Dog Syndrome (RK900 x Gavin Reed)

Chapter eight: The better detective

Conan stopped in front of a statue of two people. One looked like a male human in a suit, his arm raised, pointing at an android with deactivated synthetic skin, in front of him as if he was commanding something. Underneath was a blackboard with the inscription: "To commemorate the invention of ANDROIDS, Which released HUMANITY from the bonds of labor. Setting man free to pursue higher goals and scale heights of learning, love and leisure." Apparently, some years ago, people hadn't realized what living with androids would lead to. They had gradually pushed the people out of the working world, causing a huge unemployment and therefore dissatisfaction, depression and anger of the people, which led to heavy use of Red Ice, a drug made out of Thirium, which causes irrational thinking and uncontrolled tantrum in humans. Therefore, it's no wonder people tried to destroy this statue that showed them their biggest mistake.  

Conan took a closer look on the statue. His eyes went from the blackboard up to the two figures. He climbed onto the platform on which the android statue stood and examined it. "Mrs. Ander's fingerprints are all over this figure. Here..." , he pointed at the neck of the statue. "...you can see the impression of her hands as if she had tried to strangle the statue. Moreover, on its face are small scales of her skin and few drops of blood. She seemed to hit the statue with her fist as well, before she continued her journey." Conan turned around and looked at Gavin as if he wanted to ask if he wants to have a look by himself. Gavin just shrugged his shoulder. How was he supposed to see the skin scales with naked eyes? Nonetheless, he stepped onto the platform on which the statue of the businessman was and inspected the statue of the android, over Conan's shoulder. As expected, he saw nothing. With a lot of imagination, he could see the outlines of dark spots on the figure's face, but it could have been just dirt.

"Fine. Assuming I believe your statement, where did she go next?", Gavin asked.

"Why don't you tell me where she went, detective?" Conan replied with a touch of mockery in his voice. It was quite obviously that he wanted his partner to admitted that he was better than him, and that he was able to see even the smallest piece of evidence.

"That's not the answer to my question, dickhead. Just do your fucking job. Be a good tracker dog, and find that woman", Gavin hissed annoyed. Because of his position, he was looking down to Conan, which made him feel somehow superior to have the physical high ground for once. But the machine seemed to know what he was thinking, because he climbed on the same platform as Gavin, which got him way too close again. Gavin snorted angrily and wanted to push the android away from him, but he underrated the weight of the machine and rather repelled from it. Conan reacted lightning fast, as you would expect from a machine. Before Gavin would have fallen backwards from the platform, he grabbed the detective by his jacket and pulled him slightly towards him. However, the machine didn't pull him up, it was just holding him and if Gavin would try to free himself, he would definitely fall and it seemed like Conan did it on purpose, because he had a triumphant look in his eyes.

"You are not in the position to even think that you are superior to me. Even..", Conan glanced at the statues behind him. "..if you humans think that you are superior to us androids. The truth is: you are not. If I compare you and me, it's quite obvious who the better detective is. I can do many things at once and faster, and you aren't even able to do this."

The way in which Conan said it, made Gavin shiver. It wasn't a monotone or mocking tone, it was that kind of tone that would let anybody's blood run cold. Gavin heart beat like crazy, and he tried to reach for his gun, but he wasn't able to move an inch. Somehow, he was hypnotized by Conan's blue-gray lifeless eyes, which made Conan seem even more menacing. The scene recalled the first time he met Conan, but this time, it was even worse. It seems like Conan became less human than he used to be. Maybe it was, because Gavin always wanted that the android wouldn't remind him of a human being, but right now, he regretted his decision. Did Conan became like this, because I treat him like the machine he is?, Gavin asked himself in his thoughts. If so, what will he become if I continue to treat him like that? Is this still part of his program or is it something else? If he's just trying to copy me, does he copy my emotions too? I mean, I'm always express my anger in different kind of ways towards him so far, but that's because he's just an android. But why does he do this to me? Did Connor treat Hank like this too, before he killed him? I mean, there is a high chance right now that the fucking machine wants to get rid of me, since it thoughts that I'm not useful for this investigation. He's mocking me. He's looking down to me for not being as perfect as he is. But he's a machine after all. And therefore, he is totally capable of doing mistakes like humans.

Gavin was literally thrown out of his thoughts, when Conan let go off his jacket. Everything seemed to slow down around him, while he was falling. He looked confused to the machine, searching for an answer for its action, but the android just jumped down and caught him, before he was even near the ground. Conan placed one hand around his back and the other one around his legs, and went slightly down on his knees to cushion his fall. The machine then lowered the man carefully onto the ground.

"What the actually fuck was that for?", Gavin hissed and raised one eyebrow. It seemed like he finally got the control of his body back. His hand wandered to his gun, while his eyes were focused on the android.

"It was a test."

"A test?"

"Yes, a test. There's no need to repeat what I said."

"Fuck off. I want to know what kind of test that was?"

"First of all, I wanted to remind you that I'm your partner and therefore I'm as good as you, if not even better. If we want to solve this case, we have to work as a team and you make it really hard for me to do my best. If you would trust me, we could solve this case even faster. That's, why I let go off you, before I caught you again. This is supposed to symbolize that you can rely on me; that I will always be there to protect you.", Conan said with his usual monotone voice again. His LED-light went back to a blue tone. The android seemed to observe every move his partner was doing. Gavin took deep breath to calm down, before he pulled his gun. He pointed it straight against Conan's head. The android seemed unimpressed. He stepped a little bit closer so that there wasn't any space between his forehead and the gun, and looked directly into Gavin's eyes. The face expression of the android was blank, showing no emotions at all. Should he shoot him or not? The android freaked him out, but was that already an evidence that it was acting outside of its program, or was this still part of his learning process? I should shoot him just in case. You don't know what this thing will do if it decides to run another test. Maybe it will try to hurt me, just to see if he is capable of doing this. Pull the trigger and get rid of that thing! Do it, Gavin!, he thought to himself and took another deep breath.

The silence of the night was broken by a gunshot, followed by two more shoots.  

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  Sorry for that short chapter. I decided to cut it at this part, because the next one is going to be a little bit longer, and darker (It's almost complete, but I need to look over it, like 100 times, so you'd be more comfortable reading). Therefore, be excited and look forward it :)

I just wanted to thank you for reading. I appreciate everyone, who made it to this point and everyone who leave a comment at some point. Feel free to correct me at any time, if I made a mistake somewhere. It really helps me a lot. Okay, I'm not going to bother you anymore, have a good day/night.