Taking Counsel

[lawyer]

Cameron Anderson knocked on the hotel room door, answering a few questions and showing his identification before he was allowed in the room.

"I'd like to speak with my client alone for a few minutes, if you don't mind." Looking at the guards rather pointedly, he took Bobby into the bathroom and shut the door, turning on the fan.

After explaining to Bobby his rights during an interview, and hearing Bobby's side of the story- at least in the short term- they exited the bathroom once more.

"When your man is ready," Cam told the guard, "We are ready."

[Trask]

The current pair of guards assigned to the room, agents Burns and Simpson, had no intention of interfering in the proceedings. Their orders were explicit; Bobby Drake would be allowed to speak with his legal adviser the same as any other suspect.

If he wanted to speak with him alone in the bathroom, that was fine. On the tenth floor of a hotel they were hardly going to go anywhere if the man turned out to be a fraud.

His credentials had certainly looked legitimate though.

A third, be-suited gentleman entered the room. He had a heavy-looking briefcase and looked the sort that would carry it everywhere he went, maybe even sleep with it.

"Good afternoon gentlemen," he greeted lawyer and client, "Derek Benedict. I represent the Department of Homeland Defence in this matter and will be recording the session today."

He sat down and cracked open the case revealing a great deal of paper, a VHS video tape and a Dictaphone.

"Is there anything you would like to know before we begin?"

[lawyer]

Cameron shook Derek's hand and nodded, taking a seat beside Bobby. He did indeed have a number of questions, and made notes in a blackberry as he fired them off.

"For clarification's sake, how is the department defining the charges?"

"And are there any other charges being compiled for the incidents on July 15th?"

"I suppose the department has employed the Patriot Act provisions in their unorthodox treatment of Robert Drake during this investigation. Keep in mind, of course, mutant rights provisions." He smiled a bit tightly. He knew the answer would be yes, and knew just as well Mr. Benedict expected Bobby's lawyer to ask that very question.

[Iceman]

Bobby examined the man who entered closely, and smiled at him when he introduced himself. Bobby stepped forward and offered his hand to shake; he'd been in situations where his every action would be watched before, and he knew how to come across as the kind of charismatic person people liked. Usually, he didn't even have to act; he was the charismatic person people liked. But that day, we wasn't feeling quite to confident. Nor quite so liked.

Bobby sat and listened to Cameron fire questions off at Derek Benedict. He was good; Bobby made a mental note to thank Warren a billion times over when he next saw him. If he...No. When.

[Trask]

Derek accepted both hand-shakes with a faint smile before re-seating himself.

"Bobby Drake stands accused of the second degree murder of a federal officer and is under suspicion of terrorist activities against the United States, both of which are offenses as covered by the Patriot Act. So yes, under those terms, and for the sake of public safety and indeed national security his incarceration in this rather unusual manner," he looked meaningfully around the pleasant hotel room, "is justified."

He took a moment to shuffle through the papers in the case before seeming satisfied that everything is in order.

"No additional charges are being brought forward on account of July fifteenth, Mr. Drake did not resist arrest and has been very cooperative thus far. In addition, and perhaps for Mr. Drake's peace of mind, since I am unsure if anyone has yet informed him, there were no injuries as a result of the escalation of forces on that day."

He looked at Bobby, and then at Cameron.

"Is there anything else you would like to know before we begin?"

[lawyer]

Cameron's expression lightened a bit even as his heart sank. Fighting the Patriot Act in court was a young lawyer's dream, but not one he'd want to have undertaken with the complication of mutant rights involved.

Nodding at Derek, he shifted in his chair and looked at Bobby, giving him a reassuring nod as well.

"Let's get going."

[Trask]

"Very well," Derek said with a nod.

He turned his attention to Bobby and switched on the Dictaphone.

"Questioning of Robert Drake as carried out by Derek Benedict on behalf of the Department for Homeland Defense on Friday the sixteenth of July. Would you first begin by confirming your full name and date of birth for the record please?"

He waited while Bobby recited the information.

"Now then Mr. Drake, the events leading up to those which concern us have no direct bearing on the proceedings, so I shall begin thus. On the day in question, you were seen entering the warehouse building attached to the NovaTeX pharmaceuticals facility in Baltimore shortly after it was seriously damaged by an explosion. What was your reason for doing so?"

[Iceman]

"On the day in question, you were seen entering the warehouse building attached to the NovaTeX pharmaceuticals facility in Baltimore shortly after it was seriously damaged by an explosion. What was your reason for doing so?"

Bobby rested his elbows on the arms of the chair and licked his lips. "I entered the warehouse in order to put out the fires caused by the explosion..." Bobby wondered briefly if he ought to explain his mutation, but decided against it. They obviously knew already, anyway.

"...and to make sure that if any people were in the building or nearby, that they got away from the building safely."

[Trask]

"And did you at all suspect the cause of the explosion, given the fact that the facility was obviously under mutant attack?"

Derek scribbled down his own notes in short-hand as well as allowing the recording to do its work.

