The atmosphere inside the Pegasus Heavy Assault Transport's passenger cabin was extremely grim. Almost everyone was worried about the Emperor's upcoming itinerary. After Tito's death, the Eastern European countries that had embraced New Liberal Economic Colonization had also begun playing the constitutional democratic election games Lenin despised. Since presidential candidates often needed to display a common touch and other vote-winning qualities, security measures for politicians in constitutional elections were negligible in most cases, allowing them to freely show voters how approachable they were despite being elites.
Besides traditional assassination methods such as poisoning and sniping, unconventional methods like machine-gun strafing, planted mines, and car bombs had also gradually become more common.
Although the Hellfire Knights and Mortal Auxilia stationed near Sarajevo had spent seventy-two hours in advance taking measures such as securing sniper positions, checking for explosives along the route, cracking down on illegal organizations that might possess firearms or dangerous items, reinforcing inventory checks on the armories of legally armed groups, and visiting in advance those who had made dangerous remarks on social media, they had even deployed four small War Engines into the city. But there simply had not been enough time. Much work remained unfinished even by the time the Emperor arrived, so the possibility of an assassination attempt could not be completely ruled out.
Hammurabi repeatedly reminded the monarch never to approach the crowds, lest he be shot at close range; never to shake anyone's hand, lest he be pricked by a poisoned needle; never to kiss anyone on the cheek, lest he ingest toxin-laced cosmetics; and so on. If conditions allowed, Hammurabi would even have liked to put a transparent armored glass cover over the monarch, though such a measure would never have been approved.
"Perhaps some young man is already waiting for me with