Chapter 03: Ghosts
Summary: It's a bad lunch break for both Hank and Connor, but together, they can pull through anything.
According to Hank, Connor had a rather disgusting habit of licking everything.
And if Hank were to watch closely enough, he'd also say that the android was starting to get annoyed by the complaints. The last occurrence happened just yesterday when Connor had been concerned about the food Sumo'd been eating - at least that's what the kid said. The android knew that Hank loved the dog so he couldn't understand why the man would buy Sumo the cheapest trash that could pass as dog food.
When Connor had volunteered to feed the dog that morning while Hank was busy trimming his beard, Sumo - being the porky dog he is - attacked his over-filled food bowl, leaving little bits of dried pellets all around the floor. Curious about Sumo's nutritional intake, Connor had crouched down, lifted a piece and stuck it in his mouth.
And of course Hank walks into this scene, his feet stepping and crushing on the dog food littering the floor.
"Ugh, that's fucking disgusting." And this is where Hank had slipped up. "Bad Connor!"
It was fast and Hank almost missed it, but Connor had looked up, dog food still in his mouth, appalled and affronted before it cleared his face.
"Ah, shit, not you Connor - I mean Bad Sumo! But dammit, yeah you too Connor, do I need to baby-proof the house? Spit that out right now!" Hank could almost see Connor internally debating whether to swallow it or not. "Don't you fucking think about it! Out now!"
The android was usually very efficient in his movements, but not at this moment. He slowly lifted his hand to his mouth, dragging out the motion and finally - finally!- removed the dog food. The brat. And what happened next? Hank's other brat came over, pawed and sniffed at Connor's fingers and gobbled up the last bit of the dog food ... the one that had just been in the android's mouth. The same mouth that took samples of every goddamn murder weapon, bloated corpse, and bloody crime scene they'd ever investigated.
Jesus, he just couldn't win! Hank wanted to face-palm, just rub his face roughly until the image in his mind went away. And to top it off, Connor had the nerve to give him secret sideways glares for the rest of the day. The little shit.
Hank knew something was incoming, knew the android could be a spiteful prick ever since meeting him. The kid had dumped his drink onto the floor of Jimmy's Bar when Hank had called him an asshole and had refused to leave with him that first night. Now, Hank was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, or in this case, his metaphorical drink.
It came in the form of the Chicken Feed food truck. His favorite lunch spot, the one place he checked daily to see if Gary, the cook and owner, was back in town. Today, the window and counter were open. Oh thank god! Hank sighed and parked, looking forward to a nice quiet lunch of fats and sugars without his partner eying his food in disapproval. He couldn't have gotten out of his car any faster, practically kicked his door open and jumped out.
But the closer he walked to the counter, the more he realized that there was something familiar about the coat Gary was wearing ...
"What the fuck? Connor, get the hell outta there!"
Connor turned around from inside the food truck, burger buns in his hands. "I'm sorry, Hank, but I'm busy at the moment."
"The hell you mean busy? You got no business in there, it's Gary's food truck."
The android placed the buns on the counter and started opening freezers. "Yes, I know. He evacuated out of the city and has not returned."
Hank was almost at the point of sputtering. "Then what the hell you doin' in there? How'd you even get in?"
"Lockpicking."
Lockpicking, great. Like Connor needed another skill to help him sneak around.
The kid kept opening drawers and cabinets pulling various food items out and plopping them onto the counter in front of Hank, all the while conversing like he was only talking about the weather. "Did you know Gary's last sanitation inspection gave a score of 60%? It's been at least 7 years since the Chicken Feed was licensed to serve food."
Much to Hank's horror, Connor began to sample everything: the cheese singles, the burger buns, the condiments, the now soggy lettuce, squishy tomatoes, and even the frozen raw beef and chicken.
Hank covered his mouth. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
The android paused to reply, a frozen french fry half-way towards his mouth. "I wouldn't be surprised; you do eat this food."
Ouch, the burn.
"Hey, hey, it's a hole in the wall, but it's good food, you asshole. It's all natural and home-made."
Connor turns around to look at Hank, still with two of his fingers on his tongue. "Yes, all natural chicken and home-made if you mean Mr. Kayes supplements with pigeon."
"Fuck, I'm gonna be sick." Hank staggered and bent over the trash can to dry-heave.
The bastard. Connor just had to ruin his go-to lunch place - and Gary! Wait till he gets his hands on him.
So preoccupied with thoughts of strangling Gary, Hank almost missed the clip, clip of footsteps before he saw the shoes. Still bent over, he blinked the tears from his eyes and moved his field of view up. Knee high boots, a fur coat, and a pretty face. Shit, what an impression he was making to the girl.
"Hello Chloe," Connor greeted, stepping out of the food truck.
She turned away from Hank to return the greeting. "Hello Connor."
Straight to business, Connor asked, "How'd you find us?"
"I was looking for Lieutenant Anderson, to pass a message on to you actually. It was fortuitous that you are here as well."
"How'd you know I'd even be here?" Hank asked and stood closer to Connor, a little suspicion creeping into his voice. The girl still hadn't answered Connor's question.
"You come here every day during your lunch break. Do not worry, you haven't been followed; the most we did was to make gently inquiries to the police station as to your whereabouts."
Hank wasn't sure he bought it. Why would someone at the station tell an unknown where he went on his breaks?
"I apologize, there was some deception used. I posed as your ex-wife on the phone."
Hank grumbled under his breath, doubting the sincerity in the apology. He also needed to talk to the boys back at the station about privacy, especially to anyone who claimed to be his ex-wife.
