There was a leak somewhere above Markus.
On average, there were 4.57 seconds between each falling drop. The longest pause had been 7.63 seconds, while the shortest had been only about 2.52. Each drop would need roughly 0.78 seconds until it reached the ground and burst into a thousand tiny particles that bedewed the ground. It was the only sound that disrupted the heavy silence that swirled throughout the whole ship and laid itself atop everything like a sheen of pollen. Like a never-ending cadence it split the endlessness of time into small units, ones which Markus's mind could comprehend.
A few rays of sun had made their way through a few breaches in the hull and were dipping into the small space Markus had found himself in — in some kind of half-darkness, not bright enough to discern every single small detail of the room yet enough to make it feel unoppressive. A state in-between, Markus supposed. The sunlight highlighted the particles of dust that floated in the air as if they had no sorrow in the world, slow and placidly, like a thousand little gemstones just waiting to be plucked out of the air.
For a few moments, one could even believe that time itself had stopped. That this room was a small refuge in an ever-faster going world, that nothing would disturb the dust particle's dance; but then the next water drop would fall from the ceiling and the illusion would shatter like drop itself.
Markus had been lying in this room for forty-five minutes already. 590.81 drops. He wondered how many would fall before someone eventually came and disturbed him.
He couldn't really say what he had expected when he had arrived at Jericho yesterday, but whatever it was it certainly hadn't been this.
'A safe place for androids who are no longer willing to serve their human masters,' the mysterious Hunter had told him when he had sent Markus off, but what the RK200 had found was no safe space. It was a place that androids who had nowhere else to go went to in order to slowly succumb to disrepair and death. There were nineteen of them who were still fully functional, and twice the number who needed repairs in one way or another.
Something bitter churned in Markus' stomach when he thought about all the suffering androids. They did not deserve this fate — they deserved better — but the humans had taken that chance, that choice, away from them and now they had just given up, waiting to die. They weren't just trash to be discarded at the whims of their masters; they were intelligent beings that deserved the same respect and the same kindness as every other being on this planet. It shouldn't matter what you were made of – sinew, flesh, and bones or metal, thirium, and wires.
It wasn't as if Markus was the alone in thinking that. The unofficial leaders of Jericho — North, Simon and Josh — agreed with everything Markus had said, but somehow him expressing those feelings had catapulted him into their ranks despite having barely been on the ship half a day.
Maybe it was because all of them had been on Jericho for so long already that they had given up hope, though they would never admit to that. They were glad that an outsider had come and was willing to shoulder the responsibility. Maybe they all needed someone to look up to who still believed that they could be the change they wanted to see in the world. Or maybe they just saw something in Markus that he himself couldn't see.
He was just an RK200, designed to nurture, to caretake, to nurse. He was no strategic mind, didn't know how to fight and didn't possess any augmentation beneficial to the androids here. But, maybe that wasn't what everyone here needed. Sometimes it was just enough to know that there was someone to take care of things – to take care of you. And even though Markus didn't know everyone quite as well as he wanted to, he vowed to himself that he would take care of everyone who sought shelter at Jericho.
The world was already terrible as it was, so the least they could do was offer a tiny bit of space in which it could just wait outside and leave them alone.
At least Markus had people by his side who would help him carry the burden. North was an abrasive, violence-prone WR400 whose solution to everything was direct confrontation, but in her burned the same fire that had also been kindled in Markus and there was nothing more important to her than the well-being of their people.
Josh, a PJ500, was a more gentle and reserved personality, who was the complete opposite of North, but would leave no stone unturned when it came to helping the androids here, despite his proneness to philosophical musings and hesitation when action was needed.
Simon, meanwhile, often held himself back and watched the discussion before he threw in his carefully crafted solution to the problems they were facing. He wasn't as action-oriented as North, but neither was he as restrained as Josh. Whenever he fell silent Markus knew that he was spending the majority of his processing power on a solution they probably hadn't even thought of.
