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PROLOGUE: The Decalord's Council

Cyrus Donnegan stood at the entrance to the building and tried to look patient. He smiled at the members of the press as they piled up, almost knocking over the podium that separated the press from Cyrus' small impish frame. All at once, an orgy of arms holding microphones jutted out from the gordian knot of flesh standing in front of him, and a chaotic series of screams began. One voice, louder than the rest, managed to

break free of the cacophony long enough to be heard clearly.

"Mr. Donnegan, are there any truth to the rumors that Syngyn will be called to the stand today?"

Mr. Donnegan cleared his throat and smiled. "Now, folks, you know I'm not going to discuss specific details of the case with you."

Donnegan didn't have to. News of the Donnegan's defense had been leaked to the press sometime last night, and when he learned about it over coffee this morning, he realized that he was going to have to work very very hard to be pleasant today. He didn't WANT to be pleasant at all. Truth be told, he had made a quaint little list this morning of all the folks he wanted drawn and quartered. Starting with the sodding idiot that leaked his plans to the press, to this idiot reporter that asked him a stupid question, to his clients.
Oh, he really hated his clients right now. The biggest day of their lives, and you would think they could show up on time? Of course not. and now here I am, all alone, in front of a pack of jackals with microphones.' He thought.

Another reporter cleared his throat, which caught Donnegan's attention. "Mr. Donnegan, in light of the charges brought against the GTO, and the precedent for cases of this type-no one ever having been acquitted-are you at all confident that you will be the execption to the rule?"

"My dear boy," Donnegan drawled out in his thick Irish Brogue, "If I lacked that kind of confidence, I wouldn't be very good as a trial lawyer, would I?"

Donnegan made a mental note to himself, Good line. Have to keep that one for later.'

"Is this your first time before the Decalord's Council?" Another voice rang out from the amalgamation before him.

"Rather, I think this is their first time before me!" he winked at the crowd.

Donnegan was a throwback to the old days of practicing law. His father argued cases before the Supreme Court in 2160, his Grandfather prosecuted Herman Bostow, the infamous Yankee Clipper responsible for 61 scalpings in New York City in 2123. Cyrus, named after his grandfather, emulated his grandfather's

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