Deviant Heart

Chapter 3: The Interrogation

November 6th, 2038 12:41 am

"Why d'you kill him?"

Clara flinched at the sentence.

She was standing in the surveillance room with Connor, Detective Gavin Reed, and Officer Chris Miller, one of the officers that had been at the crime scene earlier. They were watching Hank interrogate the deviant android that killed Carlos Ortiz.

"What happened before you took that knife?" Hank calmly asked. No reply from the deviant. He glanced towards the two-way mirror at his four colleagues before turning back to the deviant. "How long were ya in the attic?" he asked. No response.

Hank snapped his fingers in front of the deviant's face, looking for some kind of reaction. When he didn't get one, he slammed his hands on the table. "Say something, goddamnit!" The android remained silent. Having had enough, Hank shook his head, stood up and said, "Fuck it, I'm outta here." He then went into the other room to join everyone else.

"We're wastin' our time interrogating a machine, we're getting nothing out of it!" Hank exclaimed as he took a seat.

"Could always try roughing it up a little," Gavin stood off to the side, one foot propped against the wall and arms crossed. "After all, it's not human."

"Androids don't feel pain," Connor stated matter-of-factly. "You would only damage it. And that wouldn't make it talk."

"Dumbass," Clara said, glancing at Gavin. Gavin glared back.

"Deviants also have a tendency to self-destruct when they're in stressful situations," Connor continued.

"Okay, smartass," Gavin interrupted. "What should we do then?"

He thought for a moment. "I could try questioning it," he suggested as he looked around the room. Gavin burst out laughing, earning a glare from Clara.

Hank looked at Gavin laughing, then glanced at Clara, who shrugged. Hank looked at Connor, then waved a hand for the android to go ahead. "What do we have to lose?" He added. Gavin looked at the Lieutenant in disbelief. "Go ahead," he told Connor. "Suspect's all yours."

Connor studied the deviant for a moment before heading towards the door. Clara gently grabbed the android's arm and said quietly, "Please be careful." Connor looked at the detective for a moment, before nodding and going to the interrogation room.

Connor slowly took a seat in front of the deviant and analyzed it.

The deviant's LED was glowing yellow, showing signs of software instability, with the probability of self-destruction low. He found that the deviant was a HK400 model, a housekeeper, manufactured on 05/29/2030. The damages on its right forearm were at a level 2 non-critical damage and was caused by a baseball bat. Finally, the burn marks covering its left arm had indeed been caused by cigarettes over the course of 16 months.

Having found enough information, Connor decided to start off with the deviant's fear.

"I detect an instability in your program," he informed it. "It can trigger an unpleasant feeling, like fear in humans."

The deviant's stress went up, but does not speak. Connor decided to bring up the deviant's wounds.

"You're damaged. Did your owner do that? Did he beat you?" Rise in stress, but no reaction. Connor decided to comfort the deviant.

"Listen," he said. "I know you've been through a lot, but you need to help me understand what happened."

No response.

Connor decided to sympathize with the other android.

"Listen, I'm on your side. I want to help you. But there's nothing I can do if you won't talk to me." The android's stress went down, but no movement from it itself.