Sacrifice of Fools Read Free Page B

Irish. Case number 451279, Joint Justices versus Fff. Fff… Fidiki… The magistrates look at the usher. The usher looks at the prosecution. The prosecution looks at the defendant.
    ‘Fidikihana Kusarenjajonk,’ she says, very slowly. She takes the usher through it twice.
    Andy Gillespie’s loving it.
    You are Fidikihana Kusarenjajonk, of Occasionally Plentiful Hunting Hold, Tullynagarry Road, Carryduff?
    ‘I am.’
    The charge is the attempted murder of Christopher and John Beattie, of Wordsworth Gardens, Carryduff, aged fourteen and sixteen, and of Andrew Coey, of Shelley Rise, Carryduff, age fifteen, on the evening of March the first, 2004. How do you plead?
    The Outsider flicks her eyes to her defence brief. Aileen McKimmis nods. No, you don’t do that. And Gillespie catches Fidikihana’s eye, flicks his head back. Yes.
    ‘I am not guilty.’
    She doesn’t even understand what that means.
    The charge of the prosecution: that the accused did confront the above-mentioned Christopher and John Beattie and Andrew Coey while they were playing football in Wordsworth Gardens, pour an inflammable liquid — petrol — over them and set them alight with intent of murder.
    And what is the condition of the brothers Beattie and Andrew Coey?
    Second and third degree burns to thirty per cent of the body surface. The victims are undergoing treatment at the specialist burns unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital. They are very seriously ill. In view of the extremely violent nature of the assault, on young children, the prosecution recommends custody.
    The bench is inclined to agree. This is a most heinous allegation. Ms McKimmis; have you anything to say in defence of your client?
    ‘I’d like to call Mr Andrew Gillespie. Mr Gillespie is employed by the Shian Welcome Centre in University Street, and is qualified to speak on matters of Shian psychology and physiology pertinent to our defence.’ The look over the glasses says, you had better be.
    He does the thing with the book and the hand and the wee note card in the box in case you can’t remember the oath.
    ‘Mr Gillespie, could you tell us about the work of the Shian Welcome Centre?’
    ‘Certainly. It’s mostly a contact service for gensoons ; those are young, single Outsiders, who’ve come into the country looking for Holds — the big Shian extended families — to join. The way their society operates, adolescents leave their birth families and travel widely until they are accepted into another. The Centre has lists of Holds in Ireland, and also assesses the suitability of newcomers for particular Holds.’
    ‘A sort of dating agency?’ the magistrate on the left asks.
    ‘In a sense. And a bit like a employment agency as well, in that it sets individuals up with groups. The Centre also provides a liaison service with organizations employing Shian; industry, shops, restaurants, things like that. There’s a lot of room for misunderstandings between the two species.’
    The prosecution harumph.
    ‘My job is mostly in the field of human-Shian relations and I do quite a bit of translation work as well. I speak idiomatic Narha; that’s the lingua franca of the Shian Nations. The Centre also serves as a base for the Shian political organization, such as it is. You’ve probably been hearing about it on the news lately. I don’t have much to do with that.’
    ‘So you’re something of a Shian expert, Mr Gillespie?’
    ‘Well, no one can really claim to be an expert on these people. But I think I know them as well as any human can.’
    ‘Could you explain, then, Ms Kusarenjajonk’s actions?’
    ‘The primary motivation in Shian society is the preservation of the children. Family lines, bloodlines, are very, very important to them. The Shian law allows any action in defence of a child; including killing. The case notes state that the children of Occasionally Plentiful Hunting Hold had been taunted and bullied by youths from the estate that backs on to their farm.