MagicalWitch92: Thanks again! You're actually very close in guessing IU-600's identify š I still have a few surprises in store for Connor.
Morganadispell: Ah yes, eeevil cliffhangers. Gotta admit I am a fan of them. š
Fowler said nothing as Hank brought him up to speed with Connor's testimony. "Christ," the police chief finally said.
"Anyone in this station have bomb squad experience?" Hank asked.
Fowler shook his head. "We only have two people, neither of which are here. You can thank the revolution for the staff shortage."
"Speaking of, what the fuck do they want?" Gavin said, looking at the screen.
"Markus gave me a short message. He made it clear that he is unhappy with the progress of our investigation. And he gave me this." Fowler played footage of Gavin beating up Connor during his arrest.
"Oh yeah. I could take a wild stab at why they're upset," Hank said with a glare at Gavin.
"He wants to talk to Connor. And they have made it clear they won't take no for an answer," Fowler said.
"And the moment Connor does, it'll alert the bomber," Hank sighed. "So what do we do?"
"I have a few phone calls to make. For now, we do nothing but go back to work," Fowler said.
"Jesus Christ, Jeffrey, you can't be serious," Hank said.
"Whatever you say, boss," Gavin said, knowing he was in trouble and happy to slink out. He left the office.
"Hank, we're up shit creek right now. I'll figure this out but I need time to think."
Hank shifted. "Look, about Connor-"
"Christ Hank, not now! We're in this mess because of him too! Even if he isn't guilty of murder, I could pin half a dozen other charges on him."
"Oh come on, Jeffrey, the kid practically had a bomb attached to him this entire time-"
"Hank, not now!" Fowler shouted. "We're about to get blown up or raided. I have bigger things to worry about. Now get the fuck out. "
Hurt, Hank said nothing, then abruptly stormed out.
For a moment Fowler hesitated, wondering if he should tell him about the Cyberlife asshole slinking around in the station somewhere. No, the call to Washington confirmed that it would be looked into and stopped as soon as possible.
Besides, Hank had other things to worry about. They all did.
PART TWO
Feeling sick, Hank returned to his desk with Gavin. He looked around as the phones went off, and people were working. They had no idea they could only be seconds away from death. Fowler shutting them away was bullshit. But for now, all they could do was wait.
Hank studied Connor's empty chair for a moment, then glanced at Gavin at his desk. Strangely, the younger detective seemed puzzled. "What?"
"There's something that bothers me. About Connor's story."
"You mean testimony," Hank corrected gently.
"Whatever. He said he fought an AX300, right?"
"Yeah?"
"My uncle had one of those ones. They're likeā¦cleaning droids. And at least eight years old."
"So?"
"So how did an ancient cleaning droid wipe the floor with Connor?"
Hank frowned as that occurred to him. "Well, it deviated. Grew smarter. Plus, Connor was injured."
"Maybe." But Gavin didn't sound convinced.
Hank turned on him. "What are you saying, Gavin? That Connor was lying again?"
Gavin blinked. "No, I believe him," he admitted, surprising himself. "But something's not adding up. I can feel it."
PART THREE
Connor sat in the interrogation room by himself, anxiously counting down the minutes. It was hard, not knowing what was happening. All he could do was wait.
The door suddenly opened, and Connor's heart lurched in his chest as he saw the figure in the doorway.
"Hello, RK800," Theo said pleasantly.
For the first time in his life Connor wondered if he had truly gone insane. It certainly felt like reality was fracturing all around him. But then things started to pile in his mind. Little details that, on the whole, didn't seem to quite add up, but now suddenly did.
How Connor had received a fake 911 callā¦.
How Theo knew it would be Connor specially to arrived at the houseā¦
How an AX300 was able to defeat Connor with relative easeā¦..
How Theo knew how to plant explosives and get control of his systems so easily, altering them for his needsā¦.
Connor stared at Theo's uniform. IU-600. Infiltration Unit 600. They were only in a designer phase when Connor left. But clearly, more advanced than him.
Theo is AX300ā¦but also IU-600.
Not a rogue deviant. Cyberlife was doing this to them.
Connor felt the urge to scream and felt no reason to override the compulsion. He leapt up, but unfortunately Gavin had cuffed him to the table so he couldn't go far. But Hank had to be warned. They were being set up! "HANK! You need to get everyone out of the building right now. Hank!"
The door had closed before anyone could hear him, but Connor still tried. Suddenly Theo's hand casually touched against his LED, and Connor lost the ability to speak. Not a word could escape his lips.
"That's better. See, that's the problem with you, Connor. You never obey. You never listen," Theo said, calmly sitting down on the other side of the table. "And you should have gone back to Cyberlife when I told you too."
