Project Boussh: Day Of Rest
by Majick

    The four agents sat around the breakfast table, seriously paging through
the papers they'd bought. Even Bror, who couldn't read English very well,
was able to pick up on the general tone of the articles, and was the first
to speak. "They have no idea," he commented. "They think this was an
elaborate terrorist attack."
    "Well, in a sense, it was," Elassar commented. The young Devaronian had
his game face on, and all trace of arrogance was gone from his voice.
Without commenting, he'd helped Bror with the paper, forgoing the teasing
he'd indulged in just twenty four hours before.
    "Twenty four hours," thought Mike. "My world has changed that quickly. I
mean, sure I knew this Q hunt was serious -and why didn't we just call the
police in, anyway?- but it didn't seem it."
    "I guess," he said out loud, "meeting you three, and Corran, kinda swept
me up in the enthusiasm for this project. We were going to find Quiara, and
all be home for Christmas. All of a sudden, I'm wrapped up in the middle of
an intergalactic terror operation that's killed dozens of my people. And now
we hear from Sci that the entire process is in our hands?"
    Mike referred to the e-mail Sci had sent out, entitled 'Status Report'.
    "Now we hear there may be a traitor in the ranks as well, who knows
everything there is to know about the project, and to be honest, I'm bloody
scared."
    His voice had risen above the low murmurs the four had been using, and
he was beginning to attract attention from the other diners in the hotels
dining room. Surprisingly, it was Bror who spoke first.
    "Mike, listen," he said. "I know what it's like to see your world turned
upside down. I had Thyferra invaded by Isard not so long ago," he added
referring to the former Imperial Head of Intelligence.
    "It was strange, knowing someone had chosen to change the rules of the
game, but I had to adapt. As then, we have the backing of General Antilles,
Colonel Celchu and the other Rogues and Wraiths, not to mention all your
Terran colleagues."
    Shalla chipped in as well. "The first rule of martial arts is to get
your opponent off balance. The Imperial forces clearly think they have us on
the back foot, but they're wrong. We can recover from this setback, which I
think, by the way, was
meant to be a warning..."
    Mike's baleful glare stopped her cold. "You're trying to tell me that,"
he looked at the paper, "nearly 800 people died to warn off two intelligence
officers, a member of the Thyferran defence corps, and a Terran university
student? They could have sent flowers!"
    He stormed out, leaving the three New Republic agents to wonder at the
suitability of their contact.

    Mike lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He ignored the knock on the
door. When he heard the lock being picked, he drew the holdout blaster from
the inside pocket of his jacket, and pointed it at the door. A cool circle
of metal pressed against his ear, and the holdout dropped from his hand to
the bed.
    "Damn you, Shalla," he said, as Elassar and Bror came through the door
(rhymes, cool!) "I just want to be alone."
    "Perhaps, but moping in our rooms won't get the job done. Besides, we
need a Terran guide to show us around. We could get knocked down by one of
these 'kahs' of yours."
    Mike smiled, slightly. "Cars, people. Cars. Besides, these crazy Yanks
drive on the wrong side of the road. If we're going to head out, I'm relying
on you pilots and your reflexes to save my hide, okay?"

    "So, what's our next move?" asked Elassar.
    "Head to the Republican building, look for evidence that they planted
the bombs," offered Bror.
    "You think they...?" asked Shalla, disbelievingly.
    "Bror's right. They didn't, but as a dumbass false lead, it's not a bad
place to start. Besides, there might be some clues there as to who really
did it, and we'll know what to look for, rather than the WPD."
    "OK, boss. But how do we get through the security for the building?"
asked Elassar "They must have it shut down pretty tight now..."
    "Shutting the door after the nerf has bolted," offered Shalla.
    Mike wondered briefly when the two Intel trained Wraiths had turned
contol over to him, but took it to be a sop to him, to ensure he didn't bolt
back to England, away from the explosions.
    "Well..." he began, and switched on the TV.

    A couple of hours later, the three bedraggled humans approached the
cordon around the Republican's DC office. They walked towards the front
door, only stopping when a young police officer stepped in front of them.
    "Excuse me. No-one's allowed in there today. Not after last night, I'm
afraid."
    The tallest of the three held out a Democrat office pass. "I'm sorry
officer, but we're the Democratic advisers to the candidate, and we really
kinda need to get in there, y' see. We were kinda caught in the blast last
night, and we understand if you don't want to let us in."
    "Uh, well, you do have Democrat ID, so I guess you can head on in. Just
keep your ID with you at all times, OK?"
    "Surely, Officer," the woman offered.

