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bared in a snarl.
Constellations of light exploded inside Dredd's skull, flares of pain
making him dizzy. He shifted, coming to his feet, trying to gather himself.
"Tough old bastard& " Wright's voice said from somewhere nearby.
"Not tough enough," retorted Hiro. "Got your gun?"
"Yeah."
"Then shoot him."
Dredd launched himself toward the SJS-Judge just as something
sun-bright and sizzling struck him hard in the chest. The walls of the
oxy-station seemed to shift and merge, as if they were collapsing in on
him. Darkness gathered in on Dredd, voices chasing him into a senseless
black void.
"You could have killed us all with that stunt, Hiro."
"Don't be such a weakling."
Che examined the object on the desk before him and his lips twisted in
a weary grimace. "And this is?"
"I believe it is some form of listening device," said Kessler, absently
running a finger over his scarred chin. "After you were sworn in I took the
liberty of ordering a deep scan of Judge-Marshal Tex's& Uh, that is, of
your office and my technicians discovered it. The unit self-destructed
before we could make a thorough examination, but it appears to have
been a transmitter."
Che pushed it away. "Bugs planted in the Chief Judge's office. How did
we come to this? It sickens me to think we may have turncoats and
crooked Judges among our forces!"
"I wholeheartedly agree, sir. Luna-1 is a city that enjoys unprecedented
freedoms, but because of that we must also be the most watchful. That is
why the SJS is also free to pursue its objectives to the bitter end." Kessler
said the last words with relish.
"I want every officer on the take found and purged!" Che thumped the
desk with his fist.
Kessler smiled crookedly. "Already in progress, sir. We are investigating
the technician Maktoh, who I suspect Dredd killed in order to prevent
discovery of his own collusion and Rodriguez. There may be others."
Che nodded. "What is the word from the street? Is the curfew holding?"
"For now, Judge-Marshal. There has been some squawking from the
veterans' societies and citizen rights groups about the possible effects on
the upcoming Apocalypse Day anniversary, but we've dealt with that."
Kessler handed the Chief Judge a data-pad. "We still have a few isolated
pockets of trouble here and there - an incident at the Tycho Brahe Hilton
hotel and a fire at the Leisureplex - but nothing that cannot be quelled
with the correct application of force."
"And those punkamente channel hackers?"
Kessler's face soured. "Their transmissions remain untraceable, sir. Tek
Division simply do not have hardware advanced enough to block their
frequency-hopping attack programs. Short of shutting down every
vid-screen, net-link and radio on Luna-1, there's no way we can stop
them."
"And so they continue to goad us and make the citizens side against
us," he spat. "If you can't block the signals, than find the source and
destroy it! There is a cancer at the heart of this city, Kessler and these are
all symptoms of it. I want it cut out, do you understand? Ripped out, if
needs be, but gone!" He stood up and began to pace. "Tex's death will be
avenged, of that you must be certain!"
"My sentiments exactly, Judge-Marshal. You should know that two of
my best men have reported in with Dredd in custody. He will be arriving
in confinement in a matter of minutes."
"Dredd! I never wanted him up here, do you know?" Che studied the
room around him. Despite the events of the past twenty-four hours, he
could not settle himself with the idea that the city was now his to
command. "I told Tex that we could handle these insurrections ourselves,
and now it has come to this."
"Desperate times require extreme measures," said Kessler archly.
"Dredd is a tricky one. He lives on his reputation, but only the clearest
thinkers can see he's not all he appears to be."
"I& I never wanted to take Tex's place, Kessler, you understand? Not
like this. I don't know if I can do the job that he did."
"You have the full support of every man serving under you, sir," Kessler
replied smoothly, "including the Special Judicial Service."
Che gave a vague nod. "Yes& Thank you, Kessler."
A chime sounded from the intercom. "Chief Judge, we're ready to begin
the conference."
"Very well," Che sat down and turned to face the eagle's-eye window.
"Begin." The glasseen oval flickered and changed to become a series of
smaller screens. Each displayed the face of a senior Judge from the
member states of the Global Partnership Treaty, some broadcasting from
Earth, others from their courier ships in lunar orbit. Kessler sneered as he
saw Kommisar Ivanov appear among them.
A dozen voices began talking at once, all of them raised and angry.
Che waved a hand in front of his face, as if he was dismissing a nagging
insect. "One at a time, please, senors!"
Kessler watched as Che fought off recriminations and harsh words from
representatives of a dozen city-states. Each of them said it in a different
way, but all of them were pushing the same agenda - they all believed that
Luna-1 was on the verge of collapse and that their city was the one that
should step in to take over.
Kessler kept his expression set, but inwardly he sneered. Look at them,
fighting over the Moon like a pack of rabid dogs! The SJS chief doubted
than any one of the diplomats and representatives had the strength of will
to keep Luna-1 in line. Only a hardened man, someone like himself, was
capable of that. His eyes drifted to Che, whose face was ruddy with
anxiety. Perhaps, he thought, I may have to take a more proactive hand in
things&
Then the feed from Mega-City One was highlighted and Chief Judge
Hershey's face rilled the screen. "Judge-Marshal Che, before we go any
further, I must protest your issue of an arrest warrant for Judge Dredd-"
Kessler broke in before Che could answer. "You may protest all you
want, Chief Judge, but you have no jurisdiction here. Dredd is my prisoner
and he is going to answer for his crimes!"
The SJS-Judge's words set off a new storm of invective from the screens
but Kessler simply looked on, a mocking glint in his monocled eye.
Consciousness returned to Dredd as a series of slow, dull aches all over
his body. He opened his eyes and his vision swam for a moment before he
recognised the shape of a bio-lume strip above him. Gingerly, he righted
himself; someone had roughly deposited him on a bunk in a standard
iso-cube. Almost very item of Justice Department-issue clothing was gone,
even down to his boots. All they had left him was the regulation blue-black
undersuit and his helmet.
Dredd washed away the metallic taste in his mouth with a cupped
handful of water from the sink mounted in the far wall. Aside from the
bunk, the steel toilet in the opposite corner of the room and the black
dome of a scanner in the ceiling, the cell was bare. The Judge absently ran
a hand over the plasteen walls. He'd lost count of the number of perps he'd
put in places like this one, but he remembered with absolute clarity every
time that he had been forced into a cell. It happened with a regularity that
Dredd found extremely irritating. Anywhere else and he might have held
out hope for a fair trial, a chance to prove his innocence - but with Kessler
prosecuting him and Moonie's unseen influence infesting the Luna-1
Justice Department, Dredd had his doubts.
Once I get out of this, he thought to himself, I'm recommending a
serious review of the Luna Judge force.
He stepped up to the cell door and peered through a grille. Beyond, he
could see a dozen more doors and a corridor leading off around a corner.
Dredd guessed that he was in the sub-basement levels of the Grand Hall of
Justice, in the long-term holding cells. Before too long, he'd probably be
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