It's Not in My Programming

One: Different.

finally, he had asked hank for a bike, which seemed to work well enough. only twenty-three minutes to travel to jericho if he went fast enough. he could do it this afternoon, while hank kept himself busy watching the game or binge-drinking.

"why's your LED yellow, con?" hank interrupted his escape plan.

"oh, nothing. i was just browsing the internet." he lied. he's been getting better at that since becoming deviant. "i think i'm going to go for a bike ride tonight."

"what for?"

"does it matter?" connor snapped at him, tired of the nosiness. hank glared at him, and connor saw a little red arrow go down in the upper right corner of his interface. oops.

"is it so wrong for a man to care about his- never mind, forget i asked about anything. have fun biking to wherever the fuck it is that you need to go." he huffed and went back to his bedroom, slamming the door shut similarly to connor slamming the car door. if anything, connor should be the one to get upset right now. why is hank angry that connor is a free android who can make his own choices?

with one last pat on sumo's head, connor storms outside and climbs onto his new blue bike with a bell and a reflective light on the back of the seat. he pulls up the GPS tracking system into his interface and follows the route that he practically already knows by heart. once he gets to jericho, he locks up his bike outside of the new HQ that replaced an old cyberlife factory.

"i'm here to see markus?" he asks the receptionist at the desk, a female AX400 model named kara.

"oh, i'm sorry but he's busy in a meeting." she says, without so much as looking up from the computer in front of her. why does she even need a computer?

connor grunts in frustration and looks around desperately, wasting nearly half an hour and getting in a fight with hank just to be here.

"do you know when he'll be free?"

"no, i don't. you can have a seat and i'll let him know you're looking for him."

connor sighs and sits down on a long bench in the waiting room, nervously looking around. how long is he willing to wait? he doesn't want to seem annoying, and he wouldn't want markus to think that he's that desperate just to get a fifteen minute visit.

connor? what are you doing here?

the detective android nearly jumped out of his seat when he received the voice message from markus, but he wasted no time in replying.

just here to see my good friend, markus. are you too busy or should i just go home?

no please, come up to my office. i'm just finishing some work.

with a pleased smile, connor walked past the receptionist and over to the elevator.

this floor, the lobby, is plainly decorated. it has beige walls and simple paintings, with plants in the corners and shelves with magazines, the paper kind. things don't start looking alive until the second, third, and fourth floors, where the android apartments are. these are strictly human-free, and it's a place where androids are truly free to be themselves without the judgement and ridicule of others. there's murals on the walls, posters, statues, and whatever else the residents on that floor decided to use to decorate the place. honestly, connor would live here too if it weren't for the fact that he enjoys living with hank quite a lot.

after the residence floors, there's the fifth floor, where the walls go back to beige. humans are allowed on this specific floor, unfortunately. this is where the offices are, including markus'. on a normal visit, connor would just see himself up to markus' apartment without even looking at the receptionist, but markus requested that he ask the receptionist first before visiting on a work day which was. okay.