds, he is beaten and handed over to the police. 

The rest of the assassins melt into the crowd. The fourth assassin moves to a food shop on a side road of the riverside road. Rumor says he went for a sandwich but this is likely a myth.

The crown prince is safe at the town hall but he insists on going to the hospital to see the wounded. Concerns are raised about his safety, but the Governor dismisses them, saying, ‘Do you think this city is full of assassins?’”

A procession of three cars heads back down the riverside road to the hospital. The crown prince is in the third car. At a certain point, the driver takes a wrong turn but the head of security who is riding with the prince knows this is not the path they had decided to take. He yells at the driver to stop and go back. The driver stops, tries to reverse, and the car stalls. In front of a food shop. 

A disappointed man who came to kill the crown prince can’t believe what he sees. The crown prince is sitting in a stalled car in front of him. He runs, cocks his gun and shoots him dead.