Chapter 336 - 311 The Truth about the CIA Officer’s Business Trip

"Lille, there’s still time," the Governor approached Lille once again, looking earnest as ever at the entrance to the courtroom. "This case concerns national security, we can organize our own hearing..."

"Organize a hearing?" Lille gave a wry smile, pointing to the other side of the street, "Governor, take a look over there."

The parking lot was filled with various high-end business vehicles. Although the brands and models varied slightly, they all had one thing in common.

Flags from different countries were mounted on the cars.

The Governor, glancing at Lille, said, "But if you keep your people out of it, we can ignore these... outsiders."

"We shut the doors and stand up these international ambassadors, and then when they start making noise with the media, we tell our own people: don’t be stirred up by foreign forces?"

The Governor nodded naturally, "You know the drill, the old routine, who can point fingers at us? These are state secrets."

"No way," Lille shook his head. "Who do you think brought these people here? I’m not going to contradict myself."

"I knew that," the Governor shrugged. "But they insisted I make one last effort."

Lille extended his hand, "Then you’ve already made an effort—Governor, if I were you, I’d consider switching sides now.

Look, you’ve become the ’Terminator’, your approval ratings are soaring, the state economy is good, and reelection is a done deal.

Your enemies have bungled, and your allies are conservative and incompetent, but on my side, not only do we have the upper hand, we also play by the rules.

How are the prosthetics holding up?"

"They are indeed fine, but I haven’t treated you badly either, policies and networks, I’ve arranged everything for you.

Everything was settled in two weeks; can you find that efficiency anywhere else in Mei Country?"

The Governor sighed almost imperceptibly and shook hands softly with Lille in front of the media’s barrage: "But... you make sense, but since I’m not in a dire emergency, why not slow down the decision-making process?"

The two shook hands, giving the media another photo opportunity.

But at that last moment, Lille said, "You’ve actually already made a choice."

"Clever lad." Letting go of his hand, the Governor smiled helplessly and shook his head before leaving, slapping Lille’s shoulder, "You’ve got nothing but enemies in the country now, nothing you do will go smoothly.

And... there have been a lot of shootings and car accidents lately, if I were you, I’d be careful."

Thus, to outsiders, the Governor seemed deeply concerned about the matter, even appearing in court to support Frank, a comrade he barely knew from a brief street encounter.

Before the trial began, he shook hands amicably with his friend Lille.

Two old friends who hadn’t seen each other for a long time.

The Governor entered the main door, and Lille nodded to Frank and the others as they started down a different corridor, signaling them to do well.

As for the Governor’s warning, that was something Lille found particularly troublesome.

But key personnel had already moved to the current Hell’s Kitchen area, and NYPD and New York’s friendly neighbor Spiderman would be on guard there.

[Gwen: It looks like the show is about to start, this might be the hottest live broadcast of the year.]

Although Lille didn’t think his adversaries would resort to such direct assassinations, being prepared couldn’t hurt.

...

The trial began.

This case was of high interest, and with Lille’s relentless efforts, diplomats from multiple countries paid close attention, and the media fully arrived at the scene.

However, this was Mei Country, just as the Governor said, if they are united, these so-called foreign pressures are meaningless.

Lille’s non-cooperation turned this into a political chess piece, enabling politicians to do as they wished, given that other politicians expressed tacit approval.

If a group at his level disagreed, those dissenting views and fragmented thoughts would become a potent weapon to wrest control from them.

A significant example was the Governor’s attack; without Lille’s support, the unrestrained attacks would have been direct and effective, but now, the Governor’s voter base was incredibly solid, completely in no hurry to make more choices.

Bang.

The gavel struck.

"The hearing continues. Before we begin, I shall clarify some outside statements: there were rumors that this case involves state secrets and that a public trial would damage Mei Country’s dignity and jeopardize its interests.

However, after investigation, the defendant and plaintiff’s timeline, identity, and actions in the incident were not part of any official or unofficial combat sequence.

Thus, this case is unrelated to Mei Country’s military. Following the constitution, this case’s rationale will be tried by the Supreme Court, uncover the truth, and ultimately make a fair judgment...

The court will now proceed with this case."

The military was ruled out, but everyone knew that without this war, this incident would hardly have occurred.

Secondly, while Frank might not have committed this act while in the military, he was drafted from the military!

But everyone tacitly understood.

The CIA, NSA, and other such intelligence agencies possess a certain degree of confidentiality, but legally, they are still subject to trial by the Supreme Court—

This gives Mei Country’s military a fig leaf, and for Lille, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

After all, the ins and outs of the entire war are also a confusing mess...

Thus, the constitutional interpretation power given to the Supreme Court becomes even more solidified.

