Jack of Harts

The most spectacular assassination attempt on Louis Mattioli’s life happened on the front steps of the Alpha Centauri Supreme Court. A dozen gunmen shot him five times, and sprayed fire across nearly three-dozen spectators watching him arrive to fight another case. He fired ten shots, one each to the head to make certain the gunmen were very dead, killed the other two with his bare hands, and kept walking up the stairs and into court. When the judge asked him if he wished to ask for a delay, Louis said he didn’t wish to inconvenience the court over such a minor issue, and argued his case in his bloodstained and scuffed up suit. The footage hit the front-page news on Earth and Alpha Centauri. He never once suggested that the partner he was arguing against had anything to do with it, smiled at the man after the judge ruled in his favor, and said he would see them again next time. The public loved it.