Stairway to Somewhere

Connor's Visit

Lloyd connected the flash drive into the computer, silently praying it would include Frederick's full plan. He didn't like how vague and cryptic he was being, and the fact that he didn't mention the drive was even more troubling. Phoebe had begun to wonder around Lloyd's house, looking for his kitchen.

"Is it okay if I order food?" asked Phoebe.

"Sure." Lloyd replied, unlocking his phone to hand it to her. "Use mine, I get a discount."

She grabbed the phone from him while a Manifest Digital logo appeared on the laptop screen. The words New Hardware Detected appeared at the bottom of the screen. Finally a new file appeared, with Frederick's name on it. Lloyd clicked on the file, but a popup appeared.
"File still uploading? What does that mean?" He wondered aloud.

"Maybe it takes up alot of storage." Phoebe suggested. "Can you see the file size?"

Lloyd tried to check the file size but the same pop up appeared. He didn't even have the option to eject the drive.

"This... This might actually be Frederick." He murmured. He turned to look up at Phoebe, only to jump back when noticing she was crouching down, peering over his shoulder.

"Jesus, can I have some space? This is a big room." He snapped, scooting over a bit.

"We're working together, remember? Because this company wants us dead. It's good to share notes. Also you still like pizza right? You aren't that old."

"Sure." He replied numbly, wondering if he should take offense to that.

"I can't run any programs with this file. He might not be in here yet, somehow. And I've never seen this type of flashdrive before. Is it possible he could be uploading all of his memories, on the go?"

Lloyd's phone rang, prompted Phoebe to grunt in frustration.
"I was just about to hit order!" She complained.
"It's Benjamin, the robot guy you left outside."

He grabbed the phone and put it on speaker.
"What's up?"

"I've been given guard duty over the purifier area, so I'll meet back up with you tomorrow." said Ben over the phone.

"They're using it again?" asked Lloyd.

"I think it's still a test, but yeah. Eventually they'll do it during the day too, until the atmosphere is completely clean. However long that takes." he said cynically.

"Alright. Don't get destroyed out there." Lloyd said dryly.

Ben offered a nervous laugh. "I'll run if I see a psycho, trust me. I don't want my unit hurting people."

He hung up, and Lloyd remembered the first time it was activated. The guy who shot the automatons. Phoebe took the phone from his stiffened hand.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"I'm fine," he replied, pinging Connor to return to local.

"He is not in my black box, so I need to... call him, kinda, to get him to arrive. He won't be expecting extra company, so it's best I do this alone."

Phoebe stood up, still holding his phone. "Alright, but if the drone shows up with the food, I will walk right past you."

She walked down the hallway, and he wondered if he should've made some rooms off limits. His computer chirped. Connor had arrived. Setting the scene to be in his office, Lloyd glanced down at the flashdrive slowly flashing purple. For Frederick's sake, he decided not to remove it.

Standing up, he started the countdown and pressed Run Exercise. Within seconds, his living room had become his office. The door buzzed and Connor came in, looking nervous.