Who wouldn’t want to expand their judicial power?

The time had come to deal with the case in full force.

On the plaintiff’s side, the defense attorney, Matt, and plaintiff Frank looked towards the defendant’s bench.

William Rollins, the once proud Deputy Director of the CIA and a celebrated figure in the distinguished Rollins Family, turned gray-haired overnight, his face sallow.

He had blamed everything on Lille and Frank, his gaze fierce, like a wolf-dog.

Matt began, "During the recess, we have found more witnesses and evidence. Your Honor, please allow me to summon my witnesses and present the evidence to show the full course of events to everyone."

People looked at the materials at hand, and under Matt’s guidance, the truth surfaced.

First of all was the beginning: William Rollins, a senior CIA official. What was his purpose in doing all this?

Simple, promotion.

As an intelligence officer, the political support from the Rollins Family had already brought him up to his position before the case, which was the limit; to go further, he needed more solid achievements.

The hardest achievements are found on the battlefield.

With the power of the Rollins Family, he pressured Frank and some Marine Corps elite out of the military and, under ambiguous circumstances, under his command.

These exceptionally capable veterans had not only good combat skills but also one other advantage: they followed orders unquestioningly about this assignment.

Gathering a group of formidable old soldiers, Rollins formed the Hellhound Team and started striking high-value targets in Afghanistan.

Torture, kidnapping, assassination... as long as it could squeeze value from the targets, as long as it could serve as a merit for promotion, Rollins would relentlessly proceed—

to command the Hellhound Team to do it.

As an operation squad completely illegal by legal standards, Rollins’ funding could obviously not come from the military or CIA, nor could he have the family’s backing, so he had his own industry.

He trafficked contraband drugs in Afghanistan. To deal with local police enforcement and other international policing, his smuggling channel was through corpses.

The soldiers who were supposed to be sent back to Mei Country wrapped in the national flag had their stomachs cut open by Rollins, stuffed with bags of drugs, and then contacted the corpse handlers for transport to hand them to drug dealers at the right place.

The funds flowed into his black accounts, serving as operational funds for the Hellhound Team...

This was an industry chain where the raw materials were drugs, corpses of soldiers from both sides of the conflict, semiproducts were firearms, ammunition, and all kinds of munitions, and the final products were Rollins, and everyone using this money to gain more benefit.

This included the local Afghan military and even their own American handlers; everyone had money to earn.

Until a clever Afghan police officer discovered during enforcement a soldier’s corpse bloated like a pig, including what was inside the stomach...

"...we tortured that young man, we wore masks, he didn’t know who we were, whether drug lord or US military.

Rollins talked to him in the local language, we didn’t understand."

"I know," Lieberman raised his hand to add, "that boy said: ’It’s not too late to turn back now, I can help you.’

Someone asked Rollins what he was saying, and Rollins replied in English: ’It’s all nonsense.’

Then he started responding in English."

Having finished, Lieberman exchanged glances with Ghana, who continued:

"Yes, the one questioning Rollins was Edward Drogan, then the boy started pleading with us in English.

He said, ’I’m a good person, I’m not a terrorist, save me, I have children, a wife, family.’

Right after that, he—"

Ghana pointed at Rollins: "He shot that police officer."

The defense attorney suddenly challenged: "I’m sorry, but I noticed in the materials that you are recorded as a good soldier who follows orders; why would you record such a video?

Usually, in such illegal operations, the commander would not allow soldiers to leave a trace."

"I ..." Ghana suddenly hesitated.

Frank suddenly said, "He believes in the Bible, Ghana already knew what we were doing was wrong, so he recorded these events."

"Lies," the defense attorney retorted loudly, "If you believe in the Bible, you would not participate in such actions.

And if you are a competent soldier, you would not record videos. There is obvious confusion in the witness testimony!

This is either a soldier disloyal to his commander, or a believer not devout to his faith, we cannot trust such a liar!"

On the plaintiff’s bench, Ghana suddenly fell silent, Frank angrily looked at the attorney—

Matt immediately stopped him, saying, "He is a citizen loyal to his country, hence he enlisted; he is a human with a conscience, hence he holds goodwill.

But the defendant’s greed and arrogance distorted his loyalty, harmed his conscience, and guided by his faith, he decided to return to the right path.

The opposing attorney’s words are filled with subjective arrogance and malice, showing no refutation of the statements, it seems he has already acknowledged the facts."

Someone secretly cheered for Matt’s retort, feeling exhilarated.

On the defendant’s bench, the defense attorney was speechless, hurriedly flipping through the materials with his head down.

The judge looked approvingly at Matt.

A real talent.

Lille, too, noticed this detail and nodded slightly.