The other rider laughed. “I don’t think so. You know who I am? I’m Shock O’Shaughnessy. I’m the winner of the Mega-City 5000! I’m the best biker in the world—and that’s official! So if you think you can out-ride me on your Lawmaster, I’m up for the challenge.” He began to rev the bike’s engine.
Dredd drew his gun and shot out its tyres.
Shock jumped back off the bike and stared at it.
“Run, and the next one punctures a lung,” Dredd said. “Face down on the ground, creep. Hands behind your head. Your racing days are over.”
Eighteen
“YOU SURE YOU don’t want a wheelchair? Or a crutch, at least?” the med-Judge asked Dredd.
“It’s barely a scratch,” Dredd told her as he started to pull on a fresh uniform.
“A scratch. The perp damn near severed your leg, Dredd. After an injury like that, you shouldn’t even be standing, let along thinking about returning to duty.”
“Don’t need to stand if I’m on my bike, Doc.” He pulled on his boots, then strapped his kneepads into place. As he was transferring his badge to the new uniform, he asked, “Judge Ruiz... She still here?”
“Upstairs, room 200.” The med-Judge gave him a look of severe disapproval—Dredd figured that it probably worked on some of her patients—and again asked him to reconsider her suggestion that he take a few days to recover.
“Not interested.” Dredd pulled on his gloves and flexed his fists. “Thanks, Doc. Be seeing you.”
She nodded as he turned toward the door. “Yeah, I expect you will.”
Dredd tried not to limp as he strode through the corridors of the Justice Department Med Centre. A couple of older Judges nodded at him as he passed. He didn’t recognise them, but they seemed to know who he was. He wasn’t certain that he liked that. He’d done his job, that was all.
He found Ruiz’s room and pushed open the door without knocking. The Judge was sitting up in bed, watching TV. “You seen this?”
Dredd glanced at the screen, which showed shaky footage of him on his Lawmaster racing past some of the participants of the Mega-City 5000. “I saw it. Some people are saying that the Department ought to field its own team next year.”
Ruiz said, “TV off,” and the screen blanked. “There won’t be a Mega-City 5000 next year. Or any other year. The Chief Judge is going to announce it in a few months, when everything’s calmed down a little. Over a hundred dead, not counting the bikers. Thousands injured. Millions of credits of property damage.”
“Most of that wouldn’t have happened if not for Chalk,” Dredd said. He paused for a moment. “I heard that you were visited by the SJS.”
Ruiz nodded.
“Can’t have gone too bad,” Dredd said, nodding toward Ruiz’s helmet and uniform, which were resting on a chair close to the bed. “You’re still a Judge.”
“Yeah, pending investigation. They’re saying that I was negligent back in Eminence.”
“You were.”
Ruiz sighed and rolled her eyes. “Damn it, Joe! You don’t say stuff like that! Don’t you have any social skills?”
“Never saw the need for them.”
“You know, your brother’s a lot more empathic.”
Dredd shrugged. “If it means anything, I think you’re a good Judge. I doubt they’ll take you off the streets.”
The door opened behind Dredd and he turned to see an SJS Judge entering. She gave Dredd a thin-lipped smile, and said, “I was looking for you downstairs. I expected to see you still in recovery. Name’s Gillen.” She pulled off her helmet and nodded toward a chair. “Sit.”
“I’ll stand, if that’s not an order.”
The SJS Judge peered at Dredd for a moment, then slowly walked around him in a tight circle. “Interesting day, Dredd. Something of a crucible for you, I think. Senior Judges hampering your work, openly expressing negative opinions of your judgement.”
Judge Gillen stopped in front of him and took a step back. “Five years ago you had the option of shooting Percival Chalk. Given the situation, you would have been well within the law to do so. Yet you chose to use minimal force. A decision that led to today’s events.”
Ruiz began, “That’s—”
Still looking at Dredd, Gillen held up her hand to silence Ruiz. “I’m still speaking. And today, you had that same chance. I’ve seen the spycam footage. Chalk attacked you, ran for his skyboard, and you drew your weapon and shot the board.” Gillen stared at him. “The board. Chalk was a much bigger target, much easier to hit. He was a known murderer. And you shot the board.” She spread her arms. “Haven’t you learned anything from today’s events?”
“Sir?”
“Damn it, Dredd, it’s not a hard concept to grasp! You let the bad guy live, the bad guy gets out and commits more crimes. You kill him in the first place, that won’t happen.”
“Chalk wouldn’t have lived,” Dredd said. “I’d sentenced him to execution.”
“Right,” Gillen said. “And there you were, in the perfect position to carry out that execution, and you chose not to do it. You deliberately went for the harder shot. Yes, Chalk died when he collided with that bike, but that wasn’t your intention.”
Dredd considered everything she’d said. Then he nodded. “Correct.”
“Explain yourself!”
“I’m not an executioner. I’m a Judge. In my judgement letting Chalk live was the correct option.”
“Don’t tell me that all human life is precious, because if you do, I’ll have you dishonourably discharged within the hour.”
Dredd regarded Judge Gillen for a moment, then said, “Judges make the law. We uphold the law. We are the law. But beyond the law, there’s something else. Justice. If you don’t understand that, Gillen, then you are not fit to be a Judge.”
She stared up at him, eyes wide. After a moment, she reached up and tapped her badge. “You see that? SJS. Special Judicial Squad. Don’t you grasp what that means?”
