"You sure you're okay?" Leonard asked his partner.
"Nothing major. Scotty can patch it up when we get to the precinct. Need a new shirt though," she gave him a reassuring smile as they walked over to the truck that Kira was in. As soon as he opened the door, the woman jumped.
"Hey, it's okay, it's okay. You're safe in here, Kira. This truck is made of titanium. They can't track you in here," he said.
"I'd be dead if it weren't for you," Kira said to Jemma. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," his partner smiled.
"Kira, you must know something about Anton. That's why they tried to kill you," he said.
"I don't," Kira shook her head.
"If you're holding anything back, now is the time to tell us," Leonard tried again, just to be sure.
"I don't. I don't know anything. I don't know why they would want me dead, too," Kira told him. Leonard doesn't know why, but he believes her.
"Okay. We're gonna transfer you to a safe house, a place where you can't be tracked," he said.
"I'm not going anywhere without my daughter. My best friend Janet has her. I need to go see her right now. She'll worry if I don't go home," she told them.
"Okay. We'll bring her to you," Leonard said. "What's her name?"
"Joanna."
He glanced at Jemma and she nodded. "I'll call Pike."
"We've got men outside. You'll be safe here," Leonard told Kira. They got her, her daughter and her best friend settled in an underground safehouse. As long as they stayed there, they should be fine until Leonard and the others found the bad guys.
"For now, maybe, but they will find me. You have no idea. That's what this technology is designed to do," Kira told him.
"I've seen what this technology can do. We're gonna find them," he told her.
"Maybe. Maybe not. I think… I think I should just go to a scrubber. Whatever they think I know, I'll just erase," she said. "I need to be here for Jo. She's all that I've got. And maybe this way they'll leave me alone... when I'm no longer a threat to them."
"It doesn't work like that. It wouldn't matter. Look, forgetting Anton is not the answer here," Leonard said.
"Are you one of those anti-scrubbers or something?"
"I don't agree with scrubbing, no, but I won't hold it against someone if they did it." Scrubbing was the opposite of recollecting, it was basically a memory wipe. As someone who's been trying to fill the gaps in his memory, the idea of just erasing stuff didn't sit well with Leonard at all. There were things that he –and Jemma- would give anything to get back.
"Well, maybe if your life depended on it, you would," Kira muttered.
"You have more faith in the tech finding you than me stopping it. I understand that. But I need you to trust me."
"Can you guarantee that you can protect us?" she asked, both of them glancing at her daughter. The seven year old with the big brown curls was jumping on the bed while Janet made sure she didn't fall.
"No, I can't," he sighed. "Look, I know you're worried about your daughter, but if this technology gets out, it'll change the world we live in. It'll change the world that she lives in forever. You know something. We just gotta figure out what it is. But I can promise you that my partner and I will do everything we can to protect you."
"What do you need me to do?" she asked.
"We have a plan to draw them out but we're gonna need your help."
"Anton Komack's car has parking violations outside Merit Bank. Once, three weeks ago, and then again a week after that. We checked surveillance, and he did go inside the bank. Now, there was no account under his name, but there was one under a 'James Komack'. James is Anton's middle name," Uhura told him.
"That's it. Did you find the money he got for selling the software?" he asked.
"No, there were no credits in the account, but there was a safe-deposit box. Maybe the creds are in there. I'll text you the address," Uhura said.
"Thank, Nyota, we'll check it out," Leonard said. "As soon as Scotty's done with my partner."
"We're done, laddie," Scotty said as he and Jemma walked into the bullpen. "Can you not get into another shootout?"
"Tell the criminals not to shoot at innocent people," Leonard chuckled. "Come on, Jem, we got a lead."
"No credit chip," Jim said. "He wasn't hiding any money. A lot of personal effects."
"Video stick," Leonard said as they looked though Komack's safe-deposit box.
"It's full," she told him.
"Can you play it?" he asked. Jemma put the small storage device in his phone.
"We can get to her at any time. I think you know that. Don't make a mistake that can't be undone. Deliver the third part of the design schematic by Thursday. There will be no more time."
"Anton wasn't facilitating an arms deal. He was being extorted," Leonard said as they watched the videos of Kira and Joanna that played along with the message.
"Bones, I just received notification that Kira Larsen has left the secure building five minutes ago. She's gone."
