"Jeez, I'm glad Connor gave me this jacket." You shivered in the back seat of your father's beat up old car. "It's freezing up here."
"Don't you have plenty of your own coats?" Your father hissed.
"Sure, but this one's better." You zipped up the jacket a little bit more to further drive home your point. "You could just get a car with functional heat you know."
"Connor doesn't mind that there's no heat. Do you?" He cast a brief glance in the andriod's direction before looking back at the road. The car was almost at the end of Kamski's snow-covered driveway.
"While I am not affected by temperature changes in my environment, I can certainly understand how the lack of a functional heating system would be uncomfortable for [Y/N]." Connor replied.
"I should have known it was only a matter of time before you two started to gang up on me." Hank sighed. "We're here. Leave the coat in the car will ya?"
"Absolutely not!" You argued immediately. "What if this guy is as cheap as you and doesn't have his heat on?"
"Will you just get out of the car then?" He snapped in frustration.
You and Connor followed your father up to Kamski's front door. Hank rang the doorbell and a blonde android answered. Introductions were made to the android did not question why you, a civilian, was along with two police personnel. Instead she greeted everyone warmly and ushered you all inside. After a brief wait, you were escorted into the next room. Kamski was swimming in a lap pool, joined by two more identical blonde androids.
"Guess androids haven't been a bad thing for everybody." Your father said, only loud enough for you and Connor to hear.
"Who gets blood red pool tiles?" You added just as quietly. Kamski padded his way over to a ladder and climbed out of the pool.
"What can I do for you and your partners, Lieutenant?" He asked while one of the blonde androids offered him a robe. Now it was clear to you why no one had questioned your presence. They all assumed that you were an android just like Connor. Your father had been right after all. All it took to be mistaken for an android was something as insignificant as a jacket.
"Sir, we're investigating deviants." Your father played into the ruse because it seemed easier than explaining himself. "I know you left Cyberlife years ago, but I was hoping you'd be able to tell us something we don't know."
"Deviants." Kamski repeated. "Fascinating, aren't they? Perfect beings with infinite intelligence and now they have free will. Machines are so superior to us, confrontation was inevitable. Humanity's greatest achievement threatens to be its downfall. Isn't it Ironic?"
"We need to understand how the androids become deviants." Connor clarified. You could tell from his expression that he was not amused by Kamski's reveling. "Do you know anything that could help us?"
"All ideas are virus that spread like epidemics. Is the desire to be free a contagious disease?" Kamski asked.
"Listen, I didn't come here to talk philosophy." Hank interjected impatiently. "The machines you created may be planning a revolution. Either you can tell us something that'll be helpful, or we will be on our way." Kamski scanned all three of your faces before setting his attention on Connor.
"What about you, Connor?" He pried, stepping towards him. "Who's side are you on?"
"It's not about me, Mr. Kamski." Connor replied defensively. "All I want is to solve this case."
"Well, that's what you're programed to say." Kamski chuckled. "But you. What do you really want?" You exchanged a glance with your father. As much as Kamski's badgering was making you uncomfortable, you were still curious how Connor would respond.
"What I want is not important." Connor explained.
"I'm sure you're all familiar with the Turning test. Mere formality." Kamski said now addressing all three of you. "Simple question of algorithms and computing capacity. What interests me is whether machines are capable of empathy. I call it the 'Kamski test' it's very simple you'll see..." He was now looking at you. Studying your face. Surveying you as if you were a prized antique up for auction. His attention made you uncomfortable. Connor made a subtle side step so that he was partially shielding you.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" Kamski continued, still looking right at you. "Perfect and beautiful forever. A flower that will never wither. But what is it really?" He looked away from you to ask your father. "A Piece of plastic imitating a human? Or a living being with a soul?"
Kamski turned his back to everyone to reach for something. He opened a drawer and removed an object. When he was facing you again, you realized the object was a gun. You stiffened at the sight of firearm. You weren't afraid of guns necessarily. Your dad had been a cop your whole life after all, but there was something about Kamski's demeaner that made him seem unpredictable. Connor took a very calculated half step in front of you for protection. Again, you and your father shared a concerned sideways glance.
