Independent Puppets

Episode 3: Where There's Smoke [Part 3]

"So lemme run through this just so I can be sure I understand what you're tellin' me, Mr. Kamski," Hank began a few minutes later, sat opposite Elijah in the latter's office up on the highest floor of the Tower. "The long and short of it is that 3 days ago, one of your employees lost his marbles and ran away from here, disappearing without a trace?"

"That sums it up, yes." Kamski, who was sat in the chair behind his desk, nodded his head in confirmation. 

"And what exactly is it that you want me to do?" After about 25 years of being a police detective, he had a feeling where the man sat in front of him was going with all this, but he made this querie to double check. 

"I asked for your assistance in this so that you can help me track him down. He hasn't committed any crimes, I just want him returned here to the Tower, where myself and the rest of my staff can have... for lack of a better term, a word with him." Replied Elijah. Chloe, stood a couple of feet away, poured some tequila into 2 glasses while they spoke. It was at this moment when she handed one of the glasses to Elijah. 

"Tequila, Lieutenant?" She offered, handing out the other glass.

"Thanks." He took the glass from her hand and held it in his own pair of hands, still paying attention to Kamski. Chloe walked back towards where she'd been standing

"This man has shown signs of mental instability before. I haven't thought anything of it until now because until 3 days ago he hadn't done anything that would be considered dangerous or too out of the ordinary, just nothing more than what you'd call nervous ticks." Elijah continued. "But I have worries that now he has, in a way, lost his mind, then there's a possibility it'll lead to behaviour that'll endanger himself as well as the people around him." 

"If this employee of yours is slowly going off the rails, then shouldn't he be sent to a shrink when I find him instead of me bringing him back here?" Queried Hank after swallowing half a mouthful of tequila. "And I know you didn't think it was a problem 'til now but I'm also kinda surprised you didn't try to make him an appointment with a shrink before Tuesday if he's shown signs of weird behaviour and 'nervous ticks' before." 

"We have personnel in CyberLife's Human Resources department here at the Tower who can help put his mind back on the right tracks." Kamski answered his question, and then spoke again after taking another sip from his own glass of tequila, "One of our main policies is to keep all personal matters involving our employees amongst ourselves, like the confidentiality between a doctor and their patient. Because of this policy we have, to put it into shorter terms, what happens at CyberLife stays at CyberLife, to show that we value the secrecy of our employees' personal matters." 

"I think I can understand that. What else do I need to know about this guy you want me to track down?"

"I have a photograph of him so that you know what he looks like. One moment..." The police Lieutenant waited whilst Elijah opened up one of his desk drawers and appeared to be looking around in it for something. About 12 or 15 seconds later, his hand emerged from the drawer, holding a small piece of card which appeared to be a photo, and he put it down on the desk, turning it around for Hank to see and pushing it a couple of inches closer to him by using his index and middle fingers. "His name is Markus Williams. He won't be difficult to miss, mostly because he was born with heterochromia, so his left eye is green while his right one is blue." 

Hank put down the glass of tequila temporarily and peered down at the photo; it showed a man with tan skin, very short brown hair and, as Kamski had just described, one blue eye and one green eye. The expression on his face was a calm one, relaxed and perhaps additionally apathetic, and the background behind him was a mostly white one, although a small table could be seen off to the side. So maybe this photo was a copy of one that was to be used in an ID tag? Hank had noticed some of the scientists he and Kamski had passed on their way to the office wearing ID tags around their necks.