When she'd fallen asleep she'd only been feeling a little tired. It was nothing compared to how tired she was when she woke up at 6:30 the next morning. "Need more sleep," she whined as she sat up. Why was she even getting up? She usually had another half hour before she got up. Oh, right, Redwood. She was getting up now so she could see Redwood unpin all of the safety pins on their tent doors and windows.
Mandy was up and dressed already. Ro wondered if she had even bothered going to sleep. It might have just been easier to stay awake for two more hours than to try and fall asleep then wake up again. She wondered how much better it was to at least get two hours of sleep verses pulling an all nighter.
"Let's go check out the damage report," Mandy suggested once Ro was dressed.
There was a crowd around Redwood's campsite, but no one was saying anything, and no one was laughing. Not because it wasn't absolutely the funniest thing they'd ever seen, but because they didn't want anyone in Redwood to know that they were just standing there watching them try to unpin the safety pins rather than going to help them. As the viewers began to quickly walk away from the scene they had their hands over their mouths to conceal their laughter.
About all of the tents had woken up by now. When their counselor had first woken up and had found that she was pinned in she began calling for help, as she tried to figure out what was wrong. By then everyone else had woken up and were trying to get out of their tents. It was enjoyable to watch the rolling lumps inside the tent try and find their way to the door, or the hands poking out of the door of the tent unfastening a safety pin, then another, and another. The best part was watching Cynthia's tent. They were the last group to wake up, so Ro got to see the whole scene from the beginning. First there was the lump from when they sat up. Then the frantic pushing of the hands against the ceiling of the tent to lift it off of them. Then there were the sounds of everyone else in the tent being told to wake up. Suggestions went up about how the fan might have broken, or maybe there was a puncture in the framing of their tent. This was resolved by suggesting that someone go outside to check on the fan first. Then came the "The zipper's stuck!" cries followed by realization that it wasn't stuck but they were pinned in. The lumps began to move towards the side of the tent where the windows. Ro already knew that their windows didn't open.
They screamed for someone to get them out but everyone else was still trying to unpin their own tent. "Well I'd say this was a successful prank," Mandy beamed. They returned to their campsite to clean up. Zee started packing up by first pulling down their sleeping bags from their net."
"I actually think I'm going to miss sleeping in a tree," Ro said nostalgically.
"Really?" Zee asked.
"I'll get over it."
Zee reached up to untie the cord that was holding up their mosquito netting. The weigh of the tent pulled the cord down with it from over the branch. Next came unweaving the net. After that they had to pack up their stuff inside of their tent and put their tent away. Once they had all of their stuff together in a pile they could then go and ask Jennifer to mark them off as having cleaned up their area. They'd have to wait until 8:30, though before they would be allowed to bring their car through to load up their stuff.
They had a half hour to kill, but there was plenty for them to do. Aside from cleaning up their own sleeping area and tent, there was one last final campsite clean up.
Jennifer was busying lighting a small fire for those who were cold to warm up by. She was completely ignoring the steps she'd taught them for how to start a fire with kindling, and had just piled up three logs and was holding a propane torch to the side of one of the logs. In less than a minute, the log caught fire.
Having kept their campsite clean all week long in order to try and be first for lunch and dinner, there was hardly anything to do. There were plenty of other people to finish cleaning up the campsite so Ro and Zee focused on helping Mandy get her tent cleared out. She had tons of candy wrappers, as well as several empty safety pins packages. When they finished helping Mandy pack up, Jennifer signed Mandy off for having a clean tent. "You guys hungry?" she asked them.
"A little," Ro admitted. She'd been up all night, and had worked up an appetite with all of the cleaning she'd done this morning.
"You'll each need one of these to claim your pre-packaged muffin, or as the director likes to call them, 'breakfast'," Jennifer said handing them each a coupon that said they had proved to their counselor that they'd cleaned up their area.
They headed up to the mess hall with their coupons. They were one of the first few people to finish cleaning up so there was still a good selection of muffins left. After Ro and Mandy had finished eating Zee offered to drive them back to the campsite as it was after 8:30.
They had plenty time to load up their car as there wasn't as much traffic at this time in the morning as there had been when they were first arriving. However, Zee suggested that the auction off or donate their camping gear to the girls in their campsite as they wouldn't have nay use for it anymore. "Hey, Mandy," Ro approached her. "We were just wondering if you wanted all of our camping stuff…"
The generous and enormity of the offer confused her into thinking that she'd heard wrong, "Could you say that again?"
"Zee and I travel light. We don't really have a place to store this stuff, so we were wondering if you or the other girls wanted to divide it up among yourselves."
"Are you serious?" Mandy asked, her jaw having open. That must be hundreds and hundreds of creds worth of stuff!
"Nope. If you guys don't take it, we're just going to give it to give it to a charity organization. But this way we don't have to pack it all in our car again."
"I could use a new sleeping bag… but are you sure?"
"Absolutely. Just keep things kind of hush hush about it until we leave though. We don't want to have to answer too many questions about it while we're still here."
"I gotcha," Mandy winked.
"If there's anything left, you might take it over to the other campsites."
