Haru stood within the mostly empty club. He was conversing with one of the staff members about the events surrounding the owner's death and the two Auto Droids’ escape while K-101 moved about, checking every inch of the place for clues.
“And that day, the Auto Droids didn’t display any odd behavior prior to this?” Haru asked a well built man whose black hair was tied into a bun.
“Nope, not anything that I can recall. I do know the boss talking about getting rid of some of his older bots. Cost reasons,” the man replied with a shrug.
Haru nodded. “May we have a look inside his office?”
The man gestured to a door near the back of the building. “Go right ahead. It’ll be the door to your left, near the back.”
“Thank you,” Haru replied with a nod.
The man returned it with a nod of his own, moved to grab his things and sat at the bar whilst the man and his Auto Droid did their work.
The two opened the door to the manager's office. There wasn’t much there worth noting, just an average, moderately sized room with few decorations.
“Looks like the police cleaned this out. Let’s see if there's anything they may have left behind,” Haru muttered as he and K moved through the room.
K noticed a blinking white light on a computer that sat on the manager’s desk, signifying unread email notifications. Opting to look into it, he placed a hand on the device's screen and a luminous blue techno pattern flourished through his synthetic skin. The device came to life as he linked his mind to its system and began rummaging through it for any information that may prove useful in finding the two Auto Droids.
While K shifted through the emails and files on the computer, Haru surveyed some of the items scattered about the room out of boredom.
A few of the books that sat in a nearby case captured his attention. “Hmm, The Art of War, Silk Road, Of Mice and Men, this guy does have an intriguing taste,” Haru muttered to himself.
“Done,” K called out as he removed his hand from the screen, causing it to shut off and the luminous pattern that had spread to the hand he had placed on it to recede.
“Anything good?” Haru asked as he placed one of the books he grabbed back into the case and walked towards his companion.
“Not much pertaining to the Auto Droids. His name was Vincent O’Brian. Part of an internal ring of “Shikos Hidden Elite”, a small commune of some of the most powerful drug runners in the city.”
Haru raised a brow, somewhat intrigued. “Oh? How come the authorities didn't bust this guy sooner then?”
“He apparently went through significant lengths to separate his identity within the criminal underworld from the man he was most commonly known as in the public eye. This club was one of many ways he did that. I managed to gather an extensive amount of information on him with this scan.” K slightly tilted his head in the direction of the computer.
“It’s impressive that he had managed to pull this off for as long as he did and the lengths he went through.”
Haru slid his glasses up to a more comfortable position on his face before interrupting. “Yeah, that's nice and all, but his illegal escapades are of no importance.”
“Understood,” K responded as he faced the man once more. “I did manage to pull two things that may help. An old record of purchase and an email towards an anonymous user that, I am assuming, he planned to sell the Auto Droids too.”
“I see,” Haru responded as he walked past the machine and back into the main area. K followed out behind him.
“We will review the information you pulled later. Right now I find it best to link up with the Investigation Bureau, see what further information they may have.” The pair stopped in front of the employee who sat at the bar. He looked as if he was struggling to stay awake.
“You find what you were looking for, sir?” he asked in a grumbly voice.
Haru nodded. “Yes, thank you for your cooperation. We shall be taking our leave.”
The man nodded and, with a yawn, escorted them out before locking up for the night.
Haru and Kyle got inside of their vehicle. The android started up the engine and pulled out of the lot and onto the road.
“Contact the Chief. Let him know I will be stopping by shortly and want to speak with the detectives handling the investigation of these rogues,” Haru ordered. K nodded as he linked his brain to the local communications network in order to send a message to Chief Armstrong.
Adam and Eva chose the crack of dawn to make their move. Adam had told Eva about a contact he had that would help get them out of the city. The plan was simple. They’d meet Adam's contact, get their fake I.D.s, and catch a train out of the city. Eva wasn’t so sure about this plan.
She knew little to nothing about this apparent contact and something within her systems told her Adam didn’t either. How could they trust this supposed benefactor? There was also the fact that they were wanted to worry about as well.
Adam finished disposing of the last remaining traces of their presence in the shack and performed one last sweep as Eva approached him. Trying her best to hide the anxiousness and uncertainty in her voice, she spoke.
“Are you… sure about this, Adam?” The male android turned to her.
“Of course I am. So long as we stick to the plan, we’ll be home free.”
Evas uncertainty remained plastered on her face. “But, how can you even trust whoever your contact is?”
“I managed to locate him through the net. I am well aware of the work he has performed for humans in order to help them disappear. He was the one who had our I.D.s wiped so we wouldn’t be tracked. And besides, if he tries anything I’ll just leak his information to the authorities.”
“But…” Eva fell silent as she bit her lower lip. She had a bad feeling about all of this. Adam noticed her apprehensiveness and grabbed her hands tenderly.
“We’ll get out of here together. I promise.”
Eva gave him a small smile. “Ok,” she responded. “I’ll follow you, always.”
Adam returned her smile and released her hands.
“We should get going; my contact operates within a small window. If we don't get to them soon we may miss our chance to get out of here.”
Adam placed his hand on the doorknob, twisted it, and paused. He turned back to Eva. “You ready?”
Eva nodded in response. Adam turned back towards the door. ‘Well here goes nothing, or everything,’ he thought to himself as he opened the door and the pair took their first steps towards freedom. Or potential doom.
Haru sat in a chair at the opposite end of Chief Armstrong’s desk. A male whose brown hair was cut in a buzz sat next to him with his SCPD trench coat draped over the back of the seat. K stood a couple paces away from the two human men monitoring over their conversation for any important info that could help them ascertain the whereabouts of their quarry.
“So, it turns out that bastard was one of the big drug runners we were after. Who would’ve thought.” K heard the male detective that sat next to Haru mutter as he looked over some of the information K managed to pull.
“Yes, but that is of no present concern,” Haru stated plainly. “We only were able to pull a record of purchase for the two Auto Droids and an email to who we are assuming to be the individual he planned to sell them off to.” Haru glanced down at the glass of water in his hand.
“Although it’s at least something, It’s not enough information to help us on our own investigation. We need to learn their projected escape route, their plan, their whereabouts. If we can find something that may be able to point us in the right direction it’ll make this hunt a hell of a lot easier.” Haru took a sip from the glass as the detective spoke.
“Not sure if anything we have may be of much help. I had some of the officers that accompanied me and my partner perform a search around the immediate area. They found some bloodied prints, but the track went cold.”
“No signs of synthetic blood anywhere or eye witness reports?” K asked. The detective was startled ever so slightly. The android had been as silent as a ghost for the entire time that they had been there. He had forgotten about it.
“Didn’t you just hear what I said,” the detective said in a bitter, slightly annoyed tone. “Not a God damn clue left by your two robot buddies.”
“The chances of them getting far without being seen or leaving some sort of trace behind is unlikely. Perhaps if witnesses were called in, we may be able to learn something that might narrow down the search.”
The detective became even more annoyed at the machine. “Aye, bot, this is my job, I know what the fuck I’m doing! We found no witness reports that could help point us in the right direction. They just vanished, like that psycho killer that had been on the news a little while back.”
The detective sighed and shook his head as he turned back to Haru. “Fucking Auto Droid,” he muttered under his breath condescendingly.
“So, you’ve got nothing then,” Haru asked with a raised brow.
“Apart from the knife that was used to kill the guy and their designations, nothin. Usually we’d be able to use their A.D.I.Ds to track them. But with their I.D.s being nonexistent right now...” The detective shrugged his shoulders.
Haru mentally groaned to himself. ‘No wonder why this city is a shit hole.’
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