Andra Day – Rise Up
Taylor glanced at the android who was leading her, Josh, and then at their dubious surroundings. If she didn't implicitly trust Markus and his associates, she would already be calculating in her head the probability of her imminent murder. As it were, she could make out Markus's broad shoulders just ahead, turned away as he stared out across the water.
"Thanks, Josh." She smiled at the android, who gave her a small smile back before he left the two of them on the deck of the rusted-out freighter. Then she turned back to his leader, who was leaning against the railing, still silent. "Nice digs."
"It's temporary." Markus finally glanced at her as she stepped up beside him, resting her elbows into the railing next to his. Oddly enough, it was peaceful out here. They stood in silence for a few moments, and Taylor let her eyes drift close, the soft sound of the water lapping against the hull a comforting white noise. "You aren't going to say anything?"
"Depends. Are you mad?" Taylor opened her eyes and turned to him, giving a half smile. Markus sighed, deep enough to make her smile fade.
"I'm not mad. I just don't need any complications right now. You know that." She turned her head away again, frowning. The rustle of his coat let her know that he had moved closer before his fingers touched her arm. "Sorry, Taylor, that's not what I meant."
"No, I get it." She entwined her fingers, staring down at the water. "I'm not trying to complicate things. I'm trying to help. I didn't do anything to draw attention to you guys."
"I know." Taylor turned back to realize that Markus was standing much closer than he had been before, propping his left elbow into the rail as he leaned toward her, smirking. "I actually liked it. What you did. Not everyone feels that way, though." He paused, looking away, "They want their own voice."
"That's what I want, too." She protested. Markus sighed again, turning back to her. Again, she found herself slightly unnerved and also drawn in by his mismatched eyes. He looked so human to her that she wondered if maybe he was a prototype, like Connor.
"It's not that simple. You are helping. I'm grateful for what you've done." His fingers, still resting against her forearm, squeezed gently. "I just have to convince everyone that we're allies. And that I know what I'm doing."
She smiled. "You and me both." She moved her arm and knotted their fingers together, squeezing his hand. "You're doing a great job so far, though."
He laughed, shaking his head. They stood in companionable silence for a while, hands intertwined. Taylor steeled herself for what she had to say next. "Whatever happens tomorrow, you can't kill anyone."
Markus's head snapped up, his eyes narrowing on her face. She shivered, but she couldn't avoid his gaze, not now. "Violence is all anyone ever chooses to see. Please, Markus."
"It wasn't on the agenda." He said slowly, and then he tilted his head to the side, and she was reminded distinctly of Connor. "What about you, Taylor?"
"What?" She blinked, her moment of distraction forgotten. He was scanning her face, considering.
"Why are you still working with CyberLife?"
"Would you believe I've had this conversation once today already?" When Markus just arched an eyebrow at her, she sighed. "There's a lot of reasons."
"Why do you always evade questions like that?" She faltered, releasing his hand and drawing away.
"Defense mechanism." Taylor leaned back against the railing, letting the silence stretch out. "You said you researched me when we first met. How much did you find out?"
"The usual, I suspect. Child star, famous parents, social media influencer, android supporter." He gave her a pointed look. "There are millions of search results to choose from, after all."
She was a bit relieved and a bit disappointed at the same time, but she laughed. "Yeah, I know. It's just... Have you ever heard of the Underground Railroad?"
"What?" Markus raised his eyebrows. She shook her head. Nothing was coming out right. She'd never had to explain it before.
"Back in L.A., I helped deviants escape across the Mexican border. Not directly, obviously I'm too recognizable for that. I have contacts, and I've filtered money through shell accounts, I've given them my cars, houses, I've done anything in my power to help." The secret passing her lips left her weightless. "I came to Detroit, in part, because they asked me to."
"You've been doing this for months?" Markus asked in disbelief. She pressed her lips together, nodding. "Who else have you told?"
"No one." She moved closer to him again, putting her hand on his arm. "You can't tell anyone either. Markus, we've moved dozens of androids in the past few months. If we get compromised—"
"Taylor, seriously?" She had the decency to look sheepish as he gave her another skeptical look at the implication. "It's just a lot to take in." Markus had leaned in again, and was staring into her eyes, searching. "Do you think that it's possible here?"
"You and I both know that more than that is possible here," she replied, frowning at him. "Isn't that what you're working for? Not smuggling your people out in the middle of the night, but freedom?"
"Some of these people would prefer to live," he said reluctantly. She grimaced, guilty. What right did she have to say something like that?
"I'm sorry. I'll do what I can."
The elevator climbed toward the 79th floor. Taylor stood to the left of Connor pretending like she hadn't been in this very elevator the day before, riding it up to see her friend Rachel Bailey. As they passed the 49th floor, she found it wasn't that difficult a ruse. Her eyes were glued to Connor's hands, watching as he rolled a coin over his knuckles and then flipped it between his hands.
