Chapter III
„This makes no sense!” - you think as you check the records. Gefreiter Richter’s firing range scores from basic are not the best, but they’re still far above what you saw yesterday. They look average, not really falling behind or getting ahead of the rest of recruits who were in basic with him.
After closing his training file you open up his med data. The overall examination score is 73% - fit for duty in the Army or Europamarine, not enough to let him become a pilot or anything above ground support crew in the Luftwaffe. A generic score, one not that different from the rest of the people that were in training with him or the soldiers he is with now.
You scour the Net for something else, until you stumble across a generic social media profile on “egosocial.net”. The profile looks clean, he mostly likely purged any content that might have been a red flag before the Bundeswehr recruiters ran a background check. Or maybe he was responsible enough not to post any potentially shameful content on the Net.
You also found a few political comments, signed with his name Otto Richter, on the Brasilia Tribune and HJ News websites. While you could considering it problematic, that he browses such “unsympathetic” to the European cause news sites as those two South American ones, his comments reveal a pro-Europareich attitude. Assuming those are his.
Regardless this is as much as you can dig up on him without resorting to professional, and illegal, data extraction. Eriksen known also as “K3s13r”, an acquaintance from your pre-military past, owes you one last favor. Perhaps he could check it out if you do not want to hire any shady elements.
*
The Grünfelde Alley, a seemingly never-ending urban route. Caged-in between corporate towers on both sides, it looks like a man-made canyon with a river of asphalt and strassenbahn tracks flowing in the middle, with some of the older and shorter buildings also ending up trapped between the walls of steel, glass, concrete and digital displays of the corporate monoliths. The Nav-HUD of your implant informs you that you are still a long way from your destination in Oliva.
The Neinmask Sieben rushes past the other vehicles in Langfur, most of them hydrogen powered. The darkness of the corporate towers’ shade lets the bright 3D displays attack you from all sides with advertisements even during the middle of the day. “GFG - securing your financial future and wealth”, “Khomyak Petroleum – providing you with all the energy you and your family needs to be happy”, “Become more than just a Homo Sapiens, visit the Blakermore Systems Implant Saloon today!” - their photon scream echoes in the twilight of the alley.
Even the number 6 strassenbahn you pass by is covered in a display, advertising the “security services” of Aegis Inc., a private army that became famous for defending Moscow’s Oligarchs from Kalugin’s army during the Schism of 2042. You try to focus on driving, but you know that the corporations did everything they could so that you would focus on their maze of electronic screens instead.
*
Oliva, the Fuschs Implant Saloon and Clinic, a scorched and smoldering mess hidden behind the offices and stores of GrünfeldeAlley. A few cops guard the site from pesky journalists and curious locals. With Gotenhafen under arrest, the Major has agreed to let you take over the investigation, after all you have experience in dealing with bombings.
At the site TSZ-Polizei officer Orłowski, one of the local cops who decided to stay when the TSZ was formed, is handcuffing a university girl.
“What did she do officer? Is she connected to the incident somehow?” You ask him.
“No, unless you count being a wannabe news-stream vulture as a connection.” He answers.
“I have rights!” The young woman shouts.
“Tell that to Feldwebel Westgard lady. As you were trespassing on a crime scene, one under the investigation of the Tri-Stadt Spezial Zone Bundeswehr Garrison, you will answer to her.”
She looks upon you and scowls.
“I want to see my lawyer!” She yells.
“You will get to see one when the time is right, for now I want to see your ID.” You tell her, her hostility isn’t particularly threatening in your opinion.
“I want to see my lawyer you fascists!” She growls at you, does she honestly think you find her threatening?
“Gefreiter Mazowiecka, search the young lady for an ID.”
The girl resists but she can’t do much while handcuffed and held by Officer Orłowski. “Stop molesting me you volksdeutsche!” She screams hinting that she may also have had a political motivation here, rather than just a financial one of making a video to sell to some news corp. “Damn you Germans and your volksdeutsche lackeys!”
“I’m Norwegian and you’re not exactly helping your case here, by being so uncooperative and insulting us at that citizen.” You calmly reply.