"Sure thing."
Their site was clean, and they didn't have to worry about loading their car. There was only thing left to do before they went over to pick up Bucky—good-byes.
This was why making friends sucked. They got to know someone, and then they have to leave them. "Mandy," Ro said quietly. She wasn't sure what to say. She doubted that they ever would meet up again, and it would be too much effort to try and keep in touch. They didn't want to drag her into the mess with the feds as they had Bucky, and now Casey.
Mandy put her finger up to Ro's lips. There was no need to say anything. She'd figured out what was up for herself. "I'm thinking of applying as a counselor here. Jennifer said she'd give me a nice recommendation, when she leaves," Mandy winked. "If you're ever in the neighborhood, sometime in the summer, feel free to stop on by and see me."
Ro smiled, "I'd tell you to look for us in the news, but the feds kind of have the wrong idea about Zee, and the media likes to exploit that. However, any stories about a superhero and his blond side-kick saving the day are okay."
"I'm sure they are," Mandy laughed. She reached out to give Ro a small hug. "Good luck to you both," she whispered, then released her.
Zee held the door open for Ro to climb into the car then walked around to the driver's side and got in. He made a tight turn around on the road then began to head back down towards the mess hall again. Ro rolled down the window then stood on the seat an climbed half way out of it. Over the roof of the car she was waiving good-bye to all of the people in the Laurel campsite. Once they passed the Laurel campsite, Ro climbed back into the car and put on her seat belt and they continued on through to the boys' camp. No one was patrolling the borderline to make sure that the boys and girls didn't go over onto the other campsite. Right as they passed the border Zee resumed his regular hologram.
Bucky was waiting for them when they arrived. "What took you so long? You painting each other's nails or something?"
"Sorry, you missed out. I'll be sure and let you know next time so I can do yours at the same time," Ro replied sarcastically. They were actually late because they had to sweep out and roll up their tents and Bucky didn't.
"So, did you find anything?" Ro asked as Zee loaded Bucky's baggage into the car as Bucky climbed in on the other side. Zee got into the driver's seat again and started the car and took off. There was no point in waiting around.
"Actually… I did."
"YOU DID!" Ro exclaimed, turning around so fast in her seat that were she a generation older she would have thrown out her back. It was a good thing Zee wasn't human as suddenly turning his head around in shock might have caused him to get into an accident while he wasn't looking at the road.
"You were right, Zee. Bennet's security clearance has been moved up a notch. I had to dig around before I got access to his computer's email. There were a few emails in there, but I'm not sure what they mean."
"What do you mean by that?" Ro asked.
"How good is your Latin?" he rephrased the question.
What was he talking about? Bucky pulled on his laptop and began to try and piece together bits and pieces from the emails he'd pulled up on the screen. "This one's from some sort of federal court… It says that Bennet's request to have a case file sent to him was granted and that it would be arriving by mail and that he'd have to be there to pick it up in person, and sign for it because they the package needed delivery confirmation. However there's another email where he's asking for the same court case record again! Only, in the second email, it mentions something about a writ of certiorari." He unintentionally completely mispronounced "certiorari."
"What's that?" Ro asked. Zee knew. On occasions like this, being a walking, talking dictionary was useful.
"A writ of certiorari is a common law writ issued by a superior court to one of inferior jurisdiction demanding the record of a particular case. In Latin it means 'to be informed of.'"
"But what does that mean?"
"The superior court is requesting the records and outcome of a decision made by a lower court. They can review the decision of the lower court to either leave the lower courts decision as it was, or they can chose to hear the case for themselves to decide a new outcome."
"But why would that matter?"
"Sometimes someone feels that a lower court didn't make the right decision so they appeal to a higher court to hear the same case. This is how most cases make it to the Supreme Court."
"What's the name of the case, and why is it important to Bennet?" Ro asked.
"McGavin vs. U.S. I actually did some research about it on the web," Bucky said importantly.
"So what's it about?"
"The case itself is several years old. Basically, George McGavin was charged with treason against the United States."
"What kind of treason?"
"He used his government security clearance to access important confidential government files then turned the information over to a terrorist organization."
"So how did it turn out?"
"McGavin was found guilty."
"I'd say that he deserved it. So why did someone put in an appeal to have his case reheard by a higher court?"
"There must have been new evidence or something that would somehow convince the judges that he really wasn't guilty, or some other over-looked piece of information that influenced the higher court to hear his case again," Zee supplied the most plausible answer.
"The second email is asking for the outcome of that court case."
"So what was the outcome of the second trial?"
"I don't know. There's plenty information on the first ruling, but nothing on the second ruling. I couldn't even find anywhere that said that the case had been re-tried."
"Maybe if you spent more time looking?" Ro suggested.
Zee spoke up, "He won't find anything." It was a really bold statement, and pessimistic one.
"Why not?"
"If they're rehearing his case, it's probably to pass a difference sentence than to reinstate the old one."
"Which means?"
"That the court would most likely rule him as innocent."
"What? This guy sounds like a complete traitor to me!"