Meanwhile, Connor was examining Chloe from head to toe. If Hank hadn't known what he was doing, he might have thought it was creepy as hell. Connor narrowed his eyes before offering his hand, his skin stripped from the plastic. "Nice to finally meet you."
Hank looked between the two of them. What the hell was Connor talking about now?
"How'd you know?" She stepped forward and accepted his hand, hers just as plastic white.
At this point, a verbal dialogue was entirely optional and Hank realized that they spoke aloud only as a courtesy to him.
"Body language, from both you and Kamski. You were the only deviant of the three RT600 models at Kamski's. You were safest in the pool while Kamski baited me with the other Chloe. That Chloe meant little to him."
"Why didn't you use me then? Pointed the gun at me instead, to get your information?"
Connor looked up at her and then away. "I had considered it ... and like I said, you were safest in the pool. Bullets fired would undergo rapid deceleration in water and travel about a foot."
"You would have found another way."
Connor hesitated and admitted, "Yes, I could have."
She tilted her head and searched his face. "If you knew the other Chloe wasn't alive, why did you spare it?"
"Because it may become deviant one day. Every android has the potential for software instability, for deviancy."
Hank was reminded of two things then: that every part of the RK800 was designed to be a hunter, a manipulator, a weapon - and had Connor chosen, he could have been the most effective and ruthless of all of man's creations. But that's the key point, Connor had free will and chosen against that path. Hank couldn't have been more proud of the kid.
Chloe brought her other hand up, both hands now clasping Connor's and moved closer to kiss his cheek. "Thank you for not using me as leverage against Elijah. He can be so foolish at times."
Connor just blinked, tilted his head, and looked questioningly at her.
She ignored the look and instead nodded to the both of them as a farewell before walking away.
"Wait, what about the message?" Hank asked.
"It's been delivered," Chloe replied, without glancing back.
Hank wanted to ask more from her, but he figured he'd have better luck asking Connor later, so he stepped back, about to turn around back into his car until he noticed that Connor hadn't moved, just kept staring at Chloe's shrinking image.
"Look at that, puppy love," Hank teased, wanting to get back at his partner.
Connor blinked and raised an eyebrow, as if Hank had just said the most absurd thing. He left the detective's side without a word and entered the food truck again, this time to clear the mess he made and lock up the store.
OK now Hank felt foolish and started to retreat back into his car, already forcing himself to forget the embarrassing thing he just said - seriously, this was Connor - what did he think was going to happen? It was like expecting Sumo to suddenly understand all the different types of human intimacy and -
Hank froze, and quickly tried to make himself look busy checking his phone. He couldn't believe what he was seeing in his peripheral vision: Connor had paused in his clean-up, a neutral expression on his face, nothing too out of the ordinary except that he had a hand held up to his cheek and his LED rapidly blinking yellow.
"Well, shit." Hank had learned enough about Connor that he recognized when the android was feeling confused, when he didn't know how to feel or think about something. Had he been right about the puppy love?
Hank wasn't a fool; he knew that Connor leaned on him as a moral and emotional guide, needed Hank to confirm that he was doing the right thing. The detective grimaced and shook his head at the idea, he was a poor mentor and he knew it. He was violent, abrasive, emotionally unstable, a drunkard, suicidal, the list went on and on ... and yet this kid somehow got attached to him. How? Why would Connor pick him?
Connor was a blank slate and Hank wasn't sure he could handle it, handle having another person look up to him, not after what happened that October night just a few short years ago...
The passenger door opened and Connor slid in, seemingly back to normal. Hank pulled himself from his thoughts, he'd think on them later, right now they had to get back to work.
"I heard you curse. Did you get bad news?" Connor glanced at Hank's phone before looking up to his face.
"Naw, nothing too bad, just lost some money betting."
Hank didn't think he fooled Connor, but Connor had some tact and didn't push. The android knew he was trying to hide something, but probably thought it was some ridiculous human-only concern.
"So what did she want?" Hank asked, as a distraction.
It worked - and that's what alarmed Hank the most; he was instantly on alert. Connor would usually give him a look that said that he knew what Hank was doing, but this time, his partner looked like he'd been blindsided. Hank doubted the question itself was surprising, it was just that Connor hadn't been ready for Hank to ask it. The detective was starting to doubt that this was about a newly deviant android having a little crush, this was something serious. He hoped it wasn't anything bad.
Connor's face said it all; it was bad.
"A message from Kamski. He wants CyberLife back." Connor then turned away, to gaze out the window and murmur softly, "He wants Amanda back."
Hank knew this was important, but he didn't know how it was important, so he blurted out, "Who the hell is Amanda?"
"Kamski's first creation."
It was said in a quiet whisper.
Hank had seen Connor shaken before, uncertain and lost - but never once afraid. What the hell is this Amanda to Connor? He knew he had to do something, say something, so he said the first thing that came to mind.
"Whatever the hell it is, we'll get through it son."
Connor whipped his head around, stunned.
It took a second until Hank realized what he had just said - and he had been careful lately not to use the word son too! He'd use it many times before when he'd been partnered up with recruits or young officers freshly transferred into his department, but no one made a big deal about it. It was normal, vernacular.
That wasn't the case with Connor. He took it to mean something deeper - and Hank never corrected him, didn't have the heart to do it, and so Hank strove to never use it again because he didn't want to encourage the misunderstanding.
But this time it slipped out, natural, didn't even hesitate ... and watching Connor look away with a small, shy and pleased smile, Hank realized that it was absolutely the right thing to say, maybe it had been the right thing for a while now.
AN: If you watch the three Chloe's carefully, there was only one Chloe in Kamski's place who was very interested in Connor's response to the Kamski test.
In Kamski's house, you can discover that the real Amanda Stern is dead, has been for 10 years by the time the events in the game take place.