[Iceman]

Bobby nodded as he answered Mr. Benedict's second question. "We had suspected that The Brotherhood would make some kind of attack on the NovaTex facilities, so when the explosion happened, I did assume that it was an attack by The Brotherhood. Then, when they - the terrorists - all started to attack, it was clear."

"I knew that John--Allerdyce--was with The Brotherhood, and because of his...mutant abilities, I assumed that he was the one who'd cause the explosion."

[Trask]

Derek nodded slowly and continued to scribble notes without looking up.

"So, you suspected John Allerdyce was in the building, but you decided to go in anyway. How exactly would you describe your relationship with Mr. Allerdyce?"

At this question Derek did look up, his attention obviously fully focused on whatever answer Bobby decided to give.

[Iceman]

Bobby felt a twinge of annoyance at the way the man worded his statement. 'Of course I went in anyway,' he thought during this surge of annoyance, before reasoning with himself. Benedict couldn't be expected to know what the X-Men stood for. And, whether fortunately or unfortunately, he went on with his question before Bobby could retort.

"How exactly would you describe your relationship with Mr. Allerdyce?"

"John Allerdyce attended Xavier's School for a while, and was my roommate. He chose to turn to follow Magneto, and we--The X-Men--completely cut ties with him when he left. I saw him once when The Brotherhood attacked Worthington Labs, and we fought against each other then." Bobby was careful to keep his relationship to John as unspecific as possible - just because they had roomed together didn't mean that they had even been friends.

"Since he joined The Brotherhood, John Allerdyce and I have been enemies."

[Trask]

Derek nodded again and scratched down more notes.

"So at no point would you have described your relationship with Mr. Allerdyce as a friendship?"

Thus far Bobby Drake was proving to be very co-operative, even though it may not have been in his own best interests.

Derek wondered if his lawyer had suggested this in an possible effort to reduce any sentence that resulted.

[Iceman]

Damn. No way around it now.

"When John attended Xavier's, we were friends. But like I said, when he turned against us, our friendship ended."

Bobby shifted in his chair, resting his hands on his legs and resting his back against the back of the chair. He hoped that Benedict wouldn't try and make it seem like they were still friends. Bobby knew it was ridiculous to claim that, but he knew that no one in the court would know that the way he did.

[Trask]

The pen scratched furiously, filling the page. Derek flipped to the next.

"Very well," he said, "so you entered the burning warehouse alone correct?" Derek asked the question he was sure he already knew the answer to.

"And what was the situation as you saw it at that point?"

[Iceman]

"And what was the situation as you saw it at that point?"

The scene was as vivid in Bobby's mind as it had been when he'd first seen it. He looked at the wood of the table as he described it. "The damage was much worse on the inside than it looked from the outside. Everything was on fire, it seemed like. There were crates everywhere, and some equipment. There were curtains hanging from the ceiling, I think sectioning off smaller areas, but it was hard to tell, as they were on fire, too. People were running around, a few ran to the exit as I went in..."

Bobby wanted to go into what he'd done, feeling the need to show Benedict that he was by no means evil, that his intentions in the warehouse had been to help...But he stopped. Besides, that was probably the next question on Benedict's list.

[Trask]

"So there were still people inside," Derek said matter-of-factly, "how many would you have said? Were they military personnel? NoveTeX staff?"

From the reports and documentation that he had been given by Mr. Trask he knew exactly how many personnel were in the building when it was destroyed.

The point was to establish both the perceptions of the young man and to test his honesty.

[Iceman]

Bobby didn't even have to think. He'd been told by a medic the number of people in the building, and since returning to Xavier's had searched his mind, not comforted until he remembered that exact number of people leaving the building.

Well...Not all of them. The image of the charred body flashed into his mind, and he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to clear it from view.

"A medic told me that there were twelve medics and six guards inside at the time of the explosion," Bobby said, remember the terrified stutter of the woman's reply. "I assume they were all NovaTex employees, but I'm not sure. I saw two medics leave as I entered, and helped or saw seven more leave while I was inside. I didn't see any guards, but..." Bobby paused, staring hard at the table. He cleared his throat, running a hand over his mouth and across his chin before he continued.

"I counted seven bodies." Which left two unnaccounted for. Bobby had agonized over those two in the days since, hoping they'd just gotten out one of the far doors before Bobby had entered. He wanted to ask what had happened to those last two, what the official count had ended up to be, but he knew it wasn't appropriate at that time.

[Trask]

Derek nodded, "your numbers are correct Mr. Drake."

He scribbled something out and ammended it before scrawling another paragraph of short-hand text.

"So you were in the burning building and by this time you could not see anybody else alive. Then what happened? A burning warehouse is not exactly the safest place to linger after all."

[Iceman]

Bobby looked up from the table to Mr. Benedict. "I was putting out the fires as I went. And searching the warehouse for John--John Allerdyce--since I thought he was most likely the one who had caused the damage. I wanted to make sure he wasn't setting up another explosion or holding hostages or something," Bobby clarified to make sure that it was clear why he'd searched for John.

"I yelled for him," he recounted, not entirely sure if the details would matter but not wanting to leave anything out in case they'd had him on camera from the start. "When I saw him...I told him to give himself up, and he refused."