TJ hummed while scrolling through her phone in downtown Buffalo. She checked the bus schedule again to confirm her bus would be by in ten minutes before putting it away and continuing on towards the bus stop. It was chilly in the downtown area since it was bordered by the Niagara river and TJ shivered as the wind picked up. She hated being alone at night but it was a necessary evil in order to meet up with her contact.
The bus stop was in sight and TJ brightened at the prospect of the warmth the bus would provide when it would arrive. She only made it one more step before a gloved around snaked around her head and closed over her mouth. TJ tried shrieking but another hand grabbed her throat and squeezed mercilessly. Remembering her self defence classes TJ jabbed her elbow back into a hard object that had tears springing to her eyes as pain burst through her arm.
Another hand clamped itself over TJ’s eyes as there was a prick in her neck. She didn’t remember anything after that.
--------
Ping.
Google ignored the noise as he continued with his work.
Ping.
His eyes slid to the the left a little before they snapped back forward and he continued on.
Ping.
At this point Google knew he wouldn’t be getting anymore work done with a bored Anti flicking bottle caps off his head.
“Is there something you would like to do?” Google asked Anti.
Anti grinned wildly at Google and responded, “I’m glad you asked.” He brought out a box of checkers he had been hiding behind his back while waiting for Google to crack.
Google gave Anti an affectionate glare, You planned this.” He wasn’t really annoyed as he came over and sat in front of Anti. They quickly set up the game.
Anti shrugged while making the first move, “Gotta think outside the box with you blueberry.”
“Don’t call me that,” Google asked with a grimace. He took one of Anti’s checkers.
“Ok I won’t call you it….blueberry.”
“Anti.”
Anti grinned as he took three of Google’s checkers, “Hey you said not to call you that, you didn’t say anything about blueberry!”
Google grunted, “Damn loopholes.”
Their game continued on for a while until the elevator dinged and a frantic Oliver came out. “Google!” Oliver called. Both Google and Anti looked up and frowned at how distraught Oliver looked. Anti was already glitching over to Oliver while Google quickly stood.
“What is it,” Google asked.
Oliver gestured over his shoulder, “There’s someone waiting down for you in the lobby. They said something about a fire at the old Go-Google factory.”
There was a second pause where it seemed Google hadn’t processed what Oliver had said before he was striding towards the elevator so fast even Anti was stunned. With a worried glance at each other both of them ran to the elevator before Google left them behind.
The person waiting for them in the lobby was standing in between Red and Green and was wholly not as frightening as Anti imagined. It was just a short female with shaved hair holding a flashdrive like it was a weapon. Her eyes flashed to Google right away and she glared at him the entire time it took him to walk to her.
She crossed her arms when he got to her and took a deep breath. “My friend TJ was doing some research into Google Androids after she found some discrepancies in the blueprints for the warehouse. She was working at a company that had them stored,” She explained.
“Next thing I know she’s neck deep in some conspiracy bullshit and meeting a contact who was gonna give her more information about the discrepancies. She met the contact alright but she didn’t make it home after that,” She finished.
Holding out the flash drive for Google she spoke, “This was everything TJ had about the warehouse conspiracy and the statement from the guy who saw her get kidnapped.” She stared directly into Google’s eyes as she said her next sentence, “He said they moved unnaturally. Like robots.”
Everyone froze as the woman forced the flash drive into Google’s hand. “Find her please,” She whispered and walked towards the lobby doors, “And the Google warehouse was set on fire tonight! Firefighters say it was on purpose since they found a whole bunch of fuel cans right at the front gate!”
Everyone stared off after her before Anti spoke up, “Did we get her name?” Oliver shook his head, “No she didn’t say.”
As they all stood there chattering Google stared down at the flash drive blanky. Enclosing his fist around it he straightened up and made his way towards the lobby doors.
“Google?” Green called. They exchanged worried looks when Google didn’t respond back before hurrying off after him.
