Kingdom of the Blind
Page 23
"You're forgetting my mother."
"So did you," Dredd said. He aimed his Lawgiver at the crime boss's head. "Jesus Bludd, I hereby find you guilty of numerous capital crimes against Mega-City One and its people, and therefore sentence you to death. Sentence to be carried out immediately."
"No, please, wait!" Bludd begged. "I demand a trial! You can't treat me like a common criminal, I deserve better than that!"
"You're just another perp with delusions of grandeur," Dredd replied before pulling the trigger. The bullet smashed through Bludd's forehead and exploded out the back of the skull, taking most of the crime boss's brains with it. The body twitched for a moment, then lay still. "Case closed."
Janus watched Dredd pass sentence on her former lover, hugging her arms across her chest. Once Bludd was dead, she spat at the corpse. "That's for everything you made me do," she whispered.
Dredd approached the Psi-Judge. "We need to disable the command and control system, take it offline. Do you still remember how to do that?"
Janus nodded. "I remember every moment of my time as Kara. I'll go and deactivate the system. Then I need to find some proper clothes."
"I'll tell the three delegates they're off the hook." Dredd and Janus departed the chamber, leaving the cooling corpse of Jesus Bludd behind them. The crime boss had died without glory, without fanfare.
Now he was just another dead perp.
EPILOGUE
Chief Judge Hershey presided over the memorial service on the site where Joe Chill Block had stood. Four months had passed since the crisis engineered by Bludd, and for most of Mega-City One, the incident was already passing into memory. Soon it would become just another disaster in the long line of tragedies that seemed to plague the Big Meg. Give it another four months and the night half the city went blind would be more legend than reality. Everyone affected had their sight back within a week. All received regular check-ups from optometrist droids to monitor on-going side effects but the results remained positive. The crisis had passed and order was restored.
Dredd was among those attending the ceremony in Southside Sector 41. Thirty-three thousand people had died as a demonstration of power by Jesus Bludd, not to mention the thousands more who perished after the light storm. In place of Joe Chill a small park had been erected, with real trees and grass. Normally such luxuries were unfeasibly expensive and beyond contemplation, but the Justice Department's Accounts Division had seized all of the Bludd Group's assets as compensation for the crimes of its leader. Some good had emerged from the failed power play.
Hershey stepped forward to begin her speech. "This city has suffered through many traumas, many tragedies. The death of Joe Chill Block and all who were inside it at the time is one such tragedy. No doubt there will be others. Life is never simple or straightforward, the future never easy to foresee, the present always a headlong rush towards tomorrow. But hopefully we can learn from our past and honour those who have fallen so that others might live."
"How's she doing?" a female voice asked from beside Dredd. He turned sideways to see Janus, restored to her full Psi-Judge uniform, helmet in hand.
"Good," he replied quietly. "And you?"
Janus shrugged. "Still in therapy. They let me out for the morning to come here, so that's a positive sign."
Hershey's voice drifted across the crowd towards the two Judges. "Southside Sector 41 has had a long history of problems and extreme violence. Joe Chill Block was the scene of more murders than any other residential building in the entire city. Perhaps its destruction, however wrong, however traumatic, could still have some positive effects. Perhaps the people of this sector can draw a line under the past and start afresh."
"How much do you remember?" Dredd asked.
"All of it," Janus said, bitterness in her voice. "The undercover Judges I had to kill. The murders I witnessed. The sex acts Bludd made me commit with him and with others. How I used my psi powers to persuade Dr Swanson she was in love with me and then used that to twist her inside out, ruining her life. The moment when Ryan died, pleading for his life, all of it. I remember all of it."
"I'm sorry."
"Me too," the Psi-Judge agreed.
"Finally," Hershey concluded, "I want to dedicate this garden to the lost souls who died here and elsewhere on that fateful night. May they find a way to happiness and may this oasis of green flourish in their place." Polite applause rippled through the crowd as the Chief Judge cut a ribbon, her action recorded by dozens of news channel hover-cams.
Dredd and Janus strolled back to their Lawmasters. All the motorcycles of Judges attending the event were parked in the space where the Nothing Could Be Finer Diner once stood. Janus rubbed a hand across her forehead. "It's all locked inside here, going round and round. Psi-Division offered just to wipe everything away but I couldn't cope with losing more than a year of my life, even one as bad as that. It would be denying it had ever happened. I want to remember those people I murdered, just as I'd want to be remembered if I had been one of the victims. I owe them that much." Janus looked at Dredd. "Does that make sense?"
"Your own personal memorial."
The Psi-Judge smiled. "Something like that." She found her motorcycle from among the many and began pulling on her helmet. "Were you there when Tek-Division dismantled the command and control system? The head-shrinkers had spirited me away before that happened."
Dredd shook his head. "It wasn't dismantled."
"Why not?" Janus paused. "Grud on a greenie, they didn't take it back to the Dustbuster, did they?"
"No, it's still up there. The department claimed all those old weapons satellites for itself. The other mega-cities know we have them now and they'll think twice before taking us on."
"After everything that happened? After everything I did to help stop Bludd? What motherless drokker thought up that bright idea?" Janus asked in disgust.
"I did." Dredd mounted his Lawmaster and gunned the engine into life. "See you on the streets, Janus."
THE BIG MEG GLOSSARY
Allspeak: The universal language adopted by most aliens when communicating to each other.
Black Atlantic: Formerly the Atlantic Ocean, the new name indicates how heavily polluted and toxic the waters have become, so much so that it often catches fire.
Block: Giant skyscrapers that make up most of Mega-City One. The inhabitants of blocks are known as 'blockers'. Sometimes the pressures of living in such cramped high-rise conditions lead to 'block mania', which may spark a block war.
