Chapter 44 Chapter Fourteen

The public trial of Merchant Marlowe has been going on for the fourth day, and the city council hall is literally full.The only absent city councilor was bedridden with a bruised skull, for which he kept moaning and moaning.The auditorium was crowded with people, even the aisles and the places near the roof were crowded.These people who were lucky enough to enter the city hall to listen to it all achieved their goals by relying on extraordinary influence, financial resources, physical strength or endurance.Most of the rest of the people crowded in the square outside, forming groups of people around each stereoscopic TV screen.

Relying on the help of the police, Anke Jerre managed to get into the city council hall with great difficulty.Then he worked his way through the almost equally crowded crowd inside until he finally came to Marlowe's seat. Marlow turned his head, feeling relieved, and said to Jair, "Bless you, Seldon, you made it in time. Have you brought your things?" "Here, take—" Jer said, "exactly what you want." "Great, how's it going outside?" "They're insane," Jill shifted uneasily. "You shouldn't have let them hold a trial at all. You could have stopped them."

"I don't want to do that." "There was talk of a lynching for you, and Manrio's men on other planets..." "I was going to ask you about that, Jer. He's trying to incite the priesthood against me, isn't he?" "Really? Guaranteed to be the most powerful trick you have ever seen. On the one hand, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he used the interstellar law to prosecute this case; provoked the zealots..." "Okay, never mind that. Do you remember Harding's warning you quoted me last month? We'll make it clear to them that nukes can be aimed at either side."

At this time, the mayor was about to sit down, and all the councilors stood up to pay tribute.Marlowe lowered his voice and said, "It's my turn to perform today, just sit here and wait for the show." The trial procedure of the day began immediately, and after fifteen minutes, Huber Marlow walked through the crowd who cursed softly, and walked to the position in front of the mayor's seat, and a beam of light immediately focused on him.Everyone present, as well as the audience in front of the public TV screens in the city and the TV screens of each family in End Point, could see Marlowe's burly figure standing there alone, staring ahead as if no one else was there.

He began in a calm and gentle tone: "To save time, I admit that the prosecution is true to every point of my allegations. The stories they have told about the priest and the mob are also true in every detail. A There was a commotion in the conference hall immediately, and triumphant roars broke out in the auditorium. Marlowe waited patiently for the crowd to calm down before saying: "However, the record they have presented is incomplete, and I ask permission to give the complete version in my own way. This case has nothing to do with it, please bear with me.” Without looking at the notebook in front of him, Marlow continued: "The prosecution's statement began on the day I met with Joran Sueter and James Doerr, and I plan to build on it from there. You already know the details of these two meetings. The witnesses have already described the conversations at that time. I don't want to add more details to these accounts, but just add a little bit of my own thoughts.

"That's why I was puzzled, because the events that happened that day were very strange. Please think about it, those two gentlemen, who have only met me once or twice at most, made a very serious question to me on the same day. An important, even somewhat unbelievable proposal. First of all, the mayor's confidential secretary asked me to do extremely secret intelligence work for the government. As for the nature and importance of this work, I have explained it clearly a few days ago Then, the self-proclaimed party leader encouraged me to run for city council. "Of course I have analyzed their real motives. Seth's motives seem to be obvious. He doesn't trust me at all. Maybe he thought I sold the secrets of nuclear energy to the enemy and wanted to rebel. He may have done this to force me Showing off, or at least he thinks so. In this case, he needs to put someone of his own beside me as his eyeliner when I perform tasks for him. This last point, I didn't think of it until later, that That's when Jaime Dull comes in.

"Think about it again, everyone. Doerr appeared as a businessman who retired and turned into politics, but I don't know his business career at all, but I know a lot about this business. In addition, although Doerr always likes to boast He had a general education, and he had never heard of the 'Seldon Crisis'!" At this point Huber Marlowe paused, so that his words might penetrate everyone's thoughts.All the people held their breath at this moment, and this was the first time that Marlowe made the whole audience silent.However, apart from the live scene, only the residents on Terminus could hear his last words. The TV screens on other planets could only receive the edited version suitable for religious standards, so those worlds None of the inhabitants will hear of the Seldon crisis.They still wouldn't miss the great performance behind Marlowe, though.

