Through avoiding main streets, dodging cameras and police vehicles, Murphy finally returned to Madigan's apartment. As fast as he could (in so far that he could, since moving too fast would draw too much attention), he entered the building, and ran to Madigan's.
"Where have you been?" she asked when Murphy entered, "You've been gone for hours."
The look on Madigan's face was of genuine worry. If she told the police where to find him, she would be surprised he returned, but she didn't look that way. But even so, he couldn't be sure if he could trust her with his deepest secret. She may not have told anyone where he was, but if she knew he was one of the 4400, would she still help him?
"You told me they were watching us, so I had to take less than easy routes to the institution. Took a little longer than I expected."
"Did you see your friend?"
Murphy was about to answer that he did, but it would mean letting her know more about him than he should let on. So instead he let his head sink down, staring at the floor, which was supposed to look to her as if whatever happened was too painful to talk about.
"I understand." Madigan said, "So what are you going to do now?"
"Where can I sleep?"
Madigan let him sleep on the couch. It didn't take him long to fall asleep, but he had some trouble staying that way. Too many questions haunted his mind, both having to do with what happened to him in the last sixteen years, and what happened to him in the past twenty-four hours. He saw one of the men that shot him, who claimed he killed Murphy. This seems to imply he didn't dream about being shot at all. But if so, why does he still have his arm? Why doesn't he have any scars from the shooting? Worse than that, how did anybody know where he was? As far as he was aware, nobody knew he was at the institution. He remembered that Madigan told him about how every machine in the city is equipped with some means of surveillance. The woman at the desk had to contact Doctor Neumeier, so he had a phone in his office, and the doctor did refer to Murphy by name, so somebody must have heard it. But even so, were people really that actively looking for him? The TV implied they weren't, but even back in the 1980s he didn't believe everything the TV told him. Still, if this was the way they found him, it told him that they were literally looking everywhere for him. But this would mean that almost every man and woman at the force was hired to look for him. Not one person could have monitored all the surveillance equipment and just find him, it had to be a whole team of people. If so, it would mean the authorities are hellbent on taking him in. Why? Legally, he had done nothing wrong. That's when he realized something else. What is legal in this city? When he first joined the district, the police was already OCP property. Sixteen years later, the chairman of OCP talks on the news, saying something you would expect the mayor of the city to be saying. If OCP is in charge, they could have set up their own laws, or easily find their way around the law. So if the chairman of OCP, Jones if he wasn't mistaken, was as afraid of the 4400 as everyone else, he won't need any legal reason to arrest anybody. Including Murphy. Thinking of Jones, Murphy was reminded of what he saw on the news. There was something unusual about the way he moved, as well as the way he sounded. He didn't know why, but it somehow seemed unnatural. If he was being the xenophobe Murphy suspected him to be, you'd think he'd emphasize his every point with his hands, but he did no such thing, he was just sitting there, his hands interlocking with each other, like a schoolboy showing humility to his teacher. He also barely moved at all. It was almost like he was a puppet, moving as much as his strings would allow him. Is that's what he saw on the screen? Just a puppet? But who would be the puppeteer? Could the same be said about that Robocop he's seen? Is he too just a puppet? As soon as he came to mind, Murphy stopped thinking about everything else. He wasn't sure why, but there was something familiar about this man. If his face wasn't covered by that helmet, he might have been able to recognize him. And his voice was still his own, Murphy might have been able to recognize that. But there was nothing he could go by. Who was this Robocop?