Coming to his office, Roger sat down at the desk. He read the piece of paper that had the girl's number on it, trying to make sense of the scrawling.
Note to self: Improve handwriting.
Finally distinguishing a series of digits off the piece of paper, he picked up the receiving end of the phone and dialed the number.
832-9127…
The other line rang. Roger waited patiently for someone to pick it up.
"…Hello?"
"Yes, my name is Roger Smith and I was just called by a Ms. Jehovahwitz. Is she in right now?"
"This is she."
There was a pause as both waited for the other to speak.
After a moment of hearing each other breathe over the phone, Roger broke the silence.
"What is it you called me about, Ms. Jehovahwitz?"
"My daughter."
There was another pause.
Roger was beginning to get a bit annoyed.
Does she realize that I can't help her if she won't even tell me what she called about?
He sighed and decided to try again.
"What about your daughter? Was she kidnapped… murdered…?"
"I'm not sure. She was there one moment and gone the next. We didn't even hear her scream."
"We?"
"My husband and I."
She stood by the door to his office, listening.
If there was one thing she liked about being an android, it was the heightened senses.
There was an obvious tone of annoyance to Roger's voice, and she guessed that whoever this client was, she wasn't cooperating.
Good. Stay here, Roger.
You're needed here more than you are there.
"So you have absolutely no clue what happened to her?"
"I have no idea. She left us a note saying she was meeting a friend down by the old subway… we went for her at dinnertime and she was gone."
"You do realize that this isn't the job of a Negotiator."
"…yes… but you have such a reputation that we wouldn't settle for any less."
Roger paused before responding.
"I'll have to double the fee, seeing as this isn't a case I'd normally take on."
"That's fine. Can we meet you down in the subway at around 7:00 tomorrow morning?"
"…"
The subway…
Down the ladder in the subway…
She saw the look of tension on Roger's face.
He didn't want to go back there. Especially with that arm, it would be quite a job climbing down that ladder.
Stay here. If you go back down there…
She'll find you, Roger.
"7:00 tomorrow morning. Sharp. Don't be late, or my fee goes up."
"Understood, sir. Thank you so much."
She hung up the phone and smiled. Her eyes flashed under the red hood.
I'll kill you, Roger Smith.
She hurried down the passage. It was abandoned. It was ALWAYS abandoned.
It had been abandoned since forty years ago. Its mysteries were known only to her.
However, some others shared her memories…
Some others knew the tunnel's secrets.
Hearing the dial tone, Roger hung up the phone.
Seemingly in a daze, he walked out the door without even noticing Dorothy there.
"NORMAN!" he called. "Norman, get me something strong!"
He continued walking down the hall, now and then bumping into some table.
Damn tables. Why'd I put those there anyhow?
"…Roger?"
"What're you doing here, Dorothy?"
"I came up to apologize for my outburst at the table this morning. You are correct. I am an android, and thus need no knowledge of human emotion."
He stared right through her. His face looked utterly blank, while still being tense.
It was those memories again.
Fragmented glimpses into a childhood he didn't even remember.
It looked almost like snipped cels from b-rate movies put together on the same reel.
Movies with absolutely nothing in common.
A bar code.
An eye.
My eye?
He shook his head and wandered back into the bedroom.
Perhaps some sleep would clear all this up.
Across the city, she laughed. The high, cold, insane laugh that would disturb his dreams for longer than he suspected.