As Shane got hauled into the police van, I glanced at Maria, who seemed lost in thought. Ever since Shane brought up the fact that Barbara was an android, her outgoing nature had fizzled away into a quiet demeanor. I even had to explain everything to the officers, as Maria was borderline catatonic.

  I watched as the police drove away, leaving us two standing beside one another on the empty sidewalk, not even offering us a ride.

  "Hey, Maria?"

  No response. I sighed and stood in front of her, waving at her face.

  "Earth to Maria."

  "...we need to find this 'Barbara'."

  "You really spent all that time thinking just to come to that conclusion?"

  She shook her head. "No, of course not. Only about ten percent of my thinking was dedicated to the case specifically."

  "Well, can you at least respond to other people when in the tank like that?"

  Maria's smile returned. "No promises!"

  I wanted to ask her about the other ninety percent, but decided against it as whatever it was seemed a bit too personal—if I was to know, she would tell me. I take out my phone and scrolled to the taxi service number. "So, where to?"

  "Hm?" Her mind still seemed to linger on that unknown ninety percent.

  "Where do you want to go to look for this girl?"

  "...I'm quite hungry."

  "There's potentially a homicidal android roaming the streets and you want grub?"

  "What...? I skipped breakfast and everything... All that running has given me an appetite."

  ...

  "Fine. Where to?"

  "Here you go, a chicken curry with rice and a spaghetti meatballs," the waitress said, laying the plates down on the table with finesse. The waitress was an android—and, of course, incredibly beautiful. Maria watched me check the waitress out with a look that only grew more scary the longer my eyes wandered.

  Once she was gone, Maria spoke up, "You know that thing probably doesn't even have the capabilities to do what you are thinking of doing to it."

  "Huh? Sorry, I was just making sure that wasn't our suspect."

  "Our suspect would not be stupid enough to take up a part-time job in the same city it committed a murder in. And besides," Maria put her smartphone on the table and pushed it to me, "we already know what it looks like."

  On her screen was the portrait photo of a woman. Short brown hair, light blue eyes, cute—the name Barbara seemed a little old-fashioned for a girl like her.

  "Okay, so how do we find her?" I ask between bites of my meatballs. "She could be anywhere, Hell, she could've left the city by now."

  Maria smirked. "You don't seem to know very much about androids, do you?"

  "Please enlighten me, but don't give me an exposition. Or maybe do; it'll give me plenty of time to eat quietly after all."

  She snorted. "Androids, once assigned to their place of work, must stay near or around said place. Of course, the owner can extend or restrict the amount of area they can work with, and they can even lift the restriction entirely, but most just keep it at the default setting. For example, that waitress you were perving on probably cannot leave this diner."

  "How do they stop the androids from leaving?"

  "Like how you stop anything from escaping: a big wall." She pointed out the window. "Imagine just beyond this window there being a large translucent wall surrounding the building. That is what the androids see and they cannot go through said wall no matter what. You know those android mimes you occasionally see on the street? Basically, their owners have set their restriction walls very close around the androids so they can use it to 'mime' the action of being stuck in a box."

  "Which, in reality, they are, but us humans can't see it."

  "Exactly. I imagine they could mime without the walls, but I recall there being a situation some month ago where a mime android tried to do the banging on the wall trick only to accidentally bang a passerby on the head."

  "Ow."

  "Yeah, so now they use the restriction walls to prevent that from ever happening again. Of course, these 'walls' are not physical objects, they are simply a visual representation of how far an android can go, so humans can pass through them just fine."

  I should change Selena's restriction area to my house then, to stop her from doing what she did a few days ago, I thought to myself. "So I assume this means we only have to search within a certain radius of Kait's house and we should find her."

  Maria looked at me with pride. "I knew I chose the right guy to be my number two!"

  "Small question though."

  "Ask away."

  "What are we meant to do when we find her? Androids are a lot stronger than humans so unlike our pal Shane, she'd probably kick both of our asses and then kill us. We also don't have guns." Not like that would help much in the first place, I added mentally.

  "That's where my ingenuity comes in." With a smug look on her face, Maria pulls out a... grenade?! I immediately cover the grenade with my hands, my eyes wide and mouth parched.

  "W-what the fuck are you doing with a..." I made myself speak in a harsh whisper, "...a fucking grenade?! Are you insane?!"

  Maria looked at me like I was asking the dumbest question since the cavemen pondered to themselves, "Is rock hard?" "It's an EMP grenade, relax. It only really effects electronics."

  "I'm sure the public would immediately stop freaking out after you explained that to them."

