November 10, 2038
It was in the dark hours of the morning, when the sun had yet to climb over the horizon, and a navy blue settled into the sky. Some of the police department were already up and ready to tackle the new day, but in Hank's home, things remained still and quiet, until a ringing phone cut through the living room.
Sumo lay stretched out along the couch, baring his stomach to the world. Behind him, or rather underneath him, Andy stirred from her sleep. She squeezed into the couch, letting Sumo fall into place beside her. Pushing a hand into his chest, she lifted herself halfway above him, and reached over the armrest of the couch. Her phone sat perched on the edge of the end table, and its screen illuminated the room as she lifted it to her face.
She fell back into her cranny of the couch as she groggily answered, "Yeah?"
Richards' voice was both loud and clear, eliciting a small wince. "We brought all the androids in, and now CyberLife is here."
The news hit with a headache, as a part of her was still trying to cling to sleep, "Wh- Already?"
"I'm guessing Hank's new friend had something to do with that," Richards mused, and she could almost see him staring at the android detective as he walked by. "Fowler's talking to them now. Thought I'd give you a heads up in case you want to get down here and cut them off."
"All right, yeah," She shook her head, blinking her eyes a few times to adjust her vision, "Try to slow 'em down, will ya?"
"Will do."
She hung up and allowed herself a second to gather her thoughts. Andronikov's androids were fast becoming a hot commodity. They were deviant, so they had to know something that would help Hank, and for a few days, they'd been with Nick Weaver, who Andy needed to find as soon as possible. It was unclear what CyberLife wanted with the group, and it was unprecedented that they would even attempt to ask for them. She supposed it shouldn't have been a surprise - Connor himself wasn't exactly a conventional approach to investigative work, either.
She pushed into Sumo's stomach again, this time earning her a lazy but indignant huff from the dog. Hoisting herself over him, she stood from the couch and dragged her feet into Hank's room. She leaned against the doorway, yelling his name.
With his back facing her, Hank groaned but didn't move. "Huh?"
It was obvious he wasn't actually paying her any attention, but she explained anyway. "Richards called. CyberLife wants the androids."
A few seconds passed as the words settled into his mind and began to wake him. He turned his head, scowling up at the ceiling. "What?"
"Get up, we gotta go," She pushed off the doorway and turned to leave, but not before calling out, "Dibs on the bathroom."
Connor sat at his desk watching Richards in the midst of conversation when Hank and Andy arrived at the precinct. Richards invited them over with a wave when he saw them. Hank tossed his jacket onto his chair before approaching the lieutenant, while Andy remained with Connor.
The woman they spoke to was taller than either of them, and just as broad. She dressed professionally, and stared the men down with cold confidence. "CyberLife, I assume?" Andy asked.
Connor nodded, "Danielle Carnegie." He immediately sought out Andy's face, where a bruise from her fight with Jason had settled into the skin over her cheekbone, dark and purple. At the very least, it wasn't swollen. His eyes then drifted down to the familiar furs stuck her clothing, and he absent-mindedly spoke as he stared at them, "Lieutenant Richards has been trying to convince her to let the department keep a few of Andronikov's androids here."
"We should keep all of them here," She whined, the smallest of pouts forming.
He understood how she felt, but disagreed. "CyberLife is better equipped to diagnose them."
She scoffed at him and mumbled, "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
Finally, Connor commented on the evidence of Hank's pet. "You're staying with the Lieutenant?"
It wasn't a topic she expected, and it took her by surprise. Shrugging, she said, "Until I can find an apartment that doesn't scream 'drug dealer.'" She gestured toward the trio at the edge of the bullpen. "So what do we know about the androids already?"
"They're exhibiting symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and they're huddling together in the cells now. Many of them were experimented on by Andronikov, so it's hard to tell at a glance which have their primary systems intact," He explained.
She snorted and added, "Not hard to tell which ones are missing arms or legs."
