by Neal Barrett
Everything nobody wanted hung from the ceiling and the walls. Rico made his way through the maze. In the rear of the store a fence guarded better merchandise.
Geiger himself looked up and blinked. A cigar dangled from the side of his mouth. His face was long and narrow, his eyes bright gold, like a predatory bird that only hunts at night.
“We’re closed,” he said.
“No you’re not,” Rico said. “You’ve got a package for me. Codename Lazarus.”
The pupils in Geiger’s eyes shrank to tiny points. “Gimme a second,” he muttered, and disappeared.
Rico waited. He timed Geiger. He was back in twenty-nine seconds. Not too long.
“Nice place,” he said.
“It might look like junk to most people, but there’s stuff in here that’s real antiques. Valuable stuff, man.”
Rico nodded at a row of metal men in shadow behind the security fence. The tall figures looked hollow, like toy soldiers some giant had cast aside.
“Odd to run into something like that,” Rico said. “I thought they slagged all the ABC warriors after the last wars.”
Geiger shrugged. “DeWats. People collect ’em, got nothing else to do. They’re fifty, sixty years old. Nonfunctional, of course.” Geiger showed yellow teeth. “Like my old lady, you know?” He handed Rico a long box. “Here you go. Says ‘Hold for Lazarus’ on top.”
Rico swept a pile of surplus breathers aside, set the box on the table, and thumbed the lock. Geiger pretended not to look, but when the lid slid back he could easily see what was inside.
“Holy… !” Geiger stood back. “Man, is that what I think it is?”
A black, perfectly pressed uniform was laid neatly in the box. On top of the uniform was an item any Citizen of Mega-City would recognize at once; The personal weapon of a Judge, the Lawgiver.
Rico reached for the weapon. Geiger sucked in a breath and grabbed Rico’s wrist.
“Wait a second, don’t touch it! Whoever sent you this is no friend of yours!”
“No? And why is that?”
Geiger shook his head. “Where you been, pal? That’s a Lawgiver. Don’t you know that? They’re programmed, like they only recognize a Judge’s hand, the one the weapon was made for. I can get you somethin’ nice, but you touch that and the sucker’ll take your arm off.”
Rico smiled. “Really?”
“Yeah, really. You think I’d kid about a thing like—”
Rico gripped the Lawgiver in both hands. Geiger stared, waiting for the weapon to explode.
“That—that don’t make any sense!”
“No?”
Rico squeezed the trigger. Everything above Geiger’s shoulders moved six feet back. It looked as if someone had slammed a dozen pizzas against the wall.
Rico frowned at the mess. “I must be a Judge, pal. What do you think?”
Rico retrieved Geiger’s keys from his pocket, took two of his cigars, unlocked the security fence, and stepped inside. He studied the battered robots, one by one. Finally, he stopped before a tall combat warrior, its metal hide dented in a dozen forgotten wars.
“You’ll do just fine,” he said.
Stepping up on a plastic box, he studied the robot a moment, then removed a narrow panel on the side of its head. A nest of thin cables spilled out, dangling like silver dreadlocks. Rico patiently sorted them with practiced fingers, matching one slender tendon here, twisting another into place. Finally, a golden spark hissed, lighting Rico’s face and eyes. A faint sound began to whir in the warrior’s head. The powerful torso jerked. A spasm shot through its right arm. Steam covered the monster in a mist, and its eyes glowed like rubies in its head. The eyes blinked once, and turned on Rico.
“Status… Commander… Mission…”
The computer voice was old and it rustled like a snake.
“Status is Personal Bodyguard,” Rico said. He struck a match on the robot’s chin and lit one of Geiger’s cigars. “Commander is me. Mission is, we’re going to war again. Geronimo, pal…”
Lily Hammond had taken care of herself. Her husband’s status as Mega-City’s top broadcaster enabled her to make regular appointments at Lovely-U. Her breasts were always firm, her skin always clear, and though she hadn’t been born that way, her legs were slender and long. She was forty-seven and looked twenty-two. Vardis Hammond was fifty-five, and looked thirty-eight. No one at the studio dreamed that he spent his annual vacation getting re-studded at Handsome-Him.
