"What do you think?" he asked her once his face appeared. "I've been going over the file since I received it on this end and it looks pretty solid to me."
"I like it," Hathaway said. "The charges themselves are beyond reproach. Solicitation of bribery from corporate officials, incitement of terrorism, trafficking in explosives. It couldn't get much better, especially after all of the media publicity that Whiting's been getting here on Earth."
"My feelings exactly," Clinton replied. "For once this year my agents on Mars actually did something right."
"It would seem so," she said. "But I do foresee some future problems with this."
"Such as?"
"Such as the trial," she replied. "This file will be enough to get her indicted on the charges, but once we put her on trial we'll have to come up with some corroborating witnesses for these statements in here. How are you going to do that?"
"Several of the corporations involved have volunteered their services in that regard," he told her. "For instance Smith at Agricorp will have a few of his lobbyists testify on our behalf that Whiting asked for bribes from them and threatened them if they did not produce them. The names on the statements are of the actual people involved. And as for the terrorism charges, well, those statements are from... non-people I guess we could say."
"You mean they're completely fabricated by your agents," said Hathaway, who did not enjoy mincing words when she did not have to.
"Well... yes," he admitted. "But in any case, our contacts at InfoServe, the biggest of the big three, have promised to supply us with actors who will pretend to be these people we interviewed at the trial. We'll make a big production out of them, tell the solar system how they'd been caught red-handed and gave up Whiting for a plea bargain, have them testify, and then we'll pretend to sentence them to prison. The pay-off for them will be a billion dollars apiece and new identities when its over."
"A lot of money," she observed. "Who's paying for it?"
"The coalition of corporations that are fighting against Whiting will pay for half," he told her. "The federal government will pick up the other half. Of course its possible that some accidents might be arranged for these people instead. It is awfully dangerous to let them walk around after a production like that."
"That would seem the wiser course," she said.
"In any case, the important thing is the now. We need to get Whiting out of office and on a ship to Earth before the next general strike. We'll have plenty of time to worry about the trial later. I'm sure we'll be able to delay and put off the proceedings for at least four years. You know how our justice system works."
"Yes, God love it," she agreed. "I have more good news for you as well. Our grand jury selection is now complete."
"Is it?" he asked, delighted. Of course the grand jury did not know that it was being convened to investigate the Laura Whiting matter, they thought they were just another routine body being pulled together to serve for a year and investigate whatever federal matters came up in the course of that time. "How's the composition?"
"We have twelve of the biggest morons in Denver sitting on that panel," she told him. "Each one of them has been following the Whiting story on the big three and have only received input from those sources. Not one of them has any contact with anyone who lives on Mars or ever has. They'll believe anything our prosecutor tells them."
"Beautiful," Clinton said, pleased with this news.
"I've already called my two top prosecutors up here. They'll be going over the file in less than an hour. It's Thursday now so I'll have them work the entire weekend on it. The grand jury will convene for the first time this Monday morning. We'll zip them through an abbreviated orientation in the morning and then start hitting them with the Whiting matter after lunch."
"And how long will it take once it's started?" Clinton wanted to know.
"Shouldn't take too long," she said. "I'll have them present the worst of the evidence quickly. I'd say two days should do it and we'll have that indictment."
"Wednesday then," Clinton said, nodding, a happy smile upon his face. Soon this entire Laura Whiting mess would be but a memory. "I'll be eagerly awaiting it."
Hathaway's prediction of two days turned out to be an accurate one. The Denver federal grand jury, which consisted of seven women and five men, were horrified at the crimes that Laura Whiting, current governor of Mars, was accused of participating in. The evidence that they were presented, coupled with the extensive media coverage of the events that all had been following of late, prompted them to issue a six-page indictment against her on six distinct federal charges, all of which carried lengthy prison sentences if the accused was found guilty.
The two prosecuting attorneys who had presented the case thanked the grand jury for their time and then dismissed them, reminding all that they had agreed to serve for a year and could be called up again. The twelve members left the federal courthouse and went about their business, all of them proud to have served and eagerly awaiting their next assignment, blissfully unaware that the justice system had no intention of ever using them again. They had served their purpose.
The text of their indictment was on Hathaway's terminal before the first of the jury members were even able to board a commuter train for their homes. She quickly read it over and then sent it on to Clinton's office via a secure landline. Clinton read it over ten minutes later and then composed a voice mail giving instructions for Hayes.
"Take her into custody tomorrow morning," he told his subordinate. "Take enough teams with you to insure that she will not be liberated from you by her security forces or pissed off greenie civilians. The most important thing to remember is that she be taken alive and unharmed. I don't want a single hair on her head to be damaged, nor a single piece of her clothing rumpled. If she were to be hurt or killed during the arrest we would have hell to pay among those Martians. She is not to become a martyr, do you understand?"
When he finished the voice mail he attached a certified copy of the arrest indictment to it and then told the computer to send it on the secure channel to the FLEB headquarters in New Pittsburgh. The documents and his mail were digitized, encrypted, and then sent through the WestHem Internet system to a communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit over the coast of Brazil. Since the main communications computer knew that direct communication with the planet Mars was now impossible thanks to the sun being directly in the path, the signal was sent across the solar system to another communications satellite in orbit around Ganymede. It took forty-eight minutes for it to arrive there at which point it was re-routed and sent to another satellite in orbit around Mars. This leg of the trip only took eighteen minutes. And so, one hour and six minutes after being sent, the message and the indictment arrived at the terminal of Corban Hayes.
Hayes watched the email message and then looked over the indictment very carefully. He had a very bad feeling about what he was being asked to do but nevertheless he began to make the arrangements to carry it out. He called Mitchell and several other of his top agents into his office and told them the news. All of them were delighted that the greenie bitch was finally going to go down. They went over the basic plan to take her into custody the next morning.