Somnus V - Chapter 35

The questions were quick and sharp. Each one tried to pry and twist a half truth from Kat so that VodCom’s attorney could twist them enough to craft some vast saga about how Kat and GroCorp were trying to illegally destroy VodCom.

 She managed to keep calm through everything. The attorney tried to trip her up by rapidly switching from queries about her business practice to much more personal questions about her relationship with Whippoorwill as he interrogated her. More than once, Vodcom’s lawyer turned to outright accusations and falsifications as he tried to break her down, to get her to lose her cool long enough that he could tear some sort of admission or contradictory statement out of her.

 After about two and a half hours of questions, he admitted defeat, and Kat felt a thin sheen of sweat beginning to appear on her forehead. The entire arbitration panel appeared bored, only pausing to take notes a dozen or so times, but Kat felt like she had gone through one of her daily workouts with Dorrik. Twice.

 The lawyer sat down with a disgruntled look on his face, and Kat felt relief course through her body. Despite only suffering from a barrage of questions, the mental exhaustion from twisting and dodging his accusations all while maintaining a calm and measured demeanor was much greater than Kat ever would’ve expected. He’d gotten some concessions from her, mostly admissions regarding her role in the maglev heist, but that wasn’t technically illegal. After all, there was no contract between GroCorp, VodCom or the isotope suppliers and the actual theft occurred outside of a city. As far as the law was concerned, VodCom was at fault for not properly securing the shipment.

 Walter stood up, brushing some imaginary dust off of his suit before walking around his table so that he could properly address the arbitration panel.

 “Shareholder Debs,” he said, none of his earlier indecision in his voice. Kat knew the transformation was coming from Belle’s description but that barely prepared her for the complete change in the attorney’s demeanor. “Today you were asked a series of questions about business decisions made by your division in GroCorp. Specifically, about your reasoning behind the sudden purchases and sales of certain isotopes through shell corporations.”

 “I was,” Kat agreed, trying not to pay attention to the greedy glass lenses of the dozens of cameras in the observation.

 “Specifically, you were asked about whether you intended to conspire with unaffiliated parties in order to manipulate the market in order to harm VodCom financially,” Walter continued, hands clasped behind his back.

 Before Kat could answer, VodCom’s lead counsel jumped to his feet face red under a bushy mustache as he began shouting.

 “Objection! Misstating previous testimony and leading the witness!”

 The entire arbitration panel winced as if they were suffering from a sudden and acute case of indigestion. William Tenney leaned forward slightly as he addressed the packed courtroom.

 “Attorney Gladwell. Attorney Ashforth is clearly setting the stage for follow up questions. Any misstatements of previous testimony are an exercise in semantics too remote for any member of this panel to care at all. If Attorney Ashforth were to continue with this practice, I might be willing to sustain your objection, but he’s clearly just trying to move the case along. Overruled.”

 The VodCom lawyer bristled, his affronted gaze alternating between Kat and the lead arbitrator as he took his seat.

 “Thank you arbitrator,” Walter said, inclining his head slightly toward the panel. Tenney acknowledged the motion with a tired wave of his hand before leaning back into his chair.”

 “Now,” Walter continued,”Shareholder Debs. Before we were interrupted I mentioned the allegations made against you regarding fraudulent market manipulation. Do you understand what it is that the plaintiff in this matter is accusing you of?”

 “Yes,” Kat replied. “They think that I somehow either broke into their system in order to make them purchase products they didn't want or that I conspired with Shareholder Donnst to lie to them in order to drive up prices.”

 “And what is your response to those allegations?” Walter pressed gently, stopping his pacing long enough to lock eyes with Kat.

 “Sour grapes,” Kat responded, shrugging. “There’s no proof that their network was hacked into because we didn’t do it, and their accusations regarding a conspiracy between Shareholder Donnst and I are absurd. They already claimed that we falsified audits regarding the capabilities of a line of new refineries she was building only for it to turn out that their statements were beyond baseless. It seems to me like they’re flailing wildly and trying to find something that might stick after they suffered a major financial l-”

 “Objection!” VodCom’s attorney leapt to his feet amongst a growing murmur from the crowd. “There has been no reference on the record to the audit report!”

