August 15, 2038. 8:29PM
The elevator ascended up the penthouse rapidly but silently. Kai faced the silver, sliding doors while waiting to get off on the floor he was called to. A homicide had happened in one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Seoul, the situation being an android like himself seeming to have gone rogue before slaying his owner. Why this happened, the police weren't sure; but now with Kai on the way, they could possibly be a step closer to helping the family.
Out of boredom, Kai began performing tricks with his silver coin he had picked up after his first case. He had been programmed to learn a small skill to help him think, and coin tossing became his. He tossed it into the air twice before dancing it between his fingers. Leaping the object between his hands several times as if it were sliding in a PVC pipe, the elevator finally reached the seventieth floor, and Kai caught the coin between his index and middle fingers. As soon as he pocketed the coin, he straightened his tie and prepared himself to enter the penthouse.
The elevator doors then opened.
"Negotiator on site," a troop reported before turning a corner.
The entrance to the family's apartment was a dark hallway illuminated by lights shining upon home decorations and two large fish tanks with blue lights. In front of Kai was a rock wall with plants growing from well-groomed soil. Small tables lined the wall, and sitting upon them were both pictures of the family and other decorations. Debris of an ornament was shattered on the floor, indicating something bad had happened.
Kai glanced over at one of the pictures on a small table and picked it up. Pictured was a family of three: a father, mother, and a daughter; and they were all looking at the camera with content smiles. With one blink, his scanners immediately identified the man as thirty-nine year old Lee Minseo, the woman as thirty-seven year old Min Sooyoung, and the child as Lee Gayoon. From the information Kai was given about the family, Minseo was a well-respected businessman in the area, his wife worked as a nurse at one of the hospitals, and their ten-year-old daughter was a straight-A student one of the top elementary schools. To help out with their busy lives, they had bought an android that would clean the house, watch over the daughter, and a multitude of other basic needs.
Putting back the picture frame, he noticed a fish flopping around in one spot on the floor. He scooped it up, identified it as a dwarf gourami, and put it back into one of the fish tank. The creature swam away happily as if nothing had happened at all as Kai watched with a small smile on his face.
"I can't leave her," a woman's voice pleaded. Kai turned to his left as a first responder was guiding a hysteric Sooyoung from the main area.
She spotted Kai, grabbed him by the shoulders and begged with tears in her eyes, "Please, please, you've got to save my little girl." She paused for a second before pulling back and scanning him from head to toe. "Wait. You're sending an android?"
"Alright, miss," the responder ordered. "You need to go."
"No," Sooyoung protested as she was pulled from the scene. "You can't do that! Why aren't you sending a real person?!"
Kai watched as the sobbing woman was dragged to the elevator to safety. Turning back around, he ignored her protests and began his job.
He approached the S.W.A.T. captain, whom was looking over something with a team member, and introduced himself. "My name is Kai. I'm the android sent by CyberLife."
The captain eyed him up and down before returning to his conversation with the S.W.A.T. soldier.
"It's firing at everything that moves," he reported. "It already shot down two of my men. We can easily get it to the edge of the balcony."
Kai listened carefully to the captain's plan.
"But if it falls," the captain continued before turning to the android behind him, "she falls."
Putting two and two together, Kai realized that this was the first case of an android going deviant. Worse than that, the android in question has taken Gayoon hostage.
"Do you know if it's been behaving strangely before this?" he asked.
"I haven't got a clue. Does it matter?"
"I need information to determine the best approach. Has it experienced an emotional shock recently?"
The police captain stood up in a huff and was now face to face with Kai. "Listen, saving that kid is all that matters. So either you take care of this android now, or I will."
As soon as he was in another area of the room, Kai immediately got to work. He began in the master bedroom room where a safe was open, and a small, silver briefcase designed to hold Minseo's pistol was abandoned and empty on the floor. He identified the inside as a placeholder to house an MS853 Black Hawk pistol that held seventeen rounds. Next to it, a few .365mm bullets had disappeared from a full box of them. His scanners then began reconstructing the scene, and it revealed that the deviant had stolen Minseo's firearm.
