Legacy; a thriller- Chapter One. (Started/Open)

[Quad08]

Alexander carefully made his way towards the older Italian and the young American, doing his best to hide his frustration at the idiotic attitudes the politicians were displaying.

An explosion that size, you'd be lucky to hide body parts, much less survivors...unless he just wants time to swoon in on blonde there...and thinking of social status at a time like this? Who the hell is this guy?!

Nodding to both of them on his approach, he motioned over to the burning remains of the Conference Center

"Actually sir, with an explosion of that force, it is highly unlikely that anyone in the building has survived. In fact, it'll be a miracle if they find remains"

Seeing the press badge hanging on the mans, Alexander's good eye inadvertently narrowed, understanding the source of the mans poor attitude. He was with the media.

"I don't mean to sound grim, but I'm giving you the truth. Wandering around the grounds aimlessly is dangerous, especially if a second explosion would be to occur. For now, our main goal should be to stick together until help arrives"

 

[Quad08]

Spoiler: OOC

Post was eaten

 

[dethklok114]

"I, ah, I suppose you're right," David replied to the one eyed man sullenly. "I just thought we should try to find out if anyone was alright, I had never even considered that a second blast could happpen."

David looked fearfully at the remains of the convention center. "As you can probably guess I'm not too familiar with any war report, so thank you for your help friend, I am, as you have probably gathered, David Fullci, economic journalist," David said offering his hand.

 

[Quad08]

Alexander nodded and shook David's hand, his frustration slowly fading

"Alexander Evard, NATO Committee member. I don't mean to shock you or your friend here, but we don't need anymore casualties today"

Glancing behind him, he could feel the American, Prant, glaring at them

"Personally, I think we should get moving before he starts shouting again"

 

[dethklok114]

"Agreed Mr. Evard, I don't fancy becoming a victim after so narrowly avoiding death. Thank you for your concern. You should come as well Ms. Summers, Mr. Evard here makes a good point, from the looks of things, we're already in trouble with the American over there."

 

[Shapsters]

"No no I don't smoke thank you." Daisy politely turned the smoke down with a wave of her hand, considering the angry American man who enjoyed raising his voice, Daisy agreed that they should get moving, "I'll follow you gentleman, I assume you will not lead me into any sort of danga', thus following you seems like the right thing to do."

With a slight bow she introduced herself to Alexander and shook his hand,

"Lead the way sir"

 

[CosmicCommander]

Spoiler: OOC

Not meaning to dictate, but the characters here are acting a bit to calm for the situation- considering there?s been a phenomenal explosion in front of them, there are wounded everywhere, a lot of people are dead, and most of them aren?t trained or prepared for this, it?d be more likely that they?ll be panicking, and confused.

Sutton groaned as he stood up, still glaring at the blaze. He couldn?t believe how a person could be as idiotic as the European.

The fucker was planning on walking into the blaze?

He gave a sigh as he stood up, and watched the three talk, and follow the German over to him. Sutton folded his arms, and gave a slow nod. He opened his mouth to speak, when Prant spoke; despite the pandemonium and chaos around him, he remained calm.

?Huh... You idiots done yet? Good. I?m gonna need you all to remain absolutely silent, and comply with whatever I say. We have emergency services coming, and a CT unit. I?ll have to deal with those, I doubt anyone else here has clearance. If anyone acts shifty, they?ll probably blow ya? brains out without a second thought. Got me??

 

[dethklok114]

"Yeah I got you," David called back somewhat sarcastically. "Though who put you in charge? For all we know this could be the work of you country, I mean it seems kind of suspicious that the two soldiers attending an economic forum are left alive, non?"

David glared at the man who ordered him around and sighed, it was useless to try to argue with an ape such as this man.

Despite all this David's mind went to the possibility of writing a story on the bombing, it would easily cover the costs of his debts as well as cover his planned retirement. He felt sickened with himself to think of only personal gain when surrounded with all this death and chaos, as tried to keep up the facade of being alright given the situation.

Spoiler: OOC

I thought at least one of us would be paranoid in this situation, especially since most people don't have the military background of these two (Evard and Prant)

 

[CosmicCommander]

Prant furrowed his brow, and grunted. He turned around and dismissed David with a flick of his hand, and folded his arms.

