Chapter 34: 35 Lashes
John removed the barrier and pointed at a random onlooker in front of the crowd.
"You, tell me what happened here."
The burly soldier looked around and behind himself before pointing at his nose.
"Me sir?" He asked dubiously.
"Yes, I'm pointing at you. Hurry up." John was already in a foul mood.
"..."
"Sir, I just got here mere seconds before you did... So even if I wanted to inform you, I don't know what to inform you about..." the burly soldier gulped before explaining.
"Then how are you at the front of the crowd?" John frowned.
"I'm a bit strong so..." the big guy trailed off.
'Damn brute! Serves you right!'
Members of the crowd behind him gloated with suppressed anger in their eyes. If one looked at these people closely, you could see them rubbing and holding their bruised ribs under their uniform.
"Get lost!" John waved him off.
"You"
He pointed at the tall receptionist standing beside Alfred.
"Explain"
"Yes," the receptionist collected herself before phrasing her words carefully.
"Sir, this Uhm..." she looked at Alfred, not knowing how to address him. "This little brother came into the library. But, before he could state his reason for being here, everything went out of control..." She looked at Anne Gonzalez, before coming to a decision.
'I really pity your situation. But, enough is enough. At this rate, nobody will disdain to interact with you. Don't blame me, you committed the crime, so you can't escape doing the time.' She gritted her teeth and continued, knowing full well the outcome of her following words.
She took a breath and said, "the little brother came in and Ann Gonzalez..."
When she was done explaining, she tapped her communicator and pulled up the recording of the incident.
Every communicator had the function to capture video recordings. Of course, this was not always absolute. Some areas can block all features of communicators regardless of make, model, or brand. Even blocking select features was possible, depending on effort and or location. Many such locations could be found out in the wild, labeled as danger zones or gateways. Of course, the military library being a place of high importance is one such place. Only the staff on duty and high-level personnel would have the video capture feature still available.
...
She looked at Ann again and said with more confidence in her speech.
"Sir, this is not the first time. Over the last two or three years, she has been abusing her connections and forcing humiliation and wrongs upon innocent unaware victims."
'Omg!'
Ann wanted to cry, again. Wasn't her situation bad enough? Using her status to disparage a kid, regardless of who he is, would at most get her fired. Of course, this would only be a result of her previous actions not bearing fruit.
Otherwise...
But, adding her various crimes which were being overlooked by everyone else...
Now that's a story worth passing down!
John's eye corners twitched in surprise. He looked at the groveling Ann Gonzalez, speechless.
'So many infractions. What kind of lawless...'
He shook his head, removing the thought.
"What she said, do you admit? Or will I have to investigate and scrutinize the fine details?" he said while looking at her.
"I..." she wanted to deny the claims. But after seeing and feeling some of the hateful glares stabbing into her from all directions, she gave up and submitted to fate.
"... plead guilty," she looked around, uncomfortable.
Her victims were everywhere!
A random stone throw could easily snipe out two or three of them without even aiming.
'Ann, you stupid bitch! You had it coming.' She thought while reflecting on her three years of hard effort put into creating victims everywhere.
"Are you sure? Although you aren't a soldier, you're still a member of the army. As I said before, the rules apply to you just like all the other soldiers." John said grimly.
"..."
Hearing John's words, a feverish and joyful expression crept into the eyes of many of the onlookers.
"Yes! Justice!" the female soldier from before whispered under her breath with her hands clenched tightly in jubilation.
'I told you back then. You're a bitch, but karma is an even bigger bitch. I may not be the one to shove justice into your face, but one day someone else will. Hehe, not bad. Even the Marshall had to pay you a visit.' A fat logistics worker thought to himself, satisfied.
...
