PROLOGUE
DAY ONE
At around noon, an anonymous call went out from a pre-paid cell phone to Farpoint's Cantonal Emergency Center, the caller reporting of suspicious activity in the vicinity of a blue Whitehaven Motors van parked at the Ryan Fairmont Square, right outside of the Farpoint Commonwealth Building. The caller hung up before the dispatcher could make any further inquiries.
Such calls made by immature teenagers, mentally unstable individuals or pranksters with just too much time in their hands were not exactly rare occurences in Cornavia, but owing to the terror scares that had occured in Farpoint and the vicinity since the apparent resumption of activity by Nordisk Frihet, a Canton Constabulary patrol permanently stationed to the square was told to check out the vehicle regardless.
And as it turned out, this time it hadn't been just a prank call. As one of the officers peered into the back of the van through its rear windows, he saw an unrecognizable shape covered by a tarpaulin, and with a closer glance thought that he'd seen wiring emerging from underneath the tarpaulin. Farpoint's police officers were taking no chances, particularly as the Commonwealth authorities were preparing to the highly publicized execution of a Nordic separatist for murder, and accordingly the Emergency Center called in EOD units of the Commonwealth Army in addition to additional police units which were given the task of evacuating the square and its adjacent buildings.
With the aid of a remote-controlled robot, the Northern Engineers EOD unit discovered that the tarpaulin concealed a timed-detonation explosive device consisting of six 75-liter canisters of propane and two hundred kilograms of ammonium nitrate, which was promptly neutralized by the disposal unit.
Later in the day, the Farpoint Canton Constabulary released a public statement confirming that an explosive device had been neutralized and discovered due to a public tip in downtown Farpoint, but neglecting further commentaries and thanking the anonymous citizen responsible for alerting the authorities. The Anti-Terrorist Branch, and their counterparts over at the Security Service, would've preferred to keep the matter away from public view but pictures of the police evacuation and cordon of Fairmont Square and the subsequent arrival of Army jeeps had within an hour spread to most major Cornavian news sites in spite of the best efforts of the constables to enforce an on-scene media blackout. As a result, the Ministry of Justice was forced to announce a Commonwealth-wide heightened state of alert in response to a likely terrorist threat.
The true shape of these events and their consequences, however, had been decidedly different. As would turn out during the following days.
DAY ONE
At around noon, an anonymous call went out from a pre-paid cell phone to Farpoint's Cantonal Emergency Center, the caller reporting of suspicious activity in the vicinity of a blue Whitehaven Motors van parked at the Ryan Fairmont Square, right outside of the Farpoint Commonwealth Building. The caller hung up before the dispatcher could make any further inquiries.
Such calls made by immature teenagers, mentally unstable individuals or pranksters with just too much time in their hands were not exactly rare occurences in Cornavia, but owing to the terror scares that had occured in Farpoint and the vicinity since the apparent resumption of activity by Nordisk Frihet, a Canton Constabulary patrol permanently stationed to the square was told to check out the vehicle regardless.
And as it turned out, this time it hadn't been just a prank call. As one of the officers peered into the back of the van through its rear windows, he saw an unrecognizable shape covered by a tarpaulin, and with a closer glance thought that he'd seen wiring emerging from underneath the tarpaulin. Farpoint's police officers were taking no chances, particularly as the Commonwealth authorities were preparing to the highly publicized execution of a Nordic separatist for murder, and accordingly the Emergency Center called in EOD units of the Commonwealth Army in addition to additional police units which were given the task of evacuating the square and its adjacent buildings.
With the aid of a remote-controlled robot, the Northern Engineers EOD unit discovered that the tarpaulin concealed a timed-detonation explosive device consisting of six 75-liter canisters of propane and two hundred kilograms of ammonium nitrate, which was promptly neutralized by the disposal unit.
Later in the day, the Farpoint Canton Constabulary released a public statement confirming that an explosive device had been neutralized and discovered due to a public tip in downtown Farpoint, but neglecting further commentaries and thanking the anonymous citizen responsible for alerting the authorities. The Anti-Terrorist Branch, and their counterparts over at the Security Service, would've preferred to keep the matter away from public view but pictures of the police evacuation and cordon of Fairmont Square and the subsequent arrival of Army jeeps had within an hour spread to most major Cornavian news sites in spite of the best efforts of the constables to enforce an on-scene media blackout. As a result, the Ministry of Justice was forced to announce a Commonwealth-wide heightened state of alert in response to a likely terrorist threat.
The true shape of these events and their consequences, however, had been decidedly different. As would turn out during the following days.