The echo of the judge's gavel was still reverberating beneath the hall's vaulted ceiling when the double doors at the back of the hearing were pushed open from outside.
Homelander sat in the front row and turned to look. His gaze passed over the media's array of cameras and settled on the two people walking in, one behind the other.
The Asian woman in front wore a jacket. Behind her was a young man with his head lowered and special restraints on both hands.
The fake smile on Homelander's face froze instantly.
He recognized them both.
The man was Kenji, the superterrorist The Seven had previously turned out in full force to capture. The woman was the test subject Butcher's crew had rescued.
No wonder those overpaid wastes of space in the Crime Analysis Department hadn't found so much as a hair on these rats after searching for so long. Someone had been hiding them. Not only were these bastards still alive, they had strolled right into a congressional hearing.
Right in front of the entire United States, straight into the cameras' view!
Kimiko walked all the way up to the judge's bench. The camera flashes nearly bleached her face white. She took a USB drive from her pocket and handed it to the clerk beside the judge.
The USB drive was plugged into a computer, and several enormous screens in the center of the hall lit up simultaneously. They displayed nothing but direct, top-secret records.
The first document was a shipping manifest and financial records showing Vought International secretly supplying Compound V to terrorist organizations.
Next, a series of bloody photographs appeared on the screens. They showed the real figures from Vought's so-called "peacekeeping operations" in Nicaragua and the Middle East years earlier. There were no imposing superheroes saving