Monday. 10:00 Tribunal Room 4, Annapolis Academy.

“Cadet John Lief, you are charged with one count of Insubordination to a Superior Officer, Assault, Making a False statement, and a general violation of the Naval Officers Code of Conduct. How do you plead?” Commander Veen said in front a single justice.

“Not guilty your honor.”

“Cadet, are you representing yourself pro se?” Justice Martin asked.

“Yes, your honor. I believe my significant other’s family is interested in getting an attorney to assist in my defense. I believe that would satisfy the court to ensure there’s someone to proof my legal documents.”

“Your honor, we would request the cadet be placed in custody in the brig.” Commander Veen stated.

“The brig counselor? Is that not excessive?” The justice looked aghast at the request.

“The cadet’s unique set of skills would make him a flight risk.”

“Cadet, your response.”

“On its face it makes sense. Any tracking attempts this court attempts to impose on me would likely fail. I’m aware of all several different countermeasures to many types of tracking. If it would please the court, I’d surrender my passport and confine my movements to the campus for the purpose of allowing me to take my finals this week without undo delay. I may need to leave campus for the purpose of investigating my case but in those cases, I’d be willing to submit myself to Naval Intelligence for enhanced tracking while conducting any such investigative actions. With the courts permission to do so of course.”

“Request to restrict him to the brig is denied. Cadet I expect this court to have your passport by tomorrow morning.”

“No need to wait your honor. I have it here.” John handed it to the bailiff.

“Do either of you have any other requests to make?”

“Yes, I do actually, your honor. I’d also like to submit these motions for discovery and request a speedy trial.”

“Well let’s take a look at this.” The justice was scanning the motions.

“Your honor, the cadet doesn’t have a right to…” Veen was cut off.

“Commander, you don’t dictate anything to me in my courtroom. The cadet has a right to all evidence collected by the prosecutor’s office. You will deliver copies of everything to him by 17:00 today. Delays will not be tolerated.”

“As you wish your honor.” Veen didn’t look like he was fully prepared to try the case.

“Any additional information you acquire and plan to present must be turned over to the cadet and his legal team, both of them mind you, not just his attorney, at least twelve hours prior to disclosure in court. Understood?”

“Yes, your honor.” Veen was incensed, the cadet out maneuvered him.

“Cadet, your motion to a speedy trial is also granted. Trial will commence on Tuesday morning. You are confined to campus. I’m placing additional restrictions on you, you will refrain from entering anyone else’s room and no one else aside from your legal counsel or authorized individuals may visit you in your room. Is this understood.”

“Yes, your honor. Thank you.”

“Next case.” The justice banged the gavel.

John walked over to Commander Veen. “Here’s my information and here’s the information I just received for my attorney assisting in my defense. I will be sending you the evidence I have acquired by tomorrow morning. Thank you.”

Aaron Robertson contacted John as he was walking back from the arraignment hearing. He provided John who forwarded it to Director LeCroix with some information his naval contacts had received about John’s case. Aaron informed him that one of his best corporate attorneys would be in Annapolis for the start of the trial in the morning. He was devoting a full third of his legal division to aid in his defense. John thanked him but he figured the one attorney would be enough. John had written out several motions already and they were done correctly as far as John knew.

19:00 Library

John was nearly finished typing another motion to strike the conduct charge from the list of charges against him. He thought it was a novel approach to arguing how the law didn’t actually apply to cadets. Basically, because cadets are officers in waiting, but they aren’t technically officers as they haven’t been sworn into service. Other cases had confirmed that over the last twenty years. The way the code of conduct was written didn’t strictly apply to them when they weren’t on official duty. Since it was the weekend and they were on leave, they couldn’t be held to the code. Everyone assumed that would be the case, but the poor manner in which it was written led him to argue this point.

“Well, that’s a loophole they are closing because of me.”

“What was that?” Alice was focusing on some studying.

