Over the next few weeks, I will share #SaturdayScenes for Prime Decision, episode one of Quantum Law. You can get the full download of Prime Decision by registering through my Reader’s Club:

If you need to catch up with previous part of this or other stories, you can access them at my #SaturdayScenes page…

“How long is it going to take?” Jerry asked Ace.

They were sitting side by side at a metal table with Alonzo Enriquez sitting across from them, still frozen, sitting on the scooter which by now had folded into its wheelchair configuration.

“Well?” Jerry said.

“I’m a lawyer, not a doctor.”

“Really? QLM does that to him, and you don’t know how long his… condition will last?”

“This is not going to work.”

“Huh?”

“A legal challenge along constitutional grounds.”

“Who said we’re doing that?” Jerry waved at Enriquez. “I just need to talk to my client to determine his best defense.”

“Whatever his best defense turns out to be, you couldn’t just say, ‘my client pleads not guilty, your honor’?”

Jerry eyed Alfonzo Enriquez. This time he lingered on the heavily tattooed arms and neck, the shaved head, and the gruff, graying beard. For a split second, giving this guy the best representation he could muster didn’t strike Jerry as the swiftest idea. Not with that life-changing opportunity to play in the legal big leagues in the balance. Jerry sighed. In a way he’d kissed that goodbye when he showed up the judges, hadn’t he?

“We need to hear him out,” Jerry said, hearing the conviction hissing away from his voice. “Make sure we have all the bases covered.”

She frowned.

He grinned. “Homework for you. Book up on baseball vernacular.”

Her eyes sharpened, and a second later her frown dissipated. “Oh. Got it.” She leaned closer. “Still, his claims won’t go far. It’s settled law.”

“The hell it is,” Enriquez said, his words coming out thick and round, like his tongue was sticking to the roof of his mouth.

Ace sat up straight. “Mr. Enriquez. I know you have acquainted yourself with the law library at your facility. But let me assure you. The issue is quite settled in this regard. Pursuing this line—”

“Jerry, right?” Enriquez said, fixing his gaze on the other human in the room. “Jerry Simmons.”

“Yes, sir. How about we take it easy until you get over the—”

“It goes,” Enriquez said, aiming his bony chin at Ace. “You and me, Jerry. DNA to DNA. No synthetics.”

“She’s part of the team, Mr. Enriquez.”

“She? Are you kidding me? It’s one of them. Part of the big fix.” He glowered at her. “It goes. Now.”

Jerry turned to her. In her eyes, he saw it. Bad idea. Part of Jerry agreed. What did he know about putting on a criminal defense? Synthetic AI or not, he’d figured she would bolster him, give him his meal ticket. Still, he could catch up with her later. Fill her in on whatever Enriquez said.

She must have read that in Jerry’s eyes, because she was already nodding when he said, “Would you mind?”

A moment later the door was clicking shut behind her, and Jerry was staring across the table at Enriquez. To Jerry’s relief, his client’s expression softened. A little.

“We can talk now,” Jerry said.

“Yeah, but not in private.”

Jerry tilted his head to the side. “I’m sorry?”

“Attorney-client privilege, right? You still living that dream?” He craned his neck this way and that. “This room is crawling with nano-synth ears.”

Jerry chewed on that for a moment. “So why make the Advocate leave the room?”

Enriquez chortled. “Because she pisses me off, that’s why. Last thing we need is her interjecting her clinically precise opinions. It’s just you and me, Jerry. DNA to DNA, man.”

Jerry wiped his sweaty hands on his thighs. “So what are we into here, Mr. Enriquez?”

“Call me Al, OK?”

“Sure, Al. How may I best serve you?”

“And don’t get all formal on me. We’re just talking, OK?”

Jerry nodded. Alfonso Enriquez had all the markings, literally and behaviorally, of a badass gang banger. Jerry had dealt with a couple of his ilk back home in Temecula, mostly to post bail and deal them the best plea bargain he could muster. Never been through trial with either of them. Here now, staring into those hard black-brown eyes, Jerry knew. This guy was way out of his league.

