Tyrant's Logic

Augustus’s titanium clad boots thudded on the ground. A few paces ahead of him was a young girl carrying a large backpack. She kept glancing back at him, panicking with every look. Something fell from her hand - a plastic do-dad - clattering as it hit concrete.

“She dropped the detonator!” Augustus heard behind him. He didn’t stop.

“Halt!” August bellowed, his voice augmented by his MJOLNIR.

The girl ran into the subway, but realised her mistake as she ran into the wall at the end of the platform. Her back pressed tightly against it. Augustus stopped in front of her, magnum raised.

“Drop the bag! Move away from it!”

He filtered out the cries as the troopers behind him evacuated the subway. The galleria above the line was still packed with people looking down on the scene: people inside the blast radius. Augustus focused solely on the bomber. Her heart rate was spiking. He kept one hand firmly on his magnum, but the other hand reached up to his helmet, lifting it free.

“Look sweetie, I’m human, just like you. Just drop the bomb and move away.” He said, trying to calm her. Her body tensed; her jaw clenched. She was 12, no older than Augustus was when he started fighting. Her hand moved to the strap, gripping it. As her fingers curled around the strap. A gunshot rang out. The round impacted between her eyes. It tunnelled through, causing a shower of gore when it came out again. Even before she went limp, Ajax charged through the crowd, knocking Augustus aside, and grabbed her head. He reached into her mouth and pulled a molar free, a cable tagging behind it.

“Augustus!” Ajax roared, “What did I tell you about focus?”

“Why’d you fire, she was going to surrender!” Augustus protested.

“She was the bomb! The detonator was in her mouth!”

Ajax walked away from the scene, leaving Augustus attempting to process what had just happened.

Ajax was in the back of the response truck, washing the blood from his gauntlets. It rocked as Augustus climbed in.

“What the fuck?! Who the hell made you judge and jury?!” Augustus shouted, incensed.

“She was about to detonate the charge.” Ajax said calmly, still washing blood off.

“She was about to surrender.”

“And are you willing to stake your life on it?”

“Yes.” He said confidently.

“And the lives of the civilians nearby? They were inside the blast radius.”

Augustus hesitated.

“That’s what I thought.”

“But why?” He stammered.

“Because, one life for many. It’s simple logic.” Ajax said flatly

“That’s cold.”

“It’s why they call it Tyrant’s Logic. It was common back in the war, one small colony here, for a bigger colony there.” Ajax said, gesticulating with only one cleaned hand. He paused for a moment, looking at Augustus’s wounded expression.

“When the time comes, just make sure you’re ready.” He said, as close to sincerity as he could. “Otherwise, it’ll kill you.”