Rehash

Eleven.

"Hey, I can walk myself! Get your hands off me!" I protested as the heavily armoured police officers dragged me out of the apartment complex in cuffs. 

They really made a show out of it, and I turned my face away from Ned and his kids who looked at me getting arrested with wide eyes. 

I wanted to use more colourful language or even claim I didn't know why they were taking me, but I doubted that was a good idea at this point. Especially since I did have an idea what this was about. It could actually be several things. Several offences that would each put me away for a long, long time. 

The officers pushed me inside the back of the van, which looked like a civilian van from the outside but had all the necessary precautions to make an arrest in the back, and took off. I expected a short ride to the police station or something, but we passed it and instead drove out of the city to the outskirts, which I was less familiar with. It took a while before I realised where we were going, but when I did my blood ran cold.

Fuck, the military base. We were headed for Arcport's base. If that was true I was in much deeper shit than I already thought. 

I was quickly proven right as we briefly stopped at the incredibly uninviting metal gates before being let inside. The outside of the base was nearly abandoned, aside from some military vans and a few people in uniform patrolling in pairs. None looked up at the car I was in, safe for one sort of gatekeeper who let us through the next uninviting metal gate. 

The gates closed immediately behind us and after going down a spiralling tunnel, we entered what appeared to be a small, unground parking lot. When I got ushered out of the car there was another pair of heavily armoured what I now guessed was military staff, who took over from the drivers. 

"Where are you taking me?" I demanded. "I have rights!" 

The stone-faced men ignored me as they took me deeper into the military complex, finally stopping in front of a door. The man on the right opened it for me, and since I didn't have much of a choice here anyway, I stepped inside. 

I wasn't the first one in what turned out to be a simple meeting room with one table and several black chairs. My eyes went wide as I saw our new headmaster, Mr. Shea, leaning back in one of the chairs. There was another man who I didn't know sitting in the corner with crossed arms. I estimated him to be in his fifties. He was dressed in a military uniform, and had a typical buzz cut. The one thing that made him less ordinary was his left eye. A bionic model. It was a cheaper model because it didn't look lifelike, but still expensive as fuck and the only real replacement possible when one lost an eye but the nerves were intact enough.

Mr. Shea dismissed the two men who brought me here with a nod, though, I noticed a security camera mounted on the ceiling in the corner of the room. 

"Take a seat, Camilo," Mr. Shea said, gesturing at the empty seat opposite him.

I did as told, though, I really wasn't looking forward to interrogation round two with Mr. Shea. I was a terrible liar, and he was a good interrogator. That didn't bode well for me, or Zekiye who I'd drag down with me if this was about the vault. 

"I'm going to drive straight into this," Mr. Shea said, his intense gaze trained on me. "You know what this is about. You were in Lenora's underground vault, and so was your friend, Zekiye." 

"Did you arrest her as well?" I immediately asked. 

The man in the corner shifted. Mr. Shea breathed in and out but didn't respond. 

"We have been tracking you since your phone ordered a full wipe on Lenora's electronic vault." 

Shit, I knew I'd been getting off a little too easy. I knew it was too good to be true. A little bead of sweat dripped down the side of my face as I tried to remember everything I'd done since then. Too much, and definitely way too many illegal things.

"You let me walk free so I would lead you to the android," I said flatly, searching Mr. Shea's face for any signs that I was right, but he remained completely massive. 

"You're too late," I went on. "The android is no longer with me, and he didn't tell me where he went or what his plans were." 

"This is not a joke, Mr. Rey," The bionic eyed man in the corner suddenly spoke up. "Do you realise what you've done? Letting a war android loose in the city with Ava Claes's memories? One of the most dangerous and deadly models in existence?" 

"If you've been following me since the electronic vault incident... why wait? Why didn't you take the android immediately at the first chance? There have been many opportunities to capture him. In the basement, in the vault, on the road." 

Neither Mr. Shea, nor the bionic eye man replied. They obviously weren't going to tell me the plan they'd hatched. 

"What did you take from the vault?" Bionic eye asked.

"I didn't take anything," I replied truthfully. Zed had, I hadn't. 

When both men stayed eerily silent and started me down, however, I finally cracked. 

"A blueprint for android parts, and... and memories." 

Bionic eye promptly got up and walked out. He slammed the door shut behind him. I cringed, Mr. Shea didn't even blink. 

I titled my chin up defiantly."I only gave the android what he should have gotten all those years ago, after they defended humanity against all odds: a chance at life." .

Mr. Shea still sat there, unmoved. "Your ideals are strong," he said. "There were other people who felt the same way you did after the war. Perhaps, Zed is the result of that."

I shouldn't be surprised Mr. Shea knew what I'd been calling Zed rather than his full model name, but still a jolt went through my body. "What do you mean?"

"In order for Zed to exist, someone helped hide him all those years ago," Mr. Shea explained. "Because they felt a soldier like Zed, so human, so close to real, didn't deserve to be tossed into an incinerator."

I sniffed indignantly, but probably couldn't hide my surprise at Mr. Shea's words. I thought military staff were supposed to be all secretive and harsh like bionic eye was. He was sharing more information with me than I ever thought he would in this situation.

"There don't seem to be many people like that --like me-- left these days."

"No," Mr. Shea conceded. "There aren't. Because they are right as well. Androids are dangerous. I know you think you're doing the right thing. But you were born after the war.  There are horrors you can't imagine." 

"What horrors?" I pressed for more information, already knowing I was pressing my luck. I wasn't surprised when Mr. Shea didn't give me straight answer this time.

"There's no glory to war," Mr. Shea said, suddenly seeming weary. "A cliche saying, but the truth."

I didn't know what Mr. Shea meant, but I'd remember what he said. I desperately wanted to know what horrors he was talking about. I doubted it was a tale we'd find in our history books at university, even if there were plenty of war horrors in there. 

I felt like I was inside a horrible nightmare myself. 

"What's going to happen to me now?" I asked.

Mr. Shea stood. "Camilo Rey, you are under arrest for aiding and abetting a renegade android. You will remain here and assist us in our search for him, until he is found and terminated."