The gavel slammed down, echoing like a gunshot through the cavernous courtroom.

"Order! I will have order in this tribunal!" Judge Caldwell bellowed, his face flushed. The gallery was in an absolute uproar, reporters whispering frantically, federal observers murmuring, and the jury of

The silence in the courtroom was absolute. It was the heavy, suffocating quiet of a bomb squad watching the timer tick down to zero.

Gavin walked back to the plaintiff’s table with an arrogant swagger, thoroughly convinced of his own invincibility. He picked up the sleek, silver solid-

"Nobody moves!" Gavin screamed, his voice cracking with a high-pitched, reedy hysteria that echoed off the mahogany walls of the federal courtroom. "Put the gun down, Vance! Put it down or I'll blow her genius brains all over the jury box!"

Nora gasped for air, her hands instinctively c