  "I am going to use it to disable the android for a minute or two and then we will paralyze it. Then we can just haul it to the police and get our fat paycheck."

  "For some reason, I'm beginning to feel more like Hans Solo rather than Sherlock Holmes..."

  "And?" Maria continued to happily eat her chicken curry.

  It was at this moment I decided that this lady was crazy. I seriously considered getting up and leaving, but my mind flickered back to Ana. For some reason, the sad look she gave me tugged at the cold shell I thought was impenetrable around my heart. If I just shut up and let Maria do her thing, I would be one step closer to returning her back to health--or functionality, whatever word would be more fitting. I let out a sigh and focused on my lunch--it was certainly good, no doubt about it, but I could not help but think Selena would do a better job at it.

  We went to the neighborhood around the victim's house and began searching the alleyways for the rogue android. Maria only had a single EMP grenade so if I found her, I was to immediately call Maria and begin the operation.

  A light drizzle had past through the area prior to our return so the asphalt was covered in a thin layer of water. As I walked down an alleyway, my shoes splashed in the small puddles that formed in the indents of the pathway. Iron trashcans, garbage dumped into piles, rats skittering about the place. The smell was horrendous, the smell of decaying meat and desistution. My eyes kept scanning ahead of me, alerted to every slight movement and noise. I was not in the mood to hand-to-hand fight an android, considering what happened to the victim. I went to the side of the alleywaay to ensure that I was not jumped and kept moving as quietly as possible.

  Then, I heard a noise - the sound of crying, a low almost crunchy vibe to the noise. I slowly approached the noise, which was coming from a large garbage container-thingy. I placed my ear against the cold steel and listened intently - the voice sounded female, so it was either a homeless person or our suspect Barbara.

  I backed away from the garbage thingy and called Maria. "I think she is here," I mumbled into the receiver.

  "Are you sure?" she asked, her voice also a whisper.

  "I hear a female voice coming from a grabage container so unless it is a homeless person, it has to be her. Even if it is a homeless person I would like some back up if they are drugged up."

  "Understood, coming to your location now."

  A few minutes later, Maria shows up with her EMP grenade in hand. We exchanged a look and I brought her over to the garbage container.

  She too began to hear the crying and approached the garbage container cautiously. Then, she gripped the lid and looked at me, as if confirming I was ready to which I nodded back. Maria opened the garbage container and we looked inside, only to find an empty container apart from a small radio player playing some crying noises. Beside it was the skinned face of the victim.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Then, I heard a loud clang and felt something shove into me and I fell over, landing square on my ass. It was Maria, seemingly unconscious with a small trickle of blood running down from her scalp. I tried to shake her awake, but no response. Looking behind her, I saw the culprit.

  Barbara, her clothing dirty and unkempt, her hair and face dirty and unkempt, with a manic look on her face and a metal pipe in her hand. Her eyes glowed omniously from the shadows that covered her face, making her seem more like a demon than an android. She swung down towards me and I barely dodged, placing Maria to the side and standing up, now holding the EMP grenade.

  "Stop it, Barbara! Don't make me use this thing."

  But it was clear she was not in the mood to talk and she immediately sprinted towards me, faster than any human could. I barely dodged her swing but our shoulders collided and I felt the plasteel which made up her body send a huge bruising pain throughout my body. Clutching my shoulder, I looked at the grenade in my hand and suddenly, I realized that I had no idea how to use it. I had seen grenades being used in movies before, but this thing did not have the traditional pin you pull to activate it, only a set of three buttons.

  Fuck, I thought to myself, my eyes drifting to the unconscious Maria. Soon my attention was redirected to the charging Barbara and again I dodged barely out of the way, causing her to crash into the concrete wall beside me. I used this opportunity to step further away from the raging android and fiddle with the grenade a bit. Then, I just sighed, pressed all three of the buttons and tossed it at the still recovering from hitting the wall android. The grenade bounced off the wall and landed near her, and I watched as the grenade pop open, exposing a blue light which glowed and then went red as it exploded an invisible sphere of EMP.

  Barbara immediately started seizing and soon, she collapsed onto the ground. My heart pumped so loudly that after this was done, it was all I could hear apart from the distant sounds of cars passing by. I immediately went over to Maria and knelt beside her, checking the wound on her head which had began to cake up with colluagulated blood. It was a lot of blood but the wound seemed superficial and I knew from my own drunken injuries that the scalp bleeds like shit even if all you did to it was knick it slightly.