Then Marlowe continued: "Who here here dares to say that a person who has received a general education on the base does not know what the Seldon crisis is? There is only one kind of education on the base that completely avoids mentioning the Seldon crisis." Don's history as planned, but only described him as a figure close to mythology. "I knew it immediately-Jam Dull had never been a trader at all, and it occurred to him that he must be a priest, maybe Still a qualified priest.So in the past three years, he led the political party formed by the merchants, undoubtedly for another purpose.Because from the very beginning, he was bought by Jolan Seth and has always been working for him!

"At this time, I seemed to be groping blindly in the dark. I didn't know what Seth had planned for me. He seemed to be playing tricks on me, so I also decided to reciprocate. My thinking is that Dole should try to Walk with me and spy on me on behalf of Jolan Seth. On the contrary, if Duer hadn’t requested so, I know there must be some tricks waiting, but I can’t see through those tricks for a while. Since the enemy knows us The situation is actually quite safe, so I took the initiative to invite Doer to go with me, and he agreed immediately. "Gentlemen, this explains two things. First, it shows that Doerr is not actually my friend, and that he testified in court, not out of conscience, as the prosecution would have you believe. .He was actually a spy who took money and did what he was told.Secondly, it explains what I did when the priest -- the one the prosecution accused me of murdering -- first showed up. Some of the actions. These actions have not been mentioned until now because the prosecution did not know."

At this time, there was another whisper in the conference hall, Marlowe cleared his throat exaggeratedly, and continued: "When I first heard that a fleeing missionary was boarding, to be honest, my mood was extremely complicated. I really don't want to describe that feeling, I don't even want to recall it. My first thought at the time was that this was a trick played by Seth, but this trick was beyond my calculation and understanding. This made me Feeling dazed and completely overwhelmed. "However, there is at least one thing I can do - I intentionally distract Durchi for five minutes and tell him to go and find the officers for me. When he left, I took the opportunity to set up a video recorder in a hidden place. In this way, no matter what happens, it can be recorded for future reference. Although I am not very sure, I do have great hope that the situation that puzzled me at the time can be used later. With the help of video recordings, it is possible to reveal the truth.

