RK1K Hope Chapter Twenty Five:
Chapter Twenty Five:
Connor and Markus were bright and early the next morning. When he woke up from stasis, Connor got a call from Hank, telling him they got a lead on the case. Apparently, Captain Allen did knew the guy and he and Captain Allen didn't get along at all. Captain Allen had him discharged due to behavioral reasons. Connor, Nines, and North got a picture of the suspicious man from the club and analyzed the scan. Apparently, he was part of the Detroit SWAT under Captain Allen. They had to go to the SWAT offices to find Captain Allen. Luckily, Captain Allen, Hank, and Connor got along together, so it would be easier.
Connor and Markus took turns helping each other get ready to go as well as feeding Anthony and getting him ready for the day. Luckily, Markus was staying home today to work on his speeches so he would be able to take care of Anthony.
"Be careful," Markus said to Connor as Connor bent down to kiss Anthony on top of his head. Anthony looked up at his daddy and smiled.
"You know I will," Connor said as he walked up to him and Markus held him in his arms.
"I know, it is just that I almost forget sometimes your job is dangerous," Markus replied. Connor smiled. He pecked Markus on the lips.
"As long as I have you and Anthony to come home to, it will be all worth it," Connor said as he tried to walk away. But Markus had tightened his grip on Connor and he was not letting go.
"Markus, please," Connor said with a laugh.
"Aww, but I want you to stay," Markus teased with a pout. Connor looked at him like "really dude" on his face. Then, Markus kissed him again, this time opened mouth. Connor relaxed into his kiss.
"But I have to go, Hank will get mad, Gavin will annoy the fuck out of me, and Nines will give me this dirty look, and I don't think I can bear all three of them," Connor complained through the mind connection they shared.
"Alright, fine," Markus agreed. He finally pulled away and removed the synthetic skin from his hand. Connor did the same thing, and their hands connected. They shared feelings of love, friendship, and respect for each other. Connor sighed and closed his eyes as he felt his feelings and Markus' feelings mix with each other.
"I love you Markus," Connor said.
"I love you too, Connor," Markus said.
When Connor finally arrived at the station, he was greeted by Hank, Nines, and Gavin.
"It is about fucking time you showed up," Hank grumbled into his coffee cup.
"Sorry, Lieutenant," Connor said sheepishly. Gavin stood at Hank's desk with his arms crossed across his chest and he rolled his eyes at Connor and Nines just stood there, with his hands behind his back. Connor felt embarrassed.
"So, are we going or not?" he asked as he sat down at the desk.
"Yeah, waiting on you, dipshit," Gavin said.
All four of them arrived at the SWAT training and offices building. It was a massive area. There were fields behind the building where SWAT officers train for hostage situations, medical emergencies, as well as taking down suspects. Before them, there was a four story building. Captain Allen's office was on the top floor.
When they entered the building, there were SWAT police androids standing on their individual charging stations, as well as a massive reception desk.
"Wow, look at this place," Gavin commented.
"Our tax dollars at work," Hank said.
"How come the SWAT gets all the cool stuff?" Gavin asked.
"I don't know, but if they don't make changes to our station soon, I'm gonna retire," Hank answered.
The foursome walked up to the reception desk where a male and a female android police officer sat.
"Hi, how can I help you?" a pretty PM600 female android asked as she flashed a grin at them.
"Please show us some identification please," the male asked. All four of them showed their badges. The female stood up and did a scan on Connor and Nines.
"Detective Stern, Detective Anderson, Lieutenant Anderson, Detective Reed, how can we help you?" the female with brown hair, oval shaped face and green eyes asked.
"We need to see Captain Allen, we are working on a case and he may have information for us," Hank answered. The male typed into his computer.
"He is in his office, he is with Officer Cassie Davis, his android officer assistant, I will let him know you are here," the male android replied.
"Thank you officers," Connor said.
"Hey," the female started to say. The foursome stopped and looked at her.
"You are the one that is married to Markus, is that correct?" she asked Connor.
"Yes," Connor answered.
"Do you think that Prop 68 will pass?" she asked him. Connor sighed.
"Let's hope that it doesn't but I believe that it wouldn't pass, it would be too much for the city to lose so many officers because someone hates androids," he answered. He really didn't know what to say to her. He had been by Markus' side for a long time and doing that taught him how to answer tough questions when it came to androids rights. The female officer looked at him and smiled weakly.
"I hope not either," she said.
When they finally entered into Captain Allen's office, he was standing over a female android, which was the officer the male android mentioned. She had wavy black hair that was tied back into a ponytail that hung over her shoulders. Captain Allen was talking to her, like he was instructing her on something. He wasn't in his usual SWAT uniform, he was wearing a dark blue polo shirt that had the Detroit Police Department logo on the right chest side. He had on jeans and boots on.
"Captain Allen," Connor called out. Just like the hostage situation, he turned to him and looked at him.
"Connor," he said as he stood up and walked to him and smiled at him. He looked over his shoulder.
"Looks like you brought half of your precinct here with you," he commented as he went to his desk. Officer Cassie Davis turned her head and glanced over. Connor and the others followed him.
"Hate to bother you and your office, Captain," Hank interjected. Captain Allen turned to him.
"We have a few questions about one of your former officers," Hank went on. Captain Allen glanced at him.
