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Usually Bullstow postponed all trials until after the season ended.
Senator Masson, the committee’s chair, banged his gavel upon the sounding block and snatched up a paper outlining the charges against her. He read out each accusation in a smooth, rich baritone, his dark hair brushed perfectly, his face shaved close to his face, his jacket a tad too roomy at the shoulders. He must have been too busy to visit the gym lately.
They had all been too busy, judging by their clothes.
True to the lawyer’s suspicions, Senator Masson did not have much to read out that wasn’t circumstantial, and Lila heard nothing that hadn’t come from La Roux’s file. She’d been charged with one count of misusing a government database and one count of misusing a computer, even though they didn’t specify which computer she’d used to steal the data. They’d added one count of theft of proprietary information and another for breaking and entering, though they didn’t explain how she’d slipped inside Bullstow.
Masson finally stopped at the last charge and peered over the top of his paper. “Not only has the entire BIRD database been copied, but the code for the application was copied as well. All of it. That’s not only theft, madam. That’s treason.”
Lila ensured her face was blank, a skill she’d learned after dealing with her mother. She ran a few scenarios in her mind, calculating she had only one chance to dodge the noose and keep her father and Chief Shaw from the gallows. Perhaps the oracle and her people, too.
Senator Masson turned back to his report. “Elizabeth Victoria Lemaire-Randolph, given the evidence against you, Bullstow hereby charges you with treason, in addition to the other charges I have read out. Do you understand what that charge means and what that sentence holds?”
Mr. Marquez nudged Lila’s shoulder.
Her chair creaked as she stood up. “Yes, I do.”
“How do you plead?”
“To accessing the BIRD? Guilty,” she replied.
Chapter 4
The spectators buzzed behind her while Senator Masson checked that he’d turned on the recorder. “Can you repeat that, madam?” he asked, his perfect elocution dropping away.
“You heard me. I accessed the BIRD, I fully admit it, but I’m not guilty of hacking or treason. Those are the only charges that really matter. The rest are details.”
Her lawyer chucked his pen onto the desk. His face turned several shades of pink.
“Elizabeth Victoria Lemaire-Randolph pleads guilty to the charges read against her, save treason. So noted.” He scrawled a few words on his report and added his signature, quite a bit larger than might have been necessary.
“I didn’t say I was guilty of everything, just accessing the BIRD.”
Senator Masson paused for effect—the effect being that Lila wanted to smack him in the head. “I must confess, Ms. Randolph, this committee has already reviewed the evidence against you and the briefs filed by your lawyer. You father assured us that you would show, but we did not believe him. You’d quite disappeared from New Bristol in the last month. As such, we were prepared to make a decision on your case immediately.”
“Then it’s rather too bad I showed up to spoil such brevity. I suppose you’d planned to spend a free morning in the gym. Perhaps a sauna? All five of you from High House crammed naked into one little room?”
Masson rubbed his chin. “In light of your surprising attendance, we are prepared to withhold our judgment and reconsider your case. You are free to offer an explanation of the evidence against you, specifically the not-guilty plea for treason.”
“You and I both know that for a treason charge to hold, you must show that I either profited from whatever information I allegedly took or that I delivered it to a third party. You can’t prove either, since I did nothing of the sort.”
The committee members eyed one another. A few senators whispered to their neighbors.
Senator Masson banged his gavel. “We thought you might suggest that, but given the severity of this case, lack of evidence will not deter us. You have until five o’cl
ock this evening to surrender yourself into the custody of the Bullstow militia. There’s enough evidence against you to warrant the use of the truth serum…unless you’d like to change your plea.”
“No. I told you. I accessed the BIRD. I freely admit it.”
Her lawyer sank a few centimeters lower in his seat.
Chief Sutton shot one last fleeting glance at her, then turned her head away. Here was disappointment. Here was anger. Here was betrayal. Unmasked and unfiltered, a crushing look on a normally elegant face.
“Could you tell the committee why you hacked into a government database?” asked Senator Hardwicke, a copy of Senator Masson but with blonde hair.
“I came to visit someone that night, and I woke up an abandoned computer while I waited. The BIRD was open. I needed some leads for a few cold cases on my family’s compound. I saw an opportunity, and I took it. It might have been misguided and impulsive, it might have been overzealous, but I have never made a credit off the information I found there, nor have I ever, at any point in time, given data to any member of the Randolph family. Certainly not so anyone could profit. I may have slightly falsified a report or two by not revealing every source for my evidence, but treason? Hacking? How do you get such a preposterous notion?”
“We didn’t.”
