5
638 Words
5
Karen hadn’t intended to reveal the truth about Coppélia so soon, but her hand had been forced by the incident at Dr Russell’s apartment building. No human being could have ripped off an android’s leg one-handed. The whole team had a good idea of what their boss was going to say and they were glad to at last be part of the loop. They realised that Rachel already knew – she’d been with the D.I. when she and Coppélia first showed up at the office and had gone straight into Karen’s office with the two of them.
Toby wasn’t surprised when Luke slid his chair across alongside him, resigned to the fact that he was about to receive the full payload of Luke’s theories.
“Toby.”
“Yes, Luke.”
“She’s a droid isn’t she?”
“Looks like it, Luke.”
“I mean, no human can rip a security-bot’s leg off one-handed. Not even Georgina, and she’s a black belt.”
“I suppose so.”
Luke had got halfway back to his own desk when he suddenly reversed direction and appeared alongside the Detective Sergeant again.
“She’s not a normal android though, is she?”
“I doubt it.”
“I mean, cleaner-bots, security-bots, they don’t look like her. They don’t, do they?”
Toby knew what was coming, but there was no point in trying to deter Luke from saying it. He knew the way Luke’s mind worked.
“No, they don’t normally look like her.”
Luke seemed very pleased with himself.
“She’s smoking hot, and there’s only one kind of droid where looks matter. She’s a s*x-bot, isn’t she?”
“Probably, Luke. Probably.”
Karen, Rachel, and Coppélia had been ensconced in the D.I.’s office for twenty minutes. Suddenly the door opened and the three of them came out and stood before the rest of the team. Now was the moment of truth. Karen cleared her throat.
“As you’ve probably guessed, Coppélia isn’t a journalist.”
Adam grinned.
“Yeah. Well, ripping that Charles’s leg off must have been a bit of a dead giveaway, ma’am. I only wish I’d seen it.”
Luke laughed.
“You missed a treat. She was awesome.”
Karen continued.
“Anyway. The truth is that Coppélia is actually a gynoid.”
Luke, who was still next to Toby nudged the D.S. with his elbow.
“Told you. Had to be, looking like that. She’s a s*x-bot.”
He’d tried to whisper, but Karen had excellent hearing.
“That’ll be enough, Luke.”
Luke slid back to his own desk.
“Sorry, ma’am.”
Karen continued.
“But, she isn’t your common or garden android. She’s a prototype. Very different from the G21 models that we’re used to.”
Amelia raised a hand.
“In what way, ma’am?”
“Well, she seems to be made of much tougher materials than regular androids and is obviously much stronger physically. But it goes much further than that. I know it sounds crazy, but Coppélia appears to feel things. She seems to be able to make choices, but not as a result of any predetermined program. She’s making her own choices.”
A murmur travelled around the room.
“Rachel and I were asked to interview a potential r**e victim at NewMet City SVU. One of their D.I.s wasn’t convinced that the alleged victim was human, so he asked us to go over there and check her out – which we did. To our surprise, we ascertained that Coppélia was indeed an android.”
Karen knew that Rachel wouldn’t mind her glossing over the exact details of the confirmation.
Toby was concerned about practicalities.
“Two questions ma’am. Why have we not returned her to her owner, and what are we going to do with her?”
“We don’t know who exactly she belongs to.”
“Have we any leads, ma’am?”
Understandably, Toby had assumed that an investigation into Coppélia’s ownership was already underway. He imagined that that was what the conversations between Karen and Rachel had been about. Karen saw no reason to let him think otherwise.
“Nope. Nothing useful yet.”
“So what’s going to happen to her?”
Karen glanced at Coppélia, who seemed disinterested in what was going on. She trusted the Detective Inspector.
“I haven’t decided yet. But, it’s got to be right for Coppélia too.”
- Writer
