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send you one of our best men, you kill him!"
Standing at attention next to Dredd, Sov-Judge Kontarsky fought to
hold down a sneer. Best men? Rodriguez had been anything but that, a
loutish oaf that Ortiz had wanted out of his hair, but given the direction
the conversation was taking, she realised it would be impolitic to point out
that detail at the moment.
Tex was fighting his corner as hard as the SouthAm Judge. "You're
blamin' Luna-1 for this? Perhaps you didn't read that report that we sent
you, Ortiz, but I reckon you'll find that it was your man who assaulted
fellow Judges and murdered a half-dozen citizens!"
Ortiz seemed not to hear. "What did you do to him, huh? How did you
make it happen?"
Judge-Marshal Che spoke up from where he stood. "You're not saying
you think that we caused Rodriguez to go insane?"
Ortiz gave Che a filthy look. "Oh, so now you've got something to say?"
The rivalry between the Judges of South America's Pan Andes and
Mex-City was always a source of friction between SouthAm and Luna-1.
"Hundreds of our people live in the lunar barrios of Puerto Luminia and if
we can't be sure that Luna-1's Judge force is looking out for Pan Andes
interests, things are going to get mui furioso!"
"Speak plainly!" Tex growled. "What in Sam Hill are you gettin' at?"
"This isn't the first time you NorthAm and Eurasian types have put the
Pan Andes cities at the bottom of the pile. This is, how do you say, the thin
end of the wedge! I'm recommending that the Pan Andes Conurb and
Ciudad Barranquilla councils consider full withdrawal from the
Triumvirate and diplomatic relations with Luna-1!"
"You've been looking for a way out of the lunar treaty for ages, haven't
you, Ortiz?" rumbled Dredd, speaking for the first time. "And now you're
going to blow up this incident in order to justify your needs."
"The killer himself speaks at last," snapped Ortiz, masking the moment
of hesitation that Dredd's words forced from him. The Mega-City Judge
had touched a raw nerve. "You should be happy that I'm not demanding
your extradition for trial and execution, Dredd! If Tex has any sense, he
should have you suspended!"
"Judge Dredd was following standard-" began Kontarsky, but Ortiz
spoke over her.
"If I want to hear the whining of little girls, I'll go find myself a
streetwalker." He fixed Tex with a gimlet eye as the Sov-Judge fumed. "I
want Judge Rodriguez's body on its way home within the hour and I'm
ordering our courier ship to prepare for departure. Our business, Senor
Tex, is at an end."
"Rodriguez's autopsy isn't complete," said Che. "We must give his
corpse a full-"
"Within the hour," Ortiz repeated with force. "Or else I'll send an armed
cruiser to recover it. Judge Rodriguez deserves a hero's funeral." Before
anyone else could speak, the comm-link cut and the screen flickered into a
grey rain of static.
Tex sat heavily in his chair and shook his head. "Y'know, Joe, when I
called you up here I expected to have a few deaders lyin' around because of
it, but I never reckoned you'd be shootin' your own men."
"You saw the security tapes from the Shoplex. Rodriguez lost it. I had
no choice."
Tex glanced at a monitor on his desk, where a loop of the SouthAm
Judge's trail of destruction was playing. "Damn it, Dredd. Couldn't you
have winged him?"
"Not without losing another innocent life. I made the call, Chief Judge.
I take full responsibility for it."
Tex chewed his lip. "It ain't that simple, Joe. I'm responsible for what
happens up here, not you." He stabbed a finger at the screen. "This is the
last thing I want right now. It's already being broadcast city-wide by those
Moon-U hackers."
"I was against this taskforce from the start," said Che. "Perhaps we
should consider dissolving it."
Dredd gave him a hard look. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," he
said bluntly. "Chief Judge, my team is making progress with this
investigation. I need to follow this through to the end."
The Texan's eyes narrowed. "You're on thin ice, Joe. Luna-1 ain't like
Mega-City One. We gotta half-dozen nations cheek-by-jowl here and that
means keeping everyone happy - or else what little support we get from
Earth is gonna dry up."
"I don't think what happened to Rodriguez was a fluke," Dredd said.
Beside him, Kontarsky's brows knitted in surprise. "His breakdown was
engineered. Someone did it to throw a spanner in the works."
"How could you possibly be sure of that?" said Che. "The
Med-Division's initial examination of Rodriguez showed nothing
untoward."
"Call it a hunch," Dredd replied. "And you yourself said that his autopsy
was incomplete. We need to examine the corpse in more detail."
"Can't do it," said Tex. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to risk an
international incident with Ortiz and his boys just on the basis of your
hunch." He nodded towards the door. "Get back on the trail of those guns.
I'll try to smooth things over with the Banana City gang."
As Dredd and Kontarsky reached the exit, Tex called out again. "Joe? I
know it ain't your style, but can you try to keep the bodies to a minimum
from now on?"
Kontarsky studied Dredd for a moment before speaking, as the two of
them walked through the corridors of the Luna Grand Hall of Justice. She
barely covered her surprise when Dredd had announced he suspected
something unusual about Rodriguez's aberrant conduct. Kontarsky had
considered the same thing herself, but dismissed the possibility as a wild
supposition; her kadet instructors had always drilled into her that facts
and facts alone were what made law enforcement work. East-Meg Judges
did not believe in "hunches". Yet, the fact that Dredd had also come to a
similar conclusion gave her a swell of pride that was very un-Soviet.
"So ask me," Dredd said, without looking at her.
"Why do you think Rodriguez was& influenced?"
"You were there. You tell me."
She chewed her lip. "It& It was more of a feeling than anything else,"
Kontarsky managed. "Something about him just seemed to be off." She
shrugged. "Well, more off than his usual behaviour."
Dredd nodded. "Last night when we saw the hacker attack on the
blimp. And again in the M-Haul offices."
Kontarsky gave a small smile. "Didn't you tell me earlier that you
wanted facts, not speculation?"
"When you've been on the street as long as I have, you'll learn how to
tell the difference."
She accepted this with a nod. "So, has your conclusion caused you to
alter your opinion on my theory about an outside influence on the Kepler
Dome rioters?"
Dredd gave a small shrug. "I'm keeping an open mind."
"The point is moot, anyway. Without a chance to study Rodriguez's
body in close detail, any conclusions we have remain unfounded."
The senior Judge rubbed his chin, thinking. "Can't figure out why Ortiz
is so eager to get the body back."
"I'm sure it is to prevent a deeper autopsy. It's not that I believe the Pan
Andes Conurb are involved with our investigation, but it is common
knowledge in East-Meg Two that SouthAm Judges have illegal
bio-modifications banned by the global cyberware treaty& "
"Oh?" Dredd said carefully.
"Strength enhancements, cybernetic brain implants, penile
extensions& All of which I'm sure would be discovered on a deep scan by a
Med-Tech. Use of stimulant drugs is also prevalent among their law
enforcement community."
Dredd nodded. "Ortiz would be hard-pressed to make claims about
treaty violations if it was found out his men were doing the same thing,"
he sneered. "I'm getting sick of all this political garbage."
"It is sometimes necessary-" Kontarsky began, but Dredd cut her off
with a growl.
"What's necessary is to solve this case. Anything else is of secondary
consideration." The Mega-City Judge fixed her with a hard stare and
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