  I checked her pulse: normal, and as far as I could tell, strong, though I wonder if "strong pulses" was even a thing in reality and was not something invented by medical television dramas. Then, as I looked at her unconscious face, I recalled something from the conversation we had at the diner only an hour or so prior:

  "I am going to use it to disable the android for a minute or two." And then, I saw a shadow fall over me. I turn and see Barbara standing over me, her body twitching with the effects of the EMP, her arm mid-swing--then, I heard a sound like a whip being used. A small trail of blood trickled from a newly formed wound in Barbara's forehead. Her eyes seemed to roll back into her skull before crumpling to the ground in a heap.

  Footsteps run up from behind me and I slowly turned around to see a familiar face.

  "Darling, are you okay?"

  Selena stood there, pistol in hand, standing there with the coolest expression on her face. Before I could respond, she went around me and went to Barbara, checking to see if she was truly deceased.

  "Straight through the core processor, target eliminated," she said to herself.

  I struggled to say something, perhaps from the adrenaline or the shock of almost having my head bashed in. Selena then knelt down beside me and repeated her question: "Darling, are you okay?"

  "What did I tell you about leaving the house?" I managed to say. "I mean, I am okay and thank you for saving me, but I told you to stay home."

  "Unfortunately, my programming dictates that I am to disregard anfy of your orders if they inhibit my ability to protect you. My purpose--"

  "Your purpose is to listen to what I say. I can't have a gun-wielding maid running about, shooting all over the place. Not only are firearms illegal, it's also really embarassing to keep being saved by you."

  "You are... emasculated by me?" Selena said carefully, although her choice of words felt less than careful.

  "N-no, that's not... whatever, we'll argue about it back home. Can you please check if Maria is okay?"

  Her golden eyes darted to the unconscious woman beside me. "This is your employer?"

  "Indeed, now that you've introduced yourself to her, please examine her!" My brain seemed to be fried and all I could do was shout angerly at anything nearby that moved. Selena did not seem to be offended by my actions, however, and simply nodded, leaning over and looking at the wound on top of Maria's head. She lightly ran her finger across it, flecking some of the cogagulated blood onto her finger, and touched various parts of her head.

  "Skin-deep lesion to the upper scalp, already ceased bleeding. No skull fracturing or internal hemoragging detected either. Concussion likely." Her eyes turned to me. "She'll be okay, but once she regains consciousness, refrain her from moving too much and await medical attention."

  "Thanks for the recommendation," I said with a sigh. "Guess she has a thick skull or something because the sound of that pipe hitting it was loud." I relaxed a bit. "Wait, how did you know where I was?"

  Almost like a dog being caught with a rat in its mouth, Selena sheepishly responded, "I placed a remote tracker in your jacket this morning when you departed." I pondered for a moment whether she was truly feeling guilty about her actions or it was just for show, after all, this was one of the more emotive things I have seen Selena do in our time together. "However, because I had to maintain distance to prevent you from catching me, I had to follow you on foot, which is why I was not here sooner. I apologize for my lateness."

  "Apologize when you're late for something expected like a date or something, not... whatever the hell happened here," I said as I felt my body ache from the sudden exercise. It seemed I really needed to start working out soon otherwise it would not be deranged androids who would kill me, but my own goddamn heart. I leaned my back against the wall behind me. My eyes wandered to the body of Barbara. "Well, at least we got the killer."

  Selena followed my gaze. "Domestic androids harming humans, this is unexpected."

  "What do you mean? Considering how human-like you ladies are, killing humans is really just a great way to further cement yourself as one. It's an old tradition of us fleshy folk."

  "It seems that you are unaware of the basic principles surrounding robotics," Selena said matter-of-factly.

  "You mean like Asimov's Three Laws?"

  "Close. Non-harm is a key aspect of these principles, but as you are aware, both from international news and from the existence of me, they are a lot more nuianced than what Mister Asimov wrote."

  If he was around these days, he would probably laugh at an android like Selena calling him Mister, I thought to myself. Selena's face furrowed as she looked at me.

  "You just thought of something rude, didn't you, darling?"

  "W-what? O-of course not. Continue with your explanation, Miss Selena."

  She sighed and continued: "While not a government secret by any means, even children history books contain this information, originally androids were created for one purpose: war. Unlike Asimov who viewed androids as equally capable of both destruction and domestic usefulness, the United States android program was purely dedicated to creating an army of desposable entities. The existence of Romance Bots simply came as a side-product of this program. However, these androids had their capability for violence removed from their programming. The ability to even raise a hand against a human is simply impossible for something like Barbara or Ana."

  "Therefore..."

