Hunger Games | The Sword and the Scales | M | Unpublished
Context: At a war crimes trial, Jinwe, a prosecutor, is trying to get a former government official to admit he was at a certain conference where atrocities were planned. Jinwe is blind.
Dovek took the ticket. “What is this supposed to prove?”
Jinwe marched back to the lectern, using her cane to check for obstacles. “When combined with the fact that you were back in the mountains on the evening of February 3, it suggests you returned to the Capitol for something that happened in the morning-early afternoon of February 3.” The event had been a conference ten years back when the quota system had been completely overhauled and made much more brutal.
“Did I come back? Maybe.” Dovek set aside the ticket. “Surely you don’t expect me to remember events from so long ago.”
“That is precisely why I am holding this ticket in my hand right now,” Jinwe said. “What could be so important that you return from a vacation and then immediately come back?” She held up a piece of paper and recited its document number. “A list of all of your vacations, with hovercraft and train ticket numbers. Every winter in late January-early February, you went skiing in the Rockies. Both of your children have their birthdays then, it is only natural you want to spend time with them on those days. But, all of a sudden, the evening before your son’s birthday, you are flying back to the Capitol and returning the following evening. What could be so important?”
Dovek shrugged lazily. “I’m sure it was something important. As I said, it was ten years ago.”
Jinwe nodded. “How many times did you interrupt your vacation thus?”
“A handful of times, I suppose.”
Jinwe pulled out another document. “Five years after that, you asked to receive the minutes of a meeting between your subordinates and Snow because you didn’t want to attend it and miss your daughter’s birthday. What changed?”
“I don’t know.” The amount of years that had passed gave Dovek an advantage - he couldn’t be expected to have perfect recall of everything.
“Could it be the importance of the conference?”
“I don’t know, I don’t remember.”
Jinwe ran her hand down a sheet of paper. “You must admit, it makes sense. You could not miss such a major conference, no matter whose birthday it was. So you pause your vacation and go attend it.”
“How do you know I was at the conference?” Dovek fired back.
“You didn’t even miss your child’s birthday for a meeting with Snow himself - it was routine, you could have a subordinate do it without issue. Correct?”
“Well, yes.” That would have been impossible to deny.
“So what bar a truly major meeting where you absolutely had to be or else risk a subordinate wresting power from you could be a reason for you to miss your child’s birthday?”
“You didn’t prove I was at that conference,” Dovek insisted.
Jinwe nodded. “Then where were you?”
“I don’t remember now, it’s been ten years.”
“What else could be so important?”
Dovek said nothing.
“Moving on,” Jinwe said. “Your meeting with the defendant Lux in April 75, by the old style...”