"Shit," Jen grabbed at the reinforced window,
the car bouncing.
Kate smiled slightly, guiding the cruiser
around to a vehicle lift. The car slid into place,
with a control pad sliding forward under the driver's
window. "Level one, District 12," Kate ordered, and
with a thump they began to move.
"We're going to Lowtown?" Jen said, feeling
nervous.
Kate shrugged slightly, keeping her hands on
the wheel. "We go where we're needed," she answered
her simply.
Jen nodded as the light dimmed around them as
they moved downwards. Streets suspended between towers
rose up around them as they fell away from the
sunlight and into the eternal twilight that Lowtown
lived in. Around them the machinery hummed, lifts
carrying vehicles up and down as Jen gazed out the
window.
"You been down to Lowtown often?" Kate asked
intio the silence.
Jen looked over at her, wondering if there was
some hidden agenda behind the question. "I know it
reasonably well," she finally said.
"Watch yourself when we're down there," Kate
continued as they fell slowly, "bering a police
officer is no protection."
Jen felt a flash of memory, a swarming that
she had witnessed years ago. The man had been left
barely alive, nothing of any value remaining, "I
remember."
"Eh?" Kate looked at her with a frown.
"I know," Jen quickly corrected herself.
The cruiser thumped as they hit the ground,
the only light around them coming from powerful
artificial lamps. Kate slid the cruiser out onto a
garbage covered street. She keyed on the headlights
and they were off. An update from Beth gave them an
exact address, and they soon reached what looked like
the crime scene. A standard police cruiser and
ambulance sat there, lights shining, the officers
looking nervouse as they stood around.
Kate brought the cruiser to a hault and popped
the doors. "Come on," she got out, looking over the
area cautiously.
The building that they stood by was badly run
down, in the poorer section of Lowtown, and was
practically an antique at only having the bare minimum
of fifty floors. The doors were reinforced, with
powerful lights mounted near the enterance to give
some feeling of sunlight. Up against the sides of the
building litter built up, paper and things Jen really
didn't want to identify.
Kate lead the way over to what looked like the
officer in charge, "Kate Williams, Special Unit One,"
she introduced herself crisply, "who found the body?"
"He was the first officer on scene," the
seargant nodded to a man sitting by the ambulance.
"Thanks," and Kate strode off towards him, Jen
following hesitantly behind her. She quickly assessed
the young man, the pallor of the police officer's face
and gentled her tone as she asked, "Can you tell me
what you saw, please?"
'I didn't think Kate could be that gentle,'
Jen thought.
"I was sent out because he hadn't reported for
work for three days," he explained, "I called out a
greeting, then went down the hall to the inside of the
suite."
"What did you find?" Jen prompted softly.
"There was an odd scent in the air, pone that
lead me to the bedroom," he sighed. "He was," he
hesitated, and repeated "his body was almost broken in
half." He flushed as he continued, "His genitals had
also been... removed."
"Thanks," Kate gave him a smile before walking
over the body, waving away the coroner for a moment.
Jen joined her as she flipped up the sheet, examining
the body calmly in the dim light.
"Oh," Jen covered her mouth, stepping backward
quickly.
"More like ripped off," Kate took note. She
looked the body over for a moment, then nodded
slightly before sliding the sheet back over him.
"What do you think?" the sergeant asked, the
balding older man looked at her anxiously.
"I'm glad you called us in," Kate admitted,
"it certainly looks like an android crime. Can we go
inside, check the residence out?"
"No problem," he eagerly passed the buck to
her.
Kate rolled her eyes at the general cowardice
she encountered in the regular police. 'Then again,'
she mused, 'it's not like they're equipped to deal
with this sort of thing.' The police's weapons were
all designed to harmlessly subdue a normal human
being, but against an rampaging android they were
utterly useless.
Jen noticed Kate heading for the building and
the tall blonde hastened to follow. Jennifer Grayson
was a new recruit, and Kate wasn't quite sure how
she'd turn out. But so far, she was managing. "What
next?" Jen asked her quietly.
"We try to get some solid confirmation it was
an android crime," Kate answered her quietly, "and
look for any information of the brand or type of
machine." She smiled grimly, "Finding a serial number
would be ideal."
