'Not even the court-martials you've been involved with up here?'
'No.'
'I see.' Carr leaned back, her eyes seeming to look through Paul as if she were reading his innermost thoughts. 'What's he like?'
'He's okay.'
'Do you have any reason to think he'd be unethical in any way?'
'No!'
'Good. Is he aggressive? Confident?'
Paul snorted. He couldn't help it. 'Oh, yeah. He's confident.' Full of himself was more like it, in Paul's opinion.
'I see,' Carr said again. 'He may be in for a surprise if he's never dealt with a military court-martial. Even if he's good, he'll also have a problem with the members of the court.'
'Because they'll be biased against a civilian attorney.'
'Yup. It's not fair, but that's the way it is.'
Paul raised one hand slightly as a thought occurred to him. 'Maybe that's why David got hired. He's not military himself, but he's from a military family. Both my mother and father are veterans. David may try to neutralize bias against him by bringing that in somehow.'
'He might. Thanks, again. Are any more of your family members going to show up for this court- martial?'
'My parents will probably-'
'You've got to be kidding.' Commander Carr was watching Paul as if waiting for the punch line to his joke.
'No. I'm getting married soon, you know. They'll be up here for the wedding, and if the court-martial's open to the public they'll probably want to see David in action.' A not-so-small part of Paul felt a malicious wish that David would make some blunders in the case because of unfamiliarity with military law and perhaps finally have to admit to being a little less than perfect.
'Oh, yes. Married! To Lieutenant Shen!' Carr shook her head. 'My sins keep coming back to remind me. Will she be at the court-martial?'
Paul realized he hadn't even thought about that before. Jen had plenty of bad memories about court-rooms, but if she thought she'd be supporting Paul or helping ensure justice was done with Pullman… 'Maybe.'
Carr laughed. 'This'll be the first time one of my cases included a family reunion in the courtroom. I'll try give you a good show.'
'It sounded like you thought this would be a simple case.'
'Did I say that?' Carr shook her head. 'Not simple. The only simple ones are where the defendant pleads guilty right off the bat. This case is straightforward in a lot of ways, since we've got solid evidence to work with. But the members of the court are probably going to be a lot like you, Paul. They won't want to believe that one of their own has committed espionage. The defense will play off of that, try to give the members grounds for doubt.'
'You don't think Pullman will go with a judge only trial?'
'No way. They can't win on questions of evidence or the law. I'm certain of that. Manipulating the emotions of the members is their only hope.' Carr pressed a couple of keys on her data pad, then turned it and pushed it in Paul's direction. 'Take a look at this for me. It's the court-martial convening order, hot off the presses.'
Paul studied the document, running quickly past the boilerplate standardized sections. There were few surprises, and he knew Carr really wanted him to see the list of members of the court, the officers who would serve as the 'jury' to decide the guilt or innocence of Brad Pullman. He scanned down the names, starting with surprise at one. 'Colleen Kilgary.'
Carr raised her eyebrows. 'You know her?'
'Yes, ma'am. Lieutenant Kilgary transferred off of the Michaelson a little while back. I know her real well.'
'What's she like?'
'Professional and capable. She'll evaluate things herself and make up her own mind. She did a great job on the Michaelson and just about everybody liked her. Everyone respected her.'
Carr made some notes. 'That's my kind of member. Did she ever meet Pullman?'
'Not on the Michaelson. Like I said, she left a few months back. It was, let's see, about two months after she left that Pullman came aboard.'
'Good. So she's an independent thinker?'
'Yes, ma'am. You'll have to convince her.'
Carr flashed a smile. 'I can do that. Do you know any of the other members?'
Paul pointed to another name. 'This other lieutenant. Peter Mahris. He was a classmate of mine at the Academy.'
'You knew him well there?'
'Yes, ma'am. He was in my company.'
She made a beckoning gesture. 'Meaning?'
'Sorry. The midshipmen at the Academy are divided into companies. There's between twenty and thirty members of each class in each company.'
'Ah, so you did know him well. What's he like?'
Paul hesitated, then shrugged. 'To be perfectly frank, ma'am, Pete Mahris is going to do whatever he thinks is best for his career. If he thinks the Navy wants Pullman to be convicted, he'll do it. If he thinks the Navy wants Pullman exonerated, he'll want to do that.'
Alex Carr made a face. 'A real suck up?'
'Yes, ma'am. He'll probably take his cue from whatever the senior member of the court-martial does and says. Unless he's changed a lot, Pete Mahris always tries to do and say whatever he thinks his boss wants.'
'Aiming to make admiral, eh? That sort of strategy doesn't always work, though unfortunately it does work sometimes. You knew Pullman at the Academy, right? Did Mahris?'
'I don't know. I just knew Pullman in passing. It's entirely possible Mahris never really met him.'
Carr made more notes. 'I'll have to check. It could effect Mahris' ability to serve as a member. Okay, do you know any of the other three members?'
Paul read through names again, ransacking his memory. 'Captain Hailey Nguyen. She was a member of Wakeman's court-martial.'
'Really? There's not any surplus of senior officers lying around up here to draw on, so some people do get tapped more than once.' Carr checked something. 'She's on her way to a new command. I guess that's why she was available. I don't think her involvement with Wakeman's case is any reason for questioning her membership on this court-martial.'
Only two more names remained. Lieutenant Commander Pedro de Vaca from the Fleet Intelligence Center. Paul couldn't recall ever meeting him during intelligence briefings they'd received on the Michaelson or on Franklin, but an intelligence officer wasn't too likely to be sympathetic to someone accused of espionage. At least, not sympathetic to someone spying against us instead of for us. Finally, Commander Alan Sriracha, who had been pulled from the Operations Department on Franklin. I'd have been working with him, maybe for him, Paul thought, if my orders hadn't been changed. Well, that's not going to happen now.
At last, Paul shook his head. 'I don't know anything about the last two, ma'am.'
'That's okay. I can't complain with what you told me about two of the members.' She looked over at her office clock and frowned. 'Where does the time go? I guess that's all. I'll be in touch, Paul. See you in court.'
Paul gave her a look as he stood up. 'I can't say I like having a lawyer tell me that.'
Carr laughed. 'Believe me, you'll enjoy this court-martial a lot more than Mr. Pullman will.'
Paul hesitated as he left the JAG office area, checked the time himself, then headed for the brig. The master-at-arms on watch at the front desk there recognized him but didn't try to make small talk as Paul signed in. They knew he'd been coming by fairly frequently the last few months to keep an eye on them, and regarded every visit by Paul as an unannounced inspection.
Brad Pullman was available, as he usually was during visiting hours. He and Paul sat in the small
