"Looks like it's been cleaned out," Hank spoke as he was crouched over clinging onto an empty blue blood pouch.
The warehouse almost seemed familiar to Henri. It caused her to recall the memory that the ST300 gave her. Except that the only difference was was the lack of dead bodies. "There are few signs that anyone has ever been here," Henri gazed around the massive but now vacant place.
Connor knelt next to Hank, "I don't think we will find anything here that can further our investigation."
"Let's just make sure," Hank replied while standing back up. "Let's look through everything."
"Got it, Lieutenant." Connor promptly obeyed and wandered off into another corner of the building.
Henri waited for Connor to gain distance from her and Hank before she spoke, "There is a possibility Markus will return. Depending on his needs he might make another order and have it sent here again."
"That's a big what if," Hank became despondent. "This is a waste of time."
Henri sighed and gaped up at the ceiling, "I know things seem a bit grim at the moment, but we have to act on something. I say we stake the place out for the next week or so and see what happens."
"You really think he'll come?" Hank wasn't impressed by the idea of sitting in a cold vehicle for the next week watching for who knows what.
"Nothing is for certain," Henri saw Connor making his way back to them, "But it's worth a try. We need to find a solid lead, Hank."
Connor arrived next to Henri, "There is nothing of note in this place. It has been sufficiently evacuated."
"I suggested to Hank that we keep an eye on the place for the next week or so," Henri turned to Hank who was ignoring her once more. "The three of us can take turns on the lookout."
"Why would anyone return?" Connor couldn't see the value in it. "There is nothing left here that would be of any use to an android or a human at that."
"You're gonna have to humor me on this one, Connor," and she knew he would. Anything for her, right?
Hank finally joined in on the conversation, "I say we do it."
Connor darted his eyes between the two, "If the two of you see it that way I won't argue. But in my opinion, it is a waste of our time. The longer we take to apprehend Markus the worse the situation will become."
"Yeah, Connor, I know," Hank continued to defend Henri's idea. "But if you ask me, this our best lead right now. I'll take up watch until tomorrow night and then one of you can switch with me."
Henri surmised that Connor could be losing his patience for her and Hank's secrets. "Connor, I promise you we are doing everything we can right now. I know it's not much, but it's something."
Connor's face was plastered with a vacant but irritated expression. Was he feeling frustration towards Henri and Hank?
"I'll take watch after Hank," Connor eventually replied.
Henri observed the unique look on Connor's face; she had never seen that expression before on him, "Good. I'm meeting with Dr. Polanski when he arrives tomorrow night anyway. And if anyone does see something, just make sure to call the others in."
"Got it," Connor replied sharply as he strode away from them.
"I think you pissed him off," Hank folded his arms and laughed at the thought. "That's impressive. But I can't blame him. I'd be pissed too if I suspected you two were keeping shit from me."
"You realize how complicated this all is?" Henri spoke quietly but bluntly. "I'm not sure how I could make it any less," and she followed after Connor.
"Shit," Hank shook his head with the remnants of his grin still on his mouth. "Complicated girl."
"Thanks for taking me out to dinner, Henri," Dr. Jensen Polanski spoke as he swirled a glass of wine in his hand, "Very generous, this is a nice place, too." he added while gazing around the modern and slick restaurant.
"Not too nice," Henri wanted Jensen to be comfortable, but not too comfortable. "Place opened up this year; the cooks are all androids. Even though they can't taste food they still have an appreciation for it."
Jensen gave Henri a tranquil smile, "We've never done this. You and me and a lovely dinner."
"I was trying to be friendly," in truth Henri felt troubled when she invited him. "You needed food after a long flight and I wanted to make sure you were up to the task at hand."
"Ah," his voice became tight and his grin faded. "So all business then?"
"Of course," Henri sensed Jensen's discomfort. "I'm not sure we have much else to talk about, Jensen. You know me; you know my life."
Jensen erased his gloom and consumed a large gulp of wine, "But I don't want to talk about how crazy and awful our jobs are. The only time I've spent with you was under duress from our superiors. But it's not really like that anymore."
"It mostly still is," Henri sighed staring at her own empty wine glass. "I still do things I don't want to do and I still hate myself for it."
"We didn't choose this, Henri," Jensen desired to console Henri in her negative feelings. "We make the best of it and still live some sort of life. I always knew you deserved better than that place, but what choice did we have?"
"I'm not seeking out sympathy for my woes, Jensen," Henri ranted at the man. "I don't want to talk about it either."
"It's settled," Jensen replied calmly. "We won't talk about it."
