<strong>Prisoner Kate Bartlett<br/>Cell CD08</strong><br/><br/><br/>Kate's brain suddenly registered what Amelia had said immediately following Popov's departure. 'Whoa' she thought to herself. 'Did she really say that a gentleman should raise his hand to woman. Nah. That one must have gotten lost in translation somewhere." But Amelia had already moved well beyond that now and Kate focused on understanding her immediate comments and more importantly the questions.<br/><br/>"The job is not quite as exciting as TV might represent. I mostly work... worked... on corporate crimes, or should I say<em>alleged</em>corporate crimes. And I don't<em>know</em>whether those Im defending are guilty or not. Not at the time Im defending them. I don't make that decision - that's left to a jury - even though they can be stupid at times - and at least for the time being, we work on the basis of presumed innocence. As for taking on the role of imposing punishment..." Kate chuckled a little. "I don't need to when there are places like this around for those who are found guilty. 'Soft on crime' is not generally  an accusation that gets levied against those currently in positions of power!"<br/><br/>Kate had been in the company of killers before - not often, but once or twice. But SEVENTEEN? How could a girl this petite, genteel and perfectly proper woman - girl - be a killer of 17 people and seemingly have absolutely no remorse or regret. She almost seemed proud of the fact. Maybe it was the way she looked which gave her the opportunity. People make assumptions based on appearances all the time. But SEVENTEEN!? Kate was no psychologist, but 17 murders had to mean that terms like sociopath or pyschopath were more than appropriate here. Perhaps the permanent if subtle smile, the reference to this place being 'interesting' and her criticism of Popov were starting to make sense now. She struggled not to show the impact of being told so 'matter of factly' that she was now sharing her accommodation with a multiple- or serial-killer. But somehow, her sense of security was no worse than it had been seconds earlier. It seemed that pretty much everyone in this antisceptic hell-hole - and apparently people who weren't - were out to do her harm. What difference did one more person make? And at least at the moment, if she finished up being killed by her cell mate, at least Dodd would be in trouble for not getting any information from her first and Gen-Tech wouldn't get any further benefit from her incarceration. She decided that there was no point in picking up on Amelia's confession and right now... after what she had been through over the last 24 hours... Kate really wasn't particularly desperate to know the details of 17 murders or what the reasoning behind them all might have been. There can't be a sane reason for murdering 17 people. Kate moved on and decided instead to simply answer Amelia's last question.<br/><br/>"I didn't do anything... well nothing illegal. My crime was trying to defend a competitor of our current hosts, or should I more accurately describe them as our owners? What was it that recording kept saying?<em>'You are now the property of Gen-Tech'</em>. Dodd has pretty much told me the same thing about 10 minutes ago." Kate shook her head. "Offically though... money laundering... acessory before and after the fact to a whole range of crimes from gun running to prostitution. If you believe the prosecution - which unfortunately the jury did -  Im senior counsel for the Mob!" As she finished, Kate's gaze followed Amelia's over to the other cell. They were quiet. Kate imagined they were having a similar conversation... maybe. She was going to be surprised though if one of the girls opposite had just admitted to seventeen murders. She shook her head again. "What other surprises do you figure they have in store for the four of us then? You think this is it? Sitting in here until we die of old age or until we decide to walk into the red out of boredom induced madness."<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>