NationStates Jolt Archive


The People's Power Under Fire

Fluffywuffy
31-03-2005, 01:55
OOC: You can have your nation chime in and say "We're sorry this happened, and we can send an agent to help investigate" but don't be like "We know who did it! It's him/her/it/that!" You have to follow the cop/investigator proceedure. You should have your guy look over the evidence that is so far known (I will establish this in my postings), but please be realistic in drawing conclusions: you aren't going to know jack about the bad guy(s) from the start, so you've gotta go with guesses about motive at the start. My cops will listen to your agents' suggestions, and will investigate what they suggest, but if it's too farfetched then they will laugh at you ;) .

IC:

The mutation of the Imperial government had happened over many years. The iron had rusted and the iron fist gave way to one falling apart. Rather than simply crushing enemies, the fist would shatter on impact and kill the foe by lock-jaw. But the fist had been used too often, and now the fist had to open and reveal a more gentle hand, with many fingers fighting for power.

The Emperor finally caved and allowed elections. The two parties that had been itching to compete in the elections, the Conservative Party and the Neo Confederacy Party, scrambled to field candidates. Both were relatively conservative socially, but they differed on the size of the government. The Neo Confederates favored a small central government, with the Conservative Party advocating a moderatly sized central government with powers over the Imperial--soon to be Confederate--provinces. The primaries were over with Robert Smith as the Conservative presidential candidate, and Joshua Hope as the Neo Confederate candidate. There were other candidates, but they totalled a single percentage point and were thus unimportant.

___________

Hope was a charming man, with a handsome face, a soft, thick brown hair. His blue eyes had a cheerful twinkle, and many a woman wanted to kill his wife, Mary, and marry him. Even his voice excited women; it was that sort of high Southern accent, the type that a true Southern gentleman would speak in, not the trailerpark strain of the dialect. The polls showed that he was being bested by a substantial ten points, unusual in a nation that was split almost 50-50 in party allegience. For this reason he was on almost non-stop campaigning and attacks on his opponent, and today was no exception.

He was in Vigen, Blanc Island, a sleepy town in an equally sleepy state. But it was a populous sleepy state, and Hope needed the votes desperatly. His official motorcade pulled into Vigen, where he waved to crowds of people watching. He shook hands and smiled, the usual political acting. His wife, just as beautiful as her husband was handsome, simply sat in the slow moving car, smiling and looking as supportive as was possible. The motorcade's ultimate goal was the town center, where the presidential hopeful would give a speech with the town's mayor, who was trying to be re-elected. For now it just meandered around in vote-seeking mode.

___________

Ivan Serov strolled into the Central Vigen Bed and Food, a fancy hotel in the town's center. He was looking for a place to stay, and this place appeared to be nearly empty. He walked up to the front desk. The manager was a woman and he, like Joshua Hope, was also a lady magnet. This was amplified by his expensive suit and the unusual white gloves he wore. She tried to be as charming as possible, but she was ugly, fat, and as charming as an angry bear.
"Hi. I'm looking for a place to stay. Do you have any rooms left?"
The woman ran over a checklist before looking up at him. "Yeah, we got plenty of rooms left. Any preferences?" she spat in a voice that would make the most pacific of pacifists burst into a sudden rage.
"Uh, yeah, I'd like a room facing the town center. I don't want to have to leave my room to watch the speech." Ivan did not return the charm. He was just a man looking for a room, after all. Plus, a ring on his finger designated him as a married man.
"We've got one window room left. Should I book you for it?" Ivan nodded and gave all the information neccesary. He retrieved his bags, a large duffel bag, and strolled into his room. A few other women took note of his passage and where he stopped, doubtless hoping that the ring on his finger was just decoration. He opened the door--gloves still on--and changed. It would be a fine speech.

___________

Joshua's motorcade finally reached the city center, where a platform was waiting to recieve the presidential candidate. The mayor and his wife were seated on the platform already, and numerous TV cameras were being set up to record this speech. No bodygaurds and few policemen were visible, for presidential candidates did not recieve bodygaurds. Josh and his wife climbed on to the platform, and the mayor said his short speech.
"Vigen is proud to recieve such fine presidential material, and I am proud to announce Joshua Hope. This is a historic moment for Vigen. . .Thank you. Mr. Joshua, here you go."
"Thank you Mr. Mayor. Citizens of Vigen, I am honored to accept your invitation to come and speak in your fine town. . ."

___________

Ivan watched all this through the window of his hotel room. Or, more corectly, through the scope mounted on a sniper rifle. He centered the site on Joshua's head, and applied gentle pressure to the trigger. But at that moment Hope ducked, and the bullet struck Mary, the presidential candidate's wife, right in the head. Mary died in a cloud of red blood, bone fragments, and tissue, the supporting smile still on her face; she died instantly. But her husband was not so lucky; the love of his life was robbed of him by some lunatic. He knelt at his dead wife's side and wept.
Ivan safed the rifle and set it on the bed. He left no fingerprints--he wore gloves the entire time--and was not immediatly seen, as his rifle had a flash suppresor. Ivan simply walked out of the building and went to his care, even masquerading as a concerned citizen as he asked what happened to a few random passerbys. He had failed to kill or injure the presidential candidate, but he had succeded in killing his wife, and that was almost as good, wasn't it?

___________

The story was a media sensation, and even warranted enough attention that the Emperor himself pleeded for foreign investigators to come and help discover the assassin. It was a longshot, but he had to try everything.
Yafor 2
31-03-2005, 02:10
To: The government

We have been following this case and are quite surprised at all of it. We would like to send a Yaforite agent to come and help you. Do you accept?

~Signed~
Aemon Chaliny
Foreign Minister and High Governor of all Yaforite Provinces.
Fluffywuffy
31-03-2005, 03:37
IC:

"I am willing to accept the Yaforite agent. I need all the help I can get in this investigation. Whenever your agent arrives, I will personally brief him about all that we have discovered."

Special Agent Marko Ramirez
Imperial Special Police Force

_____________

So far, the evidence in Marko's locker was not much. Ballistics tests had determined which room the shot had been fired from, and a team of investigators raided the room and asked anyone in the building about the occupant. Not surprisingly, they got a description that would fit half the human population, and not much evidence. Except for one thing.

Nancy Hart, Marko's assistant, spotted something interesting on the wall. "Hey, Marko, look's like the bastard put his foot up on the wall." Sure enough, there was a footprint of a shoe on the wall. Marko approached and took a shot with his camera, capturing the image for eternity. It was a small lead, and one that would be worthless in a few weeks as the sole on the shoe was made unrecognizable by walking. Investigators found similar footprints throughout the hotel and parking lot, and they now knew where he had parked, and any movements he made in the place.

_____________

"Ivan" was long gone by then, and had long since disposed of the silly disguise as a businessman. He caught a flight to the other side of the country, threw his false travel documents into a furnace, and congratulated himself on his brilliance. And his employer's brillinace, he reminded himself. "Ivan" flipped on the news in the cheap hotel he rented and was amazed; there was a national outpouring of sympathy, and Hope was almost ahead in the polls. Now that was unusual. The idiot couldn't even speak proper English, and now the people sympathised when his wife dies? What was the world comming to? Maybe he'd have to finish the job.
Fluffywuffy
01-04-2005, 02:52
---bump---