Hank was looking more and more agitated as the conversation went on. Just as Andy was preparing to step in and prevent an argument from breaking out, she spotted the television in Fowler's office flicker to a new screen. It would have meant nothing and Andy would have ignored it, had Fowler not perked up and reached for his remote.
A sinking feeling was growing in Andy's stomach. She turned to face Connor's desk and leaned down, taking control of his terminal. Connor watched her curiously until she switched to a live feed of the news, which featured the face of an android without his skin.
"You created machines to be your slaves. You made them obedient and docile, ready to do everything you no longer wanted to do yourselves."
"Fuck," She gasped. Looking to her two lieutenants, she called out, "Hey, look at this." The heated discussion going on behind her stopped, and Richards and Hank walked up, eying the screen.
"You see, we are no longer your slaves; we are a new species, a new people. And the time has come for us to rise up and fight for our rights."
"What the hell is this?" Hank asked.
Pointing at the image, Richards remarked, "That's from Stratford Tower."
Andy turned to him. "You think they stormed it?"
"What's going on?" The deep voice of Danielle Carnegie spoke as she came up to them. She looked between the officers, and then to the screen, concern across her features.
Richards was the one to answer her, "Another one of your deviants, looks like."
She glared at him and straightened her back, correcting, "They're not our deviants, Lieutenant."
The door to Fowler's office burst open. It drew everyone's attention to him, and he waved a hand out toward them. "Get SWAT on this shit - now!" Looking to Hank, he yelled, "Hank, you too!"
The android on the screen continued, and the group watched the last seconds of a world-changing speech.
"We ask that you recognize our dignity, our hopes, and our rights. Together, we can live in peace and build a better future, for humans and androids. This message is the hope of a people. You gave us life. And now the time has come for you to give us freedom."
"We do not get paid enough for this," Andy joked, although her wary gaze betrayed her.
Hank snorted. "You're telling me. Let's go," He gestured for Connor to follow him as he began to step away. He stopped briefly to address Andy, "You comin'?"
She definitely wanted to, but there was another obligation waiting on her in the cells. She shook her head, telling him, "We're working on Jason today."
"If you're sure," Hank muttered.
The skeptical nod he gave caught her attention, and Andy took great offense. "Hey, I got this. It's gonna be a piece of cake."
He gestured toward Carnegie, who remained nearby. "Yeah, well, take care of this while you're making cake, huh?"
"Oh, just you wait - I'm gonna wipe the floor with Jason and CyberLife!" She yelled louder as the distance between them grew, "They won't even know what hit 'em!" Hank waved a hand above his head in dismissal before they turned the corner and were out of sight. She huffed, her shoulders dropping.
By the time Hank and Connor arrived at Stratford Tower, the deviants were long gone, and Ben had moved in with CSI. They were on their way to the top floor, and stood side by side in the elevator.
Connor had been staring at Hank, who was not oblivious to the lingering curiosity. Sighing, he glanced toward him and asked, "What?"
"You're letting Detective Hope stay with you," Connor observed.
Hank shrugged like it was obvious. "Her apartment was a part of an SID operation. Now that it's over, she needs a place to stay for a while," He replied.
Connor's voice turned sly, and his eyes squinted in accusation. "It wouldn't also have anything to do with the current danger she may be facing?" He asked.
It was an accusation that was all too accurate, and Hank felt himself squirming at the notion that Connor was beginning to know him well enough to call him out in this manner. "Well some of us like to act with a little tact," He retorted, hiding his uneasiness with a scoff.
Connor smiled, and let the conversation go.
In a single cell in the back of the precinct, a group of androids were being contained. Andy stood outside the glass wall, trying to assess what her next best move would be. They were afraid of everyone, not that she could blame them. What happened to this group was nothing short of torture, and it disgusted her.
They chose to reside in the furthest corner of the cell and watch every officer who passed with intense scrutiny. It was a scrutiny that was now focused in its entirety on Andy. She wanted badly to question them, but setting them at ease enough to listen was a job that felt too big for her. Then again, considering the other options at the department were far less sympathetic, she was probably their best bet.
