The Highest Bounty

Modican was a well-connected person. He knew almost all the people in the upper echelons of Skyriver Sector. That was the privilege of a top pharmacologist: Not only they received a paycheck from the Federal Government, even the s.p.a.ce pirates did not dare to offend them, and other major corporations fought to build connections with them.

Parma was Modican"s only disciple and was also a beautiful woman. She was less popular than Modican but was not too far behind him in popularity. The people she dealt with daily were high ranking officials in the Federal Government. If he offended her, he could kiss his future goodbye.

After carefully answering a few questions from Parma, Reid told her about how Gu Ding was hauled up to the Federal Court. He was already delayed for more than twenty minutes by then.

"I"ll go with you. I"ve also heard of this Pearson guy before. He"s reputation stinks, and he never forgets a grudge. I"ve heard about the enmity between him and Cain, and it"s just something petty. Now that Cain has escaped, I"m afraid that Pearson would channel all his hatred onto Gu Ding. Gu Ding will be in big trouble. If the court couldn"t reach a verdict today, I"m afraid they would detain him in prison and torture him." Parma was well-connected within the Federal Government and knew about all these "open secrets". She was worried that Gu Ding would be mistreated.

"Then I had better move soon, and you should go there as fast as possible too. With you on his side, I don"t think Pearson would do something out of the ordinary." Reid became nervous too. As an elite lawyer, he had also heard about the open secrets in the Federation"s justice system, even though he had not seen it happen. He had never thought of this before because he had been confident that he would win any case thrown to him. Now that Parma mentioned it, he began to worry.

He drove straight to the Federal Court. As an elite lawyer, he had handled a few hundred court cases and was not a stranger to the Federal Court.

He reached the court in twenty-five minutes. Looking at his watch, he realized that he was twenty minutes late.

He pushed opened the door to the courtroom and coincidentally heard the judge summoning the first witness.

Some people turned to look at Reid when they heard the sound of the door being opened. He nonchalantly walked toward Gu Ding. "Sorry, I"m late. I was delayed by some matters."

"You"re Reid?" Pearson"s attorney looked ghastly when he saw Reid. It was obvious that he knew who Reid was.

"And you"re Pearson"s attorney?" Reid smiled. "I can only wish you good luck." He did not seem to know who the prosecution attorney was and did not pay too much attention to him.

"So, your defense attorney is Mr. Reid," the presiding judge said while nodding his head toward him. They seemed like they knew each other very well.

"Who"s this kid?" Pearson asked in a low voice.

"His name is Reid, the only elite lawyer in all of Cerule, and also the super VIP member of the Skyriver Bar Council. He earned his elite lawyer certification when he was fourteen. That was a record for the Skyriver Sector and one of the top ten in the entire Universal Federation. He had only fought five hundred over cases thus far, but he hasn"t lost a single one." The middle-aged lawyer replied in a low voice.

The judge struck the gavel again and both sides started questioning the witness.

Gu Ding and Reid noticed that the first witness was not in a sound mental state, as if he did not sleep well the last night. His eyes were dull, and he seemed fearful of Pearson when he saw him.

"He must have been tortured the last night." Neptune also noticed that there was something wrong with the witness.

"Wait!" Reid interrupted before the prosecution attorney could ask his first question.

"Do you have a problem, Reid?" The judge frowned.

"Your Honor. Would you agree if I say that witness statements taken under duress are unreliable?" Reid said as he stood from his seat.

"Federation Law expressly forbids torture, and therefore statements taken under duress to be admitted as evidence are considered inadmissible." The judge nodded.

"Why would you think that our witness has been tortured?" The prosecution attorney objected.

"That"s simple." Reid turned to Gu Sing. "Gu Ding, what can you observe from this man?"

"Both of his hands are trembling uncontrollably, and he did not dare to use much force when swearing the oath. He is obviously in a lot of pain. All his ten fingernails are much pinker than normal people, probably because these are newly grown with the aid of Cell Rejuvenators. It"s easy to verify that. All you need to do is gently press his cuticles and his nails will break. However, the fingernails are not the worst injury he sustained.

"If it"s a normal muscle or skin injury, it can fully heal by soaking in F-grade Cell Rejuvenator for three hours. Bone injuries won"t heal that fast though, they would need to be soaked for three whole days. I believe all his fingers are fractured. If you soak the fingers for a whole day with an F-grade Cell Rejuvenator, you will only be able to recover the skin and muscles at most. The injuries will surface again if you apply any slight pressure. All the signs of injury can be easily detected by medical equipment. A professional doctor can even determine the time of injury by using said equipment.

"Also, he was only in the courtroom for less than two minutes. You can see from his face that he is in a lot of pain, but the cause of this pain isn"t on his hands, but rather from his body. You can use Cell Rejuvenators to repair the skin and muscles but it"s harder to repair internal organs. We can perform a full-body scan on him to verify if he has any internal injuries."

Reid raised a thumbs-up after Gu Ding finished speaking. "Gu Ding took those words right out of my mouth. Allow me to elaborate."

"I noticed something when the first witness was summoned. His eyes are dull and he was not in a good mental condition. While Gu Ding was speaking earlier, I had browsed through this witness"s information. I will read it out for everyone.

"Bront, s.p.a.ce pirate, 130 million bounty. Arrested for murder, arson, and **. Currently serving a 330-year sentence in Federal Prison." Reid looked at Pearson after he finished speaking. "A 130 million bounty. That"s almost the highest amount in the Cerulean Prison, right, Mr. Chief Warden?"

"He was the highest before Cain. What about it?" Pearson answered nonchalantly.

"That means his bounty was the highest before Cain arrived, and is still the highest after Cain escaped. Let me ask you then, who would want to provoke him in the prison? His mental condition is like this because he suffered a blow. There are generally two causes for this. The first is suffering physical damage more than one can endure, which results in a mental breakdown. The second reason is, of course, being dumped by one"s girlfriend."

Reid paused for a moment, then continued, "When he entered the courtroom earlier, he was visibly shaken when he saw our chief warden."

"That"s just your conjecture. How about presenting some hard evidence?" Pearson was not impressed.

"You want evidence? Simple." Reid nodded. "Then I"ll require your cooperation."

Pearson did not mind cooperating, he did not think that Reid could pull off any tricks.

"Mr. Chief Warden, please stand where I am." Reid walked close to Bront in the witness stand. Bront looked at him, then lowered his head without any reaction.

Pearson knew what Reid was trying to do. He tried to relax and displayed a calm smile on his face, then slowly walked toward Bront.

Bront was visibly nervous when he saw Pearson. To him, his smiling face was ten thousand times worse than when he was serious. That was the smile he showed in the interrogation room. As Pearson walked closer, Bront"s body began to tremble violently. "Don"t… come closer… don"t… please… I"ll tell you everything…"

Reid spread his hands. "I believe the witness"s reaction is proof enough of what I have just said. I"m guessing that the few witnesses from the prosecution are all behaving like this?"

"Bring in the other witnesses. Throw out any of them with unsound mental conditions!" The judge nodded then struck the gavel again.