Henrietta had been watching them for the past twenty minutes from across the street. She would go through the same cycle over and over again: she would look at them and smile then look at the letter and scowl. Them and smile; letter and scowl. This letter could ruin somebody's life. This letter could ruin an entire family's life. She knew he wasn't a bad guy, so did he really deserve this misfortune?
"What a terrible fate you have met," she spoke under her uneven breath. "Etta."
The snowfall was so charming that evening as it bounced off glowing multi-coloured Christmas lights that were long past due. It was a perfect little night for the perfect little family; they were just as charming as the snow itself. They jauntily walked down the street making their way to their favourite restaurant: Pizza Boys Deluxe. Henri had watched them visit this place every Friday for the past month. It must have been so special to them. It was simple, but it was always the simple things that made life special.
She watched her mother's letter absorb the tiny flecks of snow that grazed its surface. It had her father's name transcribed on the front of the envelope. It was an artistically written letter; so perfect in its' penmanship. Henrietta never opened it herself, for it was always meant for her father. But she hesitated at every chance she made for herself. She always thought about how it could destroy him.
She peered into the glass of Pizza Boys Deluxe and saw the family of three making themselves cosy at the same window-side table which was their favourite. The routine of the three never changed. They were so predictable, but they seemed so happy about it. Henrietta longed for the things she did not have as a child. This was one of those things.
At some point during the dinner, most often half an hour into the meal, the father would excuse himself to have a cigarette alone on the sidewalk. This was Henri's chance and this was always her chance, but she could never do it.
"I can't ruin their happiness, mother." Henri raised her head to the covered stars while flinching from the flakes of ice. "It's too late." she placed the letter back in her pocket and never saw that charming little family again.
Henrietta stood next to the coffee maker at the DPD, failing to do anything and not from lack of trying. She was reliving a memory from the past, again. Some days it was harder to control than others.
"Guess that's what PTSD and this Godforsaken brain gets you, Etta." but when she murmured this she was no longer alone in the break-room.
"How are you doing, Henri?" Connor asked politely as possible and tried not to overwhelm her with his concern. He learned, when it comes to humans, that they preferred to be left alone when they were under a lot of stress. Hank was often like this.
"Sometimes it's difficult to hide your intentions." she turned to his right and pointed at his bright LED flashing the colour yellow.
"I am concerned for you, is all." Connor instinctively reached his hand up to block her view of it. "Did you see that doctor this morning? The one you mentioned last night."
"I did." Henri finally started making herself a cup of coffee. "He said I'll be fine."
Connor moved closer to her, "I'm glad he could help and I'm glad you're okay."
"What's going on here?" the two were interrupted by Gavin's brash voice. "Having a private meeting? Looks nice."
Henri could see Connor bite the bottom of his lip and lower his eyebrows before turning to Gavin.
"Sorry to bother you." Gavin put his hands up and gave a little cluck. "Didn't know you two had become so close."
"I was just asking the Agent some questions." Connor's reply sounded a bit defensive.
"Right, right." Gavin nodded and winked at Henrietta. "I wouldn't mind asking her some questions myself."
"That's enough, Detective." this time Connor had a harshness to his tone.
"Alright." he clucked again so obnoxiously as he left the two alone.
"He's asking for trouble." Henri slyly grinned. "Next time he makes a lewd comment about me, I'll break something on him."
"And I'm sure he would deserve it." Connor thought about how he would like to witness that event, but he knew it wasn't okay to think such things about humans.
It was then that Hank entered the room and also raised an eyebrow at how close Connor was standing to Henri.
"I heard you were assaulted last night," Hank asked as Henri put some distance between herself and Connor. "You want to tell us what happened?"
"Markus broke into my apartment and he tried to kill me," she commented bluntly in response. "Unfortunately, he got away."
"Shit," Hank's eyes widened and he stepped nearer to Henri. "Did he hurt you? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Henri wasn't going to inform Hank on the specifics of the encounter. "I defended myself and he fled after that. I called the station, but by the time Connor showed up Markus was long gone."
