--Interface ports disengaged.--
--Exiting sleep mode.--
--Battery charge 100%--

I woke up on the bench, something that was both disturbing and already routine. At the end I chickened out rather than let my battery get to dangerous levels, and plugged myself in. Going to sleep was easy. Waking up however, let me know in no uncertain terms that something had changed.

--Data retrieval 100%--

I knew everything; or at least everything I would ever know about who I was and what I had been.

--Query internal chronometer--
--Time 05:34AM CST--
--Nightvision activated--

The warehouse was dark, the machines silent. The robots were either in sleep mode themselves or silently on guard. It made me wonder what the doc was afraid of; while my newfound memories pointed to the world of super science being a very cut throat place, this level of paranoia seemed extreme. But the doc was asleep, and while certain things were falling into place, it
could wait.

I was interested in feet.

Two small skeletal feet to be precise, their framework rendered in titanium or some variant, and perfectly articulated; they looked like a skeleton had been dipped in metal. Of course my own point of view was of the layman; I was quite sure that human foot bones weren't put together in quite that way, but it was very close. One was finished, one only half so. Extrapolating the time used to construct the feet and estimating from there, the framework of the male me would take at least a week of hard 14 hour shifts.

But... the feet looked a little small for a guy; add some flesh and circuitry to the frame and they might be a size 6. which was the size of my current feet. Curiouser and curiouser. Reminding myself I was lucky to be alive at all, I made some coffee and settled in to watch the sun rise. It could just be that due to expenses, I was going to be a very small guy soon.

Time for something to drink. I didn't need it of course, but it was a pleasure I wouldn't deny myself. I made coffee, taking note of how much the doc used to make his and following suit. I drank and studied schematics until, precisely at 5:45AM, Sara exited sleep mode.

"Good morning Sara."

"Good morning unit Kaname."

She bustled off into the kitchen without so much as a pause, no doubt to cook the good doctor breakfast. I shook my head; so close and yet so far. I almost offered to help - but I was busy reading the doc's files. Apparently I was at least an adequate hacker, not that I needed to be.

Who uses a password like 12345 anyway? That's the kind of password an idiot would have on their luggage, or something.

Maybe he thought it was safer cause everyone nowadays would go straight to the more complex cracking methods, without checking first. Or maybe he meant for me to get in. Either way it was all the same. The doc was a busy guy, it seemed. Several of these model designs were ones that I recognized as russian, and a few were chinese exclusives. Confirmation of sorts, of what my
memories were telling me.

Fate is a very fickle witch sometimes; she always likes to pick you up... then cut your legs out from under you.

In this case the leg sweeping started with flash bangs; the standard kind that police SWAT use for high risk entries. I lost track after bang number 6, and was already on the floor before I knew it. Around me I could hear aged robots grinding to life, then gunshots and they would fall silent. Sara was still moving around, but I had the sudden sense that she was alone.

"Doctor Thadeus Langford! This is the police! Come out with your hands up! Your bots have been disabled, and you are surrounded!"

A dizzy, disheveled looking doctor came staggered into view, his face a mask of pure horror.

"Kaname? Kaname!?!"

Interesting, hardly the reaction I'd think of, now that I remembered the reputation of the doc... though oddly in keeping with the man I've known the last couple of days.

"I'm here doc, keeping my head down."

He really needed to work on his expressions; as it was he'd never be able to play poker. Maybe it was the lack of stimulants.

"Come on out Langford, my bots have even the sewer and hidden tunnels covered. You can't escape."

It may have been just the megaphone, but that voice was weaker, reedy, and seemed filled with an unsufferable arrogance that put me on edge. It also seemed vaguely familiar.

"Dr Adlevo; that bastard."

Now there was a name I knew. But I'd worry about that later; I had to confirm some things while I could.

"So doc, the bank robbery was you?"

He nodded.

"And the bot that attacked you?"

Bots are not supposed to attack just anyone with the intent to kill; the fact that one did was a major breach of law; somehow and somewhere things were rotten. That corruption had cost me a body and a normal life.

