Jury Duty
Chapter 9
by Time Guardian

Joe Hardy held his camera steady, all the while focusing on Jerod. ~This had better work...~

His efforts didn't go unnoticed. "Kid, I don't think you get what I just said. I am blowing this place up."

"H-he's just documenting the event," Callie rushed to explain, "even if we don't survive, the pictures will."

"You two are strange journalists," Jerod mused.

Joe continued his efforts as he heard Callie reply. "You have to admit, this is a very strange situation. You are an honor bound man. You don't deny your father participated in the crime, and there's certainly nothing for you to lose."

As Callie finished her words, there was a sudden explosion of activity. Joe clicked the camera button once on Jerod. Smoke started billowing through the closed doors, and panicked voices resounded through the courtroom.

Seconds later, the doors to the courtroom burst open. Members of the SWAT team stormed in with weapons drawn.

Angered, Jerod jabbed a finger on button on the circuit panel on his chest. When nothing happened, he looked down in confusion and then back up at Joe. "What did you do?"

Joe patted the 'camera' around his neck. "Just zapped your electronics is all. You are not blowing anything up today."

With an agonized wail, Jerod sank to his knees. Through the gloom of the smoke, Joe eyed him warily, half-expecting him to make a run for it or go after the judge.

What he didn't expect was Judge Stevenson rushing to his feet and trying to make a break for the exit.

Joe rushed and managed to tackle Judge Stevenson to the ground, effectively pinning him.

Judge Stevenson thrashed around wildly. "Let me go! You have no case against me!"

Chuckling, Joe shook his head while keeping the judge pinned to the ground. "I doubt that. Both Callie and I were wired for sound. The FBI heard everything and I am pretty sure once they go through your trial records, your career will be through. You have a lot to answer for."

---

The FBI had rounded up Jerod's cohorts and had secured the scene. They were beginning to question witnesses, and had just finished with Frank when Joe caught up with him.

He turned to his brother. "Well, that was a wild ride. Are you all right?"

"Yeah, fine," Joe replied lightly. "Did you enjoy the show?"

Frank laughed in relief. "I feel better now this is all over and you two are all right. Who came up with this crazy idea anyway?"

Smiling, Joe hitched a thumb towards where Callie was talking with another FBI agent. "And on that note, I think I will go find Vanessa and leave you two to hash out the details. She's probably worried to death. After a day like this, I think dinner and a night out with my girl is in order. Later."

After his brother left, Frank walked over to where Callie had just finished speaking with one of the agents. She turned to him with a big smile. "Everything turned out okay. Nobody was seriously hurt, and Brad just told me that I will have the headline for this story in the paper."

He moved in close and wrapped his arms around her. "Of course you know that you scared me to death, but you did well. I couldn't be more proud."

Callie pointed a finger at him and grinned. "As you should be, since I saved your bacon and all."

Frank scoffed as he looked into her eyes. "You saved 'my' bacon? If I recall, if I hadn't thought to hide out in the juror room and tip off Joe, you two wouldn't have even known that I was in trouble."

Callie smiled and shook her head. "Oh, I don't know about that. Thanks to Joe and the rest of us, we we're able to put the pieces together very quickly about who we were dealing with. Thanks to Brad Stockman over at the Bayport Herald, we found out how shaky Judge Stevenson's background truly was, and he was the one that got the FBI and Police to agree on our plan to get in here, albeit reluctantly. Chief Collig was still reading him the riot act when I last saw him."

"Okay, Miss Smarty Pants, since you were in on this 'plan', what about the bombs? Why didn't they go off when this place was swarmed?" Frank asked with a grin.

"Simple...Joe wasn't carrying a camera. He was carrying a miniature EMP generator. It had enough of a range to send out a signal short out the bombs on the doors along with luckily shorting out whatever Jerod had rigged on his body. We were wired, so all I had to do was give a code phrase at the right time so the SWAT team would know when to storm in."

Amazed, Frank remarked, "Of course it fried all of the electronics in the building, but not bad considering the circumstances."

"Now if that's enough questions, I am getting quite hungry," Callie declared.

"Well, I suppose since you saved me and all," Frank teased, "the least I can do is buy you dinner."

She smiled, breaking his embrace and pushing him towards the exit to the courtroom. "Let's go then."

--

It's done. A hearty big thank you is in order to those who stuck around for the ending. :) There were some bumps along the way, but in the end as usual, it was a good learning experience. This however will be my last story for this fandom - there's too much stuff out there I want to read and catch up on, along with wanting to focus on some personal projects. It's been fun and a pleasure.