"What's up with you, North? You've been with Chloe longer than you've ever spared anyone your time. If I didn't know you, I'd say you're in love with her."
North shoved Josh sideways, feeling her systems overheat a little. "You were the one that told her to come find me. I'm just helping her like anyone would."
They turned around a corner and navigated through Jericho without much thought. After years and years of living in this ship, most of the older deviants had a version of the ship's blueprint stored inside their cache. However, it seems as though the ship itself had been changing. The door to the storage chamber was broken and blocked by a pile of ceiling rubble that was most certainly nonexistent the last time North had been down here (perks of having impeccable memory; she could review it like one would rewatch a video).
The back door opened with a piercing scream. Josh held it open as North stepped in, but he let go a little too hastily for it to scream all the way back to being closed.
"This place is old," Josh commented, "You sure it's safe? The ceiling's not gonna, like, crush us, right?"
"It's old but functional. It'll do the job," North replied. She was defending a storage room's usefulness. Since when had she started to appreciate this old ship so much?
"Take a look at this." Josh uploaded a picture onto the projector he had brought with him. "That's our guy."
A poorly pixelated picture taken from what North presumed was a news report was projected onto the soot-covered walls of the storage room. An RK800 in a clean suit stood at a bearded man's desk in the middle of the picture.
"An RK800, model #313 248 317-52. It looks like he's in a police department right now. That's er… Lieutenant Hank Anderson with him." North analyzed.
"How'd you get all that? Didn't you say that analyzing wasn't part of your system because you know… you don't really need it to do your job?" Josh, with a raised eyebrow, was staring at North in awe. "Even I can't do that!"
"Markus," North mildly replied, "He transferred his updates into my system when we connected before."
"I didn't know he could do that."
"I didn't either, but that doesn't matter." The deviant leader shut down the topic that Josh had broached. Markus… Just hearing the name made her biocomponents feel a good ton heavier. "Do we know his name?"
"No… but I did ask around and an android who used to work in traffic management checked the drones and saw the two in a car driving towards some faraway place."
"Hold on." Something clicked into place in North's mind. She scanned and rescanned the serial number printed on the android's coat. "That's the RK800!"
Josh frowned. "I thought we had established that already."
"I know someone who can help us with this. I'll just, uh," North paused as her system started running in the background.
| Establishing Connection… |
| Chloe: Connected |
North glanced towards Josh - who was clearly confused as shown in his deeply furrowed brows and incredulous expression - while rendering a map of Jericho. "I'll just call her right now…"
"Actually…" Josh's incredulous expression turned stern. "There's no need. He's come to find you. Our patrol just informed me of an RK800 wandering onto the deck. It seems like he's headed for the control room."
"I guess that's my cue, then. Makes my job much easier. Chloe just informed me of his name anyways. It's perfect timing." North carelessly shrugged, wasting no time as she headed out of the storage room. A hard grip pulled her arm and displaced her balance, stopping her from going any further.
"Please, be safe. We can't afford to lose you."
With that said, Josh let go, and North was speeding towards the control room, rapidly calculating her chances of success.
| GENERATING OBJECTIVES… |
HURRY TO CONTROL ROOM
REASON WITH RK800 #313 248 317-52
| Success Rate: 70% |
