The Ruling Impulses
Page 23
«It is only right», agreed Judge Roberti. «Let's add it to the list and start with the reading of the charges!»
William spread his arms. Delegate DiFraia again intervened to stop him, begging him not to gesture and to keep calm.
«The Court's benevolence is unmatched. I will continue at once, Your Honour», replied Visser, sketching a bow. «Well. On the day of grace November 24th, the year number thirty-one of Our Most Excellent Institute, in the presence of His Excellency, Judge Michael Roberti, and of Colleague Delegate Alfred DiFraia, I, Kasper Visser, Prosecutor of the City of East Eden, proceed with the reading of the charges against the citizen Deveux William.»
Visser cleared his throat, then started. «Count One: sabotage. Count Two: theft of confidential information. Count Three: sale of confidential information. Count Four: misappropriation of sensitive data. Count Five: serious misconduct. Count Six: gross negligence. We will start from the most petty and infamous crime, to end with those certainly no less serious, but which could benefit from the Court's benevolence.»
Prosecutor Visser bowed for the second time, then returned to his seat.
«Well, it's more than obvious to me, my dear colleagues, that it will be an impossible challenge to address all the issues in the context of today's session, so we will proceed step by step and decide later when to take a break or stop. Got it?»
«Yes sir!» Prosecutor Visser and Delegate DiFraia shouted in unison.
«Great. So let's get started. Count One: sabotage. To echo the words of Prosecutor Visser, with whom I agree, an infamous crime to say the least.»
Kasper Visser, even seated, performed his third bow of the day.
« Damaging for the sake of damaging. For the despicable fun of causing difficulties for others. To gain what, exactly? Some money? Or just to prevent someone from pursuing his noble goals? It matters very little, dear colleagues. All that matters is that This Excellent Institute absolutely does not tolerate such behaviors, nor does it grant any mitigating circumstances. We will be strict and uncompromising.»
«Yes, Your Honour!», the prosecutor and the delegate confirmed again, in unison, repeating an established practice.
«Mr. Deveux», Judge Roberti asked, «do you have anything to say about this? Any statements to make before Prosecutor Visser presents the evidence against you? Delegate DiFraia has surely informed you of everything, yet I would like to remind you that you can choose to suspend the proceedings at any time and release a spontaneous confession.»
«Yes, Your Honour», DiFraia answered without hesitation, «Mr. Deveux is perfectly aware of it. May I ask His Excellency the permission to confer with the defendant before making any decision?»
«Granted!»
Alfred DiFraia approached William's ear and whispered to him that he would carry on with the presumption of innocence unless instructed otherwise. William nodded and respected the vow of silence previously made to his lawyer.
«Your Honour, the defendant has no statements to make at this moment.»
Judge Roberti, annoyed, struck the bench twice with his right fist. «Prosecutor Visser, it's your turn then!»
«Yes, Your Honour!», the prosecutor said, hurrying to the judge's bench. «So, I do not wish to add other words to explain the cruelty of the crime, since His Excellency was extremely lucid in discussing it.» Bow number four. «Therefore, I would move on without any delay listing the episodes that unequivocally highlight the guilt of the accused for the crime ascribed.»
«Go ahead!»
Prosecutor Visser connected his mini computer to the internal circuit of the courtroom and projected the list on the big screen behind the judge, so that everyone could read.
«Well. Evidence number one: on May 4th, the year number thirty-one of Our Most Excellent Institute, at 8.00 am, an unusual electrical blackout occurred at Minneman Company headquarters, located in Melbourne Avenue. Isn't that where Mr. Deveux worked with his team?», the prosecutor asked Garreth Thomander.
«Yes sir», the Minneman Company's attorney replied. «It's our main office.»
«Very well. And do you confirm, Mr. Thomander, that the defendant worked there the day before the blackout occurred?»
«Affirmative, Mr. Prosecutor. Mr. Deveux worked with us eleven times, between April and May.»