"I've watched this video record fifty times in total, and now I'm bringing it here, and I'm going to show it again in front of you." At this time, there was a commotion in the assembly hall, and there were loud shouts from the auditorium, so the mayor had to hit the gavel vigorously.The five million households on Terminus are all huddled in front of their TV screens, excited.Joran Sutter sat on the prosecutor's table and shook his head quietly at the nervous head teacher, but his eyes full of anger were fixed on Marlowe's face. Now the central part of the city hall has been cleared and the lights have been dimmed.Encore Jair adjusted the projection device on the seat on the left, and after a "click", a colorful and three-dimensional full-screen image was projected, and everything was vivid. The image included the missionary, standing between the lieutenant and the sergeant, looking bewildered, with many wounds on his body.Marlowe's image waited silently, and then the officers filed in, with Dole at the rear. The characters in the all-information image began to speak, and each sentence was clear and lifelike.Marlowe reprimanded the sergeant before questioning the missionary, and then there was a mob outside, their roars audible.Jude Palmer began screaming and begging, and Marlowe drew his nuke.As the preacher was dragged away, he raised his arms, cursing wildly at the crowd, and a little light flickered nearby. This is the end of Quanxun Video.The stunned figures of the officers froze at that moment, Dole clasped his hands tightly to his ears, and Marlow calmly put away the nuclear gun. Then the city council hall was brightly lit up again, and the all-information image that appeared in the center just now disappeared immediately.Marlowe—really Marlowe—continued his statement again: "You can see from this that the incident happened exactly as the prosecution described it—but only on the surface, which I believe to be true. More will be said shortly. Incidentally, Jaime Durr's emotional reaction to this incident clearly shows that he had a priestly education. "After the day's events came to an end, I once pointed out to Doerr the irrationality of this sudden incident. I asked him how the missionary found this spaceship when we were moored in this almost deserted open area. What? I also asked him how the mob came here, since the town of any size was at least a hundred miles away? However, the prosecution paid no attention to such problems. "In addition, there are other doubts. For example, why does Jude Palma wear such a conspicuous and gorgeous cassock? He risked his life, violated the laws of both the base and Corell, and sneaked to Corey Er came to preach, but he wore a novel and very conspicuous cassock to show off. There is definitely something wrong with it. At the time, I suspected that he was unknowingly used by the leader of Corell in order to lure us into a panic, An illegal act of aggression was made. That way, he immediately had an excuse to legally destroy our ships and personnel. "However, the prosecution was expecting that I would argue that I later made a decision based on these considerations. They expected me to argue that because my spacecraft, my men, and my mission were threatened , so I can't ruin the whole plan by sacrificing all for one person. Because whether we protect the priest or not, it seems that he is dead. However, the prosecution also claimed that only those who maintain the base' Only with "glory" and "dignity" can it be possible to maintain the existing hegemony of the base, so the mistakes I made are unforgivable. "However, for some unknown reason, the prosecution ignored the background of the man Jude Palmer, and they did not specify his personal information - such as place of birth, education, or past experience. The real reason can also explain the doubts in the video recording I just pointed out, because the two are interrelated. "The prosecution didn't further raise Jude Palma's personal information because they simply couldn't do it. The content of the video recording you just saw seems to be very problematic. That's because Jude Palma, the National People's Congress There is a problem. In fact, there is no such thing as Jude Palmer at all, and this trial was fabricated based on fictitious events, and it is the biggest farce in itself!" Marlowe paused again, waiting for the uproar to die down, and then said slowly: "I don't need to say anything more, let me zoom in on the still video recording for you to see clearly, and you will fully understand .Jel, turn off the lights again." As a result, the city council hall darkened again, and many hazy and pale still figures appeared in the center out of thin air. The officers on the "Far Star" all assumed a fixed posture, and Marlowe held a nuclear gun in his stout hand.The Reverend Jude Palmer stood to Marlowe's left, half screaming, his fingers up, his sleeves half down. There was a bright spot on the missionary's arm, which was obviously the fleeting light just now, but now it was frozen into a fixed point of light. "Please pay attention to the bright spot on his arm," Marlowe called from the shadows, "enlarge this part, Jill!" Then that part of the image began to expand rapidly, the missionary figure gradually turned into a giant, and moved towards the center, while the other full-image images gradually disappeared.Soon, only one huge arm remained, and in the end only one hand remained in the center.This giant hand occupies the entire space, composed of hazy and tense light. At this time, the original bright spot turned into a group of blurred and flickering letters: KSP. Marlowe's voice was deafening: "Everyone, that is a special kind of tattoo, which cannot be seen under ordinary light, but under ultraviolet light, it will become clear and obvious. And I want to shoot this video record, just turned on the ultraviolet light in that room. Although this method of secret identity identification is very primitive, it still works in Corell, because there are not ultraviolet lights everywhere. In fact, even in our space On the ship, such a discovery can be made purely by luck. "Maybe someone has already guessed what KSP stands for. Jude Palma is quite familiar with the priest's language, and his acting skills are very good. As for how and where he learned it, I don't know." Don't know. But it doesn't matter, what matters is that KSP stands for 'Kuril Secret Police'." Marlowe continued to growl, trying to cover up the noisy audience: "Besides, I have the documents brought back from Corell here, which can be used as auxiliary evidence. If necessary, they can be submitted to the council for reference. "Now, what is the point of this case that the prosecution is prosecuting? They say over and over and over again that I should fight for that priest regardless of any law; I should fight for the 'glory' of the base." Sacrifice my mission, my ship, even myself! "But for a liar, is it worth it? "Should I have fought for that Curilian secret policeman, who perhaps borrowed his surplice from the exiles of Anacreon and learned those priestly phrases?" Manriots, I hope I fall into such a stupid and despicable trap..." At this time Marlowe's hoarse voice was covered by the chaotic roar of the crowd, and then he was carried on the shoulders of many people to the mayor's bench.From the window of the hall, he could see thousands of people gathered in the square outside, and the crazy crowd continued to pour into the square. Marlow looked around, trying to find Jill, but in this extremely chaotic scene, it was impossible to see anyone clearly. Amidst the din, he gradually heard a regular roar.The voice kept repeating, from small to loud, and finally turned into a crazy cry: "Long live Marlowe—long live Marlowe—long live Marlowe—"