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including orbital transports and spaceliners. Only vehicles vital to Luna-1's
operation, like this robot train or the constant string of astro-tankers,
were still running. But there were other ships up there, hard-edged shapes
glinting among the stars, watching one another and biding their time.
They circled the Moon like patient vultures shadowing a dying man,
crewed by men who were diplomats in name only, men who kept a vigil for
the first moment of opportunity. Dredd had no doubt that the moment
Luna-1 turned into a fully-fledged war zone, each of them would be
landing troop transports full of well-armed "advisors" intent on planting
their flag on the city.
"We are accelerating," said Kontarsky. She shifted her position behind
a cargo pod and frowned. "This is most uncomfortable."
"I didn't pick this train for the smooth ride," Dredd retorted. "We
couldn't chance trying to take another hopper& This is the best option we
have."
The Sov-Judge gave a nod. "As you say. But these things are not meant
for human passengers and crew. We only have air in this wagon because
the cargo in these pods would degrade without it."
Dredd remembered the last time he'd ridden the rails - aboard a
hijacked, bomb-laden zoom train crossing the Black Atlantic - and
decided that the drab lunar railshuttle was a big improvement.
Kontarsky's escape ploy had been good enough to sneak the two of them
out of the Grand Hall of Justice without arousing suspicion. Judge
Goodworthy had kept his promise and, for all Dredd knew, he was still
sleeping off Kontarsky's nerve strike in the iso-cube, waiting for the
getaway to be discovered.
Dredd had guided them to a railhead depot in District Six, where
automated magnetic levitation trains were dispatched to the distant
outpost domes and factory complexes. From there, it had been a fairly
simple matter for him to locate a railshuttle bound for the destination he
wanted and they had boarded by stealth as machine loaders filled the
train with freight. Kontarsky went along with all his commands up to this
point without comment, but Dredd couldn't shake off his nagging doubts
about the youthful Sov-Judge. It had taken a lot to convince himself not to
just stun her and leave her with Goodworthy, but she'd proven useful
throughout the investigation and like it or not, he had no way of knowing
if something she had said got him caught by the SJS Judges Hiro and
Wright. Kessler was smart, after all and he would have probably put
someone in Kepler Dome just on the off-chance that Dredd would turn up
there. It was what Dredd would have done, if the circumstances were
reversed. On top of that, if Kontarsky was right about Ivanov, someone
with knowledge of Sov protocols could be invaluable.
Still, trust never came easy to Dredd and Kontarsky had a long way to
go before she fully earned his. Keep your friends close, but keep your
enemies closer, he remembered, watching her from the corner of his eye.
"Now that we are outside the city walls, perhaps you would be kind
enough to inform me as to where we are going?"
"I found something at Kepler, in the oxy-station. Someone tampered
with the airflow."
"Tek-Division said the oxygen outage was an accident. That's what
triggered the disturbance."
Dredd shook his head. "I'm not convinced. Those Moon-U creeps were
right there, stirring up trouble the moment the fans stopped spinning.
They knew what was going to happen. They caused it. It doesn't take a
genius to figure out that Moonie is to blame for this."
"Moonie, Moonie, everything keeps coming back to him. I don't
understand, Dredd, what kind of person is he? If what you say about him
is true, how can a man nurture such a plan for two and a half decades
without being discovered?"
The railshuttle rattled through a set of points. "Money, Kontarsky. Cold,
hard credits. Moonie was one of the richest humans alive when I busted
him and back then Luna-1 was a boomtown, full of men who were more
than willing to take his coin - Judges included. And those that didn't work
for him were afraid of him."
"But you put him away. You changed all that."
"I thought I did. Now I'm not so sure. Power like that doesn't just dry
up overnight. Moonie just made sure his assets went dark, so he could
pick them back up when he needed them. If I hadn't arrested him then, he
would have ended up owning the Moon, lock, stock and moonrocks. That's
been his goal all along. What he's doing now, it's all steps along the same
road."
"He wants to become lord of the Moon, is that it? Like some deformed
gnome king from a child's storybook?"
Dredd shrugged. "That's a little more flowery than I'd put it, but yes,
that's about the size of it. He poured his life into exploring the Moon and
it bit him in the ass when that virus infected him. He's been looking for
revenge ever since& He told me once that the Moon 'owes him' and to pay
back that debt he's gonna try to take it all."
"He's insane," Kontarsky pronounced.
"That fact has never been in question," agreed Dredd.
She responded with a slight, humourless smile. "I'm still waiting for an
answer. Where is this train taking us?"
Dredd pointed to the window. "Take a look."
Kontarsky pressed her face to the glass, craning her neck to look along
the direction the railshuttle was travelling. Rising up from the vast bowl of
Catharina Crater was a gunmetal hemisphere. It sat like a vast silver-grey
octopus, thick tubular tentacles extending out to the surrounding
moonscape and vanishing into smaller caverns. In the surrounding acres,
robotic ice harvesters combed the lunar mantle for ancient deposits of
frozen gases, while vent tunnels big enough to drive a mo-pad through
connected the facility with distribution plants in Luna-1. The Sov-Judge
saw the glitter of a holo-sign floating above the dome: LunAir - Every
Breath You Take'.
"The Oxy-Dome Complex," Dredd announced. "The central atmosphere
recycling plant for most of the Moon, including Kepler."
"You think we'll find Moonie there?"
"No, but someone in that dome shut off the air to Kepler and they did it
on Moonie's orders. We find them& "
"We find him," Kontarsky finished.
"Find him!" Moonie raged, his broad, leering face turning pinkish-red
as the blood rushed through the nearly translucent skin over his skull.
Spittle flew from his lips and as an afterthought, he struck his aide across
the cheek. "You are worse than useless, you skinny wretch! You assure me
that Dredd is behind bars, then you tell me that he isn't& What do I pay
you for?"
Sellers's throat went dry and his jaw worked as he tried to explain
himself. Across the table in the Silent Room, he could see the other two
members of the cabal watching his superior's tirade with utter calm, their
faces neutral. In many ways, that was more insulting than if they had
openly mocked him for his mistakes.
"Answer me!" Moonie snapped, rocking forward on his hoverchair.
"Where is Dredd?"
"Our man in the Special Judicial Service is searching," the words came
out in a rush, "and he informs me that Judge-Marshal Che is extremely
distressed about the development."
"He's not the only one!" bellowed Moonie. "We should have taken Dredd
ourselves instead of letting those idiot Judges confine him! That indecisive
dolt Che isn't fit to lead a Mariachi band, let alone a city!" The old man
coughed harshly, his energy all but spent on the effort of losing his temper.
"Better that Che is in charge than someone else," said the bald man.
"He may have found the hypno-pulser we used to affect Tex but his
ineffectual manner will serve our needs just as well." He paused and
looked away. "As for Dredd, your obsession with this man is clouding your
vision of the larger picture." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]