Almost Human
~ Dorian's PoV~
John and I had just return from finding the missing women whose DNA was used for the skin of the illegal sex androids. Detective Stahl had come to congratulate us. It was always amusing to tease John when it came to his crush on her, maybe I might have taken it too far. John turn to walk away when Captain Maldonado asked if all our paperwork on the case was finished. It was heartbreaking that these bots were going to be destroyed, though we were not created by the same manufacturer or considered family, we were still the same. It's as if a fellow man was killed. Though I am grateful that both John and the Captain showed me their sincere sympathy.
"If you two have a moment I would like to speak with you privately in my office." Captain Maldonado stated leading the way to her office.
Once in the confines of the Captains office, John took the liberty of encouraging the Captain to begin, "Captain?"
"Our precinct will be receiving a transfer tomorrow, her name is Detective Riley McCauley. She specializes in forensic science and criminal behavior analyzation." The Captain began and I could tell that John was going to come up with some smart ass remark. "And before you start. I've told you before you're the only man here I trust. She's the daughter of a close family friend. She's smart, she knows what she's doing but her MX won't be functional for at least a week. I'm asking you for a favor John, Dorian. I need you three to partner up until her bot is ready."
"Of course Captain Maldonado." I spoke up almost immediately John looked a little taken aback by my abruptness. John sighed but nodded his agreement. "If I may Captain I have a request?"
"Go ahead Dorian."
"I would like to be present when the bot Vanessa is deactivated." again I saw the sympathy on the Captain's face as she nodded her approval. I excused myself from the meeting and John went his separate way to finish his paperwork.
~ Riley's PoV~
First day at my new precinct, a new start. I walked in and inadvertently grabbed the attention of every officer, detective and MX that was present in the bullpen. I notice Sandra in her office, she gave me a quick nod and continued with her phone call. Taking a deep breath I moved to registration so that I could quickly get registered to meet up with my new temporary partners that Sandra so graciously set up for me. By this point Sandra had finished up with her phone call and made her way over to where I stood.
"It's good to see you again Riley." Sandra greeted me with a smile.
"Captain." I smiled back as Sandra led me to where my desk was.
"Unfortunately Kennex is running a bit behind I sent his DRN to hurry him up." Sandra explained as a call for a homicide came in.
"Captain Maldonado, Detective Kennex and DRN-0167 reported they are responding to the call." An MX informed us, no matter how long I have worked with these androids they still creeped the hell out of me.
"So I better jet and meet up with my partners, I'll report in once I've made contact with Detective Kennex." I stated once the android departed from our company. I gave Sandra another smile before turning to leave.
"Riley..." I stopped and turned back to the Captain, "be careful."
"Always am." I made my way from the bullpen out to parking where my classic if not antique black Kawasaki Ninja ZX6R motorcycle stood waiting. Only slightly wary of the speed limit I took off for my crime scene.
Of course I drew attention when I pulled up to the crime scene. Not many people were used to the sounds of a motorcycle that was over forty some years old, not only that but the officers that were taking in the scene had yet to meet me and probably thought I was some rubbernecking teen. Truth is I look young for my age I'm only in my early thirty's, thankfully I don't look it. Anyway I parked my bike and crossed into the crime scene with no issues. There was only one Detective on the force that had a DRN for a partner, so I knew at once I was walking up to the right team.
"You must be Detective John Kennex, pleasure to meet you." I said with my hand outstretched in greeting. The man before turned his attention on me with a scowl on his face.
"And you are?" He asked with a little malice behind his words. Quickly reading his facial features and the posture he stood in I could tell that he was the kind of man who tried to put up a tough posterior to guard himself from people he didn't know, also that he was in some slight discomfort. I knew this man was a no nonsense kind of person. Should be fun getting along with him.
"I'm Detective Riley McCauley, assigned to be partnered with you and your DRN temporarily on orders of Captain Maldonado." I answered and gave him a brief calm smile. He seemed less agitated with my response and introduced his DRN as Dorian. Said bot was examining the security camera at the front desk that had been shot out. He was able retrieve as much data as he could to deduce that the perps were still in the building.
"John... they went up to the twenty-fifth floor." Dorian informed us. I walked over to the elevator it was probably wishful thinking that they hadn't shut down the mechanism. Kennex attempted the same.