    Once inside, Mike contacted Elassar to update the overwatching Devaronian,
and then the three agents began their search.
In an act of solidarity -and overt vote winning- the Republican's had
offered their HQ as a base of operation's for the WPD, as well as the other
interested agencies, the CIA, FBI, NSA and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms. Taken together, there were a lot of people walking around with
unusual passes, and this allowed the NRI team to walk around like they owned
the place.
    "Where to start?" Mike asked in a low voice.
    "Basement," replied Shalla. "We work our way up."

    In the basement, it took Bror less than five minutes to unearth a box
containing a small quantity of Nergon-14, and a half used bag of blasting
caps. He looked at the bag distastefully.
"I can't believe the Imps would think anyone could fall for this. It's so
obvious."
    Shalla frowned at Bror's arrogance. "We knew what we were looking for,
Bror. Not everyone else would, and maybe human scientists woudln't be able
to ID Nergon-14. It's not a Terran explosive, after all."
    Mike tossed a blasting cap from hand to hand, thoughtfully. He looked at
his colleagues, before saying, "No. You don't keep blasting caps with
anything but explosives, and the scientists here on Terra have had a lot of
experience with
weird and less-than-wonderful explosive combinations. Remind me to tell you
about Semtex sometime
    "Point is, this stuff was meant to be found, and then to implicate
someone in this building. Whether it's a Imp/Democrat plot to win sympathy,
or if it's a Republican turning tricks for the Empire, I don't know right
now. But this is the smoking gun, people, and now we need to find the
fingerprints."
    Bror looked quizzically at Shalla, as if to ask what exactly Mike was
talking about.

    Back at the hotel, the four agents sat around discussing possible angles
on their investigations.
    Shalla: "It's the Republicans and the Imps working together, to rid the
USA of the Democrat opposition, piece by piece, and they screwed it up. It's
our fortune we weren't caught in the blast."
    Bror: "They know we're here, and wanted to get rid of us, and any
evidence of their ties to the Democrats at the same time."
    Elassar: "They knew we were heading towards the Democrat party building,
so decided to blow it up, and maybe get us too. I don't know whose side in
the election they're on, but they want rid of us. The sloppiness of the
evidence in the Republican basement? Just evidence of how quickly the
operation last night happened."
    Mike: "I think we have to face the prospect that the Democrats, the
Republicans and the Imps are all working together. The election mess is to
distract attention from any weird ass happenings that have occurred
worldwide of late. The explosion last night was meant to throw us off track,
investigate one angle, when we could investigate them all."
    Shalla: "How do we set about working out which one-if any- of us is on
the right track?"
    The four looked at one another, then down at the Nergon-14 in front of
them. Elassar spoke first.
    "So, what's the penalty for property damage in DC?"
    Shalla grinned.

    Mike stood under the street light, spray can in hand, contemplating his
masterpiece. A white triangle shape, similar to an Impstar Deuce, underlined
a bold blue campaign slogan "Thrawn/Pellaeon '08: Leaders not lawyers". The
cops guarding the Republican HQ could no more resist the bait then they
could resist watching Shalla as she'd strolled langourously along teh
sidewalk a few minutes earlier. Between Shalla's mini skirt, and Mike's
political statement, the demolition team of Elassar -who hadn't stopped
grinning since learning his role- and Bror had had a full ten minutes to
breach the cordon, set the explosives, and get out.
    The team rendezvoused five blocks from the Republican HQ, with Mike
grimacing still at the hefty fine he'd had to pay. Mollifyed slightly by the
fireworks display he was about to witness, he took his place on the bench
next to the other three, and kept an eye on the time.
    "Three, two, one, zero!!..."
    "It's not w-"
    The noise seemed much louder then that of the previous night. Their ears
had filtered out much of that explosion, it was simply 'too loud'. This
bang, on the other hand was well inside their auditory limits, and it was
LOUD.
    Mike turned to look at his fellow Intel officer's.
    "Looks like we just kicked over the ant hill, people. Wanna go see if we
managed to shake loose any big un's?"