Case - 2 : Bobble Bobble

Floating in the lane dedicated to the hoverboards, I sailed downwind toward my destination. Taking the free time to organize any requests that I had to submit to get the warrant signed for this case.

'How do I prove this is not a suicide but a murder.'

'A man died by falling off a landing deck.'

'If it was a murder there would've been some wounds on his body, but there were none.'

'So someone instigated him to kill himself?'

'But what news would do that to a person who has no friends?'

'It doesn't seem like the only two people in his life were lying to him about the work on the memory oracle thingumajig, or even cheating on him behind his back. So what else could it be?'

'Probably cause. What could pass off as probable cause for a warrant?'

'Would turning this case into a high profile case be acceptable for getting a warrant?'

'I mean, if someone knew how the machine worked it had to be him, so whoever might want the tech to reverse Mindwiping would go after him.'

'Perhaps the victim was forced to commit suicide or bad people would try and lay their hands on him?'

'Now I just need proof that backs up my claim that he could be targeted by richer companies and they could blackmail him to get them.'

'But how would that be possible when everyone in the company was under an NDA?'

'...NDA?'

'Did he sign an NDA in the first place?'

'I should ask Lazarus to send me the information if possible.'

My floating mind halted along with the Hoverboard as we reached the landing deck of the police HQ where I was drowning in pain just a couple of hours ago.

'Huh. I guess sometimes taking a walk outside can distract your mind too.'

Leaving my Hoverbaord to park automatically, I walked into the building greeting Novie along the way, "Good afternoon Novie!"

"It surely is a great afternoon!" Novie spoke as her eyes played the unique animation they did whenever she was 'happy'.

'Hmm...did something nice happen? Novie seems cheerful today.'

"I can't seem to recall what put you into such a good mood Novie, am I missing someone's birthday?"

"No Dave, it's you! You finally took care of yourself! Isn't that an achievement!?"

"I'm glad you're always worried about me Novie. Whatever would I do without you."

"I'm happy to be here to talk to you whenever you need help! Remember I'm a robot that has passed the psych helper evaluation exams too!"

"Will do. Could you send Anneliese up to my office when she returns from Hawthorne's lab?"

"Sure."

"Thanks, see you later!"

After the short, hand-waving good-bye animation, played on her screen, Novie played ping pong by transforming her eyes into paddles while she waited for the next person to arrive through the doors.

Entering my office I inhaled a deep stench which prompted me to wait outside while I ordered for it to be cleaned, after connecting to the office network and turning on the AC at full blast.

DING

Suddenly surprising me, a notification popped on my AR screen with a sound accompanying it. 

Someone was reading the notification in a high-pitched voice that would've been annoying had it not been a short sentence.

"You have a message from Anneliese." the high-pitched voice said.

'Did I forget to turn off notifications?'

I quickly switched to my settings panel and went through the options only to realize, the thing I dreaded more than being mindwiped had happened to me. My AR glasses did not have any settings for turning off notification sounds.

sigh

I guess I understand why people built mods for this thing.

Since there was no one else around in the hallway, I just spoke out loud to command the unified AI that belonged to Inception City.

"Please find me a mod for my AR glasses that will let me toggle notification sounds."

DING DING

"I shall work on that. I have found eight hundred mods that are compatible with the specifications of your AR glasses. Which one would you like to choose?"

"The one with the highest score when ratings per downloads are considered."

DING DING

"Picking the best for you."

DING DING

Suffering the onslaught of notifications from the AI, I was finally prompted with a screen that the AI read out for me, "Do you want to install the mod onto your device?"

"Yes."

DING DING

"Installing mod. Installation finished. Please wait while I reboot your AR glasses for the mod to take effect."

The AR glasses rebooted again and played the silly sailor mouse animation before opening to a fresh display. A new prompt appeared, which the AI read out loud again, but without the notification sounds this time.

"Is the installed MOD satisfactory?"

"Yes, it is. Thank you."

"No problem. Would you like me to leave a review?"

"You can after a day or so if I haven't changed the mod yet."

"I understand. Is there anything else?"

"No, you may leave."

"Although I cannot 'leave' the AR glasses, I will attempt to follow your command by putting myself to sleep, until you need me again."

"Then do it, or do you want me to kiss you good night?"

"I detect that you have a few unresolved issues, would you like to book an appointment for therapy?"

"No. Please put yourself to sleep."

"I will."

"Thank you."

Having gotten rid of the troublesome AI that would've constantly monitored me had I done something in its presence, I walked back into my now fresh-smelling office and looked at the variety of trinkets loaded around it.

'Are these things Gracewells?' I thought as I picked up a bobblehead toy of Novie and her replica of an antique design of a CRT monitor for a head.

'How did I miss these things the last week I was here?'

'I've never seen Gracewell with bobbleheads before since...well since she was mindwiped.'

The LEDs on the screen played the unique ping-pong animation while the rest of her head bobbed back and forth.

'It's almost like she's using her own head as a controller. Does the real Novie do that? I should ask her about it later.'

A new screen soon appeared in front of me. It read, 'Novie has sent you a message.'

'Anneliese is about to enter your room.'

Not even a second later I heard a soft knock on the door.

"Enter."

Anneliese walked into the room in full stride, as she watched me holding a bobblehead of Novie causing her eyes to light up. It made her stiff posture a little looser as she jumped on her toes a little.