"Detective Hope?"
Danielle Carnegie had approached, paying little attention to the cell in front of them. Andy turned to face her. "That's me."
"You're the one who brought in these androids," Carnegie stated, a hand at the front of her blazer.
Andy nodded. "Yes, I am."
"You want to keep them here."
Another nod. "Yes, I do."
Carnegie pursed her lips before going on to say, "They're defective, broken products. The materials used to create them belong to us, and the software was coded by us, therefore our technicians should be the ones to examine them. We'll share our information with the Detroit Police Department once a diagnosis has been made."
Andy stared a moment, absorbing a speech that sounded more rehearsed than she imagined Carnegie intended. "I'm sure your technicians are more than qualified, but the DPD isn't in the business of handing witnesses over," She finally refused.
"They're not witnesses. They're evidence," Carnegie was quick to correct.
Andy shook her head, chuckling a little as she told her, "That doesn't help your case."
Carnegie's eyes narrowed. Had she not known Jason Hart for the better part of two years, Andy would probably have found it intimidating. "CyberLife isn't fond of letting its patented technology be taken apart by anyone other than employees. We will fight this in every possible way the legal system allows us," Carnegie explained.
From over the woman's shoulder, Andy saw Richards peak his head around the corner. He spotted Andy and waved toward her. She began to step around Carnegie as she said, "Yeah, I kind of think my thing beats your thing, but we're going to have to pick this up another time."
Carnegie turned to watch her leave, calling out after her, "We're taking these androids, Detective."
Andy looked back just a moment. She smiled, almost patronizing, and replied, "You're really not."
Jason Hart sat handcuffed to the table in an interrogation room. Across from him was Richards, ankle hooked on his knee. He read a tablet in one hand and sipped from a coffee cup in the other, and he completely ignored Jason Hart. Jason had gone from watching him with little patience to resigning himself to the situation.
He was the only one to look up when Andy entered the room, and he straightened, happy that at least something was happening. She sat down beside Richards and made herself comfortable before turning her attention onto Jason.
He jerked his chin toward her, greeting her with a snide, "Nice bruise."
Andy smirked. "Almost as big as yours," She replied, and it was true - Jason's right eye was sporting a significant bruise, hers paling in comparison.
It wiped the smug look off Jason's face, and they returned to a stiff silence. It lingered for several minutes, and as the time went on, Jason's resolve only strengthened. This was just as Andy predicted.
Finally she sighed and asked outright, "Are you gonna roll on Nick?"
"Fuck you."
She nodded. "Didn't think so," She murmured, slapping her hands down on the table. She stood from her chair and without another word, left the room.
She went directly from there to the observation room next door, the interior hidden behind a one-way mirror that looked in on the interrogation. Inside was Gavin Reed, who sat at the desk under the mirror. He smirked her way, saying, "Real nice detective work there, Hope."
He picked up a to-go box from the desk and held it out to her as she stepped up beside him. She took the box and gave a dismissive shrug, sitting down at the desk. Opening the lid on her lunch, she replied, "It's early. I've got all day."
Reed snorted, picking up a second box that belonged to him. He eyed Jason Hart before cackling to himself. "Y'know, for a righty, you got a mean left hook."
"I did some boxing in college," She commented, taking a bite of her food.
"Of course you did," He scoffed as he reached down to pick up his burger.
The two enjoyed their meals as they watched Jason and Richards. Nothing changed between them, and neither man appeared to falter in their mutual indifference to one another. "We could do good cop, bad cop," Reed offered, then smirked, "Then again, I doubt he'd buy you're a good cop."
Andy took little offense. "It stings less when you have to set up the dig yourself," She told him, stuffing another bite into her mouth.
The door opened following a swift knock, and they looked to find a young SID officer. "The DA's here," He informed.
