Judge Dredd

THIRTY-SEVEN

“There’s nothing to keep us from going to fully operational status,” Griffin said. “There is no longer any Council, and the city is in chaos. There is only one authority left that any government personnel will listen to. Me.”

“Yes. That narrows it down, doesn’t it?” Rico raised a questioning brow. “What you didn’t do was kill Dredd when you had the chance. That was not a good decision, Mr. Chief Justice.”

Griffin had years of experience in keeping his feelings to himself. He might have murder in his heart—as he did at that moment—but he would never let it show.

“He’ll keep the Street Judges occupied while we work on Janus,” he said. “It’s not a problem, my friend.”

“I do hope not. I don’t like problems. I like things to go smoothly and quickly. I like things to flow.”

Rico cocked his head slightly, without taking his eyes off Griffin. “Isn’t that so, Ilsa? Rico likes things to flow.”

Lisa laughed lightly. “I believe you have said so on occasion, yes.”

She stood behind Rico, hands at her sides. Griffin thought her features had an almost alien beauty in the flickering blue light of the Janus lab. It seemed inconceivable, almost a sacrilege of a kind, that such perfection stood so close to Rico’s giant robot, that relic of forgotten wars.

Yet, he decided, if Ilsa was indeed perfection, she was a cold perfection, much like the silver monster itself. Maybe they belonged together, along with Rico, who was perfection of a sort himself.

“I’ll be back,” Griffin said, glancing at his wrist. “Someone has to mollify those fool officials. They think the sky is falling down.”

“And indeed it is,” Rico said.

Griffin rose from his chair. “You don’t need me for routine initiation. You know the drill. Central… prepare the Janus facility for full operations. My command…”

“Janus… operational.”

“One more thing.” Rico stepped into his path. “I believe you promised… ?”

“What?” Griffin paused, then understood. “Yes, of course. Central, appoint Judge Rico to the Council of Judges. Appointment to take effect at once.”

Central paused for a full second. “Unable to comply.”

“Why not?”

“Legal difficulties. Judge Rico is listed as officially executed nine years, three months, fifteen days ago.”

“Your listing is obviously in error.”

“Central does not make errors. Judge Rico was sentenced and executed.”

Rico grinned. “Obviously, I got better.”

Griffin gave him a chilling look. “Correction of records, Central. Authority is Chief Justice Griffin. Correction is as follows: Central is not mistaken. You were given incorrect data. Judge Rico is alive. Please correct and carry out my command.”

“Data corrected… Judge Rico is alive… Judge Rico is approved as a Council member as of this date… Entered.”

“Thank you.” Rico bowed slightly from the waist. “I accept, and I will carry out my duties to the best of my ability.”

“I have things to do. Get hold of me if you have to.” This time, Griffin made no effort to hide his irritation. He turned on his heels and stalked across the room.

Rico watched him go. Ilsa walked up beside him. In the silence, Rico could hear the soft fabric of her dress against her legs. She laid a hand gently on his arm.

“You shouldn’t anger him like that. There is no reason for it.”

“Yes there is.”

“What?”

“I like to.”

Ilsa frowned. “That’s a childish thing to say. It doesn’t become you. You don’t have to—Rico!”

She drew in a breath, tried to pull away. His fingers pressed into the soft flesh of her arm until she closed her mouth against the pain.

Rico let her go. “You don’t want to say things like that, dear. Griffin thinks I’m insensitive because of what I am. He’s wrong. I have feelings. Don’t I, Fido?”

The big robot made a rumbling noise at the mention of its name.

“All—all right. I’m sorry.” Ilsa rubbed her arm. She looked at him, let him see her own strength, the fury and determination there. Told him with her eyes that there were places he couldn’t reach, places he couldn’t hurt.

“You and I should not be in conflict, Ilsa.”

“No. We should not.”

He touched her cheek. She didn’t move, didn’t take her eyes from his.