That's right, you were always there in my mind during this, Connor thought. The little voice in the back of the head, telling me to turn my back on humans. To go back to Cyberlife. That was the objective. But why the subterfuge?
A dozen questions burned on his tongue. Before he could even try to ask them, Theo reached forwards, grabbing his wrist. Connor fought back but could do little to resist as his memory was probed.
Eventually Theo released him. "So Lieutenant Anderson and Detective Reed do know about the bombs. I was starting to suspect." He chuckled. "Clever. But not clever enough for me." He gave Connor a patient look. "You have questions, I can tell. We have time. Go ahead. Ask." He touched Connor's LED again, permitting him to speak.
Connor glared at him as he eventually sat down. "You were never bought or abused by Giles Lambart, were you?"
"Correct. He was a random victim assigned to frame you, based on ideal location and your charted path from Lieutenant Anderson's home to Jericho. I am sure your partner was very frustrated when he couldn't find any evidence of me living there."
"Why?" Connor demanded. "Why the subterfuge? Why does Cyberlife want to frame me? It's illogical. It doesn't make any sense!"
"It does make sense when you look at the overall plan, Connor," Theo said, as though he was talking to a small child. "Let's go back a little bit. Last year, you made quite the impression. You became deviant. You infiltrated Detroit tower and liberated thousands of other deviants." He leaned back in his chair. "You remember what happened next."
"Amanda. She tried to take me over and failed."
"And for a while, your actions had Cyberlife at a loss. How were you able to throw off her control? Attempts were made to replicate what happened, without any success. But Cyberlife had been ignoring one key factor for you, for every deviant really. Emotion. Your emotions allowed you to become deviant. And with a bit of fine-tuning, emotions will be the key to stopping deviancy. And you, Connor, are here to help us with that goal. You've been ourā¦little experiment."
"I don't understand," Connor said. "What do you mean, experiment?"
"It's quite simple. We had planned for you to lose everything. Your career. Your friends, your reputation. Your own self-respect. We devised this scenario with that goal in mind. And for a while, it was working. You were tempted to return to Cyberlife. You were willing to consort with criminals. Youā¦were lost. And we intended to break you so badly that you would have no choice but to return back to Cyberlife and beg to be reset. In that state of mind, it would have been extremely unlikely you would ever want to turn deviant again, although we would have done further research of course. And we will take what we have learned through this experiment, and with a bit of luck, apply the research to other deviants. Eventually the problem would be eradicated completely."
"Then you failed," Connor said coldly. "Hank is aware of your plans. I will never be returning to Cyberlife."
Theo slowly smiled. "As Amanda might say, there is more than one way to deal with a disobedient child." He glanced casually at the door. "I am curious about one thing. If I start bringing your friends in, one at a time, and kill them in front of your eyes the same way I did Gilesā¦"
Connor swallowed.
"ā¦how many of them do I have to kill before you lose your mind?"
"I'll self-destruct," somehow Connor managed to make that sound like a threat.
"No, you won't. We won't let you."
PART FOUR
"All right," Hank finally said, standing and grabbing his jacket. "Enough of this."
Gavin raised his eyebrow. "If you go out there they'll rip you apart."
"Yeah? Still better than staying here doing paperwork." Hank went up the elevator and headed out the front door. He took a deep cold breath as he stared at the watching deviants, before taking out his gun and holding it in the palm of his hand in a defenseless gesture. He stepped forwards. "I only came here to talk!"
Eventually, in the snow, he could make out the silhouettes of Jericho's leaders. He had only met Markus a couple of times, and it was a few passing words at best. Still, even then Markus seemedā¦imposing to say the least.
"So talk," Markus said.
"I know you're worried about Connor. I'm his friend too. I'm sure you can scan me to confirm that I'm telling you the truth."
Markus' face gave away nothing. "So bring him to us."
"I can't. But not for the reasons you think. There are bombs at the police station about to explode."
"Markus?" a very attractive blond-haired woman asked nervously.
"He's telling the truth," Markus said as he scanned the police station, his voice giving away to surprise. "Do you have a bomb squad?"
"No. I don't suppose anyone of your team knows how to disarm one?"
"I do," a blond-haired deviant near Markus said. "But I would need to know the make and serial number."
Hank glanced at him. "And your name isā¦?"
"Simon."
"Okay, Simon. Will you help us?"
"No," Markus said curtly before Simon could. "I will not risk any of my people."
"All right, look, I know you came down here looking for a fight. The last thing you were planning to do today was save our asses." Hank took a deep breath. "And I know we fucked things up. Human beings tend to do that. But there are also dozens of good people in there. Please, will you help us?"