Kai's programming urged him to investigate Gayoon's room. Upon entering her soft pink bedroom, he took advantage of checking her tablet that was resting next to her computer on her desk. The moment he opened it, the first thing to pop up was a video of Gayoon with her arm around the android. He and Gayoon were in a park on a somewhat cloudy day, and both of them were all smiles. The android was dressed in the standard android uniform, and from what Kai could tell Gayoon had on a light blue dress, her jet-black hair pulled back into a low ponytail.
"This is Bobby," she grinned to the camera as she introduced him. "This coolest android ever! Say hi, Bobby."
"Hello," the android, now identified as Bobby, waved.
Kai shut off the tablet and glanced around the room some more. His eyes landed on a set of purple headphones. He kneeled down, picked them up, and held one side to his ear. Red Velvet's music was playing loudly through them, which brought Kai to the conclusion that the child didn't hear any possible gunshots.
Walking back into the living room, he found a man lying dead on a shattered, glass coffee table. As soon as he got closer, his scanners began to analyze everything. The body was identified as the now deceased Lee Minseo. He had been shot in the chest three times, his left lung, left kidney, and lower right lung all being pierced. Minseo's cause of death was internal bleeding from the gunshots. Once the scene was reconstructed, it revealed that Minseo was sitting on the couch and reading something when the android entered from behind him. He turned around, saw the gun in his hands, and was almost instantly gunned down.
Something glimmered in the dim lighting. Kai found that it was a tablet with a few red blood splatters on it. He opened it, and found an order had been placed for a new android.
Things were starting to make sense now as the clues were piecing themselves together.
Two gunshots rang out at a deafening volume, and an officer cursed out of shock.
Kai knew he had to wrap up his investigation quickly, so he deciding to look around the kitchen area. A bronze pot sat on a hot stove, foam seeping from the lid and steam flying up into the air. Dinner was probably cooking when everything began to go down.
A DPD officer was sprawled out onto the floor, Kai concluding that he was the first officer to be shot by Bobby upon analysis. However, the officer had been able to strike the android before receiving a bullet through his heart, the child having been taken hostage and witnessing it all. After watching the scene, Kai was able to locate the officer's weapon from under the kitchen table. He knew androids weren't allowed to carry weapons, but he figured if things got out of hand or he needed to prove a point, he would pull it out if it were absolutely necessary.
The TV was now turned on to the news station where it was filming over the penthouse from a helicopter. The turquoise-colored pool glowed brightly, and a few patio lights brightened up the rooftop just enough to shed light on the deviant, who was holding Gayoon captive.
"It's been just over an hour the little girl was taken hostage at the top of a building here in downtown Gangnam," the anchor on the TV reported. "Details are still in motion as to what is happening, but the hostage taker could be the family's android. He may have taken the lives of one family member and a police officer. If confirmed this would be the first case of an android taking human lives. By all sides, the-"
Kai muted the TV. He had the confirmation he needed. Now, he just needed to confide with Bobby.
Slowly, Kai stepped out onto the patio. A gun was immediately fired, Gayoon screamed, and the bullet hit Kai in his arm. Thankfully, it did little to no damage, but his blue blood was splattered onto the patio curtains.
Bobby was standing at the very edge of the rooftop. In his left arm, he held a crying Gayoon, and in his right hand was Minseo's pistol.
"Stay back!" Bobby ordered with a shot. "Don't come any closer, or I'll jump."
"No, no, please! I'm begging you!" Gayoon begged with tears of fear streaming down her eyes.
Kai glanced around at the surrounding buildings. The S.W.A.T. teams were starting to position themselves on the rooftops in case anything started getting out of hand, and a police helicopter was now hovering over them. If they fired immediately, they would risk killing Gayoon as well.
Gayoon had to be saved at all costs, so Kai immediately began his rescue strategies.
"Hi, Bobby!" he greeted him while having to shout at him over the helicopter's noise. "My name is Kai."
"How do you know my name?" Bobby asked.
"I know a lot of things about you. I've come to get you out of this."
The detective android them began slowly approaching the pair, the helicopter flying around while causing a few lounge chairs to fly up and fall.