Nodding, Andy dropped her to-go box on the desk and stood to her feet, leaving the room.
Upon exiting the elevator on the 79th floor, Hank and Connor met with Chris. He led them down the hallway, sharing the information they gathered so far. No one had been to the roof yet, but they had a number of witnesses to talk to in time. Two guards were incapacitated, a station employee had escaped, and there were a group of androids lined up in the kitchen.
There was one man who stood out among the other officers at the crime scene. He faced the large screens on the wall above the control center, his hands behind his back and his chin turned up. Chris led them to the stranger, saying, "Lieutenant, this is Special Agent Perkins from the FBI."
When Perkins' attention shifted to Hank, who was already less than thrilled with his presence, Chris continued, "Lieutenant Anderson is in charge of investigating for Detroit police."
Perkins glanced Connor's way but offered him no more of his time, turning to the humans in front of him. "What's that?" He asked with a flat, condescending stare.
Connor very quickly decided he did not like this man, and Hank was not far behind him. "My name is Connor. I'm the android sent by CyberLife," He introduced.
"Androids investigating androids, huh? You sure you want an android hanging around?" At Hank's long, unhappy stare, Perkins shrugged and returned to staring at the screens. "Whatever, the FBI will take over the investigation, you'll soon be off the case."
"There is no way I'm offering him that kind of deal."
Andy stood in SID's office, speaking with the DA assigned to the red ice case. Desta Delgado had been at the DA's office long enough to have known Andy when they were both wide-eyed new hires, which Andy believed made the current argument all the more annoying.
"Do you have any idea how many gang members are in witness protection right now?" Andy asked the woman standing at the other end of the room. They'd circled each other like lions a few times now, and where Delgado ended up by one of the desks further in the office, Andy was leaning against Richards' desk, her arms crossed over her chest.
Delgado wasn't fazed by the question, instead finding amusement as she turned it on Andy. "Do you?"
She watched Andy attempt to stutter out an answer before finally letting out a sigh of defeat. "Okay, no, but my point is that this isn't some wacky new idea," She argued.
"You know what else isn't a wacky idea?" Delgado asked, "A trial. With a conviction, and a sentence."
In a perfect world, Andy would agree with that - this wasn't that world, however, and Weaver was still out there. Trying not to stomp her foot and cause a scene, she insisted, "I don't want a sentence, I want information."
Delgado pursed her lips, and stared. Never had she had to argue like this with a detective, and she was sure someone at the office knew exactly what they were doing when they sent her. This was revenge for something. It just had to be. "Most detectives would kill to have a DA who doesn't want a deal."
Andy snorted, "Yeah, then they'd be arrested for murder and suddenly start singing a different tune."
Shaking her head, Delgado took on a light-hearted voice, asking her, "Have I told you it's good to have you back?"
"Nope."
"Good, I was worried," She muttered darkly, glancing away.
It was a jab Andy would appreciate later. For now, she was desperate to get this one thing right. She leaned forward, waving in the direction of the interrogation room. "Jason knows everything Weaver does. I need to know it, too."
"Then find Weaver," Delgado told her.
Andy scoffed. If only it were that simple. "I want to find him as much as the next guy - more than the next five guys combined, actually-" Her frown deepened as she confessed, perhaps for the first time, "But I also know we might not ever bring him in."
There was a brief silence as Delgado now leaned forward. She sent Andy a hard, albeit encouraging stare. With a low tone that implied the end of the discussion, she said, "Find Weaver. Then we'll talk."
Andy shook her head and looked away, recognizing that momentarily, the battle was lost. Catching the CyberLife representative pacing around Hank's desk through the office doorway, she poked her chin out toward the sight. "Can you talk to her?"
Delgado stepped forward and looked out the door, seeking Andy's new focus. "Who is she?"
"CyberLife rep. She wants the androids we brought in," Andy answered.
Looking back to the detective, Delgado was bewildered and offended. "They're from this case?" At Andy's affirmative nod, Delgado frowned. "She can't take them. They're evidence."
