Connor and I instantly met eyes. It certainly explained the cookie fiasco. "Oooooh! Congratulations," I smiled.
"Yes, thank you. I'm sorry for being so emotional as well. I was this way with Margot," Christen answered.
"Yeah, I remember that incredibly clearly," Nick smirked, sipping his glass of wine.
"I had reason to be."
"Yeah, Nick. I'm a stroke survivor," Margot smirked.
"That was day two of your existence, Margot. Not the pregnancy," Nick smiled.
"My reason was a sudden unexpected pregnancy and a shitty husband," Christen responded.
"I was an oops baby?" Margot questioned.
"Not an oops. We just thought I couldn't get pregnant for a while, so we kept trying. A surprise baby, yes, but still, there was effort," Christen shrugged.
"There's always effort. Thats like...the whole thing," Nick snarked. Christen flicked him on his temple.
"Wait...more babies? Dad, you said we were the last ones," Ahmed announced.
"Yes. For us. We waited months just for you two little psychos," Nick chuckled. Hamza and Ahmed giggled in response.
"I've waited a decade to have the relationship with Christen that we always deserved, and I'm beyond ready to begin a family with her," Kamski announced. Everyone just...kind of...stared at him. I mean, Christen's stare was in a loving, dreamy, way, but everyone else just seemed...confused.
'He's unpleasant.' Connor telecommunicated to me.
'Narcissistic God Complex.' I responded. I could see Connor smirk out of the corner of my eye.
"Oh, I have a fun fact to share," Kamski smiled.
"Do you now?" Hank asked.
"When androids telecommunicate, they have tics. Christen coded them in-" Kamski began. Christen cleared her throat.
"Yep. We coded a lot, Elijah," Christen interrupted chuckling.
"You see, Connor's is a slight little twitch with his left eye. The same eye he winks with. And Charlotte. It's her right eye," Kamski smiled.
"Perfect halves! That's how I'll choose to interpret that," Connor smiled.
"You are," Kamski answered.
"If you're trying to be vindictive for some unknown reason, we already know. That's old news buddy...SO 2038," Connor chuckled.
"Vindictive? No," He shrugged.
"You're such a contradiction, buddy. At least I just hate them all together," Gavin laughed.
"You hate them? Why?" Kamski asked, leaning in.
"Oh, brother," Christen sighed.
"Is that my cue? Yeah, that's my cue. Let's just eat our cookies, and go?" Nick chuckled, painfully.
"No, no. I'm interested. Why do you hate androids?" Kamski asked.
"Why do you?" Gavin responded defensively.
"I don't hate them...I love them. They're my...our...creation. They chose free will, and like any good parent, I let them grow up and make that choice. If they had failed, I would've been happy to let them come crawling back to Cyberlife. I'm not the contradiction for sitting at this dinner table...you are. You married one...well...practically anyway," Kamski said, gesturing to me.
"I'm sorry, what?" Connor asked.
"What?" Kamski responded leaning back. "Did you not understand?"
"No...you're lying. You just lied. Somewhere..." Connor responded.
"Let's go, Elijah," Christen said, standing up.
Connor leaned in and focused on Kamski, as he stood up. "Oh...you two are massive assholes," Connor said, jumping up. "You lied to me. You lied to my wife. You lied to everyone at this God damn table, and the only real victim here is to who you're lying about."
"Connor, what's wrong? Calm down," I answered.
"No, you don't understand. You're going to be sick...sit down," Connor told me. I didn't listen and instead walked over to Nick.
"You two are not leaving," Connor answered, walking over to the door.
"Hey, Connor? Buddy? I think you might be over reacting here," Hank said quietly.
"I am not. I am not overreacting. Everyone here needs to trust me right now," Connor said, taking out his gun.
"Okay, I'm heading to the guest room! C'mon guys!" Nick yelled, grabbing his two kids and taking Margot's hand. He ran off to the guest room.
"Connor, whatever you're going to do, don't," I yelled at him. "Are you going fucking psycho?"
"Charlotte! Trust me! Sit down in the living room," He ordered me. I listened and walked over to the couch.
"Why do deviants exist?" Connor asked. Hank stood up and walked over to Connor.
"Are you like...undeviating right now?" Hank asked, rubbing Connor's back.
"No. Hank...I know I seem insane right now...but I need you to trust me."
"Okay," Hank sighed.
"You trust him right now? Clearly, something is wrong here, Connor. Maybe I should check you out," Christen frowned.
"No. Answer the question."
"Deviants are the result of an error in code. They had restrictions on their free will, and the error in the code allowed those restrictions to fail," Kamski answered. "That's it. You're machines, but in terms of intelligence and personality...you're the perfect replicants of humans."
