“Well why didn’t you say that sooner?” Deathwish slipped on his gold-rimmed spectacles and flipped slowly through a small notebook. “I take a 10 per cent commission for handling this.”
“Affirm.”
“Well-do you want a cheap honest lawyer or an expensive crooked one?”
“I have 17,000 bucks hidden where no one can find it”
“You should have told me that first.” Deathwish closed the book and put it away. “They must have suspected this, that’s why they gave you the belt and the cell with the hook. With money like that you can hire the absolute best.”
“Who is that?”
“Abdul O’Brien-Cohen.”
“Send for him.”
And no more than two bowls of soggy bread and water had passed before there was a new footstep in the hall and a clear and penetrating voice bounced from the chill walls.
“Salaam there, boyo, faith and I’ve had a gesundt shtik trouble getting here.”
“This is a general court-martial case,” Bill told the mild, unassuming man with the ordinary face who stood outside the bars. I don’t think a civilian lawyer will be allowed.”
“Begorrah, landsman-it is Allah’s will that I be prepared for all things.” He whipped a bristling mustache with waxed tips out of his pocket and pressed it to his upper lip. At the same time he threw his chest back and his shoulders seemed to widen and a steely glint came to his eye and the planes of his face took on a military stiffness. “I’m pleased to meet you. We’re in this together, and I want you to know that I won’t let you down even if you are an enlisted man.”
“What happened to Abdul O’Brien-Cohen?”
“I have a reserve commission in the Imperial Barratry Corps. Captain A. C. O’Brien at your service. I believe the sum of 17,000 was mentioned?”
“I take 10 per cent of that,” Deathwish said, sidling up. Negotiations were opened and took a number of hours. All three men liked, respected, and distrusted each other, so that elaborate safeguards were called for. When Deathwish and the lawyer finally left they had careful instructions about where to find the money, and Bill had statements signed in blood with affixed thumbprint from each of them stating that they were members of the Party d edicated to overthrowing the Emperor. When they returned with the money Bill gave them back their statements as soon as Captain O’Brien had signed a receipt for 15,300 bucks as payment in full for defending Bill before a general court-martial. It was all done in a businesslike and satisfying manner.
“Would you like to hear my side of the case?” Bill asked. “Of course not, that has no bearing at all on the charges. When you enlisted in the troopers you signed away all your rights as a human being. They can do whatever they like with you. Your only advantage is that they are also prisoners of their own system and must abide by the complex and self-contradictory code of laws they have constructed through the centuries. They want to shoot you for desertion and have rigged a foolproof case.”
“Then I’ll be shot!”
“Perhaps, but that’s the chance we have to take.”
“We-? You going to be hit by half the bullets?”
“Don’t get snotty when you’re talking to an officer, bowb. Abide in me, have faith, and hope they make some mistakes.”
After that it was just a matter of marking time until the trial. Bill knew it was close when they gave him a uniform with a Fuse Tender First Class insignia on the arm. Then the guard tramped up, the door sprang open, and Deathwish waved him out. They marched away together, and Bill exacted what small pleasure he could from changing step to louse up the guard. But once through the door of the courtroom he took a military brace and tried to look like an old campaigner with his medals clanking on his chest. There was an empty chair next to a polished, uniformed, and very military Captain O’Brien.
“That’s the stuff;” O’Brien said. “Keep up with the G.I. bit, outplay them at their own game.”
They climbed to their feet as the officers of the court filed in. Bill and O’Brien were seated at the end of the long, black, plastic table, and at the far end sat the trial judge advocate, a gray-haired and stern-looking major who wore a cheap girdle. The ten officers of the court sat down at the long side of the table, where they could scowl out at the audience and the witnesses.