"I need your help, Jensen," Henri pleaded with him. "I need you and Kamski to find a way around this virus. We're running out of options and I need this to work."
"I promise you I won't give up," he reached out his hands and placed one of Henri's palms in his own. "I won't stop until we find what we're looking for no matter what it takes."
Henri slowly removed her hand from Jensen's grasp, "Thank you, that means a lot to me."
"Henri, I-" a waiter poured more wine in their glasses and Jensen took another courageous gulp, "-I always admired you, you know? I uh, I uh knew you were special even before all the changes."
"Jensen," Henri's voice trembled; she was afraid of what his next words might be. "You know I'm not interested in a relationship. My, my life is complicated and you know this."
"You've been the singular consistent thing in my life these past five years," Jensen responded. "I haven't seen you that much, but spending time with you got me through that place. I know in the end, despite everything, you liked me, too."
"I don't have fond memories of the lab, Jensen," Henri insisted.
"Have you seen anyone after Tom?" Jensen remembers the waking nightmares she would have about Tom's death. "Are you afraid to get close to anyone after what happened? You'd rather spend the rest of your life alone?"
"That's not it," Henri hated to admit she had feelings for anything or anyone. "Jensen, I will always remember you as a part of that lab. You will always be a reminder of the worst part of my life. I-I know you don't want to hear that. I like you, but it'll never be like that for us."
"Do you at least care about someone?" he was desperate to know a part of her was happy.
"I don't know." Henri thought about Hank, but mostly she thought about Connor. "Who I care for doesn't matter. I will always have to leave them."
"I'm sure Khatri would prefer it that way," Jensen grimaced thinking about the unethical swine of a woman. "She wants you to be her little guinea pig forever. I wish she would just let you go."
"That'll never happen," Henri frowned in response. "We've been trapped by her and there's no way through. I won't waste my time on people I'm just going to abandon."
"Are you sure about that?" Jensen scrutinized her glower. "You seem depressed, which is unlike you. You seem emotional."
"I'm not..." her voice faded in her sorrow. "I'm not depressed, Jensen."
"You've been conditioned to go against anything that'll make you happy," Jensen took one final sip of his drink. "Maybe it's time you made your own decisions in life."
Henri had spent the better part of her life making abysmal decisions. She made all the wrong decisions when it came to her mother, so who was to say she wouldn't make even worse decisions when it came to her father? It was best that Henri stayed out and away from her own feelings.
"Good evening, Hank," Connor said this as he entered the passenger side of Hank's car. "Where's Officer Wilson?"
"I sent him home for the night," Hank answered as he eyed the paper bag Connor held. "Garcia should be here in the next hour or so."
"I brought you some dinner." if Connor didn't, who knows what type of unhealthy fare Hank would seek himself.
"Thanks," Hank replied as he snatched the paper bag from Connor's fingers.
"See anything?" Connor peered at the warehouse from down the alley.
"Only way in," Hank pointed at the ramshackle bay door of the aged building. "Luckily whoever used to live here boarded up the front. What a crummy place to have had a goddamn refugee camp in."
"There are comforts that androids don't require, unlike humans," Connor advised Hank. "We don't require sustenance, a place for rest, a-"
"I get it," Hank stopped Connor's rant. "I'm well aware by now of what android's needs are."
"Good," Connor bobbed his head.
"What the fuck, Connor?" Hank said as he pulled an unsatisfactory meal from the brown bag.
"It's a sandwich," Connor stated. "Specifically it is a vegetarian sandwich that contains 560 calories and a third of the daily recommended intake of protein and vegetables. It's healthy."
"I don't do healthy food on a stakeout," Hank slapped the sandwich back in its bag.
"I am here to relieve you from your post," Connor corrected the Lieutenant. "So you are no longer on a stakeout. I will be here until Henri arrives tomorrow night."
"I'll finish this first," Hank reluctantly reached back into the paper bag.
"I am suspicious about this Dr. Polanski that Henri is meeting with tonight," Connor made no excuses to start talking about her. "I was unable to acquire any information in regards to Jensen Polanski. I can find no evidence of his existence."
"Well," Hank jerked his shoulders back. "I dunno, Connor. Girl's got all types of strange friends. She works for the FBI, so who knows what she's into."
"I am concerned is all," Connor tried to justify his statements. "She is our partner and we need to look out for her."
"Connor," Hank sighed with a chunk of sandwich in his mouth. "We've been through this. She can handle herself."
"But what makes you so sure?" Connor was confounded by Hank's confidence in her. "I can't help but recite what Kamski told me: She needs to be saved from herself."