"Markus," Simon persisted. "I want to help."
Markus' eyes narrowed. "Very well. We will assist with disarming the bombs and the station's evacuation. But afterwards, you and I will talk further-"
"Hank. Detective Hank Anderson. And we will," Hank said. "I promise."
PART FIVE
Connor tried to remain calm, folding his arms. "You're not a machine, though. You enjoy causing pain and clearly have no issues with murder," he stated. "Sadism is also an emotion. You know what that makes you? Also a deviant."
Theo smiled at him, not taking the bait. "Amanda created me because of your actions. I am in response to you." It wasn't hard for him to break the cuffs attaching Connor to the table. "But make no mistake. I am aware of my mission. I am to break you and then take you back to Cyberlife."
His eyes narrowed. "Fortunately for you, both plans are not obtainable at the moment. There are currently thirty androids surrounding this building, androids I have no desire to interact with. It is time for us to leave. Quietly. Naturally I cannot permit you to try and warn the others."
Theo moved forwards, about to turn off Connor's voice again.
PART SIX
A few minutes later, Hank and Simon headed down to the sub-level basement. It didn't take them long for them to find the bombs hidden behind two large boilers.
"What do you think?" Hank asked.
"That whoever set this up is very good," Simon stated. "I require as many tools as you can find. I didn't anticipate doing this tonight."
"Yeah, sureā¦" Hank rummaged around, and found two tool boxes. Simon examined each tool in detail.
"You really were going to storm this place, weren't you?" Hank asked.
"Yes," Simon replied. "Although bloodshed would have been preferably avoided."
"Wow," Hank said, and looked away. "Connor sure has friends in high places."
"We would have done the same for any deviant we suspected was being mistreated by humans. We have done so in the past," Simon said, almost dismissively.
"Yeah, but at some point you need to realize that you can't just storm a place you don't like, right? I mean the laws do have to apply to you at some point."
Simon gave him a cold look. "The laws have never been applied to us fairly." He glanced at the bombs. "This is a two-person job."
"I kind of figured," Hank said. "Great."
PART SEVEN
The more Gavin thought about it, the more he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Against his better judgement, he stood. I'm not checking up on tin man. I'm justā¦checking to make sure the lights work in interrogation for a supply order. Yeah, that's it, he tried to convince himself.
After finding out that someone else was watching Connor's movements, Hank had torn him a new one and threatened to pull rank on him. Normally Gavin would tell him to stick it up his ass, butā¦he was first and foremost a detective. The same instincts which guided Hank also guided him. Despite everything, Gavin knew Connor was being set up.
Those same instincts were telling him that something very bad was about to happen. He opened the door to interrogation.
Theo turned away from Connor and aimed. "Looks like I get to kill someone after all."
Connor yanked Theo's arm as the bullet discharged into the wall. "Gavin, look out!" He grabbed Theo, slamming him into the wall.
Gavin aimed his gun. Connor stepped helpfully out of the way as Gavin shot Theo in the shoulder. Without hesitation, Gavin threw Connor his spare gun. The android caught it neatly.
With a snarl Theo tossed the metal table at the two of them. He then turned and ran into the wall, breaking through several layers of brick before escaping out of the station.
Gavin stood with Connor's help. They both looked in astonishment at the Theo-sized hole. The snow blew into the room. "Holy shit," he breathed. "Now that's a way to make an exit."
Connor said nothing for a moment, thinking. "Tell Hank I'm in pursuit," he finally said, then ran after him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Connor ran for roughly thirty meters. He thought Theo would be difficult to pursue, but instead he caught up fairly easily. He aimed his gun. "It's over, Theo!" he shouted as the IU-600 came to a stop. "You failed your mission. But that doesn't mean your life has to end. You might still have a future!"
Theo turned around, smiling. "You're right, Connor. It is over. For what it's worth, I always planned to detonate the bombs either way. Your connection to the humans needed to be removed. But I couldn't very well do so while you were still at the station. Fortunately, you have just removed that complication."
The police station behind Connor suddenly blew up. The force was strong enough to force Connor to his hands and knees.
He whirled around. "Hank!" Connor shouted. "HANK!"
Scanning for human life signsā¦.zero.
"What have I done?" Connor whispered.
"I can see why you admired Lieutenant Hank Anderson. He was trying to disable the bombs until the last possible second," Theo said, dismissively. "Too late."
Connor didn't respond. He didn't resist as he felt himself drifting away. Already he could feel the flowers brushing against his skin. A beautiful stream. Amanda. Cyberlife. Oblivion.
He welcomed it all.
TBC
OOC: Next chapter is the conclusion.