 Walter didn’t even have to say anything. The arbitration panel just glared at him as their leader leaned forward, tapping his microphone. A squeal filled the chamber.

 “Good,” Tenney said dryly. “This thing is on. For a second I worried because Attorney Gladwell appears to be unable to understand me. Stop. Wasting. This. Court’s. Time. Not liking evidence isn’t a proper objection. There may not have been any reference to the auditing report before this moment, but there is one now. The exhibit has been pre-approved under the scheduling order and is already entered without any need for a party to identify or speak to it. You were given a chance to have an expert examine the report and disagree with it. Your expert did not disagree with it. That is your problem, not a problem of the Court.”

 The murmurs in the audience erupted into outright chatter as VodCom’s lawyer began to visibly sweat. Kat felt a pang of sympathy for him that immediately disappeared as an idea formed. Gladwell, whatever his first name was, was wasting time and lending weight to her accusations. By all measures he was both flailing and giving Heather’s runner the time they needed to fly back to Chiwaukee. If anything, the man was one of her greatest allies in the room.

 All Walter needed to do was to push the other lawyer to object more to straightforward questions, and VodCom would buy them the space they needed while annoying the arbitration panel. She turned her attention toward where Dorrik was taking scrupulous notes in the seating reserved for witnesses and special guests from GroCorp. Almost as if sensing her gaze, the lokkel looked up. She nodded meaningfully at her friend.

 A second later with a mental feeling like a soap bubble inside her head popping, Dorrik’s voice appeared inside her mind.

 “Miss Kat, it appeared you wished to speak to me? Is this permitted? As best I could understand the rules for your legal proceedings, witnesses aren’t allowed to have private conversations with anyone but their attorneys while they are being questioned. Of course, I might have missed something. Your legal system is needlessly complex in delightfully pointless ways.”

 “No,” she replied mentally, tuning out some more back and forth between VodCom’s attorney and Tenney. “This is absolutely against the rules, that said on Earth there’s one unspoken rule that rules above all others. If you don’t get caught, it isn’t illegal.”

 “Delightful!” Dorrik said happily. Kat swore she could hear him clapping both sets of hands together in excitement even though she could see that he was sitting perfectly still. “I am glad that you are letting me participate in skullduggery with you Miss Kat. I was worried that you might think that I was a stick stuck in the dirt.”

 “You’re not a stick in the mud,” Kat responded, mentally shaking her head. “You’re just bad at acting. Plus, we promised to get you into acting classes. Just think of this as a head start on those lessons.”

 “Of course Miss Kat,” the lokkel replied. “I am happy to help. What is your plan?”

 “Can you add Walter Ashforth to the mental web?” She asked, nodding her head slightly toward where her lawyer was wrapping up the delay surrounding VodCom’s objection.

 Rather than respond, Dorrik’s crest fluttered slightly. A second later there was another mental ‘popping’ sensation, and Kat could feel another mind.

 “Walter, can you understand me?” She questioned, her eyes narrowing slightly she tried to lock gazes with the attorney.

 “CHEESE AND CRACKERS!” The reply almost deafened her as Walter practically jumped out of his suit.

 “Enough of that,” Kat chided. “You can be shocked and surprised later. For now Dorrik will be connecting our minds so that we can speak unheard during my testimony.”

 “Dorrik?” Walter questioned, his mental voice shaky. “Like the alien? That Dorrik?”

 “Hello!” Dorrik chimed in. “It’s good to meet you. I have so many questions to ask. First and foremost, why must attorneys ask questions of witnesses? Wouldn’t it be far easier to simply have the parties issue written reports while under the influence of a lie detector?”