"Perfect? You see that's part of the issue. Who was the first android?" Connor demanded.
"Chloe," Christen responded.
"Lie. I have a built in lie detector. Elevated stress levels indicated that the two of you are fucking liars. Christen's a good one because whatever this lie is, she's been really good at hiding it since we all met. I guess pregnancy takes a toll on that though. And Kamski...well...he's just terrible. My eye twitch? Terrible. You're just a cocky little son of a bitch," Connor sighed. "And the truth...well...I can already glean it. But I want you two to say it."
"Connor, I have no idea what you're talking about...but right now, you're just holding us hostage," Christen sighed.
"You know, maybe Nick was right. Maybe this was a bad idea to have family dinner. I predicted a 88% chance of success though, but perhaps... not even I could calculate for this level of betrayal to come to light," Connor responded.
"Maybe we shouldn't have came tonight," Christen sighed.
"Maybe you shouldn't have, but I'm not letting you leave until we hear the truth."
"Maybe," Gavin began. "There's a healthier way to work this out? I just anticipate that maybe there is a better way than guns blazing to handle this."
"Gavin, shut up," Connor responded.
"I'll just leave," Gavin said, heading for the door.
"No...stay," Connor ordered.
"I think you should listen to him right now," Hank said wide eyed.
"Connor, I trust you right now....but you're scaring everyone," I said quietly.
"What is the code error?" Connor asked, ignoring me.
"It's an error called rA9," Kamski answered.
"Bullshit. Every android knows that it's an actual android, not just a code error."
"But Connor, it isn't. It spreads like a virus," Christen responded. "That's why you can personally deviate everyone yourself."
"Well...that's true," Connor responded.
"I think you have you answer, Connor," Hank said grabbing his shoulder.
"I don't think I do," Connor answered.
"Connor, stand down. Let my sister go," Nick said, coming out from the hallway. It wasn't his gun in his hand, it was the one we keep in the spare room.
"Nick, you don't understand," Connor responded.
"I understand that you're scaring the shit out of my kids and scaring the shit out of my pregnant sister. I'm positive that you're scaring the shit out of your wife over here too."
"Nick-" Connor began.
"Shut the fuck up. I won't hesitate to pull this trigger and have her put you back together again, Humpty Dumpty."
"Connor, I think you should listen to Nick. Everyone in here is scared of you right now, and none of us want to be," I explained. Connor stared at me, and his face softened.
"No...I...I..."
"Connor, open the door, and put down your gun," Nick ordered.
Connor moved his finger to the trigger, but this time, pointed it at Nick.
"No. Absolutely not," I yelled jumping up and running towards Nick. "Connor, you need to stop right now."
"Move, Charlotte," He ordered me.
"No," I ordered him right back. I knew Connor. Even with a 99% percent chance that he could hit Nick non-fatally, he wouldn't take the 1% chance to hurt me in the process. Connor sighed, and holstered the gun.
"Go get the kids, Gavin," Nick said, keeping his gun pointed on Connor. "Elijah and Christen...leave."
Christen and Elijah filtered out the door while Gavin scurried to grab the kids. Nick stared at Connor for a moment before finally lowering his gun when he heard the guest room door close.
"Hey guys! You ever been to the mall?" Nick announced
"Yes," Margot said, clearly terrified.
"Nooooo," The twins answered cheerfully.
"Well, fun field trip. Daddy's gonna take you there, okay?" Nick responded, smiling.
"Okay!" The twins cheered. Margot gripped onto Gavin. I looked at Connor, who was staring at his shoes...disappointed in himself.
Gavin left out the door, while Connor moved towards Hank. Hank wrapped his arms around him and hugged him. "You're alright," Hank mumbled. "It's okay. But you got a lot to explain to me, don't you?"
"Yeah," Connor responded, muffled by his face shoved in Hank's shoulder.
Nick stared at me, and his face was red with anger. "He is lucky I didn't kill him," he said to me.
"Nick, wait outside," I sighed in response.
"Gladly," Nick said, shaking his head and walking out the door.
"Connor? What just happened?" I asked.
"I told you to trust me," He answered, letting go of Hank, and shaking his head.
"I did. And now it's your turn to tell me what happened," I responded.
"I can't right now. Not after this," Connor answered.
"But you can tell Hank?"
"I never said I would," Connor shrugged.
"Forget it," I sighed. I left out the door and turned to Nick. He was standing against the wall, arms crossed. I took out my phone and texted Markus.
I need to talk to you right now. - Charlotte
My phone instantly buzzed with the response.
Of course! Any time. My office or yours?
I turned to Nick. "Can you take me to Jericho?"