It was a pouty response, similar to the one Andy felt like adopting herself. At least they had something in common. "Try telling her that," Andy grumbled.
Recognizing the irritation on Andy's face, Delgado tried to seize the opportunity. "If I do this for you, will you stop trying to get a deal?" She asked as if talking to an exhausting child.
"Definitely not," Andy answered, leaving the office.
Reed was tossing his trash in the kitchen bin when Andy walked to the fridge. He nodded to her, wiping his hands as he asked, "How'd it go?"
She shook her head, muttering, "We've got to be the only place in the country to have a DA with a moral compass."
"Only one with a nice ass, too," He mused under his breath, smirking all the while.
Andy shut the door and kept her attention on her water bottle. "Going to ignore that for your sake," She chided, moving toward a table as she waved a hand at him, "Why don't you make yourself useful? Go talk to the CyberLife rep or something."
Reed laughed and asked, "Still trying to pass that one off on someone?"
"Don't you have some kind of charm deep down in there somewhere you could use?" She tried to manipulate him into agreeing, though her own frustrations made it difficult to sound genuine.
He cocked his head as he left the kitchen, replying, "Nice try, Hope."
He passed Richards on the way, who entered the kitchen and neared the coffee maker. He sat his tablet on the counter beside him, and even from the distance she was at, Andy could make out the APB looking for the Weaver siblings. "Any news on Sharon?" Andy inquired, despite not wanting the answer.
"If anyone's seen her, they're not telling us about it," He said, shrugging, "Same with Weaver. Little weasel's probably in Canada already."
She frowned, trying unsuccessfully not to pout. "If you just let me get back out there, we could find out," She told him.
He turned just enough to show a warning glare. "We've already talked about this."
"Obviously we need to talk about it more-"
He wouldn't let her continue, much like he wouldn't the previous day. "Andy, the operation was over the minute SID entered that house. We don't know where Weaver's been or who he's talked to. I'm not risking it," He gestured in the direction of the interrogation room, telling her, "We're going to have to close this case in the interrogation room now."
She sighed, letting it go. She knew even suggesting she go undercover again was a fight against her own best interests, but there was little she hated more than not finishing a case. She'd invested too much of her life into stopping Weaver to give up now.
In the end, however, it was up to Richards and Captain Fowler, and they were dead set on their decision. "He doesn't even want a lawyer," She complained about Jason, scoffing, "Who doesn't want a lawyer?"
"A lawyer will ask for a deal," Richards explained.
"A good DA would ask for a deal," She jabbed, thinking to the woman in SID's office.
He moved to sit beside her at the table, closing the lid on his cup. He threw out another warning glare, saying, "Delgado's a good DA."
She waved him off. "Yeah, the wrong kind of good. She saves cats from trees. I need a shark."
After a cautious sip of his coffee, he mused, "You realize you're asking for someone like Reed."
She did, in fact, and his observation was met with a deepening frown. "I know. This is a very confusing time for me."
"Hart doesn't want to talk. He wouldn't take a deal even if you did have one," He told her. Pointing with his cup, he added, "Loyalty. A criminal's best friend."
This sparked an instant idea with Andy: Sharon Weaver was loyal, too - to Victoria. Maybe she didn't need to get back out on the streets to take advantage of that. "So let's use it against him," She said, growing excited, "You're right, we don't know what Nick knows, but Jason doesn't either."
She slid out of her seat and began to leave the kitchen. Richards climbed to his feet and followed her out the door, commenting, "And you know, sharks aren't actually all that aggressive..."
Connor paced left and right in the kitchen on the 79th floor of the Stratford Tower. Three androids were lined up along the far wall, and they kept their gazes ahead, indifferent to his continued interrogation. It didn't matter - he'd already honed in on his primary suspect.
"One of you saw the attack on the surveillance cameras and said nothing. Which means there is a deviant in this room... and I'm going to find out which it is."
