Aurelia Pearl Alvarez is a CSI Officer at the DPD. After battling her demons from her previous abusive relationship, she suddenly finds herself pining for an unexpected co-worker: Connor, an android sent by Cyberlife. Originally, she was solely focu...
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August 15th, 2038
PM 08:26:00
Everything was already going to shit.
The deviant was prepared to end more lives, and I was there to watch it unfold, nearly from the beginning and all through the end. Not to mention a bit after to pick up the pieces of another broken family again.
It wasn't my usual case, but the sudden amount of deviant-related incidents was becoming too much for the Homicide department to handle. Mandatory overtime for the poor fuckers. The detectives may be the best in the city, but they weren't that good. No human could ever be that good, and the androids who worked at the police station weren't qualified for investigations. They were there for lab forensics, taking statements, and other menial office tasks. Not a bad gig if they were getting paid. And it's kind of hard not to feel bad about that fact, mainly because they looked so real.
The deviant was on the balcony with a gun held up to his hostage's temple, Emma Philips. Every once in a while, he would start aiming at the glass sliding door, where more police officers and SWAT members were trying to decide whether they should de-escalate the situation or assassinate him on the spot.
It was tense.
I was terrified for everyone's lives.
The only thing stopping the deviant from moving from the edge of the balcony was the fact that the penthouse was on the 70th floor, and too many people had guns on the other side of the glass. Either way, he must have known his chances of survival were grim. Though this may have comforted me a little, knowing our lives would be somewhat safe, the hostage was just a child begging for freedom from her captor.
I strolled into the kitchen. There was nothing I could do while I waited for orders. The only bodies I could examine safely couldn't be removed from the scene yet, and the tension in the penthouse only made me want to stay more as moral support for my co-workers.
"I-I can't, I can't leave her!" The girl's mother, Caroline, yelled at the officer, who was guiding her to the elevator to escape. I sighed, shutting the burner on the kitchen island off as a pot with boiling water rose over the edge, sizzling onto the glass stove.
The sound was only intensifying the reality of the moment.
"Damn," I whispered to myself. The pasta inside the pot was ruined.
"Negotiator on-site. I repeat, negotiator on-site," The officer radioed.
I leaned my elbows against the kitchen island, resting my forehead on my palms. Everyone was stressed enough, and now an android had arrived to succeed where we were failing.
"Why aren't you sending a real person?!" Caroline's scream echoed from the hall as the officer escorted her. "Keep that thing away from my daughter!"
I sighed again, rubbing my eyes with my palms as I sat up straighter and watched the android reach Captain Allen on the other side of the penthouse. I rounded the island's corner as Captain Allen walked away from the android after a moment's discussion.