"I don't think the government would want the public to know that he'd been pardoned. They'd be thinking the same thing as you—that he shouldn't be excused. It's probably only because Bennet has some security clearance in the NSA that he would be allowed access to such information, or to such records."
"But still, why would they rule him as innocent then?"
"That's what Bennet wants to find out as well. Or maybe he already knows, and just wants the details of the case?" Bucky suggested.
"But what does McGavin have to do with Edmund?"
"You're not very bright. I'd have thought you'd have seen the connection between the two by now," Bucky insulted her. "Don't worry, this next email mentions Edmund's name, which should help you figure it out. He opened the next email. "This next one is a carbon copy of an email sent to someone in the litigation business, because they've got to be the only people who know what this crud means. This one says that the court has issued the NSA and Edmund a subpoena duces tecum, "he butchered the pronunciation again, "as well as a date they need the documents by.The other important bit of information in the email says something about Edmund having been issued a subpoena ad testificandum by the court." It was a good thing that Zee was able to figure out what he meant. If not he'd have to have spelled it for him because to Ro, she only heard Bucky speaking gibberish.
"Translation please?"
"A subpoena duces tecum is a writ issued by a court at the request of one of the parties in a case. It requires a witness to bring to court any relevant documents under the witness's control." He simplified the meaning even more because he was sure Ro wouldn't understand this bit of information either, "The court is asking the NSA, as well as Edmund to turn in any evidence or documents that they might have by the deadline in the email."
"And the other one?"
"That's a writ issued by court authority to compel the attendance of a witness at a judicial proceeding. They're telling Edmund he has to come and testify in court." As his finished speaking own words sunk in, and the facts of the matter hit him. "Ro, do you know what this means?"
"I thought you knew all the answers!" Why was all of this confusing her so much?
"They're taking Dr. Edmund to court—on the accounts of treason against the NSA for helping Brother's Day!" Where did he pick that out of the emails?
"They can't do that!" Ro protested loudly.
"They already have. There's a court date set," Bucky spoke quietly.
"But they can't! No, this is awful! Don't you see? He's going to testify, and then he's going to tell them that you were the one who was on the sub, not him!"
"Maybe he'll just tell them you were doing him a favor?" Bucky tried to sound optimistic. He wasn't helping any though.
"You think Bennet's going to buy that? He'd love nothing more than to pin something like the Noesis on Zee's head!"
Bucky tried again to sound comforting, "But they have Sweet! Won't he say something?"
"They've had Sweet in their custody for a while. I'm sure they've gotten as much information as they could out of him, but I doubt that he'd reveal everything to Bennet about his terrorist activities and plans. Besides, if Bennet's got it out for me, there's not much that Sweet could say that would make a difference. I was the one on the sub. I helped them to get by. It's my fault."
"Don't say that. You couldn't have known any of this was going to happen. You were just trying to help someone else out, but things went a little wrong." Ro was definitely more comforting that Bucky.
"What if he admitted that he was forcing Edmund to do his dirty work?"
"That still wouldn't take the blame from me."
"What if…"
"Even if Sweet admitted that he put the bombs on, and that he forced Edmund to get him the coordinates, it wouldn't help. If Edmund testifies that I was the one on the sub that would be enough proof for Bennet to conclude that I was reprogrammed by Brother's Day, and that I was willingly helping them out. And it'd be true—it's my fault he got through the defenses around the Noesis."
"They what if Edmund doesn't testify? What if we can bust him out of the NSA before he's put on trial?" Ro suggested hopefully.
"Even I can see through that one," Bucky scoffed. "Breaking a man out of the NSA who used to work for terrorists… it'd sound to me like you were helping get one of your 'own' out of trouble."
"Yeah, but…"
"Besides, don't you think they've already heard his sob story? This court case is just to make things official. He actually has to say it in court for it to count."
"Isn't there any way to get out of this?" Ro asked hopefully.
"If we can find those schematics for the conscience module Dr. Selig put in me, then we would be able to prove that I was a credible witness. We could file for our own writ of certiorari in which I could testify."
"Couldn't you testify in court now?"
"They wouldn't believe anything I said now. They'd think I was programmed to say it rather than of my own free will."
"So we're back to looking for Selig's old files again."
"It seems so."
"And to do that we decided that we would need to get the codes into the Sub Rosa Terminal from Edmund, to find information on where to find those files…"
Ro bean to piece things together in her mind while verbally repeating them out loud, "And then to do that we needed to find Edmund to ask him to do that favor for us by giving us those codes… But we couldn't find him when we looked for him online… Then he appeared that one night at the restaurant, but then disappeared again."
"But now we know where to look for him," Zee filled in for her.
"Where?" How did he know this?
Bucky read the court date and time, as well as place that Edmund was scheduled to appear. "The NSA probably has him in custody if they've got a date for him to appear in court. If you guys are careful not to get caught, you might be able to try and hang around the court house to see if you could get a word with him if he goes out for recess or something."
"So we shouldn't expect to find him online anywhere…"
"Don't worry, I'll keep you posted on what turns up in Bennet's email box."
"So what do we do until then?"
"We wait," Zee said solemnly.