SEIA36

=Chapter 36=
==Silent enim inter arma: Tribunals==
Unity City
North America, Terra
Sol Star System
Republic of the Sphere
3079
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The press were rushed out of the chambers and guards assembled.
"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." Seether snarled at her 'client'.
"What in the name of the founder and the Star League did you think you were doing?!??"  Lynn McKenna bellowed once the room was secured.
"Winning. The. War." Liz stated, "Khan McKenna, MA'am.  That expert witness was scheduled for the next twelve war-crimes trials involving known Blakist officials and collaborators, one of them dooing that little doodle and his testimony gets sunk and a real monster walks."
"What if he goes home and breaks out a suicide vest full of blastx and ball bearings, huh??"  Haskins added.
"Well, then we'll know how thorough they had time to be..." Liz said, "..and if he doesn't, then it means there's still enough of your expert to salvage and maybe rebuild his life.  It was someone fighting the conditioning that clued us in to the triggers in the first place.  Vu Dao told me it doesn't always stick completely. The personality overlays sometimes end up weaker than the host and they can delay or fight it for a while. as much science as is involved, it's still more of an art to mess with people's minds, sometimes they make mistakes. Pray your man is one of those times."
"This...you're going down." said 
"I've known that most of my life, Colonel.  The question isn't whether I'm going down, it's what kind of world is left when I do.  I prefer one that isn't being run by the kind of people who burn a man's brain to make him a killer robot or slap instructions on someone's frontal cortex like a computer virus...but that's just me. Other people have other views."
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