In this episode, the Magistrate is to carry out Joshua's death sentence.
Joshua’s muscles tensed, as his hand reached for the remote tucked neatly into his shirt pocket.
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Just before he pressed the button, he looked up in time to see the magistrate remove the helmet of his suit. It was a tired looking, gray haired man that met his gaze.
“Stand down,” he said, as he rose from the bench and the Reapers took a step back and came to rest. “Joshua Claiborne,” the man said, coming around the end of the bench. “I’ve come to deliver a message. You can call me Othello.”
The man shook his hand.
“You’ll excuse me if I am not inclined to exchange pleasantries with my executioner,” Joshua said.
The older man smiled, “Well, that may well be the case some day, but not today. Today, my friend, we are going to set you free, and by that I mean, completely. As far as the Consensus and your friends from New Switzerland are concerned, you will be dead when we leave here. Jordan, bring up the blank.”
“Mr. Claiborne, with your permission, I’d like to extract a bit of your DNA, we can use it to inject into a genetically neutral, “blank” body we’ve been growing for just this purpose. They won’t have any reason to suspect you are not every bit as dead as we tell them you are.”
Joshua didn’t like the sound of that, but considering the death sentence just handed down, it sounded like a hell of an alternative.
“I’m not crazy about that idea, but it’s better than what you offered a few minutes ago.”
Othello looked at his wrist, a green digital counter was scrolling down, “Mr. Claiborne, I have about 12 minutes until the satellite feed on this damn suit kicks back in, then they'll be able to see and hear us again. I have a few things I need to say. We know about your son. He’s one of many. We don’t know what they’re doing with them, but the Dwellers being taken in the last six months are not showing up on rolls in any Caucus city.”
“So, you’re a Dweller sympathizer, or what?” Joshua asked.
“I’m a friend that’s offering you a chance to have the time to find your son. I’m working, along with this squad of “Reapers”, yes, we know what you call us, to sabotage the Consensus when we can and offer real justice for those we have to deal with. I no longer have a family to be concerned with, but all of these men have families, either in stasis, or guarded by the Consensus. They want out.”
“Well, I’d like to help, but it doesn’t work that way. I can’t offer anything without…” Joshua began.
“You misunderstand me, they want to be able to live a free life in the open and that’s what we’re working for. Meanwhile, anyone that furthers that cause is a friend of ours. I’m the new sheriff over this jurisdiction, and I’ll try to keep my men out of your way, but there’s no guarantee that will work, or that someone else won’t come down on you anyway.”
Jordan wheeled in a gurney, with a still corpse that looked exactly like Joshua. He felt a chill run down his spine. They could just as easily bring this thing to life and replace him. Of course, it would be found out eventually, their mental cortices never fully developed, so he would never be Joshua, or even fully human. Jordan rolled up his Joshua’s left sleeve and wrapped a hard metal frame around it.
He felt a series of needles enter his skin.
Then the frame was transferred to the blank and the process was reversed. Joshua knew that within 48 hours, he and the corpse on the gurney would be virtually indistinguishable from each other and then they would kill the poor thing.
The offered Joshua new clothes and asked him to change out of what he was wearing, his outfit was hastily fitted onto the blank to complete the illusion.
“So, what about my son?” Joshua asked.
“All I can tell you is that your intel is solid, look to New Kansas City, we believe that’s where the majority of new Dweller intakes are ending up. Goodbye, Joshua Claiborne, under better circumstances, you and I could be friends. Perhaps we will be some day,” Othello said, offering his hand.
Joshua shook it and the Magistrate refitted his helmet.
“You’ll need to stay hidden here until after dark. We’d like to get the New Switzerland people well clear of here before you leave. I can’t tell you what to do, but I’d steer clear of them if it was me,” and with that, Othello closed the visor of his helmet.
Joshua faded into the background, moving quietly behind the judge’s bench, through the judge’s chambers and down a narrow hall in search of a quiet place to rest.
From their vantage point, looking up to the courthouse from a little less than a mile out, the team from New Switzerland was waiting for a signal. Once Joshua had managed to disable the Reapers, he would step onto the courthouse steps and wave, arms crossed overhead, three times for success, four times to let them know to clear out.
“It’s been 25 minutes. Surely he’d have done it by now,” Braum said.
His mother was more inclined to be patient and let things work themselves out, “Give him a minute, we’ll see.”
As she spoke, a familiar buzz sounded from behind them as over a nearby ridge, two large Consensus drones flew over their cover and into the open area in front of the courthouse. They hovered over the town, aligning themselves, then, it happened.
Each drone released a Brimstone rocket, the payload was equivalent to 10 pounds of TNT each. Within seconds, the top half of the courthouse was in pieces and flames and smoke engulfed what remained.
The Consensus had apparently wanted to make certain Joshua Claiborne did not survive, they hadn’t even bothered to evacuate the six Reapers and head Magistrate the New Swiss had watched enter the building just an hour before.
There was virtually no way that Joshua had survived such a direct hit.