The ruling came in six days.
I was on the roof when Adisa called. Five-thirty in the morning, the city just beginning its daily conversation with consciousness, the mate bond warm and present from Floor Four.
"Vael is convicted," she said. "All counts. Criminal conspiracy. Financial fraud. Accessory to coercion." A pause. "Sentencing hearing in the coming weeks. His cooperation with Crone's prosecution will be taken into account." Another pause. "But the conviction stands."
"Good," I said.
"It is," she said. "Nara." Her voice shifted — the quality it had when she was saying something she had been considering how to say. "This case — the full scope of it, from the initial filing through the Vael conviction — is going to be in the law journals. Not as a case study. As a model." She pause