  "Therefore, Barbara not only attacking but killing a human is, as I said, unexpected. Some form of corruption has occurred low-level in her systems." Selena lifted Barbara's body up by the head and peered into her now lifeless eyes. "If this corruption is something that can be spread, who knows the amount of harm it can do..."

  As Selena mused to herself, I thought back to Maria's reaction to finding out the killer was an android and her visible distain for the one who worked in the diner. I had yet to tell her I was the owner of two androids and considering how much she appeared to dislike them, I figured it was best to keep it that way.

  "Selena, you should go. Maria isn't the biggest fan of androids and I don't think being bashed over the head by one will help in that assessment."

  "Understood. As you do not have a firearm on you, the method used in this instance would be hard to explain so I shall destroy the evidence. Please standby." And, without hestitation, Selena grabbed the large metal pipe and began smashing Barbara's head in. Blood soon turned into twisted metal and plastic as she reduced the android's artificial skull to only hair and splattered metal. After that, she handed me the bloodied bar. "I will see you at home." And then, she left.

  I sat there for a minute or two in the silence, Maria still unconscious beside me. I then took my phone and called for the ambulance and police. A few minutes later, Maria came to, her eyes opening slowly and gazing ahead at the now battered corpse of Barbara.

  "What... what happened?" she mumbled.

  I knelt down in front of her. "Barbara banged your head up a bit. Luckily, your idea worked and the EMP grenade kept her down long enough for me to use her own weapon against her." I showed her the bar. "I... might have went a little overboard though..."

  Maria nodded a little and tried to get up, but I stopped her. "I'm fine."

  "No, you are not. If this thing bashed in her skull like that, then who knows what it did to yours. I've already called for emergency services so please just stay still and wait for them to arrive."

  She seemed a little annoyed at being coddled like this but silently acquiesed. "Thank you," she managed to say, meeting my gaze.

  I smiled. "No problem. Does it hurt anywhere?"

  She snorted at the question, only to end up wincing in pain. "My head, obviously."

  "Guess that means she didn't scramble your brain up too much."

  Soon, we began to hear the approaching sirens.

  The police interrogated me while the ambulance hauled Maria away to the hospital. I told them plainly what had happened, lying, of course, about Selena actually being the one who stopped Barbara. They soon ran out of questions and, upon learning that we were the hired detectives for the case, soon let me go and I headed home.

  Selena was waiting for me. "Welcome home, darling. What would you like for dinner?" It seemed like she was acting as if we were not just talking an hour or two prior.

  "I'm not particularly hungry," I replied, going inside and collapsing onto the sofa. "Look, Selena, we need to talk about what happened earlier today."

  "I am simply following my programming, darling. If I had not been there, you would likely be dead right now."

  "I..." I sighed. "You have a point there, but still, you can't keep stalking me like that."

  "Why not?" Selena responded. "Despite what you have seen, I can blend in quite well when I am not needed. I have not drawn any attention to myself until it was necessary to act." She began polishing her pistol as she spoke. "It is my job to keep my master safe and I have performed said job well."

  I struggled to argue against what she said. She had remained out of sight for the entire day, although I wonder how much that was because she had to run everywhere. I suppose deep down what bothered me the most was the second reason I did not want her to keep saving me.

  It seemed like Selena had caught on to what I was thinking. "Darling, you are embarassed that you are not able to fend for yourself against androids."

  "I-I'm not...!"

  "Humans are far weaker than even the most basic models after all. Unless they are highly trained in self-defence techniques and the usage of firearms, androids will always have the advantage." Her eyes seemed to glow for a moment. "...perhaps, you should look for another job to help pay for Ana's repairs. Something that involves less risk to your own health and safety."

  Again, Selena raised another great point that I simply could not find an argument against. It was not like the city was completely absent of entry-level part-time jobs, even if a lot of them were menial and do not pay well.

  However, the true reason I even signed up for the detective job was not for the pay, but for the adventure. Up until this point, my life had been a boring slog of going and returning from a job where I had made little friends, little of a name for myself, and spent my time behind a computer staring at a disinteresting word document. These past few days had provided a scary, yet still tantalizing escape from the mundanity of everyday life. And besides, it was not like the detective work would always be so action-packed.

  I then received a message on my phone, breaking me from my train of thought. It was from Maria:

  "Hey, I'm still in the hospital atm, I've sent you a document that we need to fill in to give to the police so we can get our paycheck. Thank you~ <3"

  I opened the document on my phone: the first bad sign was how long it took to load. I gulped as it opened and I saw the amount of pages I had to fill in, ranging from financial details to writing a report about the case. I sighed and groaned to myself: sure enough, more fucking paperwork.