Neal Barrett - Judge Dredd

JUDGE DREDD

Yours, Cadets, when you graduate… if you graduate. Now, I don’t have to tell any of you what this is. But I will, because you are Cadets and you don’t know from nothing even if you think you do.

[Nervous laughter.]

JUDGE DREDD

This is the Mark IV Lawmaster, improved model. With onboard dual laser cannons, vertical take-off and landing flight capacity and five hundred kilometer range.

[NOTE: An evaluation of the background sound at this point would indicate that maintenance personnel have set the machine in motion at this time. Apparently, the Lawmaster then rises in a hovering mode for five-point-seven seconds. At that time, the drive unit fails and the Lawmaster drops heavily to the floor.]

JUDGE DREDD

Yours… if they ever get it to work.

[Judge Dredd walks to another location in the classroom. A Cadet coughs in the background.]

JUDGE DREDD

All of these things are nothing, Cadets. Nothing but toys. End of the day, you’re alone out there in the dark, all that counts—is this.

[The sound of a book dropping heavily on a table.]

JUDGE DREDD

This is the book. This is the Law, And you will be alone when you swear to uphold these ideals… For most of us there is only death on the streets… or, for those few of us who survive to old age, the prouder loneliness of the Long Walk into the unknown of the Cursed Earth, to spend your last days taking the Law into the Outlands…

There are medically-disabled Judges and there are dead Judges. There are retired Judges who have taken the Long Walk. Do not ever forget, Cadets, that there is no such thing as a Judge who has set aside those vows you will take… Class dismissed.

[Except for background noise, the tape ends here.]

The barge wasn’t made for beauty. It was three blocks long, solid and black, and built like a slag-iron whale. The Mega-City wall-lock opened like a dark and empty eye; the barge shuddered down through the night and poked its pitted nose inside.

In the amber light of the lock, the rusty hide of the barge seemed afflicted by ugly metal warts. The drive-rings in its belly pulsed in alarming shades of blue. The docking engineer frowned at the rings, glanced at his watch and cursed beneath his breath. It was 0610 and Clydo, his morning relief, was late. If the barge’s rings went totally out of sync—which they very well might, from the way they looked now—a white ball of fire would appear in the wall. He’d be a vapor, and Clydo would get another roach in his record for being late.

The barge finally whined into silence and the lock took hold. The massive craft creaked and moaned. A portal came open with a hiss of dirty steam. A crewman stepped out, rubbed a sleeve across his face, and nodded at the guard.

“Two loads from the prison factory in Hold Number Nine. One from the mines in Six. Prisoner mail in Two.”

The guard looked up from his computer tablet. “No prisoners comin’ back?”

“Just dead ones.” He nodded back into the dark. “Families probably glad to get rid of ’em, now they gotta bury the bastards.”

The crewman stalked off. The guard stepped past him into the dimly-lit hold. Fifteen body bags were strapped to the deck. Each had a yellow plastic tag stapled to his chest. Each bag was stenciled: ASP.

The guard leaned down to check the names. When he first got the docking assignment, it bothered him to get near the bodies. Like he told his wife, it was spooky as hell in there, like a Saturday holo show where the zombies and stuff came to life. He had been on the job eight months now, and the bodies didn’t bother him any more. They didn’t look like zombies, they looked like black bags with dead guys inside. Which proved you could get used to anything if y—

He heard the slight crinkle of plastic and jerked around. One of the body bags sat up, and the hair stood up on the back of the guard’s neck. He reached for his weapon, then stopped, and threw back his head and laughed. He knew what had happened and he knew who it was that’d pull a crazy stunt like this.

“Okay, I’m scared, all right? Get the hell out of there, Jak!”

A pinhole slit appeared in the black body bag. A laser beam thin as a needle touched the guard between the eyes. The guard looked surprised. There might be a punch line to this, but he was too dead to wait around and see.

Rico stepped out of the body bag and smiled at the guard.

“Home, sweet home,” he said.

The lights were always on. The streets were always wet. Everything in Mega-City was above Redtown, and everything above dripped down.

Rico ignored the hungry eyes, the men and women who offered him a peek at their sorrow and their souls. He walked past the crowded taverns, past the holo-kill parlors where every kiss and cut was good as life, and every crime was real.

On a video screen, he saw Vardis Hammond silently mouthing a replay of the city’s block wars. Rico winked at the image and rolled his eyes.

The sign outside said: GEIGER’S BAZAAR. The jittery neon offered SURPLUS PAWN FAXO TOOLS VOUCHERS CASHED.

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.