"He knows we're looking for him, so he decided to come after us?" Hank gaped back and forth between the two. "We'll have to assign some officers to keep watch on us when we go home for the night."
"Hank, I doubt he'll make another atte-" but he cut Henri off.
"You don't know that and I'm not taking any chances." Hank certainly wasn't Henrietta's number one fan, but no officer under his command was going to come to any harm.
"Okay, Hank," Connor sternly nodded in reply. "We'll keep a closer eye out for anything suspicious."
Hank grimaced at the two and yelled for Chris on the way out of the break-room.
"You think Markus won't try to attack you again," he waited for Hank to clear the area before he asked. "What about Hank or myself?"
"He-" Henri stumbled over her words not being certain what the right thing to say was. "-He was interested in me specifically." she bowed her head hoping Connor wouldn't press the issue further.
"You're positive?" if Connor was ever going to get Henri to open up to him, it wasn't by berating her on a subject she would rather not talk about. "Even if he was only interested in you, are you certain he won't come back for you?"
"He said I had one chance to change my mind," Henri realized that this comment was more information than she should have given to him. "But I doubt he will personally come after me again. However, he might be willing to send someone else after me."
"Just be careful from here on out." Connor didn't want to see a repeat of last night, for her sake and his, too.
"Connor," Henri thought back on her encounter with Ralph. She recalled what she had seen in his eyes; the room full of bodies. "Whatever is happening with Markus and these androids, it's so much worse than you could imagine. We have to stop this."
"I should be grateful that I don't have much of an imagination." Connor replied, but he could certainly come up with many unpleasant theories about what was really going on.
"That's not very healthy, Hank." Henri took note of Hank's grotesque fast food meal as she sat in the passenger seat of his car.
"We're on a stake-out." Hank shrugged at her dismissively whilst pulling his deep fried chicken sandwich from its' paper bag. "Stake-out food can never be healthy food."
"Uh huh." she chuckled to herself at this moment; it was a nice moment. "Still, that thing is roughly 900 calories, and that doesn't include your 550 calorie drink, Hank."
"You know," Hank pointed his head in her direction with a mouth full of food. "I've never seen you eat a thing. I see you drink coffee, I know you like your black coffee."
"I eat off duty." Henri rarely ate and not because she didn't want to, but because she didn't need to. "And I'm a vegan."
"Disgusting." Hank scoffed and spattered some food from his mouth.
"Yeah, I'm disgusting." Henri couldn't help but giggle at that. It really was a nice moment; she would cherish it forever.
"Look!" Hank almost choked on his drink as he was slurping away. "Someone is approaching him."
She glanced over at the station platform where Connor had agreed to meet this android known as Simon. Surely enough, it was Simon advancing towards Connor's position; Henri easily confirmed his identity.
"That's Simon, alright." she spoke to Hank who was now holding a set of binoculars up to his face.
"How can you even tell?" Hank could barely see the guy through the binoculars.
"Fits the description." she realized she may have been a bit premature with the information.
"Some eye you've got." he pulled the binoculars away from his face and eyed Henrietta suspiciously.
"I'm just guessing." she tried to cover her mistake.
"Connor?" Simon recognized the android sitting on the bench at the Ferndale station. "Is that you?"
"Simon," Connor got up to greet him. Connor had only met Simon a few times in the past; he hadn't seen him since the Revolution over a year ago.
"It's good to see you." Simon smiled as the pair sat back down together on the bench. "I don't think I ever thanked you for what you did for us."
"If it wasn't for Markus, you'd have no one to thank right now." Connor preferred to be humble when it came to his involvement in the Revolution.
"I'm glad you wanted to see me." Simon's smile faded from his face. "Things haven't been the same these past few months. We had set up a camp for refugee androids at the docs earlier this year and Markus seemed so proud of what we were doing for our people. But he started to change his mind about the whole operation. Markus said it was a waste of time protecting androids who couldn't take care of themselves. His attitude became more and more hostile."