"Dr. Adlevo's. This isn't really the time and place to explain, but he has had it in for me for a long time. You simply got in the way of his latest attempt. Now I really need to surrender before the building is blown up or something; if you'll excuse me. Don't get up or it's likely you'll be shot."

And with that he simply walked out of my sight. I heard the front door open, the wup wup wup sound of multiple helicopters hovering, and the the yells of many men. Then hurried, running footsteps.

"And there it is, being a good little girl like Langford said. Get up Kaname."

That last bit was clearly enunciated, as if I were a child. How insulting. I complied however; they did after all, have the guns.

"Well at least you didn't shoot the doc. So, what am I being charged with?"

The looks of flabbergasted surprise were priceless. Especially the one from the guy on the right; I recognized him as one of the guys working security at the bank yesterday. He had waved me on through without a second look. I was surprised to see him too, but I didn't let it show.

"Wow, she's a real piece of art, isnt she?"

"You're being charged with aiding and abeding a fugitive for a start, honey. That and we're impounding you as a device that could prove harmful to the public at large."

"You can't impound me, I'm an american citizen. As for aiding and abeding, well, you might have enough to make that stick. You need to cuff me? I'll go quietly, but I'm not sure about your procedure here."

"We need to cuff you, yes. Never can tell."

I held my hands behind my back, shook my head and tsk'd.

"Should have done it while I was still on the ground; faulty police procedure."

"Perfectionist."

The manacles they locked on to me did something... I couldn't move nearly as easily, even my legs. Everything seemed to be much heavier. Didn't affect my speech, however.

"Wow, these things suck. You'll all have to be patient, I'm going to be pretty slow here."

"No problem at all, take your time and walk to the APC over there. We seem to be short paddywagons for the gifted this morning, so you ride with us."

"So where are you taking me?"

"Told you before. The impound. The FBI and homeland security impound, where all the bad bots seized are kept."

Hmm, homeland security. This could work out yet.

"Alright, will you do me a favor?"

Odd, I'd have expected him to be more cautious.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Marc Perez works out of this field office, doesn't he?"

"Maybe."

"Well if he does, could you call him for me please, and tell him to meet us at the impound?"

"Sure I can do that. I think he'd probably be interested in you anyway."

Don't I know it. A cyborg looking like this? He'd be all over it.

I resolved to be as silent as possible for the rest of the ride; I didn't want to unwittingly hang myself volunteering information. This suited the SWAT guys just fine, I could tell. The manacles had to be electromagnetic in some way; but without seeing them I couldn't tell how they worked.

Rather shortsighted of the doc to build a state of the art body with such a weakness.

The officer in charge (who wasn't the chatty one) led me to what appeared to be a standard interrogation room; I wasn't fooled. There was no one way mirror and the walls had that subtle look that screamed 'I'm all solid steel under this cheap drywall'. That and the solid steel door with a bar lock made it obvious. There was a reinforced set of chairs and a table bolted to the floor; I took the one facing the door but farthest from it as the officer locked the door behind me.

Now we played the waiting game.

************************************************

Striding into the room, they all stopped talking. the silence was deafening. Honestly, you'd think grown men and women would outgrow acting like adolescents at a bar.

"What do we have?"

Chris Farnsworth, the lead on the SWAT team, answered smartly.

"Got Langford and the damnedest robot you ever saw. Take a look."

I looked at the video feed he directed me at. In it was a petite looking ebon haired japanese girl, appearing to be around student age.

I looked back at him, nonplussed.

"It's a sexbot. We see plenty of those, what's so unusual about one more?"

I swear, if I had a nickel for every sexbot we dismantled...

"No Marc, it's not just a sexbot. Look close; That chassis is one of Langfords' series 8s."

"What?!? No way."

I took that second look. Hard to tell with it sitting down but...

"It's too small for that. And way too lifelike. Has to be one of his newer models, at least an 11."

"You think that, but it pings back as an 8. Plus, this one knows you. Why do you think I called you in? That hot little thing asked for you by name. The time stamp places her creation at just after the attempted bank robbery."

I looked down at my hands, which were throttling my broken pen.

"Is that so? And what has Langford said?"