 “AAAHHHHHH!” Kat winced as, once again, Walter screamed inside her head. “Oh my- no no no, there’s an alien inside my-”

 “Ashforth,” Kat messaged sternly. “The lead arbitrator is looking at you so we need to hurry. Remember, you need to drag things out as long as possible. It seems like the VodCom guy wants to object to everything you say. Let him. Ask as many borderline questions as you can and let him do the hard work for us.”

 “Shareholder Debs,” Walter said out loud, a fraction of a second before Tenney cut in with a snide remark at his prolonged period of silence. “Do you know why the follow up audit came back so differently from VodCom’s expectations?”

 “Objection!” Idley, Kat wondered why VodCom’s attorney even sat down if he was going to spend so much time jumping back up to his feet. “The question presumes facts not in evidence. The shareholder has no way of knowing what VodCom expected and any attempt to guess would be speculation.”

 “You know,” Tenney said, his eyes narrowing into dangerous slits. “Back in the day, when they actually used judges, people who worked my job had a little hammer called a gavel. When I first started out I was only arbitrating minor shipping contracts and sales territory disputes, and I never understood why a judge would need something like that. Right now? It makes perfect sense. I can tell you to sit back down a dozen times and it would never have the same visceral impact as slamming a small wooden hammer on my table. There’s just something more satisfying about making a bunch of noise while angrily using a tiny weapon. It helps put everything in context.”

 The VodCom lawyer shuffled slightly, shifting weight from one foot to the other.

 “So,” he began, trying but failing to look the arbitrator in the eyes. “Does that mean my objection is-”

 “Overruled?” Tenney replied. “Yes. Absolutely. This is an extensive hearing with a massive amount of facts in contention. We are trying to speed things along by accepting most of the evidence by agreement beforehand, but then the moment GroCorp began questioning their shareholder you began objecting to everything. If you keep this up, we’ll be here for a month. I don’t mind that much because I’m getting paid by the hour, but I’m sure that it will inconvenience everyone else’s schedule so I would like to avoid that if possible.”

 From there the hearing proceeded according to plan. Kat wouldn’t really classify her questioning as ‘smooth,’ given the constant interruptions from VodCom’s attorney, but it ate up time and annoyed the arbitrators. By the time they were approaching lunch, Tenney had finally snapped and warned Walter to stop asking so many potentially objectionable questions. Apparently, the panel weren’t complete fools and had picked up on Kat and Walter’s little game.

 Finally, they broke for lunch. The minute Kat and her entourage left the arbitration chamber, they were swarmed by reports and paparazzi. Her security did their best to keep them away, but without the threat of firearms that had long since been confiscated by arbitration security, the vultures were fearless.

 Well, they were fearless until Kat cast Pseudopod and began pushing them aside. She wasn’t particularly rough, but there was something about a gentle shove from magic cast by one of the most powerful people in society that silenced even the bravest of reporters.

 Lunch itself was bland and fairly quick. Belle, Kat, Whippoorwill, and Dorrik chatted a little, but most of the actual work for the case itself was done by the attorneys on the other side of the room. It wasn’t terribly hard to tune out their quiet conversations as they reworked their trial outlines, and after about a half hour of inane chatter

 Just as they were about to finish, Heather came into the room, a relieved expression on her face. She sat down at their table, glancing back and forth once to make sure that the attorneys were occupied before whispering her update.

 “Our message got to Chiwaukee in time. I’ve been sweating bullets because I haven’t been able to do status checks due to our compromised communications, but it all worked out. The runner with Whippoorwill’s information just landed. He’s on his way here via armored car right now. I’d say we have maybe thirty minutes before you have the data you need. Everything is going to be alright.”

 “Thank God,” Kat replied before switching to the telepathic connection that Dorrik was still holding open. “One half hour until we have the rebuttal evidence that we need Walter. Whippoorwill can help you set it up, but we’re in the final stretch.”

