Pending Trial

Posted on Mon Apr 1st, 2013 @ 12:02pm by Seyla & Tog
Edited on on Tue Sep 22nd, 2015 @ 10:33pm

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Prosecutor's Office

* * * Ivor’s Office * * *

Ivor grumbled and tossed the padd he held aside. He should have been happy, all things considered. He had an airtight case against Suresh. For fuck’s sake, the man had kidnapped the XO, fired at the Admiral and because of that, was responsible for whisking not only them, but a security officer off to some alternate universe. Granted, there was a statement here that Suresh had saved Captain Hawke’s life but given the nature of his crimes, including all the information Li herself had provided about his criminal activities here? There was no saving the man and it would be a slam dunk for Ivor.

The problem was with Suresh himself. If Ivor did his job as he should, what was to stop Suresh from running his mouth and telling the court everything about their association over the past couple of years. And if he did, Ivor would be ruined and likely sharing a cell with Suresh on whatever distant prison colony became his home. He was on a high wire here and his balance was shaky. There was one person who could be of help, one person who stood to lose just as much. As if he had conjured the man, the comm panel on his desk beeped and Chelsea informed him that Tog was waiting to see him.

“Send him in immediately,” Ivor ordered.

The door opened and Tog hustled in, looking unusually nervous. For him, visiting the prosecutor normally was never a problem: when you have the prosecutor on your secret payroll, visits to him are easy and casual. He waited till the door closed and leaned his head towards Ivor in a significant way. Ivor’s hand slid to a button then he nodded and Tog spoke, “This is shit, Ivor. There’s no way you can tank this case, no way we can sweep it under the rug. Suresh is going to prison and we’ll be damned lucky if he doesn’t drag us with him! What are you doing about this?”

“What am I doing?” Ivor gave a harsh laugh. “I’d ask you that same thing. You have contact with him, I do not. You know as well as I do that if I go down to that brig and speak to him, it will raise questions we cannot answer, Tog. We are, to use the vernacular, fucked if we are not very careful.”

Pacing, Tog rubbed an earlobe, his way of easing some of his stress. “I have been to visit him. He’s aware we can’t bury this. One thing he’s demanding, though, is that he stays on this Station to serve his time. Apparently Zeferino doesn’t mind overstepping the line - she saw him and told him he’s going to be sent away to rot in some penal colony.” He stopped pacing and faced Ivor. “Is that even possible? If it’s possible to include a clause that keeps him here, then we could just wrap this up in a plea bargain.”

Ivor sighed heavily and shook his head. “Ray’s already put his foot down, Tog, and he’s got the Admiral, the XO, and the CSEC behind him on this. We’re looking at the penal colony on Tantalus V, Tog. Suresh has hit the big time.”

Tog’s ear-rubbing got more vigorous and his scowl deepened. “Not there. Anywhere but there and, maybe, I can get him to accept that! But he’s swearing he’ll fight any move to an off-station prison, and you know what Ray’ll do if Suresh starts singing about crooked prosecutors! I might get disbarred, but, really, all I’ve done is zealously represent my client!” It was true: Tog had routed all of the payments to Ivor in such a way that he was out of the loop. Far as he was concerned, he wasn’t involved in Ivor being in Suresh’s pocket.

“And I am supposed to go around Ray, and Admiral and a Captain? Especially when that Captain is --” Ivor stopped mid-sentence, frozen in place, then a slow, feral smile spread over his face. “Oh...my.....”

Tog stared at him for a long moment, watching the prosecutor’s wheels turn. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore and burst out, “Well!? ‘Oh my’ what? If you have an idea, spit it out!”

“You are going to go see Suresh again. I want to know, in specific detail, just what happened with Captain Hawke in that other universe. Everything. I also want to know if anything personal happened between them during her undercover op. Tell him his future could depend on his being explicit and accurate. Do you understand where I’m going with this?”

The Ferengi’s scowl slowly morphed into a sly smile, one that matched Ivor’s. “Oo, sex stories that involve the XO. I like that idea! Little bit of extortion, Mr. Prosecutor. Also, it could set us up for an entrapment defense and a claim of undue influence - she messed with his head, you know. Damned Betazoids,” he shuddered, “How you people tolerate letting that species creep into your minds, I’ll never know.”

“Glad to see we are thinking along the same lines, Tog. There may be a way out of this yet so that we can keep him here and save our own asses. Because I’ll tell you something. If this looks like it won’t work, we have one choice. Enter a guilty plea to avoid trial, muzzle him before he can spill his guts and get him the hell out of here in order to save ourselves.” Ivor rubbed his forehead and muttered. “Somehow we’ll have to work that out, maybe with a telepath of our own.”

“We do have an Orion and her stable of ponies. I know she has one or two telepaths in there. Though, so far, I haven’t seen her get involved in anything under the table.” For a moment, he wondered if she was just a goody-two-shoes or was just really good at being bad. He’d pay a lot to find out how bad she was willing to be.... His focus snapped back to Ivor. “I’ll get what information I can from Suresh.”

“Orion...” Ivor frowned and grabbed the padd once more, moving his finger across the screen to scan the information there. “Here it is. One of that stable of ponies went to visit Suresh two days ago. Marabeth. She stayed fifteen minutes. Does that help you at all?”

“Did she now? Well, I might have to borrow a saddle and take a ride,” he leered. Then he looked confused. “Fifteen minutes? Really? So short? Huh...,” shaking his head, Tog moved towards the door. “Marabeth, Seyla, Suresh... so many people I have to go see! Good thing I get paid by the tenth of the hour! See you soon, Mr. Prosecutor!”

Ivor raised his hand. “Just get what I need. Make that what we need. And if it fails, we’ll go to plan C. Don’t worry, it’s under control. Call me as soon as you have anything.”

Tog nodded and left the man’s office. He had people to see, Suresh to bill. Life was still good.

____________________

Tog
Ready to Bury Somebody

Lt.(jg) Ivor Biro
Digging For Dirt....Or Gold