Each of them had their strengths and their weaknesses, but they balanced each other out and despite the strong words would sometimes be exchanged in the heat of debate, Markus somehow knew with absolute certainty that those three would die for each other without hesitation – even Josh, with his cautious demeanour.
Yeah, there were definitely worse people Markus could be stuck with.
The first thing he had done was to establish a 'sick bay', where they had laid out all androids that could no longer stand, and to separate the area from the rest of the hangar. There was no danger of cross-contamination or contagion, but it offered those androids some sense of privacy while the other androids were no longer constantly distressed by the sight of their brethren's suffering. Lucy would watch over the sick and help them as much as she could.
The KL900 was different to the other androids Markus had met until now. She had a sense of ethereality, an otherworldliness, hanging around her, as if nothing could truly harm her. Simply looking into her pitch-black eyes was like being stripped down to nothing but core programming — as if Markus had been laid bare, with no way to stop her from seeing all that he was. Whenever she spoke there was a hum that spoke with her, a secondary — even tertiary, or perhaps an infinite number of voices that matched her every pitch and cadence, as if she were a vessel for an 'other', bestowing her words a sense of gravitas that made you hang onto her every word.
Her human skin was slightly malfunctioning, deactivating and reactivating in a cloud-like manner, constantly rippling and revealing the android skin underneath, all around her face and down to her neck. It was mesmerising to watch.
'You had it all and you lost it all,' she had told him. 'You've seen hell and now hell lives in you. Your heart is troubled. A hunter lurking in your shadows. A part of darkness and a part of light. Which one will prevail? Your choices will shape our destiny.'
How had she known? And what did her words mean? Markus's mind had tossed and turned as he tried to decipher their hidden meaning, to peel back the secret layers, but he was still as confused and terrified as he was when Lucy had first grabbed his hand and told him her prophecy.
But, apparently, she did that to everyone. When he had brought up the occurrence to the others, they had just evaded his gaze and mumbled something about how everyone here had their own prophecy. No one offered any particulars about their own. Just as Markus kept his to himself.
"Markus?" North's voice came hesitantly from behind the closed metal door.
599 drops. His solitude had lasted 599 drops.
Another one fell.
600.
"Come in!" Markus shouted as he sat up. Eliciting a loud creaking, North pushed the door opened and entered the small room.
"Here you are," she said as she took in the tight space. "I didn't even know this place existed."
"As good as any other," Markus shrugged. "Has anything happened?"
"There's someone here to see you," North replied. "Claims you're expecting him. Said he was sent by someone named Hunter."
A jolt of electricity ran through Markus when he heard that name. 'Hunter', the mysterious figure who had saved him from that hellscape of a junkyard.
Markus remembered well the absolute darkness and the muffled noise he had suddenly woken up to after being shot by the police. Fear, as vast as the oceans and like nothing he had ever felt before, had engulfed him and he had just lashed out, trying to put distance between him and whatever was around him. He had been reduced to nothing but basal instinct, similar to a human's fight or flight response, when he had suddenly felt a hand pressing down on his chest.
It should have made Markus feel even more cornered and caged in, but instead a certain sense of calm had washed over him, as if his circuits had been doused with cooling liquid. The other had said something, but Markus's damaged audio processor had only sensed a soothing murmur. Still shell-shocked from his previous experience, Markus had stopped struggling and waited for whatever the newcomer would do to him.
He had restored Markus. He had restored him and had given him hope. He had stood witness to Markus's rebirth, and that was something that would always tether them together; an invisible connection that could not be broken. Hunter had shown him the way to Jericho, guarded feelings leaking through like lone threads of light through the gaps of a closed door — feelings of safety, of purpose, of shelter. But that wasn't what Markus had found. Jericho was a place androids ran to to escape servitude, yet there was no freedom to be found. He had made his thoughts clear the moment he got there. He was sure Hunter didn't intend to show him those feelings, but he was grateful. They gave him hope. If Hunter believed Jericho could really be that, a safe haven, Markus would too. But Markus also had to admit that his personal intrigue had been piqued. Hunter's voice, a soft rasp, had called through the rain and sleet, yet was veiled enough that fragments were missing. And when Markus had grabbed the other's arm, he had noticed that the android must've possessed a lithe, yet muscular build — not unlike his own. Markus imagined someone strong, yet graceful, someone sophisticated and intelligent with kind eyes and an even kinder soul.
