John and Dorian arrived at the scene of what would have been a horrible car accident. The droid driver was still in the car, slumped over the steering wheel. They had followed the skid marks off of the main road, then the tracks through the grass that led to the giant tree that Jessica had talked about.

Dorian scanned the tire tracks, then he looked at the tree. "Based on the accelaration, she would have been killed on impact."

They walked along the tire tracks until they reached the point where they swerved.

"This must be where she got control and turned," John said. "I'd say just in time."

"Looks like she does well under pressure," Dorian said.

"Yeah, maybe. She was shaken up pretty bad, though. Not that I blame her." John walked over to the forensics team. "I'm gonna take this droid. Put it in my car."

"Yes, sir."

A couple of guys carried the droid, and John walked behind them with Dorian.

"John, they could have brought that droid back."

"I wanna make sure it gets back to Rudy, right away, untampered."

"Do you think cops are involved?"

"I'm not ruling it out. There were lots of crimes in that file... all classified along with droid malfunctions. Could just be that's really what it looked like, but if it's not..."

John had given Dorian the file, so Dorian did a quick scan-through of all the police files related to the crimes involved as they got in the car.

"I see no connections between the investigations. Different
officers worked the cases. Some worked on more than one, but not all of them."

"Good," John said. "I still wanna be careful. And let's just keep this between us for now. She already doesn't want droids around. If she thinks cops are involved she won't accept our help at all."

"Understood."

Since Jessica's house wasn't too far from the accident, they drove there next. The house was pretty much undisturbed accept for the living room. An overturned table and broken lamp showed signs of a struggle. The droid lay next to it. Once again, John had the droid loaded into his car, and they headed back to the station.

They took the droids to Rudy. If anyone could find something suspicious, it would be him.

"What exactly am I looking for," Rudy asked, his English accent flowing.

"Anything out of the ordinary," John said. "Any signs that the droid was tampered with or hacked."

"You'll have to do more than the standard search," Dorian added. "The droids in the other cases went through the basic tests, and came out labeled as malfunctioning."

"And we're thinking these weren't malfunctions," Rudy asked.

"Exactly," John said.

"I will do my best, but it will take some time."

"Thanks, Rudy," John said as he walked out of the room.

With Dorian following, John waked back to the conference room where Jessica was waiting. As they approached the two guards, John turned to Dorian.

"Look, she agreed to let you help protect her, but I guarantee you she's gonna be keeping a close eye on you. Be yourself, but try not to do a lot of the stuff with the lights and..."

"Be less droid?"

"If at all possible."

John patted Dorian's shoulder and they walked into the room. Jessica was up and pacing, biting her thumb nail with her eyes focused on the floor. Her head snapped up when John entered, and her hand fell to her side when Dorian joined him. John could see that she was on alert.

"Jessica, this is Dorian."

Dorian nodded without approaching her. "Nice to meet you, Jessica."

"Hi."

John wanted to avoid tension, if possible, so he filled her in. "We found your car and went to your house. Both droids were still there, and they are now in the very capable hands of our droid expert. The forensics team didn't find anything weird at your house. No break-in. Doesn't look like anyone else was there. So, we're gonna take you back there to get things you'll need, for at least a few days... maybe longer. We can't be sure how long this will take."

"We're not staying at my house?"

"No. If this is your boss, we don't know how far he's willing to go, and we don't want him to know you're with the police. Dorian and I will bring you there in my car, wearing street clothes. You can send your boss a communication telling him that two of your droids malfunctioned. You reported it, police confirmed they malfunctioned. It stressed you out so bad that you need time off."

"Do you really think he'll believe that?"

"Probably not. But the important thing is not so much that he doesn't think you know, but that he doesn't think the cops know. At least, for a little while."

"So, where will we be staying?"

"An underground bunker. It's made of concrete, so locators and other signals can't be detected. He won't be able to find you."

Jessica nodded. John pulled up the keyboard and the walls turned to glass again.

"Ready to go?"

Jessica nodded and walked hesitantly past Dorian, who took a step back.

"Dorian," John said, "why don't you go first. I'll hang back a little with her."

