PM 08:17:07

The car slowed as they neared the Eden Club. The rain reflected the colorful lights of the entrance sign, creating a hazy glow around the area. It would've been beautiful if not for the meaning behind those lights. Just off to the left of the club were an ambulance and patrol car. Further down, Alessia could see her brother's car parked, lights off. He was still here then, what a wonderful development already.

Hank was still holding his head as they parked, "Feels like somebody's playing with a drill inside my skull. You sure this is the place?"

Connor responded, "It's the address in the report."

"Right. Okay. Let's get going." Hank hit his head as he got out and mumbled a curse. Alessia was thankful for the hour as she followed behind him. He wasn't doing too bad, but if they had been called in first, any lingering news outlets would have captured their drunken Lieutenant's swaggering steps. At least he had stopped slurring his words and sounded more hungover now than earlier.

An officer greeted them as they passed through the police line hologram. Any patrons, suspected or not, would have already been sent home, so there was no one hanging around to make their work difficult.

"Sexiest androids in town. Now I know why you insisted on coming here," Hank remarked as they passed the flashing entrance signs. Partially nude androids flashed between text on the walls, and she could feel the hum and vibration of music from further in the building.

Past the doors, they were immediately met with six different Traci types posing in stasis pods. Alessia remarked, "It must be an awful thing that I can tell this place is older because of the face designs."

"What?" Hank stopped and looked at her incredulously.

"If you went to one of the newer Eden Club's, you'd see completely different faces."

"Please tell me you know this because you've worked on them."

"I just familiarize myself with new designs. Cyberlife and androids have been a big part of my life. Traci's were after my time there. Not too far though, unfortunately."

"And what the hell does that mean?"

"I wished I could have had some input when they were first designed. Maybe put a stop to places like this. If they were flesh and bone, it'd be a scandal. But plastic and thirium have no laws. Only policy."

Alessia passed through the doors, seeing more posing androids, and a couple dancing on either side of the room. Detective Collins was talking to the owner of the club, who looked heated and nervous.

"You're not gonna take my license, are you? I mean, ha, I had nothing to do with this!" the manager was getting more agitated as he spoke, but Collins was having none of it.

"The investigation's ongoing, sir, I can't tell you anything for the moment." As they approached, he turned towards the trio, and looked like the sun had broken through the clouds, "Hey, Hank! Alessia, good to see you."

"Hey, Ben. How's it goin'?"

He gave a sign and side eye the manager, "Hopefully you two can give us a little more insight. It's that room there. Oh, uh, by the way. Gavin's in there too."

"Oh, great! A dead body and an asshole, just what I needed."

"Let him and Chris know they're free to go for the night since you're here, Alessia."

Alessia gave a single, exasperated laugh, "Yeah, that's going to go down well. Hank, I've got a few questions before I go in, will you . . .?"

Hank rolled his eyes and sighed, "You owe me, Reed."

"I'll start a tab. Thank you."

Hank and Connor went in, and she could immediately hear Gavin begin his complaint. She ignored it though, bid Collins a good evening, and walked over to the manager. He eyed her wearily, scoping her out like she might have the information he was looking for.

"I'm Detective Alessia Reed, what's your name?"

"Floyd. Floyd Mills. This is my life, Detective, you got to understand-"

"Mr. Mills, like my colleague, I can't tell you much with the investigation still ongoing. However, I don't think it's losing your license you'll have to worry about in the event that you're innocent."

"I am innocent! I didn't know he was even there until the next patron went in."

"Mr. Mills, do you keep records of activity in the rooms – the technical side of things, mind you. Patron choices, drink orders, time spent?"

"Only until their credit clears, which takes no more than an hour. But since he, uh, hasn't left yet, you'll see the selected preferences."

"Can you send information regarding his purchases at this moment?"

"No, sorry, but I'm going to need a warrant first. I can't give you that information without exposing other patrons. But like I said, anything in the room will be fair game."

Alessia nodded, "I understand. This is-" she looked around the room to all the androids waiting to be used, "-still a business after all. Thank you for your time, I hope you'll continue to be cooperative throughout the investigation."

"Of course, just let me know, please, when you can."

"We'll be in touch," Alessia said as she was turning to go into the room. However, Gavin stood in front of the door, arms crossed while Officer Miller stood off to the side looking ready to break up a fight.

"I'm surprised they called you in when they knew I was here."

"Gav, you're leaving. It's perfectly legal."