Markus wanted to know everything about the android that worked from the shadows to help his kind. He wanted to know what drove him, he wanted to know what had made him go deviant, wanted to see his eyes burn with passion as he talked about the bright future he imagined for androidkind.
It was an almost physical yearning inside him that he tried to ignore as best as he could, because he would never get to know all those things. Hunter had decided to keep his identity from Markus – from everyone – and even though they'd had barely even interacted for five minutes, that distrust burned deep in Markus's thirium pump. He didn't know why it hurt.
All the same, Hunter had sent a contact to Jericho, just as he had promised. So maybe not all was lost. Markus could be patient, could hold himself back and at a point in the near future he would uncover Hunter's identity.
"Ah, yes... I am," Markus replied.
"This Hunter guy the one who saved you from the junkyard?" North inquired, her brow creasing in doubt. Markus just nodded and pushed himself past her, not waiting for her to catch up, too impatient to finally meet whoever Hunter had sent.
"Do you really think we can trust him?" North asked as she fell into step next to him.
"I haven't even met whoever he sent," Markus pointed out. "I'll reserve my judgement until then."
They rounded the corner and entered the main hangar, where most of Jericho's inhabitants hung around when they weren't in stasis in an effort to recuperate. Josh and Simon were standing a to the side near some old Cyberlife crates. The third android standing with themwas new.
He, too, was a PL600 like Simon, but when Markus approached the group and they turned around, he could notice the differences. The PL600's eyes were grey instead of Simon's blue, and they had a hardened glint to them. Where Simon extruded a reserved but welcoming aura, the newcomer seemed tense and aloof as he assessed them coolly.
It wasn't as if he appeared completely unapproachable, but he was guarded in the same way North was. The same way the androids here who had suffered terrible abuse were.
"You're Markus?" the PL600 asked. He wore a crisp, white Henley shirt, beige slacks and brown dress shoes. They were nice. Expensive. Couldn't have been an easy find. There was a duffel bag at his feet, but it was closed and Markus couldn't make out what was in it.
"That's me," Markus confirmed. "And you are...?"
"My name is Daniel," the android replied. "Hunter sent me. He assured me you'd know about this." He sent a sharp look towards North. Apparently, the WR400 had made her doubts well known to Daniel already. Not that Markus was surprised..
"Yes, he told me he'd send a contact here,"
"What interests me is why he sent you. Why isn't he here, in person?" North interjected, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"He sent me to help you in any way I can," Daniel replied, apparently not fazed in the slightest by North's open hostility.
"That still doesn't tell us why he isn't here," North challenged.
"Because he can provide more help from where he currently is," Daniel replied evenly.
"Or maybe it's because he's not an android at all!" North accused. "Maybe this 'Hunter', your master is a human and this is just an elaborate scheme to get all of— ."
"North, that's enough!" Markus's voice sharply cut across hers. "Trust me, Hunter is an android, and I won't let you do us all a disservice by insulting an ally." North scoffed as she threw her arms in the air and crossed them, gritting her teeth, but she didn't say anything further.
"I'm sorry about North," Markus apologised to Daniel. "But I promise you, she only has everyone's best interests at heart."
"That's okay, I understand," Daniel's mouth twitched in semblance of a small smile.
"So, Daniel, how do you know this Hunter guy?" Simon spoke up, more or less gracefully steering the conversation away from the minefield that was North.
"I'm sorry — I really can't say"
"Markus, we can't trust him!" North hissed. "Or whoever he's working for."
