Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.

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Chapter 15- Bombing

(June 24, 1998)

In the streets of Los Angeles, it's a relatively normal day. The sun has risen over the city, and the city's population is beginning it's daily activities.

In downtown LA, a small restaurant is just opening for the day. The restaurant is known simply as Gobi's. The restaurant is a Twi'lek owned business, owned by one of just two Twi'lek families to settle in Los Angeles. The restaurant specializes in Twi'lek cuisine, although most of the employees are local human residents.

Although the restaurant had initially struggled, the new, very different type of cuisine had quickly attracted interest, and now, despite it's small size, the restaurant is very popular. The owner and head chef, Gobi Calin, is now thinking about trying to move to a bigger building or building a second location.

The restaurant has just opened for the day, and already it's filled with customers, from college kids to business executives, all here to enjoy Gobi's dishes. As a Twi'lek who wants to better the image of Twi'leks in the public mind, Gobi looks to periodically come out from the kitchen to interact with his guests or occasionally serve as a server.

At the bar, several local bikers are ordering chicken wings while watching the Dodgers game start on the TV mounted on the wall. Gobi's teenage son is serving the group and chatting with them. The bikers, intrigued by talking to an alien, are trying to engage in conversation as much as their focus on the baseball game will allow them to.

As the bikers get another round of chicken wings and start digging in, one of the bikers notices something. Glancing around the restaurant, he notices a man looking slightly anxious, glancing in an unnatural manner. The biker also notices a large bulky backpack next to the man's seat.

The biker tries to refocus on the game, but a minute later, he sees the man stand up and make his way unusually quickly out of the restaurant, leaving the backpack behind.

The biker starts to get an uneasy feeling. The man starts to stand up to go over and check out the backpack. However, before he can, an explosion tears through the dining room and the front of the restaurant.

Outside the restaurant, passersby scatter in panic as the explosion blows out the front of the restaurant. Two people who own cell phones are instantly on the phone to 911.

Inside the restaurant, it's chaos. A dozen people are already dead, and many more are lying on the floor of the restaurant, badly wounded. The whole place is filled with smoke, and small fires have started.

At the bar, the bikers have escaped with relatively minor injuries. The one had noticed the suspicious guy has the worst injuries, but realizes pretty quickly that people need to get out of the building.

"Come on! We gotta get out of here!" the man manages to say.

His words rouse those who are relatively uninjured. People begin scrambling to try and get up and get out of the building. A number of men try to help the more seriously injured get up and out of the building. Gobi and his kitchen crew, a bit shaken up but otherwise unharmed, hurry out of the kitchen and try to get people out of the restaurant. However, as Gobi comes out of the kitchen, he realizes his son, who had been standing at the bar, he taken two pieces of shrapnel to the head, and blood is pouring from his head.

"No! My son!" Gobi cries out, rushing to his son's side. One of the bikers realizes what's happening and hurries over to help Gobi get his son out of the building.

Outside, a crowd is starting to gather around the restaurant, watching in horror. Many of them feel a sense of sadness that one of the best restaurants in the area got bombed. However, several begin to realize this may be more than just an accidental explosion or a random choice, and rush to call the TLM attack tipline.

(Hours later)

Trying to ignore the flashing lights from first responder vehicles and the noise being caused by the assembled press and crowd, Kit Fisto makes his way into the ruined restaurant. Kit had been in Los Angeles for a few days prior to this incident, and been assigned to investigate this incident, due to the fear of it being a TLM attack.

A detective walks up to Kit as he enters the restaurant. "Master Fisto. Welcome," the detective says.

"Thank you, detective. What do we have so far?" Kit asks.

"Sadly, Chef Gobi didn't have any security cameras out here. Just one monitoring the safe where the restaurant keeps its money and records. However, a patron reportedly saw someone leave the backpack that contained the bomb. He sustained relatively light wounds, and he's currently working with a sketch artist outside to come up with a sketch of the suspect," the detective responds.

"Anything left of the bomb to identify who made it?" Kit asks, knowing by now that's an important part of forensics work here on Earth when dealing with bombs.

"Our CSI's have recovered one fragment of what they believe to be the detonator, and some residue on the wall near the detonation spot. The evidence is already en route to the crime lab, but it'll take a while before we get anything," the detective responds.

"Understood," Kit says. He looks around the place and says, "I have a great unease about this. My senses lead me to believe this was the TLM." The detective doesn't say anything, knowing that Jedi's feelings about stuff like this are often correct, but that it's far from evidence.

Right then, an officer walks in from outside. "We got the sketch of the suspect from the witness," the officer says, holding out a sheet of paper showing the sketch.

"Good. Run that through facial recognition and put out a BOLO throughout the county," the detective orders, knowing they have to move fast if they're going to catch this guy.

(Three hours later)

Evening is now falling over Los Angeles. By now, almost everyone in the city is aware of the bombing at Gobi's. The mayor has already issued statements and held a press conference, trying to calm the unease in the city and prevent panic, especially given the rumors that have been circulating about it possibly being a TLM attack. Most of the chaos of the initial aftermath and manhunt has gone down.

However, in one building, the peace has shattered. In an apartment building in downtown, an LAPD SWAT team is moving into the lobby. The suspected bomber had been spotted several times on traffic cams and security cams, and they had finally managed to track him down to an apartment he had rented in downtown. Kit was currently far away from the building, so the LAPD dispatched one of their SWAT teams to bring in the bomber. Kit is on his way to SWAT HQ to be ready to take part in the interrogation.

The SWAT team moves quickly through the lobby and up the stairs to the second floor, where the apartment the suspected bomber is staying. The SWAT officers move quietly down the hallway to the apartment. Reaching the door, one SWAT officer leans in and can hear someone talking in the apartment, and gives a thumbs up to the rest of the team. One of the team lays a small breaching charge against the doorknob, and the team steps back.

The team leader counts down with his fingers, before the breacher blows the charge. A split second later, another officer kicks the door in and the team storms into the apartment, shouting, "LAPD SWAT!".

The team immediately sees someone they don't recognize in the living room. The man sees the team and quickly raises a pistol, but two of the officers fire their guns at him, hitting him five times in the chest. Two more team members move down the short hall to the bedroom and kick the door in. The bomber is sitting on the bed in the bedroom, and looks shocked and terrified as the SWAT team enters the room.

"LAPD! On the ground, now!" one of the SWAT officers shouts. The bomber, terrified, obeys the officers. Both SWAT officers pin him down and quickly slap the handcuffs on him before hauling him to his feet.

"This is 20-David. One suspect down, bomber in custody," the team leader says over the radio as the two officers haul the bomber out of the bedroom. The team quickly forms up and heads back out of the apartment, taking the bomber down to their armored car outside the apartment building. Several people gathered outside watch as the team marches the bomber out of the builing and into their vehicle, feeling a sense of justice as they watch the man loaded into the car for transport to SWAT HQ.

Across the city, Kit has just received the news of the bomber's capture. Now, he's ready to find out if this man is in fact from the TLM.

And, I'll end the chapter there. Hope you liked this one.

Also, quick notice. I have actually started crossposting stories to Wattpad, and I started with this series. So, if you haven't yet and you want to, go check 'em out over on Wattpad.

Next chapter will be up in a week or two. Until it's up, please leave a review, and stay tuned!