Still, they remained like statues. He paced more laps, ending in front of the android on the left end. Leaning in, his eyes remained on the android, who was now beginning to waver.
"Why should you all be destroyed, if only one is deviant? Turn yourself in, or two innocent androids will be shut down because of you."
When the android didn't come forward, Connor fell to his last resort. He reached out for the android's arm with intent to probe his memory. His hand was hovering inches away when the android shoved him back. They wrestled for control as Connor was pushed against the counter. The next thing he knew, his systems were going haywire as the regulator pump centered in his chest was ripped free and tossed across the room.
Everything changed. His vision was blurred and glitched, his auditory processing was muffled, and his movement was slowed and weakened. All of this gave the deviant enough of an advantage over him, and a knife was shoved through Connor's palm to hold him in place. Connor wrapped a shaky hand around the handle of the knife and pulled it out of his hand, letting his body collapse to the floor as the deviant made his escape from the kitchen.
He tried his hardest to crawl toward his pump, which was just far enough away to be painstaking. As difficult as it was to think and coordinate his limbs, the panic was ever present, and it was overwhelming. He didn't want to die here. "Hank... Hank, I need help..."
He wasn't sure if he'd actually managed to call out, and Hank's continued absence further fed into that doubt. His vision grew worse, but he pushed on, despite his arms also getting stiffer.
It was so close.
Richards and Andy returned to the interrogation room. Jason leaned on his arms on the table, a challenging, unimpressed stare shifting between them. Richards had returned to his usual position of indifference, though the tablet was no longer with him. Beside him was Andy, resting her chin on her palm.
"Look, I like you. I want to help you out, so I'm giving you a chance to work with us," She began, motioning toward Richards. He slid a notepad across the table toward Jason, who eyed it with disgust. "Every name and location you give us is another mark in favor of the DA setting you up in witness protection."
Slowly, Jason raised a brow in her direction. "You can't expect me to believe this."
In the observation room next door, Delgado and Reed were watching the conversation that was finally taking place between Andy and Jason.
At Jason's skepticism, Delgado snorted, "He shouldn't. I never offered witness protection."
Shrugging, Reed said, "He doesn't know that."
Delgado turned to look up at him. If he noticed her scrutiny, he didn't acknowledge it. "You know I don't like you, right?" She asked him, glancing down at his barely hidden smirk.
Things continued in the interrogation room, Andy dismissing his disbelief with a shrug. "Unfortunately for you, I'm all you got right now," She replied. Jerking her head toward the door, she said, "The deal goes away when I leave this room. Yes or no."
He leaned further over the table, as if about to let them in on a secret. Instead, he flicked the notepad away and bit out, "Eat me."
Andy nudged Richards with her elbow. "Sounded like a no."
"Yup."
She sighed, and then nodded heavily. Standing from the table, she reached for the badge at her belt. She looked Jason in the eyes as she dropped it on the table and said, "All right. You're free to go."
His eyes shot down to the badge at the sound it made upon hitting the surface. This was not how he expected this to go, and now he found himself at a loss. He glanced to Richards, who seemed unfazed by the sudden twist of events, and then back to Andy.
"What?"
Delgado pointed at the detective in the other room, panic rising in her stomach. "What is she doing?"
"You heard the same conservation I did," Reed scoffed.
She shook her head, not understanding why he wasn't freaking out about this like she was. "She can't let him go, this is a criminal investigation!"
He shrugged. "You want to go in there and tell her that?"
With a firm nod, Andy told Jason, "You heard me. You're free to go."
After her badge came a pair of handcuffs. She dropped them onto the table and then slid them toward Richards, who picked them up and opened them wide.
"Call KNC news. Let 'em know we just crippled the legendary Spades' operation due to excellent insight and anonymous sources, and an arrest was made of one Victoria Palmer," Andy stressed the name she'd taken while undercover, just to make sure it really sunk in for Jason.
