Founders Day, Goff Ink the Missing Link
Goff Ink looks like a typical dralasite but his sense of humor is even more on the corny side then normal for his race. He's been a very successful agent for the FFF as he almost never mixes humor and terrorism. In reality he is a reporter for an electronic newpaper, the Port Loren Ledger. In this capacity the PCs may already have been questioned by him. His position as a reporter also means that he'll be able to guess if the operation is in jepordy because of the PCs actions. He'll report his fears to Dak Dollo and the order to step up the operation will come back down the chain from the top.
His part in this plot is to manage the two sides of the operation's "distraction." Reporting to Goff is Don Salizar who runs the SDC side and a yazirian named Shin Sting who runs the FFF side.
Its imperitive that Dak Dollo's identity be protected so that when the order to step up and/or impliment the operation comes the Zenk assassin will have orders to "clean up" Goff. If the PCs have gotten information out of Don Salizar about Goff allow the PCs to corner him in a public place but as they are arresting him a sniper bullet with a poison payload will strike him directly between the eye spots, killing him.
His elimination prevents him from revealing Dak Dollo's part, especially since he meets with him face to face. His link to Shin Sting is by chronocom so that link in the web or octopus is vulnerable to the PCs discovery. However, since Goff is a reporter his com records will take time to work through to see who he's been contacting, besides Don Salizar. There will be several hundreds of names in the records.
To locate Shin Sting they will want to focus on Goff's com communications for the past month. Don Salizar's name turns up several times. They can try to filter his com records a number of ways:
1. By focusing on all non-newspaper staff; reduces the contacts by half to 200.
2. By focusing on people he went to college with, reduces the list to a dozen
3. By focusing on people with criminal records, reduces the list to about 20
4. By focusing on people that are on Star Law watch lists, reduces the list to about 20.
5. By focusing on people were contacted at close to the same time as Don Salizar, reduces the list to 1, Shin Sting.
6. By looking for any name that turns up on all of the above list, reveals Shin Sting's name as well.
Founders Day, The Sting
Shin Sting has already given Maximus Payne (a pseudonym) his orders but when the PCs track him down he will be meeting with Anna Che to make sure her side of the operation will go off without a hitch.
Anna Che is a member of the Alliance for the Rights of the People (ARP) and a student activist. He will be running a student ARP meeting on the 23rd floor of the Student Union Building when the PCs arrive. There are about 20 student leaders in attendance and this is their final planning session before hitting the Founder's Day festivities with placards and shouting. They are, very typically anrgy over Star Law and other police activities and will shout and yell at the PCs while Anna rants on about ARP dogma. Neither Anna nor any of the students have done anything illegal or planned to do anything illegal but they will throng and hinder the movement of the PCs from arresting Shin Sting.
Shin Sting, yazirian, melee 75,
RW
50, PS +4, IM +5, RS 50, STA 50, Martial arts (5), civilian skien suite (50), anti-shock implant.
Average Student, Melee 35, PS +3, IM +3, RS 30, STA 35.
The PCs can bring in Anna Che for questioning or arrest her for aiding and abbetting a criminal. Ultimately, she is ignorant of the overall plot and has done nothing wrong and will get off in the end. The PCs can certainly hold her till after Founder's Day and the ARP demonstration will probably be half the size it would have been.
Interrogating Shin Sting:
He will do his best to misconstrue any questions while under tellol. So unless the players are carefull with how they phrase questions while using tellol, they may find their 3 questions used up and Shin Sting knocked out from the drug's side effect.
Shin Meets with "Maximus Payne" directly at a dirty flat in Rook Hill and can give that address. He also knows that his mission is to set up a diversion for tomarrow when the real operation goes down.
Founders Day, Maximum Effect
If the players discover information leading them to the bomber they will not actually find him. He's busy planting the bombs. They are being place around the Council of Worlds complex but at targets with low security priorities (meaning that it was easy to get to these targets but that blowing them up will not actually come close to harming anyone at the Council of Worlds. They are timed to trigger a security reaction that will wisk the CoW delegates to waiting vehicles to wisk them away.
This wisking of the politicians away is what the assassin is waiting for and he'll take his shot as his target is getting into an air car. No one else knows this but the Zenk assassin.
The PCs may discover the bomb locations in an encrypted file on the personal computer terminal at the bomber's apartment (presuming they gain that address from Shin Sting). The personal computer is a level one computer with the following level 1 programs: computer security, information storage and entertainment. They encrypted file is in his photo album under the folder: Vacation Photos. Characters with computer skill that are looking for something may discover this with a LOG check to notice that the file takes up an inordinate ammount of memory. Each picture is an innoccent looking picture of the outside of a location to be bombed. A defeat security roll must be made to decrypt each photograph (3 in all) to see the encrypted files hidden within or "behind" the photos. The encrypted files show floor plans and where to hide the bombs.
Founders Day, The Inevitable
Should the PCs manage to intercept all three bombs and/or catch the
bomber in the act, Founder's Day will still go forward as planned by its
organizers and the Investors Master Mind. The Zenk assassin is very
patient and will wait with his bead on the targets air limo and still
attempt to kill him.
This is where each referee has a choice; they can modify the adventure to allow the PCs to catch everyone involved or allow the plot to succeed in killing the politician and Dak Dollo being appointed to the Finance Commitee. The Investor's master mind will go on to more plots and could become a long running shadowy foil in the background of the campaign.
The events of Founder's Day; bomb plots, sabotage plots, and riots will likely cause the Council of Worlds to adjourn the session without a final vote on the bill. Even if the assassination does not go forward another plot to kill the chief politician could during the recess. Dak Dollo will almost certainly be put on the Finance Committee if a vacancy on it opens up suddenly. During the new session he'll be able to tie up the bill or pull its teeth.
Consequences for the Conspirators
The Zenk participants will either get off through the activities of highly paid lawyers or through escaping and disappearing.
The FFF and SDC members who are captured will likely end up in jail for their activities. Some of them may harbor bitterness against the PCs and will likely make cryptic threats.
The ARP members will, at most, get a slap on the wrist for interfering with an arrest but despite any other charges they will get off. Anna Che will go on to denounce the organization the PCs work for in the strongest terms even suggesting that the events of Founder's Day were a government plot.
The Investor is pretty much teflon; nothing should end up sticking to him.
Dak Dollo stands to lose everything if he's caught. In the aftermath, evidence that fingers him as the master mind will be found on his computer and it will be very convincing. He'll go on about a shadowy figure and wild stories but no one will buy them. In the end he'll commit suicide in prison. That is if he's caught.