"What the actual fuck?!"

Hank's exclamation rang loudly through the room.

Connor could only shake his head mutely, thoughts racing as he tried to fit this new piece into the slowly forming picture in his mind. He let his gaze wander through the room absentmindedly until it caught on a second keyboard at the far end of the command center.

Noting a set of fingerprints that didn't match Kimble's and were covered in gunpowder, his mind changed track as he ran them through the system.

"Crestwood was in here, and he was the one who fired the gun."

Hank cursed and began pacing up and down in thought.

"So we have Kimble, Crestwood and some unknown android all in this room at some point that night. Then what happened?"

Connor went over what information they had, before answering, "Crestwood ordered the deletion of all security footage at 11:08 p.m. and the emergency lockdown two minutes later, so I would imagine that whatever prompted him to do so must have happened shortly beforehand. We know by the timestamp of the recording that Kimble was still here at 12:10 a.m. and to our knowledge, the tower went into final lockdown at 12:15 a.m., so Kimble must have left at some point in between. He must have driven straight towards Kamski's house if we assume that he was there when the alarm was triggered."

Hank nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah ok, but what caused Crestwood to flip the switch?"

Something important niggled at the back of Connor's mind and he tore through his memories frantically, until finally a tiny but noteworthy timestamp drew his attention. "Me. Or rather both of me."

With a shaky breath he turned towards Hank. "At 11:07 p.m. my clone confronted me down in the warehouse."

The human blinked twice before sighing deeply.

"Right. That fuckin'mess. Ok, so Crestwood sees shit going sideways and then what? He shoots whatever android is standing in this room with them - for whatever reason - and flees, ordering staff to wipe any evidence for him being at fault for this entire fuck up and creates a reason to leave? But what about Kimble?"

Considering the thirium residue, Connor replied, "Crestwood might also have aimed at Kimble. Maybe the android jumped in front of the shot, or Crestwood missed. Going by the thirium traces, the android must have been heavily damaged. Kimble may have tried to save the android and went to Kamski for help."

"So we have two androids missing - Chloe and a second unknown model, that is by now either badly wounded or already dead?"

"That could explain the wavy footsteps leading towards the house. It may not have been Kimble entering the house but the damaged android. That also leaves the possibility of the unknown android triggering the alarm somehow. But that still does not explain where Kimble is now."

Something else nudged the back of his mind, but before he had the chance to do anything about it, a hidden speaker in the ceiling released a high note and the central console in front of them flared to life.

Shock froze Connor's circuits.

"The servers," was all he could manage before paranoia forced him to focus on cutting off all external data transfer.

Hank frantically pulled out his phone.

"What fucking dipshit turned on those servers against my explicit orders?!"

Listening for a few seconds, he barked, "I don't care if God himself came down here and fucking told him to do that! Send both back to the station right now and file a fucking report!"

Seeing that his partner seemed to have reclaimed his composure enough to busily type away at one of the keyboards, he ended the call and walked up to the android.

"Hey, kid. Are you doing alright?"

Not slowing his typing in any way, Connor answered distractedly, "I'm fine, Hank. I'm just making sure that Amanda is fully offline and doesn't get the chance to do anything foolish. But," he frowned in confusion, his tense posture slowly deflating, "she's gone. Someone - probably Dr. Kimble - must have deleted her code before the servers were shut down."

Hank sighed in relief upon hearing that and patted Connor's back.

"Alright. Good. Any other interesting finds?"

A pause only interrupted by inhumanly fast typing, then Connor went utterly still.

"The logs state that someone - again I would assume it to be Kimble - hacked my clone and wiped Cole's name from his database."

Hank blinked a few times in stunned silence, before regaining his composure.

"So that's why Crestwood tried to shoot the guy. He got suspicious and came down only to catch Kimble nearly red-handed. He loses his temper and shoots, hits the android and panics. Then he causes a ruckus and flees."

Hearing his partner's words, Connor finally managed to get his thoughts back in enough order to answer, "That seems to be likely. We should check Crestwood's office next."

Deep in thought they left the office behind and headed towards the elevator.

CEO Crestwood's office lay near the top of the tower. It was a huge airy room containing a glass desk, big decorative shelves and a long conference table, encircled by glass walls and a long balcony.

Detroit looked almost insignificant from so far up.

None of them said anything for long minutes as they took in the awe inspiring sight.

"No wonder they treated this whole affair so callously. We must look like fucking ants to them, all scrambling around down there in panic."

With a derisive shake of his head Hank turned his back on the view and inspected the overly large glass covered desk standing next to him. Opening one of the drawers, he sighed in annoyance at the clutter chaotically shoved inside.

Feeling Connor step up next him, he took a step aside so the android could reach the gleaming terminal.

With a hum of satisfaction he finally retrieved a small tablet from beneath a pile of snack wrappers. Turning on the slim device, he swiped through what appeared to be a calendar app filled with jumbled notes and half formed thoughts that didn't seem to make any coherent sense. In frustration he swiped further and further back for anything legible.

Next to him Connor paused in his search of the terminal and looking up in curiosity he noticed the android's frown.

"Going by the logs, Crestwood did not directly leave the tower after calling for the lockdown. If these are correct, he remained and continued working."

He shifted slightly in discomfort before disclosing, "He was the one who ordered Amanda to take control of my systems at Markus' rally. He logged out at 11:52 p.m. directly after giving the order to Amanda."

Turning this new information over in his head, Hank continued flicking through the calendar distractedly, until one entry from August 15th 2029 drew his attention.

Calling Connor's name, he held the tablet so the android could read over his shoulder.

- Met man yesterday at Ramshackle's

- Andrew Kelly

- If story true, Elijah lied

And on the next day:

- Story true!

- Got K by the balls now!

Connor ran the name through the system.

"Andrew James Kelly, born May 15th, 1981 died of alcohol poisoning on August 15th, 2029. He was the ex-husband of Dr. Maria Eliza Kelly nee Abanathy - doctor of computer science and mathematics who founded and owned Kinetics industries until it was bought by CyberLife in 2021. They divorced on June 6th, 2020. Dr. Abanathy died on August 14th, 2022 killing herself after shooting her 14 year old son James."

Hank thought this over carefully, before giving a grim nod. "The shooting in Chicago - I remember one of the guys talking about it years ago. That was huge in the news. Mother flips out in a psychotic breakdown and shoots her kid before offing herself. Didn't know she owned Kinetics, though. Didn't they sell those old industrial bots and robotic implants?"

"Going by old articles, they were reported to have been top of the market until CyberLife became their competitor. They couldn't keep up and soon articles surfaced citing mismanagement and poor working conditions. They went out of business shortly afterwards."

Hank started walking up and down in front of the desk, rapping the tablet against his knuckles absentmindedly.

"So something shady went on behind the scenes and Kelly knew about it. Crestwood meets the guy at a bar - probably deep in his cups - and they talk. Crestwood does some research and finds out that the story is true and that Kamski was involved somehow. Then Kelly dies and with him any solid proof Crestwood had."

Connor followed his pacing friend with his gaze and added after a few seconds, "Maybe that was why Crestwood called Kamski that night. He was desperate and tried to leverage this to get out."

Hank stopped and looked at the android. "We need to find out what exactly Kamski was involved in."

Connor's face cleared as he remembered something. "Kamski's private servers! The analysts were too busy to look at them yet. Maybe we'll find something there."

Hank nodded thoughtfully before grumbling, "Alright, back to Kamski's it is." He looked at the clock mounted to the wall above the office door, adding, "We should have enough time to take a short look before preparations for the peace talks get started."

With renewed determination they headed out.