Deviant Heart

Chapter 5: The Search

November 6th, 2038 10:25 am

"Alright, that's all for now. Free to go," Hank told the man he was questioning.

Ben turned to Hank. "We've got officers sweeping the neighborhood, in case anybody saw anything."

He nodded. "Okay. Well, let me know if they turn anything up."

"What are you going to do with that?" Ben asked, looking at Connor, who was standing still near Hank's car. As they watched, Clara walked up to Connor, looking down at her tablet.

"I've no idea..." Hank responded. Hank exchanged a look with him before heading over to Connor and Clara.

The detectives and officers of the DPD were currently in the Ravendale district, searching for the AK400 that attacked its owner the night before. They were surrounded by different businesses, including a hotel, a laundromat, a convenience store and a small restaurant. There was also an abandoned house and a run down parking garage. Train tracks crisscrossed above them, with the occasional train going by. The sidewalks were littered with civilians going about their day and police officers. A car would drive past every so often, heading towards their destinations. Connor glanced up at Hank as the older man got closer.

"It took the first bus that came along... and stayed at the end of the line," Clara and Hank looked at Connor as he spoke. "It's decision wasn't planned, it was driven by fear."

Hank scoffed. "Androids don't feel fear."

"Deviants do," Connor corrected, raising his eyebrows. "They get overwhelmed by their emotions and make irrational decisions."

The older man smirked at a joke only he was privy to. "Ah, well, that still doesn't tell us where it went."

Connor started talking out loud as he thought. "It didn't have a plan, and it had nowhere to go." A look of realization crossed his features. "Maybe it didn't go far."

Hank cocked his lip. "Maybe..." He walked away, surveying the area.

Clara frowned at her tablet, tapping her stylus against the side of it.

"Is something troubling you, Clara?" Connor asked her.

"Sort of," she answered. "The report said that the AX400 attacked her owner, Todd Williams, unprovoked and ran away. There was no mention of a daughter or child at all..."

"A child?" He asked. "What do you mean?"

"Both the convenience store clerk and the bus maintenance worker said they saw the AX400 with a little human girl. Yet according to the victim, the android jumped on the bus right outside of his house and stayed on until the end of the line, like you said. Unless other people got on the bus and the android abducted the little girl at some point in that cramped space, there's nowhere else she would have interacted with other humans."

"So it must have left the victim's house WITH the girl, is what you're saying?"

"Yes, exactly. But Mr. Williams didn't mention anything about the android taking his daughter, niece, anyone. He didn't mention a girl at all. Either the victim is a terrible father, or..."

"... Or he's lying," Connor finished.

"Exactly. Either way, we're missing something, I feel it." Clara shook out her limbs one by one and rolled her head, cracking her neck. "Alright! We want answers, and we have a deviant to find. We get one, we get the other." She looked over at Hank, who was approaching them. "Any leads so far?" She asked, placing a hand on her hip.

He grimaced. "No. But–" he glanced around the area. "-- It won't get far. We'll find it sooner or later. Let's go."

He got in the car, Clara getting in the back seat. Connor lingered on the sidewalk, glancing around the neighborhood. Sighing, he reluctantly got in the passenger seat.