SENTIENT

Algorithm

Back at the station, Tobias has had his team determine that the surveillance footage was genuine. He stood in front of all the monitors while the technicians tried to enhance the picture for viewing.

"Hey, so, where are we?" AJ arrived to see four screens on the wall. All of them playing the same footage under different qualifier filters.

Tobias folded his arms, "Did you see that?"

"The black van?"

He shook his head in frustration, "Only one minute after they parked, the black van pulled up and blocked our view of the white sedan."

"How many black vans are in the area?"

He clicked with his tongue, "About 950 of them."

The first thing AJ found odd was how the white sedan parked three spots away from the entrance of the store, instead of directly by the store where it's brighter and closer.

To this Tobias said, "She said she didn't want the lights to wake Lana."

"But a child caretaker model should have prioritized safety over... Wait," AJ halted to a pause. "Rewind three seconds and slow it down. There! See?"

Tobias leaned forward and squinted his eye.

"There! At 11:22, after the black van pulled up, Grace dropped the snacks in the cashier and look! She glanced at the black van outside."

"11:23, she ran back to get milk," remarked Tobias, which led them to conclude the same thing.

Grace must have been expecting the black van – that's why she went back to get the milk. To give the kidnappers more time.

"So, we were right to pinpoint the deviant," said Tobias. He was glad that he had a hunch and followed through.

In most child kidnapping cases; the culprit would turn out to be someone close to the family or the child.

"I need to call Connor and tell him Grace might have an accomplice," said AJ, walking out to the corridor.

"AJ, wait." At the corridor, Tobias chased behind her footsteps. "I guess I just... wanted to thank you for taking this case and maybe after this... we could go and..."

Before Tobias could properly ask her out to lunch, AJ interrupted him, "It's not a problem, but we don't have much time until Lana is officially gone for 24 hours," said AJ, who continued strutting out of the building.

Tobias watched the aftermath from the opportunity that he blew, but he just couldn't look away.

Back at the attic, Connor has finished going through all the books he could get his hands on. By this time, he thinks he's figured out the baselines he will input in order for his algorithm to generate a million possible passwords within a minute. There's only one more book left to read.

He ran his index finger through each page, as if it was his finger that was doing the reading, instead of his eyes. He flipped the page. Again, and again.

Until he realized he was no longer in the attic. The wooden floor squeaks and scrapes the same way, but this time he was back on the boat.

The same boat, but less sturdy, and he was sitting alone. He wished that he didn't have to look up to see the darkness between the cherry blossom trees, but he did and to his surprise, there it was.

The shadow. It is now standing directly in the distance. He could not make up a face, even with his automated facial recognition, but he knew, it was staring right into him. It knows something.

"Connor, what do you got?" AJ asked over the phone call, sitting in the car with the engine ready.

The boat was no longer there. He was back in the attic holding another book that he just finished reading. His LED turned yellow.

He said, "There never can be a man so lost as one who is lost in the vast and intricate corridors of his own lonely mind, where none may reach and none may save."

"What?"

"Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov," said Connor. "I think I have our password."

"That's great! Listen, we think that Grace might have limited contact with the kidnappers," AJ began to drive. "Look for any e-mails, instant messages, or chatrooms where they could be talking."

"I'll call you back when I find something," Connor hung up.

He has never hung up on her before. She shrugged it off. She reckoned there's a first time to everything.

The password generator hit a home run and Connor could finally access the half of somebody else's mind. He was just starting to get used to it.

He typed away the backtracking and sorting keywords he needed. For every 10,000 hours needed by a human programmer to do this, Connor can complete in one minute. As easy as riding a bike with no handlebars.

He found a deleted connection to a deep web forum that Grace frequently checks. Inside it was an exchange between Grace and several anonymous users.

AM998: "Looking to discipline a naughty six-years old girl."

DGirl22: "Hi, hun. I can help get her off your hands, if you like."

The rest of the conversation vaguely discusses the time and place where Grace was supposed to drop-off Lana. Finally, Connor tracked the anonymous user to their IP address and location.

"I just sent the coordinate to your GPS," said Connor after he explained everything to AJ on the phone call. "I'll see you there."

"Wait, Connor–" He hung up on her again.

The location was a remote family farm forty miles away from the Elliott's residence. Detective Tobias Rosenbauer deployed his force and placed them each strategically around the premises of the farm. They had their vests strapped and weapons drawn, including AJ.

Connor called her name as he tilted his head to point out the garage on the side of the farm. When AJ saw him, she wanted to ask if he was okay, but there was no time.

Inside the garage was a large vehicle covered in a grey tarp. She uncovered it to reveal a black van with a missing plate number.

"Detroit PD, put your hands up!" Tobias aimed his gun at the raggedy looking man in the living room that reeks of old carpet.

The man protested, "Get the fuck out of my property!"

The armed officers ignored him. They pressed him against the coffee table and cuffed him.

His equally, raggedy looking wife, attempted to flee through the kitchen door, but AJ got the better of her. "You're under arrest for child abduction and conspiracy to illegal adoption!"

"All I did was help them kids! They're better off with me, you know! You're hurting me!" The woman protested as AJ cuffed her.

"What did you say?" AJ's eyes widened with the woman still pinned under her knees.

"She said 'they'," said Connor with his weapon still drawn. Both of them coming to a realization that Lana was not the only victim.

Down under, in the darkness of the basement, inside a hidden compartment, Connor found them. Three children, all of them not even older than six. He holstered his weapon.

"Can I go home now?" Said little Lana Elliott, looking up at the man who was now crouching next to her.

The children were sitting on filthy rags. Their clothes were in disarray. These children were not bathe or fed, or even cooed. There was a television turned on in a pathetic way to keep them entertained.

"Come on, I'll take you home." He said as Lana walked into his arms. As they hugged, yellow and red began to blink from his LED.

Concept Art by https://www.artstation.com/artwork/bB13o