"That's not what I'm talking about. Are you really okay with this?"

"I have a job to do, Gavin. Please, if you'll excuse me?"

He walked away, Officer Miller looking relieved as he followed, but quickly turned back. "Text me when you're home?"

"Of course. You do the same."

Inside the room, Hank was going through the dead man's things while Connor was examining him. Alessia tried to keep her eyes on the control panels. As Mills said, his preferences were still up. A red colored room, and higher temperature for atmosphere. A few other controls that would link to the android, telling them how to act or what to say. Other things she did not want to know anymore. Unusually, he had payed twice the usual amount for a Traci. She would have to ask the owner if there was an auto-payment set up.

"He didn't die of a heart attack, he was strangled." Connor stood up from the body, walking over to an android in the corner of the room. Alessia, looking towards him and the android, walked to stand by Hank. The Traci had brown hair tied back in a ponytail, and glassy brown eyes. Like other Traci's, this model had come out after her time at Cyberlife, but she had been one of the first in the line.

Hank shuffled, crossing his arms as he watched, "Yeah, I saw the bruising on the neck. Doesn't prove anything though. Could've been rough play."

"But if she's the one who strangled him, how did she end up all the way over here?" Alessia asked, joining Connor to peer at the Traci while hank continued to watch from afar.

"We're missing something here."

"Think you can read the android's memory? Maybe you can see what happened." The synthetic skin of Connor's hand pulled back as he connected to the android's temple. Alessia could see the thirium that had poured out of her nose. There didn't seem to be any other addition damaged below her neck.

"I can try. Biocomponents 5402 and 6970 are critically damaged," Connor observed, "The only way to access its memory is to reactivate it."

"Think you can do it?" Hank asked, but to who, Alessia wasn't sure.

Alessia nodded her head, "We can reactivate her. But it could be for twelve hours or twelve seconds. Don't reconnect the ABD-82 to the PFC-82 port. Her standard setting might not accept all the damage she's been through. But, if you connect the ABD-82 wires to the PFC-12 port, she'll be able to operate in low power mode long enough for repairs. It's not a strong connection, though, she can't do a whole lot of movement. Maybe none."

Connor spoke and agreed as he opened the stomach cavity and began connecting components. "It's badly damaged. I'm not sure if that will work. If I can, it'll only be for a minute, maybe less. I just hope it's long enough to learn something."

The moment the internal connections link, the Traci woke and sat up quickly. She pushed herself against the wall, breathing erratically, LED red, desperate to get away from the small group. Alessia quickly stood and stepped back as Connor slowly approached her, hands raised to show no harm. Alessia kept an arm out to keep Hank back, but he didn't want to crowd the android just as much as her. Despite the movement though, it seemed the Traci hadn't disconnected anything.

"Calm down- everything's all right. All we want is to know what happened."

The android was still on alert, but her LED pulsed yellow now. She looked towards the body on the bed, "Is he- is he dead?"

"Tell me what happened."

"He started . . . hitting me, again and again. I begged him to stop, but he wouldn't. It was like he was enjoying it."

"Were you alone in the room? Was there anyone else with you?"

"He wanted to play with two girls. That's what he said, there were two of us."

"Where did the other android go? Did it say anything?"

Her LED was spinning violently, bright red- one look was all Alessia needed to know that her stress levels were rising too high to function. She stepped in, gently pushing Connor back and took the Traci's hand, carefully standing her up to face her away from the body. "I'm Detective Alessia Reed. Everything is going to be okay, we're here to help."

Her LED flashed yellow, back to red, back to yellow, and red again. "You can see you've been damaged, right?"

The Traci was watching her cautiously, giving a silent single nod. "This is not meant to frighten you, okay? I just want you aware of what is going on with your body. You have some damaged biocomponents. They can be replaced, and no other harm will happen. But, we had to connect some wires that usually shouldn't be crossed. If you're not repaired soon, you risk shutting down."

Her LED flashed red again, mouth dropping, head shaking back and forth in short bursts. Alessia placed her hands on her shoulder, keeping her steady. "Hey, hey, it's okay. You have several hours for that. More than enough time to get repaired-"

"No, no no, he won't. Parts- parts are expensive. It's cheaper to buy a new model than repair an old one. No- I, I don't-"

"It's okay. I won't let that happen- I promise, I won't let that happen. You'll be fine. Just go into low power mode, and I will personally make sure that you are repaired."

