“Which brings us to the actions of Antioch Chemical.

“By now, we know the facts, many of which the defendants have not chosen to contest. Because of negligence and incompetence, toxic chemicals were introduced into the Kankakee River. That alone would not be enough to put us where we are today. We live in an imperfect world.

Accidents happen. The wise choice, the moral choice, the sane choice, would have been to notify the public, fix the problem, and make restitution."

She halted. Even from a dozen yards away, Alex could see the anger in her face. He leaned forward in his seat, studying her technique. Was it honest emotion, or the work of a trained lawyer with over fifteen years of courtroom experience to draw on?

“Instead," she grated slowly, her voice thick with suppressed fury,

"they chose to do nothing. For months, toxic sludge spewed into the

Kankakee. Arsenic, lead, cadmium...you've all seen the evidence and the reports.

“But rather than do the right thing, the good people of Antioch

Chemical played a game. The name of the game was ‘How Long Can We Get

Away With This?' The issue was shunted from one department to the next.

They wouldn't lift a finger until they had orders, signed in triplicate, lost, found, subjected to management review, lost again, and buried in seven levels of hellish bureaucracy which makes you wish for the Second Coming to arrive to clean out the mess." She took a deep breath.

“And all of this, all of it, for the sole purpose of avoiding paying for the clean-up. If I might be permitted to quote again from the e-mail which was sent from the vice-president of finance to the vice-president of engineering-"

"Objection!" shouted an attorney from the defense side.

“Repetitious."

"Overruled," the judge said calmly. "Control yourself, Mr. Kincaid. You know the rules about interrupting a closing statement.”

“Thank you, your honor," Rachel said with a polite nod. Alex bit his lip to keep from Laughing. God, she was playing the entire room Like an instrument.

“As I was saying before I was interrupted," she continued calmly, "here is the quote from the e-mail to engineering. ‘We would be financially negligent if we poured resources into a project from which we will receive no income. This will have an adverse effect on our quarterly and yearly profitability. We advise against this proposal.'" Her fist clenched as she crumpled the piece of paper into a lopsided wad and dropped it contemptuously to the floor.

"And that is where the moral vacuum of Antioch Chemical becomes apparent. Money, money, money. Nothing but money was important. Let the world drown in poison, let fish choke to death on toxic waste, let the very water we need for life be hostile to our touch as long as the profits roll in. That is the same type of thinking which let thousands of people in Flint be poisoned by lead in their water, because no one in the entire state of Michigan had the courage to stand up and say

“enough'.""

His mother's voice dropped.