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of an animated heart.
    "Anderson?" Having followed her as she went to the wall and cleaned the pictures, Jansen was now looking at her strangely. "You Okay? We seemed to lose you for a minute there."
    "I was just thinking." She directed his attention to the images in front of them. "Makes you wonder, doesn't it? They say childhood upbringing can have a big impact on the way the powers of a latent psychic develop. Maybe if he'd been brought up in another family, Alexei's psychic abilities would have come out differently. As it was, he grew up in a family of religious fanatics, surrounded by images of suffering and torment, no doubt being told day after day that blood has a holy and sacred power. Is it any surprise that's what his unconscious mind latched onto as his powers grew to maturity? Blood."
    "Hmm, maybe." Jansen shrugged. "I'm just a Street Judge, Anderson. I don't care how the kid ended up being able to do what he did. All I care about is that there's been a crime and somebody has to pay the penalty."
    "You don't mean Alexei?" She turned to stare at Jansen. "I told you: the kid was acting in self-defence . If he hadn't used his powers, the priest probably would have beaten him to death."
    "What about the others?" Jansen asked. "There are survivors outside, bleeding out of every orifice. Grud, when I first got here I thought somebody had set off an Ebola bomb."
    "Collateral damage." Now it was Anderson's turn to shrug. "Why do you think Psi-Judges spend so long training at the Academy? Controlling psychic powers can be difficult, especially when you're a frightened ten year-old boy who doesn't understand what's happening to you. Anyway, no pun intended, but you won't see me shedding any tears for the people outside." She looked at Jansen more intently, almost daring him to disagree with her. "His mother, his father, the other survivors, they were all part of it. I don't care if they thought Alexei was possessed. They all stood around, egging the priest on while he beat a child half to death. You talked earlier about people burning witches? That's exactly what happened here, only with a whip instead of a fire. I realise that, as the first Judge on the scene, sentencing is at your discretion, but, if you want my opinion, I'd throw the book at the whole damn lot of them."
    "Duly noted. I was leaning that way already. Just wanted to get a Psi-Judge's perspective before I passed sentence. It's a pretty weighty list of crimes." Holding up his hand, Jansen counted out charges on his fingers, "Torture, Abuse of a Minor, Performing an Illegal Exorcism, Assault with a Weapon Occasioning Grievous Bodily Harm, Failure to Report a Religious Gathering. Plus, a Conspiracy to Commit added to each of the original charges. All in all I'd say that makes it twenty-five years apiece for the ringleaders, with sentences of between ten to fifteen years for the rest of them depending on their complicity. 'Course, that still leaves the problem of what we're going to do with the boy."
    "Problem? I don't follow you. We've established he was acting in self-defence. Standard protocol now says he should be taken to Psi Division HQ for assessment."
    "That's just it." Turning away from her, Jansen nodded towards a doorway leading off from the living room to elsewhere in the apartment. "The boy's still here. After he killed the priest, he shut himself up in his bedroom. When I tried to talk to him after I got here, I found myself getting a nosebleed. Figured it was the kid getting ready to put the blood whammy on me. 'Course, I could've called in a tac-team to try and take him down with tranqs and stumm gas. Seemed kind of harsh though, doing it that way. Kid's probably traumatised enough as it is. That's why I called for Psi-Judge back-up. I was hoping you could talk him out. I know it's a risk, but..."
    "All right," Anderson said, as she moved towards the door he had indicated. "You've sold me." She paused for a moment to cast a last look at the body