The Traci stared at her for a long while before nodding slowly, taking a breath, and finally closing her eyes. Her LED cycled yellow and stayed that way. Alessia sighed heavily, closing her own eyes, and running her hands through her hair. A deviant murderer and now a traumatized possible deviant who had nothing to do with the crime but was going to end up with the same fate regardless.

The Traci still listened to her, so maybe she wasn't deviant. But the fear she showed was not normal in any android. The only blessing she would have would be a memory reset after her repair. But Alessia would see to it that she was repaired, she had promised her that.

When she opened her eyes, Alessia could see that Hank and Connor had left the room. She was alone with only the Traci, and the dead body that she could see lying still on the bed just past the Traci's shoulder. From the short distance, she could see that bruising on his neck, the bulging of his eyes. She felt as if she would puke right there, and quickly left the room. She stopped outside the door, taking a deep breath, and observing the room. Hank was finishing up talking to Mills.

"Good thing about androids is they're up for whatever you want, you won't get any diseases and, uh, they won't tell anyone. So, why not go wild?"

"Yeah, the more I learn about people, more I love my dog."

The manager took that as his cue to leave, and turned back towards the front of the club, trying to flag down another officer who might know if he could keep operating his business, or even worse, open up like normal the next day. Ben Collins walked over to Hank and Alessia calmed herself while they spoke.

"That club manager's a pain in the ass. Chewed my ear off for half an hour so we don't revoke his license. So, what happened here?"

"Not sure yet. We think there was another android in the room.

"Another android?"

"Yeah, well, that's what Connor says. Alessia's talking to the other now. Hey, I've a terrible fucking headache. Do you have any pain killers?"

"Not with me, Hank, sorry."

"What good are you, Ben?" Hank finally noticed Alessia still standing by the door, "It's about time. What the fuck was that all about. Are you okay? You look how I feel."

Alessia shook her head, "I'm fine, don't worry-"

"Ah, Jesus, was- was that your first body? I thought in all your years you would've seen something by now?"

"Not my first, no. But not something I'm used to. I handle domestic calls, Hank. We're a small precinct, there's usually someone else covering homicide. No reason to add me in," she looked over to Connor who was examining a ready for purchase Traci, "Connor looks like he's found something, let's keep moving with the investigation."

Ben looked towards the room, "What about the other android?"

"She'll need repairs, but she's fine for a few hours."

He nodded, and looked back towards the owner who was harassing one of the rookie officers. He huffed and made his way over just as Connor walked over to them.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant. Can you come here a second?"

"Found something?"

"Maybe. Can you rent this Traci?"

"For fuck's sake, Connor, we got better things to do." Alessia laughed, but immediately understood what Connor wanted to do.

"Please, Lieutenant! Just trust me."

Hank sighed and walked up to the pin pad. A feminine yet most robotic like voice in the building instructed him on his purchase. "This is not gonna look good on my expense account."

The Traci stepped from the case, offering a hand to Hank. "Delighted to meet you. Follow me, I'll take you to your room."

"Ok, now what?" Hank looked alarmed as Connor grabbed the arm of the Traci and forced an interface, "Holy shit, Connor. What the hell are you doin'?"

Alessia watched as the pair twitched for a moment, letting Connor take in the android's memory. "It saw something."

"What are you talkin' about? Saw, what?"

"The deviant leave the room. A blue-haired Traci. Club policy is to wipe the androids' memory every three hours. We only have a few minutes if we wanna find another witness!"

Connor ran off towards the front, narrowing down the blue-haired Traci's path from what he could see, and connecting with the entrance dancer. The short haired Traci in front of Hank looked at him expectantly, offering her hand to him again.

He called to Connor, "Hey, what am I supposed to do with this one?"

"Tell it you changed your mind!"

"Uhh. Sorry, honey, changed my mind! Nothing personal, you're a lovely girl, I just, uh. You know, I'm with them and- I mean, not with them like that- I'm not that- that's not what I- you, um . . . Wow - I just got a job to do. My head-"

Alessia chuckled as the Traci all but ignored him, stepping back into her case. She could see the blush on his face as he walked away, then continued to look at Connor. He was walking back towards them now, heading for another rentable case. Hank groaned as he was made to purchase another case.

"What are you gonna do? You can't check the memory of all these androids."

"I know which direction it went. I just need to find another android that saw it. Let's try this one."

"This better be worth it!" Connor ignored him and continued interfacing with the android, both twitching slightly as he pulled the information. Once he let go, he quickly moved on an invisible path, trailed by Alessia as Hank kept groaning about how much was being spent.

