Partners [Path Unlocked 🔓]

Chapter 15 - New Assignment

"You're recklessness cost us a valuable opportunity yesterday, Connor." Captain Stern stated flatly, expression a carefully controlled mask of authority highlighted only by fine notes of distaste and disappointment. The woman sat, hands folded neatly in front of her atop her ever empty desk across from Detective Anderson, scowling down at the man as if he were some undesirable creature drug in by a disobedient cat to be gazed upon with recoiled disgust and disapproval.

Hank's LED circled yellow for a moment where the android stood by the wall, hands clasped as ever behind his back and head held high in a perfect display of alert composure. The machine felt an urge to correct the misinformation leaving the woman's mouth the moment it passed her gloss stained lips, wanting to speak out and insist that Connor had, in all actuality, been assaulted by a fleeing murderer and therefore "carelessness" wasn't exactly to blame but the android was programmed against speaking out of turn as such so the mechanical man was forced into programmed silence. Either way, the machine was eager to mark this odd impulse off as a natural instinct to follow fact and truth, and thus an inclination to promote these virtues and remove falsehood wherever he found it. It made sense.

Despite the fact that Connor had, true to his word, come in at a proper time the day after the deviant who had murdered Travis Ortiz unfortunately escaped, the pair had been called into the police captain's glass walled office the moment he entered the department. Well, a more accurate description might be that Detective Anderson was called to Amanda's office and Hank found himself trailing in his assigned partner's wake to stand in the far corner of the glass room, unacknowledged and wholeheartedly ignored by Captain Stern - But the point still stood.

"I'm sorry, Amanda." Was all Connor had to offer, head dipped low so curling hair fell over his face and every muscle visibly tensed under his large overcoat.

"Not only is a murderer now left on the loose but we failed to learn a single thing about this deviant." Amanda informed coldly, dark orbs glinting with an unyielding sheen of hardness that gave nothing and reflected only unfeeling distaste.

"We did manage to learn a few things, Amanda." Connor protested hastily, coffee eyes swimming with remorse but glinting with a sharp flicker of hope as he countered the woman's words. "We learned a probable cause as well as the emotional shock that may have triggered the suspect's deviancy." The detective insisted eagerly, lifting his head to search the woman's hard face that only twisted into an unforgiving sneer as the man spoke, apparently displeased by these findings and Connor's fascination with them.

"Both incredibly unimportant and overall useless facts, Detective." Amanda asserted harshly, narrowing her eyes disapprovingly at the man before her who merely lowered his head and gave an affirmative nod of understanding in lew of an actual response. "From what I understand in your case report, you had your gun trained on the suspect." The woman went on coldly, words growing sharper and more biting like the whipping winds of the arctic tundra with each passing syllable. "Why didn't you shoot, Connor?" The police chief questioned, dropping her voice to a soft whisper that ghosted through the air like fragile feathers floating on a quiet breeze.

"I-" Connor began hesitantly, eyes averted and lower lip drawn between his teeth as his stress levels climbed in the corner of Hank's vision. "I don't know, Amanda. I'm sorry." Was all the detective eventually came up with, his dismayed gaze dropping to the floor and his hands coming to squeeze together in his lap, slender digits threading tightly together and grip tightening until the man's knuckles turned white under the force of the hold.

"This type of foolish mistake is unacceptable." Amanda informed coldly, tapping her scarlet painted nails atop the sleek desktop in a slow, rhythmic cycle. "If you aren't up to this case, Detective, then I will find someone else who is." The woman warned threateningly, never wavering in her cold resolve in the slightest even as Connor's head shot up so quick Hank was genuinely concerned the detective had surely given himself whiplash.