“Why am I here, Al?”

Enriquez smiled. “To assist me in my defense, of course.”

“That sounds kind’a formal.”

Al’s smile twisted into a grin. “Touché.”

“Why am I here, Al?” Jerry leaned forward to rest both elbows on the table. “Because from where I’m sitting, it looks to me like your case only needs a fork stuck in it.”

“Only if you’re looking at the wrong it. And you of all people, Jerry, should know what I’m talking about.”

Jerry didn’t reply. He held Al’s gaze and waited for the other shoe to drop.

“It’s been what? Twelve years since you got your law degree? Not long enough to forget, I hope.”

So, Al had gotten a hold of his thesis paper. Filed somewhere in his school’s library, it gave a green horn’s, soaked behind the ears second year law student’s enthusiastic appeal for a return to a human-run judicial system.

Jerry leaned back in his chair. “That’s not the kind of law I do, Al.”

“Aw, shucks. What happened? The big ol’ bad system drop-kicked the idealism out of you?”

Jerry swallowed. “This isn’t what I signed on for. With Cindy.”

“Oh, she told me you got game, big game. Sure, you only did some clever property title work for her, but she can tell you had passion.”

Jerry didn’t dare guess what Enriquez meant by passion.

OK, so Cindy had been a plant. Another movement terrorist, laying low enough to stay out of jail, looking for the right sucker to take their cause. And here he sat, sucking it big time.

“I’m not your guy, Al.”

“Aren’t you? You played them like a violin in there. Turning their own logic against them. That’s exactly how you gotta face them off, Jerry. Take their neat infallible logic, bend it a hundred and eighty degrees, and boomerang it right back at them.”

Jerry used to play a lot of chess. Had loved the game as a kid. Until he started playing in college. The computers had pounded that love out of him. Once he realized the game was solved, and that no amount of cleverness or skill on his part could beat back the cold calculator on the other side of the board, he’d stopped playing. Not all that different with the law, Jerry supposed. If he’d ever loved it, the realization that Quantum Law had solved it snuffed any idealism or drive he’d ever had for it. Al had gotten that much right.

“It’s not my specialty, Al. Just coming here today? Big stretch for me. I did it as a favor for Cindy.”

Al’s lips broke into another twisted grin. “Yeah, Cindy’s good at that. Getting favors.”

“I’ll get shot down the second I do it, Al. There’s no scope in these proceedings to raise a constitutional challenge. Been tried before, precedent has been set.” Jerry made a horizontal chopping gesture. “Done and out, man.”

“Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you raise a new consideration.”

Jerry shook his head. Yeah, like Quantum Law hadn’t already pre-calculated every possible consideration, even the ones not previously raised. He sighed. That big chance at the big leagues was starting to look like a whiplash trip back to Temecula and his two-bit lawyer shtick.

“So let’s say they framed me, Jerry. Let’s say they cooked up all the evidence about me, as easy as typing up a Qubit data stream.”

“You’re losing me, Al.”

“Ah, come on, Jerry.”

“Well. Here’s me, sitting here, not getting it, man.”

Al’s grin crinkled his features. “Everyone’s so in awe of Quantum Law and how it can handle the thorniest legal questions with flawless logic. Reliable. Repeatable. Gets it right time after time after time, no matter the race or socio-economic strata of the defendant. Always fair and impartial. The human bias component yanked out for good.”

Jerry sighed. “Pretty much what all the Federation-sponsored commercials say.”

Enriquez leaned in as much as his restraints allowed. Lowered his voice, too, almost down to a whisper that came out more like a subdued snarl. “Misdirection, Jerry. While everyone is oohing and aahing about the accuracy and logic, someone comes through the backdoor and hacks the whole damn thing.”

Jerry closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“What happens then, Jerry? How reliable or repeatable or fair is the system when anyone can change the right Qubits and get the thing to flip whichever way they want?”

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