"It saw the blue-haired Traci, I know which way it went!"

"There're androids everywhere! How you gonna tell which one saw the Traci with blue hair? We'll never have time to check 'em all!

"Lieutenant, if you have a better idea, I'm all ears."

"I've spent all this money and I'm still not havin' fun. This has gotta be the most expensive investigation of my career!"

Alessia shook her head, "Just call your bank. Tell them that you tried to cancel but the pads malfunctioned."

"Will that really work?"

"Maybe. Just hope that someone on the other end of the phone will be sympathetic. Otherwise, talk to Captain Fowler about making it a work expense. I'll vouch for you."

"Somehow, I don't think Fowler is going to understand these expenses, but I suppose it's worth a shot. Thanks, Reed."

Finally, in what must have been the final few seconds before the club's memory reset, Connor found the blue-haired Traci's final path. He quickly called the officers over to his position. "I know where it went! Follow me!"

Hank said as they stood in front of a staff door, "Fucking-A. This is crazy!"

Connor easily bypassed the security lock and the door slid open. It was a white brick hallway, with an escape ladder, and a door leading to the back garage. Before Connor could open the door, Hank called for him to wait so that the two humans could take the lead. Hank pulled out his gun, motioning for Alessia to do the same. She made sure Connor stayed a few paces behind them, as she would be in a better position to protect him in case they opened the door to an immediate attack.

Hank opened the door quickly, but with no immediate movement, they slowly entered the garage. Hank stepped down the stairs while Alessia stayed at the top, scanning for any movement. When there was none, she put her gun away and followed Hank.

"Shit. We're too late."

In the middle of the room, an android was being updated via a laptop. Dozens of other androids stood in three areas, waiting to be used. Clothing that was supposed to appear sexy was also hanging about the room, washers and dryers and shelves upon shelves of parts and other odds and ends lined the walls. Plastic strips lined the middle by the laptop, looking more like illegal medical practice was going on rather than technology repair.

Connor walked around the room, checking out the open door towards the alleyway. It was possible she may have escaped that way, especially since it had been a while since the crime scene was found. But it looked to have snowed a bit within the time they were there at least, less than an inch covering the ground. No foot prints marked the ground, and not even the light rain would have gotten rid of them, instead potentially creating a slippery surface.

Connor must have thought the same for he turned away and continued to explore the room. Hank was observing the room and shaking his head as his eyes passed over all the androids. Alessia walked over to the laptop and read the screen. It was just a software update- a fairly old one based on the text she scanned. Nothing else was on the laptop beside software programs and internet, and with it being close to outdated, she doubted there was anything worth investigating on it.

Hank sighed, "Christ, look at them. They get used till they break, then they get tossed out. You know, people are fucking insane. They don't want relationships anymore, everybody just gets an android. They cook what you want, they screw when you want, you don't have to worry about how they feel. Next thing you know, we're gonna be extinct, because everybody would rather buy a piece of plastic than love another human being."

Alessia was about to respond, a grunt from Connor on the other side of the room distracted her. She looked up to see a Traci shoving him against a wall, and Hank quickly moved forward, grabbing his gun. Just as he raised it and shouted, another Traci jumped him to the ground. She felt frozen to her spot- grabbing her gun wasn't an option now with four moving targets, the chance of hitting Connor and Hank was too high. But both were being overpowered, and she needed to act.

Connor was built for confrontation, she had seen it firsthand, but he was still struggling to push her back. Hank was in a similar position but now they were dealing with two deviants and the newest one seemed to be aggressive as she fought against Connor.

While her thought process could have only been a few seconds, just before Alessia could dive after either the boys, arms wrapped around her and pulled her back. She struggled and was shoved to the floor with the brown-haired Traci over her. She looked remorseful, but the moment Alessia made a move so did she. She tried to kick her, but Alessia blocked and pushed her back. She was able to get to her feet just in time to grab the Traci's hands in her own and push back, knocking her into a crate.

"Stop, we don't have to do this- you're injured!"

"You can't save me, human's don't care about broken machines."

The Traci found her strength, or maybe Alessia lost hers at those words, but still, she was shoved back into the wall, and hands were throwing her into a clothing rack. The shirts and pants, and hangers toppled over her, blocking her vision. Her ass was caught between the two bottom base bars, with her heels above her on the middle stabilizer bar. She scrambled to get the clothing off, and get up from the rack.

