The Hacked Turnabout

The Hacked Turnabout is the first case in Hexepta: Mayor Attack.

Trial
In the middle of the night on April 12, a mysterious man emerged in the mayor's office and accesses his computer. He declared a certain truth will be revealed very soon.

The next morning, Argus Hakan joined his mentor, Karen Foster, as she was to stand in court to defend Terry Chens, who had been accused of stealing top secret documents from the mayor's computer. When he unintentionally caused her to run a minute late, however, he greatly overreacted to the judge's mild annoyance and took over the defense, claiming responsibility for her late arrival. The prosecutor, Haxin Payne, happily went along with this, taking advantage of the situation to get his "revenge" on Karen.

Payne summarized his case against Terry Chens. He claimed that Terry could have easily tampered with the computer while delivering it to the town hall, and was thus the only possible culprit. The mayor was then called as a witness to confirm his office to be a locked room and testify about the defendant's actions. During the cross-examination, he mentioned that a large amount of hammers was found on the floor surrounding the crate, as well as a rope and a lighter. The delivery boy was nowhere to be seen, but he when he looked out the window he saw Terry walking down the street.

Argus noticed that the mayor's description of the computer did not match up with the one that had been presented to the court. Upon presenting this contradiction, the mayor admitted that he had been scammed, as he had been told the computer was to come with many physical extensions. This made Argus suspicious of the mayor's secretary, who had recommended he buy from them, and he requested he be called to the stand.

Secret Eerie, having been summoned, vouched for the company's legitimacy while also testifying against the defendant, telling the court that he saw him in the hallway that morning. When Argus logged into the computer, though, he found out that Secret was supposedly absent on that day. He presented this contradiction and immediately accused him of the crime. He then went on to explain how Secret could have hidden inside the crate and used it to get into the office unseen.

Secret laughed at Argus' theory and pointed out that it would have been impossible for him to nail the crate shut. With some help from Karen, Argus figured out that Secret had set up a contraption using the hammer, rope and lighter to nail the crate shut while he was inside. When Secret demanded evidence of this theory, a mysterious detective came into the court, declaring he found the physical extensions to the computer in Secret's office. Secret immediately resigned.

After Secret is taken away, Payne was unable to accept his defeat to Argus in a real, genuine courtroom. He screamed in defeat, shattering his glasses in the process. Terry was then declared not guilty of all charges. After the trial, the mayor came to congratulate Argus personally. Argus tried to ask about the top secret information that got stolen, but the mayor refused to talk, so Argus dropped the subject and invited the mayor out for drinks.

References to other cases

 * When Argus objects to the mayor's testimony, he directly quotes Storm's exact thoughts in The Tempest Dawn when he pointed out his first contradiction, "The adrenaline... the pointing finger... the shout of 'Objection...'"