“Oh, just finished writing a motion to strike a charge. Have one more to write tonight. Should hopefully be just down to the assault charge. That’s assuming of course the court agrees with my arguments.”

“Is that a career killer?”

“Shouldn’t be but it’s an awful look. But it’d be leverage they’d have in getting me out of command.”

“So, they aren’t playing fair then?”

“Why would they? I sure wouldn’t. I really wish I could pull the trigger on my plan.”

“Stop, be quiet.” Alice reached over and placed a finger on his lips.

“Hey, how’s Jessica doing?” John asked.

“She said she’s doing well. I still don’t like it at all.”

John smiled and the couple discussed the complicated dynamic their friend group now had. Jessica and Andern were not going to be an item like everyone assumed or hoped for. Instead, it was Kristin. The group was looking like it was growing to ten members now. Kristin had ingratiated herself quite well with the others. Brian, Thomas’ boyfriend would also seem to fit in with the friend group, but his schedule and being in a different platoon prevented him from hanging out with them much this year.

John started working on a motion to throw out the police report. He had already filed a motion with the evidence he’d introduce that proved the police incident had been altered after it was submitted. He was confident that it would get thrown out.

He was waiting on a friend of his to finish researching the video. It was clearly doctored but he was hoping there was a smoking gun that would make it easier to get that evidence thrown out. His contact messaged him around the time he had started on the motion to throw out the video and confirmed it was edited. John responded and asked him to reach out to experts he knew to confirm his findings.

Alice kissed him good night. He told her he loved her, thanked her for the help and wished her a restful sleep. John kept on working on motions. He finished around 03:30 and fell back in the chair. His eyes were exhausted. He saved his work and headed back to his dorm. He needed some sleep.

Tuesday. 08:00 Tribunal Room 1

When the trial began that morning John and Commander Veen began submitting multiple motions. John submitted his motion to dismiss the charges of Insubordination, officer’s conduct and false police charge. Veen submitted a few as well, the only notable one was to dismiss the cadet’s request to a speedy trial.

“Commander, your request to quash the motion to a speedy trial is denied. That is the defendant’s discretion. Only in exceptional cases would it be denied. This is clearly not one of them.” Justice Olson stated.

“Your honors I once again implore you to not dismiss the three charges.” Commander Veen was upset at the speed the trial was moving. He and his team were not as comfortable with the case as they would’ve liked, nor had they spent much time working on the case in general.

“Cadet, I am troubled with the request to dismiss the code of conduct charge.” Justice Stephano said.

“Your honors, I agree with your concerns. I fully expect the code to be rewritten to include cadets that are on leave at a minimum or for it be fully rewritten to get such a silly loophole shut. But because of the way the code is written, technically cadets couldn’t be held to the code of conduct when the alleged crime occurred. This means the court must accept dismissal of the charge as there was no violation of it off duty. I fully agree that one could look at that and think this is ridiculous. And it is, but the way the code of conduct is written today, cadets could say or do something to a superior officer on the weekends and face no consequences for their actions.”

Justice Wilson looked at the other two justices. “Commander, we agree to an extent with your concerns about dismissing these three charges, but you’re on thin ice for the false statement and insubordination charges. The general violation of the Naval Officers Code of Conduct charge is dismissed. Cadet, you are free to resubmit these motions to dismiss after evidence has been submitted during the trial on the other charges. Now onto the motions to exclude evidence.”

“Your honor the camera evidence is vital to the case. There is case law to suggest a single camera can be used.”

“There hasn’t been a civilian case in over one hundred seventy-five years, or over one hundred fifty years for the military that’s accepted a single camera’s video evidence at trial. Only when there are at least two cameras that overlap and corroborate one another is video evidence allowed. There is a single video from a single camera that’s in evidence. My motion has thirty-six cases where the Supreme Court has overturned cases where single camera video evidence was introduced, from last year alone. Additionally, I have six full time video editors that confirm the video in question has been altered and is not the original video.”