“I do. You’re the proof that our system is not yet perfect. We shouldn’t need you. Judges should be above corruption, above error. But we’re not. We’re human. The Judges exist to guide and protect the citizens, and SJS exists to ensure that the Judges perform their duties to the best of their abilities.”
Gillen didn’t reply. She hesitated for a moment, then again walked around Dredd in a slow circle. “You’re Fargo’s clone. We’ve been watching you from the moment you left the Academy. Every action you’ve taken, every judgement you’ve passed, has been logged and analysed. You’re idealistic, Dredd. Stubborn almost to the point of arrogance. You’re intelligent, highly skilled, not especially imaginative, almost completely devoid of ego...” She stopped in front of him. “And you’re right.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t come here to chastise you, or Judge Ruiz. I’m here to offer you a job. Consider it, Dredd. You are ideal SJS material. You want to improve the Justice Department, to weed out corruption and increase efficiency? Well here’s where you get to do that.” She extended her hand.
Dredd ignored it. “Not interested.”
“Dredd, I’m offering you the opportunity to—”
“Don’t waste your time trying to persuade me,” Dredd said. “It’s not going to happen. My job is out there, on the streets. That’s what I trained for. It’s what I believe in.”
“No one has ever declined a position in the SJS! Dredd, we are the pinnacle of justice in this city. It doesn’t get higher than us!”
Dredd moved toward the door. “Wrong.”
Gillen frowned at him. “What?”
“You’re wrong. The Judges serve the citizens, Gillen. We don’t rule them. Just as the SJS doesn’t rule the Judges... Like I said, you’re here to keep us in line. We don’t work for you: you work for us.”
“No... Wait! Dredd...!”
Dredd opened the door, and paused long enough to nod to his former mentor. “See you on the streets, Ruiz.”
He pulled the door close
d behind him.
His leg was still aching, and it was a long walk back through the med-centre to his Lawmaster parked outside.
Judge Dredd didn’t complain.
The End
About the Author
Irish Author Michael Carroll is a former chairperson of the Irish Science Fiction Association and has previously worked as a postman and a computer programmer/systems analyst. A reader of 2000 AD right from the very beginning, Michael is the creator of the acclaimed Quantum Prophecy/Super Human series of superhero novels for the Young Adult market.
His current comic work includes Judge Dredd for 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine (Rebellion), and Jennifer Blood (Dynamite Entertainment). Judge Dredd Year One: The Cold Light of Day is his first book for Abaddon Books.
www.michaelowencarroll.com
THE MAKING OF THE LAWMAN...
Mega-City One, 2080. It is Joe Dredd's first year as a full-eagle Judge – he may have been created from the genes of Eustace Fargo, the ‘Father of Justice’, and thus part of an illustrious lineage, but right now Dredd is not long graduated from the Academy, and yet to establish himself as the metropolis’s toughest, greatest cop. His reputation will be moulded in the years ahead, but at the moment he’s a young lawman, fresh on the streets.
The brutal murder of a Justice Department-sanctioned spy sparks an investigation that will see Dredd trawl the criminal underworld in the hunt for the killer – and he will discover that all is not what it seems in the sector's murky black market. Something new has entered the system, and unless Dredd can stop it, chaos will be unleashed...
www.abaddonbooks.com
THE CRIME IS LIFE...
Mega-City One, 2123 - and a plague is spreading like wildfire amongst its millions of citizens, apparently turning them into blood-crazed vampires. With the Justice Department struggling to contain the outbreak, Judge Dredd teams up with the psychic Judge Anderson and ex-Judge DeMarco to investigate the trail of carnage and death left by the enigmatic Death Cult. When the cultists fight back by summoning the four Dark Judges - Death, Fire, Fear and Mortis - it becomes a fight to save both the Mega- City and Dredd’s very soul! Based on the explosive computer game by Rebellion Studios, this all-action novel pits the legendary future lawman against his deadliest and most infamous enemies.
... THE SENTENCE IS DEATH!
All-new stories from the future-shocked worlds of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic - 2000 AD! Check out the other books in this series.
www.2000adonline.com
PREPARE FOR JUDGEMENT!
The world's greatest cult comic book star, Judge Dredd, is back on the beat in Mega-City One. Senior Judges from around the world are gathering to sign an important treaty and security in the city is tight. Notorious crime boss Jesus Bludd has evaded justice for decades, but now he's prepared to step out of the shadows for the first time and seize control of the Big Meg. For Dredd, it's a race against time before Bludd completely destroys the city.
Fast-paced SF action with the uncompromising future lawman, Judge Dredd!
All-new stories from the future-shocked worlds of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic - 2000 AD! Check out the other books in this series.
www.2000adonline.com
PREPARE FOR JUDGEMENT!
One of the world's greatest cult comic book stars, Judge Dredd, is back on the beat in Mega-City One - the crazy megalopolis of the future with a population of over four hundred million. The Judges rule with an iron fist, their word is law and their judgement can sometimes be fatal. When the reclamation work on a plaza eradicated during the Apocalypse War reveals freshly mutilated bodies, it's up to Dredd to uncover the truth behind the murders which seem to involve friends in high places.
Fast-paced SF action laced with dark humour from the editor of 2000 AD. Check out the other books in this series.
www.2000adonline.com
The Cold Light of Day Page 12