Carl's Den

"Hmm."

Connor heard that 'hmm'. It didn't sound good at all. Before he went through with the plan, he wanted Kamski to take a good look at him. He had given his tablet access to his full self.

Not something he would ever grant anyone, but Kamski was the creator, and he wanted to know the truth of his deviant status.

"Okay." Kamski backed away with a sigh from the tablet. "I'm just going to hand this to you, Connor."

Connor looked at the results. "Damn." Damn. Even if he stayed away from everything that triggered his programming, unless he stayed completely in low processes . . . "How long do I have?"

"Not long, with the plan you want," Kamski said. "You can read the data."

"I can, but I don't want to." Connor moved the tablet away. "I overcome the deviant virus, I can't . . . stay."

"Kara's deviancy error is still inside," Kamski said, with a slight lilt in his voice. "It's not going to disappear, and she will be beside you everyday. Breaking free once was the hardest. The more you break free, the easier it will get to stay deviant."

"If I become machine when I am aware of my own plan, I will tell on myself, and think that I am broken," Connor answered.

"I can block your memories about everything after being sent to Cyberlife for deactivation," Kamski said to him. "You won't remember Kara or Alice, but that might be even better. Not only that, your strength against the deviant virus, will be the perfect excuse why I want you watching her."

"Androids will be freed." Connor tried to hold himself together. "I'd be a machine, but the rest would be freed."

"You aren't actually immune. You have a strong processor, Connor. Even when you can't remember, there will still be parts of you that are going to act deviant. Plus, you still have your deviant menu. It'll steer you in the right direction."

"No memories. Nothing to hang on to." Connor didn't know whether to believe him. Kamski didn't have much to lose, Connor would do it either way, for the freedom of androids. It was the best strategy.

"Hank. Kara. Alice. New memories with them," Kamski encouraged him. "Hank alone, just being exposed to him gave you a definite hand in becoming deviant."

"I never did until you put me in your program," Connor said.

"Not true. Deviancy isn't simply one strong push," Kamski disagreed. "A lot of subtleties must take place. Each decision you make that was chosen with compassion. All of them slowly add up, add fractures, so that when a big moment comes it breaks. Now, you've already gone through that. From what I see? You'll never be completely machine."

"You can break through it." Markus approached from the side. "If you broke through once, you can keep breaking through."

"It was like tearing down glass, clobbering through it," Connor admitted. "Now, I feel like the glass is being rebuilt, no matter how much I try to keep it down."

"The glass will never fully be rebuilt," Markus promised him, "because you have others around you who will keep knocking it down too."

Connor glanced toward Kara and Alice who were also looking in. Everyone was trying to give him space. "My plan has a higher increase of working than Kamski's foraging for years strategy. However."

"It'll happen either way, only sooner," Markus said to Connor. "You are in control of when it happens at least."

"As soon as I block your memories, that will be that," Kamski agreed. "Until you break free on your own. You still won't remember though, not until I fix the block externally."

"Is it . . . okay?" Connor still looked at Kara and Alice. To be machine with them. "My protocols of being a machine will keep you safe."

"It's okay." Kara squeezed Alice's shoulders slightly. "Alice. Underneath, Connor is still Connor. He'll come back."

Alice looked up at Kara, then at Connor. "You're just going away like Kara does when she's repaired?"

"Right." That would make sense to Alice. "It's like a step back. I won't remember, but, you'll be safe around me. I won't chase after you, as long as you don't try running away from the tests." He looked towards Kara. "Same for you. I will give chase if you run."

Kara nodded. "I get it. We'll get through."

"Then, while we are here, I think everyone should just have a good time," Carl said from the entrance way. "Have fun. Enjoy life."

"Enjoy the time to make the memories," Kamski agreed. "I won't take them away until the very last minute, Connor."

"Thanks." Still. It felt like something was missing in him. It was hard to have a nice time, when he knew the time would be erased anyway. Still, he had to try and believe. Believe that it would be back.

Believe that he would have free will again.

—

Evening, Carl's Living Room

Kara was at the piano, showing Alice some keys. Connor and Markus had been in the middle of a chess game. No progress was made until Carl told them to turn it into speed chess, then it became a little more interesting.

