Partners [Path Unlocked 🔓]

Chapter 11 - Lighters and Lifesavers

The apartment complex detailed in the case report was a few miles into the inner city, which meant it should've taken the pair approximately an hour to make their way through the tight, overcrowded streets and past the overwhelming number of traffic stops meant to keep the overpopulated place in some semblance of order. With glowing traffic lights sporadically blinking a new color every few moments like some cheap rave show on crack and hoards of people bustling across the roadway in huge, mounting herds, the entire city was a perfect picture of controlled chaos but, of course, the fault in that mesmerizing sort of image was that all it took was one gear in the huge machine to be misplaced and the entire metropolis would come tumbling to its knees...

Hank could not fail this mission.

However, despite the android's perfectly reasonable estimate of an hour, Connor was whipping the car into a shitty excuse for a parallel parking job before the building in twenty minute's time... And the detective's passenger side overhead handle was all but demolished.

The silver walled building the vehicle lay before rose up many stories above the street so that its peak was nearly indiscernible from the ground below, the sleek exterior fading into the pale, fuzzy gray of the overcast sky above. Large, glass paned windows lined every layer of the sprawling complex, many hanging wide open to let in the crisp, cool air of the November chill but others shut up tight and layed over with thick, heavy curtains to conceal whatever may go on behind those secretive walls. The only place this consistent pattern of sleek wall fit tight against sheer glass was disturbed was in the very front and center of the building, where two, huge, glass doors hung wide open, the large entryway crossed over with transparent, yellow glow of digital police lines and guarded by a single man standing alongside the open doorway.

Even from where Hank began pulling himself uncouthly from the cramped interior of Connor's car, the android could see the man looked far from friendly. Scruffy stubble patched unattractively across the guy's drawn face where his thin lips twisted down into an arrogant frown and when his sharp, grey eyes fell on Connor's burgundy hatchback the look deepened into what could only be described as a disgusted sneer. An automatic facial scan identified him as an Officer Gavin Reed, charged with numerous public disturbances and a lone case of public indecency (Details included loudly suggesting to an officer trying to give him a parking ticket to place their mouth upon an indecent part of his body then proceeding to offer said body part for consideration, according to a file paired with the man's information.)

"Oh, wonderful." Connor mumbled dryly as his gaze found the sneering man and his pink lips tugged down into a bored grimace, resolute sigh escaping the detective as the man gave the door handle a sharp tug and the metal barrier popped open with a heavy, metallic click. Detective Anderson slipped easily through the driver side door, slimmer built body maneuvering about the cramped space with fluid ease and putting the robot to absolute shame as Hank all but tumbled out into the street beyond, the android hastily rewriting his sloppy posture into its normal state of strict professionalism and giving the sleeve of his suit jacket a straightening tug to reinstate some semblance of neatness to his look.

"Well look who finally decided to show up," Officer Reed sniped coldly as Connor finally stepped onto the sidewalk and began to approach the building, the detective's face conveying nothing but bored disinterest but the subtle hunch of his slender shoulders easily cluing Hank into his assigned partner's masked discomfort. "Captain Stern's loyal lap dog." Gavin snarked distastefully, cold smirk tugging at his thin lips. "What? She get tired of you licking her shoes?" The man teased cruelly, cold snicker breaking through his merciless words. "Or did she finally admit she can't stand you?" The policeman sneered viciously, glaring daggers into the young detective as if Connor had sprouted horns and began chanting prayers of darkness right there on the street.