At first, it was only a Vatican Swiss Guard soldier who sprained his ankle while on duty and was temporarily recuperating in the barracks. Then an acute infectious disease spread through the Swiss Guard. By afternoon, nearly every soldier had come down with a bizarre case of diarrhea. To protect the Pope's safety, the Pontiff had no choice but to keep his distance from the Swiss Guard until pathologists and disease control authorities identified the cause.
Then came an unremarkable car accident. An ordinary Swiss Bank employee suffered minor injuries, but after the ambulance loaded him up and headed for the hospital, no one ever saw him again. A few hours later, a CIA informant at Swiss Bank was robbed by refugees on his way home from work. He was shot dead while resisting, and all his belongings vanished.
Local police found the bank middle manager's briefcase in a trash can not far from the crime scene. Fortunately, all the confidential documents were still neatly inside; only the cash had been taken. They had seen the same thing four times today. Not every victim had died. The other unlucky people were an accountant from an Italian financial firm, an American businessman's assistant, and the wife of an American Jewish real estate developer.
"Pah, these refugees get everywhere."
The Swiss state police officer spat, but he did not dare speak loudly, because reporters from unscrupulous tabloids were all outside. A shooting was considered a major incident here—meaning a Swiss citizen being shot; conflicts between refugees did not count. These Middle Eastern refugees now wandered the streets all day, forming gangs to compete with local criminal groups for territory and stirring up crime, yet no one dared question it. Politicians took in refugees in droves to demonstrate their political leanings, used taxpayers'