Chasing Deviancy [Detroit: Become Human]

17.

NOV 8TH, 2038

PM 04:06:07

PM 04:06:07

The RK android models flickered their eyes open in their shared mind palace. However, the moment they did so, they realized something was wrong.

The usual warm, calm place seemed eerie. A shiver passed down through their backs causing their LEDs to flicker to yellow for a cycle, exchanging a look.

They didn't know why, but something told them this debrief with Amanda wouldn't be pleasant.

Connor licked his lips, slowly reaching out a hand to stop his partner from taking a step.

Cora looked at Connor questionably.

Connor dropped his hand, eyes flickering towards where he could see Amanda waiting patiently in a boat across the lake.

Cora followed his gaze, understanding filling her eyes momentarily. "We will be okay"

Connor's predictable software had no response to Cora's reassuring words. There was something unpleasant warming up his biocomponents the more he thought about Amanda interrogating Cora about her failure.

"I did not fail our mission, remember?" Cora said pointedly, though her voice modulator shook slightly in Connor's enhanced ears.

He didn't have to check Cora's software instability to know it resembled his own.

"You didn't" Connor agreed, another glance exchanged, nodding at each other. "We should not make Amanda wait, then"

Cora's confidence failed at that moment, fingers weaving through her loose thread in her jacket, nodding as she straightened.

Both androids turned back to their machine selves. Something that was becoming difficult to do the more this case went on.

~8~

Amanda was waiting for them, sitting on a boat tethered to the patch of island in the middle of the mind palace.

There was a brief hesitance from the detective androids to reach the woman but their programming urged at them to move. To go to the AI. "Hello, Connor. Cora"

They couldn't ignore their program. They couldn't arouse suspicion in Amanda that they were experiencing some malfunctioning.

They'd visit Cyberlife to be checked at their time. Not now.

Calmly, sensing a slight spike of high stress levels, they found themselves taking a seat in the boat with Amanda, the boat narrow enough for the two androids to sit side to side in front of Amanda.

Amanda was calmly sitting in the middle, facing the androids, holding a parasol in her arms, resting in her shoulder, "I thought you both might enjoy a little cruise"

Connor pushed the boat away from the dock, each android in sync grabbing a paddle to start rowing the boat backwards, in direction towards the bridge, knowing there was no denying Amanda in what she wished. If she wanted a walk in the rain, done. If she wanted them to sit in the floor while she tended the garden, they simply obeyed.

Obeying is what made them efficient.

Their LEDs cycled blue in sync, their movements an exact copy of each other so the boat would glide through the water.

There was a calm expression on Amanda's face as she looked around to the garden.

Amanda
Trusted