"You're starting to piss me off with that coin, Connor." Hank plucked the coin from midair and slipped it into his pocket.
"Sorry, Lieutenant." Connor immediately apologized, looking forward and folding his hands behind his back.
"Killjoy." Taylor said from Connor's other side peeking over his shoulder to shoot the lieutenant a smile. He hadn't said anything remotely rude or sarcastic to her all day, so she thought she might have won her way into his good graces or he was just too hungover to bother. He rolled his eyes at her now but didn't comment.
They stepped off the elevator and were greeted immediately by Chris. "Hi Hank, Taylor."
"Shit, what's going on here? There was a party and nobody told us about it?" Hank asked, glancing around at all the uniforms milling around. More than the usual police, Taylor spotted a few jackets sporting FBI logos.
"Yeah, it's all over the news so everybody's butting their nose in," Chris replied, "Even the FBI wants a piece of the action."
"Ah Christ, now we got the Feds on our back. I knew this was gonna be a shitty day." Hank groaned. Taylor would have probably chosen that moment to poke fun at him, but she was watching said FBI down the hallway, tapping her fingers against her thigh.
She followed them as they walked down the hall, Chris explaining about the four androids who managed to make it to the top floor without being detected. Schooling her face in neutrality, she listened to the play by play, feeling like her heart rate was rising with every word.
"The deviants took the humans hostage and broadcast their message live. They made their getaway from the roof."
"The roof?" Hank repeated in disbelief.
"Yeah, they jumped with parachutes. We're still trying to figure out where they landed but the weather's not helping." Chris said in response. "If you want to take a look at the video broadcast by the deviants, it's on the screen over there."
Taylor glanced around the broadcast room, tuning them out again. Of course, she had already watched Markus's broadcast. She had been waiting when it aired live, on edge, unsure what she would have done if nothing had aired at all. She'd already shared that video across all of her social media accounts. But standing here, in the room where it happened, cops still wandering the area, felt surreal.
"Oh, Lieutenant, this is Special Agent Perkins from the FBI." Chris introduced them to one of the agents standing off to the side. "Lieutenant Anderson is in charge of investigating for the Detroit Police. Taylor Kolbeck is consulting as a deviant expert."
Agent Perkins glanced over them, clearly unimpressed, his eyes lingering on Taylor with a frown etched into his face. When he spotted Connor, however, he said, "What's that?"
"My name is Connor. I'm the android sent by CyberLife." The android responded automatically. Taylor felt her lips twitching into a smile but managed to suppress it as Perkins's frown deepened.
"Androids investigating androids, huh? You sure you want an android hanging around after everything that happened?" Perkins shot Hank a loaded glance before shrugging. "Whatever, the FBI will take over the investigation. You'll soon be off the case."
"Pleasure meeting you, have a nice day." Hank replied before turning and walking off. Taylor had to hide a smile behind her hand at the look on Perkins's face before she followed the lieutenant. Still, she stared at the back of Hank's head, her smile fading. Something was definitely off with him today. What had Perkins meant, about the android?
"And watch your step. Don't fuck up my crime scene." Perkins added as they walked away.
"What a fuckin' prick," Hank muttered under his breath. Chris let them know he would be nearby and left them to their own devices. Connor stepped up to panel to replay the footage. Watching Markus speak again, Taylor's heart twittered in her chest.
"Find anything?" Hank asked after the video ended. Connor was staring intently at the android on the screen, but he blinked when the lieutenant spoke.
"It's model and serial number." He replied. Taylor glanced around the broadcast room again, wondering how long it would take Connor to piece the scene together. Would he be able to figure out that she had helped Markus break into the tower?
There would be footage of her on the security tapes in the tower, both yesterday and when she had come to see Rachel and when she had come for her interview with CTN. Normally, the likelihood of them checking through that footage would be slim, but with Connor there, she wasn't sure.
He was moving around the room now, analyzing the bullet casings that littered the floor. For the first time, she realized that there were bullet holes along the far wall of the room. Someone had been shot. She had no idea who it was.
"What's wrong with you?" Taylor started at the sound of Hank's voice. He was standing near her, the coin that he'd taken from Connor in the elevator in his hands, trying to replicate the coin trick. When she raised her eyebrows at him, he said, "You're normally attached at the hip to that thing."
She glanced over at Connor, who had made it around the room and was looking through the security footage of the androids in the hallway outside of the broadcast room. She swallowed nervously and turned back to Hank. "I could ask you the same thing. 'Pleasure to meet you, have a nice day'?"
He grunted but didn't say anything, tossing the coin between his hands. They stood in silence for a few minutes, before Hank spoke again. "I wasn't supposed to be there that night."
