The train eventually came and provided a welcome cool and shady place. The heat had become unbearable outside and was even worse inside the broken train. People squished onto the new train as it was about half the size of the one that had been carrying them before the derailment. The train ride seemed long Eru thought, probably because he had to stand the whole way and just wanted to get to the city.

They arrived without any further delays. Immediately the found and took a taxi to the hotel Charmalina had booked earlier. The hotel was sympathetic and did not charge them for the first night because they were now a day late. The news was not good accidents, explosions, and other unexplained incidents were taking place everywhere and getting larger and more frequent. No one was taking credit for the strikes or if they were and the reporters knew they weren’t talking.

Governments were all talking about curfews, ID tags, other forms of control against the populace. They came out with law proposals already and were virtually identical no matter which level of government or where it was located. This was too much to be plain coincidence and coming out too fast to not have been planned ahead. Someone with scores of political power was making a move but to what end?

Eru and Charmalina laid down for an hour long nap to clear their heads and rest their bodies. The hotel beds were comfy and quiet and the room was a nice temperature. Waking up and feeling refreshed they decided to go for a walk towards the political core. They were close and needed the exercise to keep their muscles loose.

The walk was peaceful and there was a nice path surrounded by trees towards the core. The birds were singing, shade from the trees created a calm atmosphere and Eru’s stress diminished as they walked.

Arriving into the core a loud whack of noise assaulted them. People being busy walking, running, driving every which way, horns honking but there was one noise that made Eru look to a side street. An argument was going on. Both were dressed well in suits, Eru recognized one of them as being a high level official, the other Eru did not know.

“That’s Senator Stillman with a bounty hunter Basq.” Charmalina spoke up seemingly reading Eru’s mind, noticing the same confrontation amongst the hustle and bustle.

“Lets get a little close to see what is going on”, Eru said and moved closer along a wall to not be seen by the senator and bounty hunter.

“I want my money now, I caused the incidents to happen that you asked for, now pay up!” Basq moved closer to the Senator.

“You’ll get your money when the laws come into place. You’ll profit from these new laws.” Stillman stepped back a bit now his back was against the wall.

“I only ask once Senator.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” The senator started to sweat as he understood Basq’s threat.

“It would be a pity if you were to die in one of your accidents.” Basq held up some device.

“What’s that?” Stillman started to shake, he wasn’t used to being in this position.

Basq pressed a button. An explosion started to go off half a block away from their current location.

“You’ll pay for this. Others will make sure of this.” Stillman tried to shout to Basq. Stillman felt his head fly back and smash against the brick wall.

The explosion sent a concussive blast towards Eru and Charmalina pushing them against a wall and not really suffering any damage. They ran around the corner. Stillman had not been so lucky and lay on the ground. He may be dead but they weren’t sure. Basq was nowhere to be seen.

People screamed in agony and thick grey smoke made it hard to see anything. They had to find Basq, Stillman would be awhile before he could talk if ever and Basq knows more than they did about what was going on.