Chapter 10
"Meeting Judge Biddle"
So while Amanda was overseeing the restoration of the Viridian City Palace of Justice, I was once again on United Airlines this time heading for Baltimore to meet with Judge John Biddle with whom President Obama had nominated to be the chief American judge for the trial. After a long flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles and then a long flight from Los Angeles to Baltimore, I arrived at a premiere restaurant called Café Hon where I meet Judge Biddle, who was at the time the chief Pokemon judge for the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area.
My first impressions of him were of someone who was emotionally scarred when he was told to step aside as Pokemon Attorney General, but I had to make him part of the judicial team that was going to put these monsters away.
"I couldn't face going back into private practice," he said as we ate lunch. "Not after all those years in Tokyo with the attacks and the war. What is the current status at Viridian City?"
"Well," I replied, taking a sip of cranberry juice. "We have settled on 40 men and women."
"Very good," he said. "What have you nailed it down to?"
"We have trimmed it down to those who ran the Pokemon Crime Organizations to the executives who helped ran it and the high ranking agents who actually carried out the captures," I explained. "This way not one person is able to get off scot free."
"Remember also, Jeff," he said. "You may also fail to win convictions and the worst case scenario is that everyone goes free. However, I am sure that you have plenty of evidence that will settle for 40 clean convictions."
He then pulled into his pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a cranberry wood gavel that looked to be about sixty years old. The gavel seemed familiar but I didn't know exactly what it was until he explained it to me.
"But I want to explain something to you, Jeff," he said. "This gavel I hold in my hand was the same one that Sir Geoffrey Lawrence used during the Nuremberg Trials. My uncle was one of the judges who wanted to be the head of the court but he gave up his ambition at the insistence of Robert Jackson. I want whoever is going to be the president of the tribunal to have this gavel as sign of justice. Will you do this for me?"
He gave me the gavel and I examined it for a brief moment before looking back at him. I didn't know what to say except that I was clutching onto a piece of history.
"Yes, I will do that, John," I said. "But, we are going to have one American president of the tribunal and one British president of the tribunal. I can't split this gavel on two presidents. Perhaps with your blessings, I can give this to the American president of the tribunal."
"Do whatever you want with it," he said. "But, remember, this gavel represents the justice that all evil will get when everything is all said and done."
So, as our meeting ended, I could not help but wonder how much this gavel meant to us. Biddle was right, this gavel is a symbol of justice, even more so than a Pokeball at that moment in time. It seemed also that John was trying to avoid the flaws that his uncle made at Nuremberg and didn't have any ego riding on this trial. I hoped to God that he was really telling the truth.
But, while I continued my rounds in Washington, back in Viridian City, Amanda was continuing to oversee the preparations to the Palace of Justice's restoration. During this time also, she had managed to buy a few skirt suits for the trial although she was fine with the black pantsuit she always for our cases back in Boston, MA and Providence, RI. However, she could not help but feel a little uneasy with the Pokemon Crime POW's that were working on the building.
"I must say that it is a lot nervewracking walking past 300 Pokemon crime POW's carrying pickaxes," she said nervously as she walked into my office that was once Giovanni's. "I've got to start wearing pants more often."
"Well, that's why you have a bodyguard," chuckled Andrew. "Just let one of them try and mess with you."
Andrew and another soldier that had just walked in set about rotating my desk towards a window, but Amanda stopped them because I didn't like the sun in my eyes.
"He doesn't like the sun in his eyes," she said to them. "But thanks anyway."
"Not a problem," said Andrew. "Let us know if you need anything else."
So, they left the room and Amanda put her purse on the desk and pulled out what appeared to be a picture of her brother, Nick, a Pokemon Trainer who joined the war effort and paid with his life doing it. It was a very emotional moment for her knowing that her brother was not going to be here for this important moment in world history.
Meanwhile, Colonel Andrus had the Pokemon Crime Captives placed in the cells where they housed their Pokemon Captives in the basement of the Viridian City Palace of Justice. In another vacant part of the prison, he had a brief message for the men who were now going to have the job of guarding Giovanni and his fellow captives.
"Now, the first thing you must understand about these men and women is that they are war criminals," he explained to them. "Their rank means nothing and there is to be no exchanging of salutes or any other military courtesy."
He then paused when it came to what he said next which was about the 9/11 attacks and bombings themselves.
"Now, I know most of you men saw combat," he continued. "You've lost friends, companions and we have all seen the World Trade Center towers burn and fall in New York. We have all seen the bodies on the side of the roads in Afghanistan, Iraq and the innocent men and women who died over the Atlantic Ocean. Men and women who gave their lives in the service of their country so that we have the ability to bring these criminals to justice."
Colonel Andrus took another pause and sighed heavily to catch his breath.
"Right now," he continued yet again. "Our job is to make sure these criminals survive long enough to have that justice served so that our families, our friends, our companions did not die in vain. That will be all."
"TEN HUT!" cried a soldier and the men were at ease as they turned towards the portion of the cell where the Pokemon Criminal Organizations were being held captive…