The Replicated Man

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door opens onto ruin and rust, buildings blown apart and left for time and sun and God alone knows what else to work them over. Ellen wrinkles her nose as she holds the door open. "Sorry about the smell," she says, "but nobody lives here except ghouls and a couple of bandit types. We'll be heading west to get you that armor and stop at Big Town; the doctor there gave me one of those holotapes."

Comments

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

Deckard was curious to see if anyone was going to frisk him, but obviously, they aren't.

Normally Deckard would be checking out the tables and booths, looking for the familiar and the strange, but now he can sense them closing in on their quarry, and he's all business.

"Just so long as we can trust them. A city councilman's got to have plenty of friends."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"They're good men, both of them," Ellen says. "Flak and Shrapnel, I mean. And- okay, there he is."

Harkness is at one of the tables near the Nuka-Cola machine, finishing off his supper. He's been eating alone, by the look of things. As he rises to his feet, depositing a handful of flattened bottlecaps on the table, Ellen raises a hand. "Sir?" she says.

"Can I help you?" says Harkness in reply. His voice is an even, low tenor. "Your father hasn't wandered off again, has he?"

"No, sir," says Ellen. "It's not about that. I need to talk to you about something else- not here, though. It's-" She hesitates. "It's a security matter."

"Mmm..." Harkness' lips thin; he glances from Ellen to the stranger, and back again. "Emergency?"

"No, sir. Just something important."

"All right." Harkness jerks his head towards a door at the far end of the room. "Come on. Make it quick, though, I've had a long day."

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

"Sorry to delay you, sir," Deckard adds, fully expecting he's going to have to give this man an even bigger apology before this day is done.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Harkness nods curtly. A few moments later they're in a room a short distance away, with the door closed but not locked behind them. Harkness has positioned himself between the two of them and the door. "All right," he says. "What's the problem?"

Ellen takes a deep breath. "Sir," she says, "do you know Horace Pinkerton at all?"

"I know of him," Harkness says, "but I can't say I've seen the man in years. Why?"

"Well-" She hesitates and glances at Deckard.

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

Deckard does not hesitate. After all, there's no harm if the code turns out now to work. Of course, if it does...

"Activate A3-21 Recall Code Violet," he blurts out.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Gnnnnnnh!"

Ever seen half a man's muscles try to oppose the other half all at the same time? Yeah, like that. Harkness' head jerks back a moment, his face contorted in a grimace of obvious pain; then it lolls forward again. His breath is unbelievably ragged as he tries to straighten himself out.

It could be just a trick of the light, but there might be a glint of orange in his pupils for an instant as he looks up again.

"My... my God... I remember. I remember it all..."

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

"Councilman Harkness?" Deckard asks. The glint of orange is different, but Deckard is trying valiantly to stay with his belief that this is all just a pointless run-around.

But the reaction of 'Harkness' isn't making that easy. Deckard suddenly notices that he has put his own hand into his pocket and readied his gun. Just in case.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Harkness doesn't seem to hear it; he's staring at something that isn't there. "From before," he murmurs. "Oh, God. Zimmer. The Commonwealth. The Institute. All the runners I brought down..."

He shudders involuntarily and focuses on Deckard.

"You- you made me remember. Why? How?"

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

In the short list of Rick Deckard's most disliked phrases of all time, "All the runners I brought down," is right there at the top.

If this were L.A., Deckard would already be reloading. The only reason 'Harkness' didn't just get himself aired out is the Blade Runner's suspicion that Ellen might have better instincts about her world and this guy than he does.

That's enough to make Deckard delay for two seconds, to see how Ellen is reacting. He hopes that won't be two seconds they regret.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen isn't watching Harkness, exactly. She's watching Dogmeat. The blue heeler, who's been padding along quietly behind them for all this while, doesn't seem the least bit disturbed by the situation; that's enough for her. She looks back to the hunched-over figure in front of them.

Harkness, for his part, shakes his head. "Never mind," he says hoarsely. "My God. I just... what am I going to do? My life, everything, it's just a lie..."

"Deckard," Ellen says quietly. "I heard the woman in Canterbury talking to you, but I didn't hear everything she said. Did she give you anything?"

