I left the jewelry store just as it was closing for the day. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't wipe the stupid smile off of my face. I sat down in the driver's seat and turned on the engine before I pulled out the tiny box, popping it open to look at it again.

The ring was beautiful. It had a simple but elegant look to it, much like Connor in a way. It was silver, with three small lines running horizontally through the center. The edges were lightly textured with little gold swirls, and placed in the center was one single perfect diamond. I smiled brightly as I looked at it. I loved it. I hope Connor did too. I closed the box and shoved it into my pocket before I pulled out of the parking lot.

I had no idea how to do this. Sure I had done it once before with my ex-wife. I took her to a nice restaurant, we had some great food and good conversation, and then I popped the question at the end of the night. It was so simple, so routine. Nothing special about it what so ever. I wanted Connor to have something special to remember. What would mean the most to him? He didn't need much to be happy. It seemed to be the little things that mattered the most to him. Maybe I should take him somewhere nice. Get him out of Detroit.

That thought made me frown. If I was being honest with myself, I didn't want to leave Detroit to do this. This was my home. Born and raised right here. My whole life was here. I didn't like to travel much anyway. But for something like this, I would want to do it here, where we are both comfortable. I abandon that thought and racked my brain. Christ, thinking about it this hard was making me nervous.

I was running out of time to ask. Markus would be asking him to make a decision any day now on a surname. I needed to ask him today, now. Yeah, that's what I would do. I'll just go home before the nerves get the chance to take over and I'll just ask him. Then maybe sometime after this we can go on a vacation and then we can get out of Detroit.

After a short drive I pulled into my driveway and sucked in a huge breath of air, turning off the car. I stepped out and shoved my hand in my pocket, running my thumb over the velvet texture of the box. It was now or never. I walked up to the door and pulled it open.

Immediately I knew something was wrong.

Sumo didn't come and great me.

"Sumo?" I called out as I cautiously stepped into the house.

I opened the drawer on the table next to the door and pulled out the gun I kept there.

"Connor?"

I clicked on the light and my breath caught in my throat.

Blue blood stained my carpet in a trail leading from the bedroom. The walls were scratched and in some places cracked. A table had been knocked over and the pictures on top shattered. The glass crunched as I stepped over it.

I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. My heart thudded in my throat. I wanted to call out to him again, but I couldn't speak.

I spotted brown and white pile of fur in the corner.

"Sumo!" I yelled, running over to him.

I knelt beside him and started searching him for injuries. His chest was rising and falling. He was still breathing.

"Buddy, what happened?" I whispered.

I spotted the blue blood running from his mouth. He bit someone, an android. Even though I shouldn't have, I smiled. He had been defending our house.

"Good boy, Sumo."

My fingers brushed against something hard and I parted the fur. A little red dart was stuck in his skin. I knit my eyebrows together. It looked like some sort of tranquilizer. That made me feel a little better oddly enough. He was probably just knocked out. He would be fine once the drug was out of his system. I gave him one more pat before I stood and made my way down the hall towards the bedroom.

My knees were almost shaking. I raised my gun as I slowly approached. Fuck I was so scared of what I would find. Please god, let Connor be alright. I swallowed hard as I turned the corner.

He wasn't there.

"Connor?" I called again.

I knew it was pointless but I had to do something. The room was a mess. The covers were thrown around and the lamp was knocked off the bedside table. The doorframe was cracked and small pieces of debris had littered the carpet.

"Fuck!" I cursed as I kicked the already broken lamp.

I was so angry, so desperate and angry.

I pulled out my phone and punched in a number.

"What?" Came Gavin's voice from the other end of the line.

"I need you to come over here now. Bring Nines."

The line was silent for a moment. I heard some shuffling in the background.

"What, what's wrong?"

"Connor's gone."

I was embarrassed by the way my voice started to waver. The shock of the situation was wearing off and the absolute terror had begun to set in. Someone had broken into my house. There was blueblood all over the place. Connor was gone, and I had no fucking clue where he was, if he was okay, or even if he was still alive.

"What, did he leave your old ass already?"

I snapped.

"No Gavin, you fucking piece of shit. Connor is gone! Someone has broken into my house and taken him! Now, are you going to help me, or are you just going to run your goddamn mouth? "

There was a long pause on the line.

"…Shit. We're on our way."

I slammed the phone shut and held my head in my hands. My eyes burned with the makings of tears and my throat closed off. My heart hurt so goddamn bad I wanted to claw it out of my chest.

"Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!"


I stood in the living room as my coworkers from the DPD searched my house. No major evidence was found so far. Fuck I was getting so antsy. I felt useless just standing here. I needed to move. I needed to do something. My mind was screaming at me to run. Just start looking for him. But I had no fucking clue where to start.

"Lieutenant Anderson."

My heart skipped a beat as I turned around at the familiar voice.