 “I’ll wrap your examination up after one or two more questions,” he began, only to be interrupted by a chime marking five minutes before the hearing would resume. “I doubt that Attorney Gladwell will ask you too many questions, but from what it sounds like, the evidence you want to enter will need to come in via redirect anyway so we need to wait until after his questioning regardless.”

 Kat stood up, nodding at the lawyer as they all began to file out of the room. “I’m looking forward to it.”

 They left the room together. This time the crowds of reporters were pushed back a couple paces by uniformed arbitration security, giving Kat’s team enough room to walk back into the hearing chambers without any real obstruction.

 Proceedings restarted without any real hiccups. True to his word, Walter finished up her questioning, solidly establishing that Kat and Belle were in a business relationship regarding the production of the isotopes. Silently, Kat thanked her previous self for offering Belle shares in the product lines that were going to be developed with the goods from her refineries. She hadn’t even been thinking of it at the time she made the offer to Belle, but without that relationship, Kat might not have been sufficiently financially connected to Belle to coordinate the sale of the futures contracts with her.

 It was a sobering reminder to Kat that every major business move should first involve talking to her attorneys. The line between legal and illegal was thin and beyond arbitrary. Collusion and plots were second nature to every executive, so the realization that Kat needed some sort of motive beyond just ‘money’ was a bit of a harsh surprise for her.

 She’d gotten lucky. Roping in Belle was a good idea, but at the end of the day, Kat needed to realize that she didn’t exist on an island. She was a shareholder. There was an entire constellation of incredibly well paid experts orbiting her that could’ve helped her craft a solution if only she were to ask.

 Finally, after about twenty minutes more of questioning, Walter sat down. Before Tenney could even ask VodCom’s attorneys if they wanted to cross-examine her again, a different attorney sprang to his feet.

 He was much younger than Gladwell with closely cropped black hair and a predatory gleam in his eyes. Kat could feel her muscles tensing up, like she was facing the final monster of a dungeon.

 This was it. Every instinct in her body screamed danger as he walked around his table, a small electronic remote in his hand. VodCom was finally going to play its hand.

 “Shareholder Debs,” the lawyer began, unable to hide the smirk on his face. “You previously testified that neither yourself, nor your GroCorp on your behalf sought to hack into VodCom’s network, is that correct?”

 “No,” Kat replied, matching his barely contained smile. “We absolutely tried to hack into VodCom’s security. Every corporation on the planet tries to compromise its rivals’ security. That isn’t illegal and we both know it. What are you going to ask next, whether or not GroCorp tries to sell goods at a cheaper price than its competitors?”

 The attorney winced, and behind him the crowd broke into quiet chuckles.

 “Fine,” the man ground out. “You testified that you were not party to any attempts to break into either VodCom itself or the Singapore Prime stock exchange in order to alter or interfere with VodCom’s attempts to buy and sell commodities, correct?”

 “Correct,” Kat agreed. She could see the attorney working himself up toward his big reveal.

 “What would you say if I told you that I had evidence that hackers working on your orders did in fact break into the Singapore Exchange as well as VodCom’s central processing system in order to defraud VodCom of billions of credits?”

 The room descended into a hush as the reporters pushed forward, each one of them trying to be as close to the bullet proof glass barriers separating them from the floor of the arbitration chambers, waiting with bated breath for Kat’s reply.

 “No,” Kat responded. “That would not surprise me.”

 “Well,” the man crowed, pressing a button on his remote that transformed the wall behind her into a giant projection screen covered in computer logs. “Then this would-”

 He stumbled to a halt, brows furrowing as he stared at Kat. Her expression was completely nonplussed. She didn’t even bother to turn around and look behind her at the images that were cycling steadily on the wall.

 “What do you mean that wouldn’t surprise you?” The attorney asked, confusion warring with alarm on his face. “You just said that you had no part in a hacking attempt on either entity. How would I have evidence of such a hacking attempt if it never happened?”

