Chapter 8

The hospital doors slid open for Drucker and Doug to escape from out of the pouring rain. They patted down their drenched overcoats after the hurried sprint from their car in the parking lot. A faint scent of disinfectant pervaded their nostrils as they made their way to the receptionist front desk. An enthusiastic and bright-eyed young girl in her early twenties greeted them from behind the spotless white table. “What can I do for you two gentlemen?” she asked flirtatiously as Doug manoeuvred himself just in front of Drucker.

“We’re here from downtown and looking for a Mrs. Collimore. You wouldn’t happen to know in what ward she is, would you?” He proceeded to pull a faded leather wallet from out of his long grey trench coat pocket and flipped it open for her, displaying a silver police badge for identification. She squinted at it closely for inspection before breaking out into a radiant smile. “That’s fine gentlemen. You see that elevator on the left down the corridor?” She gestured with a small index finger indicating its general direction. “Just hop on into that and she’ll be on the fourth floor in the “Charles” ward.” Doug looked at her inquisitively. “Any specific room number or location in the ward exactly?” She examined a sheet of A4 paper on a lower desk that was just out of Doug’s line of sight. “Sure, that’ll be Room 9, but trust me, guys. You’ll know where she is when you get up there.”

Doug leaned in closer pressing his rather large belly against the edge of the desk and studied her name tag. “Well, thank you for your assistance, Miss. Wright. It's indeed been a real pleasure.” She smiled again, albeit with an added hint of discomfort behind it. After giving him a warm genial nod, they both departed for the elevator. Drucker huddled up to Doug. “Thanks for the show back there. Aren't you a little surprised she didn’t sprawl right into your arms and declare undying love for having found the man of her dreams. Strange, don’t you think?” Doug raised an eyebrow and shot him a snide glance. "Is that a whiff of jealousy I detect there? You know just a few more minutes and her phone number would be sitting snugly tucked up in my back pocket now.”

They arrived at the lift and Drucker pushed the button repeatedly to call it down. “I'm not trying to hurt your feelings or anything, but have you looked in the mirror lately? A gut like that must have taken years to sculpt and that’s pretty much your best asset. If you were trying to win the "Creep of the Year" award, I'd say you pretty much put in your best performance yet.” Doug pulled a bemused face that broke Drucker into a fit of laughter. “Well, you laugh for now. At least I ain’t tied down to anyone like a certain someone we both know. I’m basically a free agent and the world is my oyster. You just wait and see the little number I’m gonna snag myself when no one’s looking. Just watch this space, my friend. Anyways, you should be more concerned about getting all the information you can as Capt. Wallace has really thrown you in the deep end with this one.” A tinny chime sounded and the elevator doors opened silently.

The tiny cubicle was empty so they took their places at opposite ends. Drucker sighed deeply. “Yeah, Doug. I hear you. Maybe this is like some sort of test or something? You know, to see how well I cope under pressure and all.” Doug punched a short stubby finger into the large, circular “4” on the metallic panelling. “No way, Druck. Wallace is as intelligent and on point as they come. He knows how sensitive this case is. He wouldn’t put you on this just to see if you make the grade or not. He must really believe in you or would have referred it to another local department. In fact, I can imagine his neck being on the line just as much as yours.” Drucker stood uneasily as he took a moment to ponder that thought. “Yeah, don’t mince with words, why don’t you.” he said nervously. “I’m just saying, that’s all.” Doug replied passionately. “This is the lucky break you’ve been waiting for all this time. Make the most out of it and if everything goes well, it’ll turn out to be one of the best career moves you could have ever dreamed of. Think about that.” Drucker loved the way Doug could just defuse his mode of panic with just a few simple words of encouragement and advice. Life just wouldn’t be the same without him, he thought. “I appreciate you saying that, man. Though this gig hasn’t been officially finalised yet. I classify this as just ground work in case I get it. I’m just thankful that Wallace let you partner up with me today. Hard to believe all this started just a few hours ago?”

“Which part?” Doug asked. “You getting a shot at a straight-A case or the abduction of a child by a synthetic?” The doors parted slowly as they both stepped out into pure bedlam. A small crowd of reporters had clustered in front of a frustrated hospital security guard. A clamour of voices and camera clicks spilled out from the compressed gathering as both police officers strategically squeezed their way through the mass of activity. A cluster of elbows and clammy hands scraped and prodded at them however they eventually found the guard fighting them off by the door. “She in there?” Drucker yelled above the din. “Yes! Go on in!” he said, diligently fending off the hungry clan. Doug heaved himself red faced through a narrow gap in the wall of people. He was about to turn around to give them all a piece of his mind, but Drucker beckoned to him hastily. “Wallace said it would be like this. Said not to get involved. Told me he was sending a few of the guys over to handle it. Should be here any minute now.” They pushed the door open and barged their way through. Doug shut it firmly behind them, reducing the noise in the corridor to nothing more than a muffled hum.

Mrs. Collimore lay on a hospital bed tucked up against the centre of the far side wall. An ECG monitor flickered away noiselessly attached to an iron pole with wires streaming from it. She had a forearm wrapped in a white plaster cast and one of her legs was suspended in mid-air, confined in a metal stirrup. “Mrs. Collimore, I’m Detective Conway Drucker, this is my assistant Doug Drayfort. We have some questions in regards to…”

“Well, about goddamn time! This happened in the morning and now six hours later you finally turn up to take a statement. Is this a fucking joke? I mean, it’s only a case of my child being kidnapped, that’s all!” She scowled furiously at the two men. Doug circled round to her left and attempted to offer her some reassurance. “I do apologise for that, Mrs. Collimore. It’s been absolute chaos down at the precinct since the attack. Add to that the numerous other minor casualties that we’ve been inundated with plus the witness statements and…” Drucker thought it wise to interject before Doug jammed his foot even further up his own ass.

“Mrs. Collimore, I do understand your anger and we are sincerely sorry for taking so long to arrive here but any continued delays will mean more time wasted which would be better spent searching for your son, I'm sure you'd agree. So please may we take down your personal statement of how things transpired earlier?” He pulled up a chair resting by the bedside table and drew out a small notepad and pen. She started quietening down as he flicked open its cover. A quick press of the tiny button located at the side of the pen's clip activated the internal audio recorder. He motioned her in the politest possible manner to begin. Still looking daggers at him, she thought it best to comply with the detective and did her utmost to compose herself back to a focused state.

“Fine, Mr.?” she asked with a newfound calm. “Drucker, Mrs. Collimore.” he replied softly, pen at the ready. Doug continued to stand where he was, listening in attentively. “Well, you probably already know this but my full name is Mrs. Jane Patrick Collimore. My boy is called Nathan and he’s only 3 years old. We were out on our regular morning trek to Nightingale Elementary, which is his local kindergarten just round the corner from where we live. As is our usual weekday routine, we were going to make a stopover at Beanz café.” Drucker sporadically jotted down notes whilst urging her to carry on with a friendly nod every so often. “This is where things kind of mesh into a blur.” Not the exact response he was hoping for, but nonetheless went with it.

“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!”

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Hope you enjoyed this chapter of my novel, please look out for more on the way... (author: @ezzy)

The Symbiotic Protocol - Prologue
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 1
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 2
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 3
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 4
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 5
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 6
The Symbiotic Protocol - Chapter 7