text: The sixth-floor apartment they lived in was nothing special. It was out of the inner city, far enough to miss most of the commotion, but not far enough for a house that the rich liked to live in. The wife looked after three children of the home; aged eight, five and two. A police salary covered the cost of the apartment and not much else, but that was about what was expected. Leon left before anyone else was awake. Walking three blocks from the apartment block, he boarded the first train of the morning, sat for exactly six stops before taking the first exit out of Watanabe Station, heading up the stairs to the left. The glare from the streetlights hit his eyes as usual. It was early in the morning, not that the sky lightened much further later in the day. The eerie glow from streetlights were a standard fixture throughout the city, pollution covering the sky in a thick layer. Gas masks or other breathing apparatus also weren’t an unusual sight for the health conscious, not that anyone too careful about their health would be living within city limits. It’s where the money is, of course, but it’s not for the faint of heart. The rich often worked here but commuted out of the city to make their home, for their sake of their longevity. Even still, jobs were hard to come by unless you were identified as someone at the top of your field. Entry-level positions were essentially non-existent. With the advancement of Artificial Intelligence in the last century, cityscapes were dominated by a robotic workforce. Why would a company pay a salary to a human worker when they could purchase a robot to do it for free? There weren’t AI unions, or health and safety regulations on the artificial workforce. They were engineered to be more resilient, both mentally and physically, than their fleshy counterparts. Human workers still had a place, but they were few and far between; either in a managerial position or a specialist role a corporation wouldn’t trust a robot with. Just a few short blocks from the station, Leon entered the Watanabe Police Force headquarters, the largest building in Watanabe city. Low-level criminals were housed underneath the facility in a minimum-security prison, but Leon was headed to the top floor. When room for outwards expansion of the city stopped being an option, buildings went upwards. “Leon, about time you showed up,” a large officer greeted him as the elevator door opened, “we need you in room four right away” Leon was the lead interrogator of the force, trusted with interviewing any sort of dangerous criminal who posed a serious risk to the safety of the citizens of Watanabe City and the surrounding areas. In this age, terrorism was a huge threat, and Leon often worked closely with other police bureaus to keep an eye on a number of known gangs and terrorist organisations looking to leave their mark on one of the big cities. Entering the viewing chamber behind room four, Leon was met by two leading officers. “Coffee, Leon?” A server robot asked “No, thanks” Leon replied “And you, Officer Reynolds?” The robot enquired The officer shook his head before turning to Leon. “We think this one was programmed to deliver and detonate an explosive in the city centre,” he briefed, “We don’t know who he’s with, but he was caught with an unarmed bomb near town square and brought here. We figured you could get the rest out of him.” “Has it talked yet?” Leon inquired “Not a word” Leon nodded, heading out the corridor and unlocking the door into room four. The robot sat shackled to a chair, motionless. Taking a look at the one-way glass he was behind just moments before, Leon prepared to do his job, shutting the heavy door behind him and locking it. The interrogation of an AI isn’t how you might picture a typical questioning of a terrorist. There’s no blood or waterboarding, no sleep deprivation or obstruction of common liberties. This wasn’t Guantanamo Bay and a robot wasn’t your standard terrorist. Leon specialised in getting information out of these mechanical terrorists, finding out who programmed them and why, what connections they have in the criminal underworld, and extracting any knowledge they may have of planned attacks. The ‘interrogation’ was more of a controlled hacking, overcoming the robots encoded systems and trawling through code that corresponded to stored memories and information. The code could be converted back into a format that allowed the officers to see what the AI had experienced before it was captured, but Leon was just responsible for overcoming security protocols installed in the robot by whatever gang it was working with. Whenever the process was complete, the robot would either be destroyed or wiped and repurposed. After seven hours in interrogation room four, the extraction was complete. Leon exited to the room to congratulations from other officers, it was their turn to sort through the data now, but without Leon the force wouldn’t be able to extract the data at all. “What’s the plan for the robot?” Leon asked one of the senior officers “It depends on how deep he is with whatever group he’s working with,” The officer answered, “with no bombs gone off they’re going to know we got him, but he might still be useful for us.” Leon nodded, “understood.” The elevator ride down the building always felt longer than the ride up, but today was an exception even to that. Leon was halfway down when the elevator shook with the vibrations of an explosion coming from above. The lift fell free a few floors before catching on the cable again and continuing smoothly to the bottom. Leon braced himself as the elevator reached the bottom floor, half expecting to be ambushed, but nobody greeted him. Running outside, Leon saw a crowd had gathered observing the damage. Leon looked up and knew right away what had happened. The top section of the building was in flames, windows having been blown out and parts of the walls scattered on the ground around the crowd. Neighbouring buildings were damaged too, their proximity to the police station causing them to take force from the explosion. A few people were bleeding, hit by debris falling from the building above, but they were much better off than the poor souls that had been on the top floor. The robot must’ve had a bomb hidden within it somewhere, a part Leon must’ve overlooked. He was lucky to make it out of there, most of the other officers were on the top floor when the building exploded. They wouldn’t have survived that. Sirens converged as other emergency services attended the scene. The upper floors wouldn’t be saved, Leon knew, but the bottom half of the building would likely survive. Attacks on law enforcement weren’t the rarest occasion, but one this successful was uncommon to say the least. Leon was picked up by a group of police analysts from a neighbouring precinct, questioned for what he knew and what he had seen, and then released to continue on his day. “You’ll be contacted and informed of what happens next,” he had been told. There was nothing for Leon to do except head home and await instructions. Leon stood in the kitchen, his thoughts on what had occurred that day. He held himself responsible. It was something he could’ve caught had he looked closer at the robot, but he hadn’t. The other officers would’ve caught in when they went through the code later, of course, but it had exploded before they had a chance. It was sheer luck Leon had left when he did, or he would’ve been caught up in the blast too. Leon heard the jangling of keys as the front door opened, Senior Officer Kennedy stepping inside. He hadn’t been at the station that day, luckily for his sake. He was on patrol when the explosion happened. The wife met him at the door, embracing him. “Welcome back sweetheart,” she greeted him “Thank you darling,” Kennedy returned. “Daddy!” The middle of the three kids greeted, glad to have their father home. Leon watched the family, part of him wishing he was able to have the same. “Leon,” The wife said, “How about you get dinner started?” “Yes ma’am” Leon obeyed. Leon retreated to his room to prepare. There was no bed in his room, which was around the same size as a closet. There was a mirror on the far wall, which Leon stood in front of. He looked down at his gloved hands, removing one and then the other to reveal his metal palms. He unbuttoned his police uniform, replacing it with a white button up shirt and bow tie, and an ironed pair of black trousers. He wasn’t required to wear an apron, the family weren’t that traditional, but the rest of the uniform comforted him with a sense of purpose. He glanced in the mirror, looking at his artificial features, and prepared for his home duties.