Judge Dredd

TWENTY

Dredd decided he was dead.

The big con had squeezed the life out of his lungs, pounded his head against the shuttle’s iron floor. Blood filled his eyes. He couldn’t feel his legs anymore. He beat at the man’s ugly face until his fists went raw and the bastard wouldn’t budge.

He had never thought about death. Death was just there. Death was what you did when you didn’t do life anymore.

Then, in an instant, the world ripped apart in a ball of blinding light. Dredd and the con weren’t fighting on the floor; they were spinning through the air, locked together like two angry cats. The walls of the shuttle went by in a blur. Dredd flailed out and missed, turned end over end and tried again. His fingers found steel; the con’s grip tore free. He stared at Dredd and opened his mouth in a scream. The sound was lost in the howl of escaping air. The con seemed to shrink and disappear.

Dredd saw a ragged slice of blue sky and realized half the shuttle was gone. Something hit him solidly in the back and bounced off into the light, something without a head or legs. Dredd gripped the wall and held on.

Explosion, he thought. Something hit us… not in the shuttle… something outside.

The earth and the sky flashed by in a blur of blue and brown. Not too fast, Dredd noticed, gradually slowing down, spinning, but still slowing down. The front of the shuttle, half of the craft or more, ripped itself apart. The broken shell that was still intact was trying to stabilize itself, bring itself down in one piece. Dredd couldn’t see them, but he knew micro-computers in the molecular structure of the hull were patiently firing thruster rockets to bring them out of the spin. The computers didn’t know that there wasn’t a ship anymore, just a twisted piece of scrap. It was a valiant attempt to put a scrambled egg back together and cram it in the shell.

“Dreeeeedd!”

Dredd heard his name shrieking in the wind. With an effort that strained the tendons in his neck, he turned and spotted Fergie a dozen feet away. He was still strapped down, his fingers clutched tightly around the bottom of the bench.

“Dredd, do something,” he shouted. “Get me out of here!”

“Hold on,” Dredd told him. “We’re going down.”

“No kidding? See, I didn’t know that, I thought everything was fine. Now you tell me we’re going down, you’ve got me all upset again.”

Someone screamed. Fergie decided a lot of people were dead somewhere. A few were still alive and wishing to hell their luck would run out.

“This is all your fault,” Fergie said. “You did this to me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you!”

“You broke the Law, Ferguson. You do the crime, you serve the time.”

“What time?” Fergie stared. “I haven’t got any time!”

“Thirty seconds,” Dredd said. “Maybe forty-five.”

“Shiiiiiiiiit!” Fergie said.

The corridors were dark. Even when Griffin thumbed his flash up to high the beam seemed to fade out and die. The cold steel walls were always thirsty down here. They always drank the light. Griffin had supervised the construction of the tunnel that led to the project, but he was never comfortable in the place. The bowels of Mega-City burrowed deep into the earth, but the tunnel was farther down than that.

Too deep, too cold, Griffin thought. Even too cold for a secret like this.

He was aware of Rico beside him, Rico’s silver eyes and chilling smile. Griffin knew Rico was aware of the fact that he feared the ancient robot, that its presence over his shoulder brought the memories of terrible wars to mind, horrors that Griffin had tried to forget. It filled him with rage that Rico could do this to him, that he couldn’t control these emotions in himself. That Rico knew, that he could smell and taste a man’s fear.

The corridor ended abruptly with a blank steel wall. Judge Griffin placed his left palm against a surface as cold as glacial ice. There was no marking there, no indication that this particular point was any different from the rest.

A sound almost too low to hear throbbed within the metal wall. The warrior robot shifted its massive weight. Its armored head extended from its neck; red eyes whirred from side to side.

“Oh, dear. Fido doesn’t like what’s inside,” Rico said.

“Good. He can wait out here,” Griffin said.

“Couldn’t do that. He wants to be close to me.”

Griffin didn’t answer. The wall seemed to slip into itself, as if the metal had melted away. The scent of dust and ozone filled the air. The room was dimly lit, a large half-sphere. Black, opaque plastic covered the large, geometric structures scattered about the floor.

Rico stood perfectly still, his eyes taking in every inch of the room.

“I can’t understand why Fido doesn’t like this place,” he said. “I simply love it here.”

“I’m not surprised,” Griffin said. “Welcome to Janus. You’ve been so anxious to see it, now you’re here.”

“There is a feeling in here. A sense of… a beginning.” Rico closed his eyes. “Can you smell that, Griffin? Yes, of course you can. It’s an awakening, a dawning. The light says that. It’s always dawn down here…”

Rico opened his eyes, suddenly alert. The robot hummed and moved its bulk in Rico’s path.