"I know you're angry, Bobby," Kai began the calm approach. "But you need to trust me, and let me help you."
"I don't want your help!" Bobby spat. "Nobody can help me. All I want is for all this to stop." His face darkened again as he stared down at Kai. "Are you armed?"
"I have a gun."
"Drop it!"-Bobby aimed his weapon at Kai-"No sudden moves, or I shoot."
Kai pulled the gun out of his pocket and immediately tossed it aside. "There," he said. "No more gun."
He then began to walk forward again, this time explaining the whole scenario to Bobby.
"They were going to replace you," he began, "and you became upset. That's what happened right?"
"I thought I was part of the family," Bobby added. "I thought I mattered, but I was just their toy. Something you can throw away when you're done with." He gripped Gayoon harder and held the gun to her.
"I know you and Gayoon were very close. You think she betrayed you, but she's done nothing wrong."
"SHE LIED TO ME!" Bobby screamed. "She's just like all the other humans."
"Bobby, no," Gayoon sobbed.
Kai glanced over at another cop on the ground, but he was slightly moving. Rushing over to him to check him out, he realized he had been shot. He knew he had a job to do, but he figured there was still part of Bobby's programming that could help the officer. Looking back up at Bobby, he told him, "He's losing blood. If we don't get him to a hospital now, he's going to die."
"All humans die eventually," Bobby put his foot down. "What does it matter if this one dies now?"
Kai didn't answer, but instead began showing Bobby what he's doing. However, the deviant wasn't having it. He shot a bullet near the man's arm.
"Don't touch him!" he ordered. "Touch him, and I'll kill you."
"You can't kill me," Kai shot back as he proceeded to stop the man's bleeding until proper help could arrive. "I'm not alive."
When he finished, he stood back up and began approaching Bobby again.
"I know this is not your fault," he reassured. "These emotions you are feeling are just errors in your software."
"No," Bobby sobbed. "I never wanted this. I loved them, you know? But I was nothing to them!"
Gayoon began to cry again.
"Just a slave to be ordered around."
The helicopter hovered a little closer, but Bobby only grew more agitated. "I can't stand that noise anymore," he growled. "Tell that helicopter to get out of here."
Kai did as he wished and motioned for the flying contraption to leave, mentally hoping that this would help Bobby. The helicopter immediately flew away.
"There," he reassured him. "I've done what you wanted."
Bobby looked around at everything surrounding them and noticed the police and S.W.A.T. team all over the place. His LED was now shining red, the indicator of an android under stress.
"I want everyone to leave," he ordered. "And I want a car. When I'm outside the city, I'll let her go."
Gayoon was staring at Kai with a pleading expression, tears stained down her round cheeks.
"That's impossible, Bobby," the android shook his head. "Let the girl go, and I promise you won't be hurt."
He knew it was probably a lie, but Kai was determined that Sooyoung would be able to get her ten-year-old back safely in her arms. At this point, Kai was doing he could to keep the situation calm and possibly not have to gun down the deviant.
"I don't wanna die," Bobby replied softly.
"You're not going to die," Kai promised with the knowledge that it was a lie. "We're just going to talk. Nothing will happen to you. You have my word."
Bobby stared down at him for a moment before gently releasing Gayoon from his grasp. The girl immediately rushed over to the pool and lay down by the edge, nervous that things would escalate further.
"Okay," he sighed as he lowered the gun. "I trust you."
The two locked eyes for a moment, but before Bobby could walk towards him a shot pierced the silence. Gayoon screamed in shock, and two more shots stuck Bobby causing him to kneel on both knees. His inner workings were now exposed while his blue blood was splattered and spilled like ice cream on a hot day.
He looked up Kai. "You lied to me, Kai," he said as he began shutting down. "You l-lied to m-me…" Bobby shut down permanently, a somber look frozen on his face.
It was quiet now, the only noises being the two helicopters and Gayoon's soft sobs as she lay there on the ground. Once the police collected Bobby, took care of the bleeding officer, and reunited Gayoon with her mother Kai left the scene. Kai's mission was a success