Chapter 19: Crumbling

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"Do you blame yourself?"

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"Do you blame yourself?"

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Opening his eyes, Connor looked out upon the Zen Garden to see it shrouded in a partly cloudy overcast. There was a chilling breeze within the simulated world this time. He could still make out pieces of blue that were hidden behind the clouds, but he had a strange feeling that it would be a while until the simulated sun would shine again. A storm was coming.

Moving across the bridge to the main island, Connor searched for Amanda. She wasn't where she was last and the watering cans and shears she used to tend the roses had disappeared. It took only a moment for him to find her. Looking off to the left, he could see her standing on the shore of the pond, watching him from across the water. As he crossed the water again, he caught glimpses of her kneeling down to feed the coy in the shallows. Despite the nature of her actions, Connor thought that something was about to happen. Amanda's usual questioning and criticism came whether or not he asked for it; however, there were no major breaks in the case that they hadn't discussed. So why had she called him here?

"Connor," Amanda greeted gently. Smiling, she continued to drop small pellets of food for the fish that swam up to the waters edge. "Everyday is a new opportunity to learn. So tell me, what have you learned from your investigation today?"

He was confused for a moment, they hadn't even located the deviant and she wanted to know about it. But within a moment, Connor had remembered something unusual that he noticed.

"All of the deviants we've dealt with thus far have had some sort of event that triggered a severe emotional reaction. Causing them to deviate. But this one lashed out without any provocation." He kept watching Amanda, and eventually she stood up and met his gaze.

"And Ms. Caulfield?" Her expression changed then. Her lips shifting from a slight smile to a scowl with matching cold eyes.

"Ms. Caulfield?" Connor was visibly confused by her question; after all, what about Korra?

She was at the crime scene even though she wasn't supposed to be. But what did this have to do with her?

"Despite being barred from our case for the remainder of the week, she made it to the scene and I gathered some input from her." Nothing else, nothing more. But as Amanda remained silent, he began to rethink. "She did know one of the witnesses. A Mr. Clark, an investigative journalist at one of the major news organizations in the city."

Amanda looked away from him again, reaching into the small bag of fish food that she was holding. "Adrian Clark, a particularly anti-android journalist. CyberLife has kept him on our radar for a while now, it's strange to have him involved in a case like this, don't you think?" It was odd for the android to hear Amanda relaying information to him. He was the one who was supposed to give her answers, after all. But why Mr. Clark? Why is he the one thing she would tell him about?

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