"Do you have any clue about what could have triggered this change in his attitude?" Connor saw Simon's stress level jump up every time he spoke Markus' name.
"There were a lot of androids coming into the camp day and night," Simon tried to keep his composure while thinking about Markus. "He seemed closer to some than others, but there was one android in particular he started to spend time with. This android, Michael was his name, seemed like most of the others. After the Revolution, there were a lot of androids that no longer had a place to call home and Michael didn't seem any different to me."
"You suspect this Michael character had something to do with Markus' changes?" Connor observed Simon constantly shifting his position. It was obvious that Simon felt uncomfortable speaking about the topic at hand.
"I don't know, actually," Simon felt that saying anything negative about Markus would be considered a personal wrongdoing. "The two coincided, but I dunno if they're related. Markus left the refugee camp just over two months ago, now. I haven't been able to contact him since."
"Did he leave with Michael?" Connor was beginning to surmise that Michael could have a connection to this anomaly that Henrietta believe exists.
"He didn't actually," Simon briefly paused to stare at the passing train. "He did leave with North, but… But he didn't take anyone else. I tried to talk to him; I wanted to join him, but he wouldn't let me." Simon folded his head into his lap and began a gentle sob. "I loved him, Connor. I just wanted to be with him, but no matter what I did it was never good enough. I stood by his side through everything, yet he still abandoned me."
"He's not himself." Connor wanted to offer condolences, but he wasn't sure how. "I promise, we'll do everything we can to help Markus."
"I, I need to leave." the conversation was becoming too stressful for Simon to handle.
"Wait," Connor held Simon's shoulder to prevent him from standing. "What happened to Michael?"
"He left the camp, I don't know where he went." Simon made a weak attempt to stand up again.
"One more question." Connor still held Simon down, but this caused Simon's stress level to reach 84%. "What model was this android?"
"I think it was an AC700, but I'm not sure." Simon struggled against Connor once more and failed.
"Do you know who its' previous owner was?" Connor was no longer regarding Simon's level of stress.
"I'm not sure!" Simon shouted as he pulled himself away from Connor. "I don't know, I have to leave."
It wasn't until this moment that Connor realized what he had done to Simon. Connor was pressuring him. It was something that Connor no longer associated with his own personality, but there it was. It was something an unfeeling machine would do, yet he claimed he wasn't like that anymore. But saying that you were no longer that person, was not an excuse for those actions.
"Simon, I'm sorry," the words dripped from his mouth, but it was too late. Simon was already gone.
"I found a missing person's report that was filed back in 2035 about an AC700 with the registered name of Michael." Connor leaned on the edge of Henrietta's desk trying to grab her attention. "The previous owner's name is Tyler Burns. His currently listed address is 301 1525 Broadway St."
"Do you think it's worth looking into?" Henri responded, but she kept her eyes focused on her monitor. "It's unlikely he knows anything, especially considering the last time he saw Michael was four years ago."
"I say we take all the leads we can get," Hank interjected. "It's like fishing: even if you can't see any fish in the water, doesn't mean something's not gonna bite."
"Interesting analogy, Lieutenant." Connor had never heard of such a turn of phrase before because it didn't exist.
"You guys aren't going to like this," Officer Miller spoke as he approached the group. "That android, Simon, he was found dead this morning. Looks like he shot himself."
"Jesus Christ," Hank snapped his head towards Connor. "What the fuck did you say to him?"
"I told you," Connor replied defensively. "He told me about Michael and I asked him if he knew any specific detail about the android."
"Really?" Henri could see Connor's LED glowing a bright red. She saw most of the conversation that Connor had with Simon last night and she knew how stressed Simon was by the end of it. Maybe Connor felt responsible for Simon's death. After all, androids will resort to self-destruction when placed in stressful situations.
"It doesn't matter anyway," Hank could sense the doubt in Henri's tone, and he certainly was in no mood to get into an argument. "Look, I'm going to check out this-this Tyler whoever."