"Look, these guys aren't gonna stop until they find Kira. Until we find her, the only lie we have left to chase is Natalie. Anton lied about her for a reason. Kira said she saw them outside and near their office two weeks ago coming back from lunch," Leonard said once they were back at the precinct. "We know what Anton and Kira look like. So why not use facial rec to search for them and another woman in the vicinity of their office a couple weeks ago?"
"There's a lot of faces in the city. I could do it but it'll take more time than we have," Jemma told him.
"There's something you need to see," Pike told them. Leonard and Jemma joined Chris, Stiles and Uhura in one of the small conference rooms, they were watching a video. "DHS was able to pull this off a black site which they were able to trace back as far as Estonia."
Jemma's face lit up, "The language is Chechen. 'With a maximum range of two kilometers, the Magic Bullet can locate a single human target with an accuracy of twenty-five centimeters. Fast, precise, and with little or no risk to operator exposure, the Magic Bullet is also a bargain at the designated price per round'."
"Tie up a loose end and make an infomercial out of it. That's pretty cold," Uhura sighed.
Stiles glanced at her, "It's cost effective."
"Captain, we just intercepted a signal from Kira Larsen's personal comm," one of the VXs said.
"Bring it up," Pike told the android. They watched the screen change to a map. Kira's location blinked bright red.
"Looks like Kira's following your plan, Bones," Jemma said. "She's underground. Thirty-four thirty-five Randall Avenue."
"Go. I'll send backup," Pike told them. Leonard and Jemma practically ran out of the room. If they don't get to her in time, these people will kill her.
"What's listed in the building?" Leonard asked his partner as he sped through the city.
"It's listed as a plumbing supply store, closed for the last eleven months," Jem said. "Take the next left."
"There's at least half a dozen memory shops on that block. Bet she's gone to a scrubber."
"We gotta go. We don't have much time," Leonard told Kira.
"I want them to find me. I want them to find me! And when they get here, they can watch me having my memory scrubbed! I don't know why they're trying to kill me, but I know it's gotta have something to do with Anton! I told you, if I get rid of everything in my head about him, they'll leave me alone," she yelled at him.
"It wouldn't matter, Kira. Look, we think we know why they tried to kill you. That woman you saw Anton with, Natalie, we believe she's an arms dealer, and you can identify her," he said.
"Bones, we need to hurry," Jemma said from the corridor outside the 'exam' room he was in with Kira.
"Let's go," Leonard told his witness. She gave him a look then pulled the leads off her head and grabbed her bag. They were almost out the door when the shooting started. "Get down!"
"Backup's a minute out," Jemma called from the room across the hall.
"Great, that should give them just enough time to kill us," he grumbled. "We're sitting ducks."
"I'll draw their fire," his partner told him, drawing her second weapon from the holster on the small of her back.
Their eyes locked for a second and she gave him a nod before she moved out into the open. Natalie's partner moved out of cover just enough for Leonard to shoot him. Natalie popped out of her cover and Jem took two shots, one in the leg, one in the shoulder.
"Mine's still alive," Jemma called.
"Mine's done," he said as he checked the male shooter.
"Police. Get your hands up. Hands up!" a VX yelled as a team arrived, guns drawn.
"We're all clear!" Leonard called.
The VX must've scanned him because it lowered it's weapon, "Roger, Detective McCoy."
"Kira," he said as she buried her face in his shoulder. "You're okay. You're okay. Officer, get her out of here." Leonard passed Kira over to one of the uniformed officers and looked around for his partner. He spotted her leaning against the door frame examining her jacket. "You got shot again." Jemma nodded. "You've certainly taken your fair share today."
"I'll have Scotty send you the bill," she chuckled.
"Please don't," he smiled.
"Okay, but you're buying me a new jacket. I liked this one."
"Can I run something by you, Chris?" Leonard asked his CO at the end of shift. "It's about Jem."
"Yea, what's up?"
Leonard sighed, "I think she should get paid."
"What?"
"Whenever she needs something, Scotty has to file paperwork or we buy it. Not that I mind, but she works the same hours I do and she no access to any funds for anything."
"What do you mean?"
"She said something earlier about replacing her jacket and it made me think. Jemma doesn't wear combat gear like the VXs, she wears clothes like the rest of us. She got shot a couple times today, rec order only covers half of what she was wearing and doesn't account for the fact that she has preferences. Same thing happened after Daystrom."