«All right, but what matters the most is that, coincidentally, the defendant was present the day before the aforementioned blackout. The electrical interruption lasted until 15.27, that is, almost a whole day's work. Do you confirm, Mr. Thomander?»
«I confirm, Mr. Prosecutor.»
Prosecutor Visser turned to Judge Roberti as if to seek his approval before going on with the insinuations. «And if we tried to quantify the economic damage resulting from the loss of that day's work, could you tell me, Mr. Thomander, how much your company sustained for that blackout?»
«Prosecutor Visser, our finance department estimated lost revenue streams for about thirty-four thousand credits.»
« Thirty-four thousand, Your Honour! It's almost a year's salary for most citizens!», the prosecutor emphasized, spreading his arms and taking out the resentment he had saved for special occasions.
«Mr. Thomander», Visser inquired again, «has your company ever suffered from such a serious power outage?»
«Yes, but not in the last ten years, Mr. Prosecutor.»
« Ten years! Your Honour, I could almost finish here and proceed with the indictment, but to honor the sense of justice of Our Most Excellent Institute, as well as of this Court, I demand Your Honour the permission to continue with the reading of the other episodes. We will find out many other things... you know... interesting.»
«You have permission, Prosecutor Visser. Proceed quickly because, as far as I can see, the subject is vast.»
«Without a shadow of a doubt, Your Honour. Let's move on to evidence number two. I would humbly pray His Excellency, in his infinite understanding and wisdom, to pay the utmost attention to this episode, because the matter will unfortunately make us all laugh bitterly.»
«I'm all ears, Prosecutor Visser!», Judge Roberti assured him.
«I have no more words to thank you, Your Honour.»
It had been a little over an hour since the trial had begun and Prosecutor Visser took his fifth bow. He then rapidly moved his fingers on the keyboard of the little computer to highlight the issue he would soon discuss.
«So, evidence number two: on April 29th, the year number thirty-one of Our Most Excellent Institute, reviewing a confidential project, Minneman Company verified that it had been modified without authorization. I invite Mr. Thomander to clarify what happened.»
«Of course», confirmed Garreth Thomander, rising to his feet. «Well, first of all, that project is secret, so we requested and obtained from Prosecutor Visser the concession to not divulge any news here.»
Visser nodded.
«What can you tell us instead, Mr. Thomander?», the prosecutor asked.
«Prosecutor Visser, we found out that the project had been manipulated. By experts, I might add.»
«Could you please elaborate on that?», Visser urged him.
«Well, some parts of the project had been modified. A quick reading wouldn't have allowed us to find out much but, fortunately, before the projects are transformed into products or services intended for sale, they are always carefully checked and rechecked.»
«So what?»
«In essence we would have risked putting a defective product on the market and, even worse, potentially harmful for citizens' health.»
«Harmful for the health, you say?», Prosecutor Visser inquired, looking straight at Judge Roberti.
«Yes, sir. Those who manipulated the project proved to be expert and smart. Without an accurate check we would not have noticed those alterations. We would have probably identified the defects only after the marketing phase and it would have been too late to repair the damage.»
«So, to summarize for the benefit of the Court and the colleagues he
re present, the unauthorized modification you were talking about would have caused financial damage to your company, as well as serious health risks for our dear citizens.»
«Absolutely, Prosecutor Visser. Buyers would have sued us, but the worst thing is that we would have endangered our customers' safety.»
«I think we've heard enough, Your Honour», Visser stated. «The fraudulent intent is clear and the defendant had both the knowledge and the opportunity to perpetrate such a despicable crime.»
William Deveux, who had passively been involved in the debate until then, suddenly got up and shouted loud.
«But I don't know much about medicine! What the hell could I've modified?!»
«Order, order!» Judge Roberti shouted back, beating his fists on the bench. «Delegate DiFraia, do something!»
Alfred DiFraia forcefully pulled his client down, then, with his left hand, grabbed him by the back of his neck and ordered him to keep quiet.
