It was better to do anything than to do nothing. He examined the
windows of his improvised cell. They were above his head and barred;
standing on the table, he could see feet walking outside, in the paved
play-yard of the school. He discarded the thought of escaping that
way; there was no one to smuggle him a file, and there was no time.
He studied the door to the hall. It was not impossible that when the
guard opened it he could jump him, knock him out, run ... run where?
The room had been a storage place for athletic equipment at the end of
a hall; the hall led only to the stairs and the stairs emerged into the
courtroom. It was quite likely, he thought, that the hall had another
flight of stairs somewhere farther along, or through another room. What
had he spent his taxes on these years, if not for schools designed with
more than one exit in case of fire? But as he had not thought to mark
an escape route when he was brought in, it did him no good.
The guard, however, had a gun. Chandler lifted up an edge of the table
and tried to shake one of the legs. They did not shake; that part of
his taxes had been well enough spent, he thought wryly. The chair?
Could he smash the chair to get a club, which would give him a weapon
to get the guard's gun?...
Before he reached the chair the door opened and his lawyer came in.
"Sorry I'm late," he said briskly. "Well. As your attorney I have to
tell you they've presented a damaging case. As I see it--"
"What case?" Chandler demanded. "I never denied the acts. What else did
they prove?"
"Oh, God!" said his lawyer, not quite loudly enough to be insulting.
"Do we have to go over that again? Your claim of possession would make
a defense if it had happened anywhere else. We know that these cases
exist, but we also know that they follow a pattern. Some areas seem to
be immune--medical establishments, pharmaceutical plants among them. So
they proved that all this happened in a pharmaceutical plant. I advise
you to plead guilty."
Chandler sat down on the edge of the table, controlling himself very
well, he thought. He only asked: "Would that do me any good at all?"
The lawyer reflected, gazing at the ceiling. "... No. I guess it
wouldn't."
Chandler nodded. "So what else shall we talk about? Want to compare
notes about where you were and I was the night the President went
possessed?"
The lawyer was irritated. He kept his mouth shut for a moment until he
thought he could keep from showing it. Outside a vendor was hawking
amulets: "St. Ann beads! Witch knots! Fresh garlic, local grown, best
in town!" The lawyer shook his head.
"All right," he said, "it's your life. We'll do it your way. Anyway,
time's up; Sergeant Grantz will be banging on the door any minute."
He zipped up his briefcase. Chandler did not move. "They don't give
us much time anyway," the lawyer added, angry at Chandler and at
hoaxers in general but not willing to say so. "Grantz is a stickler for
promptness."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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