"No dice, Mr. de Capone" sneers Hosoi, accent heavy on the supposed name of his partner, as he looks at the result of the quick scan on his phone. The recording folder is missing some recordings from the last few days, meaning that they've hit another dead end in their investigation. "No clue on what happened to the neural chip, nor the VIP..."

  John Ironskin, on the way to the VIP room realized that the detectives are going to be made aware of his supposed tricking of the security guard to get the recordings from the last few days, have decided to also delete today's recording.

  'Tch! I've hit an impasse... I could ask them to do a deep scan involving the deleted recordings but that would expose my crime!' he whispered quickly in his electronic circuit brain as he wrecked his circuit boards on the next steps.

  He added a small note, relenting to the fact that his crimes might be uncovered. While there is that risk of his crime being detected if they perform data recovery of his deleted data, the benefits of understanding what happened that led him to this current body is greater!

  'Okay... Then, we'll encrypt the data and hopes no one asks

  .... Firstly, let's lower my graphical setting to allow for more RAM, more processing to be done faster. Now, I can just see shapes in my vision. Shapes of the bed, Hosoi Sen, Hahn Vater, and Piero Lito appear in my vision as rectangular with me only able to tell them apart by their size.

  ... Then, we'll send the detectives a short message through a text file...

  "What's this?" asks Hosoi Sen, who was staring at text file that read 'There are deleted files in me. Please perform a full, deep scan involving the deleted data'

  The blond junior detective stares at Effie for a moment, having read it out loud for his partner. His partner raises an eyebrow, curious at the sudden interruption in his through checking of the room. While they are caught off guard by the text file, he quickly encrypts today's recording hoping the pair of detectives doesn't ask him about it.

  "Do it" says Piero Lito.

  "But it's gonna take forever to finish..." complains Hosoi Sen.

  "So, better start it quickly then," slurs Piero again, heading out through the door, "Let me know when it's done..."

  While waiting for the deep scan to finish, John as Effie decided to take this moment to inquire the detective about what had happened to him, specifically about what kind of report they obtain...

  But he can't be too overt about. So, leaning on his sex droid personality...

  "Hey, big bro~" Effie whispers out to Hosoi Sen, "So... What's is it about? Did I do something wrong?". She speaks using the cute, childlike voice to Hosoi Sen.

  "Eh?" says Hosoi Sen, his cheeks starting to flush, "No... That shouldn't be the case but-"

  There's clearly something that he was thinking about but couldn't bring up to her just now. "Come on..." she asks cutesy like, "Is it an insurance thing? Is it because I got damaged?"

  She tries to guilt trip Hosoi Sen, now with a whimpering voice and her lens fully dilated, creating a look that just compels one to take sympathy in her.

  "Um. No. We're mainly here to find something the VIP lost" he says softly to Effie, "I don't think you have much to worry about yet. Even the impersonation thing you did earlier today is not big on our priority right now. Especially since the person who reported it already decided to stop pursuing it"

  Effie's expression subtly stammers as she glances hard at Hosoi Sen. She plays it cool, acting like a mistake.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Oooh! Oops! Was it me?" she asks, "I was so curious! I couldn't help myself!"

  "Exactly. It's normal to be curious about what happened on the day we lost our memories," adds the junior detective, "Even if we do want to take charge of such things, the fault will inevitably fall on the IT vendor for not configuring it correctly".

  "How much longer is it going to take, detective?" asks Effie, her eyes staring dagger into the junior detective's eyes. "It's just the two of us in her right now, you know? I'm not sure how much longer I could last before my programming kicks in"

  He fakes a laugh nervously as his face reddens, becoming flush. He couldn't deny that there was a tension between the two and he couldn't help but be pulled into the seduction especially since he was getting such treatment for free.

  Effie also chuckles, staring even deeper into his eyes, "Is it because you're a virgin, Mr. Sen? Should I take the lead instead".

  She begins to purr into his ears.

  That's when Piero Lito enters the room again, more inebriated than before. He takes a good look at his subordinate and the sex droid, smirking silently to himself. Effie stiffens with John taking a silent breath of relief, not needing to continue this charade any longer.

  "There's something wrong with your head, droid," says Piero Lito in a slurring manner, "and I'm not talking about the replacement skull on the back of it".

  "First, the way you impersonated the IT guy this morning was way too human" he staggers all over the room, trying to explain and look cool. This act wasn't really being bought by his partner, who was leering at him by the side of his eyes.

  "Secondly, you're way too passive for a sex droid..." he slurs, dropping on the soft carpet on the floor, "It's like... You're not even interested in it"

  "Indeed. You only made an attempt on me after my partner left" explains Hosoi Sen, a lot more composed compared to his senior partner. "That would explain the personality core error shown in the diagnostic app just now"

  "Then, there's your facial expression" says Piero Lito, "Exactly like a human's. Heh! You probably don't even realize it, do you? You sneer when annoyed, smile, and even click your tongue. No other sex droids does that kind of thing"

  "Well, I am the latest in the top of the line realistic sex dolls after all," explains Effie calmly, "it would make sense I act exactly like a human"

  "Human enough to want to make a phone call and trick security into giving you access?" asks Hosoi Sen, "Even if your compliance chip is damaged, a droid wouldn't resort to such unnecessary steps. I have to commend you for your efficiency however"

  Piero Lito slowly gets up from the ground as Hosoi Sen, holds Effie down. He walks behind her and pull the back of her head open before shining a flashlight into it.

  "Bingo. We found it, Hosoi" says Piero Lito, "The Neural Chip. It's embedded inside of her"

  "Do you mean... It's connected to her right now?" says his subordinate, getting up to get a closer view. Effie sits down with John feeling curious about the new development as well.

  "How could that be? I thought all other droids end up being corrupted, uncontrollable at the change of the neural chips?" he asks again, "How come this droid here can sit here quietly? She may have impersonated someone but she doesn't show the same violent tendencies as the previous cases have".

  "I think it's clear now. We'll have to take you in for further questioning," says Piero Lito, "Have you saved the previous days' recordings, Hossy?"

  "Yes, sir"

  "Come with us, Effie," he commands as he close the back of her head again.

  Just at that moment, a muffled explosion is heard inside the room. It's vibration rockets off the walls as Hosoi Sen is sent to the ground. Then, silence before the noise of an alarm shocks the room.

  "Attention! All customers! Emergency! Please stay in your room and keep quiet until the arrival of authorities!" - an announcement rings out in the room.

  Effie stares at the two detectives before realizing something - she still have the temporary login access to the cameras. She quickly logs in, hoping the access still works.

  Score! The security guard forgot to wipe his credentials despite already alerted to the impersonation? Or perhaps, they were left up intentionally by the IT team? Who knows but now, she can take a look through the cameras to find out what's happening...

  In the camera of the lobby, she can identify the group of attackers. They were moving with precision, striking down any human civilians quickly, checking the lobby from the entrance from corner to corner. She also realizes that they are in a vulnerable spot and they'll be spotted soon if they don't quickly act.

  "We are under attack by a group of droids" says Effie, "A bunch of missing droids according to my facial recognition and they're killing every human in the lobby. Luckily, only a handful of them have guns with most of them acting with improvised weaponry from their surroundings"

  Piero takes a nervous gulp before calling through his emergency radio.

  "Dispatch. Dispatch. At Rusting Rut, requiring urgent backup - attacked by insurgents, believed to be the Circuitry of Change"

  Effie silently cursed to herself. The Circuitry of Change being known as the insurgents that are working towards the goal of freeing all droids!