«Your Honour», added DiFraia, standing up, «I have no words to express how sorry I am. However, as a partial justification, I would like to remind you that Mr. Deveux - like all of us after all - hasn't got the chance yet to have lunch and take the drug prescribed to him years ago because of the Lore-Burr Syndrome, from which he suffers.»
Judge Roberti stroked his chin in silence for a few seconds, then stated with a bossy tone: «Mr. Deveux, you've got to thank your lawyer if I do not sanction you. Delegate DiFraia enjoys all my esteem and gratitude for the excellent work he has been doing for years for Our Most Excellent Institute.»
Alfred DiFraia bowed as a sign of respect and devotion.
«All right», Judge Roberti decided, striking the bench once again, «let's take a short break.»
Delegate DiFraia got up quickly and grabbed William by the arm. «Come on Deveux, follow me!»
They left the courtroom in a hurry and DiFraia led his client to a much smaller room, which looked like a storeroom. It smelled stale and there was dust everywhere. Their noses started to itch a little. «Stay here until I get back», DiFraia warned him.
After five endless minutes, a young militiaman came in, carrying a small tray. The unexpected Santa Claus brought as a gift two sandwiches wrapped in a paper towel, a new bottle of water and two tablets of Sefinol.
«My name is Walter Kaminsky, Delegate DiFraia asked me to bring you... something.»
He placed the tray on a table full of papers and junk. William Deveux raised the napkin slightly to peek at the contents of the tray. He saw some salad and a couple of tomatoes.
«Don't waste any time», Kaminsky warned him. William immediately gathered all the stuff and put it on the table, emptying the tray. He looked at the bottle of water and remembered he had just taken a sip of the previous one. A little because of anxiety and fatigue, he had almost forgotten to drink. He then took the two tablets and watched them carefully: they looked just like Sefinol.
«Don't worry, it's not poison», Kaminsky said with irony. The young militiaman then retrieved the tray and left the room, urging William to eat rapidly and wait for the delegate to return.
William Deveux devoured the sandwiches and swallowed the two tablets, after which he drank the whole bottle of water and concluded with a deep breath: eating in record time left him breathless. He had just finished when Delegate DiFraia reappeared. Before opening the storeroom door and getting in, he made sure the corridor was clear. He found no traces of food, so he asked William Deveux if he had received the food he had prepared or there had been problems. William reassured and thanked him.
«Mr. DiFraia, it doesn't take a genius to understand that bringing food to a defendant during a trial is not a... standard procedure. Thank you.»
DiFraia remained impassive and with a wave of his hand urged him to follow him. It was time to go back to the courtroom. William thought that the delegate had not believed him, so he felt the need to reiterate.
«I really want to thank you, Mr. DiFraia.»
«Deveux, if you really want to thank me, don't embarrass me in front of Judge Roberti. Stay calm and, above all, stay silent. That's all I ask.»
William accepted the scolding and promised he would do his best to stay in control, even if provoked. He made it clear that after eating and taking the Sefinol he would certainly feel more relaxed, so he would not make troubles. DiFraia nodded his head but seemed unconvinced. They got back to the courtroom just as Judge Roberti and Prosecutor Visser were returning to their seats.
«From now on, we speed things up, gentlemen. Other interruptions will not be tolerated.»
« Yes, Your Honour!»
«Well. I ask Prosecutor Visser to resume the debate.»
The prosecutor returned to center stage almost hopping.
«Ready!», said Visser, pleased. «So, let's avoid summarizing. We move on directly to evidence number three. Indeed, to be more precise, to evidence 1 point 3, because, as we know, the charges are multiple.»
Judge Roberti rolled his eyes, annoyed.
«So, on April 21st, the year number thirty-one of Our Most Excellent Institute, Minneman Company found that some files had been deleted or corrupted. Am I right, Mr. Thomander? Would you please explain us?»
Garreth Thomander stood up again.
«Yes, Mr. Prosecutor. I confirm what you said. Some documents have been canceled, other functions have been rendered unusable by evident tampering. All that forced us to have a fairly laborious data recovery.»
