Jay watched with intense interest as the defendant took the stand. She'd never actually met Anderson Collins before, though she'd seen his picture a couple times in corporate newsletters. She'd already disliked him long before his attempt to get rid of her, back when he was just pressuring Toby into playing up the sensationalism of their stories in an attempt to boost ratings, but back then he'd just been some brainless suit up in corporate to her.
She stifled a chuckle as she thought about what she'd just heard. He was really trying for "not guilty?" God. She didn't envy the defending attorney, trying to come up with a workable defense for his client. She wondered if the "blackmail" story had been his, or Anderson's. Jay wondered if he'd be successful - certainly Cooper had the resources to hire a talented lawyer, but she wasn't sure that even Perry Mason himself could make this one work. Then again, strangers things had happened...
She looked across the courtroom, at where Toby was sitting. She was dressed quite sharply, in a navy-blue dress that complemented her hair pretty nicely. Terri was seated as close to her as he could get for a non-witness. Maybe they could get seated together after Toby had given any relevant testimony, Jay thought - there certainly wasn't much for her to tell. Both of them seemed pretty together; it probably helped, Jay thought, that Toby had taken her transformation okay. She'd noticed some confusion and distress in her boss now and again, but overall she'd handled it remarkably well.
"Mr. Collins," the prosecuting attorney said, and Jay snapped back to the job at hand, pen at the ready. She'd covered enough trials to be able to tune out for the swearings-in and other patter. "Your attorney has suggested that this incident was a case of blackmail on the part of Mr. Cooper's assailant. Is this an accurate representation of your interactions? I would remind you that you are under penalty of perjury."
Jay watched him carefully. Collins did a fairly good job of portraying the frightened and indignant wrongfully-accused; how much of that was an act and how much was some sort of ego-feedback? Still, he couldn't quite hide his true feelings, at least not to her perception. He was nervous as all hell; even if she hadn't known the circumstances surrounding the case, she'd have pegged him as guilty. Was this a canine thing, she wondered, or was she just better at reading people than she thought?
"It is," he said, his voice having only a hint of a shake to it.
The prosecuting attorney nodded. "I see. How did the assailant make contact with you?"
"Uh, he left notes in my mail box," Collins said. Jay could tell he hadn't expected that question. Was the prosecutor trying to get him to contradict himself? This didn't seem like a large enough point of contention to change a verdict; maybe she was just trying to get him off his guard for the bigger questions.
"Mr. Collins," she said, "following the assault on Mr. Cooper, the police department conducted an investigation of your home. Do you have any idea why they did not find the notes you mentioned?"
"I...destroyed them. That was one of his terms - he didn't want any evidence left for me to take to the police." Jay was impressed; he seemed less obviously taken aback by that one. Maybe he was better at thinking on his feet than he seemed - at least when he wasn't panicking because the cops were coming for him.
Effie couldn't help but smile at the way Nadine clung to her arm. Ordinarily she'd be confused and maybe a bit unsettled by the feelings of affection and protectiveness towards the younger girl, but right now she was still coming down off the adrenaline from her surgery session, and she was happy for any contact at all - she felt like she was clinging to Nadine just as strongly.
She still couldn't believe that had actually worked. It was one thing to hunt down and remove the virus, given that it had just attached itself simply onto the victim's code, but for the girl to boot right back up with no ill effects - it seemed nothing short of a miracle. Hadn't the virus damaged anything? Oh, sure, it had bogged down Nadine's execution, but it should have done some kind of lasting damage. Yet here she was, walking, talking, smiling and laughing.
Digital fairies must have some extraordinary resilience against data loss and corruption, then. Perhaps they had some kind of strong redundance and error-correction mechanisms - maybe that was part of why they were so difficult to modify? In a way, that was kind of reassuring - if there were such mechanisms in place, it meant that attempting to alter one's code and data was less likely to cause catastrophic results. On the other hand, it also meant that attempts were less likely to have any results. Still, better safe than sorry.
As for how to prevent any further damage...she'd have to release the information through a proxy. Oh, Bonzo! She knew she could trust him not to reveal her identity, and he was in a perfect position to make sure the information got to as many AIs as possible. She'd have to write up a how-to guide for him to distribute as soon as possible.
They walked along together for some time; neither of the older fairies wanted to use their transportation, since they had no idea if Nadine could keep up with them or not. Dennis led the way; from Nadine's address, he'd managed to work out her probable ISP, and they were headed that direction now. Effie smiled to herself; maybe he wasn't much of a programmer, but he sure knew his way around networks.
Now if she could just figure out how to break the news to Nadine...
