the Long Walk. Do not ever forget, Cadets, that there is no such thing as a Judge who has set aside those vows you will take… Class dismissed.
[Except for background noise, the tape ends here.]
ELEVEN
The barge wasn’t made for beauty. It was three blocks long, solid and black, and built like a slag-iron whale. The Mega-City wall-lock opened like a dark and empty eye; the barge shuddered down through the night and poked its pitted nose inside.
In the amber light of the lock, the rusty hide of the barge seemed afflicted by ugly metal warts. The drive- rings in its belly pulsed in alarming shades of blue. The docking engineer frowned at the rings, glanced at his watch and cursed beneath his breath. It was 0610 and Clydo, his morning relief, was late. If the barge’s rings went totally out of sync—which they very well might, from the way they looked now—a white ball of fire would appear in the wall. He’d be a vapor, and Clydo would get another roach in his record for being late.
The barge finally whined into silence and the lock took hold. The massive craft creaked and moaned. A portal came open with a hiss of dirty steam. A crewman stepped out, rubbed a sleeve across his face, and nodded at the guard.
“Two loads from the prison factory in Hold Number Nine. One from the mines in Six. Prisoner mail in Two.”
The guard looked up from his computer tablet. “No prisoners comin’ back?”
“Just dead ones.” He nodded back into the dark. “Families probably glad to get rid of ’em, now they gotta bury the bastards.”
The crewman stalked off. The guard stepped past him into the dimly-lit hold. Fifteen body bags were strapped to the deck. Each had a yellow plastic tag stapled to his chest. Each bag was stenciled: ASP.
The guard leaned down to check the names. When he first got the docking assignment, it bothered him to get near the bodies. Like he told his wife, it was spooky as hell in there, like a Saturday holo show where the zombies and stuff came to life. He had been on the job eight months now, and the bodies didn’t bother him any more. They didn’t look like zombies, they looked like black bags with dead guys inside. Which proved you could get used to anything if y—
He heard the slight crinkle of plastic and jerked around. One of the body bags sat up, and the hair stood up on the back of the guard’s neck. He reached for his weapon, then stopped, and threw back his head and laughed. He knew what had happened and he knew who it was that’d pull a crazy stunt like this.
“Okay, I’m
A pinhole slit appeared in the black body bag. A laser beam thin as a needle touched the guard between the eyes. The guard looked surprised. There might be a punch line to this, but he was too dead to wait around and see.
Rico stepped out of the body bag and smiled at the guard.
“Home, sweet home,” he said.
The lights were always on. The streets were always wet. Everything in Mega-City was above Redtown, and everything above dripped down.
Rico ignored the hungry eyes, the men and women who offered him a peek at their sorrow and their souls. He walked past the crowded taverns, past the holo-kill parlors where every kiss and cut was good as life, and every crime was real.
On a video screen, he saw Vardis Hammond silently mouthing a replay of the city’s block wars. Rico winked at the image and rolled his eyes.
The sign outside said: GEIGER’S BAZAAR. The jittery neon offered SURPLUS PAWN FAXO TOOLS VOUCHERS CASHED.
Everything nobody wanted hung from the ceiling and the walls. Rico made his way through the maze. In the rear of the store a fence guarded better merchandise.
Geiger himself looked up and blinked. A cigar dangled from the side of his mouth. His face was long and narrow, his eyes bright gold, like a predatory bird that only hunts at night.
“We’re closed,” he said.
“No you’re not,” Rico said. “You’ve got a package for me. Codename Lazarus.”
The pupils in Geiger’s eyes shrank to tiny points. “Gimme a second,” he muttered, and disappeared.
Rico waited. He timed Geiger. He was back in twenty-nine seconds. Not too long.
“Nice place,” he said.
“It might look like junk to most people, but there’s stuff in here that’s real antiques.
Rico nodded at a row of metal men in shadow behind the security fence. The tall figures looked hollow, like toy soldiers some giant had cast aside.
“Odd to run into something like that,” Rico said. “I thought they slagged all the ABC warriors after the last wars.”
Geiger shrugged. “DeWats. People collect ’em, got nothing else to do. They’re fifty, sixty years old. Nonfunctional, of course.” Geiger showed yellow teeth. “Like my old lady, you know?” He handed Rico a long box. “Here you go. Says ‘Hold for Lazarus’ on top.”
Rico swept a pile of surplus breathers aside, set the box on the table, and thumbed the lock. Geiger pretended not to look, but when the lid slid back he could easily see what was inside.
“Holy… !” Geiger stood back. “Man, is that what I think it is?”
A black, perfectly pressed uniform was laid neatly in the box. On top of the uniform was an item any Citizen of Mega-City would recognize at once; The personal weapon of a Judge, the Lawgiver.
Rico reached for the weapon. Geiger sucked in a breath and grabbed Rico’s wrist.
“Wait a second, don’t
“No? And why is that?”
Geiger shook his head. “Where you been, pal? That’s a
Rico smiled. “Really?”
“Yeah,
Rico gripped the Lawgiver in both hands. Geiger stared, waiting for the weapon to explode.
“That—that don’t make any sense!”
“No?”
Rico squeezed the trigger. Everything above Geiger’s shoulders moved six feet back. It looked as if someone had slammed a dozen pizzas against the wall.
Rico frowned at the mess. “I must be a Judge, pal. What do you think?”
Rico retrieved Geiger’s keys from his pocket, took two of his cigars, unlocked the security fence, and stepped inside. He studied the battered robots, one by one. Finally, he stopped before a tall combat warrior, its metal hide dented in a dozen forgotten wars.
“You’ll do just fine,” he said.
Stepping up on a plastic box, he studied the robot a moment, then removed a narrow panel on the side of its head. A nest of thin cables spilled out, dangling like silver dreadlocks. Rico patiently sorted them with practiced