Taylor turned back, but Hank was still not looking at her. The coin rolling through his fingers looked terribly clumsy in comparison to Connor. She tried to make sense of his words, and then she remembered what she had told him in the park. The room seemed to shrink around her for a second.
"You know, someone is on vacation. Someone calls in sick." He shrugged. She leaned in slightly, wishing he would look at her, just for a second, but his eyes stayed on the coin. "So I got stuck with the call."
Taylor waited for him to say something else, but he didn't. She looked back over at the panels of the security footage, but Connor had disappeared as well. "Where did he go?"
"Maybe he saw something on the tapes, wanted to check it out." Hank looked toward the hallway that led back to the elevators. She followed him as he headed back that way, tucking the coin away in his pocket.
"You know," she began, glancing at the pocket where he'd stashed it. "I'm sure Connor would show you how to do that trick if you'd ask him."
Hank scoffed as they passed back into the hall. They glanced around but didn't spot Connor among the police officers. Taylor turned back toward the broadcast room, her brow furrowing. "You think he went to the roof?"
As she said it, an android stepped through the doors, dressed in the uniform for the Stratford Tower employees. Its steps were hurried as it came toward them. She turned back toward Hank, who had stopped to say something to Chris, and put her hand on his arm. "Hey, Hank."
The android brushed passed them as the lieutenant looked up. He seemed to catch sight of the android too, though. Before either of them could react, Connor appeared in the doorway. "It's a deviant, stop it!"
The sound of Connor's voice set the android into motion. It shoved into one of the cops near the elevators, grabbing his gun. Taylor felt her breathing catch as the android raised the weapon.
The gunshot was deafening. In the silence that followed, for a heartbeat or two, Taylor expected to feel pain, or see someone next to her drop. The gun had been raised in their direction. But it was the android who slumped over, a single bullet hole in its forehead.
She released the shuddering breath that she'd been holding, turning back to see Connor passing the handgun back to the officer beside him. "Nice shot, Connor."
"I wanted it alive." Connor responded impassively, staring at the immobile deviant. Taylor finally realized that his shirt had been ripped open. There was thirium smeared across his chest, like his pump had been forcibly removed. Blue blood was still dripping down his hand.
"You saved human lives," Hank said, "You saved my life."
"Connor, what happened to you?" Taylor took his damaged hand in both of hers, turning it over. It was still slowly oozing thirium, which collected in a small puddle in his palm. He blinked and finally looked away from the deviant, focusing his brown eyes on her face.
"I was attacked by the deviant." He said simply, as if no further explanation were needed. She felt the sigh escaping her lips before she could stifle it.
"I can see that." She released his damaged hand and tugged him toward the elevator. "Come on, you need repairs. And thirium."
"I am not critically damaged." Connor protested, pulling away, his LED flickering yellow. "We have to finish investigating the crime scene."
"She's right, Connor." Hank spoke from behind them, making the pair turn. "I can finish up here. No use in you bleeding all over everything."
Connor glanced between her and the lieutenant, still looking like he wanted to protest. He glanced down at his still open shirt and bleeding hand, however, and reluctantly gave in. Taylor waved at Hank as she stepped into the elevator, past the now dead deviant, trying not to look at it.
As the doors slid closed, silence consumed them. She sent glances at Connor every few seconds, trying not to notice his state of undress. The heat climbing up her neck was a clear indicator of her success levels.
"Are you okay?" She blinked, her eyes instantly moving up to his face. Connor was staring at her, his head tilted slightly, his mouth drawn down into a small frown.
"You're the one who almost got killed, why are you asking me that?" She asked, puzzled.
"Your heartrate and stress levels have been elevated since we arrived at the tower." He informed her conversationally. Taylor marveled at the fact that he could notice something like that while still investigating a crime scene. She swallowed.
"I'm fine." She turned away, staring at her shoes, unable to think of a valid excuse to qualify it. There was a beat of silence again where Taylor could hear her heartbeat hammering in her ears like a war drum. She knew that Connor could hear it, too.
"Do you know something about the deviants in Detroit?" Taylor's head snapped up in shock, so fast she almost headbutted him. He had leaned into her and now he was only inches away, his brown eyes staring deeply into her blue. She couldn't move, could hardly breathe. Had he figured it out so easily?
"H-How would I?" She breathed, knowing she couldn't lie. It was a rhetorical question instead. His eyes narrowed, just a fraction.
The soft chime of the elevator sounded, and the doors slid open to the lobby. There was an officer waiting near the elevator for them, but as he took in their close stance, he faltered, his face turning red.
"Uh, the Lieutenant radioed down. Said you needed repairs." Connor stepped away from her and nodded, following the flustered man away while Taylor collected herself. Things were changing very quickly now.