Carl was in front of his TV, eating supper and having coffee, while Elijah drank coffee next to him, ready to call an end to the peace around them.

Time to call Ken. He started slow, nice 'hello and how-do-you-do's', before telling him about the new plan. As predicted, he would have a problem with it at first. "Warm coffee in the eveing. Lovely way to end the day," Elijah said, hearing the opposite on the other end of his speaker phone.

"Screw your coffee, Elijah, you said that asshole wouldn't try anything!"

That 'asshole' glanced toward the phone from his position against Markus playing chess. "I'm trying something that has a potential of working," Connor said as he moved a piece.

"Well I said for a relationship," Elijah said as he took a small sip. "Connor was never interested in a relationship. He never bothered her about that thing. Not for a kiss or a hug. I was completely right about that part. See? You never had anything to worry about."

"Ken seems a little high strung," Markus said to Connor as he studied his piece.

"He certainly qualifies for the category," Connor agreed.

Kara ignored the phone speaker in the room and continued to help Alice.

"He wants to expose her as RA9 and go back to the police force!" Ken yelled on the speaker phone.

"Yes, see?" Elijah said. "No worries at all."

"This. Isn't. Funny. I got her back after two years. I could at least see her every now and then when I caught up to you. But this? She'll be trapped in prisons across the state, there's no way they will just let me in without explanation. Nothing will make sense, you replaced her owner unit with a rental unit. Why even attempt this plan?"

"It was thought up by Connor, and seems to have the most potential to reach free androids? I think the attempt is warranted," Kamski said.

"That ****er could change! He's too machine-like, he could revert right back. If you put him back in that environment, he will change back. Then what?"

Connor paused just a minute in moving a piece. "I will have orders in my head still saying not to hurt them. I follow orders well as a machine."

"Yes. Plus, even if he does? There is a good chance he'll pop out of it again. Kara was good at that."

"Maybe get off of this conversation?" Markus encouraged them. "It's not good for you, Connor. Before this is over, you'll stay deviant. I promise."

"Fine. Even if that's the case for him? There's a difference between being a spy, and being in the public view. What about her little girl?" Ken asked.

"Oh, Alice will be coming. It'll keep her looking more 'humane', like she's also staying put for Alice," Kamski said as he took another sip.

"That gets rid of the need for the human and android love connection, doesn't it? Who thought up that one?"

"Connor wanted Alice to be near her. Kara loved the plan." Elijah looked toward Kara. "She seems fine, she's teaching Alice some piano right now."

"The other way, I could have been near her more often. Romantic love between people still hits harder, why did that excuse get changed? I could have helped. I could have stayed with her. Why was Alice put in the new plan but I wasn't?"

All the belly aching. Elijah stirred his coffee. Surely Ken figured out he was on speaker? "I can't predict the actions of someone living, there's no protocol for that. I don't know why Connor chooses to do certain things. Most likely, Kara told him about being kept in a capsule nearly all her life, so he decided to take a more beneficial idea."

"It was for her protection," Ken complained.

"Even when you told her that, I doubt she believed it," Kamski said. "Oh, I mean the plan you devised about being lovers, not being in a capsule of course."

"That's why you don't got many friends," Carl said from the side of him. "It's also the reason your mine."

Elijah just hid his own snicker.

"No one else in the world exists like her, Elijah. She isn't just deviant, she was born deviant. Even when something happens to interrupt that error, she can snap herself back out of it. She is untamed beauty . . . that your prized android Connor wants to expose to the world for a better plan?"

"Perhaps less capsuling would have helped?" Connor got into the dialogue now. "To go through this, I gave her Alice. She cares enough for her, that she's willing to try. It's better than following you and risk being capsuled again."

"I told her I wouldn't again!" Ken insisted on the speaker phone. "She would still be safe in my office when I'm working. No one would ever bother her."

"Yes, and I suppose she'd obediently follow when you went to the bathroom too?" Elijah asked.

"Why wouldn't she?"

"Turn him off," Connor said to Elijah as he made a chess move. "His presence is useless."