"Oh that is the truly interesting part; he hasn't shut up since we bagged him. He's very talkative, and the polygraph suggests he's being totally honest. And that is why you absolutely must hear his story... all of it. You see, I asked him the same thing you were just thinking about asking me."

He led me next door, into the first interrogation room, where Thadeus Hastur Langford was cooling his unshod heels.

Thadeus Hastur Langford was born an american, of new england stock. Maine, I think. He was one of the most gifted of the gifted... and one of the biggest criminals the U.S. had ever produced. In his late 40's, he worked as a young teen with our foremost brain, Dr. Silas Adlevo, building super soldier serums, weapons, and other tools of modern death. Along with the
occasional advance in medicine and oddly enough, space exploration.

Why he turned on us was one of the bigger riddles of our time; The current word was that he was jealous and angry with playing second fiddle to Adlevo. So he defected, and went to work for Russia and later China; giving communist robotics a huge boost and later filling orders for a variety of other countries, corporations, and even the very rich. The office of Gifted Affairs called him 'The merc'.

The word had filtered down from the CIA that he was again in country after 25 years away. Since he was under indictment as a traitor; with a standing warrant for his arrest, his presence in country didn't make much sense. Russia was his new home, and they watched over him jealously there. For him to be here instead of his usual haunts in Russia, China, and even the middle east meant something big. To pull a bank job, as he had tried just less than a week ago, seemed to suggest he was hurting for funding.

Luckily, with Adlevo on the case with us (The man was pushing 75, and still vigorous) staking out the banks was easily done, and while Langford had gotten away, it had eventually led to his capture. Such arrogance, to think he could get away with such crimes while we were watching. Of course the bank sting was supposed to go quietly, and rapidly devolved into a mess; we still weren't sure why, but I had a few suspicions.

So finally, we caught him, despite some sizable murphy's law action... and he was chatty. I strode right in, polygraph be damned. Things didn't work anyway, not as a lie detector. I was quite sure Langford's stress was not important. He looked up with relief and jumped right in.

"Good good, you're here. Gifted affairs or Homeland security?"

"Marc Perez, homeland security Dr. Langford. So what brought you to the states?"

his eyes caught me. Guileless, full of concern and a plea.

"Rest assured I'll tell you everything, but before that, have you seen Kaname?"

I took a shot in the dark.

"Your robot? The modified series 8 you recently activated?"

He nodded quickly.

"I haven't seen it yet, I was hoping to talk to you first."

"And are you going to be the one in charge of this case? Sole jurisdiction, no alphabet soup behind you?"

"Yep, I'm it."

"Good; whatever you do, don't tell Kaname she is an android. You'll ruin the experiment. All of you must be very careful - she believes she is a cyborg with a human brain."

I was at a loss.

"And just exactly why in the hell would that matter?"

"Because she might well be a person; she acts so life like because I mapped a human's brain, translated it, and downloaded it into her hard drive."

I found myself running my hands through my thinning hair, a nervous gesture of mine. Langford could have been describing the weather. All of a sudden a few puzzle pieces clicked into place; the person who had been missing in that botched robbery, and why I'd been asked for by name.

"what...the hell, doctor! You will burn for this, I'll see to it!"

I let him go, only after the polygraph operator pulled me off did I realize I'd been choking the life from him.

"I didn't kill him! I didn't!"

He choked out, finally seeming to understand what I thought he'd done. He found his voice and shouted.

"All I did was try to save his life, but he was too far gone! Too far gone for any amount of modern medicine! Even if he'd survived he'd had to have been made a full conversion borg, and his brain was dying! His lungs were charcoal! No one deserved that fate, to die drowning in blood!"

I let him rant till he quieted, and almost didn't catch the whisper.

" ....and he saved my life."

I sat down, realizing my friend would have done exactly that; jumped in without regard to himself. How many times had he done that in the past? I turned to the operator.

"Out. You and the peanut gallery can record, but you will promptly forget you heard or saw anything, unless I say otherwise. No one sees Kaname before I do. Got it?"

He nodded. He knew my reputation; all thier jobs were now on the line.

"Alright Doctor, start at the beginning and tell me everything."

(tbc)