(probably going to be a lot of reading here, but if you can help me I'd greatly appreciate it) Background: In 1958 an alien race established secret trade relations with a few nations on Earth. In 1962, WW3 breaks out between NATO and USSR. Alien race intervenes to end the war. Alien race now occupies Earth. Aliens learn and speak Earth languages and live among humans. Aliens control all government functions. Government is totalitarian in nature. Present-day is approximately 2014. Each continent is a "region" governed by a "Regional Minister", and each region is split up into "districts" governed by a "District Governor". The Regional Minister of North America has a long-standing political rivalry with the District Governor of the district in which my story begins. The Minister's main quarrel with the Governor is that the Governor (who actually cares about his subjects) expends most of his resources on civil redevelopment than on asserting authority. This becomes personal for the Minister when the Governor's security oversight results in the Minister being stabbed by an attempted assassin ("attempted" being the keyword here, he survives and soon returns to office, albeit very pissed off about what happened to him). 10 people, including my main character, were arrested for suspicion of conspiracy in the stabbing -- They were all released, however, when an investigation revealed that the stabbing was a lone-wolf attack and the assailant acted alone. Shortly thereafter, the Governor is meeting with an architect at a sidewalk cafe to discuss a project that happens to be the latest subject of disagreement between himself and the Minister - a 40-story residential tower for the homeless. During this meeting, a car packed with explosives is driven through the crowd of diners at the cafe, straight toward the Governor, and explodes. The car bombing instantly kills the Governor, the architect of the tower, and more than 20 others (mostly civilians). The Minister declares that the attack was a "coordinated assassination committed by an organised terrorist group" that was allegedly also responsible for the assassination attempt against himself. My main character, of course, knows this is false, because he was released from prison due to conclusive evidence that the stabbing assailant acted alone. He knows this, and so do 9 other people. But here's the catch: The Minister has used this false-flag "terrorist attack" to -- aside from eliminating a political rival to replace him with an ally -- declare a "State of Emergency" across the district and deploy military police district-wide to "contain and eliminate" the "terrorist threat" (mind you, there is no actual terrorist group, thus no actual terrorist threat). 10 people, including my MC, now have information that the government would like to keep secret. They could speak out, but with no actual evidence there is no guarantee that anyone will believe them - and if that information begins to circulate around (and the gov't becomes aware), it would draw attention back to the 10 and potentially have them re-arrested or "disappeared" before they can say any more. So I think I'm going to have to rely on the general public here. What the 10 know is great, but is too risky to reveal now - I need to get some resistance built up first. I need the public to be convinced about the bombing conspiracy without the help of the 10, for right now at least. Here is what the public is aware of: The former governor was well-liked for his emphasis on civil redevelopment, as his programs built many of the residences in which they live; it is unimaginable that anyone would want to kill him. The attacks were within the same month and were wildly different in tactics used. As one man in my book said: “Y’know, what I think is strange is that both attacks were committed by the same people. First it’s one guy with a kitchen knife, then, what, three weeks later they’ve graduated to car bombs?” The use of an automobile in the bombing may raise some level of suspicion because much of the world's oil reserves were spent, contaminated, or destroyed in WW3, and what remained was commandeered by the alien occupation government - cars are rare, since none have been built in over 50 years, most at the time were rendered unusable, and the sparse survivors are mostly used near the more up-scale Capital region in Northern Africa. Cars are fairly rare in the war-torn areas such as North America and Europe. But I still don't have any physical evidence. All of this is just hear-say and speculation as far as the general public is concerned, and while it may raise enough questions to convince many, I feel like I still some sort of "smoking gun" to blow this conspiracy wide open. Any ideas for some bit of evidence that could surface that would definitively point back to the Regional Minister?
I don't have anything useful for the specific problem, but I wanted to say that this plot doesn't seem to require the presence of the aliens in any way. The aliens seem like an awfully big thing to be then made irrelevant to the main plot. If you see what I mean?
Hi Jade, Interesting plot. My opinion is you should make one of the 10 arrested be somehow close to the director. After he is cleared of the crimes somehow gets information of a private meeting or something along this line of the director plotting to use the governor death to his benefit. After, have the dictator try to hunt down the 10 after he learns this person shared the info with them. Let us know what you decide, sounds interesting.
