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Over the next fourteen days Anderson bore witness to the worst of humanity. She had followed Dredd's lead without hesitation. Every now and then he would look at her and she would simply nod left or right and he would head that way. Nine times out of ten her choice would hit pay dirt and they would either come across a scene of blood and guts. The remaining one out of ten would be a long drawn out fire fight between them and a bunch of criminals.
She had been shot twice more. Each time she had been patched up and on her feet by the next morning.
At the end of the cycle, fourteen days on (then two days off), she was exhausted. Dredd looked ready for more and had simply sat down on the lounge to clean his guns. It still amazed her that he acted like a machine.
She had tried reading him again but ever since he had learned of her gift his mental shields had been fortified. When she had attempted to push harder he had warned that his mind was full enough with just him in it.
She had begun to study him closely after that.
Every morning he would wake at zero four thirty hours (4:30AM), train in the lounge for exactly one hour, shower, breakfast and armour up to start the shift at zero six hundred hours (6AM) until twenty-one hundred hours (9PM). Come home, shower, eat, and train for another hour then bed by midnight.
She could not keep up with that schedule. Opting instead to get up at zero five fifteen (5:15AM) on the dot. Train for fifteen minutes hard, breakfast, shower and armour up. Start duty & return. Then eat (while he showered) shower and turn it by twenty-two hundred hours (10PM).
They did complement each other well and he was becoming more and more accustomed to letting things go on faith. Right at the start, the council had approved that any evidence gathered under physic interrogation was admissible since she could project it into anyone mind if needed.
Dredd had initially disliked the idea but after the 100% correct assessment rate he had mellowed.
Though he still believed some of her judgements were too lenient.
On the two days off she had no idea what to do.
Judges drew a small stipend that generally went towards mundane things like haircuts and other non-basic items (boot polish and comfortable underwear).
Food, lodging, clothes and ammo were all provided by the city. Judges did not have a personal life as such and recreational use of alcohol, coffee and anything that could impair the mind or body were not permissible as the they were the law and the law is never clouded.
In the academy she was informed that many judges save up their stipend to buy implants or cyborg components to make them better perform in the streets (aka live longer). Others would toe the line and have tattoos or cosmetic implants done. Thought not illegal or banned under the Department of Justice dress code, some cosmetic alterations interfered with the Judge ability to perform effectively and was thus frowned upon.
She had no idea what she would do with her stipend. She could get into any theatre of video complex for free but did not feel like going out, not even to a nice restaurant or such. In the back of her mind she also recognized that donations to charity by a Judge was a crime unless you donated to every charity so as to be unbiased.
"Dredd what do you do with your stipend?"
Dredd paused in his gun cleaning and looked up.
"Never spent it. Have no use for it. Just sits in the account."
"Surely you must have brought something?"
"The law provides me with everything I need. I need nothing more."
Anderson though that through and while it matched Dredd perfectly it did not seem to match her. The stipend each cycle was enough to buy two new dresses at most outlets or enough to procure a family banquet meal at a diner.
Resolving herself to simply leave it in her account she turned on the video player and watched a tacky soap opera that was playing. Dredd grunted when he saw one of the actors throw a parking ticket onto the curb. In her mind she was already tallying up the offence.
Illegal parking first offence one hundred credit fine plus cost for towing. Failure to follow a summons one week Iso-Cube, destruction of a summons four weeks in a Iso-Cube, littering ten credit fine for first offence.
The day was spent in front of the vid-player. Lunch was a sober affair; most lunches were spent at a diner or station house cafeteria. Anderson had decided to reheat a roast meal from the deep freeze and it had come out rather well considering it was her first time ever doing so. Dredd ate with silent single minded attention cutting his meat and vegetables into small bit sized pieces then eating each one quickly and efficiently.
Anderson savoured the meal remembering the days her mother would cook a roast.
With the meal over, Dredd went back to detailing his weapons and Anderson flicked onto the training channel and watched a drill Judge explain how to use a lawgiver and other weapons in various situations.
About half way through the briefing Dredd said something.
"Wrong."
Anderson looked up "Pardon?"
"Wrong, a twenty millimetre caseless round's maximum lethal range is only two hundred meters, If you were shooting from the sixty-seventh floor of a block you would be at most a minimum three hundred meters from the ground ergo there is no point in using twenty millimetre caseless rounds to provide cover fire for Judges moving on the ground level."
Anderson through it through and realized he was absolutely right. After two hundred and fifty meters the round was travelling at terminal velocity of gravity and at best would feel like a rain drop against the skin.
"What would you suggest then?"
Dredd stopped and turned to the armoury. "At that range there is nothing the lawgiver can provide for effective cover fire. Incendiary, stun, full metal armour piecing rounds, all those would peter out at that sort of range. I would suggest high explosive rounds. Simple hit near the perps and you will make them duck if not outright terminate them. The other option would be signal flares; they are dead accurate up to nine hundred meters and even then go a good six hundred meters more with a respectable amount of accuracy. You could blind the attackers and mark the attackers position for Judges on the ground to take out. If you were good enough to nail a perp with a flare directly it would probably bounce off but it would scare them."
"Wow, I never thought of pointing a signal flare anywhere but up."
"When you're low on ammunition a signal flare at ten feet will kill."
"Ok, why are you not in the academy teaching this stuff?"
"I was, every single one of the cadets assigned to me graduated. They were the best I could make them. All of them were killed within a year serving the Law. The council believed that my teaching methods were too effective, that I drove them to go beyond the call of duty. So I returned to the street and wrote a manual for them to gloss over. As far as I am concerned they served the law as any Judge should."
"I read your comport, it was rather informative."
"It seems I will have to write an addition if they are teaching this on the vidnet. "
"Well it will fill in your days off."
"Seeing as you are the only physic so far in the Judges I suggest you think about doing something similar lest your unique skills die with you."
Anderson thought about that. She had never been called upon to do anything about her mutant abilities aside from use them. Then considering that she had no idea what do on her off days it was a smashing idea.
"Sounds like an interesting prospect but how do I go about doing it."
"Write it like a weapons manual. Insert felon here, focus on part A here while doing part B etc." Dredd turned away and began counting rounds of ammunition.