“Mechwell’s trial date has already been decided. Three days. Courthouse is on Vala.” Jasper tossed her coat onto a nearby chair, which promptly collapsed to the floor of the shack. “Someone guess the date and location of the next race.”
“During the trial on Vala?” Grace guessed from where she sat on the floor.
“Bingo.”
“Whoa, three days?” Thea asked, brow furrowing. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Yeah. The official statement is that they ‘prioritized him’ due to ‘the nature of his target’ and ‘certain government connections.’” Jasper made quotes in the air as she spoke. “Oh, and the dude they were supposed to be trying during that time mysteriously died in jail. Ringmaster, and presumably Starr, want this wrapped up quickly. Before anyone can prove Mechwell’s innocent.”
“So, we have three days to do just that?” Dax guessed.
“Yup.”
“We’re helping Mechwell?” Grace sounded surprised. “Why do you care?”
“I need to know why Ringmaster decided to frame him,” Jasper replied. “If it wasn’t a random choice, that could mean he has useful information about Ringmaster.” With a wave of her hand, she added, “And I certainly don’t want the police getting away with this. I don’t know much about Mechwell, but I’ll gladly side with him over them.”
“Can’t we just show the court that the footage was tampered with and that Mechwell left the alley before the murder even happened?” Holly asked.
“I figured that out with my technopathy,” Thea told her. “It’s going to be difficult to explain to a jury of average people, let alone convince them. Especially with the prosecution’s evidence.”
“Let’s talk to Mechwell,” Jasper said. “See if he saw anything that day that might lead us to the real killer.”
“Okay, so we go back to the police station—” Holly began.
“He’s not there.” Thea shook her head. “They already moved him to Vala. Only people talking to him now are his lawyers.”
Holly groaned. “Let me guess. We’re lawyers now?”
“Yep.” Jasper clapped her hands together. “Pack your day bags, everyone. We’re going to Vala.”
Vala’s atmosphere was technically breathable, although it was generally recommended people not spend too much time outside buildings with air cleaning systems, because it wasn’t the healthiest stuff. This was mainly due to the slightly poisonous gas the moon’s volcanoes put out on a semi-regular basis.
Mechwell was being represented by Arch & Archer, a small firm on Vala founded by Clover Arch and Clove Archer—no relation whatsoever, they met at university. While the firm’s top lawyers were good, Thea’s search of their system revealed that Mechwell’s case had been handed off to the new guy: Mo Smits, someone Jasper identified as a “certified dumbass” with no won cases.
Smits barely had any experience at all. The other lawyers had likely realized the case was unwinnable with the absurd time crunch and pawned it off on him, not even giving him a mentor to work with like they ordinarily would have.
Not long after warping to Vala, the team sat in a stolen van outside the law firm and watched the bald, blue-skinned Smits enter. “Dax,” Jasper said. “You mentioned that you’ve apparently unlocked a new ability.”
Dax blinked in surprise. “Yeah, but you saw me in that fight. I still haven’t figured out how to use it—”
“I need you to get on that. I have an idea.” Jasper twisted around in the driver’s seat to peer at the back of the van. “Holly, I need you to track down a sick person, and I need Dax to cure them. Thea, find a way to lure Smits out here.”
“You want me to get him sick?” Dax asked.
“Not super sick. We don’t want him to die or anything. Just, you know, maybe cough up an organ or too.”
Holly threw open the door and climbed out. Dax followed. Thea pulled a laptop from her bag. “I’ll see if I can get into his office cameras. Maybe there’s something in there we can use.”
“Great,” Jasper said. “After Dax takes care of him, all that will be left for us to do is swoop in and offer to take the case instead.”
Grace frowned. “Won’t people know we don’t work there?”
“No one wants this case. If we tell them we’re handling it, they’re not going to ask questions.”
“Guy’s got Sagev Sand Serpents merch all over his office,” Thea said.
“What’s that?” Grace asked, twisting in the passenger seat to try to catch a glimpse of Thea’s screen.
“A sandsurfing team,” Thea replied. “Jasper, wanna play radio announcer?”
Jasper grinned. “Always.”
“Let me just get into his receiver.” Thea held up a smartsphere. “I’ll repurpose the audio input—and we’re good. As soon as the station he’s on goes to commercial, I’ll put you on.”
Jasper cleared her throat and took the sphere.
“Five seconds,” Thea said. “Four. Three.” She held up a hand and counted down on her fingers. Two, one, live.