"It's up to you to answer that fascinating question, Connor." Kamski handed Connor the gun. Connor looked down at the weapon, perplexed. "Destroy this machine and I'll tell you everything I know." Kamski stepped forward and pivoted Connor's body. He raised the android's arm so that the gun was pointed directly at you.
"[Y/N]!" Your father called out for you, but Kamski was standing directly in his way, his hand still over Connor's with the gun. If he moved, Kamski might shoot him instead.
"It is alright, Lieutenant." You said in your best impression of an android. It was a shaky impression, but enough to do the trick. There was no doubt in your mind that Connor wouldn't shoot you. You trusted him implicitly. However, there was still that illogical part of you somewhere panicking because a gun was pointed right at your head.
. "Or spare it, if you think it's alive but you'll leave here without having learnt anything from me." Kamski told Connor. The billionaire released his hold on the gun and took a step back.
"Okay, we're done here." Your father interrupted. He'd had enough if this entire situation. "Put the gun down, Connor."
"No interference from the peanut gallery!" Kamski snarled at you. "For the test to be conclusive, Connor has to make the choice on his own. Decide who you are. An obedient machine, or a living being endowed with free will. What's more important to you Connor? Your investigation or the life of his android?"
"This is ridiculous. She's not an android! That's my daughter!" Your father snapped. "[Y/N], I told you to take that fucking coat off."
"Even better." Kamski seemed unfazed. "If she's human, that makes for an even more thrilling test of empathy. A true machine will accomplish it's mission at all cost, Connor. Regardless of your relationship with your human partner or his daughter. But a living being? Well how could you look into her eyes and decide that learning more about deviants is more valuable than [Y/N] Anderson's life?"
"Connor, you put that fucking gun down now!" Hank ordered. His hand hovered slightly over his own gun, but he knew better than to draw it too early. He'd been in enough stand offs to know that introducing more weapons to the situation on decreased you, the hostage's, chance of survival.
Connor hadn't spoke since Kamski had handed him the gun and neither had you. He kept his arm pointed at you exactly how Kamski had angled it, but still you knew that you had nothing to fear. For a brief second the thought did cross your mind that maybe Connor might actually do it. That he could pull the trigger and you'd be gone, but you knew Connor better than that.
Connor had been displaying signs of empathy for several days now. Whether android were supposed to or not, Connor actually cared about you and your father both. You guessed that he was just waiting for the right moment to lower the gun. Kamski was obviously an unstable individual and even if Connor didn't shoot you, it was reasonable to assume that Kamski might himself if he felt cheated out of his "Kamski Test."
"Pull the trigger." The billionaire bated.
"Connor don't you dare." Hank took a step forward, obviously not in on the secret revelation between you and Connor.
"From ancient grudge break to new mutiny. Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean." Connor recited just in case you hadn't already figured out that he had no intention on shooting you. He lowered the gun without hesitation.
"What the fuck does that mean?" Your father asked. He jumped between the two of you immediately, just in case Connor changed his mind.
"Romeo and Juliet, Lieutenant." Kamski answered taking back his gun. He shook his head. "Cyberlife's last chance to save humanity is itself a deviant."
"I'm..." Connor opened his mouth to argue but his processor must have been overloaded. It took him several seconds to manage; "I'm not a deviant."
"You preferred to spare [Y/N]'s life rather than accomplish your mission." Kamski disagreed. "You saw her fear and you showed her empathy. A war is coming you'll have to choose your side. Will you betray your own people or stand up against your creators?" Connor did not respond. "What could be worse than having to choose between two evils?"
"Connor, C'mon." You slipped your hand inside of his, lacing your fingers together just like you would on one of your walks with Sumo. Now holding hands the android let you tug him away. You walked towards the door while your father gladly brought up the rear. Hank had a protective hand on each of you so that neither of you could turn around or more likely in your case, head back into the room once the shock wore off and go off on Kamski for what he'd just done.
"By the way," Kamski called out, unmoving from his position. "I always leave and emergency exit in my programs. You never know."
"Just keep walkn'." Your father mumbled in warning. "We're getting the fuck out of here."