Halsey - Gasoline

Connor tilted his head to the side as he looked at the blonde woman before him. She had paused at the foot of the stairs, glancing around at the desks that were clustered together around them. He pulled up the profile he had glanced over in the lobby to learn her name.

Taylor Mae Kolbeck

Date of Birth: May 10, 2010 (Age 28)

Hair Color: Blonde

Eye Color: Blue

Height: 5' 7"

Family: Ayla Jameson (Mother, deceased), Erik Kolbeck (Father, deceased), Anthony Jacobson (Stepfather), Jakob Kolbeck (Brother), Hayley Kolbeck (Sister)

The statistics continued with estimated net worth, a photographic list of television shows and movies she had appeared in, and a brief synopsis of her life. He went to scan over the information when he registered that she was speaking to him.

"Are you scanning me again?" Her eyebrows were raised, arms crossed over her chest as she looked up at him with an expression of incredulity. Connor realized he was still standing on the bottom stair so that their height difference was more pronounced, yet he felt smaller than her as she stared him down.

"Yes. I was trying to learn more about you since it appears that we will be working together." Her stance relaxed as she sighed.

"Okay, well, next time just ask me what you want to know please. I feel weird knowing you're reading a bunch of stuff about me on the internet. That's what everyone else does."

"Got it."

"E-Excuse me? Taylor?" They both turned to see a young, uniformed cop had approached them. He was staring at the blonde woman in front of him, all the color quickly draining from his face. "I-I mean, M-Miss Kolbeck. You look a little lost, can I help you?"

Connor scanned him, finding his DPD file immediately.

Officer Chris Miller

Date of Birth: September 30, 2009 (Age 29)

Badge number—

"Just Taylor is fine, Officer Miller." Connor blinked himself back into the present at the sound of Taylor's voice. She smiled from ear to ear as she stretched her hand out to the nervous man. He glanced down at her hand with a touch of fear before he finally reached out to return the handshake. "And this is Connor, he's from CyberLife as well. We're going to be working with Lieutenant Hank Anderson."

"You can call me Chris." He said, some of the tension leaving his face, returning her smile with one of his own. He glanced at Connor only for a second before he returned his attention to Taylor. "I'm afraid the Lieutenant isn't here at the moment."

"Yeah, the Captain told us as much. I was just looking for his desk."

"Sure, it's right over here." He walked them over to a desk just a few paces away. Connor looked over the surface that was fully covered in clutter of various shapes and sizes. "There's an empty desk right over there for," Chris hesitated, glancing between them, "for one of you. Or you can share."

"We'll share. Connor needs the desk more than I do, he's the one investigating." Taylor circled around to the spare desk and sat the bag she had been carrying down, dragging the chair around with her.

"What time does the Lieutenant arrive?" Connor finally spoke up. Chris turned to face him, looking a little unsure.

"Uh, usually not before noon. But I heard the Captain arguing with him on the phone this morning. He may not show up at all just to spite him." Chris glanced down and then back over at the blonde woman who was seated at the desk now.

Connor had detected high levels of stress from the moment he had approached, but they were spiking more now. He clearly didn't like having to speak ill of his fellow officer.

"Where might we find him if he doesn't show up?" Connor asked. He noted another rise in Chris's stress levels.

"Probably at one of the nearby bars." He managed to say, glancing at the floor again. Connor looked to Taylor, who had her hands folded in her lap but was looking back at him with her eyebrows raised in surprise. Connor wasn't sure how to respond to that tidbit of information.

"Thank you, Chris. You've been very helpful." Taylor cut in for him, smiling up at Chris again.

"Yes, thank you Officer. We will review old cases while we wait." Chris nodded and turned to go. Before Connor could step around him to take the other empty chair at the desk, he spun back around abruptly to address Taylor again, staring at the wall next to her head instead of her face.

"Um, I know this isn't really appropriate, but my wife is a huge fan of yours. She's never going to believe I talked to you. Could I... could I get a picture with you?" The whole sequence of words came out in such a rush it took a moment to process all the words separately. Connor watched the whole interaction with his brow furrowed. Taylor blinked a couple of times before smiling.

"Of course!" She rose from her chair and accepted Chris's phone from his outstretched hand. Stepping closer to him, she leaned into his side and put an arm around his shoulders. Taylor angled the front-facing camera to fit them both in the screen before snapping the photograph. Chris's stress levels were still spiking wildly while Taylor's hadn't budged the entire time. She moved with the sureness of someone who had done this many times before.

"Officer Miller!" Chris flinched as he accepted his phone back, turning to see Captain Fowler standing outside of his office door with both hands clenched on the rail. "If you have time for selfies you have time to help your fellow officers. Get back to work!"

Selfie (noun, informal)

A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically on a smartphone, and shared via social media

Chris nodded and quickly retreated, mouthing a thank you over his shoulder so the Captain couldn't see. Captain Fowler huffed and returned to his office while Taylor returned to her chair, shaking her head. "Well now the glass walls make sense I guess."

"Miss Kolbeck, I don't understand. Why did Officer Miller want to take a picture with you? You just met." Connor shifted his attention back to her while he waited for a response. Her eyes widened as they turned to his, and he studied the dark blue of her irises that faded into a lighter shade as they got closer to the pupil.

