First Attempted Assassination of Edward Maglio

> "*Sorry, Ed. I don't want to leave any fingerprints.*"
> ― Ariah Allen to Edward Maglio before the attempted assassination
>
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The **First** **Attempted Assassination of Edward Maglio** was the first of two attempts to kill Edward Maglio, which was plotted by Fu Zedong and the Babylon Coalition. It was planned by Fu and executed by Babylon Coalition assassin Ariah Allen. However, it failed when Edward was able to piece together the plot against him by observing Ariah's actions and physical appearance, and successfully thwarted the attempt on his life.

## Background

Fu Zedong was a rather troublesome student, having known to have committed various forms of fraud to get ahead of his classmates and getting away with it. Nobody suspected a thing, however, because Fu Zedong covered up his tracks well. To make things even more tense, a Psychology exam was scheduled for February 22, 2019.

After having gotten away with potentially numerous cheating attempts, Fu's biggest slipup came on February 12, where he was getting caught using portable electronics in Psychology Class. His classmate Edward Maglio suspected something and attempted to inform his peers, but was brushed off because of lack of evidence. It was only after Fu was talking suspiciously with his peers about "cutting corners" that Edward realized that Fu was attempting academic dishonesty.

To that end, he decided to assemble a team of student investigators to expose Fu.

After Fu suspected Edward of attempting to expose him, he began hiring hitmen to murder Edward and his friends.

## The assassination

After a particularly tough afternoon studying for an upcoming Psychology exam at the Delmar Loop, Edward called an Uber to take him to his dorm at Evergreen Institute. Unbeknownst to Edward, the Uber driver that was supposed to take him to his dorm was murdered by Babylon Coalition assassin Ariah Allen, who stole the Uber driver's identity afterwards.

After Edward left a library located in the Delmar Loop in St. Louis, Missouri, Ariah Allen texted Edward using the dead Uber driver's stolen phone to alert him of her arrival. Ariah introduced herself to Edward and they got into the Uber vehicle. However, Edward began to get suspicious when he noticed Ariah was sweating nervously. When he asked why, Ariah simply passed it off as being her "first day on the job." Edward's suspicions remained, but it wasn't until Ariah donned a pair of gloves and pulled out a suppressed pistol that he finally realized his Uber Driver was an assassin.

Ariah taunted Edward about not wanting to leave any fingerprints, to which Edward coolly responded that she wouldn't have to worry about that, before lunging at Ariah and successfully disarming her. A fistfight broke out, which spilled out of the car and into the library parking lot, where it was witnessed by several police officers. One officer came to assist, but was shot and killed by Ariah. Edward was able to beat Ariah down before a backup police unit arrived. Ariah was soon arrested and hauled off to prison, while the remaining policemen took Edward to the station to obtain his statement.

## Aftermath

The incident led Edward to realize that Fu may have hired hitmen to kill his friends as well and was convinced there was a connection between the attempt on his life and the death of his classmate Kyle Black. This suspicion was confirmed when he saw Kyle Bates fall victim to an attempted assassination and raced to save his life as well.