“Citizens of Vala and loyal listeners of this station, I know you’re just dying for opportunity to meet the Sagev Sand Serpents!”
“He’s interested,” Thea whispered.
“Our Sandsurfing Fan Van will be parked out front of Arch & Archer legal offices from twelve to thirteen in the a.m.,” Jasper said. “Come on down and say hi to the team!” She gave Thea a thumbs up and lowered the sphere.
Thea tapped a few buttons and closed her laptop. “Great. That gives us an hour for Holly and Dax to find someone and get back.”
Grace leaned against her door and peered out the window. “Should we do something about the fact that this van is clearly made for selling frozen fruit pops?”
“No worries,” Jasper said. “We’ll give it a paint job. There’s a Mota Mart across the street.”
Getting paint from the Mota Mart was easy enough, but making the van look even close to professional was a different can of neoworms entirely. Jasper haphazardly covered the fruit pop pictures with layer after layer of white spray paint, but they still peered through.
Jasper rested a hand on her hip. “I think we’re going to have to cover it with red instead.”
“The team colors are red and white,” Thea said. “How are we going to do the text?”
“I don’t see why it matters. We’ll just do the words in black.”
“Jasper!” Dax exclaimed as he crossed the street, Holly behind him. “We found something that should work. Also, Holly had me practice by giving her a bunch of papercuts. I’m getting the hang of it. I think.”
Holly looked Jasper, Thea, and Grace up and down. “You look like you got in a fight with a graffiti artist,” she said.
Thea turned around and began spraying red letters over top of the pictures of fruit pops. “We want to make this as obvious as possible for Smits. He’s not the brightest.”
“How did he get a job as a lawyer, exactly?” Grace asked.
“His dad is also a lawyer. A very rich one.”
Grace’s brow furrowed. Systemic corruption still seemed to be a new concept to her. Not for long, if you stick around the Janus System, Jasper thought.
“All right, I call drawing the serpent!” Jasper picked up a black can, shook it, and sprayed a wiggly line onto the van.
“Is that it?” Holly asked, folding her arms.
“Yeah. You got a problem with it?”
“You can’t even tell what end’s the head and what end’s the tail.” Holly picked up a green can off the ground. “Here, let me—”
“Whoa,” Thea said, holding out a hand to stop her. “There’s no green in the team colors.”
“Then why did you guys get all these cans of paint?”
“I got a little carried away,” Jasper admitted.
“It’s almost twelve,” Grace warned. Even though she’d stood a fair distance back from the van, specks of white and red paint dotted her face.
“You guys all get in line and pretend to be fans,” Jasper said. She opened the passenger door and climbed in. “Dax, do your thing.”
“What are we going to do when the team doesn’t, you know, actually show up?” Thea asked.
“I’ll handle it.” Jasper pulled the door shut.
Smits came running out of the building right at twelve, nearly tripping over himself on the way to the van. Jasper cracked the window to watch and listen.
“Oh, this must be the Fan Van!” Smits exclaimed.
“How could you tell?” Holly asked sarcastically.
He pointed at the black squiggle on the van. “That’s their mascot!”
“Right. Obviously.”
Dax awkwardly stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet a fellow fan.”
“Of course!” Smits grabbed his hand and shook it violently, nearly yanking Dax to the ground. “Sorry, I’m just so excited. None of my coworkers like sandsurfing.”
“Oof.” Jasper shook her head. “Dax, did it work?” Even if he had been able to replicate illness with the same bioenergy he amplified healing with, there was no telling how long it would take.
“I don’t know,” Dax whispered as Smits went on to aggressively shake everyone else’s hands. “And like I said, I don’t remember seeing a glow when I cut the guy’s hand at Prime’s apartment. I might have just missed it, but there might not be a visual cue when I reverse the energy.”
“Well, did you feel anything?” Jasper asked.
Dax hesitated a moment. “I thought I felt something more when I did it the first time. But I was also about to get murdered.”
“Maybe you need to convince this guy to try to murder you.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Holly said. “He’s already starting to look like the lady Dax cured. Red, watery eyes and paling skin. I bet any second now he’s going to—”
Smits broke into a violent fit of coughing.
“Great!” Jasper rolled the window down all the way. “Hey everyone, I have some bad news. The Sand Serpents are stuck in terrible traffic and won’t be here for a few more hours.”
“Oh, that’s too—” Smits sneezed. “That’s—” Another sneeze. “Too bad.” And another. “Guess I’d better get back to work.”
He turned around and walked back to the building.
Jasper smirked. “Time for phase two.”