Brit-Cit: British counterpart of Mega-City One located in south-east England.
Citi-Def: The City Defence Force (a civilian militia): a voluntary civilian army organised on a block basis that saw action against the Sov-Bloc invaders of the Apocalypse War in 2104.
City Bottom: The pre-Atomic rockrete foundations of Mega-City One, littered with the architectural, human and sub-hume refuse of the city. Also known as 'The Pits', this area is not recognized as one of the three city levels, and is often the last stop for Slummies who do not wish to live within society.
Control: The nerve centre of Mega-City One that relays information to Judges on the streets.
Council of Five (The): The central ruling council of Judges, consisting of the heads of the main divisions of the Justice Department, that acts as the Chief Judge's advisory body.
Cuidad Barranquilla: Located in the former Buenos Aires, 'Banana City' is considered to be one of the poorest and most corrupt cities in the World.
Cursed Earth: A vast, radioactive wasteland that stretches across North America, populated by mutants, freaks and wild creatures.
Daystick: The Judge's favoured truncheon.
Dust Zone: Sector in the city dedicated to industrial use and off-limits to pedestrians.
H-Wagon: A heavy, Justice Department hover vehicle, usually well armoured and armed.
Hotdog Run: An expedition/test into the Cursed Earth for trainee Judges in their twelfth year.
Iso-Cube: The st
andard imprisonment for criminals; a huge block full of very small, plasteen, isolation cubes.
Lawgiver: The standard issue automatic, multi-shell handgun for Judges whose ammunition ranges from armour-piercing to ricochet rounds.
Lawmaster: The Judges' standard issue computer controlled motorbike - extremely powerful, intelligent and heavily armed.
Luna-City: Also known as Luna-1, Luna-City is a colony on the moon established and maintained by the American Mega-Cities.
Manta-Tank: The shortened term for the Manta Prowl Tank, an anti-grav tank that is fully capable of dealing with serious riots by itself.
Med-Division: The medical division of the Justice Department that provides, controls and maintains medical care for the Judges.
Med-Judge: A medical specialist usually in support of a meat wagon. Med-Judges work within a Med-Squad for Med-Division.
Med-Wagon: A fully-equipped ambulance manned by Med-Judges, also known as a Meat Wagon.
Mo-Pad: Slang term for mobile homes which are constantly on the move along more than 1000 million miles of roadway around Mega-City One. There are approximately 18 million mo-pads in the city, and can sometimes be quite luxurious.
Pedway: A pedestrian-only pathway found all across Mega-City One at all levels. Motorised pedways are known as slidewalks and eeziglides.
Perp: The Judges' term for a perpetrator or criminal.
Pre-Cog: A special type of Psi-Judge with precognitive powers, able to predict the future to a limited degree.
Psi-Judge: A Judge with psychic abilities from the Justice Department's Psi-Division.
Public Surveillance Unit: The organisation which controls and maintains the city's millions of street cameras and 'spy-in-the-sky' units. The PSU is housed within the head of the Statue of Judgement found in Sector 44.
Shoppera: A block constructed into a massive shopping centre, also known as a shoplex.
Sino-Cit: Chinese counterpart of Mega-City One. Shrouded in secrecy, few visitors have ever returned from this forbidden citadel.
SJS: The Special Judicial Squad act as the Judges' police, seeking out corruption and crime within the Law with extreme prejudice. They answer directly to the Chief Judge herself.
Skedway: A minor roadway; smaller than a megway but larger than an overzoom.
Statue of Judgement: A massive rockcrete statue of a Judge erected for the second time in 2117, found in Sector 44. Unbeknownst to the public, the Public Surveillance Unit is housed within the statue's head.
Street Judge: A Judge on the beat who tackles crime and issues sentences.
Sub-Atlantic Zoom: A high-speed rail link between Mega-City One and Brit-Cit via a tunnel built along the base of the Black Atlantic.
Synthi-caf: A popular beverage similar to the now illegal coffee.
Tek-Judge: A technical and engineering specialist whose skills range from advanced forensic analysis to the repairing of vehicles, weapons, etc.
Titan: A small moon orbiting Saturn where a maximum-security prison for Mega-City One's most dangerous criminals is located.
Tri-D: The shortened term for three dimensional holovision; thousands of both legal and pirate channels are available in Mega-City One.
Wally Squad: A group of undercover Judges who dress like ordinary citizens and often adopt false identities. Wally Squad operatives are not always respected amongst street Judges, as they are sometimes prone to becoming perps themselves.
Weather Control: Also known as Mega-City Atmospheric Control, the weather of Mega-City One is artificially manipulated and maintained by huge floating platforms above the city. The Weather Congress determines daily weather and the Justice Department regulates it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Bishop was born and raised in New Zealand, becoming a daily newspaper journalist at the age of eighteen. He emigrated to Britain in 1990 and became sub-editor of the Judge Dredd Megazine. He was editor from 1992-1995, a period when the title was voted Britain's best comic every year. He edited 2000 AD weekly from 1996 to 2000 before becoming a freelance writer. His previous novels include three starring Judge Dredd (for Virgin Books) and four featuring Doctor Who (for Virgin and the BBC). He also writes non-fiction books and articles, audio dramas, comics and has been a creative consultant on three forthcoming video games. Bishop has contributed to Black Flame previously with Judge Dredd: Bad Moon Rising to critical acclaim. If you see Bishop in public, do not approach him; alert the nearest editor and then stand well back.
Extract
Other Titles
Indicia
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
Glossary
Author Biography