At that moment, an Imperial Secretary hurried up behind Lin Cuo and handed him the latest battle report on his right.
Lin Cuo read only the first two pages before standing up.
Montfort noticed him move and frowned. "Regent, your turn for questioning has not-"
"I hereby declare your review concluded."
Those words passed through the microphone beside the table and out over the global broadcast. Almost every sound in the tribunal stopped at once.
Montfort slowly raised his head. "What did you say?"
"I said the review is being forcibly suspended."
"Regent, this tribunal was authorized by the E.U. Forty-Person Committee and established with Great Han's consent. Even if an emergency has occurred in Paris, any suspension must be decided by us and the Son of Heaven of Great Han in accordance with procedure, not unilaterally announced by the Regent Council."
"I now declare that the committee which authorized you has lost control of the capital, broadcasting, railways, and armed forces. General Smilas is taking over the E.U. as Supreme Military Coordinator. Who exactly do you represent now?"
"The authority of a judicial body does not automatically disappear because the executive branch temporarily loses control."
"Of course it doesn't disappear automatically." Lin Cuo nodded. "That's why I'm suspending it manually."
Several E.U. judges stood up at once, but the Great Han internal affairs personnel responsible for courtroom security had already entered from both sides. The passage behind the judges' bench was sealed, and all recording terminals and evidence servers were switched to read-only mode.
The gallery had descended into complete chaos. E.U. reporters stood up and shouted questions, while Britannian commercial media swung every camera toward Lin Cuo as though they had smelled blood. Leila sat in the reviewee's seat, initially incredulous, before her gaze slowly turned cold.
She