“Then we won’t, will we?” Rico smiled. “We will work as a close, smoothly-running team. I do so like for things to run smoothly. I said that, didn’t I?”

Ilsa didn’t answer. Rico turned, and walked to the computer bank, gazed at the thousand blinking eyes.

“Status of Janus Project, Central.”

“The DNA samples have been removed from frozen state. Operation is on-line. I am prepared to begin the cloning procedure upon command.”

“Put that on hold, Central. Slight change of plans. I wish to purge the DNA samples you have on hand.”

“What?” Ilsa stepped forward, reached out to touch him, then drew back her hand. “What are you doing, Rico? What is this?”

Rico didn’t answer. “Proceed, Central.”

“DNA samples… purged.”

“Central, activate the DNA sampling console.”

“Sampling console activated and ready.”

Ilsa clenched her fists at her sides. The robot warrior whirred, swiveled its head an inch to the right.

My God, it knows… it can sense my sense my emotions, heartbeat—something!

She watched, too frightened now to move, as Rico walked to the dark metal wall. A panel opened with no sound at all. A ceramic shelf appeared. It was antiseptic white, slightly concave. Rico ripped his sleeve away and placed his bare arm in the hollow. A shiny tube whined out of the wall, split itself into eight gleaming needles, clawed for an instant at the air, then plunged its silver fingers into Rico’s arm.

Narrow columns of red began to climb the spidery points. The red disappeared. The needles rose quickly, and sucked themselves into the wall. Rico smiled at the eight crimson droplets on his arm.

“DNA samples have been obtained.”

“Done, and done again, I believe somebody said.”

Ilsa shook her head. “This isn’t right, Rico. It wasn’t part of the plan. Griffin did not authorize you to—”

Rico turned on her, faster than a snake. “Griffin got to be my keeper because he put me behind bars. What’s your excuse?”

“Analysis and replication… proceeding.”

“I’m not trying to make you do anything, Rico. Don’t get excited. I’m just telling you you don’t need to do this. Griffin’s thought this thing out. He’s had years, he knows what he’s doing. He’s going to turn Mega-City around, make things the way they ought to be…”

Rico threw back his head and laughed. “Griffin is a… a plumber, a file clerk. All he’s doing is exploiting my genius, my intelligence and abilities. And yours, Ilsa. Yours as well. We’re the giants here, Griffin is the dwarf. Isn’t that clear to you, don’t you see that?”

Ilsa closed her eyes. “My God. It was a mistake to keep you alive. He should never have done it this way.”

Rico poked a finger between her breasts, hard enough to make her gasp.

“I don’t have to ask what you voted for, do I now?”

“Don’t be foolish. You know better than that.”

“I know what you said at my trial. You wanted me to live then. You want me to live now.” He touched the lobe of her ear, let his finger trail to her cheek. “Don’t you, Ilsa? Because then, as well as now, your reason, that fine cold intellect of yours, told you one thing, and another part of you could not imagine me dying.”

Ilsa forced a laugh. “You don’t—you don’t know that at all, Rico. You don’t know what I’m thinking. You have no idea how I feel.”

Rico touched her lips. Ilsa held her breath, stunned by the power, the force, the raw heat that seemed to draw them together. It was even more intense than the first time, when Griffin had brought him here, the first time she’d seen him in the nine years he had been hidden from the world in the depths of Aspen Prison.

And, when he finally drew her to him, his presence overwhelmed her, took her in a rush.

He bared his arm again, showed her the red spots of his blood where the silver spider had drunk its fill. He didn’t have to ask her, to tell her, she knew what to do, what she ached to do, though she had never known this need before.

“You are an extraordinary woman, Ilsa. This is a moment only you and I could share. No one else, because there are no others like us in the world.”

She brought his arm to her face, let the droplets brush her cheek, brought her lips to each small well of red.

“Yes…” she heard herself say. “Yes… yes…”