"Oh! You like bobbleheads too!?"

Seeing her so genuinely happy about something it felt a little wrong to make her unhappy so I played along. "I guess, I do?"

'I guess I'm now a bobblehead expert.'

"Wait, but why aren't they in your home!? Did you hide them because you thought I'd take them!? No. You aren't such a scrooge. Oh...are they Gracewell's?"

'I guess my bobblehead fantasy was meant to be short-lived. Not all dreams are meant to come true after all.'

"Good job figuring out my crime, but let's forget about that for a second. Could you email Mr. Lazarus the CEO of M-"

"-Mnemosyne Memory Retrieval?"

"Oh? You looked up the name of where our victim worked. That's good."

"Ehh...actually, I heard about Lazarus in the casino."

"..oh. What was he doing there?"

"Nothing. He never went to such places. I only heard people talking about him there because he was such a straight arrow. Everyone used to think he was too uptight because he did everything by the rules."

"Oh...nothing interesting then. Anyway, send him an email asking him if Prometheus had signed an NDA or not."

"Alright. Did you see the message I sent you?"

"No. Not yet. I was about to when I got sidetracked upon noticing Gracewell's strange obsession with bobbleheads had returned."

"Yes, Sergeant!" Anneliese saluted me and began to walk out of the room.

Just before she left the room though, she turned around and spoke a few words in a code, "Sometimes it is better to face the truth than to hide yourself from it." and then continued on her way out.

'Strange woman.' I thought. 'But nice to know that she doesn't wear that fake mask all the time at least.'

I sat down on my office chair and began to shortlist the judges who would sign off on a warrant for me.

It had become hard to get judges to sign off on a warrant, since the Warrant Anonymity Act prevented both sides from knowing each other's identity. That is, I wouldn't find out which judge signed my warrant and the judge wouldn't know it was my warrant in the first place.

Initially, people got around it by using a particular tone in their warrant requests or matching the timings of their shifts. But with AI butting its head into every field of our lives, it became more and more difficult because you now had to use AI to write the warrant in a neutral tone and use the AI to deliver your warrant at a random time.

Even the shortlist wasn't anything specific because it wasn't about selecting who would get you request but about who should not.

Another notification blocked my screen as I saw a new message from Novie, 'Lieutenant Gracewell's headed your way. Be mindful. Remember it is a good day.'

'...'

'Why is she here?'

'Bobbleheads?'

'..who told he- Anneliese!'

'Damn it!'

'I guess now she has extra work to do. Making a shortlist by referencing our old warrant requests should be easy.'

knock knock

"Come in." I said calmly as Gracewell walked in.

"What do you need Lieutenant Gracewell?"

"I don't need anything, Sergeant. I'm here to ask you why Anneliese is interfering in my case?"

'Damn! Why did she tell her that of all things!?'

"She is doing so on my orders."

"I could understand if it was you trying to guide me, but all I see you do is hijack my investigation. Do you want another one of your recruits to die an untimely death?"

My eyes must've turned cold because I saw Gracewell shiver as my eyes pierced right into her own.

"Are you implying something Lieutenant Gracewell?"

"No sergeant, I was only trying to remind you that negligence can be costly."

I took a deep breath by closing my eyes to calm myself and looked back at Gracewell after a soft exhale.

"I see. I will only delegate scut work to Anneliese, you are free to use her if you want to as well." I spoke and started sending a message to Anneliese about her new tasks. About having to shortlist all the judges and send me the email she'd written for Lazarus so that I could send it myself.

"Do you need anything else, Lieutenant Gracewell?" I asked since I saw Gracewell had not left yet.

"Can I take back my figurines?" Gracewell asked and belatedly added a "sir." to her sentence.

"You may." I nodded and went back to looking at my AR glasses, trying my best to hide all that I remember about the bobbleheads.

It was hard but I held on since my imaginations weren't a reality.

"Then I will be back in the evening for them Sergeant Dave." Gracewell spoke and left, but I stopped her at the door, "Where did you get those limited edition bobbleheads of the Police HQ staff?"

"Oh." Gracewell sounded a little disappointed but continued, "I found them among the things that I'd cleared out a couple of years ago."

"'I just felt like they fit in with the office.'"

I mumbled along with Gracewell knowing the lines she'd use. Something she'd used a million times before when she wanted to decorate my otherwise 'bland' office for me.

"I think they do fit in well. If you have any extras you may send them to me."

"I will see what I can do."

The door shut after Gracewell left, leaving me to waste a few drops of water as I wiped them away quickly.

'Maybe...maybe there's hop-'

"No. I need to stop thinking about useless things."

DING

The notification sound came back as I almost punched through my hovering AR screen into the solid hardwood desk and broke my knuckles in shock.

"Shit."

Selecting the mic icon I spoke to the City's AI that had fallen asleep.

"Althea, please rate the mod a zero out of whatever and blacklist any applications from that particular developer from appearing in my search results ever again."

DING DING

"Applying appropriate filters to customize and tailor search results to your liking."

"Also search for other mods, please. And see if any of them actually work by scanning their code first."

"I am sworn to carry your burdens."

I read the notification that had interrupted my thoughts and found Anneliese had already sent me the email. To which I replied with, "Good job."

'A good boss always rewards his workers. What do I get Anneliese?'

'A coupon?'

'A coupon for bobbleheads perhaps?'