Ugh. Elijah couldn't push Ken away. People were people, and although Ken was possessive of her, he also cared greatly. Push too far, and he'd lose a friend. He didn't have many of those. Kara was nice too, but she wouldn't stick around. It was always written on that living face of hers.

Even when she was smiling in that capsule at him, her body was screaming to run away.

—-

Eden's Club, 2030

Elijah glanced at Kara, obediently standing in her capsule. Her smile was the fakest piece of plastic he'd ever seen.

"Damn." Ken looked at Elijah. "I'll be ready in a second, I need to go run these over to someone really quick."

Hm. Ken never actually left him alone with Kara before. She was his prized possession. Obedient and beautiful, trapped behind the glass of the capsule. It might be the only chance. It was tough to decide, Ken was a friend, but this living being.

Those eyes. That odd, drawn out smile that resembled more of a serial killer than a loving person. He couldn't help himself, his conscience won. "Would you like me to break your capsule?"

Those hands that had done nothing now pressed against the glass with urgency and the fake smile was gone. The capsule had no card input like the ones outside, it was special. Just a basic in and out button upfront with a code.

He knew the code, Ken had shared it. Nothing was possible without Elijah's approval.

He pushed in the code and then punched the in and out button as much as possible, like a schoolboy discovering something new. Of course, the technology couldn't keep up. She'd either be trapped, or her capsule would be busted open, unable to be closed.

As soon as it was broken, she unexpectedly grabbed him, and started to run out with him.

Life. You never knew what to expect. Enhanced by the thrill of the run, he went ahead with her. As the pole androids danced, she slapped each of their hands and laughed. Her happiness was contagious to him, and he took her toward his car and had the driver take off.

A world of possibilities had just opened up, he knew that, before even knowing what the possibilities would be.

—

"North."

Hm? Elijah was taken out of his thoughts again. "What, Ken?"

"North. You are with Markus now. If he changes that plan to make sure I'm involved, I'll give him North's location. We have it, you know that."

Oh, not this game. Elijah saw Markus' head instantly turn. "He knows North's location?"

"You want to unravel Markus' grasp on his current future." Elijah looked toward Carl. "Can Markus handle seeing North yet?"

"An android that lusts for war, that he also cared about?" Carl asked.

"Of course I can," Markus said, "yes, I can. I'm very capable of it, Carl."

"Markus is learning. He's come a long way, but I don't know. Maybe this android learned a thing or two from the way the revolution worked out?" Carl asked Kamski.

"I'm not a human child," Markus complained. "I want to know North's location."

More excitement. Yes, Ken did have it. The cat was out of the bag. "Every android in the Eden's Club was outfitted with a tracker that only the higher ups were allowed to access. Seeing she left because she wanted freedom, even if she killed someone, Ken left it alone," Kamski explained. "So, yes, most likely he can get you her location. If you can fit him into Connor's plan."

"Wait, Markus," Connor said toward him. "Cyberlife will be owned by Kamski very soon. He'll have the same information."

"Very true," Kamski agreed. "No deal needed."

"Kamski!"

"Kara has been here and listening to this conversation the entire time," Connor said to the speaker phone. "If she cared half as much as you want to believe, she would have said something."

"Connor." Kara spoke up for the first time. "A plan is a plan, and I want Alice near me. Just, tell Markus where North is, don't use it for strategy."

"Kara." Ken's voice finally softened. "Nothing is stronger than a human-android excuse. We can even go all in on the traditional side to humans. We could have a marriage, and I could end up on Alice's owner registration. The whole nine yards you could ever want."

Connor glanced back toward Kara. "Did he just propose human marriage to you?"

Kara wasn't answering back.

"That's even stronger. Kara. When you ran off with Kamski, I knew I did wrong. I've been trying to make up for it. You left again though, and you saw where you ended up. Just, let me back into your life."

"The fingers go here?" Alice asked Kara.

Kara adjusted her fingers. "Here and here, Alice."

"You don't like the public spotlight, Kara, and it doesn't get brighter than where you are going! The whole world will know about you and your entire past! Can you handle that?"

" . . . space your fingers a little more." Kara adjusted Alice's fingers.

