Part I

The Lawyer

Prologue

"Is God into schadenfreude?" the ten-year-old child asked his teacher while sitting at the back of a large and modern classroom filled with pupils older than himself. The twenty other students immediately looked at him, for they suspected that an interesting row would follow. They usually did not understand the discussions their classmate conducted with the professors, but they liked the distraction from the regular course work.

"I have already told you not to use Swedish words in class," said the Catholic educator while he hastily turned towards the pupil who had made the remark.

"For starters, it is German," replied the handsome blond shrewdly. "So tell us, is God evil?"

"Of course he is not," roared the man in the dark clothes while pointing menacingly with his finger. "That is blasphemy. How dare you speak in such a way of our Creator? If you continue with that attitude, Roy Johansen, one day you will find yourself in Hell, and down there you will not get away with that irreverence. Down there, impudence is severely castigated."

"Does that mean that after so many centuries of misguided Church policies, the Vatican still has not come up with something better? Every time religions can't explain something, they threaten those asking the questions with punishment. That seems pretty simplistic and outdated, don't you think?"

"Why is it that you are always so offensive to our faith?" inquired the man while despairing over the constant misbehavior of the brat. "Why can't you be more like your classmates?"

"It is not my intention to be iconoclastic," said the neatly dressed boy while keeping his eyes fixed on the short-haired fifty-year-old instructor, whose brown eyes and burgundy locks partly revealed his Italian ancestry. "I just want to understand why things happen in the way they do. So, tell us. Is God sexually active? I have heard new stories about-"

"Stop," barked the Jesuit furiously, and the giggling that had erupted among the students immediately came to a halt. "This is the tenth time you have behaved in such a way in my class. Your contempt and lack of respect for our most sacrosanct institutions is outrageous. You should be ashamed of yourself. God is good and he is the source of everything wonderful in this world. Everybody knows that. You leave me no other option but to send a letter to your parents and put you on detention for the next month."

Roy was not normal. He had never been. Since his early years, he had started to display evidence of possessing a very unusual and highly developed brain. He was brilliant in many ways, but it was his ability to debunk and trash the ideas of even the most intelligent people what most stood out. He was a precocious child who, by the age of two, had already learned how to read, who jumped ahead several years in school, and who, by his mid teens, had gained access to a prestigious university. Genius was a word that did not fully describe his talents and, by thirty-four, he had developed into something beyond the term 'extraordinary'.

The Trial

The Nassau County District Court of New York was full, and the atmosphere in the room was hot. Not so much because it was a sizzling summer day in August, but because the chamber was brimming with journalists, law students and lay people. All seats were taken and many people were standing. In the hall next to the courtroom the situation was very similar, and in the adjacent street it was the same thing, with an expectant crowd that was excitedly awaiting the outcome of the trial.

On the sidewalk in front of the main entrance of the three-storey building a young and attractive female journalist stood with a microphone in her hand while a television camera pointed at her.

"It is not yet lunchtime but the thermometer is already hitting 100 degrees," said the short-haired brunette. "However, there is another reason why the heat is on. The content of this trial is explosive, and it is that which has attracted such a throng. The hearings have been dragging on for two months and every day in court has been transmitted to the entire world by television. As most people know by now, the main participants are Mona Yalow and Pete Anderson. Ms. Yalow is the aggrieved party and she is suing Mr. Anderson with the help of her lawyer, Roy Johansen."

Mona was twenty-two years old, she was blond, she was beautiful, and she was a psychologist. Pete was thirty and was a successful architect, working in his father's firm. He had brown hair, was good looking and tall.

Mona sat next to her attorney and, to her left, on the other side of the large courtroom, was Pete, who was also accompanied by his legal counsel. The judge was a graying brunette, and she was behind her desk several yards from the parties, watching the crowd.

Everybody was dressed very formally and there was a soft chattering among the lawyers and their clients. It was the final day of deliberations and both parties were tense. Roy Johansen was sporting an elegant blue navy suit, a white shirt and a red tie, and at a given point he stood up to make his concluding remarks.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury," he said confidently while addressing the men and women sitting silently to his right, "this is a case that nobody had thought of bringing to court just a few years ago. However, we are in the twenty-first century and the coming of the new millennium has conveyed a novel atmosphere of rationality. This new era demands that we adopt a more consistent view of the world. It requires that we examine any claim on its merits, independent of its apparent absurdity. So long as an idea is scientifically substantiated we must bend before it even if it destroys our most cherished beliefs."

Roy paused, took a panoramic view of the room and then said, "We are thus demanding from this court that justice be rendered and that my client receives in compensation ten million dollars for the physical and psychological damages caused by Mr. Anderson's neglectful behavior."

