I have given assassination a bit of thought, at least in how it could be done on the Liberal side (you could just have rare occurrences of assassination attempts/successes by the Conservatives in the news by the CCS).
Now, assassination of a high profile politician is not some simple thing for an organization like the LCS. For there to be any challenge in it at all, it would have to be very expensive and very risky; demanding more than just the ability to attack. Any operative would have to be highly trained, and willing to give their life for the cause. Failures would result in juice-loss of the founder and those who recruited the operatives.
Things you would need to go through with any assassination of a high profile politician:
- Information on the target:
Without this, you can't expect to find or kill a politician. Information is expensive, and usually requires bribery. If bribery were to be part, it would have to be expensive, and it would have to involve a risk of being set up, or being turned down with the consequence of the authorities being informed of the assassination plans. The risks would be lessened by street sense.
- Travel and stay:
Based on the information, one would have to travel to the city of the target, and stay there until the assassination is complete. Persons with heat cannot take a plane, which is the most logical travel-alternative. Thus, persons who are to assassinate the target either need to have fake identities (purchasable for a substantial sum at the normal liberal shop perhaps?) or no heat on them.
Staying in the city would require money for a hotel, and money for transportation.
Travelling back after the assassination would be tricky; thus there would be a high risk of getting caught in travelling back. I suggest that there be a suicide option for assassins with high heart, and that there be an option for assassins just disperse with a big clump of money, and possibly return to you after x weeks depending on the founder's leadership level.
- The assassination itself:
To assassinate a target successfully, you would have to enter the area, and find the target. The target could be similar to the "mass response" enemies that walk about, but with "target" instead of "enemies" or whatever it says. The target would have to have a high debate skill, and have at least a few well-trained bodyguards; however the escape would be the actual challenge in most assassinations. Mass response would be triggered immediately, and one would have to fight ones way out or commit suicide.
I estimate the total cost of a high profile assassination gone
well at between $50 000 and $500 000, depending on who you are assassinating. The President would obviously be extremely expensive to assassinate, and have a higher failure rate than the others.
As for "local" politicians; this could be pretty cheap, at around $10 000 for information, travel and escape. It would follow the same protocol, but with less risk of being caught, and less dangerous opponents during the mass response.
Just a possible outline of assassinations...