CHAPTER 1: GARDENER OF DETROID

 In the futuristic city of Detroid, Sarah Surfat worked as a detective, charged with investigating the latest threat to humanity: the rebellion of the machines.

Androids, once humanity's greatest achievement, were now rising against them. Cases were becoming increasingly more frequent. The reason? That's what Sarah had been trying to discover for months now.

"Three cases have been recorded in the past two weeks, with victims of androids," the news report says. "The government of Detroid advises all who possess androids to turn them off and-" Sarah turns off the television. The atmosphere in the police station is almost palpable.

 John, Sarah's best friend and colleague, comments sarcastically,

— "Looks like the thing has started to squeeze the government's pocket."

Sarah sighs and replies:

— "Don't even mention it...the whole city is scared."

— "Wonderful...the FBI will probably come and-" John is interrupted.

— "They'll probably come if things continue the way they are...just isolated cases that don't take us anywhere."

— "These things started killing almost at the same time...there must be something linking these cases together."

— "That's the problem, John. We don't know"

— "Doesn't seem like this can get better," the blonde says sarcastically when the door bell rings, signaling the arrival of someone at the police station.

— "Oh...who could that be?"

— "No matter who it is, it can't be good..." Sarah responds.

As they head to the front of the station, they are met with Lieutenant Hank.

— "Hank! Long time no see, man!"

 John says cheerfully as Sarah nods in agreement before continuing:

— "Hello, Lieutenant. It's good to see you in one piece... but what brings you here? Another androids case?"

Lieutenant Hank murmurs, taking a sip of his soda:

— "The whole department was refusing to take this case, so it's up to me."

— "And?" John asks.

— "I'm in a difficult situation... I've been working on this case for a few weeks and I haven't been able to make much progress."

—"Yeah... seems like we're all in the same boat..." Sarah comments.

— "I hate to say this... but I think I need your help. You're young and probably better equipped to handle this than I am on my own." Hank says, shrugging.

—"So, what's the case?" John asks.

— "This time the scrap was working as a gardener, killed the owner with a pruning scissors," Lieutenant replied.

— "And the android's body?" Sarah asked, and Hank responded.

— "It's been found and disarmed to be taken to the lab...it was pretty beaten up."

— "Beaten up? So...self-defense?" John questioned.

— "No. Based on the clues, it was revenge or something like that."

Lieutenant responded and Sarah asked.

—"A robot full of hate huh? I think I'd be that way if I were one." Sarah joked.

— "Let's get going with this... before the journalists arrive at the crime scene and make things worse than they already are." Hank gestured for the duo follow him to the car.

In the police car, the three were on their way to the crime scene. Hank was driving while listening to some old rock music on the radio, while Sarah was messing with her phone and John was talking.

— "A gardener, huh? So it seems like he really planted some hatred." The blonde jokes and Sarah sighs.

— "I've heard more humorous jokes about in-laws than that, man..." she remarks casually, observing Hank driving with the siren on and running every red light possible.

— "The body's not going to run, you know?" John asks, swallowing hard, and Lieutenant replies:

— "The sooner this is over, the better."

— "The body is still there? It could be useful..." Sarah murmured more to herself.

— "I wonder what they will do with the android after this is all over?" John questions

—"The android will be taken after our evaluation...it will probably be discarded." Hank replied while honking at other cars to get out of the way.

After arriving at the crime scene, the three got out of the car. Pushing their way through a crowd of curious eyes to enter the house. The house was located in the wealthy part of the city, the houses or rather mansions creating a beautiful and peaceful setting.

— "And lo and behold, the bitch has good taste..." John teased as he observed the outdoor decor, and Sarah answers after choking a little to hold in her laughter:

— "It's not time for jokes, idiot."

The interior of the mansion was mostly white with elegant décor, adorned with animal heads.

—"This guy must be involved in hunting..." Hank comments as he stares at the deer head.

—"These things are worth a fortune... this guy must be really rich since these things are practically extinct." Sarah adds.

— "My great-grandfather used to tell me stories of real animals like bears and giraffes... it's a shame 75% of the animals disappeared." John comments, looking at the bear head on the wall.

Going through the spacious corridors, in the second-to-last door, they enter the bedroom where the victim's body lies.

— "Jack Marks. 58 years old and worked as a neurosurgeon." John commented, reading the files provided by the forensics team with a more serious tone now that he was actually working on the case.

The body was half-sitting on the bed, its bluish-grey skin, the pruning scissors lodged in its chest. The sheets covering half of the obese man's body.

— "Hmph...the android doesn't seem to have gone easy on him..." Lieutenant teases, and John adds:

— "He did leave the gun close at hand...it was as if he knew this could happen." Sarah points out, gesturing to the shotgun leaning against the bed. — "Well, we'll take some photos of the evidence and then head to the lab to check out the android's body."

With the investigation, three photos were taken: the first of the man's body with the scissors embedded; the second in the basement, where the gardening tools were kept, where the scissors and insecticide were missing; the third showed the faucet, which after taking the photo was still open, flooding the floor a little.

— "Ugh...that water bill's gonna be killer." Sarah jokes, and shrugs her shoulders. — "That's definitely something John would say."

Returning to the car where the two others were waiting, Lieutenant comments:

— "The scrap is already waiting for us at the lab."

The laboratory was full of white and blue walls, robot cleaners and machines scattered throughout the place. While Sarah and Hank signed in to enter, John poked one of the janitor robots.

— "Ah, what a cute robot...I'd have one of those..."

— "For what? To have it kill you with a broom up your ass?"

Sarah jokes, and Lieutenant adds:

—"I bet this bastard would probably enjoy it."