Roy was a spellbinding orator, with a compelling eloquence. His arguments were filled with such strong logic and such pointed consistency that he had never lost a case. The blond was only thirty-four, but he was already a legend in the profession. He had won cases even before finishing college and had completed his studies in half the normal amount of time, having already studied medicine before going to law school. His photographic memory allowed him to accumulate vast amounts of information, and he could go into the tiny details of just about any subject. However, that was not his most impressive feat. His most outstanding asset was the ability to uncover the causality of any given phenomenon. Where others saw chaos in the mass of information, he would view rational order. This dexterity gave him extraordinary powers because it enabled him to demolish the arguments of any opponent.

His brain powers somehow resembled those of Leonardo Da Vinci, the famous fifteenth century intellectual, who engaged in several disciplines and outperformed the scientists of his time in all of them. Da Vinci's mind was so outstanding that most historians have classified him as the brightest man of all time.

Roy was also brilliant in several disciplines, such as medicine, law and psychology. He never studied psychology but had written a book about the behavior of women that had caused a revolution in the field of sexology. However, in some aspects, he was perhaps more impressive than Da Vinci because the Italian artist and inventor had a flaccid attitude towards most things. The Renaissance man had a terrible habit of not finishing what he had started and left numerous things incomplete. Roy, on the other hand, was somebody who would always bring to an end what he had begun.

When Roy's parents got married, everybody predicted that they would have intelligent children because Lars Johansen was a reputed brain surgeon from Sweden and Laura O'Brien an American marine biologist who taught at Stanford University. However, nobody ever imagined that their progeny would be that bright. Roy's upbringing further contributed to enhancing his mental abilities. He grew up in Sweden, Germany and France, attended high school in the U.S., studied medicine in Japan, and studied law at Harvard University. Then, he went to work for one of the best law firms in New York and, after a few years, opened up his own practice. Roy spoke six languages fluently: Swedish, German, French, Japanese, Spanish and English.

The young lawyer was also extremely handsome. He was tall, blond, facially symmetrical and built. The strength of his arguments, his speaking abilities plus his charm and charisma would usually overwhelm an audience. However, many people found him arrogant, and several in the jury saw things that way. On top of that, Pete had hired a top lawyer who pleaded his case very convincingly.

"The reason why no court in the U.S. or anywhere else in the world has ever granted validity to such a claim," said Pete's attorney, "is because it is a perversion of the law. There are limits to what people can demand from a court, and this case is way over that boundary."

The fifty-year-old blue-eyed man then went on to elaborate extensively on the matter. When Pete's lawyer finished, the judge instructed the jury to deliberate over the case and, four hours later, the twelve-person body came out from their secluded room. One of its members was a middle-aged bald man and, once the chamber had become quiet, he stood up.

"Your honor," said the man with the polished scalp, "we have come to a unanimous decision." The fellow handed over a folded sheet to the mustachioed bailiff, who took it to the judge.

"May the parties rise," affirmed the graying brunette after having glanced at the paper. The two lawyers and their clients immediately did as instructed and all stared tensely at the woman in black robes. "The members of the jury find Pete Anderson fully liable for the physical and psychological injuries suffered by Mona Yalow. The jury thus grants validity to the demand for financial reparation, obliging Mr. Anderson to pay the sum of eight million dollars."

A roar instantly erupted in the courtroom and Roy allowed himself a small smile. Mona stood up and hugged him while Pete thumped the table with his fist. A few minutes later the press outside the building was abuzz, commenting on the outcome of the trial. The pretty brown-haired journalist was among them.

"Roy Johansen has done it again," she said. "He has not just won another case, thus keeping an undefeated record, but he has set a new precedent in American legislation and pushed the tort system of reparations to new heights. According to legal experts, this case could open the door to a totally new dimension of civil claims, which could end by radically changing the judicial system. This is the man who five years ago won the first case in history against the food industry. He convinced the court that his three thousand clients had become obese during childhood and developed diabetes as a result of misleading information on labels about the calorie and sugar content of their products. The compensation award was one of the largest in history. This is also the man who three years ago persuaded a jury that his client had become impotent as a result of his regular consumption of cigarettes, and Philipo Tobacco had to pay six million dollars in reparations. Now, he has successfully pleaded to a dozen people something even more bizarre. This case was so out of the ordinary that nobody would have thought it worthy of a judicial deliberation just a year ago. Mr. Johansen is an attorney who is constantly defending people on matters that seem preposterous and unlikely to be admitted in court. However, he systematically manages not just to convince the juries that they are normal plaintiffs, but also that they should decide in his favor. It is a mystery how he does it, but the fact is that he is probably the most outstanding lawyer that has ever walked the Earth."

****

In Manhattan, at one of the best legal firms in the country, two smartly-dressed men watched TV from their comfortable chairs and heard about the outcome of the trial.

"I hate to admit it," snarled one of them resentfully, "but that sonofabitch Roy Johansen is probably the best in the world. I once had a case that was a sure win because all the evidence was in our favor, and Roy somehow convinced the jury that my client was to blame. We lost. I bet that bastard could even outsmart the Devil."

"I know," groaned the other one. "I have heard of lawyers who refused to take a case once they found out that the other party was being represented by Johansen."

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