"Very well, based on the number of infractions from just today, you should be fined for misconduct, abusing of power, attempted framing, maliciously aiming to kidnap and harm a child under the guise of arresting..." He looked into her eyes and said, " don't tell me any nonsense, I wasn't born yesterday. If I didn't come here, I probably wouldn't have this son anymore. Being a victim doesn't give you the right to create other victims. I won't bullshit with you, accept 35 lashes, pay the fine, and then leave. The army and you have no more fate together. Of course, if you think it's too much then you can go spend the rest of your life in military prison after the investigations are done. Your choice."
'35 lashes?' She paled.
What does it mean to accept 35 lashes? As an ordinary civilian? Isn't that the death sentence? These whips weren't made from ordinary leather but materials taken off origin beasts! Not to mention the disciplinary department won't care about reasons, background, or any of those things. Once the crime has been confirmed, everything else was history. With so many witnesses and especially the Marshall on site, how could she escape?
'I stepped in dog shit today...' her eyes glossed over, numb.
"Hmm, although you're incorrigible and quite vile, a promise is a promise. I'll have Geri investigate your case thoroughly. Not just for you, but for the army's sake. You can witness justice yourself... assuming you survive the lashings of course."
Seeing her dazed and lifeless expression, John frowned then sent her a sound transmission.
"..."
Dazed, she looked around upon hearing the voice in her head, before looking at John.
Her dazed and lifeless expression became tranquil, then determined. To her, if she could witness the ending of those vile dogs, then what was 35 lashes and a fine?
She had to survive this ordeal.
She must!
...
'Vile, but determined.'
John shook his head.
He didn't like this kind of a character, but since he already promised it, then he had to deliver. Of course, it would leave a sour taste in his mouth if he had to help deliver justice on behalf of someone who couldn't bear the weight of the justice, brought unto them by their own crimes and die. Oh, the irony. He shook his head again.
"Alright, y'all can get back to your business. Stop crowding around here! The show's over. Shoo, shoo." He waved away the crowd.
"Damn. What a spectacle," a short soldier said lowly.
"Haha, yeah. I was held up by her earlier. If she didn't give me flack a thirty or so minutes ago, I would've left already and missed this show," another soldier chortled.
"Well, at least we won't have to see her ugly scowling mug around here anymore," The fat logistics officer said. "Good riddance!"
"Ugly?" one of the silent female soldiers sighed, shaking her head. "Fatty, if you knew her from before, then you wouldn't have the conscience to call her ugly."
"Humph, ugly is ugly. Just look at her countenance and demeanor, should I call her fugly instead?" he quipped.
"See for yourself," the female soldier looked at the nearby fatty in disdain, before pulling up a photo of a haughty but beautifully smiling young woman. "If she was ugly, how would she grab the attention of such scum?"
"I don't want to see it! Don't spoil my justice! I DGAF if she was even Miss Oolong! In my heart, she's as ugly as they come. So even if my eyes try to lie to me, my heart won't believe it!"
Fatty was adamant, not daring to look at the floating photo. Of course, that didn't stop others from looking.
"Wait... is that really that old witch? How did you even get this photo?" someone asked suspiciously?
"She..." the female soldier paused, "used to be my friend. But she became what she is now ever since the incident. Hence she pushed away everyone..." she had a pitying and pained expression on her face.
"..."
The crowd discussed the recent incident while leaving. Looking back at the groveling Ann Gonzalez with various expressions; pity, delight, anger, hatred, gloom, schadenfreude, etc... While looking at the dignified Marshall with awe and respect.
...
John saw off the crowd and then looked at Alfred with a dark expression.
"It's not even been two hours since we parted, and you already got yourself into such trouble..." John said tiredly.
"Dad, you sent me to the library. I came to the library. How could I know that I would get bitten by a wild dog as soon as I got here?" Alfred answered innocently.
"Bitten by a wild dog... aren't you very verbose!" John squinted.
"..."
Alfred did the best thing he could think of, act mute.
"And what a good 'did menopause take you' I wonder where you learned these things..." John said while staring at Alfred like a hawk watching prey.
"..."
Alfred shifted on his feet.
"The internet..." he said innocently after brief thought.