Episode Eleven: Magnus had managed to once again find himself on the receiving end of a trigger, however no bullet was involved this time. As Veronica made it clear she didn’t want to be followed, she got to know our detective a little better. After she leaves Magnus tied to a chair, he struggles to escape but eventually manages to break free. Upon inspection of his office, he finds some nanites that have been drained leading him to more suspicion. As he makes a call to the morgue to make an appointment, he is informed the doctor is under investigation as the body of the other Miss Radlem has apparently up and walked away. Hope you enjoy the twelfth episode of Unbiased Law (or back to Episode One or Episode Eleven)!

I arrived at the police station and not a moment too soon. Everyone was crowded out front, from protesters to reporters. How does a dead human end up getting up and walking away? As I entered through the back door, I found the doctor leaning against a wall. “Doc, what the hell’s going on? Dead girls don’t walk, do they?” The doctor looked up relieved to see me, but he couldn’t help but shake his head. “Definitely the first corpse I’ve ever misdiagnosed. It seems the odds are stacking against us droids. As we make more mistakes the humans make more protests. Soon I’ll be lucky if I can manage to get a job waiting tables.” I definitely knew what he was feeling. Luckily my past as a human meant I would get careful consideration should things fall through with public servant robots.

“So Doc, what happened, I need all the details.” As I listened quietly to what the Doc had to say he painted a very interesting picture. Apparently he was in the morgue when he heard some movement, upon closer inspection the drawer where they had Miss Radlem was where it had come from. When he opened it up, he found her motionless and thought he was losing his mind. When he went to close the drawer however, she thrust her arm out and stopped the drawer from closing. For the first time ever, the Doctor understood the human emotion of fear. She knocked him over and rushed from the morgue, toe tag dangling along behind her. The Doctor has been unnerved by the whole thing, if a robot could be such a thing.

After leaving the Doc to reflect upon his experience, I walked back out the back door. I was also unnerved. What could this mean? She was declared as a human when the Doctor had done his investigation. But when I met Veronica, she was very much human. However human’s don’t come back to life, so the one who escaped the morgue must have been the robot, but the doctor couldn’t have misdiagnosed. My mind was extremely tangled in this mysterious web of ridiculousness. Maybe the Veronica I met was the robot, which would explain the nanites. Oh man, now I  know what Alice felt like going down the rabbit hole. Suddenly a call comes through over my wireless capabilities. “Yes, Magnus here, who has this code?” The line was silent. A loud crackling came across and then silence again. “Hello, is anyone there? Hello!” A voice came across so sweet sounding it took me back to the first day I met Veronica. “I heard you’re the man to talk to about solving crimes. Meet me at Swinger’s Cafe across town. Far back booth, be there by five or I won’t be.”

I flagged down a cab, wishing Veronica would have been nice enough to leave me my car, but I suppose she left me with my life. Can’t get too greedy now. The cab ride over to Swinger’s Cafe is long and riddled with traffic. I grip the edge of my seat hoping I’ll make it in time. Finally the cab pulls up and I rush into the cafe, one minute to five, and I can see a figure in a rather wide brimmed hat getting up to leave from the back booth. I rush up and introduce myself, not giving her a chance to disagree. “Look, I’m really sorry, there was traffic, my cab driver was ninety years old and he didn’t know where it was. I’m Magnus by the way.” The lady looked me up and down. “I don’t know who you are, but I don’t care either. She turned up her nose and walked past, leaving me confused and leaning against a table. Suddenly the sweet sounding voice came from behind me. “Hey hot shot, not that booth, this one. As I turned to see the girl who called me, I noticed two things that were all too familiar and one that was different. I saw a shiny new set of robot legs beneath a long skirt, and then I saw a match to Veronica’s face and also a hand cannon to match. Nice to see those guns run in the family.

Hope everyone enjoyed today’s episode, it has been fun writing these and even more fun rereading them. I would love to hear feedback on how the story is going and favourite moments now that we’ve reached ten episodes! Thanks!