"Is there any reason?" he asked as he sat down at his desk. Gavin and Hank sat down at the chairs that were on the other side of the desk, opposite of him. Nines and Connor stood behind them.
"We are investigating a string of double homicides, both victims in each case were human and android couples," Hank explained. Captain Allen sat quietly. But Connor noticed he took a quick glance at Cassie, the android at the other desk. She sat in her chair, watching the interaction.
"Yeah, I heard about that, the victims were different types of couples, but one of them was a human and the other was an android," Captain Allen stated.
"We got a lead, we went to this nightclub that was a known hang out for these types of couples, The Stars and Skies club, and we staked it out and saw a suspicious person there, and we were told that he used to work for you," Gavin said. Captain frowned at that.
"What do you mean, suspicious?" he asked. Then, Nines pulled up a holographic image of the man in his hand to Captain Allen.
"Do you know this man?" he bluntly asked. The remaining three glanced at him. It wasn't proper to talk like that to a Captain. Captain Allen stared at the photo.
"Oh yeah, Steven Meyers, he was one of my corporals," Captain Allen answered. Connor heard a soft gasp from Cassie at the sound of his name.
"Oh yeah? So he was one of your officers?" Hank asked leaning closer.
"How did you find out he was one of my own, the DPD database?" Captain Allen asked.
"Yes, plus, a fellow officer that works with you occasionally said he did," Connor answered. Captain Allen leaned back in his chair.
"I haven't seen him in a couple of years," Captain Allen said. He sighed.
"Yeah, he was one of my own, he wasn't popular with the other officers, usually outside of the precinct, my officers become friends with one another, but Steven, he was not very social," he explained.
"Has he sworn any aggression towards androids?" Nines asked.
"Yes," Cassie answered quickly. Everyone turned to her. She was looking at everyone in the eye. She had a upset look on her face. Captain Allen sighed again.
"Yes, he did, I have a few android police officers that are registered with the SWAT team, just like Cassie over there," Captain Allen explained.
"Steven Meyers, anything you can tell us about him?" Hank asked. Captain Allen glanced at Hank.
"Yeah, I had to fire him because he was…imitating the other officers, there were a couple of times he hadn't shown up at work, and then there was one time he came in one day, his knuckles were bloody and there was that blue blood all over his hands," Captain Allen explained.
"He used to call me names," Cassie said, as she was looking down at her hands. Connor and Nines looked at her. Then, Connor got up and walked over to her.
"Can you tell me more?" Connor asked. He pulled out a chair that was next to her and sat down. Cassie looked at him.
"When he call me names, he would do it whenever Captain Allen wasn't around," she started to explain.
"He was also very quiet, but I noticed that he hated androids with a passion," Captain Allen said.
"He said so himself?" Hank asked.
"Oh yeah, it was the only thing he would talk about, it was strange to be honest, most of the guys and a few females here, they would talk about their lives outside of work, their kids, their spouses, their pets, sports, whatever…but Meyers, holy shit, that was all he talked about how androids were taking over the planet, and that they were machines that were meant to be our slaves, and they should all be destroyed," Captain Allen went on. Gavin cringed at that. He and Hank used to hate androids with a passion before. But now, after meeting Connor, Nines, and the others over time, they both learned that humans and androids can live together, in different ways.
"There is this one officer, her name is Jessica, she is the one female officer that works downstairs at the reception area," Cassie explained.
"We met her," Connor said.
"She has a boyfriend,…..who is a human officer…" Cassie went on. Connor and Nines looked at each other.
"Is he here?" Connor asked.
"Yes, he is one of the men here, but..you wasn't supposed to know that," Cassie said.
"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Hank asked Captain Allen.
"Yeah, the reason why I had to fire him," Captain Allen answered. He sighed.
"I caught him beating a suspect while he was in handcuffs," Captain Allen explained.
"I caught him threatening Jessica's boyfriend, Officer Noah Parsons," Cassie interjected. Captain Allen nodded.
"That happened the same day he beat a suspect almost to death," Captain Allen said. "We were called out to do a raid of Red Ice dealers that was using an abandoned house to do their drug dealing and manufacturing. The raid went as suspected, busted down doors, and surprising arrested everyone almost without incident. Except one of the dealers tried to escape by climbing a chain linked fence in the backyard. Anyway, we had one of the suspects handcuffed and ready to be transported to the nearest station until I heard some shouting outside in the front yard. There he was, beating the suspect with a blunt weapon. It took me, Cassie and another officer to pull him off of him. Cassie shouted at him to stop and then, he slapped her. He hit her so hard she fell onto the ground. I, of course, lost my temper and restrained him. I told him to leave the precinct and never come back." Gavin and Hank looked at each other. Cassie shuddered at the memory of her being slapped.
"Cassie, transfer all of Meyers information to Connor and Richard over there, so they have everything they need," Captain Allen ordered.
Cassie immediately straightened herself up and grabbed Connor's arm.
After both transfers were complete, everyone stood up and took turns shaking both Cassie's and Captain Allen's hands.
"Well, that is all we need, thanks for your time Captain, if there is another protest you want to stage, against that Prop 68 bullshit, let us know," Hank said as he told everyone to leave.
"Hey, good luck with this one, I have a feeling you'll need it," Captain Allen said as they were leaving.
"I don't have a good feeling about it," he went on as Cassie went to stand by his side.