The CWA of Dr. Z. Smith: Episode #98: Fortress

Last week as you recall our heroes were in Capt. Brown's office, which was also his single-room-house.
 It was basically a fortress, impenetrable from the outside, inescapable from the inside.
 And there was someone in there with them.
 “Hello Mr. Mayor.” the impossible intruder said.

-=fig. 622: nat3 returns=-

“Nate! ¹ ” Capt. Brown said, nothing in his tone suggesting that this kid had tried to kill them less than a week ago.  “How'd you get in here? These walls are solid steel with a mahogany finish, everything, including the windows is reinforced and laced with trip wires, you can't be here!”
Nate smiled evilly, “Your receptionist let me in, I can be quite unassuming, when I want to be.”
Capt. Brown gave a twelve-dollar smile, “Well, never mind. It's good to see you again kid, it saves me the trouble of tracking you down. You're under arrest on charges of, among other things, damage to the city, malicious programming, assaulting the mayor, and at least two counts of outright murder. How do you plead?”
  “Not guilty.”
     “Figured you'd say that.  You are sentenced to death, but only after you pay up for the damages to the city. They amount to $1500.00.”
   “Wait a minute,” Nate said thinking, “I thought I get, under the law, a trial by a court of my peers?”
      “Kid, your peers are other murderous little children, who would therefore be prejudiced in your favour. No. My word is law, and I say you shall repay your debt, and die for your crimes.”
         “But… But what about a lawyer!”
          “You did not request one prior to the trial and now that it's over I'd say it's a bit late.”  He leaned over to an intercom and pressed the button “Please remove the convict from my office.” he said.
            “But don't you want to know why I did it?” Nate asked as he was dragged off,
              “No.” Replied Capt. Brown “We have had plenty of experience with machiavellian ne’er-do-wells, and their reasons are never satisfactory for their crimes.”

-=-

-=fig. 623: three stacks=-

Capt. Brown glared at the letters stacked on his desk.
   “So,” Dr. Smith said, “The first stack is letters from people complaining that you wrongly imprisoned thier relatives, the second stack is from people thanking you for imprisoning their relatives, and the last stack is bills.”
   “Gosh.” Capt. Brown said, eying the towering stack of bils, “You wouldn't think running a country as small as ours would cost so much. But it does, especially after idiots like that nate cause one-and-a-half thousand dollars worth of damage. I guess we'll circle back to the bills. This stack is garbage–” –He pushed the “Complaint” stack into the bin–“And I'll sign these later. Next!”
 But Dr. Smith already had some more papers pre-sorted.  He had Decided that Capt. Brown's Office/Apartment needed to stop looking like a paper-recycling facility, and more like the place where a mayor lives/works.
After about three hours, Dr. Smith could see the floor, so they took a break and had a quick dinner.
 “I have to say,” Capt. Brown said “Now that there are less papers everywhere, it does look a lot better.”

-=fig. 624: sunset=-

Capt. Brown looked out at the sun setting over his city.
  Dr. Smith put the needle down on another record, and joined him.
  For a city filled with stereotyped, machiavellian villains, it sure was pretty by sunset.

-=-

-=fig. 625: walking along the boulevard=-

Dr. Smith walked home along Main Street.
  The Macy's shop window displayed brightly coloured advertisements:

BORED WITH RADIO?

Want something a

 little more…visual?

 ◆ TRY TV! ◆

It's the MAGICAL

REVOLUTIONARY

NEW technology 

from S&B!
 ◆ coming soon ◆

Dr. Smith grinned privately at the garish advertisements. S&B of course stood for Smith & Brown, which was the company most of Dr. Smith's inventions were sold under.
  Dr. Smith was still admiring the ad agency's handiwork, when someone came from behind, and the world went black.

¹ EPISODE #91: NATE

NOTE:

This week's episode shot entirely on my new T3i!