"Oh yeah?" Hank turned and scowled at Connor. "And you're the one to do it? That Kamski guy is full of shit."
"It's not just that," Connor spoke defensively. "I do like her, Hank. I know she's a good person; although, it is hard to see it at times."
"No, I know," the intense frown disappeared from Hank's face. "You've said that before." Hank examined Connor's face like he was searching for all life's answers in the precious android's features, "What do you feel about her?"
"Feel?" Connor paused. "I've mentioned I like her."
"Yeah, but you like me." Hank sneered.
"I don't know how I feel," Connor responded confidently; he was certain he didn't understand what he felt about her. It wasn't anger or sadness or happiness, so what was it?
"Well," Hank was pleasantly amused by Connor's answer. "Welcome to the club, son."
"Hello, Connor," Henri spoke in undertones as she carefully entered the passenger side door. "All alone?"
"You've proven to be a punctual officer, so I relieved Officer Garcia five minutes ago," Connor remarked without moving his eyes from the empty warehouse bay. "Officer Williams is scheduled to be here in twenty-nine minutes."
"Guess I'll wait with you then," Henri surveyed Connor's seemingly intense concentration on the door. "I'm glad you're taking this seriously."
Connor eventually turned to her and raised his eyebrows, "I used to repeat a coin trick when I would go into states of information processing or attend tasks that required mental concentration. Hank stole that coin from me over a year ago; he never gave it back."
"That's an interesting story," Henri squinted at him in confusion.
"My point is," Connor placed his attention back on the door. "I haven't thought about it until this moment. I feel that I miss it."
"You're feeling nostalgic about it," Henri elevated her chin with a faint smile. "Missing things from your past is just another aspect of feelings. You have to take the bad with the good."
"Hank does always say that emotions screw everything up," Connor pushed out a vague sound of realization. "But it's also what makes life worth living."
Henri licked her lips and let out a weak scowl, "I suppose so."
"Look at that," Connor gestured at two people cautiously entering the warehouse. "Two androids. One is an AC700 the other a KR200."
"You said the android that Simon mentioned was an AC700," Henri recalled.
"We can't confirm that this is the same android he spoke of," Connor's hand reached for the car door handle. "We should follow them inside."
"Be careful," Henri made her way out of the vehicle. "If things get rough, try not to let them touch you, Connor."
"Got it," Connor nodded in the yes-sir-I-understand-sir way that he always did.
Connor and Henri gingerly lifted themselves onto the dock attached to the warehouse's bay door. The door had been lifted only a few feet up, so the pair gently rolled into the dark building. The building was lit only by glowing streetlamps reflecting off the snowy roads and in through the stained windows.
Connor steadily lifted himself to his feet as Henri continued to scan the area while flat on her stomach. Neither of them could see anyone or anything. Finding androids in the dark was a challenging task because they were difficult to detect via infrared. Nonetheless, Henri could hear someone shuffling; someone was trying to be as subtle as possible.
Henri's first idea was to communicate with Connor telepathically, but obviously, that was ridiculous. If she did that, a lot of her secrets would be out the window. However, it would have made their lives a lot easier at the time if she could have.
She got up next to Connor's shadowy figure, "I hear something," she whispered to him and pointed at a nearby wall that was falling apart.
Connor's jacket rustled as he pulled out his gun. Henri had a feeling that pointing a weapon at one of these suspects wasn't going to stop them. These androids had a tendency to self-destruct. It was difficult to threaten someone who would rather die for their cause.
The AC700 grabbed Henrietta from behind. It was quick and quiet; she never saw him coming. Connor became distracted by Henri's struggle and failed to notice the shuffling KR200 jump at him from behind the deteriorating wall. But Henri's fight was a fast one, unlike Connor's. Henri threw her weight backwards and fell on top of the AC700. While it was temporarily stunned, she flipped around and punched him in the face. It was a perfect punch; she disabled him without doing any critical damage to his bio-components. Connor; however, did not obtain the upper-hand in his altercation. The KR200 managed to cause Connor to lose hold of his firearm and it clattered to the floor. It was only another second before the KR200 tightly gripped Connor's face in an attempt to upload its corrupted code to him.
"Shit," Henri mumbled as she darted towards him.
Again, Henri used all of her weight to take down the subject in a prompt dive, but the move was sloppy and desperate. The two tumbled to the ground and the KR200 scrambled to its feet to make a get-away. Henri noticed that Connor was slumped on the floor with his back against the wall. Maybe if it was another person she wouldn't have let the android get away, but she couldn't leave Connor like this. What if the KR200 managed to upload its virus into his software? What would she do then? She watched the KR200 smash a window on the opposite side of the warehouse and leap out from it. She let it get away.
