Man and Machine (TWS)

Shouldn't federal law enforcement be notified of this? This seems like a big deal.

Haha, federal law enforcement. Like that is a thing. What a hilarious notion.
In all seriousness, the Bureau covers pretty much any and all criminal activity that takes place within the confines of the sprawl. In case of widespread civil unrest or terrorism, the federal government might authorize the use of military forces, but other than that the Bureau is expected to take care of things.

That said, you probably should inform the military that there’s an android matching the capabilities of their older, supposedly non-sentient androids on the loose and committing felonies. Well, you’ll inform your higher-ups and they’ll inform the military’s higher-ups. Protocol and whatnot.

Make sure to put out an alert for that android - you want to know the moment someone spots him.

Investigation of the apartment, apartment manager, and neighbors would be good - specifically if anyone noticed anything about his activities leading up to the crime, when he first moved in, and if he had been seen with anyone at all.

Check which companies have the potential to dabble in military grade androids - cross reference that list with the list of companies interested in nanites, possibly further cross-reference it to include companies that Dr. Anderson would have potentially been involved with.

Also does it have to be a company? Is it possible that an individual or small group of individuals augmented an android to the degree you just saw?

It may be worth looking into past reports of excessively strong and capable androids - maybe this isn't the first time this guy has made a scene.

The alert is already out! Hopefully someone will spot him and call in a tip, though you’re not holding your breath. This guy is obviously resourceful, to have hidden himself this long.


You and Evan put your heads together to work on this.

Currently, even “dabbling” in manufacture of military grade androids is what is known as, in legal terms, really really illegal. There are plenty of companies that have the capability to manufacture them, of course, but actually doing so would violate innumerable laws and expose the company involved to the wrath of the Corporate Overwatch Committee. Basically, such a flagrant and severe violation of the law would result in the offending company being dismantled and liquidated. The corporations don’t mess around with that kind of thing.


As far as the connection with the nanites, the companies that are confirmed to be experimenting with them are mostly medical corporations. Anderson didn’t seem to be intimately involved with any of them. Oh, he’s worked and interned at various clinics and hospitals that are subsidiaries of some of those companies, but there’s nothing that suggests he was ever anything but a technician. He did go to school at the Vita Mechanica Institute for Cybernetics And Design, but so did thousands of other people.

Vita Mechanica does produce androids; however, it is not one of the ones that is known to be working with nanotech (this doesn’t necessarily mean that VM isn’t, just that you don’t know it if it is).


It doesn’t have to necessarily be a corporation behind the android. However, the costs would be high, and the expertise necessary difficult to come by. Building an android from scratch is next to impossible outside of one of the major manufacturers, there are too many safeguards in place to prevent people from getting the necessary parts and equipment. Modifying an existing android would be possible, maybe, but incredibly difficult. He would need new parts, and programming to allow him access to any new functionality included with those parts. The parts would still be very difficult to requisition, and finding a programmer wouldn’t be easy either… seeing as it’s illegal to mess with an android’s programming, except in very specific situations. Assembly would be somewhat easier, needing only a technician with experience in android repair. Or prosthetic repair.

Hmm.

You’ll be sure to look for any past reports of unusual androids, though you don’t know what will turn up. This is the kind of thing that gets the Bureau’s attention.

Talk to forensics and check out the apartment. Try to figure out how long the android's been there, and check for traces of humans being in the apartment.

All right, crazy-ish android theories.

1) He had a specific reason to kill Anderson. Perhaps he, and the nanites, were part of some off-the-grid project Anderson was involved in? The android escaped with some stolen nanites and is now trying to kill everyone involved in the project.
2) The android takes orders from somebody else, and has some kind of safety precaution that doesn't let him kill unless he has a direct order. (Or maybe not at all? He didn't directly kill Dr. Anderson, technically the preprogrammed nanites did that.)
3) He has nothing to do with the killings. Instead, the actual culprits found this android who had set himself up with an obviously fake human identity, and made their own android designed to look just like him (or otherwise copied his appearance). Then on the offchance police got a description of their killer, they'd chase down Rayt because his fake identity would throw up all kinds of red flags.

Not sure how to go about actually investigating any of these theories right now, other than the first by looking into Anderson's past activities.

For the moment, checking the apartment for possible clues would be good, maybe we can find out if he contacted anyone. And ask the neighbors some questions.

