Heart of Ice

My Reflection

Conan looked around the crime scene and found five dead androids, three female, and two male. Every one of them had symbolic black squares or rectangles somewhere on their body and most of their outfits focused on monotone colors. He kneeled down next to one of the male androids and read a tattoo, or rather a black print on his bare arm.

PRS11

What a strange model name and yet so familiar. It almost sounds like that coded word.

The RK900 looked around for some scars or bruises but found none. He gently opened the android's mouth to find any thirium leaks.

No leaks or injuries. Something had to corrupt its inner system.

"Have you found anything yet?" Conan's LK800 companion asked while checking up on another body.

I cannot say that I didn't find anything as that would sound incompetent. I simply managed to make some conclusions.

"Well... this android was corrupted. It was either a human's protected hands or an android. If it was a human, they had to be a programming professional." The RK900 decided. He stood up and walked over to another, this time female android.

Corruption... PRS21... PRS again...

"Could you tell me something about the PRS series? I don't have any information about these models in my data." Klara chuckled nervously.

She is embarrassed about the fact that she lacks information. How am I supposed to tell her that I have no clue either?

"There is definitely a lot to explore on that topic..." Conan hesitated. If he were a human, he'd be taking a deep breath.
"I've been trying to figure out what these infected androids could possibly be called. They've got something to do with instability but honestly, I think I didn't gather enough information. I don't know the answer, I can't make any assumptions."

Incompetence. Incompetence. This is a failure. I'll probably be deactivated if I don't solve this case. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have mentioned the topic of the virus keepers' titles... It would've sounded as if I knew something and now I've completely lost my chance.
I can't fail this! I can't! I'm an RK900! I'm supposed to be CyberLife's success!

"Conan?" Conan turned his attention back to the albino android. "Oh! Sorry. I thought something was wrong." The tall android shook his head slightly. "I was going to say that perhaps it'd be useful to get something out of these androids but...it's alright! We'll figure it out."

"This is my case. I'll figure it out alone." He replied coldly. The smaller android nodded and walked back to Cirenne, who was now checking the bodies and making some reports, according to her yellow LED.

She could have useful information. He knew there has been something wrong with her, but he couldn't put his finger on it, there was a moment when he didn't even want to, something that he couldn't explain.

Would that be... laziness? But why? I never felt laziness before! And not in an urgent situation like this one! It makes no sense. I have to try again, this time, without giving up.

Conan finally decided to talk to her, like some teenager getting the guts to ask a girl out. This was probably the strangest thing that happened in this short period of his existence.

"Hello. What kind of information have you achieved through the inspection of these android bodies?"
"No." Her reply was completely irrelevant. He repeated his question to be clear. She moved out her arm and moved her relaxed hand forwards and backwards as if telling him to go away.
"Please answer my question." His tone was demanding and stiff. She shook her head and moved on to another android body, Conan's piercing icy eyes following her unresistingly.

"You have to give her some space. She's very shy! I think her model didn't equip her with the right communication skills." Klara pepped in.
"Androids cannot be shy." Conan muttered loud enough for Klara to hear.
"Myth busted!" She exclaimed with a humanly beam and blinked eyes.

Is this the type of behavior humans expect from androids nowadays?

Conan thought about how ridiculous it was, however another idea quickly took the lead.

Am I supposed to be like that to be a bigger success?

That was a completely unimportant idea. He mustn't think about anything that has nothing to do with this investigation at the moment. The RK900 gritted his teeth.

"What if she knows something?" He murmured. This whirl of thoughts was imprisoning his mind. Anything he did or didn't do right now could negatively impact the rest of the investigation.

"Thank you for letting it go." He heard a captivating voice in his ear. Slim lips drew away from it and he was faced with Cirenne's dark eyes. "The presence of an advanced model is very helpful to this investigation." Conan felt a buzzing in his ears. "I don't want to interrupt it." As soon as she closed her lips the buzzing died down and he received one, last, emotionless look from her, filled with pure ice before turning away and going back to inspect the crime scene.

Is this what I look like?

Conan hesitated, feeling as if his inner ventilators were completely going to freeze his system...before omitting a single word.

"Wait."