“My God, Vardis…”
Lily looked up from the paper in her hand and stared at her husband. “A—a conspiracy in the Justice system? Radical elements on the City Council? Where did you get this stuff?”
Hammond didn’t look up. He sat at his desk in the corner, under his favorite antique light, tapping on his lap computer.
“What do you mean, where did I get it? That’s my job, Lily. I followed up some grumblings I found in some low level Council papers. They confirm what I’ve known all along. The shadow of oppression goes deeper than the Street Judges. Much deeper.”
Lily frowned. “Please, dear. Don’t say things like ‘shadow of oppression.’ You’re home, you are not on the video.” Lily paused, then studied her husband again. “Vardis, are you going to use that? Are you going to say that on the air?”
Vardis gave her a chilly look. “Well, it’s the truth. Why shouldn’t I say it?”
“I think you’re out of your mind, you want to know what I think.”
“I’m a reporter. I am a reputable journalist and I have an obligation to the Citizens of—”
“That doesn’t mean you have to go and get yourself killed.”
Hammond laughed. He set his keyboard aside and stood. “The Judges don’t kill reporters. Not yet, anyway.”
Lily watched him as he crossed the room to the bar. “Vardis, I’m serious. They’ll never let you put this on the air. Something like this could… it could bring down the Council!”
Vardis poured a generous glass of clear liquid from the bottle.
“Maybe it should, Lily. I know a lot more than I did when I started poking into this business. I wasted a lot of time investigating individual Judges. The problem is the entire system, not just… maniacs like Judge Dredd who—what the hell’s that?”
Hammond turned as the door chimes sounded gently in the hall. He walked to the door, the irritation clear in his dark eyes, the tension around his mouth. Lily didn’t have any idea what was really going on out there. She didn’t have to go out on the street where you could smell the burning victims of the block wars, try to get a visor-head to tell you something besides the official line.
“What is it?” Hammond said, jerking open the door. “What do you—”
Hammond had nearly a quarter of a second to look at the black silhouette, the helmet without a face. The Lawgiver coughed once. The Judge stepped over Hammond’s corpse and walked into the room.
TWELVE
She knew it didn’t make any sense, that it wasn’t like her at all. She simply didn’t do things like this. She disciplined herself, kept her emotions totally under control. And if you were going to let yourself get out of hand, why spend your feelings on Dredd!
She stood in the shadows by her locker. There was a textbook on arrest procedures on the shelf, half a box of practice ammo that she should have turned in. A good thing Briscoe didn’t see that. She was supposed to set a good example.
Hershey caught herself, closed her eyes and drew in a breath. Easy, lady, don’t lose it. Remember what they taught you… one day at a time in the streets. Yesterday was bad but you don’t have to go through that one again…
“And neither does Briscoe,” she said aloud. “Briscoe doesn’t have to do anything anymore.”
She heard the hiss of the shower and smelled the scent of steam and soap. Someone slammed a locker, the sound bouncing off the tile walls like a shot.
She glanced at her watch. Time to grab a cup of something hot before her shift. Check out the new L
awmaster, see if the tekkies had found any slips. She turned and started for the door, took four determined steps then stopped, turned on her heels and walked back the other way.
“You aren’t losing it, Hershey,” she muttered under her breath, “you have flat lost it, girl.”
He was changing his shirt, peeling it over his head. His back, his shoulders, and his arms were tight with cords of muscle, the perfect symmetry of his upper body marred only by the harsh, pink ridges of tissue, scars earned in combat on the streets. A Judge emblem was tattooed on his left shoulder. Hershey had one like it herself—only hers wasn’t blurred where a killer’s bullet had plowed an ugly groove.
Dredd turned as he heard her behind him, paused and drew his shirt down over the flat plane of his belly.
“You on today, Hershey?”