«Just “fairly”, Mr. Thomander?», the prosecutor inquired.
« Extremely laborious, actually, Prosecutor Visser. And it would have been even harder if... the saboteur had had more time.»
« The defendant here present, Mr. Thomander. Don't be afraid to speak the truth!», Visser emphasized again, smiling. «Oh, but please, go on: what do you mean by “having more time”?»
Thomander took a sip of water before answering.
«I had a conversation with my staff and we came to the conclusion that something or someone must have interrupted the defendant's fraudulent intentions.»
«How can you tell?»
«Well, some files of a section of our database were deleted but, within the same section, there were much more important documents which were instead left intact. It's pretty clear to me that the accused was trying to understand the contents of the files before proceeding to their elimination and he surely did not have enough time to examine them all.»
«And why not erase them all without doing any verification? What was the need to analyze them one by one?», Prosecutor Visser asked him, pretending not to get the point.
«If he had done so», Thomander clarified, «we would have noticed much earlier. He probably needed more time. More days, I suppose.»
«Your supposition is correct, Mr. Thomander», Visser congratulated him. «Your Honour, it seems obvious that only a person who worked on site could do such a thing. Only someone who had the chance to get in there day after day without arousing suspicion. And who better than the defendant, who had free access to all the company's facilities?»
Judge Roberti remained silent to think about it, then asked Alfred DiFraia to express his opinion on the matter.
«Delegate DiFraia, I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing from you and would like to do it now. What do you think about what has been discussed so far?»
Alfred DiFraia stood up and leaned forward as a sign of respect and gratitude, holding the magistrate's gaze.
«Your Honour, aware of the sacredness of the principle according to which the losing party cannot turn the charges against the accusing party and respectful of the work carried out by our Colleague Prosecutor, with all due humility, I would like to stress the fact that the profile established so far, although it undoubtedly matches the one of the accused, does not exempt from liability other persons who worked, or continue to work, for such Minneman Company.»
A militiaman sitting in the rear - irritated by the objection made by the court-appointed defender - made a disap
proving sound.
«Silence!», Judge Roberti roared. «Mr. DiFraia, I agree with you, but I also think that Mr. Deveux unequivocally fits the profile and that's enough to continue the proceedings against him.»
«No doubt about it», DiFraia agreed.
«Let's move on, then!»
Judge Roberti punched the bench for the umpteenth time, Delegate DiFraia sat back down and Visser, after cleared his throat again, got back to his favorite spot, cheered up and ready to go. William Deveux, meanwhile, squeezed the delegate's arm to show him his gratitude, but the latter - without turning around - pushed him away with an eloquent hand gesture.
«Well», the prosecutor resumed with joy, «we have now come to evidence number four. I remind all of you that we're still discussing the accusation of sabotage.»
«Summarize it, Visser!», the judge scolded him.
«Of course! So, as I was saying, evidence number four: on April 18, the year number thirty-one of Our Most Excellent Institute...»
«Prosecutor Visser», Judge Roberti interrupted him one more time, «from this moment you're allowed to omit the reference to our calendar, just list the dates.»
«Yes sir, Excellency!» Visser coughed loudly. «Again... I was saying, on April 18, Minneman Company detected an unusual number of sick leaves among its employees.»
«What do you mean by “unusual”?», the judge asked.
«Your Honour, with the Court's permission, Mr. Thomander himself will explain to us.»
Prosecutor Visser nodded to urge Garreth Thomander to get up quickly.
«Your Honour, Mr. Prosecutor, 27 employees, including two managers, didn't show up to work that day», the Minneman's attorney said.
William Deveux trembled: that damn number again! It was haunting him. Delegate DiFraia noticed the reaction and, unlike before, turned to his side to see what was wrong. William thought about it for a few seconds, then preferred to let go and apologized to his lawyer. It was neither the right moment nor the context to focus on an all personal paranoia: he had other fish to fry, there was already a lot of material against him.