Later that afternoon Gwen Musashi sighed to herself softly, shutting down her desk screen after reading the rest of her messages. 'It looks like I'm going to have to give up on the idea of bringing in outside help,' the elegantly dressed Asian woman thought, 'at least officially.' After several emails the chief of police had formally put his foot down on the idea of using any ex-army sweepers to assist them in the hunt for the rogue band of recon androids, and she had reluctantly given in to him. Officially she was forbidden to hire out, though he had also been careful not to explicitly forbid her from doing so unofficially. 'Of course,' Gwen thought bitterly as she got up, 'it also leaves him free to hang me out to dry if it does blow up on our face.' Trying not to think about that she left her office and walked into the computer section, feeling an odd moment of confusion as she saw Julie sitting in the computer center where Beth usually worked. "Hello captain," Julie smiled, her black hair tied back in a simple ponytail. "Any problems?" Gwen asked calmly. "Not yet ma'am," Julie answered seriously after double checking the screens of data that surrounded her, "there are just the usual pro-android protests going on over at City Hall, as well as another small riot in Lowtown." Gwen frowned slightly on hearing about the latest riot. Things seemed to be deteriorating quickly in the city's poorest region, a surprising degree of militancy arising in the lower class citizens. Making things even more complicated was the mix of humans and androids who were participating in the protests and violence, complicating an already difficult situation. "Were there any prominent faces in the media coverage?" Gwen asked her with a degree of concern while walking closer to the data center. Julie looked a little sheepish. "Facial recognition software picked up Dr. Alexis Jameson," she reported a bit nervously. Gwen winced a bit on hearing her former girlfriend's name before shaking her head slightly. "Were any of the known movement leaders there?" she asked. "No ma'am," Julie shook her head, "and they've bee very careful to keep the highest levels of their organization secret." "Not surprising," Gwen conceded. "Any messages?" "Beth did check in from headquarters," Julie said and felt a bit surprised to see Gwen brighten up a bit on hearing that. "What did she say?" Gwen asked with a smile. "The security systems for the headquarters computers are, and I quote, more full of holes than Swiss cheese," Julie said with a degree of amusement. Gwen fought to contain a flash of annoyance. They had both known there were problems already, that was why Beth was looking into it, but she hadn't thought it was this bad. "Is she going to need more time?" she asked, bracing for the worst. "Not from the message she left," Julie answered crisply, "she's going to detail the problems in her report and fix what she can before coming home." "Notify me when she checks in again," Gwen said, turning to return to her office. 'What was that all about?' Julie wondered. There was a sound from the lift and in a few moments Kate and Jen appeared, hauling a very much alive and mostly naked female android. "Come on," Kate growled, the sandy haired woman tugging her forward with surprising gentleness. Jen followed with a amused look on her face, her cheeks faintly red. "Well that was a first," the tall blonde murmured. "Welcome back," Julie called, looking curiously at the redheaded android. She was wearing what was left of a waitress outfit, her top gone to reveal full, bouncy breasts and the bottom only covered by a tattered apron. "How may I serve you?" the android asked, batting her eyes. "Don't answer that," Kate chuckled, hauling her forward, "you might regret it." "What happened?" Julie blinked. "You know that flasher we heard about in the financial district?" Jen asked wryly. "We got a sighting report and headed out to look...." The police car swerved violently, zipping through traffic in a manner that could best be called reckless. "Now where was the sighting?' Kate turned to look at Jen and away from the road ahead. "Eyes on the road!" Jen squeaked, holding on to the dashboard with a white knuckled grip. "The other cars are all on autodrive, they'll dodge us on their own," Kate said, but she still turned her eyes back to the road. "Thank you," Jen puffed out a breath as she examined the map displayed by the poor car's computer. "We're nearly there," she reported. Kate yanked the wheel to the side and slipped them through the gap between cars, so close that Jen almost expected to hear metal scrape. The sound of a beep from the computer let them know they had officially reached the area and Kate grinned. "Here we go," she swerved across two lanes of traffic, inspiring horns and squealing tires before she bumped them right up on the sidewalk and stopped just short of a wall. Jen peeled her fingers free of the dashboard and got out on shaky legs. "After riding along with you," she remarked, "death has no fear to me." "Wuss," Kate chuckled as she looked around, the sun peeking through the great towers all around them. On the trip from police headquarters they had steadily ascended, rising up through the levels until they reached sunlight and the areas of the wealthy. Slipping a police issue visor on she brought up the heads up display, scanning the people that moved along the sidewalks nearby. Androids were tagged by the sensors, outlined by a halo of orange as the normal humans walked on, mostly unaware. "Wonder where she is?" Jen murmured. Kate pulled a battered, old fashioned notebook out and flipped over to a fresh sheet where a address was written out, "The report said it was the Imperitex tower, entrance at the 150th floor." "You won't even use a personal comp?" Jen blinked as the two women set out. "They're annoying," Kate said flatly as they walked on. Off in the distance they heard a woman scream and they bolted, running as fast as they could. "All right," Jen yelled as they burst into the lobby on their level, "what's going on...." They trailed off in surprise, blinking. "How may I serve you?" the topless android looked up to beam at them, her breasts bouncing attractively as she snuggled with a very appalled looking secretary. The young woman was struggling to get free, a feat made all the more difficult by the fact that she couldn't push her away without touching at least some bare flesh. "I think we found her," Kate said amusedly. "Get this thing of me," the secretary wailed, the petite little brown haired woman struggling weakly in the android's grip. "Right," Jen bounced forward, helping haul the busty girl off the other woman. "How may I serve you?' she asked Jen curiously, snuggling close. "You could let go, for one," Jen sighed as the two of them hauled her out of the office building, ignoring the looks from passerby. Kate was chuckling softly, noting how the android had latched on to Jen. "I think she likes you," she quipped. "You're not helping," Jen gave her a look while the android cooed something in her ear. Julie looked amused as they related the story, helping the two women haul the android off to the detention center one floor down. "So did she cause any problems getting her back here?" she asked them curiously. "Beyond showing her goodies to anyone we passed, no," Kate shrugged, "I suspect Gwen is going to end up with a few complaints over that."
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