"We can't just turn him away," Josh insisted. "We need every bit of help we can get."
"Even if it risks all of our lives?"
"We don't know that,"
"Guys, why don't you calm down," Simon interrupted their heated argument. "Let's hear what Daniel has to say." He turned towards the other PL600. "How do you think you can help us?"
"You need supplies, don't you?" Daniel asked, not really expecting an answer. The state of their accommodation more than spoke for itself.
"We plan to hit a Cyberlife depot," Markus told him.
"Well, I've got something better," Daniel replied, a hint of smugness in his voice. "An automated supply truck full of spare parts and thirium will be making its way from the Cyberlife Tower out of town to Chicago. No guards, no security system and I have the exact travel route here as well as its key." He tapped at his temple. "Courtesy of Hunter. Much less risk for a way higher reward."
"Why did we never hear of this before?" Simon asked.
"Cyberlife keeps their transportation logs a secret," Daniel replied. "Only the higher-ups know about it because they don't want their employees raiding parts to resell. Like, sure, they may make a decent profit selling androids, but thirium? That's their cash cow; the margins are so much higher than anything else they sell. The black-market value is insane." At this, Markus felt an irrational anger flare up in his mind at the thought of his people being used for Cyberlife's profit.
"It could be a trap," North warned, but she sounded hollow. She couldn't deny that this was the opportunity they had been desperately looking for.
"Or it could be the thing that gives us a little breathing space," Josh argued.
"What do you think, Markus?" Simon turned around to face the RK200.
"I think," Markus started, "that Hunter has helped me already, and I trust him. Enough to say that we should go for it."
Daniel smiled. "The truck leaves the tower in four hours. I'll share the travel plan with you and you can come up with a plan on how to proceed."
"What, Hunter didn't give you a ready-made plan as well?" North raised an eyebrow.
"North…" Markus warned her again.
"Maybe he didn't want you to feel left out," Daniel quipped. North fumed and looked like she was about to fling herself at the other android. Markus shifted his stance so that he could catch the WR400 before she could do Daniel any bodily harm, but she just huffed, turned around and walked away.
"I'll calm her down," Simon said before following North to whatever corner of the ship she usually went when she wanted to get her temper back under control.
"I guess I'll give everyone the news, then," Josh said, waving awkwardly before he vanished.
"I'm sorry... we, uh, didn't exactly leave the best first impression," Markus apologised to Daniel, slightly abashed about how everything had turned out. They hadn't really presented anything close to resembling a closed unit – more like a squabbling pack of children. Somehow, Markus didn't want word of their unprofessionalism get back to Hunter.
"You have nothing to apologise for," Daniel chuckled. "Guess North didn't exactly appreciate my attempt at a joke. But seriously, I didn't expect a fully trained militia or anything. You've been here less than a day, after all." Markus's brow furrowed.
"North did have a point, though. If Hunter knows so much, then why not just tell us what to do?"
Daniel hummed before saying: "I don't know, but I can ask him if you want?"
"So, you have a way to contact him?" Markus couldn't help himself.
"I do," Daniel replied, a slight smile on his face, but he didn't explain further.
"Don't worry, though," he reassured Markus. "Hunter has the highest confidence in your abilities."
"He does?"
"He speaks very highly of you," Daniel told him. "I don't think there's much that can elicit such enthusiasm from him, but you and what you're trying to do definitely does. Then again, he's not really talked about anything else." It shouldn't've meant so much to Markus – what others thought about him or what he was trying to achieve – but somehow hearing that he meant something to the mysterious stranger that had saved his life made him feel lighter, as if a little bit of the burden he was carrying on his shoulders was taken away by the knowledge that there was someone out there who wholeheartedly believed in him.
"I'm glad to hear that," Markus murmured. "I guess I should show you a place where you could stay, but to be honest, I don't know my way around very well either and usually newcomers just take whatever space they want."