Rico glared at Griffin. “Who’s in here? Someone is in here.”

“We’re not in combat,” Griffin said irritably. “Tell that toy of yours to stand down!”

Rico looked past Griffin. His pupils swelled and turned gold. The woman stepped out of shadow into sight. She was tall, dressed in something blue that captured a million shards of light. Her mouth was wide and red, her eyes slightly tilted where the dark hair tumbled past her cheeks to her breasts.

“I know you,” Rico whispered. “I remember you…”

“Yes, you do,” the woman said. “You remember me.” Her voice was a breath of chilly air. She rewarded Rico with a smile.

“You’re Ilsa Hayden. The bitch who testified before the Council. You told the Judges I was insane.”

“And therefore innocent of your crimes,” Griffin added.

“I was simply trying to help,” Ilsa said.

Rico’s eyes burned. “You insulted me. You made me look like a—a mental degenerate. I knew exactly what I was doing. I did then, and I do now.”

“Really?” Ilsa took a step toward him. One small motion with more silent meaning, more blatant sensuality than Rico had ever seen.

“You might want to reconsider your… state of mind, friend. You might need to call on my help again.”

Griffin watched them. They stood well apart, but he could feel the struggle between them, the invisible lines of tension, the hunger and the need. He forced himself to repress a smile. Ilsa was the gift he had hoped for, the control he needed to keep Rico stable, to use him, to keep the howling psychopath inside this creature from emerging and destroying them all. Ilsa could do that. The raw, animal smell of this woman could bind him tighter than the strongest chain.

“Miss Hayden has been a loyal supporter of this project for some time,” Griffin said. “She has watched over it, kept it alive for me. I’m certain you’ll find her experience… invaluable, Rico.”

Rico didn’t blink. “I’m most grateful. I’m sure I can use all the help I can get.”

“We have our work cut out for us.” Ilsa swept one hand about the room. “The equipment’s been dormant for some time. It won’t be up and running without a complete retrofit. I’ve made some notations for you. This should give you some idea.”

Ilsa handed him a thin computerpad. Rico nodded, studied the figures quickly. He frowned, then looked up in alarm.

“Are you certain this is entirely correct? Yes, of course you are.” He turned on Griffin like a snake. “Inducers, nitrogen coils, nano-pumps… Hell, is there anything you don’t need? Why don’t we just nuke the place and start over again!”

He looked at Ilsa. “You’ve kept the project alive, have you? With what, glue and tape?”

“With what I had to work with, Rico.” If his words had offended, she didn’t let it show. “There was never any intention of bringing the project up to working status until we were ready. We saw no point in that.” She raised an eyebrow at Griffin. “Perhaps you should explain.”

Griffin nodded. “Ilsa has kept me apprised of her needs all along, Rico. I’ve had the necessary equipment marked for our use. From hospitals, government facilities, research laboratories… everything slated for different destinations, different names. It’s all there, all ready.” He smiled at the two. “If I set things in motion, when can you be on line?”

“If you can really deliver all this,” Rico said, “tomorrow I’ll have the place working.”

“We can begin to think about bringing the project online in a week. No less,” Ilsa broke in.

They looked at each other, neither willing to waver. Griffin read challenge, resentment—and curiosity as well. Together they could do it. Working with each other, in spite of each other. The attraction between them was the heat that would light a fiercely burning fire, a fire that would change the world, mold it the way Griffin knew it had to be.

“On-line won’t mean a damn thing if you can’t get into Central’s Janus files,” Rico said. He flexed his fingers and ran one hand across his jaw. “They’re still security-locked. If we can’t pry the data out of there…”

“Leave Central to me,” Griffin told him. “You have plenty to do until then. None of this, down here, will be effective if you don’t stir up the Citizens in the street. Ilsa has some good suggestions in that area, too. I’m sure she can help.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Rico said. “I don’t need any help.”

“Oh, I see.” Ilsa shook her head, a gesture that tossed a wave of dark hair over one eye. “I thought you said he was the best, Griffin. I’m afraid I overlooked that evaluation somewhere. All I see is a petulant child.”

“Look, you—” Rico’s eyes flashed.

“Please…” Griffin raised a palm in peace. “Let’s not bicker now, all right? We are all committed to the same goal, ending the squalor, the inefficiency of our world. Replacing it with a new, ordered society.”

Rico’s frown faded. He looked at Griffin and laughed. It was a sudden, abrupt sound that shattered the silence of the room.

“You’ll get your New Order, Griffin. We’ll take care of that, won’t we, sweets?” He winked at Ilsa, then turned and whistled at the robot warrior looming dark at his back. “Let’s go, Fido. Daddy’s going to find you something to bite.”