"So, she wants to buy clothes?" Chris asked with a look of confusion and amusement.
Leonard chuckled, "She doesn't want to, but she should have the option and opportunity to. While we're at it, she shouldn't have to live with the damn VXs either."
"She can't just live without supervision," Pike said.
"Give her one of the empty offices upstairs, let her live in the lab with Scotty, hell, I'll put her up if I have to. She's miserable living with them, there's no privacy and they 'glare at her with their lifeless eyes…' her words. You should go down there some time, see for yourself. I did, it's depressing. Unlike the VXs, she's fully self-aware, intelligent and, while we can't measure her level of consciousness, we both know it's there. She should have some say in where she lives just like we do."
"Huh," Chris sighed. "I don't think I've ever thought of it like that."
"I don't think anyone other than Scotty has. The GSKs and JTKs were created to be as human as possible. Everyone freaked out when they were just like us, so the whole line got shelved. Nobody thought about the ethics of making androids with souls and then getting rid of them. They're considered property, which isn't a problem for maintenance bots or sex bots or the VXs… but those that have unique identities like Jem… it's probably why some of them snapped. If you were being treated like a machine, wouldn't you?"
"I told you Jemma was special."
"You did. So why is the department treating her like the VXs? You treat her like a cop, so do I, so do Uhura and Scotty. As far as I'm concerned, Jemma's a person just like the rest of us."
"I can't promise anything but I'll look into it."
"Thanks. Don't tell her that I said something," Leonard sighed, "she'll never let me hear the end of it."
"Tell her what?"
"What's wrong with Pike?" Uhura asked at the beginning of shift a few days after Leonard talked to Chris.
"No idea," Stiles shrugged. Jemma walked into the bullpen chuckling. "You know what's up with the boss?"
"He went downstairs," she smiled.
"So?" Stiles asked.
"You ever see a VX without it's gear on?" Jemma asked them. They all told her no. "Life-sized Ken dolls."
"You mean…?" Leonard asked, making a gesture to his pelvic area. Jim nodded. "Wow. That's… wow."
"Chris went down there and got an eyeful," his partner was trying not to outright laugh but she wasn't doing a very good job. "I've never seen him so… perplexed. He's gonna have that mental picture for a while." After that, she lost it and let out the most beautiful laugh he's ever heard.
"Are you like Barbie?" Stiles asked. Leonard, Jemma and Uhura all glared at him. "What?"
"That's none of your business, John," Uhura told the detective. Jemma kept a firm hand on Leonard's shoulder to keep him in his seat. "You don't ask something like that. Ever."
"I don't what the big deal is, it's just a bot," Stiles shrugged.
"Come on, Bones. Let's take a drive," Jemma said pushing him away from the bullpen and towards the exit. He made a move towards Stiles but Jemma wrapped her arm around his middle and pulled him away. "You're lucky I'm not that automaton who gets your coffee, Stiles, otherwise I would let him kick your ass."
"Calm down," Jemma said.
"He… he… Why would he ask you something like that? And callin' you 'just a bot.' What the hell was that?"
"He's an asshole," she chuckled from the driver's seat. "We know this."
"That does not make it okay," he grumbled. "You should've let me punch him."
"So you could get in trouble and we both get desk duty? I don't think so," Jemma snickered.
"Are you laughing at me?"
"I'm trying not to but you don't make it easy," she told him. He gave her a look. "It's just… for someone who doesn't like my kind, you're very protective of me. I mean, you shot a VX last week and now you wanna punch Stiles."
"You're my friend," he said with a shrug. It was a little more than that but he wasn't giving voice to the thought that they could be… whatever they could be.
"Am I?"
"Yes. And I don't let people disrespect my friends. Besides, asking people what's in their pants is just rude." Even if you're curious.
"So, I shouldn't ask?" Jemma quipped. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. She glanced at him and smiled. "I'm kidding."
"Uh huh."
"I am. It's not like I don't know."
"Know what? What's in someone's pants?"
"No one specific. I'm talking in general," she chuckled.
"Like you need that info."
"Hey! My designer was very thoughtful, thank you very much. Unlike the VXs, I'm an anatomically correct, thirty year old female. I can do a lot that they can't do including…"
"Don't tell me, I do not need to know," Leonard said the words but he didn't believe them one bit. He was actually curious.
"Your pulse just jumped."
"I'm angry."
Jemma laughed, "Keep telling yourself that."