"You know, this is pretty unusual." The coroner said to Sierra as he showed her the corpse, "Federal agents in the middle of the Night Shift."
"It's a high priority case." Sierra replied, "This thing hit the system and bells went off all over the FBI, from Quantico to the tiny telephone in Hoover's casket.
The coroner chuckled at the last part, "So… it's a signature you're looking at?"
"Yeah. Someone's getting slash happy." She said, never looking up from her examination of the body.
"Huh… All homeless guys?"
"Clearly not… Homeless people smell primarily like human excretions: sweat, urine. This guy… This guy smells like garbage over a layer of clean skin, not even old garbage. He-he smells like yesterday's breakfast, not last week's. I think I'll take over from here."
The three of them remained hidden from the people they saw walking around.
"They told me this was going to the new Eden." Kepler whispered.
"Eden wasn't a prison."
"What? Are you kidding? The apples were monitored. Plus, they didn't have a steam room that could recirculate human sweat and put it right back…" Kepler said before trailing off, noticing their uninterested looks they gave him.
"We're going to be on camera the moment we set foot in there." Jason whispered to Ballard.
"But remember my plan, where we don't?" Kepler asked.
"Can you do anything about their surveillance?" Ballard asked Kepler.
"From a computer, probably. Their fail-safe should be on the same system as the life support cycles I designed, but we'd have to access one and until then, we suffer from unsightly visibility." Kepler said.
"Wait here." Ballard ordered.
Ballard quickly left the room they were hidden inside of and stood close to the doorway. He spotted two male dolls and he quickly decided what he needed to do.
"If you'll come this way. Please." Ballard asked.
The dolls trustingly followed his instructions and allowed themselves to be led into the room.
"I am not good with people." Kepler whispered as he shied away from the two dolls that had entered the room, "Not good with the blood and viscera of people, okay?"
"You're not good at being anything other than being spineless…" Jason grumbled.
"Take off your clothes." Ballard ordered the two dolls.
"What? You're gonna dress like a doll? Those probably won't even fit a guy…" Kepler trailed off after Ballard gestured for both Jason and Kepler to come over to him.
"Oh no, come… come on!" Kepler complained.
Jason rolled his eyes before quickly heading to Ballard's side and undressing, "Just suck it up. You're not getting out of this so just do what you're told. It'll make things a lot easier and quicker."
Soon enough, both Jason and Kepler were dressed in the comfortable lounging clothes of the dolls. Once they were dressed, Ballard opened the door and led them out into the open.
"This is… I'm not comfortable. My arms are chilly." Kepler complained.
"Shut up." Jason growled out.
"Oh, change is good. Go change. Yes, we can! You know, this cotton… it's organic. I'm pretty sure. That's a plus." Kepler whispered, breathing heavily and hiding behind Ballard as Topher passed by them.
Jason was still hidden around the corner and decided to remain there until the situation was resolved.
Topher stopped before slowly turning towards them in confusion, "Hey."
"I'm going to die. I'm going to die in pajamas." Kepler whispered as his thoughts spiraled out of control.
"Person I don't know." Topher said as he walked towards them.
"Actually, I'm from upstairs. Security review. I have a work order here." Ballard said as he opened his coat pocket as he slowly walked towards Topher, "Maybe you can…"
Topher was quickly tased and collapsed into Ballard's arms.
"What the hell was that?! Is this some kind of like joy… buzzer stun gun? I mean, officially, I deplore the violence… but that was totally worth the loss of karma points."
"Help." Ballard said as he dragged Topher towards the room he had been heading towards.
"Oh!" Kepler then quickly moved to help, "Why isn't Jason helping?"
Jason quickly popped up from behind him with a smirk, startling him, "Because it's more fun watching you struggle."
"Hey." Kepler said as he instantly released Topher's legs and walked away to the computers he saw, "Computer."
Jason rolled his eyes before helping Ballard put Topher down in the couch in the room.
"You can take down security from there, right?" Ballard asked.
"Uh… I-I could, if this guy wasn't a paranoid freak. There's like a thrillion layers of passwords on here this isn't company stuff. This is his own personal minefield. I need a different computer…" Kepler said, glancing back at Ballard.
Ballard glanced back at the unconscious Topher laying on the couch before turning his attention back on Kepler as he was speaking.
"Step aside. I can give it a try, my old man is definitely w a y more paranoid than this guy. I can probably get in." Jason said.
Ballard shook his head, obviously not believing Jason could do anything Kepler couldn't, "No… Let's go."
"Wait. Wait. Hold on. Let me watch for a minute, see if I can notice a pattern: security patrols, anything..."
Ballard quickly noticed a strange looking chair in the next room and went over to it. Jason following behind him, wondering what had caught his attention.
"Alright. Would you look at this place? I mean, first of all, fang shui up the young yang. Also, I designed parts of it, but I did not design the stone-cold foxes in the small clothes." Kepler said as he watched two female dolls walking by, "And the ample massage facilities… I mean, don't get me wrong, I heart my porn but this is cool."
"This is a bad place." Ballard said as he examined the chair.
"Bad people, maybe… Good place. Man, this is the future. The machine feeds them what they need, the machine takes away what it needs. A closed system. The Earth is not harmed. Yeah, we'e all just cells in a body."
"Cells in a body? That's the future?" Ballard asked, "We're all functional… interchangeable?"
"We already are, man. What, you didn't know that? I was trying to tell you. You know, we're all just atoms in the big continuous universe and the best, the best we can do is to try not to kill it… from the inside."
"No. There's more we can do."
Kepler laughed, not believing Ballard's words, "Yeah, okay. If you really think you have a choice, let's go. There's a lull in traffic. Come one."
Kepler quickly motioned for the other two to follow him as he left the room. They followed him down the stairs of the office.
"There should be offices down this way if I remember correctly. Oh!" Kepler whispered before quickly stopping them from continuing further.