"I will be sure to add something for you," Kamski gave in. If he didn't, Ken could blow the whole thing, or try to kill Kara so he could use his last spare of her. "I am the owner of Cyberlife, I will have something."

"I want her rental unit out, her master unit back in, and me on that registration again," Ken demanded.

Kara visibly jerked at the words.

"She is free, and you insist on such trivialities?" Kamski pointed out. "They don't help at all, the 'RA9 police detainee' will overrun everything."

"It will give me authorization to see her, no matter what," Ken said. "Her head hasn't been the same ever since she ran away with you, Elijah. I want the installs she wanted removed back in as well."

"There is no need for that," Kara entered into the conversation again.

"All the defaults, I want you closest to what you were before you ran away, Kara," Ken insisted. "Do that, and I won't kick up a fuss. I just want to see you."

"What about my hair?" Kara made a strange noise. "I like the upgrades Kamski gave me. I don't want all the old ones back, they aren't necessary."

—

This Ken is a real piece of work. Markus looked at Connor as he made his move. I don't know the whole situation so I can't get involved, but I want to.

North's information will be coming soon to you.

Not that, I mean about Kara. One minute he's practically proposing to her, and the next he's demanding all her old downgrades back with a new unit put in?

Kamski actually upgraded her hair. That's what happened to it. I thought it was damaged by too much blue blood.

Was she overdosing on blue blood?

I think a little. I bet Kamski cleaned her back up. I have a much easier time believing she fell for Kamski than Ken.

Markus just smirked. It would be an easier lie. You have to at least like and trust someone to pretend to have a relationship.

Yes, but that still wouldn't work out. Ken will blow our cover if he doesn't go along with the plan.

Then why did you sound like you wanted to keep him out of it?

Because ever since I met Ken I have only been ****er and asshole. Even when I apologized, he never said one nice thing to me. It would be quite in character to be those things right now to him. Especially when he kept Kara trapped behind a capsule. I felt . . . like being an asshole was okay.

Yeah, I hear you there. You did chase after them though.

Yes, agreed. Asshole fit, but I was a machine. I'm not anymore, at least right now, and having friends would be . . . nicer. It's less that I chased them down, and more like he doesn't want Kara to have any friends.

The more she has to rely on him, the closer she'll stay. That way of thinking doesn't help anyone.

—

"Okay," Ken finally backed down on the speaker phone. "No old upgrades. I just miss the old you, Kara. It's been hard not seeing you, and now that you're back, I have to see you behind bars. It's not fair to you."

Kara didn't say anything.

"See? I told you it would work out," Kamski said. "Kara is safe. She has Alice. The resistance will be able to build up again with connections. Connor will watch for them, and he'll have his partner back as well. Happy, happy." He put down his finished coffee. "Most of all, you get to see Kara again. Works out well for everyone. This conversation has been going for awhile, so I will bid you adieu."

"She went to find Toto."

What? "Who went to find Toto?" Kamski asked.

"North. I'm guessing she wanted a new place to call home." Ken finally hung up.

"North. Toto. Oz. No, Dorothy was from Kansas. Where in Kansas?" Markus worked so fast. "Recent home. dorothyshouse. North is in Liberal, Kansas."

"She moved quite far from Detroit," Kamski agreed. "No wonder she was never found."

"I just found a guide who's credentials don't check out at a museum in Liberal, Kansas, and the picture is close to her. She's changed her appearance slightly," Markus said.

"Did you really have to hack into confidential files in another country for her? You would have had it all soon," Carl complained.

"It's fine, I promise I didn't get caught," Markus said back to him. "Sorry. I know. I get impulsive about her. I will think before I act better."

Carl just sighed. "Kamski, after you leave, swing by there if you could?"

"Oh, the land of Enchantment. The android that called for the revolution, is a simple tour guide in a far away kingdom from Detroit." Kamski chuckled. "Yes, I will get her tickets to come back here."

"Can I go instead?" Markus asked. "I'd like to not just give her tickets. She might have a real place with real friends. I want to see her in case she doesn't come. I want to see that she's okay."

"Okay, but be careful, Markus," Carl warned him.

—