“Video evidence is included by a two to one vote.” Justice Wilson said. “You can introduce your evidence to refute the video when it comes up in trial should the prosecution use it.”

John figured Stephano was independent and clean. He figured Wilson was at a minimum friendly with the shadow group. Intelligence found no monetary link, so he was clean, but he wasn’t exactly an unbiased individual.

“Commander, what about the modification of the police report?” Justice Olson asked.

“I can’t speak to why or how it was altered. This is the police report on file.”

“Commander, unless you can come up with a reason why the cadets have a different case than yours the evidence will be thrown out and the charge as well.” Justice Stephano stated.

“I am also submitting another motion for a bench trial your honors.”

The justices looked at one another and nodded their heads.

“Request accepted; we will forgo jury selection this afternoon.” Justice Olson said.

John smiled internally. Intelligence would monitor these justices like hawks to make sure nothing changes in their normal routines. The shadow group wasn’t going to be able to exert anymore influence on the case.

“We request a two-week continuance to prepare for the trial.” Commander Veen.

“Cadet, your response?” Justice Stephano.

“My motion was for a speedy trial. I do not agree to a continuance nor need one. I’d like this trial to start with immediate effect. I’m submitting a motion, my final for the day, to start the trial tomorrow afternoon. I can finish all my finals in the morning.”

“Thoughts Commander?” Justice Wilson asked.

“I would still prefer a continuance to get our case in order.”

“With respect, my request for a speedy trial should not be delayed if the prosecution isn’t prepared. If they weren’t prepared, they shouldn’t have brought the charges against me so quickly. I should not have my rights quashed for the unpreparedness of the JAG office.”

“I agree with the cadet. Your request for a continuance is denied. Trial will start tomorrow afternoon at 13:00 in this room. We are adjourned for the day.” Justice Stephano banged the gavel.

John put together his effects was talking with his attorney about what to expect as they walked out. He had already prepared an opening statement and sent it to his attorney to proof. John was looking at relevant case law on how to attack the video evidence. He was annoyed it was allowed. It ran counter to almost two centuries of case law to include it.

The rest of Tuesday flew by. He spent the afternoon reviewing case law and examining the evidence. He had dinner with his friends then retired to the library to study up on his case. Alice went with him and began studying for her finals. She tried not to bother him, but John insisted that she ask questions, he could multi-task. The distraction was helpful. Alice was annoyed they couldn’t spend time any private time together until the trial was resolved.

Wednesday. 13:00 Tribunal Room 1

John had finished his finals that morning. He aced all six tests in about three hours. He used the rest of his free time preparing for the trial. John felt he was very prepared for things, but he couldn’t predict how the trial would play out. He was playing against someone who had stacked the deck, this wasn’t John’s preferred manner of defending himself against an attack. In fact, if John didn’t know any better they were playing the gameplan John liked to use.

That preparation didn’t translate into success at trial though. Unfortunately, things did not start out well for John. The shadow group doctored up some messages and because of that additional charges were filed. The new charges included witness tampering, criminal conspiracy, and attempted murder were added. All three were obvious career killers. The evidence wasn’t provided to the defense team in compliance with the rules, which got Veen admonished but the evidence was still accepted.

The upside was John was able to get the false statement charge thrown out as the prosecutor couldn’t explain why the case information was different. The justices were not impressed, nor did they accept the prosecution’s explanation for the difference in case files. It didn’t help that the police officer on redirect confirmed that the image of the report that John submitted was the one he filed. The insubordination charge remained though, his attempts to dismiss it failed.

John and his lawyer were talking during a recess and came up with novel ways to get the tampering and murder charges thrown out due to lack of evidence to substantiate the charge. The team of lawyers back at the corporation were working on writing the actual motions after the new charges were presented.

The trial ended the day on a somewhat upbeat note for them though, John was on an emotional rollercoaster that day. After the prosecutor had presented evidence on the attempted murder and witness tampering charges, they countered by submitted motions to dismiss both. John had precise location tracking on him thanks to Naval Intelligence keeping tabs on him. That location evidence, which the defense ironically complained about being entered without prior notice, was accepted and the two charges were thrown out because there was no way he could have done what was alleged. Curiously, the conspiracy charge remained.