Hm... How about a cocky reporter collaborating with your MC? He must be somewhat blacklisted after these events, so conducting a private investigation must be difficult, either dangerous for him. (They know his identity already). Would spice things up even more if he/she is an alien reporter. As for the evidence, I can't think of anything more relevant than the knife. Where is it? Maybe this should be the holly cup of his crusades. Other evidence that might lead an investigation from the bombing incident is the car. You said that cars are rare. Whose car was it? Is the driver dead? (If I got this right the car was on the move when it exploded). If so, whose corpse was it? Was it remote controlled (the car of course )? If so then in which radius should the handler had been in order to execute this deed? Were there any cameras around? (Should fit well in a totalitarian world. Big brother style). Maybe in this parallel universe the digital world might be more evolved so the technology is different. Maybe the car was controlled by a computer somewhere across the Atlantic and in order to find any evidence somebody needs hacking skills or whatever. (I'm not so knowledgeable about these methods or if this is remotely plausible but it's an interesting concept). You will find a bunch of witnesses of course (common knowledge). See if there is actually one that already knows the killer or is the killer himself. Another way to go about it is through an anonymous whistle blower. Hacking the news media and providing some proof of the crime. If the government feels threatened by this act then maybe mysterious "accidents" start to happen to the 10 and your MC is in immediate danger. So maybe the new killings leave a new trail of evidence behind which might lead to the connection with the first or the second "terrorist" assaults. If you don't like the reporter as a collaborator find another cog. Somebody who has a strong motivation in order to get mixed up with something so dangerous. Maybe a witness that saw his/ her lover get blown to pieces, a family member of the Governor or even the architect, an inside man (a mole) that plots against the Minister or the new Governor in order to promote his own front-man (and inside men always know a thing or two that are played behind the scenes of political power). Hope this helped.
The driver, if there even was one, is very much dead. The idea of the car being remote-controlled, however, has crossed my mind and could be potentially interesting. Ooh, here's an idea for that - what if the car was remotely controlled and, in the explosion, a piece of the control equipment was ejected some distance away from the bombing scene where it could be found by a passerby? Cameras - ah, but what about an absence of cameras? Like, what if there were cameras in the area, which should show the bombing, but they were "turned off" or otherwise inoperable at the time? The knife wouldn't be very relevant, because the stabbing attack actually was a real, legitimate attack. The bombing is the part that was fabricated by the government - long story short, the Regional Minister is pissed off about being stabbed and is taking it out on his rival's entire district. The man who used the knife, however, is a different story - he was publicly arrested and taken alive. He'll probably be executed at some point in the near future. But if somebody can get to him, or if he can somehow get word to the outside world, he'd be the perfect person to confirm that he indeed acted alone, thus nullifying the Minister's claim that an "organised group" did both attacks. No idea how I'd work that, though. Hmmm..... well, I've already decided that the architect does have a brother. Maybe he could reveal a history of government interference and setbacks in the construction of this 40-story residential tower that could indicate that said tower was a point of contention between the Governor and the Minister - or, perhaps, even evidence of sabotage! Drawing from real-life conspiracies, it's been alleged that traces of thermite were found at Ground Zero in the 9/11 attacks - in this same vein of thinking, what if the explosives used in the car bombing were some type of chemical or compound that only the government would have access to? Maybe some traces of it mixed in with the victims' blood and seeped into the storm drains or sewers and swept away from the site. How about that?
Even if it was, it would only be part of the equipment that was installed in the car. Not the remote control itself. And it would not be substantial evidence. Only the remote control would be. Here is a start. You could begin a research from there. Who controls these cameras? Whose shift was it? Etc... I'm not sure because there is no death penalty where I live in but can't prisoners have visits? The one who is investigating the Ministers death should at one point pay a visit to the convict in order to question him. Can this be done? I'm not sure. That could be a lead but no evidence. It doesn't prove sabotage (prove needs proof, solid evidence) but it does make somebody from the government look like he somewhat "disliked" the Minister. It could make him a suspect but you'd have to dig very deep into it, meaning that if the Governor is a wise alien, he would have already covered his ass upon that, by having others involved in this. Other people that partake interest in that building who might or might not be corrupted. (That's usually what happens. It's either the weak innocents either the too-cunning-for-their-own-good who take the blame). You could question a bunch of people but take only leads. Evidence is hard in these situations. Except if you find a person to admit to something. A law abiding citizen that was asked to turn a blind eye about something by his higher ups but just couldn't shush. (After his confession you can also assassinate him in order to make that lead stronger). If you could still find evidence through the victims confession, then you could have a chain of suspects until you get to the top. I think this could really work as a start for leads. This is not a good idea. You make the arch villain look dumb. Of course if there was another type of explosives that didn't completely indicate that it came from the villain, he would have used that. Why would he attempt to stand out so flashily? And even if some of the victims' blood survived the boom (it could, depending on the magnitude of the explosion) after blending with water of other liquid it would be instantly unidentifiable. I don't see how that's relevant anyway, meaning that even if traces of the explosive was mixed in the blood... Why the blood? It would be traced all around the place anyway.