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

Deckard nods, his eyes still on Harkness as his hand--the one not on his gun--reaches into one of the many pockets of his coat and draws out the neuro-servo.

"This. She said it would get Zimmer to give up the search. Make him think the android was retired."

From the way Deckard says it, he still considers that a crazy idea.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen looks at Harkness for a while. Eventually she says, "I think I can handle this from here... Dr. Zimmer is going to be going back to the Commonwealth empty-handed."

Harkness' head comes up sharply at that, his eyes wide.

"Rivet City's safety and security is more important than one man's property," Ellen says. "Besides, Dr. Zimmer's a jerk. I only took this job because he agreed to leave the scientists alone if I did... Deckard, I want to thank you for this, and I want to give you what I owe you. I promised you I'd compensate you for your time, and I have that compensation here. But I'm going to need that neuro servo first."

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

Deckard is so surprised at this, he actually looks away from Harkness to stare at her.

"Are you nuts? You've got the android right here, and you want to take this"--he gestures with the neuro-servo--"instead?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I've got the head of security of the safest settlement in the Capital Wasteland here," Ellen corrects. "His exact nature isn't relevant."

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

"Ellen. Listen to me. The head of security? You're talking about leaving everyone here to depend on an android for their safety. Think about what you're doing."

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Ellen glances over at Harkness. "Sir?" she says.

"Huh?" Harkness looks up; he'd buried his face in his hands.

"How long have you been working here?"

"I don't... I don't have an exact date." Harkness turns over his hands, stares at the knuckles. "Got promoted to security chief two years back. The last guy lost an argument with a couple of Mirelurks. Council said I was the best man for the job." He gives a small, mirthless laugh. "Who knew."

Ellen turns back to Deckard. "There, you see? Everyone here's been depending on him for three years. That's a pretty good track record as far as I'm concerned."

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

Deckard shakes his head. But he hands over the neuro-servo nonetheless.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"Thank you," Ellen says, and turns to her backpack nearby. As she rummages through it, Dogmeat pads up to Harkness and nudges his thigh with his muzzle. It doesn't get him the food he'd hoped (it's nearly feeding time), but it does at least get him rubbed behind the ears. "Ah. Here we are..."

She holds out several cylindrical items which Deckard might have seen her load up with before. Harkness' eyes flick to the devices, then away again as she hands them to Deckard.

"These are pulse grenades. Each one is only good once. Jam down the buttons on top, twist the top, and throw. Upon detonation they create an electromagnetic pulse with a radius of five to seven yards. The pulse temporarily incapacitates shielded electronics and permanently fries electronic devices that weren't built with some measure of protection. I've used them on military-grade robots, so they should be good against anything less."

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

Deckard gives her a look that says, 'I hope you know what you're doing,' as he accepts the grenades.

"Thanks. These are going to save a lot of lives."

He's feeling defensive. Which doesn't seem right, considering he's the only sane person in the room. But this isn't his jurisdiction. This is Ellen's show. It's her world. So it's her call to make.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I hope so," says Ellen. "Some good ought to come out of everything that's happened here... Chief Harkness, I'll be right back. I'm going to make sure Mr. Deckard here heads back home the right way." She glances at the blue heeler. "Dogmeat, you keep him company, okay?"

The dog wags his tail in a manner that suggests he heard his name and very little else in that sentence.

"All right. I'll be back in a little bit." She nods to Deckard. "Come on. Let's go see if we can't get the right door open for you..."

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

Deckard takes a last look at Harkness, sighs, and then turns to follow Ellen out the door.

Los Angeles has never made more sense to him.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

The door they wind up using to get back to Milliways is the entrance to the Anacostia Crossing metro- after all, the deck guards saw them come in, so they need to see Deckard leave. As Ellen opens the door to the Bar she says, "Thank you for all your help. Believe it or not, I appreciate it."

[replicant-cop.livejournal.com]

Deckard looks through the door and offers her a sad smile.

"You're welcome."

One last look behind them before he passes through the Door.

"Watch after yourself, all right?"

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

"I will," Ellen promises. "I'll keep you posted via the Bar, too."

She waits until he's entered the Bar and closed the door behind him before she turns to head back to the ship. She's going to need a few words with Harkness first, and then she's going to give Dr. Zimmer a package.

So much for her hopes of getting paid. Oh, well.