Pt 12

'So, Dorian thought that you were after Anna. We thought Dorian was after you. And you thought that Dorian was going to run straight into the EMN-device. Talk about confusion.' Maldonado smiled at John, who was at home on the couch and looked considerably better than when he'd been taken to hospital. His face had not yet regained all of its color, but his eyes were bright and he seemed relaxed.

'Yeah. Good thing the device was found. And destroyed. An electromagnetic web… that's why my leg stopped working, nearly killed Dorian…'

'That BAT-story is remarkable,' said Maldonado. 'I've never heard of it before. But that inSyndicate used some kind of tracker to get you to a place where you and Dorian could be neutralized makes sense.'

Maybe Anna was in the hospital and put that thing in me, John mused. He shivered at the thought, but realized too it could have been anyone inside the inSyndicate group. Heck, it might have been a doctor or a nurse from the staff. InSyndicate had accomplices everywhere, in all kinds of areas. He kept that to himself. Undoubtedbly, captain Maldonado had been thinking the same and had already done some inquiries without anyone knowing about it. She probably had the hospital visitors records scanned as they spoke.

'I wish I knew who shot me,' John then said thoughtfully. 'For a while, I thought it was that Coltrane guy, but the more I think about it, the less certain I am.'

Maldonado shook her head once. 'We probably never know. Coltrane has been killed, and there are no leads whatsoever as to who did it. Might have been inSyndicate, but it might also have been an enemy Coltrane picked up over the years.'

John drank his coffee. This was how he liked it, dark roasted with a deep full taste. Gawd, how he had missed coffee.

'Did you find anything else on Coltrane? Anna?'

Maldonado pressed her lips together and shook her head. 'No. We found one photo on which you can see them talking to each other, that's it. Nothing else.' Very briefly, she put her hand on John's arm. 'I'm sorry, John. I know how important it is for you to find her.'

'I didn't even know Anna might be involved. Otherwise, Dorian might have been right and I would have risked everything and gotten in there to find her. Speaking of which - how is Dorian?'

'Under repair. His voice memory banks were damaged beyond control, even a backup restore didn't work. So Rudy's working on him right now.'

John fell quiet. He owed Dorian his life, that much was sure. John hadn't seen that he'd been targeted from high up and the android taking the bullets that were meant for him, was the reason he was here today.

'Sandra… the girl who helped me… she'd be a great asset. She's smart, she knows her way 'round all that tech stuff and I think she and Rudy would get along alright. You've often said that you could use another tech.'

'Yeah. I'll think about it. Have her call me.' Maldonado got up. 'It's good to have you back, John. You had us all worried.' She smiled, nodded and warned him, before she left: 'Don't come to work before you're okay! Or you won't hear the end of it from Dorian!'

John laughed. 'We can ask Rudy to not work too fast on restoring his voice stuff.'

-.-.-

A week later

Dorian looked as ever and his voice was good as gold. He smiled a lot, an apparent proof of how he good felt and how happy was that things were back to normal. John found it amusing. He never thought he'd say it, but he and Dorian had a click, and he too, felt good. Physically he still needed to take it easy, but he was back for some light duties. His leg was okay too.

'John, I found something,' said Dorian and handed him an info-sheet. The transparent sheet contained a few articles and some photo's.

'What's this?'

'I think you should read it,' Dorian said softly. The android diplomatically stepped back to give John some privacy.

It was a newspaper article.

MAN SHOT DEAD IN DISTRICT 17, said the headline. A 41-year old man has been murdered in the district, commonly known as The Swamp. One of the suspects was 19-year old Emilia Redmond, who was believed to have shot Victor Arabel in the head. The victim was found on the riverbanks. Noteworthy was that his synthetic arm was missing. The police believes the arm to be on the bottom of the river, it has not been recovered. Charges against Emilia Redmond have been dropped. There's not sufficient evidence to tie her to the crime and keep her in custody.

'Victor Arabel was the head of Atlas Medical Insurances. He was the one who turned down Milla's request for a synthetic arm,' Dorian said softly when he saw John had finished reading.

Emilia… Milla… Redding… Redmond… Did she... had Milla been desperate enough to... kill? He saw her face again, the flushed cheeks, her resistance when he said she should be proud of what she had done. If - and that was a big if - she had murdered this Victor Arabel, his words would have cut through her soul. She could never feel pride with that knowledge.

He sighed and suddenly felt very tired. It all began to make sense.

Once the dust had settled, John tried to contact her. Much to his surprise, her phone was disconnected and there were no records of a new number in her name. In fact, he couldn't find anything about her at all. He payed a streetwise kid some credits to get to her place and hand her a note, but the boy came back and told him there was no one home, and the apartment looked abandoned. John wished he could have gone himself, but it was still too dangerous for him. After all, his face was connected to the raid the other day and – as Milla had said – people in The Swamp didn't take kindly to police.
He remembered how she had been cautious to let him call the bureau. Years of living in The Swamp made her suspicious and careful. Her reluctance might have just saved his life outside The Swamp as well.
It was an unsatisfying feeling. He wanted to thank her properly, that weird, somewhat unworldly girl, but she had disappeared. Left. And he was pretty certain that she could stay hidden for a long, long time if she wanted to. She had told him that she had a job and payed taxes, but there was nothing on record – anywhere. She had just vanished of the face of the earth. He didn't doubt for a second that she had the technical know-how to stay out of sight. But he wouldn't give up, one day he would find her and express his gratitude properly.

Dorian's find cast a new light on Milla. There was a very clear reason why she hid in the shadows. John ran a hand over his face. He remembered what she said, that there were good people in The Swamp, that not everyone was bad. That sometimes circumstances forced good people to do bad things.

'Dorian… No one must ever know. Ever. You hear me? No telling the captain. Ever.'

'I understand.' Dorian nodded.

John looked up and met his partner's blue eyes. A while ago, Dorian would have followed protocol and gone over his head and informed the captain. But not now. The better they got to know each other, the smaller the gap became.

'Come on, we need coffee. Let's get outside.'

'I don't drink coffee, man.'

'But I do. You can answer the phone or send messages to the bureau while I enjoy a dark roast arabica drink.'

Behind John's back, Dorian put his index finger on the transparent sheet and tapped the trash symbol thrice while holding the shift symbol.

YOU ARE ABOUT TO ERASE THIS FILE PERMANENTLY. ARE YOU SURE? THIS OPERATION CAN NOT BE UNDONE. said the words on the sheet.

Dorian hesitated. Just for a second. Then he looked up and saw John, standing in the doorway, waiting for him and waving impatiently.

ERASE.

The end

That's it, Humanites! My first long story about John and Dorian and the rest of the Almost Human fandom. I don't own them but I get to play with them. Comments are more than welcome. Please bear in mind that English is not my native language, so sorry for odd sentences and strange structures if you run into them! Thank you for reviewing, personal messages and other encouragement. Ta!