Bad Influence- Chapter 9

The Trial parte 2- Trial by Carrot

Sorry it took sooo long. But as per usual, various things came up, homework, coursework, holidays... my mum's crusade against the Internet. You know the gig. I always take forever, but I promise I will finish it. It may take a while, but by Gods I will finish! HELL YEAH! **Brian May air guitar**

Zara got up, she looked deeply puzzled, but she seemed collected in her step. Vimes felt his copper's radar go haywire, his eyes travelled to the walk Zara used in an effort to guess her tactics. She sat down almost regally in her chair and smiled at the court room "Ask away Captain, I have nothing to hide," she purred silkily.

Carrot nodded and picked up a collection of documents walked over to Zara… and stopped.

"Miss Modagambi, did you murder Mr D'mitre?"

There was a pause; a long one that seemed to expand the question until it filled the world. Carrot didn't move and didn't take his eyes off of Zara and she stared back, her green eyes watching him intensely, until at last she spoke "No, of course not," she said calmly.

Carrot nodded and chuckled "I see, just checking."

There was a ripple of relived and slightly confused laughter from the audience at the randomness of this question and Carrot cleared his throat.

"Miss Modagambi, can you tell me how long you have known the D'mitre's?" he said, carefully, "I believe you have been a family friend to them since Mr D'mitre married Mrs D'mitre who is sitting over there, is this not correct?"

"Yes Captain, I have known them for a very long time. I remember when they had Michael," Zara replied pleasantly.

"Hmm, your family have strong connections with the D'mitres do they not?"

"Yes, my father is very rich and they've had connections with the D'mitres for a long time."

"As long as you have been their family friend?"

"Yes."

Carrot nodded and peered at a document for a moment and then asked "Did you know about the militant group in your home country called 'White Claw'?"

Zara looked puzzled for a moment and smiled "They're a group of malcontents; a collection of wild throw backs who want to rule the larger continents of Muntab, what about them?"

"Are they mainly connected with the more elite members of Muntabian society?"

"Mainly yes, they want more power for the traditional tribe leaders-"

"Such as Lord Chief Roberto Modagambi?"

Zara stopped and once again their eyes met, but Zara did not lose any composure "My father is very traditionalist I'll admit," she said leaning back in her chair, "but he would not become involved with a group like White Claw, he knows when to move with the times and when to stick with our noble family traditions."

Carrot opened a file and skimmed over it "These traditions include hunting the local tribes' people?"

Zara's face went wooden.

"There are reports here that I have gathered from various correspondents who, for various reasons, are not named. They give reports of the local big families, who were traditionally chieftains in far ancient times, who take a warrior from each of the tribes that live on the plains in Muntab and kill him for sport. Am I wrong?"

The audience would traditionally whisper and chat under their breath, but not a soul stirred, not a voice spoke and all eyes fell on Zara.

She smiled "That has been a tradition of my family, but it has not been practised for-"

"A week," Carrot said, "according to this document."

Zara and Carrot paused for another stare out.

"Well, I don't know where they got these… lies from, but I assure you my family is quite civilised."

"But your father believes in the hierarchy of the ancient chieftain tribes, which stems from various legends and beliefs of the Muntabian people."

"How do you know that?" Zara said, with ever so slight irritation, "Another biased report? You cannot prove this."

Carrot closed the folder with a snap that made everyone, except Vetinari, Carrot and Zara, jump and cry out.

Everyone waited.

"No," said Carrot, "I suppose these reports are the only evidence I've got, that and the statements from various tribe members and tribes people in these reports, I have no evidence at all."

"You cannot trust those people in any case; they will say anything to get more power for themselves."

"Oh yes, quite, I'm sure they don't deserve power," Carrot said, still not threateningly, "after all, a little famine and draught never hurt anyone."

Vimes felt a grin surface to his lips, 'Gods he's good,' he thought, 'I wish I could promote him higher.'

Zara waved a hand dismissively "What has all this got to do with anything?" 

Carrot shrugged "Well, I just thought that if your family had connections with such militant traditionalists like 'White Claw' I'd have thought they'd like some weapons to fight back the current ruling government stationed there."