“I’m on. They gave me an option day after—after that Red Quad fracas…”
“And you didn’t take it.” Dredd’s expression didn’t change, but he nodded his approval.
“I think it’s better if you just keep doing what you do,” she said.
“You thought right.”
He picked up his helmet and closed his locker. They walked together out of the room. Cadet Olmeyer had one foot up on a bench, polishing his boot. He stared at the pair, wondering if he ought to come to attention, say something, keep his mouth shut or what. By the time he decided, Dredd and Hershey were gone.
“I caught your lecture today,” Hershey said.
“Good.”
“You, uh, laid it on pretty thick, Judge.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Hershey let out a breath. He’s impossible. He thinks it’s a compliment!
“What I’m saying is, I wonder… do you really think that’s what the Cadets need to hear?”
Dredd glanced at her. “I told the truth. What do you think I should tell them?”
“The truth is fine, I’m not arguing that. It’s just… you made it sound as if their lives are practically over, and these people haven’t even started.”
Dredd looked straight ahead. They were walking down the rampway toward the Lawmaster tunnel.
“The life they came from is over. They’re Judge Cadets.”
“Which means what? You toss everything out but that? I’m a Judge, and I think I’m a good one. But I still have a personal life, too. I have things I like to do. I have friends…”
“When did you see them last?”
“What?”
Dredd stopped. His dark eyes seemed to look right through her. “These friends, Hershey. When did you see them? What did you do?”
Hershey felt the color rise to her face. “Okay, it’s been awhile. My shifts keep changing a lot. It’s hard to stay in touch, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see anybody. And I will, when things settle down.”
“Things won’t,” Dredd said.
“Maybe not for you. I don’t think you want things to slow down…”
She was sorry as soon as she said it. If he heard her, though, if he cared, he didn’t let it show.
“You’ve only been on the street a year,” he told her. “You’re still a Citz-head. You’ll get over it. You’ll be a Judge.”
“I am a Judge, damn it!” Hershey turned on him. “I’m a Judge right now. And I don’t care for that name, either.”
“What name is that?”
“You know exactly what I mean. Citz-head. The word makes it sound like Citizens are in a… a different class, or something. They’re the people we’re supposed to protect, Dredd.”
“Exactly. We have to protect them because they won’t take the responsibility for themselves. They don’t have to do anything. They can be as ignorant and as irrational as they want. They can make mistakes because we’re there to look after them. We can’t let what we might want to do interfere with what we have to do, Hershey. Anyone who doesn’t understand that doesn’t have what it takes to be a Judge.”
Hershey reached out and stopped him, touched his arm and turned him around.
“Is that really how you feel—it’s just you out there, you against them? Don’t you ever feel like… haven’t you ever had someone you felt close to? Have you ever had anyone you could call a friend?”
“Yes. Once.”
“What happened?”
She saw it, then, just for an instant, a shadow of pain across his features and then it was gone. Dredd turned quickly and walked away. She felt it, knew it at once, as if he’d spoken the words aloud. That’s how it had happened. He’d had a friend, and he’d had to decide between friendship and the vow he’d taken to uphold the Law. It had been an agonizing decision, even for a man as dedicated as Dredd. In the end, he had judged his friend. Kept his vow and lost his soul. Shut it all out and left himself hollow inside.
Why did I have to ask, Hershey thought, why the hell couldn’t I leave him alone!
“Dredd, wait a minute, please!” She ran to catch up with him. He stalked through the doorway into the tunnel, into the thunder of a hundred growling machines.
“I’m sorry,” she said, reaching his side. “I didn’t have any business asking you something like that. Your life is your own, and I had no right to—”
“Forget it, Judge Hershey. It is not important.”
“It is to me,” she said. “I opened my big mouth and I’m sorry. I apologize.”
Dredd looked her with no expression at all. “Do whatever you want. I have work to do. So do you.”
Dredd set his helmet on his head, flipped down the visor and walked away. Hershey wished she could rewind the morning, run it over again. Try not to screw it up, try to get it right.
