Cas looked back and forth across the courtroom. It felt that it was packed with people: the jury, journalists, lawyers, and the variety of supporters his parents had seemed to have, no matter how awful things seemed to be going. Even though they were in the packed room, they had an air of snobbery, as if being here was beneath them, and they had better things to do. He was just happy that there was a daycare run by the building, so the children would not have to hear what would be said. Christie and Steve were quick to welcome Sam when they dropped him off, but he could not find Amara anywhere in the room.

Dean soon leaned into his ear, worry tinting his voice. "Are you okay?"

"Where's Amara?" he asked. He was sure that she would have been here.

"Probably in the back. That's where they keep people until they testify in order to prevent witness tampering. It's pretty common in cases this big. She'll be back there until she's done."

"Right," Cas muttered as he went back to looking around the room.

In front of them sat Ellen Harvelle, talking to her aide, as they sorted through the large pile of files and binders they brought with them. Her hair was casually flowing down her back as she pushed some back behind her ear. Cas thought he saw some similarity between the two but shook it off. The women seemed calm and ready to get the entire thing over with at the same time. On the other side, another lawyer with bright red hair bundled on top of her head. She had a scary aura that made Cas look away as soon as their eyes met.

A minute later, the courtroom went stark quiet as Zachariah and Naomi were escorted by bailiffs. The two were dressed to the nines in their signature still, without a care in the world. Their lawyer stood up as they walked closer to her; she greeted them with a warm smile and ushered them to their spot. They greeted her with just as warm as a smile when they sat down. Cas tried to avoid their gaze as they glanced around. From the corner of his eye, he could see them giving small waves at those who were sitting on their side of the room. Some even came up to them to say a free word before moving back.

Soon, the main bailiff stood up in the center of the room and called the entire room to a halt. "All rise for the honorable Judge Raphael Morris."

As the entire court stood, a tall black man in a long black robe walked to the front with several papers shuffled in his hands before sitting down. The rest of the courtroom joined him before he started.

"In the case of Zachariah and Naomi Novak v. the People, we will have the people represented by Ms. Ellen Harvelle while the Novaks will be represented by Ms. Abbadon Daemon. I know this is a case the seems to be of national interest, but I will have no-nonsense going on in my courtroom. Everyone will be expected to be on their best behavior. Thank you to the jury for being here with us today. Your job with be to determine the guilt or innocence of the defending party based on the evidence and testimonials you will hear over the next few days. Now, Ms. Harvelle, if you would give your opening statement, please."

Ms. Harvelle stood up, straighten her blazer before moving to face the jury. "Thank you, your honor. Throughout this trial, we will prove to you the Novaks' involvement in human trafficking through testimony from several FBI agents working this case and the many connected cases such as several murders. We will also present the physical and digital evidence that links this couple to all of those crimes. We will prove that they are connected and in charge of many of the crimes carried out while paying others to get the job done. When we are done, we hope that you would find them guilty of all their crimes so that they can finally be put to justice after all these years of committing horrific crimes. Thank you."

"Ms. Daemon, your opening statement, please," Judge Morris gestured.

"Thank you, your honor," the woman said as she stood up and situated herself facing the jury. "Contrary to what the prosecution would like you to think, my clients are in no way responsible for the horrific things that were happening. They are very generous people who give their time and money to various causes that affect many citizens across this great land. They participant in many philanthropy efforts across the states. It would not be hard to believe the real person in charge of this horrific scheme tricked this hard-working couple into unknowingly helping with the scheme. When we are done, we will prove that they are innocent of all the crimes so that the federal government can go after the true criminals behind these gruesome crimes. Thank you."

"Ms. Harvelle, call your first witness," Morris ordered.

"We would like to call Agent Amara Bellum to the stage," Harvelle responded.

Amara entered from a side door, dressed in an all-black dress suit, looking far more professional than anyone had ever seen her, used to her laid-back style. Her eyes were clear and hard with determination as we made her way through the oaf and situated herself at the stand.

"Agent Bellum, would you describe your role in this case?"

"Yes, ma'am. I am the supervisory agent in charge of investigating this case. My duties were more so geared toward the human trafficking angle that this case took. After possible murders were implicated as well, I brought in another agent to primarily work murders so that I could focus on the trafficking component."

"And this agent, would you trust them to do their job properly."

"Yes, I've worked with this agent before throughout my work. She is very good at what she does."

"And her qualifications?"

"She worked on homicide in the FBI for ten years, after working for the local police for a bit, before transferring to working on human trafficking where she has been for the last couple of years. She knows how to handle a murder investigation."

"Who exactly is this agent?"

"This would be Agent Donna Haschum. She had many accommodations with both agencies she's worked for her work and dedication."

"Objection," Deamon interrupted. "Relevance."

"Ms. Harvelle?" Morris inquired.