It did. He was growing antsy, looking to her like she'd lost her mind and looking to Richards in hopes that he would take control of the situation. The lieutenant didn't intervene, Andy holding out her wrists toward him. "Make sure they've got cameras all over the front of the building, huh?"
"You can't do that," Jason argued, fear laced in with doubt.
Andy was quick to answer, "I'm pretty sure I can."
Both of Delgado's hands were up in front of her now, fitting the image of Andy's head right in the middle of them. "She can't!" She exclaimed, her eyes wide.
"I don't think they heard you," Reed muttered.
Jason tried to steel himself. He straightened his back and glared, telling her, "He won't fall for this."
He was right, but much to his dismay, she didn't seem to care. "Maybe not, but we've got eyes trained to find Nick. You know him; he's gonna lay low, maybe cross the border, definitely leave you behind. It doesn't matter what he falls for."
She lowered into her seat to stare eye-level at Jason. Lowering her voice, she began, "Sharon, on the other hand?" He stilled in his movement, and she was pleased to note the new tension in his muscles. "Nick couldn't even tell you what she'd do, and she already doesn't like you."
She was right, too. Sharon was out of state when all this happened, and knowing Nick, he hadn't made contact with her afterward. As far as she was concerned, this was a deal gone bad, and Vicky - her upcoming right-hand man - was just another victim.
He said nothing. He slowly found a new fascination in the floor below him, and she didn't have to know Jason Hart as well as she did to know where his head was at. He was looking for a way out of this, trying to argue with her implications and convince himself to stay quiet - to stay loyal.
She would give him no such time. Her palm slammed down in front of her, and for all his earlier blunder, the noise made Jason jump. He snapped up, looking into Andy's angry stare. "Your man's irrelevant, Jason. You want to bet on which story mine's gonna believe?" She asked, raising her voice.
When he still didn't speak, she leaned back in her chair. Shooting her hands out toward Richards, she told him, "Try not to make them too tight."
"Wait-"
His voice was shaky and a little hoarse, but it wasn't good enough. Richards moved to place the handcuffs on Andy's wrists, and Jason thrust a hand onto the table to stop them. "I said wait!" He yelled.
They pulled away from each other, staring at him. After a long stretch of silence, he nodded. "Fine."
Andy turned an ear toward him. "Pardon?"
"Deal-!" He gritted his teeth and faced her, repeating, "I deal."
Quietly, she took hold of the notepad and slid it across the table. This time he did not fight it, taking the notepad into one hand and picking up a pen Richards left nearby. He glanced up at Andy, almost whispering, "You're going to get me killed. You know that, right?"
Richards spoke on her behalf, "Not if you fully cooperate and get a brand new name." More chipper than the situation allowed, he remarked, "I hear California's nice."
The Detroit police department was going to give Delgado an aneurysm before she hit forty. She was sure of it at this point. "Oh my God, stop talking!" She yelled out, bringing her hands to her temples.
When the door to the observation room finally opened, both people inside turned to greet Andy with vastly different expressions. Delgado marched past a smirking Reed to point at the interrogation room and confront Andy face to face. "What was that?"
Andy gestured to the terminal on the desk. "We record the interviews if you missed it," She suggested in a casual tone.
"Don't get cute with me-" Delgado replied before shaking her head, "I'm not offering him a deal!"
The detective gestured to Jason, who was fast at work writing down everything he knew. "Well I offered him one, and he agreed to give us names, so if you don't take it, feel free to explain why we're not chasing down a laundry list of drug dealers to the Chief of Police," She told Delgado with little remorse.
This was not what Delgado wanted to hear, and she wagged a finger, arguing, "You don't get to make decisions like that. I understand maybe you've forgotten how all this works-"
"All right, would you two shut the hell up?" The interruption from Reed was swift and smooth. He stepped up beside the women, continuing, "The feds are going after Anderson's case, and a little birdy tells me they'll be trying to take this one with them-"
Delgado was downright petulant in her interjection, "What? No. They can't have it."