She wondered which of the many Lawmasters was hers, tried to remember the number the maintenance sergeant had given her and couldn’t make a guess. Completely irritated with herself, she turned and started back inside. It was bad enough totalling a Lawmaster, even in the line of duty. But then you had to listen to everyone make the same, tired jokes about—
Hershey stopped. They walked out of the semi-darkness at the curve of the tunnel, four of them, visors down. They were dressed in combat armor, like every other Street Judge there, only it was not the same at all. Their stance, their manner, marked them as a breed apart—Judge Hunters, the men who watched the watchers, the Law within the Law.
As Hershey watched, too stunned to move, they drew their Lawmasters, made a tight left turn in perfect step. Everyone in the tunnel stood still. The Hunters walked past Hershey, past the other Judges—and stopped in front of Dredd.
No! Hershey tried to breathe, but her throat went tight.
“Judge Joseph Dredd?”
Dredd was the only Judge in the tunnel who had completely ignored the group. He turned and gave them a curious stare.
The Hunters took a step back. “Don’t move, Dredd.” The leader held his weapon to Dredd’s chest. Another stuck a paper in Dredd’s face.
“You are under arrest, Joseph Dredd. We have the right to confiscate your weapon. We have the right to remove your badge. Should you choose to resist, we have the right to—”
“I know your rights,” Dredd told him. “What is this, what’s the charge?”
“Murder.”
“What? Who did I kill?”
“We have the right to remain silent, we have the right to subdue you in any manner we may choose, including Greengas, Skidders or electronic restraint. Do you have any comments to make at this time, Joseph Dredd?”
“Yes,” Dredd said, “just one. You groons can go straight to hell.”
THIRTEEN
Fergie couldn’t think of any painless way to die. There were a lot of ways to do it. People did it all the time. There were illegal shops in LA if you knew where to go. If you had enough bucks, they’d fix you up fine. If you had a whole lot, you’d leave your miserable life feeling like a thirty-ton orgasm blasting off for outer space.
The only thing wrong was, he wasn’t in LA any more and he didn’t have a Reagan dollar t
o his name. That, and the fact that he was down in a concrete pit somewhere, waiting for the shuttle to whisk him off to Aspen again. Other than that…
Someone threw up nearby. That inspired somebody else. Fergie didn’t care. There were sixty-two men in the pit and they’d been there crowded up together for twenty-nine hours or more. He’d done his throwing up the first three. He couldn’t get sick anymore, and there was nothing on earth he hadn’t smelled by now.
Fergie spent most of his time thinking up tortures for the guy with purple ears. He knew the droog was dead, but he was very much alive in Fergie’s head. Alive and in excruciating pain. Every time he died, Fergie brought him back again. Sometimes he thought about Dredd, and the good-looking Judge who’s name he couldn’t recall. He didn’t have any quarrel with them. Judges were simply a fact of life. You don’t look where you’re going, a truck’ll squash you flat. You stay in a cheap hotel, a rat’s going to bite you on the ass. When you’re in the law-breaking trade, you’re going to get caught now and then.
What drove Fergie nuts was the fact that he hadn’t done anything at all. That wasn’t right. Fate didn’t have any business pulling such a lousy trick when he just got out. If you steal you get caught, but they shouldn’t ought to cheat you like that.
When he got tired of thinking so hard he closed his eyes and slept. Sometimes the dreams were awful, sometimes they weren’t bad at all. One was a real good dream about him and Maggie. It was a real lazy day and they’d paid to ride up the Electric to the top of the LA Wall. They had a big railing up there but it was still real scary if you stood and looked down. The sign said the Wall was two thousand twenty-seven feet high. Who could get over that? Fergie wondered. Who the hell was dumb enough to try?
It was hot on the Wall, but Maggie leaned in close and trembled against his shoulder. Fergie didn’t blame her. It was an awesome thing to see. Cursed Earth stretched out to the east, the land disappearing in a wavy mirage that looked like a pig-iron sea. The sky in that direction was always brick-red from the dust storms that howled day and night across the Cursed Earth.