Oh.

It was Nines.

Of course it was just Nines.

The disappointment must have shown on my face because his eyes softened.

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to say we've had a look around."

I nodded, shaking off the sinking feeling in my stomach.

"Notice anything helpful?"

"Not really." He said apologetically. "There are obvious signs of a struggle. It's clear he didn't go quietly. Also there are multiple footprints on the ground outside apart from yours and Connors. I think there was more than one person here tonight, but no fingerprints, no DNA. They were all androids."

I nodded silently.

"Hey Nines, come here."

We walked outside to the front yard towards Gavin.

"Can you see anything about the tire marks?"

His LED spun yellow as he searched.

Fuck it was hard to look at someone who looked so much like Connor right now.

"There are another set of tire marks here that are fresh and don't match lieutenant Andersons, but there's not much else I can gather from them."

"Can you track them?"

The small glimmer of hope I had was immediately extinguished when Nines shook his head.

"Once they backed onto the road, the tracks just blend with the rest. The type of tire is a basic tire used in most every model produced currently. Hanks, on the other hand, are easy to distinguish because his car model is so… out of date."

Nines gave me an apologetic look.

"Fuck." Gavin mumbled under his breath.

"Hank?" Chris called from behind me.

I turned towards him.

"We're all done here. Do you want us to call someone in to clean this up?"

"No, that's okay. Thanks Chris."

I didn't want someone else rummaging through my house. I already felt exposed enough as it was.

He looked like he wanted to insist, but he didn't. Eventually he nodded and left. They rest of the group slowly trickled out behind him.

"So," Gavin said as he followed me back inside. "What are you going to do now?"

I sighed, lowering myself to my knees and picking up pieces of glass.

"I'm going to clean up, then I'm going to head to the station."

He paused.

"You should probably try and sleep."

Hearing Gavin not acting like a dick was hard to get used to.

"I can't, I have to do something or I'm going to lose my goddamn mind."

Gavin nodded slowly.

"Okay. Nines, go get me some soapy water."

Nines didn't hesitate and headed into the kitchen.

I turned my eyes towards Gavin.

"What are you doing?"

He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it over the back of the couch.

"What, you're not going senile on me, are you old man?"

Nines returned with the water and a scrub brush. He handed them to Gavin before he leaned down and began picking up pieces of debris.

A strange warmness spread through my chest as I watched them.

"You guys, you know you don't have to do this, right?"

"Yeah, yeah." Gavin mumbled before he shoved his sleeves up and dropped to his knees, scrubbing the blue blood on the carpet away.

Through the tightness in my chest, I smiled.

"Thanks."


I ran the camera back again, re-watching the same films that I had already watched a million times already. I desperately looked, frame by frame, for anything, anything that could tie these androids to the disappearance of Connor.

"I sent him out there…" Gavin mumbled, seated on the desk behind me.

"Hmm?"

I turned. He was studying the film on my screen. It was some store footage that had caught the android, Trevor, who had taken a middle-aged woman hostage a few months back. Gavin had told me to send Connor out and negotiate with him.

"It's in the past, Reed." I said, waving a dismissive hand.

"Yeah…" He agreed absently.

I know I should just leave well enough alone, but I had to know.

"Why the sudden soft spot for androids, Gavin."

I watched as his face flushed and he scowled.

"It's not a soft spot. The dudes been here for like half a year almost. You get used to seeing someone every day you know."

I nodded, crossing my arms.

"True, but Nines is new."

I watched as his hard demeanor faltered. He dropped his head a bit.

"Yeah… well… He's my partner, like it or not… so…"

He was struggling to grab at words to explain. I gave a small laugh.

"It's okay to like him Gavin. Androids, they are so much more deserving than us humans. It's okay to feel something for them."

He shrugged, clearing his throat.

"Yeah…"

I could tell he didn't want to say anything else about it so I turned my attention back to the screen. After a few long moments of silence I sighed.

"There's nothing in these videos that helps."

"There has to be a way to track him. He is a fucking state of the art android for fucks sake."

Nines appeared with two cups of coffee. I nodded in thanks when he handed me mine.

"Lieutenant, what about Mr. Kamski?"

I knit my eyebrows together.

"What about him?"

"Maybe he knows something we don't."

I laughed.

"I'm sure he does. The question is, would he tell us? The guy is a fucking psychopath. Last time he tried to make Connor-"

My words caught in my throat. Just saying his name sent a stab of pain through my chest so intense that my head started to spin. Fuck Connor, where are you? I missed him so goddamn much.

I watched Nines place a hand on Gavin's shoulder.

"I'm sure we can... persuade him."

Gavin looked up at him, a smirk pulling one side of his mouth up.

"Worth a shot. What do you say, Anderson?"

I rolled that thought around in my head for a moment.

"Okay, let's go give Kamski a visit."