There was yet more carefully measured silence and Zara spoke "It has not been yet proved that the deceased had any weapons smuggling connections."

"No, it hasn't," Carrot said, walking back to the table, "but, I think I may provide some evidence…"

He picked up the bag by the table and carefully opened it; he pulled out, (some what more slowly than Vimes liked) one of the most evil weapons (still in production) that any one on the Disc had ever come across.

"Ye Gods," Vimes breathed, "I thought I'd never lay my eyes on that thing again."

Carrot held it under one arm and reached into the bag again whilst he spoke "This is known as a 'one-shot' crossbow," he said as his hand retrieved something else from the bag "it is infamous for various reasons. It is, for one, banned as a 'street' weapon in Ankh Morpork by the assassin's guild, but there are outer plains region towns and cities and some parts of Psuedoplis manufacture these."

Carrot had retrieved some bolts, he pulled open the bow, strung it easily and cocked the bow, Vimes remember nearly rupturing himself, but Carrot pulled the string back with barely more than a grunt and a flexing of his huge muscles. Nonetheless he shook his arm afterwards and flexed his fingers as if the bow had been some effort and slotted a bolt in.

"As you can see, it is very difficult to load, but it is extremely easy to conceal and that is one of many reasons why it is banned," Carrot pointed the bow down at the floor when he apparently noticed that many in the audience had gone very pale, "but as I said, it could be smuggled into Ankh Morpork and then onto a boat from any of the major ports in the city. We currently have a bit of crisis in the city where smuggled weapons are concerned, I have to admit, it is extremely hard to detect them, especially when they are this compact."

Carrot turned to Zara and placed the crossbow down on the table next to Angua who did not even flinch.

"This bow was found in a warehouse along the docks just one week ago, along with these bolts, the warehouse belonged to none other than Mr D'mitre," Carrot stopped.

Elsa stared in wonderment; her father was definitely onto something, she could sense it. She looked back at the crossbow lying on the table, still loaded with one bolt and found herself staring at the bolt tip. She stared closer; her werewolf vision taking in every detail of the bolt's tip which shone brightly with a goldish colour- But that couldn't be right could it? Perhaps it was just bronze or something; gold was a rare commodity in Ankh Morpork and anyone who found enough gold in Ankh Morpork to make a crossbow bolt would either have to be extremely rich or very persuasive…

Zara smiled "It could just be completely circumstantial Captain," she said calmly, almost pleasantly, "my client would have found it difficult to get those gold bolts in any case-"

She stopped and her face fell.

'Gotcha!' Vimes thought.

Carrot didn't take it up straight away, he waited a few seconds to let the jury take in what she had said and delicately plucked out one of the bolts.

"Miss Modagambi, how did you know these bolts were gold?"

Zara for a moment looked slightly off balance and then she laughed "Oh, I saw them from here, they look like gold."

"Oh I see," Carrot chuckled "just asking."

He turned and began to dismantle the bow and allowed a small trickle of conversation to make itself known in the courtroom. Some senior members of the thieves' guild were looking very interestedly at the gold crossbow bolts left on the table as were a number of dwarves. Carrot appeared not to have noticed.

He spoke finally "We propose an experiment to prove the evidence against Sergeant Angua is false and unjustified," he pulled out a silver ball the size of a cricket ball and showed it to the audience "I will ask Sergeant Angua to catch this silver ball. If it burns her flesh then you will know for definite she is a werewolf, if not, then we will take it as red that at least one of the charges is false."

Elsa gasped, but that was insane! Her father would ruin everything! What was going on?! What the hells-

You can always count on an idiot in the opposition to help you out in times of crisis.

"How do we know that it is real silver?" Shouted Mrs D'mitre.

Only Elsa saw Zara's face, the eyes widened and the lips pursed into a face that said 'You just scored an own goal!'

Carrot sighed "You don't trust me?" he shrugged "I knew this may come up, I have every reason to try and trick you. She is my wife after all, I could use a fake silver ball, but I pride myself in being a truthful person. I will gladly lay any suspicions you as the jury may have to rest."

