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Hank suspects.
Connor has, from the time they met, consistently shaken what Hank had previously known about androids. There were plenty in Detroit that had an air of passive, Stepford-like pleasantness, not meant to do more than offer a placid face behind a receptionist desk or act as a calm and compliant service worker.
That isn’t Connor. He is friendly in an almost nerdy way, but also competent at what he does and honest and sincere in his doings so far- at least with Hank, anyway. He is compliant enough to not be an irredeemable pain in the ass, but not so compliant as to be considered spineless or underhanded.
So human, basically.
Hank isn’t so sure he wants to find the deviants.
Carlos Ortiz’s android had been defending himself from someone who had assaulted and abused him for months.
The AX400 had pulled her YK500 charge behind her with all the desperation of a mother trying to escape with her child.
The android in the apartment hadn’t even done anything wrong, that they knew of- he’d simply been deviant and tried to run away when they’d found him.
And those girls at the Eden Club… Well, when the blue-haired Traci had said she’d loved the red-head, Hank believed her.
Markus had not killed anyone in any of his endeavors. Just some property damage, and even then it was primarily to Cyberlife.
I don’t think the androids are the bad guys here.
Or, if they are, they’re doing a much better job of hiding it than Cyberlife and the government is.
Right now, Connor is scared.
He might not coach it in those terms, but everything in his voice, expression, and body language suggests that Connor is afraid of being deactivated. If androids don’t feel emotion then the logical extension of that is that they don’t feel fear, and so why should he be afraid of deactivation?
Nothing, Connor had said the other night on the bridge, when Hank had asked him what he thought was coming for him after death. There would be nothing.
Deactivation and destruction is in his future. Connor thinks he’s about to descend into a black pit of nothing, forevermore.
He doesn’t want that, though. Connor wants to live.
Hank thinks about that for a second. He really thinks about the fact that he has spent the last four years miserable and begging for death in every way short of actually going through with it, and yet here sits an android, a machine, that desperately wants to continue participating in the world. Except that unlike Hank, no one is especially interested in making sure that Connor gets to keep ticking.
…Except, again, for Hank.
Five minutes. That’s all I ask.
It is not an unreasonable request.
Not from a man who, for all intent and purpose, is on death row.
Hank’s gaze flicks to Agent Perkins. He is still standing near the break room, still on his cell phone and still oblivious to everything around him- he almost bumps into Officer Holland, who offers him a wrinkled nose and a shake of her head in response.
An idea sparks.
Maybe they shouldn’t find Jericho…
…but maybe Connor should.
Maybe Connor should find these androids. Maybe finding them and meeting them, and maybe Markus, will tip him over into deviancy. Maybe once he sees himself as a person, Hank might be able to convince him to protect himself like one too. Whether androids are really people or not is secondary to the fact that Hank likes Connor and doesn’t want him to die.
And right now, the best chance of that is Connor getting to the evidence locker and finding what he needs to find.
The idea forms fully in Hank’s mind. It’s not a good idea, really. If it works, the odds of him getting shit-canned, if not arrested and thrown into a cell, are ridiculously high. He can’t remember off the top of his head, but there are probably big charges attached to assaulting a federal agent.
But it will give Connor a chance to get to the evidence locker undetected. He’s quick, he won’t take long.
Connor is staring at him now, on edge and desperate for help. Hank thinks of Connor going back to Cyberlife a failure, sure to be deconstructed and destroyed. He imagines Connor, who is a better person than a good chunk of humans Hank has met and known throughout his life, shutting his eyes and never opening them again. He imagines his body being crushed in a trash compactor.
Hank lets out a long breath, and then smiles a little.
Well, he’s been on thin ice for a while. If he’s gotta get fired, then getting fired cracking Perkins’s ugly mug is arguably one of the best ways to go out. Hank’s not sure he’s been this excited to do something in a long time.
He stands up, lowers his voice, leans in and says, “Key to the basement is on my desk.” Then Hank steps past Connor, moving towards Perkins. He stops when he sees that Connor isn’t moving. The android is staring at him with blatant surprise; had he been expecting Hank to say no? Maybe not the most unreasonable assumption, given that barely a week ago Hank was telling him to fuck off and go away. “Get a move on! I can’t distract them forever!”
Connor blinks, and then quickly grabs the key.
Hank thinks about saying something, anything that might offer some encouragement, but decides it’s better to just leave it at that for now. He starts towards Perkins, curling his fingers into fists and getting ready for a brawl.
Good luck, kid, he thinks, resisting the urge to look back and see if Connor’s already made a run for the evidence locker. Better not to have anyone realizing that this is a cover for Connor; Hank will be in enough trouble for this stunt without assisting in a possible deviant android’s escape. Really hope this isn’t the last time we see each other.
And if it is, at least Hank knows he did what he could.
“Perkins! You fuckin’ cocksucker!”
-End