?Be as stupid as ya? want, but don?t complain to me. Does anyone else have some shit to spew??

No-one seemed to interject, and Prant dropped his arms. He made another grunt, and turned to Alex, and slowly nodded at him. He approached him, and dropped his arms, his expression softening slightly.

?Your name?s Evard, right??

 

[Quad08]

"That is correct, sir"

Alexander nodded to the American, Prant. He hadn't know many Amercians in his time, but those he had he considered...unpleasant. They were sloppy, angry and impulsive. Although that last one applied to Alexander, he tried not to think about it.

The tension amongst the group was clear, and it may have had to do with the fact that the conference everyone had thought they were going to had just blown up but the overal calmness amongst was somewhat promsing. Hopefully the Japanese that were on the bus wouldn't make any trouble when left alone...

 

[CosmicCommander]

"Hrm."

Prant gave a slow nod, and folded his arms again.

"Good that your not dead, your presence will probably assist clean up and paperwork. NATO's gonna be having a shitstorm thrown at it, son. And guessing that most of the MILREPS were in there..."

Prant gave a shudder, but was never able to finish. The group turned around, and saw the dozens of vehicles approaching- all of them going fast, and all of them with Sirens blaring.

[HEADING=2]* * *[/HEADING]

[HEADING=2]Zurich, Switzerland.

28th January 2011

13:25 PM

2 days after the incident[/HEADING]​

Sutton was clean, professional-looking, and shaven- a stark contrast to his state a few days ago. His hands were still shaking, however, and every action he took seemed surreal. He glanced at the others in the leather seats near him; almost all of the people who were on the bus when the bombing happened.

Bombing. I still don't believe it.

Matthew had never learned any of their names, surprisingly. Then again, he'd just got back from having spent some time in a hotel, all provided free of charge, for some reason. He was just glad none of the Japanese were there- he'd heard that the guy he used the tourniquet on had lost his leg due to the op.

He leant back, and sighed; he hated press conferences.

Sutton glanced at the door to the left, he could hear footsteps, and a creak as it opened. Prant walked in.

"Hrm, you're all here. Good."

Prant was dressed in a suit and tie, and had his hands behind his back. He seemed rather mellow and friendly, a world away from the aggressive hulk that'd been present two days before.

"It's good to see you're all still in one piece. I hope you enjoyed your hotels. So, this is the first time you've met since the 26th?"

A unanimous session of nodding began among the five seated.

"Hrm, this'll be awkward. We've got ten minutes before we have to start, so throw at me any questions you have before we go in there."

"Oh, and the name's Prant, good to talk to y'all without an inferno going on next to me."

Spoiler: OOC

Timeshift!

I found it necessary to move things along- there wasn't any reason to drag out the bombing scene, and we can now move faster- a good thing, timezones taken into account.

Just interact with Prant, relay your questions to him, and talk among yourselves.

 

[dethklok114]

"Well perhaps I should ask the obvious," David said, his pen and pad ready to transcribe any information that should come up during the meeting. "Do you know who conducted the bomb? If so, have you found their whereabouts or possibly have them detained already? I think everyone in the room is with me in saying that we want these bastards the suffer the full extent of the law, they've practically commited the biggest crime in history."

 

[CosmicCommander]

"You want the 'official explanation', we're following several leads."

Prant turned away from the group, and took out a cigarette and quickly lit it, he didn't turn to face the group as he spoke, solemnly, and with a hint of desperation.

"If you want the truth, we don't know. I'm not gonna lie to you, the prospects don't look good- the head of the world's effectively been cut off."

He turned to face the group, his cigarette still in his mouth.

"You want to know whose bodies we've recovered? Effectively all of the Chinese leadership, the Saudi royal family, 300 of the fortune 500, all of the Oil Supermajors, hell, Obama and half of the executive branch of the US is dead... That's just off the top of my head. Just about every corporation with a decent market capitalization have been fucked over, along with every Government that actually matters, and every man and woman that calls the shots..."

"If you want the truth, the world's been screwed."

