"This is it," Hank said, as he and Connor stepped out of the warm taxi and onto the sidewalk. The sky was swirling with a blend of white and grey as the beginnings a fresh layer of snow began brewing. Hank billowed out a cold breath and wandered a few steps into the expanse of grass and pavement. Connor followed shortly behind, completely unaware of the frosty bite that hung in the air.
The RK800 looked around himself cautiously. This particular area was more run down that the rest of Detroit, with asphalt, cracked and littered with stones. The scraping of rubber against cement and rocks was loud and grating on his auditory sensors as the taxi turned and headed back off the way it came. Around them sat many chain link fences, sporadically dotting the area, no longer complete, incorrectly doing their jobs as fences. There were a few buildings that surrounded them; mainly apartments that were missing windows, and with boarded-up doors.
"This is a place that the, uh, the renovation guys haven't gotten their hands on yet," Hank explained, briskly walking down one length of cracked paving, inspecting around the side of an abandoned brick and mortar bus stop. Connor knew this already, of course, but he didn't want to tell the older man otherwise.
The pair wordlessly began their search. Hank made his way to a separate small brick shack nearby, with its windows blown out and a blackened shadow creeping outwards from its empty doorframe. It looked as if it had been burnt from the inside out. Connor, instead, turned and looked at the biggest of the two abandoned towering apartment blocks. It was obvious, if not for the failing fencing, that this was a place nobody in all of Detroit would want to inhabit.
Unless, of course, they were holding someone hostage.
Connor silently let his optics take in the scene, detailing what he saw and logging it in his memory. Even if she wasn't here, he was determined to at least get a little more headway into her whereabouts. He was adamant that the PL600 model android back at the DPD office wasn't lying when he said he knew where the kidnappers had been headed.
After a few minutes, he walked over to one of the breaks in the metal fencing, brushing his fingertips over the splintered material. It was sharp. And, it was stained red. He brought the two fingers up to his mouth, where he wiped them against the sensor on his tongue.
His bio-monitoring system lit up red and blue and green, all of the internal lights screaming at him that this was her blood.
"Hank!" He yelled cautiously, turning to see the man hurrying back from the supposedly empty shack, "I've found a match."
An almost out of breath Hank reached his side.
"Well shit. Well-fucking-done, Connor. You think she's up there?" He breathlessly waved a hand towards the nearest apartment block.
He did. Though, it seemed easy. Maybe even a little too easy. They had been in the area no longer than fifteen minutes, and already he had solid confirmation that she was here. Not an exact location, mind you, but a generalised one nonetheless. He figured either the group who had kidnapped Nora were entirely unprofessional and didn't plan properly or they wanted the cops to find them. A bolt of urgency passed through him - what if they wanted the authorities here quickly in order to discover her dead body?
"Possibly," Connor surmised, pushing doubtful minds away, "she could be on any one of those floors. But this is an exact match for her blood." He held up his slightly bloody fingers.
Hank grimaced and pulled out his phone, awkwardly jabbing at some of the buttons, "gotcha. Right. Armed backup is on the way, ten minutes tops. I've let them know we've got multiple people involved."
Determination flooded Connors systems at the thought of a case followed to its completion. He looked hardily at the neglected housing, his thoughts returning to how easy it had been to find their whereabouts.
"Let's go," he said, starting to move in the direction of the derelict site, but Hank roughly grabbed his arm.
"Wait," Hank growled, "you think it's a wise fuckin' idea to go waltzin' in there like we're ready to take them on?"
Connor jerked his arm away from Hanks grasp, but his furrowed brow quickly smoothed out as he soon understood what Hank was trying to say.
"Right," Connor said with a nod, "we don't know their numbers. There could be more people than we are ready to handle."
Hank smiled slightly, "Right, so we don't wanna go makin' any dumb decisions when we're this close, alright?" He thwacked the android heartily on his back with the palm of a hand.
The pair moved over towards the empty bus shelter so they could shield themselves from the bitter wind, and Hank pulled a cigarette packet from his jacket pocket. He teased one from the carton with his mouth, flipped open a zippo and promptly lit it. He then scowled at Connor, who couldn't help but pull a funny face at the man.
"I don't even need to lick anything to know what kind of carcinogens are in that," Connor said, before adding without a thought, "would you like me to tell you?"
Hank growled, again, and shoved his zippo deep into his pocket, "don't you go tellin' me shit, boy."
Despite his disappointment at Hank, Connor couldn't keep the amused grin off of his face. The lieutenant was so easy to aggravate, even though Connor never intended to do it half the time. In a way, he supposed, it made the times he did it on purpose even more entertaining.
It wasn't long before a police car and a SWAT van arrived, rolling noisily over the damaged road. Hank threw down the butt of his cigarette just as one of the high ranking police officers stepped out of the car.
"I could have you written up for that," the grizzled man said pointedly, motioning down at the smouldering stub.
Hank rolled his eyes, picking up the butt and throwing it lazily into what was left of a metal ashtray, hanging haphazardly from the bus shelter wall. Connor beamed at him for doing the right thing, but the smile quickly faded into a determined purse of the lips as he watched members of the SWAT team pile out the rear of the truck, guns gripped and ready.
"This building here?" One of the black-clad men asked, and Connor nodded.
He turned to face the towering expanse of dirty brick and shattered windows, and began to follow behind the large group of armed officers.
"Time to get the girl," Hank said gruffly, and Connor found that all he could muster was a sharp nod.
If you're enjoying the story, feel free to let me know!
My apologies that the chapters are quite short - I find it easy to stay motivated this way :)
I spent all of last weekend and yesterday finishing up my plans for every single chapter of this story. It roughs out at about 35 chapters (give or take)
Thanks for reading!