When we've done what we can here, I think we want to take a look at Bolton next.

You head back into the apartment. Forensics has swept it thoroughly. Twice. Which is to say, they searched it. Not that they tidied up the floors (which would be unnecessary, since the place was kept meticulously clean).

They report that they found… nothing. No personal items. No traces of organic material. No signed and notarized confessions reading, “I, Toby Rayt, do confess to the unpleasant and uncalled-for murder of Dirk Anderson, et cetera, et cetera. Here are the details of why I did it and also a list of my various hideouts and aliases...”
They didn’t even find any suspicious dust bunnies.

The display didn’t have stored any information on Rayt that you didn’t already know, except that he has an almost deviant love of soap operas, which were pretty much the only thing he watched. Other than that, his NetBrowser’s history was clean.

According to the records you found, Rayt has been renting this apartment for around three years.

You have uniformed enforcers canvassing the area, but you don’t know what they’ll turn up. This isn’t a full-on slum, but it isn’t exactly a classy neighborhood, either. People here tend to keep their eyes and ears to themselves, if only in self defense.


The head of the forensics team is visibly frustrated, and wants to go over the apartment one more time. There are some stifled groans from a few of the other technicians. You decide to leave them to it for now. They’ll let you know if they find anything.

It’s getting late, now. A quick call to Bolton’s office finds that he’s heading home for the night. You decide to head straight to his home, which is in North Central.

You end up waiting outside Bolton’s apartment for around fifteen minutes before he shows up.

He doesn’t match the image you had in your head for a Simulacrum programmer. He’s tall, well groomed, and in pretty good shape. He has a carry-all looped across his chest, and is carrying a cup of Moon+Star Coffee in one hand. He’s also wearing pince-nez. You have never seen anyone in real life actually wearing pince-nez.

He raises his eyebrows and glances around. “Ah… I hope you’re not here to rob me. Because if you are, you should know that this place has cameras all over the building.”

You show him your badge.

“Mister Bolton? I’m Detective William Case, this is Detective Evan 5-715. If you have a few moments, we’d like to talk to you.”

He looks slightly embarrassed. “Oh! Of course, of course, just let me unlock the door…” He does so and leads you in.

You knew this was an expensive building to live in, and you’ve seen places like this before, but it always surprises you to see an apartment this big and spacious. And, in this case, elegantly decorated. The furniture is sleek and minimalist, the decorations are ultra, ultra modern, and huge windows look out onto the city. Bolton puts down his things on a table near the door and leads you to his sitting room. He sits down on a chair, and invites you to sit on the sofa across from him.

“So what is this all about?” He takes a sip of his coffee.

“We’re investigating the murder of Dirk Anderson.”

Bolton’s eyes widen, and he stares at you in apparent disbelief.

“This… that’s… Oh god…” He slouches down a bit, and takes off his glasses. “I… I just talked to him last week.”

“How did you know Mister Anderson?”

“We went to college together. We were roommates. Got along. We haven’t actually seen each other much since, real-body. We just talk through the Sim sometimes. Who… who would want to kill him?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”

“I’ll help however I can.”

You ask him all of the basic questions. He can’t think of anyone who might have had a grudge against Anderson, whether he had been acting strangely, etc. You don’t uncover anything new. You ask what he knows about implants, to which he replies, “Almost nothing.” You ask if he knows Rayt, or has ever seen him. Nope.

You’re undecided on whether or not you should broach the subject of nanites. On the one hand, Bolton is still a suspect, even if he wasn’t directly involved in the murder, and if he’s responsible you don’t want to tip your hand too soon. On the other hand, from what you understand he is quite knowledgeable about computers and programming, and might have some insight regarding the nanites. Might being the key word. At any rate, you need to figure out what else you’re going to ask him.

SpoilerShow

I'm back, baby! Also, I'm working on fixing the messed up punctuation in the older posts. It'll probably take me a bit.

Fun Fact: The Corporate Overwatch Committee was formed to help the corporations uphold the status quo. It receives funding from every major corporation on the planet, but maintains operational independence. Any time a new patent or innovation is introduced, it must go through the COC. The Committee also makes sure that corporate espionage and violation of international treaties stays within acceptable limits. So far, the COC has remained miraculously free of rampant corruption. How long that will continue to be true is uncertain.