"As the agent in charge, your honor, I was wondering her thoughts on Agent Haschum, who in her own words took over the homicide component on this case. Since this witness will only testify on the human trafficking component, it is necessary to establish her trust of the future evidence that will be brought to light."

"Objection overruled," Morris stated. "Continue."

"How long have you been working on human trafficking cases?" Harvelle continued.

"Almost twenty years."

"How exactly did this case begin?

"I was first informed about this case when there was information traveling across the internet about the purchasing of omegas. We were not too sure where this was going to be leading, but it was our duty to look into it. Over time, we were able to track the 'fliers,' let's say to the state of Utah, and track large sums of money moving in and out. When we first were able to get a lead on the money, the trail somewhat stopped cold. We were able to find hints of information, but not the huge source we found before. It was obvious that someone had shut the lid on the information getting out of the organization."

"What were the FBI's next steps?"

"Our next steps were to bring in different agents into separate undercover operations to infiltrate different aspects of the operation. It was somewhat successful."

"Were you a part of those operations?"

"Yes, I was one of the many agents that had an undercover role in this operation."

"What was your role?"

"My role was to get involved with the 'supply running' of the operation."

"How did you get involved?"

"My identity was set up to be a rich alpha in the middle of Kansas that has some shady business practices. The FBI created false correspondences between myself and other clients over some time to create some trustworthiness in the community."

"These correspondences were believable?"

"Yes, we, in fact, had several members of different human trafficking rings arrested and charged for their correspondence with my persona."

"Your honor, I would like to submit evidence A.1 to the court," Harvelle stopped her questioning while a white document was shown on a TV screen that was off to the side of the courtroom. "I would like for the record to show that this is a list of several cases in which the identity Agent Bellum used gathered enough evidence to implicate several others with trafficking crimes. Even against appeals, which is noted, the information is entirely above board when looked over several times.

"I would also like to submit evidence A.2, which is the actual conversation that was first linked with the case that we are talking about today. Agent Bellum, would you please explain to the court what is occurring in this conversation here?"

"Of course," Amara complained. "This conversation was the first that we were able to confirm were a part of the operation that we were looking into based on some the of information provided when asked. This was done to prove those we were talking to, and as you can see through the dialogue that occurred, there was no baiting of information. Once proving this was the operation we were looking for, we started talking about plans. Before official plans could officially be put into place, a meet was set up on the outskirts of New Mexico."

"What happened during this meet?"

"Most of it was done while trying to confirm my identity and make sure that I was legit. We did our best to try to get as much information out of the meet as we could."

"And what did you get out of it?"

"A banking code and the links to several accounts."

"Is that all? I would think that you would try to get more?"

"We did. I was miked, and the warehouse where we were scheduled to meet was wired and had cameras filling the room. Everything was in working order leading up to the meet, but it all went haywire as soon as our contact arrived. I was notified afterward that those listening in the vans could not see or hear anything that occurred in the warehouse. The information we left with as all we had."

"But you continued to work with them?

"Yes, we did. Knowing that they could very well be tracking those accounts to see what was going on, we kept the cover. In the beginning, they were small tasks, tests really, to see how good we were at what we did. As time passed, there would be harder tasks, as the payment was slowly increased. We estimate that the slowly increasing funds necessary to complete each task were to not set off financial agencies. It was within the last year that we really got a bite."

"And by 'bite,' what do you mean?"

The larger sums of money that we saw before were becoming more apparent. There also seemed to be less fishing and bouncing of accounts. We assumed this as we had been slowly creating more and more credibility over the years. When looking into the accounts paying for these services, we were given the name of shell companies. When I would pass these names off, we would get information that these shell companies were directly owned by Mr. and Mrs. Novak."

"I would like to submit evidence A.3 to the court," Harvelle paused her questioning. "Are these the bank statements you were talking about?"

"Yes, those are some of the ones that we found. If I am correct, those are just the banknotes from each time a new shell corporation was brought up and the legal paperwork disclosing the owners of such shell companies. These were some of the first pieces of evidence that directly implicated the Novaks as a part of this scheme. Later, as more and more evidence came in, they could then be tied to more of these companies and thus further linked with the Novaks. As we were able to arrest people on the outskirts of the organization, the links became even more clear."

"And you believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that because of the linked financials, the Novaks are wholly complicit?"

"Yes, ma'am. Through our investigation of these shell companies and how the money moved, we could link the smaller money transfers in the beginning to the Novaks. No company was being sent through that the Novaks were not intimately linked to, such as owning the company, being on the executive board, et cetera. Any money decisions would have to go straight from the Novaks for anything to get done. There was no part along with the movement of the money that did not start or end with them. At all times, the buck would have had to go through them."

"Thank you," Harvelle nodded toward Amara as she went back to her seat. "Your witness," she said toward Daemon.