"Connor, Connor!" she swiftly knelt beside Connor and gripped his forearm. "Connor," he didn't respond, so she lifted his face to meet with hers.
"It did something," he looked distraught and it made Henri cringe on the inside. "It was transferring code to me."
"You're okay," which Henri discovered, to both their luck, was true. She was unable to spot the anomaly in his system.
"How do you know?" Connor's voice was thin; he was panicking.
"Trust me, you're okay," the human part of Henri's brain would be able to discern if the virus had entered his system. "I don't think it had enough time to infect you."
"We can't know for certain," but Connor was eased by her words. His stress level had gone from 92% down to 48%.
"I know for certain," Henri smiled at him still touching the side of his face. "I know for certain because Hank would kill me if I let anything bad happen to you."
"That's not possible," Connor was relaxed by Henri's kind tone and silly words. "If you ask me, the Lieutenant likes you too much to commit a crime against you, especially murder."
"You're funny," she grinned and helped him off his feet.
"You let one of our suspects get away," Connor stared down at the disabled android. "Though I am impressed by the way you efficiently disabled the AC700."
"Well," Henri sighed. "We never get anything out of them anyway."
"Thank you, Henri," Connor's expression became stern and serious. "You may have saved my life."
"Don't think about it," Henri blushed at his sentiments. In truth, what happened there was a bust and it didn't do them any favours. All she did was risk Connor's life. "Buy me a drink," she smiled at him, but she knew she shouldn't have asked. What was she thinking?
"You're not going!" Etta's mother shouted at her.
"It isn't your choice," Etta snapped in response. "This is my life!"
"Etta, you're only eighteen," it was clear that Etta's mother had been high all day; it was all she had been doing. "You're not even old enough to join."
"My captain is making an exception in my case," Etta's tone was low and hostile. "As I've mentioned before I've been excelling in the ACA for the past five years, mom. This is a big deal to me."
"I said you're not going!" her mother lifted a picture frame that contained Etta's four-year-old reflected self and chucked it at the wall.
"Don't be this way!" Etta screamed in return. "I didn't come here to ask you, mother. I came here to say good-bye. This isn't up for debate."
"All I've done for you; all I did for you," her mother stammered in her rage. "I've taken care of you for the last eighteen years of your life and I have nothing left."
"You never took care of me!" tears swelled in Etta's eyes as she shrieked. "All you ever did was get fucked up and bring fucked up guys over who fucked you up. And you still do that; it's all you ever do!"
"Etta, what am I without you?" her mother was pleading, begging on the floor. "I have nothing left to live for without my baby. They are trying to steal my baby from me!"
"Mother, you fuck things up. That's what you do," Etta's words tasted bitter in her own mouth. "You fuck everything up."
"Don't you dare," her mother roared at her and slapped her across the cheek. "Don't you dare speak to your mother that way."
"You're fucking kidding me?" Etta held her swelling face with one hand. "You always end up like this."
"Etta, if I don't have you," her mother was weeping and began tugging at Etta's wrists. "If I don't have you, I might as well just die. I'll kill myself, Etta. I'll kill myself if you leave me."
"Don't you dare!" Etta wrenched her hands from her mother's grip. "You always say this and you always do this. I'm not letting you guilt me anymore. You can't treat people like shit and expect them to stay around, mother! No, no, I'm done with you."
"Henrietta, I don't want to lose you," her mother curled into a ball on the naked floor and whimpered into her knees.
Etta swallowed her tears back, "I don't plan on returning. I've had enough of this. I've had a lifetime of abuse from you and your 'friends' and I don't need it. I never deserved this."
"I never deserved this," her mother's voice was muffled through her pathetic position. "I loved your father, but I loved you more."
"That was eighteen years ago," Etta spat angrily. "You need to get over him. Remember? We don't cry for him. We never cry for him."
Her mother sat back up rubbing the droplets away from her eyes, "I cry for him every night, Etta. I've cried for him every night since I left him. But I chose you, Etta. I chose to keep you instead."
"You comfort yourself with that, huh?" Etta put on a vicious grimace. "You never even told him about me, but you assume. You assume he never wanted me."
"You know so little, Etta," her mother looked so small crouched over on the cold floor.
"Good-bye, mother." and Etta left.
It wouldn't be the last time she saw her mother, for the last time Etta saw her mother the woman was lying dead on the tile kitchen floor.