"Burns," Connor corrected Hank. "Tyler Burns. I will accompany you, Hank."
"I'll be here." Henrietta called out to them as they left, leaning back as far as she could in her chair.
"Discover anything new?" Henri inquired as Connor came toward her desk. She hadn't moved in five hours.
"I was about to ask you the same." Connor's reply was dull, almost bored sounding.
"Well," she turned around with wide eyes trying to spot Hank. "Where's the big guy?"
"I think Hank is mad at me, but he won't say why," Connor rolled a nearby chair over to place himself next to her. "He went home."
"Calling it an early day, huh?" Henri couldn't remember the last time she took a break unless you call four hours of sleep a night a break. "That's okay. Sometimes people forget to slow down and they boil over, you know?"
"This doesn't seem to be a problem for you." in fact, Connor would call her current demeanour relaxed, which was surprising. He'd never seen her like that before; he had doubted if it was possible for her to relax. "You seem content at the moment."
"You know Hank is mad at you because you lied to him, right?" Henri figured she could change the subject for just one moment.
"I-" he couldn't think of what to say next; he couldn't dispute her comment.
"It's okay," she knew no one was perfect, not even androids. She had assuredly made greater mistakes in her own past than Connor had last night. "Sometimes we forget that the end doesn't justify the means. This investigation isn't moving at a breakneck pace and that can be frustrating at times."
"I broke a promise to myself." he hung his head in shame. "I promised I wouldn't be like the machine I once was. I promised myself to be a better person than that."
"You feel guilty for your actions," Henri softly placed her hand on his slouched back. "That's perfectly normal and it'll remind you to do better next time. Trust me, I know what that's like."
"You still didn't answer my question." Connor lifted his shoulders back and straightened himself out.
"I found exactly what I was looking for." she said this with an absolute smugness.
"Really?" Connor's LED started flashing yellow.
"Unfortunately, I have no idea what it is." Henri moved to the side and pointed at her screen.
"What is this?" Connor gaped at the text on the screen.
Srcu=!A/oQmL'\XLRc((68jJPN7PSeo&id59$#5C3yDT\||apFPz tjeJT[[tFu|!~N8smfRsUq3n9 blTd\\42**I2wFiws][GNr3oPj uH7\\YLvxrp***N3kzbZ3[7WNa FR+qD+$9C-Rt70'DbCdqt1sXs kSZ55s}X4T{[DCmW$&*0fcu2Aq Lx:JIVir';Q\FZ7{]JnOImZ|\TGt 25N2Z\\DR9slJE$^*Xqsox613 N9a6&/,gCJt\||aS0chNM][6g6o1
Whatever it was, it wasn't code. And if it somehow was code, it was unlike anything Connor had seen before. There was no logic to it, so he couldn't make sense of it. The characters also weren't static; one or two would alter every second.
"I have some ideas," Henri replied. "It's interfering with androids on some level, but again, I'm not sure how. It also seems to be constantly changing, which would explain something I noticed when we visited your suspects in prison."
"When you questioned them-" Connor already knew what she was thinking, "-they didn't display the previous physical anomalies that you had spotted in the interrogation recordings."
"The changes in this, 'code', directly affect those who have it." Henri realized now how much of a risk she took when she questioned those androids. "Maybe, whatever it is, is evolving somehow. Like the way androids learned how to become deviant, this thing is learning how to control them."
"Are you implying that this anomaly has its own consciousness? That it's self-aware?" the idea was almost too ridiculous for him to consider.
"It's not really that different from you, is it?" Henri pondered the age-old statement: I think, therefore I am. Can a piece of code, a line of programming, be sentient?
"What can we do about it?" Connor wasn't sure what else to say.
"I attempted to delete it from the program, but it was impossible." it had shut her computer down every time she tried."It's protecting itself or it seems to be."
"It would be helpful if we could find where it was originally conceived." although Connor wasn't sure if that was probable.
"I say we pay a visit to Elijah Kamski."
"Hank isn't going to like this." and Connor would be right about that.