 “Because VodCom or someone working on their behalf faked them,” Kat replied evenly. “None of the records you are displaying right now are true or accurate.”

 “How could that be?” He responded, frowning as he took a step toward Kat. “These results were pulled directly from Singapore Prime and your networks. As you said, it’s perfectly legal for one company to gather information on another so long as it doesn’t directly interfere with their business.”

 A man pushed open the door and ran into the back of the room. Unlike everyone else, he wasn’t wearing a suit or any sort of dress clothes. Instead he was wearing a ripped jacket covered in lurid neon designs and a pair of jeans that had been put through some rough use. Everything about him screamed samurai. He clearly didn’t belong in a room like this.

 Kat let out an audible sigh of relief, her placid face breaking into a large smile as the runner spotted Whip and Belle and jogged over to them the second they waved off their security.

 Thank Friedman. He’d made it in time.

 She turned back to VodCom’s attorney, the last remaining tension leaving her body as she addressed the confused lawyer.

 “The answer to that is simple. VodCom has been tapping our communications and using their network as an avenue to hack the systems of companies around the globe. I don’t know how long this has been happening for, but no digital evidence from your sources can be believed. At this point, you are as trustworthy as a street hustler with a golden tooth and chromed up eyes running a three card monte.”

 “That’s a hefty accusation, Shareholder Debs,” he replied, glaring at her. “I assume you have some sort of evidence to back your wild claims up?”

 “Of course I do,” Kat responded. Her smile hadn’t left her face since she spotted the courier, but a small ember of sympathy flickered in her chest.

 “Then I’m sure you wouldn’t mind showing us this evidence?” The attorney pressed. His voice sounded triumphant and confident, but Kat could see the doubt raging behind his eyes.

 “I thought you were the attorney?” She asked, shrugging. “I can’t present evidence while you're cross examining me. I’m sure my lawyer is chomping at the bit to display our rebuttal evidence, but I’ve been told that I have to wait my turn.”

 Once again the room was filled with muted laughter, and the attorney’s face tightened with anger. Apparently, targeting his ego was a good idea.

 “Fine,” he replied, voice clipped. “If you’re so sure that you can disprove our evidence, I’ll rest. I look forward to your flailing against the inevitable.”

 Kat just rolled her eyes, not rising to the man’s bait. She’d already tricked him into cutting his questioning short. There was no need to give him an opening over a petty verbal jab.

 Walter stood up, leaning down for a second as Whippoorwill urgently whispered something in his ear. On the other side of the table, two of Belle’s attorneys set up the projector that they’d brought, plugging a thumb drive into its side.

 “Shareholder Debs,” Walter began, nodding at Whip before he turned to look at her and the arbitration panel to her side. “You just stated that you had evidence demonstrating that VodCom fabricated its evidence, correct?”

 “Correct,” Kat agreed.

 Walter motioned to the lawyers operating the projector. A light flickered on and data appeared on the wall behind Kat, scrolling slowly through data logs. Kat shifted slightly to look at the readouts. Almost immediately she could identify some of the headers proclaiming that the data came from her personal network at the laboratory.

 Internally, she let out a sigh of relief. She’d known what the runner had been bringing, but actually seeing it was another matter. For the past five and a half hours, a part of her had been worrying that the man wouldn’t make it in time or that the lab in Chiwaukee wouldn’t be able to respond to their requests.

 Actually seeing the information removed a load from her shoulders that Kat didn’t even realize that she’d been carrying.

 “Do you recognize the electronic data behind you?” Walter asked before helpfully chiming in mentally. “It’s the actual readout from your lab. Miss Whippoorwill just told me about the partitioned fake network that you’ve been letting VodCom hack. An inspired if risky tactic that could only have been improved if you made sure to inform your attorney beforehand. I WILL be billing GroCorp for the stomach ulcer I’ve earned from this hearing.”