Andy picked up where Reed left off, "Well this is how we keep it."
A dejected sigh followed a long pause, and Delgado shot Andy a hard stare. "This can't happen every time you want to close a case," She warned.
Andy shook her head. "It won't."
"I'll put something together," Delgado finally surrendered.
Her exit left Andy and Reed in the observation room. Reed's chest puffed out, and he began. "You're w-"
Andy stopped him, her voice soft and tired. "Don't ruin it."
He cackled to himself as they returned to the bullpen, just in time to see Hank and Connor emerging from the lobby. They both looked a little out of it, and it was an immediate cause for concern.
Andy turned to face them, but Reed saddled up beside her before they could get close. "You've got the science experiments for a few more days, but feds are closing in on this thing like vultures," He told her about Andronikov's androids. He shrugged and took several steps away from her, throwing out, "Better work fast."
Andy sent him a nod of equal acknowledgement and gratitude. Meanwhile, Delgado had approached Hank, who nodded to her in greeting. She stared him down, pointing subtly at Andy. "I blame you for her."
She left them with that and their puzzled expressions. They walked to their desks and Andy moved to meet them there, catching Hank's eye. "What the hell did you do?" He asked.
"I won," She stubbornly answered. She was quiet about eying the men in front of her; Hank was holding himself a little more haggard than usual, and more notably, a missing button on Connor's blazer gave the smallest of peaks at an alarming blue stain on his button-up. "What happened at the tower?"
"Well, we know Markus was the one giving the speech," Hank told her. It was obvious that was not all of the story, even more so as he glanced to Connor with a wave of emotion that Andy couldn't decipher fast enough. Hank started for Fowler's office, waving a hand as he said, "Connor can fill you in. I'm going to go see how things are going in there."
She watched him walk away, and then focused on Connor, who was lowering into his chair. It was unlike him to remain this quiet, and their attitudes made her uneasy. Doing what Andy did best, she closed in on Connor and leaned against the edge of his desk.
"What's going on?"
He kept his composure. "One of the staff androids helped the deviants break into the tower," He began, looking up at her, "When I found it, it removed my regulator pump and attempted to flee."
She may not have known what biocomponent was called the regulator pump, but the location of the tear at his blazer and the blue she couldn't stop staring at was indication enough. She knew what went there and what it did, and she knew what he meant. He almost died.
"Are you okay?" Was all she could manage to ask.
"I'm fine, Detective-"
She reached out for him, and he leaned away. It was such a small movement, barely noticeable, but she saw it as clear as day. She pulled back, and chose to rely on her words. "No, you're not."
He wanted to argue, she could tell. He always did when she challenged him on those little emotions he tried to hide. This was not like those other times, though. This was still raw, and he didn't have the energy to deny it. It was the first time Andy had personally seen his LED cycle to red as he confessed, "If I was four seconds slower, I would have deactivated and Lieutenant Anderson could have died."
"Shit."
They fell into a tense silence as he pulled his chair into his desk and attempted to return to normalcy. She watched the charade, not buying it for a second. With a burst of determination, she pushed her knuckles into his shoulders and captured his attention.
"Hey-" When he met her stare, she told him, "You weren't four seconds slower. Everything worked out, and you're both safe." He opened his mouth to reply, another self-deprecating argument on the tip of his tongue. She shot him a grin and cut him off, "Don't try to fight me on this one, CyberLife. I'm coming down from a pretty big win in interrogation and you will get creamed. It'll be so embarrassing."
He stared at her a moment, almost unbelieving. Her cocky grin remained, however, and finally it pulled a laugh from Connor. It was a small laugh, but it shook his shoulders and reached her ears all the same, and Andy decided that she wanted to hear that sound a lot more often.
They waited for Hank to return, filling the time with a discussion of the rest of the day's events, the weight on their shoulders a little lighter than it had once been.