In the autopsy room, the body of the android lay desactivated. The body showed damage and various signs of the owner's aggressive behavior towards the android. Hours of analyzing the android's memory chip revealed the following information:

There was an argument about a broken plate while the android was doing the dishes.

— "That explains the kitchen sink being on." Sarah commented.

— "But this type of android was meant for gardening; how did this guy get the robot to wash dishes?"

John questioned, confused, and Lieutenant mumbled:

—"Maybe the guy liked some enslavement or something..."

The Lieutenant teased, and a scientist from cyberlife commented:

— "This model shouldn't be able to do this. It is not part of the robot's programming to do this, but our systems did not detect anything wrong in his program..."

— "Well, continue the recording..." Sarah gestures to the screen when the image of the android appears again, taking the pruning scissors and killing the owner while he slept, causing John to shrink a little while watching the scene.

— "It's almost like this thing could have emotions..." Sarah comments only to be cut off by John.

— "We haven't really gotten anything useful here! Nothing that connects or explains how the hell a robot can act like it has emotions!"

— "That's the problem with these deviant cases. They don't seem to have connections but they all started close to each other. Different models, different locations, different functions..." the Lieutenant said with an apathetic voice.

— "Perhaps some programming error makes them act violently under stress." A scientist from cyberlife commented.

— "But could this damn error be in all androids?" Hank questioned, and the scientist continued:

— "The only difference between models is their specialization...some things in their code is the same. But we don't know if that's the reason for the problem, we need more research."

— "But that's going to take goddamn forever..." Hank comments- "we still have new cases every day."

— "We'll try to be as fast as we can...I promise."

As everyone was leaving the room, Sarah looked over her shoulder and said:

—"You coming, John?"

— "You go on ahead...I need to look at something."

— "Okay… just don't do anything stupid."

After Sarah left, John looked at the androide's programming code on the computer screen through a wire directly connected to its head.

Letting out a sigh, John's expression became serious and he began to dig through the code.

— "If the system can't find it, I'll find it myself..." he said determinedly until he found something odd. John looked at the screen seriously and said:

—"Bingo…"

Searching through the code a bit more, he finds the following:

"Input State:

• MIE SIM CARD: Connected"

— "MIE? What the hell is that…" the blonde grumbled and continued- "This shouldn't be here, right?"

 He looks at the bed where the android lies deactivated and thinks to himself "If I question the scientists at Cyberlife, they might try to cover up what this SIM card really is..."

John stands up from the chair and walks to the body of the androide, trying to access the main wires that are located on the head.

"How the hell am I supposed to open this up?" - He huffs- "Screw it"

Using good old brute force, he rips open the android's head by pulling its hair at once, several wires popping out. Among the wires, a pulsating red chip, he carefully removes the device and puts it in his pocket.

Without bothering to try and "fix" the android again. Returning to the car, Lieutenant says:

— "What the hell were you doing? You took your damn time."

— "I went to check out the androide's codes..." he responded

— "I thought the scientists said they haven't found anything wrong there..." Sarah commented.

— "And do you really trust those guys? I think they might be trying to cover up these cases for us!" John said rubbing his forehead, and Sarah commented:

— "It makes sense... any kind of penalty or multimillion dollar fine will be given to them only when the case is solved... so it makes sense they'd want to slow us down..."

— "But what did you find anyway?"

Hank grumbled and John responded:

— "Something about a SIM card called 'MIE'"

— "Seriously? It's impossible those sons of bitches didn't have seen this SIM card."

Hank said and John continued:

— "We need to show this and-" Sarah cuts him off.

— "No! Are you crazy?! We need more proof and a complete job, or it'll be us who'll be screwed!"

— "Yeah... you're right." John agreed.

— "And I'm not gonna pay a multimillion dollar fine... I'm already deep enough in shit." Hank said, agreeing too.

— "But what do we do now?" John asked and Sarah responded.

— "We're gonna analyze the codes of this thing on the police station's computer and see what the hell is up with this thing."

When they arrived at the police station, Sarah and John ran to the office to connect the SIM card , and Hank was walking calmly behind them.

When the computer was turned on, messages started appearing on the screen in encrypted characters.

— "God damnit... what is this..." Hank said and Sarah responded:

— "They definitely didn't want to make our job easy... encryption."

— "We won't be able to get access without the key..." John sighed and Hank said:

— "Well, all we can do for now is analyze the next cases and investigate more to get a lead on what this key is... there have to be other androids with this thing stuck in their heads."

— "I hate to say it, but it looks like we have to leave the case as unresolved for now..." Sarah said, defeated.

After Sarah spoke, the walkie-talkie beeped:

— "Copy that... copy that."

Sarah and John straightened up and Sarah said into the walkie-talkie:

— "I'm listening."

— "Perfect... new case in the area. The owner reports aggression for unknown reasons. After a hand-to-hand fight, the android fled. Find him before he kills any more people."

On the desk panel, a hologram shows the area where the android was last seen.

— "Ah... that thing is near Jimmy's bar..." John commented, and Hank said as he crossed his arms. — "Perfect, we'll pick up the scrap and have a few drinks afterward... sounds like the perfect plan to me."

Sarah sighs and rolls her eyes, then turns her attention back to the voice on the walkie talkie.

— "We'll be there in a few seconds."

Sarah confirmed before starting to walk out of the police station once again.

— "I'll drive..." -Hank mumbled as he grabbed the keys.

— "What? Why?" -Sarah questioned, and Hank responded:

— "I know that place like the back of my hand."

John swallows and says:

— "Goddamn... need to tighten my seatbelt even more this time..."

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