"They shut down the elevator too." He said again agitated. "Send that data to Captain Maldonado so we can try and I.D these guys." Before he could finish his statement I had already started making my way to the stairs. Once my new partners were behind me I ventured to spark a conversation, treading lightly since I knew I wasn't a hundred percent accepted.
"So Detective Kennex, what's your plan?" I asked gun at the ready, I spared a glance back and noticed that for the first time Dorian was sizing me up. He was probably still getting used to the idea of being partnered with one human and now he was thrown a second.
"I got no idea, but we have twenty-five floors to figure it out." I liked Kennex's answer, it kept things a little more light hearted. Dorian shook is head like he wasn't so assured with the plan.
Half way up to the third floor there was an explosion. The occupants of the building started screaming and running trying to evacuate the building. Instantly Kennex and myself followed Dorian as we pushed past the civilians to try and assess what was happening. We made it to a balcony that over looked the lobby, the sight was demented a crater that pretty much took up the entire space of the lobby descended deep below the building, the officers that were trying to manage the evacuation lost.
"Damn!" I swore under my breath, "We're going to have to force the evacuation to the back of the building and fast. Dorian if I may? Is the building still structurally sound?" I asked not trying to overstep my bounds. Dorian looked to Kennex first before his face lit up blue as he scanned the surroundings.
"It is sound." He answered.
"Alright let's get up to the twenty-fifth floor and put an end to this." Kennex ordered, I nodded and let him take the lead. Upon the way we instructed the civilians to the back of the building where emergency personnel were waiting.
As we were ascending through the cluster of people I heard Sandra's voice call for Kennex's status.
"John do not ascend continue directing employees to the emergency exit and wait there until we know what we are dealing with. And John? Did Riley check in with you?" Oh shit I totally forgot to the inform the Captain that I had secured my position with my new partners. Kennex looked over to me questioningly. I'm sure it seemed a little off that the Captain was taking this much caution with me.
"Sorry Aunt Sandra, things escalated kind of quick when I arrived and reported to Detective Kennex." I apologized quickly as we continued to ascend. For the first time I had a partner that thought on the same page as I. The longer we waited for back up or information on who we were dealing with the more casualties we would be dealing with. Detective Kennex showed my thoughts easily on his face which is why he pretended to lose connection with the Captain before hanging up.
"Did you just hang up on Captain Maldonado?" Dorian asked skeptically.
"Yeah, boring conversation anyway." Kennex answered. I couldn't help but smirk.
"Aunt Sandra's not going to be happy." I stated which turn Kennex's attention to me.
"Yeah about that, she didn't say anything to us about you being her niece." the look of distrust was back on the detective's face. I was actually quite curious as to why he had issues trusting people.
"Simple she's my second aunt by marriage, no real blood ties. But she was always around for family functions. I grew up considering her my aunt." I answered keeping my eyes ahead of me. The further up we ascended the less we ran into frantic civilians.
"Interesting." Kennex muttered.
"Any ideas of that plan yet John?" Dorian asked
"Not really I thought back up would be here by now." We were on the sixth floor and climbing.
"Maybe there is another option?" I asked spotting an air duct through one of office rooms.
"The entire air system is interconnected, we only have to make it to the twenty-third floor there's and access door there that will take us up to where they are." Dorian went to explain spotting what I had.
"See I told you the plan would work out." Kennex smirked continuing to lead the way up. I noticed that as soon as the jamming protocol was activated that Dorian's circuitry started lighting up like crazy. There were still a lot of people still in the building calling for help and since there calls couldn't get out naturally they flooded back to Dorian.
"Hey what's with the disco face?" So polite of the detective to add insult to questioning.
"Seriously?" I asked causing both to look at me. "It's kind of easy to see, we jammed the signals of all the emergency calls trying to leave the building they're bouncing back to Dorian." I answered.
"She's right John." Dorian stated.
"Answer the calls we might get some information." Kennex ordered. I was slightly amused with Dorian he answered the calls with natural tongue of whom he was speaking with, but hearing him speak in a woman's voice was just funny. I couldn't stop myself from giggling just a tad. Kennex seem to lighten up just a little before he rolled his eyes at Dorian. In good humor Dorian replicated kennex's voice as he answered another call, and bingo it was just what we needed.