John and his lawyer were talking with one another. They both considered it a minor win to go from six charges down to three. Commander Veen came over to them and asked to speak to them in private. They agreed and left the court room and entered an interview room across the hall. Commander Veen laid out a plea bargain to the two. Or what he believed was a plea bargain.

“A change in my focus to recon, no time served, thirty-six months supervised probation, a written disciplinary notice to be placed on my file and one year of leave that is forgone. You are out of your fucking mind if you think this is even remotely acceptable.”

“That’s the deal we’re prepared to offer.”

John looked down at his tablet. LeCroix wanted to chat with him.

“Commander Veen, I hope for your part you aren’t an active participant in this conspiracy against me. My answer is no.” John got up. “Who’s your loyalty too commander? This group or the Navy? From my position here it’s the former, it won’t end well for you.”

Veen was stunned. He and his attorney parted ways, he had to go to another room to make a secure call.

“Director LeCroix, how are you? Coms are secure.”

“We just intercepted Veen’s communication to the shadow group. You spooked him.”

“Did he fuck up though?”

“Not as bad as we’d hoped. But we have some additional names to crucify after your case is adjudicated.”

“Wilson is amenable to the group, though I doubt he is on the take.”

“None of them are, but he isn’t unbiased. Stephano is a solid jurist; Olson takes cues from both his peers.” LeCroix corrected John.

“I’m fairly certain I’ve got the criminal conspiracy charge beat, but the assault and insubordination charges are hard without more evidence. Even without the police incident case details the justices bought the captain and the whore’s testimony over mine and Andern’s.”

“We found it disturbing that your testimony was virtually rejected out of hand by all three justices.”

“The assault and insubordination charges combined basically end my career aspirations in command sir. That’s true even if I beat it on appeal which I would.”

“Stay the course son.” LeCroix took a breath. “We knew it would be an uphill climb. Unfortunately, they are fighting dirty. We’ll chat when we have more information for you.”

Thursday. 18:00 John’s dorm room

John wasn’t in a good mood. He had done some more research and was confident the insubordination charge was now likely to be dismissed or at worst found innocent of it. But the assault charge wasn’t going to be beat without more evidence. The group tried to get him to go to dinner with them, they were worried about him. He appreciated their sincere support, but John tried to distance himself from them. He didn’t want to drag them down with him, and frankly he wasn’t in the mood to be around other people.

Alice did her best to cheer him up. He appreciated the effort and thanked her for the attempts. It did work a little. John still had his leave revoked so he couldn’t leave the academy grounds. They couldn’t be intimate in private due to the restrictions John was under, despite both desperately wanted to.

John was in his room at his terminal looking at more case law trying to find some loophole to get the video excluded. He wasn’t having much luck besides knowing that on appeal it would get tossed. But it’d be tossed as a technicality and not as something that exonerates him. He noticed that LeCroix was messaging him, he needed to chat.

“Evening John. Sent you some vague information that could help your case out. And you need to talk to your friend Vito. He has something.”

“You going to tell me what he has?”

“We actually aren’t sure, but we are certain it pertains to your case.”

“Don’t suppose you can approve leave for me?”

“Already done.”

John changed into civilian clothing and headed to a seedier part of downtown. He sent a message to Alice that he’d be missing dinner but would be back later in the evening. He didn’t want to raise her spirits regarding the case without knowing absolutely sure, so he didn’t give her the reason. She read between the lines though and suspected what was going on.

19:00 Corleone’s Pasta House

John used his terminal and got into the camera feeds of a few hangouts Vito and his men used. It was on the fourth building he searched that he tracked down Vito. He called a cab and headed to the restaurant. He handed the cabbie a pair of hundred dollar bills and told him to keep the change.

