Chapter 6
"The Justice League Assembles"
As the American and British continued to round up defendants, Amanda and I made our way to TF Green Airport, in Warwick, RI for our flights to Tokyo on United Airlines where we were to meet with our British Counterparts, Harry Radcliffe and Emma Granger, who oversaw Pokemon crime trials in the United Kingdom. Of course, being a woman, Amanda had to be jittery as to what she would bring on the trip, much to my annoyance. I reminded her before the trip that we were not going to London for sightseeing but to put together a trial for the people responsible for carrying out mass murders of people and Pokemon.
However as we waited at gate 9 for our first flight to Washington/Dulles, it seemed that Amanda's womanly jitters were coming back again.
"You know, Jeff," she said as we waited for our flight. "I only packed one pair of nylons and they already have a run in them."
She pulled up the pant leg of her suit to show me the run in her stocking.
"Amanda, you are as jittery as a hen," I laughed. "What is the matter with you?"
"I've never flown before," she replied, although she was being sarcastic about it, given the fact that she had flown before. I gave her a puzzled look and soon, she gave me the correct response.
"To Asia, I mean," she finished. "You know how it is."
"Of course, I do," I said. "My dad was nervous at first when he first travelled to Asia. But he's been doing it for 30 years and is used to it now. Besides, this is nothing like the business trips he always travels to."
Just then, four men approached us at the gate with three of them dressed in American military uniforms. If you thought we were the only ones going to London, then forget it. This was a team effort and nothing more.
"Hello, guys," I said, extending my hand.
"Hello, Jeff," they replied, shaking my hands.
"Gentlemen, this is my deputy prosecutor, Amanda Aspirino," I said, introducing her to them. "Amanda, this is Chris Esparto, who will be our judicial advisor."
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, ma'am," he said.
"My Brother in law, Colonel Shawn Barbosa Neves, who will be head of interrogations," I said.
"Miss Aspirino," he said, shaking his hand out to her.
"Colonel Andrew Suarez, who will be liaison with the other prosecuting teams," I continued and he stepped forward.
"Nice to meet you," he said.
"And Colonel Matthew Boston who will be head of our documents division," I concluded.
"Very nice to meet you," he said.
As we finished up our introductions, the boarding process had just begun.
"Now that we are all here," I said. "Let's get going."
So, we boarded United Express Flight 8031 and left Providence at 10:10am and arrived at Washington/Dulles at 11:05am. It was during the layover at Dulles that we found out that all of the suspects were rounded up and brought to Germany. It was there that they were to be processed by the tough Colonel Burton Andrews, who was going to be the warden of the prisoners and the head of security during the trial.
After a brief layover, we boarded United Airlines Flight 803 to Tokyo/Narita and departed just before 12:30pm in the afternoon. During the 14 hour flight, we were sitting in business class and discussing how the trials were going to be run.
"So, who are we really after?" asked Shawn. "The Military leaders or the Political Leaders?"
"How about the agents and soldiers who actually carried out the atrocities?" suggested Amanda, but to us, that was going a little too far.
"You can't put the whole damn country of Japan on trial," warned Andrew.
"We're not planning on it," said Amanda.
"We must suggest the scope of the crimes," I added. "I want this trial to be the first of many."
Then, Matt got an idea about what to do with the defendants that would put the trial in the perspective that I wanted it to be in.
"How about this," he suggested. "We take someone from each category: agents, executives, scientists, we cover the whole spectrum."
"You know, Matt," I said. "That is definitely the way to go at this point and we must remember that we dealing with up to 40 defendants and we are not going to win convictions for every single one of them. If we don't plan this carefully, then we are at risk of having some or all of the defendants going free."
"It depends on how much evidence we have," said Chris, trying to put things in perspective. "Let's focus on existing laws; what laws did the Pokemon Criminal Organizations break?"
"Well, certain Geneva Convention and Hague Convention," said Shawn. "Not to mention that they constantly breached airport security."
"Right," replied Matt, taking a sip of his soda. "Every time they committed a terrorist attack, they broke a law."
"My fear is at the end of day when all is said and done," added Andrew. "This trial will be viewed as nothing more than the winners exacting punishment on the losers."
Of course, I didn't want us to view it that way and decided to offer a better way of describing this trial and what it really meant to us all.
"That's how Robert Jackson initially viewed the Nuremberg Trials and it went on to be the most famous trial in history," I said.
"But we also have to remember," I added. "We are in a position for the first time in 60 years to make capturing or studying Pokemon in an unlawful manner or using them in an act of war will be dealt with as a crime."
"Hear, Hear," said Shawn and we took in what we each discussed going forward. By the time we landed at Tokyo/Narita, all of the defendants that we had selected were already rounded up and Colonel Burton Andrews was waiting to meet them all…