They carefully walked through the rooms,
trying not to disturb any evidence. The hall and
living room didn't yield anything interesting, so they
carefully entered the bedroom itself. The sheets were
soaked red where the body once lay, and the room
itself was filthy.
"Maybe his house cleaner went bezerk," Jen
commented, taking in the layers of filth with an air
of distain. It was pretty obvious that housecleaning
wasn't a priority to the resident.
Kate snorted softly at that remark, but
otherwise she didn't reply. "Well, well," she
murmured, "what have we got here?" She activated a
holo- unit that was positioned nearby the bed, and an
image quickly formed in the air before them.
"Scream," the image of the fat man who now lay
out on the stretcher ordered, slapping at the girl.
She whimpered softly in pain and he slapped her again,
"Scream, damn you!"
"Oh hell," Jen murmured, looking quite ill as
she gazed at the life- like scene.
He slapped her again and again as he mounted
her, finally beginning pumping away, rattling the
seemingly frail body on the bed beneath him. She
jerked back and forth in the image, but as he moved to
slap her again, she caught his hand in hers.
There was something in her eyes as she looked
up at him that obviously seemed to scare the man. He
struggled to break free of her grip, but in a few
moments the two officers heard a muffled crack. The
android rose from the bed, and reached down. There was
a soft wet tearing sound, then she cast something
aside before walking right out of the room.
Kate stopped the recording, reversing the
image and then zooming in. 'I got it,' she smiled,
noting a bar-code and series of numbers printed on her
leg. She turned. saw how ill Jen now looked and
yelled, 'Don't throw up here!' She pointed,
'Bathroom's that way!"
Jen felt deeply humiliated as she stumbled
blindly down the hallway towards the bathroom. 'God,
how could she watch that so damn calmly?' she thought
disbelievingly. She reached the disposal just barely
in time, her stomach heaving.
Kate activated her comm, listening to Jen get
noisily sick in the bathroom with a wry smile on her
face. 'Was I ever that green?' she wondered, even as
she connected to headquarters.
"Yes?" the asian face came on the minature
screen.
"Hey, you're answering you own calls?" Kate
said, sounding honestly surprised.
"My secretary's on her break," Gwen Musashi
said dryly in reply. "So what's the situation?" she
asked her calmly.
"It's a confirmed android killing," Kate
reported, "but we knew that already. There is a visual
record backing it up, and I also have it's code, so
have Beth fire up the tracking systems." She recited
the series number even as Jen walked out of the
bathroom.
"We'll have tracking data for you as soon as
possible," Gwen said. She paused, and more softly
asked, "So how's Jen shaping up?"
"Not bad," Kate answered reluctantly. "We'll
get mobile and await tracking information," she
continued briskly before signing off. She looked over
at Jen, "C'mon, we're moving out."
"We'll leave things in your people's hands,
then," the sergeant said with satisfaction. He nodded
towards the scene, "Should we seal it off?"
"Until we get the android that did it, yeah,"
Kate nodded. The recording they found would be saved,
and the scene protected until the perp was brought in.
As an android, there wasn't likely to be a trial, but
if a human accomplice was involved, a trial might be
needed.
With that Kate lead Jen over to the cruiser
and they were gone. "Thanks for not telling the Chief
about my being sick," Jen said softly after a few
moments of silence.
"It happens," Kate answered a bit
uncomfortably. She pushed her brown hair out of her
eyes one-handedly, keeping a firm grip on the wheel
with the other. Her jacket bearing the Chasers' unit
insignia was the only official police gear she wore,
other than that she was dressed in pants and a faded
T-shirt. Jen noticed a faded logo on the shirt reading
'Pink Floyd'.
"I've been a officer for five years before I
requested this transfer," Jen said to her softly, "and
I never saw anything like that before." The blonde
toyed with her formal jacket, clealy nervous.
"There's worse, believe me,' Kate answered
quietly, a bitter twist to her lips. Jen looked over
at her in surprise, but the other woman didn't
elaborate, just kept focused on the road. They drove
on in silence, until finally Jen asked, "What do we do
now?"