“Son, you don’t know this place, you don’t want to stop here.”

“Thanks for the concern, but I actually need something from these folks, as crazy as that sounds.”

He walked over to the front of the restaurant and was stopped by a pair of absolutely enormous Italian American man.

“No admittance, restaurant is closed.”

“I don’t have a meeting lined up, but I need to speak with Vito.”

“What makes you think he’s in there.” The other guard said.

“Y’all should know me. I ain’t here to start shit. I’m actually here to do business.”

One of the guards nodded. The other one frisked John to confirm him wasn’t carrying a gun. He nodded after confirming he wasn’t armed. A made guy at the bar waived John over to him. John asked the man a couple things, then asked for a favor so that he could speak to Vito. The made man told him to wait and went into a back room. Another guy came out and gestured for John to follow him.

“My old friend John. It’s impressive you tracked me down. Not many can do that.” Vito smiled.

John reached his hand out and shook Vito’s hand. “So, I’m sure you’ve heard I’m in a bit of trouble these days.”

“I heard, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say some superiors were trying to railroad you. Please sit.”

“Yeah, that about sums it up. So, I’m told you have something for me. Am I correct in assuming its camera footage that a certain cadet may be interested in?”

Vito smiled. It was not a warm friendly smile. It was a predator’s smile that you’d give to someone that you’re planning on blackmailing or stabbing them in the heart.

John continued. “Name your price. Can’t do anything about anyone in jail, weapons or drugs. I’d rather not be in your debt if it’s all the same to you.”

“How do I know you’re not bugged, and this is some sort of elaborate scheme to get me?”

“Because they wouldn’t send me, I’m too close to you. And you also know that I’ve never lied to you or gotten you or your crew in trouble in the past. Also, there’s the matter of those huge guys out front that scanned me.”

“Well, let’s say a hundred million dollars and the camera and it’s footage and backups are yours.”

John nodded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out five credit chits. “Unmarked chits work for you?”

Vito grinned. He motioned to one of his made men. They got up and scanned the credit chits. There was a bit over twenty million credits loaded on each one. Converting that into dollars, using today’s exchange rate, would be several thousand dollars over the agreed upon amount.

“Yeah, that’ll do.” Vito smiled.

“Now where’s the camera.”

Vito snapped his fingers and another one of his guys came over. Vito whispered something to him. The man walked out of the room. He returned five minutes later with a shoe box. He set it on the table in front of John. John opened it finding the camera. He downloaded the footage onto his tablet, then scrolled back to the date and time of the altercation and played it back. John sank bank in the seat and smiled. He put the camera back in the box and let out a deep sigh of relief.

“That was highway robbery Vito, but you my friend just saved my career.” John smiled. “Don’t suppose that hundo comes with a meal, eh?”

Vito laughed. “You’ve got brass balls son; I’ll give you that. Gio, get a plate for our guest.”

John smiled and had a pleasant meal with a mob boss, his underboss and a pair of his high-ranking captains. John suspected the meal conversation was radically different while he was there, but it was still pleasant enough. When he finished the meal, he asked if he could be excused, which delighted Vito. A non-member of the family had the presence of mind and manners to ask for permission to leave.

“I’ll have to invite you to dinner some other time John, was a pleasure to do business with you.”

“Stay out of trouble Vito.”

“Will do John. Must admit, it was finally good to get one over on you.”

The two smiled and then John waived as he walked out. He had the evidence he knew existed. Now it was a matter of getting it admitted into the tribunal. He was certain he could prove his innocence with this video. And if it synched up to the video the prosecution sent it would prove his editing theory that he was being set up. John was smiling at the thought that he now would get to destroy the life of a captain that lied about this whole damned mess. Then there was the matter of tracking down the shadow organization of admirals and removing them from their powerbases one by one. John shook those thoughts away, he needed to make that first step count, he needed to prove his innocence. He had to slow down his mind a bit, too much relied on ifs, he needed to prove this evidence was legit first. That was his singular focus now.