The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 16 (An Original Novella)
“I remember people suddenly starting to scream and the traffic on the street screech to a halt. They all started looking up into the air. So of course I did the same, only to see what looked like a person almost abseiling down the side of the building opposite, the Concenco hotel, I believe. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. When I opened them again, the figure had lurched off the building face and hurtled across the street, crashing into a shop window. A large crowd had already started gathering by this point.” Both men could see she was getting visibly shaken recounting the facts to them, but she proceeded. “I started panicking and clutching on to Nathan, not knowing what to do next. Before I could get my bearings, I looked over and saw people being flung either side of the crowd as if something was smashing their way through them. Think of the parting of the Red Sea. Next thing I know, a synthetic wearing a hooded grey track suit bursts through at a ridiculous speed. Straight at me. People were lying injured on the floor like something out of a war movie.” Tears started streaking down her pale white skin. Drucker held a hand up stopping her in mid-conversation and grabbed some tissues from the box on the bedside table. “Mrs. Collimore, if you need a minute…”
“No!” she shouted, agitated and pained. He delicately laid them next to her and sat back down. ”Let’s just get this out of the way once and for all! I’m not going to relive this nightmare over and over again by constantly repeating it to you people! You asked for the facts, so here I am giving them to you. Can I finish now without any more interruptions?” Understanding only full well how she must be feeling and privately wanting to get this wrapped up himself too, Drucker allowed her to continue.
“So, as I was saying. This synthetic comes running toward me. Before you ask, I couldn’t tell if it was a male or female. I mean, they all look the same if you strip them down to their bare nuts and bolts so I'm referring to their gender very loosely indeed. But no, with the hood pulled down tightly over it’s head, I just couldn’t tell. So anyways, I clung on to Nathan for dear life and shut my eyes, only to feel a tremendous force wrench me away from him and send me crashing into a car door. Obviously, I didn’t know what it was I slammed into at the time as I blackout from that point on. Now I’m here with a broken arm, shattered hip and covered in all shades of bruising everywhere else. That’s my whole day so far in a nutshell for you, Mr. Drucker.
Before Drucker had a chance to speak, Doug beat him to it. “We’ll do all we can to find your little boy, Mrs. Collimore. But if I may ask again, are you sure you can't remember any other information that may help us out here? I mean, a bit of hair colour under the synthetic’ s hood. A certain scent coming off of the synthetic of some kind. The shoes it was wearing. Anything at all even if you think it may be a triviality.” She wiped away roughly at the last few traces of tears from her face. “No, I can’t. Again, it just happened so fast. In fact, I knew something like this would happen. Those filthy robotic monstrosities parading around our streets pretending to be one of us. This situation was always a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and my little baby and I got caught right in the middle of it. How in the hell was one of those things able to gain such speed and strength anyways? I thought they were all limited by some chip or something. What the hell are those stupid politicians doing all day? Why can't they just introduce a law to decomission or destroy each and every one of them and make things go back to the way they were?"
Before she reverted back to her previous raging temperament, Jane inhaled a deep breath of air and let the pent up emotions come flooding out. "Look, I’m sorry I got so worked up but I just need some time to regroup and piece together all the day’s events. My mind and body are a wreck right now as you can clearly see and I just can’t think straight, but I assure you the statements I gave are exactly how I saw it. That I am certain of.”
Drucker got up and looked across the bed at Doug who he could tell just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. “Thank you for your time and patience, Mrs. Collimore. You’ve been most helpful to us and as soon as we know anything or have an update of some sort, you’ll be the first to know. Also if you…” She finished the sentence for him. “Recall any new information, to let you know immediately. What do you think? Of course I'll do that, Mr. Drucker.” With that, she closed her eyes and laid her head to one side. The hint could not have been more direct. He signalled over to Doug as they made their way to the door. Upon opening it, the noisy group of paparazzi had been dispersed and two fellow cops who they didn’t recognise stood either side of them. “Det. Drucker… Mr. Drayfort.” they said in unison.
On their way down the brightly lit corridor, a female synthetic nurse dressed in the usual white hospital attire passed them by, giving a strange fleeting glance before rushing off into a nearby room. Drucker looked back at her as the door closed shut. “Tensions are certainly running at an all-time high, eh?” Doug said disapprovingly. “Yes, my friend, that’s for sure. Things look like they are gonna get a whole lot worse too. This is just the beginning.” replied Drucker. “The synthetic population know the damage this is going to do in terms of race relations. I mean, you got one political party calling for the leash to be tightened on them all and you got the other party pushing for equality, freedom and liberation of the machines. I’d say after today events, it’s gonna add a brand new set of shackles upon “Freewill”. To think, they were making such progress and now all that’ll be undone by some unknown criminal-minded synth.” The elevator doors whooshed opened noiselessly as the men made their way in.
“What did you make of Mrs. Collimore back there?” Doug asked. “Well, she acted as I expected her to I suppose. Confused and frustrated. I mean, what else can you expect, right? Her child has been kidnapped by some psycho runaway Terminator-on-steroids, she was battered to the point of probably requiring surgery to even walk normally again and currently no one has a clue as to the whereabouts of Nathan. How would you react?” Doug shook his head with a look of concern. “How would I react? Well, a little bit more co-operatively at least. Wouldn’t you put your personal afflictions to one side and do all you could to actually find your missing son? I mean, if you had one that is. She gave us almost nothing to work with up there! Her outburst was kind of uncalled for if you ask me." He regarded Drucker, rubbing his chin in thought as if attempting to solve a particularly difficult riddle. “You don’t think... She could have been somehow been…”
“No, I damn well don’t, Doug.” he interrupted hurriedly. “The sooner you flush shit like that out of your brains, the sooner we can move forward with this case.” Though for a brief moment back there, he had already entertained that exact same notion. “Well, as we were saying Druck, it’s not quite your case yet, officially anyways. You’re still only labouring under assumptions for now.” retorted Doug. “Oh really? The captain has all this spare time on his hands to allocate resources however he likes with all the craziness going on since this morning? Man, come on now. The very fact we are even standing here at this precise moment means it's a goer. So let’s start putting together some useful leads and actually try to solve this thing. Somebody must know something. It’s just a matter of time until we get it cracked.”
As they made their way out of the lift and toward the main door, the downpour had now ceased and several rays of sunshine trickled down from above. “See?” said Drucker smiling broadly. “Every cloud and all…” Doug stared at him with a suspicious smirk. “You know we haven’t got much to go on for now though. I mean, these things don’t even leave fingerprints, for Christ sake. Also how in the damn hell could a synthetic start throwing people through the air or scale down a building like it was goddamn Spider-man?”
“Don’t worry, Doug. The complexity in the challenge is where all the fun lies. Criminal synthetic, we’re coming to getcha!”