Dorian nodded and headed for the garage where John's car was parked. Jessica glanced up at John as they walked.

"Thank you," she said.

"For?"

"Asking Dorian to go first? So, I can keep an eye on him, right?"

A grin pulled at John's lips. "Now, what makes you think that's why I did that?"

She shrugged. "Just a hunch."

As they approached the car, Dorian was about to slide into the back seat, but Jessica called out.

"I'll take the back." She looked at John, "if that's okay."

"That's fine."

John nodded to Dorian, and Dorian moved to the front passenger seat. Jessica slid into the back seat behind John.

"So," Jessica said once they were on the road, "is there anything I'm not allowed to bring?"

"Not really," John said. "Anything that requires a signal won't work underground. Bring anything essential. Even if you don't need it now, if you might need it in a few weeks, bring it."

"Weeks?"

"Like I said, we don't know how long this could take. You can bring things to help you pass the time. Any reading or music devices you have, you can bring. Dorian will have to scan them, just to be sure there are no tracking devices, but you can bring them. Just try to limit yourself to one bag. The place is a decent size, but not big."

"Do we gave to stop for you to grab a few things?"

"No, I keep a bag in the trunk with a couple of extra changes of clothes, and a few essentials. I'm good. Once we get your stuff, we'll head under ground."

When they arrived at Jessica's house, John asked Dorian to wait in the living room and keep and eye on the perimeter. While Jessica packed, John looked around her house for the second time. The first time, he saw things with the eyes of an investigator. Now, he looked around as any other person would. While the decor was modern, he noticed the house wasn't high-tech.

"When was this house built?"

"1973. My grandfather built it when he found out he was going to be a dad for the first time."

"How long have you lived here?"

"About ten years."

"Really? After ten years, most people would have had this place turned into a smart house."

"Not me. I don't like the idea of a computer controlling my entire house. I've made a few updates, but nothing extreme. You wanna see the most important thing I put in?"

"Sure."

Jessica led John back to the living room. She walked over to a frosted glass case and flipped a switch. A light slowly illuminated inside the case, and the glass became clear. John pointed a finger in surprise.

"Are those actual printed books?"

"Yep."

"I haven't seen this many books since they closed the libraries when I was a kid." John looked around and saw that she had several of the cases. "Are all of these for books?"

"Yeah. My mom had a pretty large collection, and she couldn't bear to get rid of them. Even when e-publishing became mandatory, she kept her books. She bought print books until they became too rare and expensive. The cases are temperature and light controlled. They preserve the life of the paper and ink in long-term storage."

"There are lots of books in here by Ted Dekker."

"My mom was a huge fan of his." She opened a case and pulled out a large hardback book. "Especially these. The Circle series. Complete in one volume." She held the book in her hand as she closed the case. "I think I'll take this one with me."

"So, the most important piece of tech in your house was installed to preserve printed books?"

"Pretty much... and it's really not all that high tech."

"I kinda like that," John said with a smile.

Jessica smiled back and turned the light off before she went back to packing. As she laid one last shirt into the suitcase, she looked around the bedroom.

"Okay," she said. "I think that's it."

She zipped up the suitcase and John took it off the bed. "I'll grab this. You go send off that note to your boss."

Jessica nodded and went into her study. John stood by the door, watching her as she thought of how to word the letter. She stopped several times, fingers poised over the keyboard, her teeth worrying her bottom lip. When she was finally happy with it, she hit send.

"Done."

They walked into the living room, and Dorian approached John.

"I'll take the bag," Dorian said.

"Are you sure? I don't want you to think we're treating you like a service bot."

"It's fine. I'm offering." He glanced at Jessica. "Besides, I'm guessing you'd be more comfortable if my hands were occupied and John's were free. Am I right?"

Jessica looked almost hurt. "Look, it's not that I don't like droids. It has nothing to do with you specifically. It's just that-."

"You don't have to explain," Dorian said. "I understand. That's why I want to make sure you're completely comfortable with me being here." Dorian took the bag from John and walked toward the front door. "I'll put this in the trunk."

"I think I hurt his feelings," Jessica told John. "He is different, isn't he?"

"You have no idea. Come on, let's go."