Carrot pulled out an old book, the cover was green with quite a few acid stains on the cover and the pages were yellow and worn. It looked positively ancient. Carrot laid it down on the table and fumbled back in the bag again.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the jury, I would like to perform a simple experiment, but for this I need assistance from a fellow officer, Corporal Littlebottom?"

Cheri stepped up from the crowd a little nervously and made her way to the front. She nodded sympathetically at Angua and went to the door which Angua had been led out of. She disappeared for a moment and came out with a trolley laden with alchemy equipment; a glass trough mounted on a metal stand. The trough had a strange cube glass container over the top with a small tube with a seal at one end leading from the top of the trough to the cube container. She also pulled out a pair of scales.

"Whilst Corporal Littlebottom is setting the equipment up," Carrot continued, "I would like to present some evidence as to the identity of my client's attacker. That person, or persons, that not only killed Mr D'Mitre, but also attacked Sergeant Angua and set off the silver bomb."

Carrot picked up the bag and handed over a silver ball to Cheri who took it and placed it on the table with equipment. He also pulled out yet another book, larger and newer than the other and opened it up. The audience mumbled and murmured, but Carrot raised his hand for silence.

"I would like to first recall one the oldest legends of the Muntabian people, it goes right back to when their Gods first made them. It began when the Creator first breathed life into the people of Muntab, they were given darker skin than the men of the distant lands and were given the land to farm and plough and worship the Gods on. However, a group of powerful priests of the animal Gods, under the light of the Full Moon, put on the skins of great wild cats and under the Moon's light became wild cats. The pictograms left by the Muntabian tribes men who created these legends portrays these animals as lions or possibly leopards, but these priests, with their new powers took over the plains and ruled them as kings. They had grown paler skin because of the golden colour of the animal fur which they had worn. The tribes' people hated them, but dared not rebel, for their anger was swift and deadly, like a lion and their hunger for power was as insatiable as the sun's heat on the plains."

Carrot didn't seem to have noticed that the audience were utterly mesmerised. He coughed and thumbed through the book to a page further on.

"Is this legend correct Miss Modagambi?" Carrot asked politely.

Zara laughed "Yes it is," she said, "but it is silly superstitions Captain, I hope you are no using it as evidence!"

Carrot smiled "Why yes I am," he said calmly, "as matter of fact."

Zara's laugh faded quickly.

Carrot found the page and read aloud "Though it is thought that these so called were-cats are extinct, there have been, in recent years, numerous reports of sightings, both in Klatch and in Muntab. In Klatch the were-cat turns in a small, domestic cat at full moon and generally not given much cause for concern. However, the Muntabian were-cat takes the form of a large wild cat, possibly resembling a puma or a lion. Their claws are larger than that of its more common and more widely known opposite- the werewolf, also it's jaws more powerful and it's weaknesses different to that of a werewolf."

Carrot paused for a split second to turn a page.

"Both the werewolf and the were-cat become their animal shapes at full moon, but curiously enough, as the werewolf's weakness is silver, the were-cat's… is gold."

Another carefully measured silence, Zara stared at Carrot, not the faintest glimmer of panic on her beautiful features and said silkily "Prove it."

Carrot smiled pleasantly "Prove what?"

Zara laughed nastily "Stop playing games Captain, I can see you suspect me to be one of these creatures, these so-called were-cats, and you think I killed D'mitre, attacked Angua and set off the silver bomb don't you?"

Carrot shrugged "It was a theory, but I have not any proof as yet."

He picked up a medium glass container from the table where Cheri was setting up. It sloshed with a diluted liquid of a faint Octarine colour and held it out to the audience. "I would like the present this, it is a container of a recently discovered advancement from the High Energy Magic building at Unseen University. They kindly lent us this sample to conduct a small experiment with. It is known as Octorine Solution."

He carefully laid down the jar and nodded to Cheri "I will allow Corporal Littlebottom to explain the properties of the solution. She is the Watch's most trained alchemist and part of our forensic team."