"It's because I'm a celebrity," she replied carefully, glancing back at her hands.

Celebrity (adjective)

The state of being celebrated; a famous or celebrated person.

"I... see." Connor sat in the chair beside hers and booted the computer. "What are you famous for?"

Taylor flushed at the question, wringing her hands that were folded in her lap. "Well, I guess I sort of inherited it from my mom? She was a really famous musician when she was younger. When her career started to fade, her agency came to her with the proposal of a reality show about her family. It was a popular thing to do back then. Anyway, I became famous then and I started acting as a child.

"As I was growing up, I had a bunch of social media accounts that were managed by my agent and other staff, but I took over. After that I started getting more and more followers. I stopped acting a while ago. I never really liked it that much, my mom had pushed me into it. So now I'm mostly famous on the internet. Though the past few months I seem to only be famous because of my opinions on deviants."

Connor's LED flickered yellow again. He resisted the urge to do another internet search, and instead asked, "Have you had a lot of contact with deviants?"

Taylor had been staring down at her hands, but she raised her blue eyes to him again. At this distance, he could identify a ring of greenish-blue just around her pupils. He didn't know human eyes could have so many different colors. He found them fascinating. "CyberLife didn't tell you why I'm part of this investigation?"

"No." His LED flickered yellow. Why would CyberLife not tell him something crucial to the mission? She had mentioned a contract to Captain Fowler, so she clearly wasn't an employee for CyberLife itself.

"I'm here as a consultant, a 'deviant expert' I guess you could say. I've been an outspoken supporter of android rights since the very beginning." Connor's LED flickered from yellow to red and then back to yellow for several moments while he processed this.

"Androids do not have rights."

"Not yet," she conceded. "That's what I'm trying to help change."

"Androids are not people." His LED flashed to red again. Taylor was looking at him with a bit of concern now, her blue eyes fixed on his flickering LED. "Deviancy is an error in their programming,"

"CyberLife hasn't proven that" She responded, her voice calm. When his LED flickered to red again, she reached out and placed her hand on his forearm. "Connor I'm not trying to upset you. The contract that I signed is thorough, I've given my word that I will not do anything to sabotage this investigation and will help catch deviants to the best of my ability."

His LED faded to yellow again. He tilted his head, looking into her eyes. "Why would you agree to help catch deviants if you think they should have rights?"

"It's important to me to understand why some androids become violent when they turn deviant." She hesitated, and then continued, "I want to convince people that deviants are deserving of their rights, but all I keep hearing about is violent deviants committing crimes. It's always the same argument. I need to understand what's happening."

Silence settled over them as Connor's LED finally settled back to blue. They stared at each other for an instant longer before a sharp trilling sound cut through the moment. Taylor startled, then turned and started digging through her bag, taking the hand that had been resting on his arm away. Connor glanced down at his arm and then back to her as she lifted a smartphone against her ear.

"Hello, Alex." Connor turned back to the computer, signing into the database so that he could begin compiling a list of deviant-related case files. He didn't want to seem like he was listening in on the conversation. He had deduced that Taylor valued her privacy, which seemed logical for someone who was constantly being watched.

"That's because nothing has happened yet. I'm at the station waiting for the Lieutenant." Taylor leaned back in her chair, rolling her eyes at the person on the other end. "You know, I can hear Emily crying in the background. You better go. Those drops will be there this afternoon, I got one-day shipping. I promise I'll post later."

She hung up, shaking her head with a sigh. "Who is Alex? He appears to increase your levels of stress."

"That's his job. He's my agent." Taylor laughed as she turned to face him once more. Then she paused, her eyes jumping from his face to her phone and back again. A smile stretched over her face suddenly as she said, "I have an idea! I can show you what I do."

She unlocked her phone again and opened the camera. Connor blinked as she scooted her chair as close to his as it would go, then reached and put her arm around his shoulders just as she had done to Chris earlier. "Smile!" Taylor leaned in closer, her cheek brushing against his briefly as she snapped the photo. Then she angled away from him again, focused on the phone in her hands, unaware of his LED flashing yellow again.

"You look so surprised, this is perfect." She showed him the picture for a moment before taking the phone back and scrolling through the apps. "I'll post this on Instagram and Twitter, and we'll see how many likes we get. And Alex will stop bugging me to post for a while."

Connor found himself leaning closer to see what she was typing. "What does that say?"

"Oh, these are hashtags. They're the way people search through social media. Certain hashtags can be trending at any given time." Connor processed this for a moment as Taylor continued to type, not really sure he understood the concept. "There, done!"

She looked over at him again with a smile. Her eyes moved over his shoulder to the computer screen and she groaned, "We're supposed to be looking at deviant files, aren't we? Sorry."

"It's no—" Connor froze for a second, his LED jumping to yellow. When he blinked back into the present, Taylor was looking at him with concern. "I've just received a report of a deviant related crime not far from here. I am going to follow Officer Miller's advice and try to find the Lieutenant."

Taylor nodded. "Good idea. I'll only slow you down if I come with you to a bunch of bars if people start to recognize me. I'll meet you there."

Connor nodded back to her before he rose and left the police station to find the absent Lieutenant Anderson.