Now that she could see, the brown-haired Traci was rushing towards the garage exit, tailing after the blue haired Traci. Hank was rolling on the floor, but he quickly came to help Alessia up when he saw her.

"This is the most undignified moment of my career," she muttered as they ran towards the doors. Somehow, Connor and the red-haired Traci had gotten outside, and the other two girls were quickly following.

"Welcome to my whole life, Reed."

Both Traci's slipped over the edge of the garage, and Alessia could see Connor on the ground as they trailed after. The blue haired Traci had grabbed the hand of the red one and was pulling her away. Hank tried to stop them, but they pushed him into the wall. The brown-haired Traci was watching her, a hand on her stomach, and slowly backing away towards the alley way fence.

Alessia carefully climbed down, and slowly pulled her gun from her holster. Keeping her eyes locked with the Traci's, she placed it on the ground and pushed it away. Then she slowly stood with her hands raised in front of her.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

The Traci sighed and shook her head, now turning and running towards the fence. The other Traci's were after her, and so was Connor. Hank was shouting to keep them from running, but Alessia was more focused on how the three girls were protecting each other. The ground was icy- not by much- enough to make her think twice about running, and to be awed by how efficiently the girls moved in the Eden Club provided heels.

As the girls climbed the fence, Connor managed to grab the blue-haired one and pull her down, prompting the other two to go after him. A quick fight resulted in all four being thrown around and ended with the brown and blue haired Traci's helping each other up, and Connor hitting the ground next to Alessia's gun. He grabbed it and rolled to his knees, aiming at the red-haired Traci as she ran towards him.

Alessia felt panic bubble inside and shouted, "Connor, don't!"

Whether he listened to her as an order or not, the gun immediately lowered, and he was kicked down by the Traci. She stood her ground above her and the blue-haired Traci walked up. Alessia rushed over to Connor, helping him stand but keeping one hand on his arm and another on his shoulder.

For the first time, the blue-haired Traci spoke, and the red-haired one walked up to hold her hand.

"When that man broke Terra. I knew I was next. I was so scared. I begged him to stop, but he wouldn't. And so I put my hands around his throat, and I squeezed until he stopped moving. I didn't mean to kill him. I just wanted to stay alive, get back to the one I love. I wanted her to hold me in her arms again, make me forget about the humans- their smell of sweat and their dirty words."

"Come on, let's go." The red-haired one beckoned and turned.

Alessia watched the three of them take off, helping the brown- helping Terra as she stumbled a bit, and then taking off around the corner, out of sight. Connor twitched, like he wanted to go after them, but Hank grabbed his other shoulder, grounding him.

"It's probably better this way."

Hank turned and walked back towards the club, but Alessia stared at where the girls were, and then at Connor. He was looking down, contemplated, before looking at her. He opened his mouth like he had something to say, but no words came out.

Alessia smiled, "He's right. I'm glad you didn't shoot. We know what happened now, that's the best we can do for this case. Let's go. It's getting colder by the minute."

As she turned back, Ben came rushing out, panting as he came up to them. "I heard the noise, what happened?"

Hank explained the deviants, and Ben looked shocked at the turn of events. "I thought something was off about that other one. I just thought it was broken like Reed said."

"Sorry?" She tilted her head.

"The other android in the murder victim's room- it walked out and said you had ordered it to return to the back room to await repairs when I stopped it. There was that blue blood dripping out of it's nose, I figured we'd grab it later. Looks like I was wrong."

Alessia glanced back down the alleyway, "I don't think any of us could have known. It makes sense though- the trauma she endured would have triggered it. Same as Ortiz's android."

"I'll put out an APB. It's been a long night, and you two weren't home longer enough for another shift. Get outta here and get some rest. You can make your reports later."

That was all the dismissal Hank needed, and he quickly left the other two behind. Alessia thanked Ben and followed after Hank- he was her ride still, and she wanted to talk to him. He was silent as the Traci's fought him and Connor, and he had said it was better for them to escape. Hank Anderson, the man who just that morning had shoved Connor against a wall for attempting to get him to work, had watched those girls with a soft look in his eye, and walked away.

She already knew everything she had been told about him was biased, but there was such a quick attitude change in him that she couldn't believe it. Maybe, just maybe, he was starting to see what she did. That maybe police procedural wasn't the answer, maybe taking them in would do more harm than good, maybe that there was something more to these deviants.

That maybe, they really were alive.