Vimes' heard his cynical thoughts say 'The only reason she's our most trained alchemist because she's our only alchemist…'

Cheri coughed cautiously when she realised she was the centre of attention, but glanced at Angua, coughed again and said "Octorine Solution is made by condensing Octegen, the highly magical and highly unstable gas developed by heating up Octoron. It, like the metal and the gas, is highly unstable. Exposure to anything from air to other metals can produce highly unstable result and huge quantities of raw magic. The only thing it does not react to is clean water, which is used to dilute the solution and contain it. However, small, tightly measured quantities can be used to detect certain metals of a 'magical' quality, such as silver or gold, without (unlike some solutions) changing the physical properties of the metals. It can also be used in bombs such as the one used to attack Sergeant Angua-"

The judge interjected quickly "So you're confirming that this substance was used in the bomb. How did it produce the silver gas?"

Cheri nodded "It reacts with the metal, causing temperatures that are high enough to produce the metal gas."

"I see."

"The culprit only used a small amount of silver and a small amount of the solution, but it was enough to incapacitate Sergeant Angua, but not quite enough to kill her."

"But why silver though? I expect that this solution has the same effect with any gas," The judge said mindfully.

"Yes it does, but I think the attacker used it because it would then frame Angua as a werewolf and as D'mitre's murderer."

"I see, that does make sense. Very well, proceed."

Cheri nodded to Carrot and said, "This experiment is purely to prove that this silver ball is genuine silver. The ball's weight will not change when tested in the solution, which will show that the metal's physical properties have not been changed."

She placed the silver ball on the scales "5 kgs," she said (author's note- I have no bloody idea how much a silver ball the size of a cricket ball weighs, I'm making a lot of this up using the Discworld companion and what little I learned in Chemistry!). She wrote it down carefully in her notebook and watched several members of the jury do the same. She then lifted the glass cube and dropped it into a deep glass trough. She stood beside the equipment and pointed to the cube above the trough "This will capture the gas which escape from the reaction. This gas will be the same as that which attacked Sergeant Angua."

Elsa watched the experiment with horrified fascination; her eyes stayed on the silver ball as it fizzed around in the glass trough, the gas drifted up into the container above like steam. She wondered what her mother's face was like, was she keeping the same blank expression? She hoped so, Elsa knew she wouldn't be able to keep a brave face, it was a dangerous moment now. It could go either way now. It was one of those moments when the anticipation drives you almost mad, hoping that it would just get to that moment where it bloody well worked

The ball stopped fizzing in the solution. The gas stopped rising. The audience held its breath.

Cheri carefully lifted the container, which was white with the cloudy silver gas, and placed it carefully down under the table. She then took out a pair of tongs and lifted the silver ball out.

"It will be a bit hot, it shan't take long to cool," she said and placed the ball on a heat proof mat "We have to wait until the temperature falls until we get a true weight."

They waited, all eyes looked on the silver ball and the short time seemed to take forever.

And ever.

Annnnndddddd eevvvveeerrrrr…

Cheri reached out and touched the ball lightly and said, "It's cooled," and placed the ball onto the scales.

The pauses that were now common place in this trial were now unbearable.

Until at last Cheri said "Its 5kgs sir."

Talk erupted to an enormous uproar. The judge was about to call for order when a voice, louder than everyone else's, called out (no, screamed out) "It's a trick!"

Carrot was the only one who didn't join in the talking that proceeded Zara's outburst. He calmly said, "How could I have tricked you?"

Zara, as if realising what she was doing, quickly looked around in embarrassment. She coughed and said "Apologies Captain…continue."

Vimes stared, like everyone else, at Zara. What the hells was that about? Why did she suddenly back down like that? She might have exposed whatever Carrot's planning… if he's planning anything. He still felt a dreadful burn at the pit of his stomach that this could soon go horribly pear-shaped unless Carrot could think of something soon…

Carrot nodded at Zara and picked up the silver ball. It looked perfectly innocent in his hand, yet at the same time looking deceptively… well. Deceptive.

"Sergeant Angua?" Carrot said to Angua who looked right at him.

"Yes?"

"Catch."

Carrot threw it.

Elsa gripped Sam's hand so tight the knuckles went pale, Rex bit his lip…

Vimes held his breath; Sybil beside him muttered a prayer under her breath to the God of Desperate chances…

Angua reached out.

And….

Caught it.

To Be Continued….

Whmhahaha. Aren't I cruel? Until next time.