“I found it Frau Feldwebel,” Anna announces, “Marta Żuławska, born on 05.04.2036 in Weihersfrey, ID-No. 36240592712. I also found a student ID, Danzig University no. 433298.”
You take the documents from Anna and look at them closely, as if you were hypnotized by them. You focus thus sending a signal to the neural interface ordering it to save the image.
“I know that stare, you’re a mech ain’t you? A nazi cyborg making photographs, don’t you have enough data on me in your gestapo database!?” Miss Żuławska shouts.
“A bit bitchy isn’t she Frau Feldwebel?” Gefreiter Borg says.
He is right, she’s likely to be more trouble than she’s worth. While you doubt she may have been directly involved in the bombing, she may be connected to some anti-european right-wing group that doesn’t like the fact this area is under temporary Europareich governance. Either way it may be a valid angle of investigation.
With Żuławska being taken care of, you finally investigate the bomb site.
“Judging by the burns and the destruction,” you start explaining , “my guess is the blast originated from the left side of the Saloon’s display window. The attacker may have thrown a charge inside of the building from a passing vehicle or he got inside and planted it before anyone noticed.”
“For this kind of destruction Frau Feldwebel,” Laukaistis comments, “the charge would have to be pretty massive if it was a home-made explosive. I doubt anyone short of an Olympian or an augmented person could have thrown one. Unless they had access to military-grade explosives, possibly some kind of plastic explosive.”
“That is correct Gefreiter,” you tell him surprised by his detailed and plausible hypothesis, “where did you learn this?”
“I paid close attention to my professor at the Jagielonian University in Cracow, his were arguably the least boring lecture regarding nitrates. Too bad there were so few of them.” Oskaras answers.
“Military-grade? Could these be mujahedin getting supplies from France or England?” Henri asks.
“Out here? Doubtful, unless they hid themselves real well among the refugees or have some kind of front.” You explain. “Either way they would need to have good forged IDs and Net traces to pass through immigration processing. Even then a corp would have to hire them, and none I know of would risk hiring a Muslim and sending him to Europe, hoping nobody will notice. Then there is the issue of smuggling in explosives.”
“What about security footage?” Sven asks.
“The feed cuts-off a minute or two before the attack, a power outage was reported in the area during that time. Regretfully they did not invest in a backup power source.” Orłowski explains.
“Too convenient. Not only did the attackers not get recorded, but they could have used the darkness to sneak inside the clinic.” Sven replies.
“I agree, the cause of the outage is being investigated, possibly somebody hacked the power grid as it started working just fine 5 minutes later. What about eyewitness reports?” You ask.
“Nobody saw anything unusual, apart from the power outage, it seems to have distracted everyone. The saloon’s employees are dead, including the security guards. Only a surgeon and his assistant got out alive.” The cop replies.
“Anything else officer?”
“There was also a cashier from the GFG bank branch which shared the parking area with the clinic. He was about to get into his car when the attack happened, it knocked him away making him hit the car behind him. Oh and the other shift from the clinic including the manager is alive, they may know something.”
“With your permission Frau Feldwebel, Oskaras says, “I will collect samples for analysis to see what the terrorists used.”
“Good idea, stay here with the officer until we get back Gefreiter. The rest of us will investigate this further.”
You will…
1)…investigate the area more thoroughly, see if there is anything that could help you identify the attackers or their Modus Operandi.
2)…visit the DSE power company responsible for this part of the grid. Ask around and see what happened on their side.
3)…talk to the surgeon’s assistant, see what she remembers.
4)…talk to the surgeon, see what he remembers.
5)…talk to the manager and the other shift working at the Fuchs Implant Saloon and Clinic.
6)…visit the bank cashier in the hospital, ask him about the event.
As for Miss Żuławska the student activist/news vulture, you'll…
A)…let the cops handle her.
B)…try to get a warrant to search her apartment and disk contents for any interesting information.
C)…interrogate her personally.
D)…keep her locked down at the base until the trial, but otherwise ignore her.
Finally, regarding Gefreiter Richter…
X)…you’re done with this, digging further is a waste of your time.
Y)…attempt to hire a freelance hacker to see what he finds.
Z)…contact your old friend Eriksen a.k.a. K3s13r, have him repay that old favor.