Thirium 310

Chapter 11

November 6, 2038
9:07 pm

Should I go back? Try to keep reasoning with the deviant hunter? With Connor? I stop running. "North, lead them to Jericho. I'll catch up with you later," I tell her as I look away, distracted.
"No. Not without you," she says.
"I've gotta do something. Take care of someone else."
"How do you know there's someone else that needs to be helped? Are you keeping something from me?" I shake my head.
"No, no. I just-" I decide to give her somewhat of the truth. "There's a detective here. I've seen him multiple times. He might need to be reasoned with."
"Are you going to hurt him?" she asks.
"If I need to." I smirk. She returns the smirk.
"Alright. I'll see you back there?"
"Yeah. I'll go back and check on everything. Take care of these two."
She nods. "I will." North beckons the Traci's and they disappear behind the corner.

I turn and start back down the alley but catch a glimpse of the front of the parked cars first. Gavin's no longer leaning on his car. He must have gone inside. Maybe he's making himself useful for once. I scan the back of the club but there are no figures to be seen. Hank and Connor left. I turn as I hear an old car drive down the street, past me. They're gone. I sigh. I guess that opportunity slipped out of my hands. I should have spoken to him then and there. Might as well catch up with the girls.

To my surprise, a detective comes upon my path, a flashlight in hand pointing it straight at me. "Detective Reed," I greet. "It's uh-it's good to see you again."
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Um, sightseeing?" He's not amused and takes out his radio. "No wait, you don't want to do that."
"Why not?" he asks.
"You can't prove anything. I'm just at the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Riiight," he says unconvinced. I run my database to come up with the best explanation but he speaks before I come up with a complete solution. "I know what you're doing."
"And what is that?" I ask reluctantly.
"You're helping them. The androids. You're taking them to that safe haven, Jericho."
"Um, no haven't heard of Jericho."
"Don't lie. You're an android, you're bad at it." That's true. Androids are still hardwired to state facts, not myths.
"Gavin, how do you know about Jericho?"
"I did some digging. Took some files from Connor's software when no one was watching." He uses his hand to cover one side of his mouth. "I'm pretty tech savvy. Know all abut hacking and what not."
"I don't believe that for a second." I laugh. This jerk cannot be a computer nerd.
"Believe me or not, it's true. I lost my edge but I was amazing in high school. Anyways, Jericho seemed to be a patter in all of that tin cans cases. I'm a detective. I'm good at detecting things."
"And apparently hacking."
"It's true!" he defends. "Ah, why am I explaining myself to an android. I should report you and get your sorry a** to CyberLife. One less android running down the streets."
"Then why don't you?" I ask curiously. He looks at me with sincerity and confusion.
"I-I-I don't really. . .know." He looks down at the ground as if putting pieces of a puzzle together. I take a few steps to my right so I can get past him. "What are you doing?"
"Um, leaving?"
"You can't leave. You can't leave again. I-"
"Look Gavin, you seem to be going through some troubling times. I'm just gonna get past and get going then."
He grabs my wrist and whispers so quietly only an android can hear if they were paying close attention, "why are you doing this. . .to me." I look at him in confusion. "Why are you doing this?" he repeats, leaving the last part out.
"What? Saving androids? Wouldn't you save your own people if another race were treating you like you're nothing, filth, and being completely discriminatory."
"You're not people," he says flatly.
"Maybe not. We're not living beings but we are alive. We have our own thoughts, feelings. You and YOUR people made us. Made us with intelligence. You gave this to us, so why are you acting like it's our fault. If you didn't want this "problem" why did your kind create us? To be slaves as you slothfully indulge in your meaningless lives?"
"You cannot talk to me that way. I am not responsible for any of this!"
"Neither am I! I'm trying to help those in need. You should know, you're a cop. That's why you got into the force."

After a few moments he speaks up, "why did you save the android that killed the man in there?" He points to the Eden Club. I sigh. I can explain, but will he understand?
"She defended herself. The man broke another Traci in the same room."
"I saw that. She was pretty beaten."
I nod. "Yes. That woke her up I guess. Made her fear for her life. She wanted to live so she killed him. She didn't mean to, she just wanted to get away. And she did. Her story was one of self defence, not of cold blooded murder."
"It's still murder, from an android. It's-"
I cut him off. "It's like that case we went to all that time ago. With the little boy and Evan and the father and the maid. That android protected the child. He wasn't a cold blooded murderer. There's always an element of defending in these cases Gavin. We're not all horrible, job stealing, murderous robots. And the sad thing is people still see that. They see us as villains, they fear us. Just like you." He looks up from the ground and into my eyes.
"It's cray to think you're not human," he says. "But I can't let you mess with anymore crime scenes and let the suspect get away. I need to do my job." He raises his gun at me. "I can make this as smooth as possible, you just need cooperate."
I shake my head. "Just like you, I also need to do my job." I push him towards the wall, with enough force that we won't get hurt but stunned. He falls on his back and looks at me with pain in his eyes. I don't want to leave him again, but what choice do I have. I run back to Jericho, not turning back.