SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

four ━ hostile and tense

Trauma related to loss would explain some of his erratic behaviour, Connor blinked that note into his analysis before moving on to scanning the rest of the desk.

From the empty cigarette packs to the clear lack of order between his past files spanning back months, the scan gave him some superficial details on the man. It was a start to the profiling, a solid start.

Finally, with nothing else to scan, he started reading the brief report he was given.

Far and away from her own desk, Mia has been fighting through an abundance of distractions the urge of monitoring around the clock Connor's system reports still getting filed at a rapid rate even though, according to the clock, he was supposed to be dismissed by Officer Owens in less than an hour.

Deep down, she knew she was supposed to be rejoicing, not worrying. The upgrade installed was working seemingly wonderful in integrating Connor faster in the work environment at the police station. That was, objectively, a reason to celebrate, not to develop some sort of compulsive attachment to refreshing her terminal for updates on his system status, an obsession that not even setting up the entirety of the lab and finishing unpacking could apparently quench.

She was tired, but buzzing nonetheless, a weird state of in-between that threw her off.

This sort of restlessness was new to her.

Connor had undergone tests before, at the tower lab, but none of them made Mia this nervous. She's always been confident about his capabilities. In fact, she failed to recall exactly but she was pretty certain not even her own life's most important exams made her hands tremble as much as waiting for a clear field report on how her update on Connor's protocols was behaving.

Eventually it even became undeniable that this situation, given how unsuccessful her attempts at distracting herself turned out to be in the end, was nothing but another case of human error, one that called her a spineless and disgusting hypocrite while at it too — telling him to his face that she had faith in him, but then also sitting around, reading reports the second they came in, just to make sure.

Make sure of what? She asked herself the toughest question as she leant over the kitchen counter, a second cup of coffee under her nose. She was yet to commit to it, for this early evening, that cup of coffee might mean skipping on a good bunch of sleeping hours too.

Was she worried Connor would fail from the faults of the 'human element', wherever that may arise from? Or was she concerned of how failure would feel so early in the project's trial period, especially when the blame would fall solely on her?

Too many thoughts bombarded her at the same time from too many angles. Mia lifted the coffee cup to her lips and gulped down in a desperate attempt to calm herself over half of it in just that single swing. If she had to be stressed and agitated, she wanted to be the one orchestrating that disaster and pulling the strings to it.

She would have drank it all in one go most likely, had it not been for the knock on the front door interrupting her. Reaching out across the counter, she swiped right on the screen connected to the wall and to the sensors installed on the scanner outside.

Android, Mia's eyebrows furrowed down as she read what the data had detected. "Did I fuck up Connor's code enough for him to forget how to open doors now?" She mumbled under her breath, a nervous laughter wanting to get past her lips but stiffening up in her chest instead, as some sort of heavy stone. Another series of knocks banged on the door. "I'm coming, I'm coming," she shouted, shutting off the screen.

Connor looked out the window of Officer Owens' car.

"You sure this is the place?" Jackson inquired, a yawn waiting to happen somewhere behind his heavy tone.