Dredd: Sadie Summers

The Weight of the Badge

Her jaw tightened. The Futsie had been screaming about his daughter. About a quota. About a Judge who’d crushed her skull during a riot three weeks ago. Summers had heard the name. The Judge was dead now—killed in a crossfire last shift. But the Futsie didn’t know that. All he knew was rage. dredd sadie summers

She looked at the body. At the shattered face of a man who was a victim ten years ago and a monster tonight. She thought of her own first year on the streets. The first perp she’d executed. The way her hands shook for three days. The Weight of the Badge Her jaw tightened

“Good. That’s the difference between a Judge and a executioner. Don’t forget it.” About a Judge who’d crushed her skull during

“That badge doesn’t care about his daughter. It doesn’t care about your guilt. It only cares about the Law. You feel remorse, you file a report. You let it slow your reaction next time, you’re a liability.”

The rain over the ruined hab-block had finally stopped, but the air still tasted of ozone, soykaf, and blood. Judge Sadie Summers knelt in the rubble, her Lawgiver trained on the cracked plasti-crete floor. The perp—a Futsie hopped on homemade bio-chems—was dead. His chest was a smoking crater. She hadn’t meant to fire twice. The first round was textbook. The second was anger.

Summers didn’t turn. “Subject was armed. Discarded kinetic pistol on the stairs. He fired twice. Missed wide.”