"Wait for Beth to work her magic," Kate
answered dryly.
Back at the office Gwen got up from her desk
and popped out the recording of the call. As she
headed down the short hall towards Beth's work
station, she could hear her talking even before she
opened the door, and had to smile at what she heard.
"Sorry, I'm already double-booked on Thursday.
How about meeting me next Tuesday for a quickie?" A
short pause in the conversation, "Don't get huffy!"
The red-head noticed her boss' amused gaze and quickly
said, "Sorry, got to go!"
"How many dates have you got going at one
time, anyway?" Gwen asked with a smile as she looked
Beth over. The pretty redhead was in her typical tight
T-shirt and skintight pants, looking like an living
advertisement for wild sex.
"Who counts anymore?" she shrugged. Beth
looked up at Gwen curiously, "Do you have need of my
humble technical skills?" The short, Asian police
officer looked like the model for a cool business
woman, but a fire glinted in her dark eyes.
"Kate sent us some data on the latest Android
killing," Gwen answered, and wasn't surprised at the
change in Beth Harris. Her comic posture disappeared,
and she became all business. Gwen passed her the
recording and Beth extracted the code in seconds.
"A sexaroid model," Beth noted as she ran the
android's code through the computer. A sales image
appeared, a sexy young woman standing in an inviting
way. "I wonder if they're really as good as the
stories say they are?" she mused to herself, then she
shook her head. "What region is she in?" she then
asked, keying in data with blinding speed.
"It," Gwen corrected Beth just a bit frostily.
"It's in Lowtown, over in Old Tokyo," she answered her
crisply.
There was a soft hum of machinery and a map
appeared as the room's larger holographic projection
tank descended from the roof mount. A few red dots
then appeared on the map, indicating exactly where
several sexaroids in the area were.
"Can you narrow things down a bit?" Gwen asked
Beth.
The red-head bit her lower lip, "It's a mass
produced type, with only a general tracer built in."
Beth called up the information Kate sent to them, and
a smile appeared on her face, "But there's been some
customization done!"
With a few adjustments only two blips
appeared, in different parts of the map. "Nice work,"
Gwen smiled down at Beth before opening up her comm
and calling Kate.
Gwen didn't notice the faint blush of pleasure
on Beth's as she waited to hear Kate answer. "Yes?"
Kate finally replied.
"We've got a track on the rogue sexaroid,"
Gwen said with a smile.
"So where is it?" Kate asked her eagerly.
"There's a small problem," Gwen said a bit
reluctantly, "we've got two matching track signals
from that general region."
In the cruiser Jen looked over at the driver
seat watching Kate take the call, and wished that she
could hear it too. 'I wonder when I'll be the one
who's getting the calls?' she thought to herself
wryly, and a bit nervously as Kate looked away from
the road.
"Where are the two androids located?" Kate
asked crisply.
"One's in the local marketplace, the other's
stationary in an apartment,' Beth reported before she
handed the comm back to Gwen.
"We'll go after the mobile one first," Kate
said decisively, "but keep a lock on the apartment
one, just in case, all right?"
"Got it," an amused sounding Gwen answered,
and Kate realized that she'd been barking orders at
her boss. Before she could say anything else, Gwen was
gone.
"Plot me a course to the nearest market," Kate
barked to Jen.
The blonde scrambled to bring the cruiser's
onboard computer on line, frowning slightly as she
worked the terminal. "Did somebody lobotomize this
damn thing?" she complained, finally calling up the
route Kate wanted.
"Yes." Kate grabbed the wheel and firmly
twisted it around, pulling off an completely illegal
U-turn into the other direction of traffic. They
bobbed and swerved wildly, even as Jen gripped the
dashboard in a white knuckled grip.
"Hold on," Kate said dryly and bumped the car
right up on a sidewalk to evade a blockage. Jen firmly
closed her eyes at that point, just hoping they
reached their destination intact. Finally, Kate
crisply said, "We're here."
The market teemed with people, and mixed in
there were a many androids going about their business.
People cried out, selling their wares from stalls,
fruits and meats laid out ready to be picked.
Household servants, android companions and others
moved through the mob smoothly.
