CHAPTER 52Jensen sat at the defense table with Korra to his left and Geena in the gallery behind him, and watched the room fill with journalists who'd caught the filing and decided the name Pike was worth a seat, legal observers from firms that monitored Harmon Briggs Collective the way weather stations monitored pressure systems, and a cluster of faces Jensen recognized from the charity dinner who'd apparently decided the follow-up was worth attending in person.Alfred wasn't there. The doctors had been clear and Jensen had enforced it, which had produced one of the more interesting phone calls of the week -- Alfred arguing from a hospital bed that he was sufficiently recovered to attend his grandson's assault hearing, and Jensen telling him with complete calm that he wasn't going to be there and the conversation was over.Alfred had hung up. Jensen had taken that as agreement.Priscilla arrived with her legal team arranged around her in the formation of people who'd been expensive

54The legal team arrived at midday .Alfred had apparently described himself as recovering. What they'd found when they arrived was a man in a wheelchair at the head of a table with case documents already organized in front of him.Madeline sat across from them.She'd arrived with Fae, who'd collected her from the safe house at eight and driven her in silence. Madeline sat with her hands flat on the table and her back straight and a practiced composure.Alfred looked at her once when she sat down. She looked back. Neither of them said anything. The moment passed and the legal team began.The lead attorney, a woman named Sable, walked Madeline through the structure of her testimony."Start with how she contacted you," Sable said. "Not the first time she used the information against you. The first time she made contact at all."Madeline talked. Slowly at first, then. She described the initial approach: a letter, handwritten, arriving at Alfred's household in an envelope with no return