Prant sighed, and turned around. His voice recovered it's authority and calm, and he gave a slow nod.

"But listen, you can't tell the press any if that, we've got a super-injunction filed on every news outlet that matters, along with a total press blackout on the casualties. All you guys are here for are to answer the basics, and tell everyone how you're doing- we need a morale booster."

 

[dethklok114]

"So you want us to lie to make you seem good? Are you out of your mind," David said with anger creeping into his voice.

"Why should we treat the rest of the people of the world like sheep just to make you sound good? People will find out about this and there will be a huge public outcry if we try to cover it, the people of the world deserve to at least know what's going on."

 

[CosmicCommander]

"You'll be reminded that this isn't coming from me, it's coming from the UN, NATO, the EU, and every player on the economic field. You want to defy their orders, I'll wish you luck."

Prant made a quick motion of a finger slitting his throat, before folding his arms again.

"And what will the truth do? Stock prices will plummet, mass hysteria, riots, and every rogue state is gonna get bold. Pande-freakin'-monium. We can't have that."

"No, we need to contain the situation for the time being. If you don't want to do that, there's a nice prison cell waiting for you somewhere, courtesy of the Chinese..."

 

[Quad08]

"Ignorance is bliss afterall"

Alexander stated somberly. While he had built a reputation on being honest, he knew that this situation called for something different.

"We're going to have to roll with the punches for now. Temporary social order is much better than mass hystaria. We may go down as the bad guys once the truth is revealed but I'll gladly have my reputation ruined if it gives us the time needed to get something useful to the public"

 

[CosmicCommander]

Sutton gave a nod, speaking for the first time in the day. His voice wasn't shaken as it was two days ago, it seemed authoritative and confident.

"I agree. We need to maintain order in the meantime... If he's right... Then... Hell... The world is screwed. If the public got a hold of what is actually going on... There'll be hell, exactly what we can't have. We need to maintain a façade of order if we have any chance of surviving this."

"I don't know about anyone else here, but I don't think the public deserves to know the truth- they don't deserve the riots, the wars, the anger. If anyone here has the best interests of the public here, you know we can't say a single thing."

A few interns gave subtle nods of approval in Sutton's direction.

Huh, some approval. I'd make one hell of a public speaker, at least.

Prant gave a nod, and spoke.

"What the Brit said. All I need you people to do is just say your coping well, and just brush off any speculation. And decline comments on anyone specific."

"If you have any more questions, throw 'em at me."

 

[dethklok114]

"What does it matter? Anything worth asking is either classified, unknown or going to be covered up, you might as well just get on with you little presentation General Prant," David said with a tired boredom. "I mean really, are we just here for some puff piece on how well this whole thing was handled? I would have been cheaper just to hire some 'witnesses' and let us get on our ways home. Cheaper and less risky."

 

[CosmicCommander]

Prant didn't even seem concerned with David's complaining, and flicked his wrist in dismissal.

"Well, I'm not blocking your access to anything- I haven't pulled any intel from you, so far. And you're not just here to talk about your experiences."

Prant paced back and forth, and gave a slow nod.

"I've been sent to... Evaluate all of you. There's been a lot of talk about all of you, in the upper echelons. You're symbols to them, you're the last sight of normalcy to survive the bombing. They want you, and I'm delivering their requests."

Prant leant towards David, his tone and frame intimidating, his voice deathly quiet.

"If you don't do as you're told, you're gonna wish you did later... And probably wish you were dead, to boot. If you disobey any of my orders, or those of my superiors, I will make sure you'll pay."

"Understood?"

 

[dethklok114]

David, obviously taken back by the over threat made by Prant could only choke out one thing.

"Understood."

He chastised himself for backing down as soon as things got dangerous, he was all talk and no action.

Regaining his composure David brought the topic back to the matter at hand. "Er, what do you mean 'Evaluate' us? And for that matter, who are the upper echelons? I mean, anyone who outranked a general in your government would have likely died in the bombing, and even if they survived, figureheads or not, what could they possibly use a politician, a priest, an heiress, and an aging journalist. The only potential useful one of us for propaganda would be our one-eyed friend over here."

"Years of journalism have made me cynical" David thought wryly.