Kate scanned the crowd, watching the movements
cautiously while Jen puled a visor out of her pocket
and pulled it on. A glowing overlay of the scene
appeared before her eyes, sensors marking all the
androids in the crowded street.
"There's too many of them out there," Jen
cursed softly, trying to spot the sexaroid in the
teeming crowd of people and machines.
Kate smiled to herself slightly, then cupped
her hands around her mouth as she shouted, "Police!
Nobody move!" The crowd stopped in surprise watching
them, but a female figure in the middle of the pack
began to try and move away. "Bingo," Kate gave a
dangerous smile as she charged into the crowd after
her.
"Shit," Jen cursed softly, and scrambled after
her running partner. They broke through the mass to
see the girl fleeing down a side street. "Stop,
police," Jen barked at her. She looked around for
Kate, but didn't see her.
The alley was tight and stifling as Jen ran
forward, brushing aside dangling pieces of cloth and
cables. The android was also slowed down and finally
Jen closed the distance to order, "Stop!"
The android turned around, her long black hair
flowing around her as she faced her persuer. She met
Jen's eyes calmly, looking for something deep within
them. She took a half step towards her, and Jen drew
her pistol.
"Shut yourself down and surrender," Jen said,
trying to keep her voice level while pointing the
pistol at her. "There may be some extenuating
circumstances," she offered.
There was no warning signs, the android was
just suddenly chargiing towards her. Jen pulled the
trigger, the recoil jerked her arms up, and the back
pf the android's head simply exploded outward as the
bullet hit. The body staggered another step, then
dropped to the pavement.
"Not bad," Jen heard someone say from right
behind her. Kate had her own gun in her hand as she
walked up the alley towards her. She shook her head,
looking down at the fallen android, "Next time, try to
go for the motor control unit in the base of the
spine. That way, it's disabled without damaging the
central processing unit."
"Where were you?!" Jen demanded, her voice
breaking from the adrenalyn pumping through her
system.
"Get hung up in the crowd, rookie," Kate
shrugged. She knelt down, pulling a clear plastic back
from her pocket, using gloved hands to gather any
fragments from around the android's head. Then she
pulled a larger bag over the android and picked it up,
putting it over her shoulders as she remarked, "Not
bad for a first time."
They walked quietly together back to the
cruiser, Kate laying the android down in the backseat
of the cruiser, the two taking their seats in the
front. Jen's hands shook slightly, securing herself
into place, and she puffed out a small breath.
"The Chasers do this sort of thing often?" Jen
managed to ask.
Kate started the cruiser up, pulling out onto
the road. "Pretty often," Kate admitted. She looked
over at the visibly shaken Jen and said, "It helps to
keep in mind they're not human. They may act like it,
but they're machines."
Jen just nodded slightly, but didn't say
anything in reply. The trip back to the station was
mostly silent, both women lost to their own thoughts.
It wasn't until they pulled into the garage that Jen
spoke up again. "I still can't believe I had to face
android all alone," the blonde shook her head
mournfully.
"I was there backing you up all the way," Kate
said patiently. 'Was I ever as green as this kid?' she
wondered, running a hand through her short brown hair,
trying to reign in her temper before she said
something rude.
"But what if she had... !" Jen started to
protest.
Kate snapped, "I need to know if you can hack
this job, Jen! I'm not going to be out there to back
you up most of the time." Her expression was grave as
she pulled the android out of the back seat, "I don't
want to have to bury anymore fellow officers."
Jen gaped after her in surprise as the older
policewoman strode away, carrying the android inside
the station.
* * * *
Not long afterward Gwen Musashi nodded to the
pathologist even as she walked into the morgue. "What
have you got for me?" she asked Dr. Richard Davis
coolly.
"Ran standard tests on the cyberbrain and on
the physical body," Dr. Davis reported. He frowned,
"What's left of the brain, anyway. Would you please
ask your cowboys not to go for the head shots,
please?"
"The rookie," Gwen shrugged at him helplessly.
The Asian young woman looked over at him impatiently,
waiting for his report.
Dr. Davis flipped open his notes, scratching
slightly at his short, beard. "Sexaroid, modified for
realistic pain response," he said disdainfully, "her
body shows signs of long term abuse, especially in the
cloned skin."
