He had a few seconds left, and it never hurt for a prince to scatter favors about.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “Write down their names for me, if you would.”
Junker cocked an eyebrow. Ulrik started removing his shoulder straps. “You never know. I might have some influence, here and there.”
“Thank you. I will.”
The crowd was moving in, now. There was a handy up-time expression for this sort of thing, but Ulrik couldn’t quite remember what it was.
“Showtime,” said Junker.
Yes, that was the one.
Even before they entered the city, Ulrik was impressed. Whoever had organized this affair had done a superb job of it.
To begin with, they were in a motorcade, riding in a large up-time automobile rather than the carriage he’d expected. Two other American self-propelled vehicles were with them, one in front and one behind. As a sheer public display, it was splendid. But Ulrik also understood—all the better now, for having been the target of such an attempt—that the vehicles and their configuration would make things quite difficult for assassins seeking to do them harm. The automobiles were moving quite slowly, not much faster than a horse could trot. But if necessary, they could speed up rapidly and soon be racing down the road at a tremendous velocity.
Given the road, of course. On most roads, even in the USE, the great speed of which up-time automobiles were capable was a moot point. But this road from the airfield into the city was obviously of up-time design, macadamized from beginning to end.
Secondly, the organizers of the event had made sure to have a large number of spectators and well-wishers even here, while they were still in the countryside. A surprisingly large number, given the weather. The sky was clear, true—indeed, it was quite a beautiful winter’s day. But it was definitely a winter’s day, with the temperature below freezing. Ulrik didn’t envy those people standing alongside the road out there. The automobile had a heating device. The outdoors didn’t.
Thirdly, he was impressed by the shrewdness of the seating arrangement. In the front seat next to the driver rode a very large bodyguard. “Riding shotgun,” the up-timers called it—and in this instance, the term was quite literal. The man was carrying an automatic shotgun and the prince had no doubt at all he was proficient in its use.
Probably more important, given that the principal response to any assassination attempt would surely be to race off, not stand and fight, the man was huge. An assassin firing from the front would have to shoot around him to have a chance of hitting Kristina. (Or Ulrik, but Kristina would be the real target of any would-be killer.) Shooting around that man to hit the princess would be a bit like trying to shoot a mouse behind an ox.
A shot from the rear would be difficult, and probably impossible. Someone had covered the rear window with a decorative banner, which prevented anyone from seeing into the vehicle from behind. And while he wasn’t certain, Ulrik was pretty sure there was a steel plate hidden within the banner. Even a blind shot wouldn’t penetrate.
That still left the side windows, but that was a very difficult shot to make. All the more difficult because Ulrik and Kristina were sandwiched in the middle of the back seat, with a man on either side. To their left, sitting next to Kristina, was the governor of Magdeburg province, Matthias Strigel. To their right, next to Ulrik, sat a man named Albert Bugenhagen. The prince had known he was the mayor of Hamburg, although he’d never met him before.
Ulrik was quite sure the men had been selected for two reasons. First, they held formal positions of government, they weren’t simply prominent figures in the Fourth of July Party or the Committees of Correspondence. Someone was being careful—thankfully—to maintain a necessary distance between the two royals and their real hosts. As much as possible, Kristina and Ulrik had to maintain a reasonably non-partisan public stance.
The second reason was even simpler. Both men were also very big, although not as enormous as the bodyguard up front. That made the seat very cramped. On the other hand, good luck to anyone trying to hit Kristina in the middle of all that beefy flesh.
So, Ulrik was in a good mood even before they came into Magdeburg. It was always a pleasure to deal with skill and competence.
He would always remember three things afterward about their procession through the city.
The first were the banners. They seemed to be everywhere. On every tower, on every roof-top, hanging from every window and balcony, and waved by seemingly every hand along the streets and in the square in front of the royal palace.
The flags came in all sizes, from a gigantic one draped down the side of an entire building to a multitude of small ones that could be held in one hand. But with very few exceptions, they only came in four types.