Connor stood on the edge of a rooftop - the clouded night above, gleaming puddles in the street below.
He took a slow breath of the chill damp air.
"I'm everything I've done," he said aloud, quietly. "Everything … and no one."
He felt a firm tap on his shoulder. North gestured at him, urgent, while her skin and hair shimmered away from bright plastic.
"Hank, I have to go, I … I'll call you."
For a moment, Connor stared down into the street. Dark, cold, empty.
He took a deep, determined breath. His eyes turned fierce, jaw set. He turned around, strode back along the wall, while his skin peeled away.
"Wolf gave the all-clear." North was kneeling at the edge, staring down at a sliver of light, a warehouse door propped open. She peered up at him. "You sure you're ready?"
Connor flashed a quiet smirk. "You sure you trust me?"
North narrowed her eyes. Suppressed a smile. "Just go."
They landed neatly in the shadows, pressed their backs to the brick wall.
The thin light flickered and swayed beyond the door; fiery shadows shifted in the reflecting water, the cracked concrete.
[Inside, keep left] Wolf's voice spoke in their heads. [First door, six seconds. Go.]
North shouldered open the door, quietly slipped inside. Connor followed in silence.
The inside of the warehouse was smeared with old crackled graffiti, bloated slurs and grotesque faces - the walls seemed to move and shift in the light of a roaring fire, burning in a rusted barrel among the rubble and refuse. Distantly, a lone figure moved at the edge of the light. His model was impossible to distinguish in the dark - but his back was turned. Connor slipped by, and through the next door, into a bent metal stairwell.
[Down two flights] Wolf instructed. [Keep quiet.]
North led the way down in the dark, each step soft - while from below bellowed a low sound: the whir of mechanical machinery, the hum of electricity.
Connor snatched her shoulder, yanked her back, just before she would have put her weight on a loose step - crumbling, about to snap.
From that moment, they clambered down along the railing, quick as cats.
The sound was growing.
[The door is locked with an ID pad. When I say go, you'll have three seconds. One guard on the other side, to the left, an android. … Go.]
Connor laid his palm on the lock pad, narrowed his eyes … hacked, the green light flared, and North pushed open the door. Connor surged through it, grabbed the android on the other side, laid a hand along her cheek, forced her into immediate stasis. She collapsed against him.
[She raised the alarm. Four seconds. Head right.]
North stared up at the dimly lit walls - the ceiling, the floors - all a scrawl of black paint, of jagged knifed gashes, of blood.
RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9 RA9
Connor rushed through a narrow hall.
The sound was louder - the fire hotter - straight ahead. It thrummed in their ears.
kssssss-BOOM
kssssss-BOOM
A muffled whimper trembled between the pulses of the machine.
Humans.
They were tacked to the wall, gagged, dripping, surrounded by black-drawn mazes, a part of the sick scrawled altar to a corrupted god.
Facing them, the machine's fiery maw gaped wide and inviting.
Bones cracked in the flames. A burning skull stared bright.
[The way you came is the only way out.]
kssssss-BOOM
kssssss-BOOM
North and Connor each chose a frightened captive and rushed at them, tore at their restraints, released an arm, a leg -
"Welcome to our congregation."
Connor raised his head. While North brought down a captive from the wall - cradled the limp body in her arms - Connor stepped out to face the approaching figure.
He knew that voice.
The android who stepped forward, into the light of the fire, watched Connor with a quiet step. His face, his hands, were pocked with old cigarette burns. His injured arm - cracked by a baseball bat - was covered by his long gray coat.
A shift of movement announced the arrival of more androids - dozens of them, flickering in the shadows - silhouetted in the hall that led to the door.
The human in North's grip choked a sob.
The machine pulsed.
The nameless HK400 smiled.
kssssss-BOOM
"We've been waiting for you, Connor."