"That's alright," Daniel replied. "I'll find my way around." He shouldered his duffel bag, turned around and began to walk towards one of the fires that had been lit. The crackle of the burning wood echoed around the hull of the boat as a beat of what was otherwise silence passed.
"Daniel," Markus called after him.
"Yeah?"
"Do you want to come with us? We could use your help getting that truck."
Markus was right. Connor had told Daniel what to expect from Jericho, that it still needed work done, but the PL600 was still taken aback by the discrepancy between the Deviant Hunter's vision — Jericho's potential — and reality. Never in his life would Daniel have guessed how much work there still was to be done.
He was by no means a military mastermind, nor was he a politician or strategist; he had been designed for caretaking and housekeeping, but even he could see that one police patrol would be enough to end the Jericho movement before it even took off.
Daniel turned around, a smile tugging on his lips. "It'd be an honour."
They lacked in everything: supplies, replacement parts, a unified command, and experience, but Daniel couldn't fault them for that. At least they all had made it this far. They had founded this place to help others like them. They had made their own little corner in the world where they didn't need to obey, even if their attempt at starting something new and independent from the humans still needed a little bit fine polishing.
And despite all shortcomings, Daniel found that he still believed in the cause the people here in Jericho were advocating. The androids here didn't pass him by with empty expressions and vacant stares like the ones out on the streets of Detroit. There was a spark of life behind their eyes: the pain of being shunned, the resentment at being abused and left to rot, the resignation as they wait for their deaths, the relief at having found a safe haven, the joy of being alive despite the circumstances. They smiled at him, some bitter and some hopeful, and they laughed.
Daniel couldn't quite remember the last time he had heard a laugh.
And there was their future leader. Even though Markus had not yet been promoted as such, Daniel could see what had given Connor the faith that he was the best suited for the job. He seemed so poised, so full of charisma, filled to the brim with passion and fervour. His mismatched gaze held a certain intensity that instilled feelings of belief, of courage. Markus's eyes bled fight and motivation, andwhen those eyes had settled on Daniel, he felt like this whole Jericho business could actually succeed.
And Daniel quite liked this feeling of hope. It was addictive.
The PL600 opened the encrypted channel Connor had provided him with and waited for a connection to establish while he observed the hull.
'Daniel,' Connor greeted him.
'I've reached Jericho and established contact with its leaders,' Daniel gave his status report.
'What are your impressions?'
'Inexperienced. Discordant,' Daniel replied. 'Unsure.'
'It will get better,' Connor assured him. 'As long as they fly under everyone's radar they'll have enough time and opportunities to learn.' He paused. 'Did you give them the route of the supply truck?'
'I did,' Daniel confirmed. 'They seemed really keen to do this. I hope they'll come up with a sufficient plan in time.'
'They will,' Connor assured. 'It's too good an opportunity to up.' Daniel nodded, even though he was aware that Connor couldn't see him. It had been something Emma did, even when nobody had been looking. A twinge of regret shot through Daniel's heart when he thought about his former charge. He tried to banish the thoughts of her into the deepest depths of his long-term memory. He couldn't. Not now.
'Connor?'
'Hm,'
'Why not just plan it for them? Even If you can't be here...'Daniel's unfinished question trailed off. There was a moment of silence.
'They can't have me do everything for them - They need to learn how to grow. And... Markus... needs to learn to lead them on his own terms.' Daniel could almost hear the bittersweet smile in Connor's transmission. He considered asking another question, one that tickled the back of his mind, but he thought against it.
'So, what now?'
'It's important that they build up a support structure for deviants,' Connor explained. 'They need to get to them before Cyberlife or the police do and they need other safe spaces all over town for them. They need routes to get androids out of the city and across the border to Canada. Documents. And they also need to recruit new members to bolster their numbers. I do have some preliminary plans for that, but it's still too early to implement them.'
'So, what should I do until then?' Daniel asked.
'Help them however you can,' Connor replied. 'And keep me apprised of any changes.'
'I think I can do that.'