to
her."

Even though it was practically certain by now that they would not be
needed to testify until the next day, they all elected to stay. "Hey,"
Roz insisted, "we want to be here for you and each other. It's bad
enough that you have to face them alone in that hearing room."

"You guys are the best, you know that?" Diana said, fondly. "After
the hours spent in that room its such a relief to hear human voices
again."

When the hearing resumed, Henry cautioned Diana about taking too much
time and to stick to the issues. "We are only here to listen to
information directly concerning whether you forged those SmurFFs in
question. You have wasted too much of our valuable time talking about
non-related issues."

And you, you pompous old windbag, encouraged that witness, Lyle Stone
to go on and on for hours on unrelated issues yourself, thought Janet,
sneaking a quick, compassionate look at Diana and flexing her fingers
in preparation for the next words.

Diana almost snorted aloud at Henry's admonition. Composing herself,
she said, "I'm finished with my cross examination of Lyle."

Frank Anuse immediately asked, "Lyle, if it is demonstrated that a
faculty member falsified information concerning another faculty member
using SmurFFs, do you consider that to be amoral and unprofessional?"

"Yes. We are assuming that honesty must prevail among peers and
co-workers."

"That's all for now."

"I have just a couple of questions on recross," corrected Trenchant.

Henry, caught with his mouth open about to hastily dismiss Lyle glared
malevolently at her.

She smiled back at him then turned to Lyle and asked if he insisted
that all faculty be honest.

He avoided a direct answer. "Well, no one thinks dishonesty is a good
thing, at least I don't think anybody does."

"I just wondered why you didn't take similar action, that is report to
the vice president and bring charges, when the recent blatant
plagiarism of Ian and Randy was brought to your attention," Diana said.

Henry, forgetting his assumed role as neutral, quickly snapped off, "we
really must keep the testimony on the issue."

Diana smiled grimly. "Thank you. I'm finished."

Henry quickly excused Lyle and announced that the next witness would be
the document examiner and rose to get her.

After the door closed behind him, the room was quiet. Its occupants
sitting in silent contemplation.

Chapter 11

Something had to be done. T