CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

I was at the lab, carefully constructing a spare body for Connor when Peter suddenly came up from behind me. "You're still working on that?"

"I have to have a backup plan in case anything happens," I curtly replied, wondering why he was talking to me when none of the other engineers have tried since the completion of Connor.

"I see…" He paused. "Do you need any help?"

I put the small screwdriver down and frowned at him. "Why? Why are you asking now? I clearly remember the lot of you turning your backs on me when I needed you."

He looked away momentarily. "I had to stand with the people I've worked with for years. You must've anticipated that your age would be a problem."

"Anticipated, yes. Expected better, also yes," I hissed. "I've done nothing to any of you to deserve that kind of treatment."

"You're right. I'm sorry. My behaviour was unacceptable and there's no excuse for it," he admitted. His eyes flickered over to the other three who were staring at us.

"Look. If they set you up for something, just stop right now," I sighed, going back to my work. "It's stopped being funny for a long time. In fact, it's never been funny. So if you're here just to have a little laugh, I'd advise you to bugger off."

He looked a little lost as he tried to find something to say and eventually, he walked away. I could hear them talking to him about the interaction.

"Told you she was a little bitch who thinks she's too good for us," Sean snickered.

Peter shrugged. "I wanted to try. If she's going to be working with us from now on, I don't want it to be awkward."

"It's a little late for that," Ailynn snorted. "It's us or her. We need her gone or we'll never get the recognition we want. This little prep school bitch stole the position that belonged to you, Dennis. You were supposed to lead this department, not her."

I gripped the tools tightly in my hand as I continued to listen to them talk about me as if I wasn't even there.

It was a very trying day. It was a very trying day every day at work. I realized that maybe I wasn't quite ready for this. I wasn't ready to lead anyone. All I knew was what I was passionate about, so maybe they were right about me. I shouldn't have been the one leading this. I was just the one with the ideas.

When I finally put the finally touches on to Connor's backup body, I wiped angrily at my eyes before placing him into his sport of idle androids. It was nothing but an empty shell, right now.

…

"How has the progress been?" Mr. Graff asked, reading the latest report I had written.

I forced a smile on my face. "Connor is doing well. He's been learning a lot with the DPD, but…" Should I ask him about Amanda and if he knew where she came from? Perhaps he had the answers that I needed.

"But?" he urged me on.

"I was doing maintenance on him and I found something unusual," I finally continued. "It was a file that I couldn't open and I know that I didn't put it there. Do you know anything about that? I know that Connor still has to report back his side of the story to CyberLife regarding all his missions.

"Oh?" He leaned back on his chair with a thoughtful look on his face. "What was the file name? Do you know anything about it, at all?"

I shook my head. "It was just labeled A S. I tried opening up the program, but it's heavily protected. I'm concerned that it will affect Connor's performance. With deviants running rampant all over Detroit, I don't want him to have some sort of new virus that could infiltrate androids."

"I understand what you're getting at, but why don't we see what happens? If anything goes wrong, we can always give the RK800 a full system reset," he suggested, not showing the same worries as I did for Connor.

If I did a full system reset on him, it wouldn't be the same Connor, anymore. He'd lose some of his memories and it was possible that I wouldn't be able to recover him, at all. There's a possibility that all old files could contain the mysterious A S.

Knowing that I was going to get no further with him, I made sure that he had nothing else to speak to me about before getting ready to return home. My mind kept going back to Simon. If I could have a look at him, now, I'd be able to confirm if the file was related to deviancy. I had no doubt that he was no longer constrained by the same boundaries as normal androids.

"Wait! Wait! Artemisia!"

I stopped to see Peter cutting across the lobby, bumping into several people on the way. "Sorry! Pardon me! Sorry!"

What did he want, now?

With an exasperated sigh, I turned on my heels and began to walk away, once more.

"W-Wait!"

He fell into line with me, panting as he did so.

"What is it? Haven't I made my point clear?" I huffed.

"You have, but you've misunderstood me," he said, a frown on his face. "I'm not trying to be mean and there's no ulterior motive. I only want to be friends. Can we?"

"Why?" I asked him, again. 'Why now?"

"I just want to make things right. I was following the rest of the people I knew and it was wrong. Let me make it up to you. If you want, I'll get you coffee every morning! I'll clean your equipment! I can't handle the awkwardness!" he exclaimed, flapping his arms around.

"I don't drink coffee, Peter. If you get me black tea every morning, I'll have a think about it," I told him. Maybe I should give him a chance. It wasn't as if I was going to make any friends anywhere else and it was true, the tension at the lab was distracting. "And don't touch my things! I don't need you to clean anything."

He grinned. "Sounds like a plan! Oh, do you want to go to Stratford Tower with me? I have to pick up my sister."