Kat Farrell
11:10pm, June 09, 2008
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[Delete] | The earth-shattering explosions of Gstaad, Switzerland has left a ripped and snarled crater of what once was one of the world's most gorgeous and pristine ski resorts, home of the Gstaad Palace Hotel and the Menuhin Music Festival. In its place resides a graveyard for hundreds of people, buildings and bodies atomized by the blasts, leaving only the souls to stir unrestlessly over the now-forsaken land, a seared, horrific reminder of what havoc humans can wreak.
But what if I told you this was no simple act of madness? What if this act was actually a lash out at a high-ranking authority in Switzerland? What if this act was precedented by years of under-the-table dealings, dirty jobs, and quietly snuffed out figureheads whom we all assumed merely passed away due to "sudden heart failure"?
I, like you, would have thought nothing of these statements. "Insanity," I'd call it. Switzerland isn't just watches, chocolate, and supermodels: It's an icon of peace and neutrality in a time of tension and anger. Laying such slander on a beautiful country is simply not worth anyone's time to listen to, as, of course, it's all just bunk.
I, like you, would have believed all that. That is, until I met Jericho.
You wouldn't know him. He's very good at what he does. For the past several years, he's been involved in more dirty jobs than the entire mob family in New York. He's had plenty of benefactors and employers, and has remained silent and content with his work. But what does a man like Jericho do when someone doesn't fulfill their end of the deal? To what ends will a man go to get payback for not being paid his due?
To the astute readers, two and two have already been put together. Jericho is the man responsible for the bombing at Gstaad. The reason? Jacques Clouseau, a man of high authority in Switzerland, refused to meet his end of a binding contract on one of these aforementioned dirty jobs, and Gstaad was the victim of that foul play.
In the hands of the Daily Bugle is a listing of various deeds paid for by specific members of the Swiss government, including contracts signatured by many well-known officials for the deaths and kidnapping of countless people, good and bad. It's a veritable anthology on corruption in the Swiss government, spanning nearly two decades of deception and murder.
In a rather abnormal turn of events, I happened upon Jericho seemingly by accident: An innocuous taxi ride-turned-impromptu interview with the perpetrator himself. Having claimed a vehicle as his own, he drove me into a darkened alleyway and locked the doors -- a scene honoring classic noir style, to be sure -- and made it known that this story needs to be told, and the Bugle was the one to tell it. After handing me all the files lending credibility to his unbelievable tale, and after giving me nearly all the information an investigator could ever ask for on the Gstaad incident, he simply left the vehicle and disappeared as seemingly as he had arrived.
In this day and age, it's not rare to find a reporter in a life-or-death situation, staring down the barrel of a gun -- proverbial or otherwise --, but it's even rarer for one to have the opportunity I was given. It seems there's far more out there that we still don't know, and it may be for the best: The details are frightening, horrific, and downright ugly. When we face the dark realities of this world, we must stand tall. Bugle reporters every day are facing these grim realities, and standing tall at every turn for just one more day.
-Kat Farrell |