 “I do,” Kat said out loud. “That is the actual data from my personal network showing digital traffic in and out of my systems. Given my concerns over VodCom tapping into our systems, I had my head of electronic security create a segregated copy of our actual network so that anyone breaking in would think that they had access to my actual lab records. All information on that network was subtly altered so that it wouldn’t actually work in an effort to thwart corporate espionage. More importantly for this hearing, we kept outside records monitoring changes to the system-”

 “The hack was three days ago,” Walter interjected mentally. “They just collected the new evidence.”

 “-and three days ago an outside source broke into our network in order to falsify and download data,” Kat continued, “presumably for the purpose of presenting it at this hearing. That is why we prepared the exhibit behind me. Just in case VodCom would be so brazen as to try and fool everyone here.”

 Walter’s eyes widened and he took a half step back. If Kat didn’t know better, she might actually believe that the man was shocked. Belle was right. For all his indecision earlier, Walter was well and truly locked in at the moment.

 “That’s horrifying,” he gasped, before pausing and cocking his head to the side. “But on its own, VodCom falsifying evidence doesn’t mean that they’ve been tapping into secure communications. That’s a serious accusation with serious ramifications.”

 At VodCom’s table, their shareholder was rocking back and forth, his eyes wide as he stared at the projection with disbelief. At his side, attorney Gladwell had a hand on his shoulder and was whispering urgently into his ear.

 For a second, Kat entertained the belief that the man might be a patsy. There was no guarantee that the shareholder actually knew what the rest of his company was up to.

 She dismissed the twinge of sympathy. Whatever the man’s reasons, he had been the one to initiate the arbitration. He had come for Belle and her livelihood. Even a lapdog would snarl when its owner tried to take away its food dish before it was done eating, and Kat was far from a lapdog.

 “When I participated in the run on isotope futures, my head of electronic security was sitting right next to me monitoring the sales so that we could withdraw if our opponents drove the price up too high,” Kat replied. “She noticed that there appeared to be a pause between our sale orders going in and their being processed, slowing down the run on the stock and giving VodCom extra seconds to make the decision on their orders. She was barely able to sidestep the delay long enough to close our position out. WIthout that interference, the final sale price would have likely been twenty to forty percent higher. I can think of no one that it benefitted other than VodCom itself.”

 The VodCom shareholder went gray and stopped moving as the crowd of observers and reporters broke decorum and began shouting. For almost five seconds the clamor continued before Tenney leaned forward and pressed a button.

 An earsplitting screech filled the room, silencing the observers.

 “Save the conversation for the talking heads doing commentary on the entertainment streams,” the lead arbitrator said dryly. “For now, let’s focus on the case itself. It’s why we’re here after all.”

 At the VodCom table, their shareholder had his head in his hands and looked like he was about to be sick. Either the man was a phenomenal actor, or he really was being played by some outside force.

 “Thank you,” Walter said, nodding toward Tenney. Behind Kat, the projection changed showing two new sets of computer logs. “Now, shareholder Debs, can you identify the two new sets of readouts that we are displaying on the wall for everyone to see?”

 She turned slightly, looking over the data before responding.

 “The first is the transaction log from the Singapore Exchange that I had our office retrieve about a week ago using normal methods. The records do not show the delay that I just mentioned. The second is the transaction log from the Exchange retrieved approximately a day to a day and a half after the trades were made. The timestamps on the purchase orders show between a one and three second pause between when they were sent and when the Exchange validated them, a process that should have been measured in nanoseconds at most.”

 The VodCom shareholder sprang to his feet, whipping around to point an accusing finger at someone in the gallery.

 “MILLENNIUM!” He screamed. “You never said this could happen! You’ve ruined me! You’ve ruined everything!”

 Millennium. The word rattled and echoed through Kat’s head like a rock clattering down a mountain slope. If they were-

 Something clicked in front of her. Despite the shouting and uproar in the room, Kat’s enhanced hearing isolated it immediately.

 It was the only warning she got before one of the briefcases brought in VodCom’s attorneys exploded.

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