"And the brain?" Gwen asked.
"We can't be entirely certain because of all
the damage that was done," he said, looking up at her
over his glasses, "but I couldn't find any obvious
traces of logic-failure in my examination. She may
have been a free-will."
Gwen actually looked a bit startled at that
bit of news, "But the free willed androids don't kill
people, normally."
"Normally, no," Dr. Davis agreed with her. He
looked down at the body even as he said, "I don't envy
you handling this one."
* * * *
Kate put as much distance as she could between
herself and Jen. She really didn't want to continue
this debate right now, and she needed to check in with
the boss, too. The halls were well lit, but still
looked dark and foreboding in their wing of the police
station.
Kate knocked on the unmarked door at the end
of the corridor and pushed it open as she heard a
shouted, "Come in!"
Gwen was bent over her desk, studying two
separate screens with a frown on her face. Normally,
the Asian woman was rather difficult to read, so Kate
figured something must be wrong. In her most perky
tones Kate asked, "You wanted to see me?"
Gwen shot her a glare. "Why a head shot?" she
complained. "It makes a study of the body almost
completely useless," she griped.
"The rookie did pretty good, considering the
sexaroid charged her," Kate said with a shrug. She
grabbed one of the chairs in front of the desk and sat
down, leaning in towards Gwen. "Now, what's really
wrong?" she asked pointedly.
Gwen leaned back, rubbing tiredly at her eyes.
She looked to be short on sleep again, but Gwen always
seemed to be spreading herself thin. Considered to be
the authority on android crime, she was called in by a
lot of other units, as well as handling all her duties
here.
"With all the damage," Gwen sighed, "we can't
be sure. But it looks like the killer was a free
willed robot."
"No way," Kate said firmly. "Free wills slip
out of peoples houses and go underground," she
frowned, "they don't kill people." She paused, "At
least, they never have before." Kate looked visibly
disturbed by the very idea.
"The news-feeds will certainly get a hold of
this," Gwen said softly, "and then the firestorm's
going to start up." The dark hared woman got up from
her desk, walking over to look out into the shadows of
morning. The sun wouldn't get by the buildings to be
visible there for hours, yet. "The politicians have
never liked having the free wills out there to start
with, and this will give them the perfect reason to
force the police to go after them. Namely, us," Gwen
concluded.
"It's not that bad of an idea," Kate said
dryly. "I wouldn't mind trying to bring in those rogue
androids," she continued, even under Gwen's troubled
gaze.
'I knew she didn't like androids,' Gwen
thought, 'but I didn't know it was quite that bad.'
She hid a sigh, "The free wills haven't committed any
crimes. At best, they're wayward pieces of property,
running loose."
Kate snorted softly, but otherwise didn't
argue. "Here's my report," she said, putting her data
pad on the table.
Gwen looked up and noticed that Kate's eyes
looked a bit unfocused. "How long have you been on
duty?" she asked her crisply.
"What time is it?" Kate asked, and looked just
a bit surprised at the answer. "All right, what day,
then?" she followed up.
"Go home and get some rest," Gwen sighed. Kate
was about to protest but she added firmly, "I'm sure
I, Beth, and Jen can handle anything that comes up.
Now I'm ordering you to go home and catch up on your
sleep."
* * * *
Jen tentatively entered the Chasers' computer
room, watching Beth working away at her desk. She had
several screens displaying data for her, while she was
playing a game on the other one. She was typing a
report furiously on one screen, reading data off
another, all the while keeping her game going on the
last screen.
"Whoo- hoo!" Beth suddenly burst out, as the
words 'You Win!' appeared on the center game screen.
She cleared it, even as she started another one.
"Do you do that all the time?" Jen asked her
curiously, looking around her curiously.
"Pretty much," Beth smiled up at the pretty
blonde. Her breasts were barely contained by her
T-shirt, and she was presenting quite a view to her
colleague. "How's the cannon I gave you working out?"
she asked her curiously.
"Pretty good," Jen smiled, then she reached up
to rub her shoulder as she admitted, "it's got quite a
strong kick, though.
