Quoted By:
>Further inspect part of the courthouse
The first look around was merely cursory, you likely missed things. So you make another round of the courthouse, taking a bit longer this time. You also use the opportunity to take down the pictures of Republia's "Great and Honorable Leader" and pull down the flags hanging on the back wall of the courtroom. The first new thing you notice is that, in addition to the one for the non-functional lights, there is a second raceway running along the top edge of one wall in the courtroom. It terminates in an off-grey metal or plastic box with a circle of small perforations facing outward - this is almost certainly an intercom. You follow the raceway north into the judge's chambers and, sure enough, you find the central component of an intercom system. Following the wiring turns up two more speakers: one in the front hall and another in the clerk's chambers.
While scoping out the intercom box in the dim half-light of the clerk's office, you notice two more machines you had missed during your initial inspection. Standing against the far wall is an old Xerox copier and, next to it, a fax machine. There is a print-out left behind in the fax machine, which you take into the hallway and read. It is absolute gibberish. Well, you are sure it makes sense to a lawyer and possibly to some lay-person fully fluent in Republian, but to you it might as well be written in Ancient Greek. The caption has two names: "Rutherford Anez" and "Lucky Lots Company" and is addressed to the Civil Court of Gordon District. Outside of the caption, you can make out *maybe* every 1 in 30 words and even the words you do recognize are conjugated in ways you do not understand. You make a perfunctory effort to leaf through some more files left out on one of the desks, but your labor is not rewarded; you cannot derive any meaning or substance from the court records.
Bringing your men with you, you return to the judge's chambers and make an attempt to open the locked drawers of the desk. Unfortunately, the tools at your disposal are limited. You wedge your combat knife into the top portion of the drawer, but it's too thick, or the wood too well-fitted, to make contact with any part of the lock. On his own initiative, Rashidaliev tries smacking one of the drawers with the butt of his rifle, but to no noticeable effect. The sound from the desk would, however, indicate that it is too study to bust through absent an axe or some similar tool.
Overall, you are satisfied with your search. The building is of solid construction and you have a good sense of its layout and passages. But you were not sent here to govern one building, Gennady Nasirovich. The entirety of Gordon District - of which you have seen only a small portion - is your responsibility and command expects results. Already, in the short number of hours here, you have noticed a number of problems worthy of your attentions. You should choose one and puzzle out your approach to it.