Episode Ten: When we left Magnus last time he had returned to his office after investigating the Radlem Residence. As he arrived, he found that his car was parked in the alley out back, meaning one of two things: Veronica had returned it, or she was in his office while he was in her house. After entering, he didn’t find her anywhere inside the office. She found him however, and stunned him. Magnus woke up tied to a chair with a familiar hand cannon in his face once again and began trying to talk to Veronica. Lucky for Magnus his detective skills have kept him alive longer than he expected, and long enough to uncover the truth about Veronica’s mother. (or back to Episode One or Episode Ten)

The hand cannon quivered as Veronica squeezed the trigger. I knew this outcome was a possibility, but I guess I was hopeful. Then I realized that I wasn’t dead. Veronica looked at me, and then at the gun. “It seems I’m out of bullets, fate just seems to be on your side.” I sat anxiously awaiting what would happen next. “So I get to live?” She looked at her gun with disgust. “For today.” Veronica pulled a chair up in front of me. “You really think my father would do such a thing?” I nodded in agreement, knowing I was pushing my luck here. “It’s the only way you could have been completely cured.” She leaned back on the chair, and her beauty almost made me forget what she had done to me already. Almost.

We sat staring at each other for a little while and suddenly she smiled. It was a gorgeous smile, yet it frightened the hell out of me. “Tell me about yourself Inspector Gadget.” I looked around, obviously confused by the reference. “Well, I used to be on the police force, I trained and programmed many of the droids still working there today.” I suddenly felt like I couldn’t stop the words from coming out, maybe it was her beauty, or maybe I just wanted to talk to someone. Either way, I told her everything. From me originally being human to my issues adapting to becoming a robot and beyond, just everything. As we sat there she looked me up and down. “I’m impressed Magnus. You’ve done pretty well for yourself.” She looked down at the gun in her hands. “Sorry about that, it wasn’t personal.” Suddenly I felt like things were turning around between Veronica and I. “I know you had your reasons. But I’m on the case against the judge now, hopefully I can clear him as he was…” My mind flashes back to the video of her walking past the judge. “…in desperate need of an upgrade.”

Veronica looks at me almost knowing what I was about to say. “Well I should probably go then. You live today, but know something. I’m tracking you, so now I can find you and kill you whenever I want. So if you end up near my house again, I will hunt you down.” As she stood up, she leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Maybe in another life, we could have been friends… or better.” As I watch her leave I realize I’m falling for the girl. She’s already killed me, and I’m falling for her. What a ridiculous emotion love is, why couldn’t that be something my brain just forgot about? As the door slams shut behind her, I realize she has left me tied to a chair. How to get out of this one? The knot on my hands is just below my grease valve, I could always open that. But I’d ruin the carpet. Some days I wish this place wasn’t mine at all.

After a lengthy fight with some rather frustrating knots I manage to get free and get myself off the floor and out from under the table. I’ll spare the details in saying, that was not my most graceful of moments. As I survey the damage, my desk is on it’s side, a bookshelf has been tipped over and I’ve broken pretty much anything that was glass in my main office. Not too shabby. However while I’m still looking around something catches my eye. A small pile of drained nanites lays on the floor, close to the chair where Veronica was sitting. I scoop them up and toss them into a nanite reader. As they begin to recharge the data within them shows they have been formatted to rebuild tissue. Nothing I didn’t know already. As I scan the rest of the data nothing really important jumps out at me. Only strange thing is why these nanites are here if she is completely human? Maybe she’s still not completely cured, but drained nanites only come from robots. Maybe they were from her sister?

Suddenly I get the feeling that these nanites have a much larger story to tell and so does Veronica’s organ donor sister. I call the police station and get them to re-examine the body. Something isn’t adding up. I had never heard of nanites jumping host before, but where the sisters were so connected I suppose it would be possible that some could have transferred during a surgery. Doctors are normally extremely careful in those cases, but if her father was the one administering the surgery then it is again a distinct possibility. Finally the police station picks up and I ask for the morgue. They patch me through and I realize I’m talking with a regular officer. “Hi, Magnus here. Where’s the doctor?” The droid on the other end says something I couldn’t have predicted in years. “The doctor is under investigation, Radlem’s daughter’s body has apparently up and walked away.”

Hope everyone enjoyed today’s episode, it has been fun writing these and even more fun rereading them. I would love to hear feedback on how the story is going and favourite moments now that we’ve reached ten episodes! Thanks!