"Sorry, it's got to be powerful to penetrate
an android's body," Beth shrugged. She looked up at
Jen, grinning, "You did that headshot, didn't you?"
"I know, I know," Jen sighed, "I got that
lecture from Kate, too." She paused, "Is Kate always
that fierce with people?"
"No, not really," Beth said quietly. She
debated a moment about passing on a bit of the office
gossip, then decided to go for it. "Give her some
time. I've heard her last partner, Lynn, was killed by
a android," she said quietly.
"That explains what she said," Jen said
softly. She looked over at Beth thoughtfully. "So let
me get this right," she asked, "the androids go rogue
because they can learn?"
"Sorta," Beth said with a little nod. "The
android's best selling feature, other than the human
interaction, is that they can learn about their
owner's likes and dislikes," she explained. "But human
beings are basically pretty messed-up creatures, and
in about ten percent of the robots, they can't deal
with it," she said.
"So they crack up," Jen said softly. "But what
about the free wills?"
"No one's entirely sure what really causes
that, but somehow the android develops individual
thoughts of it's very own," Beth said seriously.
"Enough of that," she declared, suddenly producing a
bag of snacks from beneath her workstation and passing
it over to Jen. "Help me monitor the system, and we'll
dish some dirt," she grinned up at her.
"I'm too new here to know any dirt," Jen said
with a mournful sigh. She munched on a handful of
snacks, then looked over at Beth and said with a
smile, "But I bet you've got some good stuff on
everyone."
"Not too much," Beth said with a chuckle.
"Kate seems determined to be single, and the boss
hasn't had a girlfriend in months," she said.
"Girlfriend?" Jen echoed, clearly surprised.
"What, it hasn't made it down the police
grapevine yet?" Beth said, chuckling. She took a
breath, straining her little shirt, then laughed
quietly . "Personally. I'm hoping to bet a promotion
on my back," the grining Beth said.
Gwen paused in the doorway, just a bit
surprised. 'I thought I was being fairly secretive
about my private life, but obviously not,' she
thought. She backed up a bit and made sure to step
loudly as she made her way back up the hall.
Entering the room she saw all the snack foods
were gone, and Beth bent over a terminal, working
fiercely. Jen sat nearby, typing up a report on
another station. "At ease," Gwen smiled. "Kate's gone
home for the night," she said, "and I expect things
will be slow tonight. Buzz me if something comes up."
And with that, she was gone.
* * * *
After locking up her car, Kate walked across
the parkade, knowing just what was waiting for her.
She cringed a bit as she entered the lift, waiting for
it to happen.
"What floor would you like, Mrs. Williams?"
the elevator's A. I. asked her chirpily.
"Shut up," Kate growled, and gave it her level
number. The elevator was thankfully silent as they
ascended.
"Have a nice day!" the elevator said sweetly
as she left. Kate just grumbled in reply.
Kate fumbled at the door for a few moments,
then stumbled inside. She slammed the door shut behind
her, and sighed softly at the blessed silence. No
electronic voices at all disturbed her here in her
sanctuary.
The set of rooms was midway up the tower, away
from the darkness of the lower levels but not in the
bright sunlight afforded the upperclasses as well.
'There's probably a significant metaphor in there
somewhere,' Kate mused, 'but I'm too tired to figure
it out.'
A smile tugged at Kate's lips as she opened up
the battered refrigerator. The front still showed the
pliers marks from when Kate had forced out the AI
monochips but she hadn't really had a choice. There
was only so much cheerfulness a person could take from
a piece of machinery. She pulled a food pack out and
headed for her antique microwave.
Kate headed to her bedroom while it was
heating up, pulling her clothes off and stumbling into
the cleanser. The sonics rattled her teeth, but she
left feeling clean for the first time in days. A robe
was thrown on and she went out to grab her dinner.
"Ow!" Kate carefully juggled the hot container
of food over to her favorite chair and flopped down.
She scrolled through the holo-signals while she ate,
catching a bit of the news and a few of the music
stations as well.
Kate could feel her eyelids begin to drop and
she lay back in her chair. 'Just a bit of a nap,' she
thought, letting them close, 'then I'll go to bed.' A
few moments later, and she was snoring away.
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