18 - Reboot
It took everything I had to maintain my composure.
There were two men standing over you. They both had computer terminals open on their laptops. There were wires connected from the computers to the various parts of your disassembled body.
"Almost finished up here, sir." One of them said.
"Good, good," the inspector replied. Then, turning to me "This is Mrs. Walsh. You might remember her from the meeting you had with her husband. She is an android. I'm not sure if you knew that part. We'll have her testimony shortly."
"I see," I said again, feebly, and while swallowing back vomit.
"Of course," the inspector continued, "All this is more of a formality. We don't expect to find much. If an android really wants to get away with something, they can always buy some black market encryption protocols and hide what they want from us. Never hurts to have a look though, right?"
I nodded automatically. I couldn't take my eyes off you Judy. What was left of you.
"Humans, on the other hand. Humans like me or..." he paused here, his gaze scrutinizing me, his mind gradually putting the final pieces of the puzzle together, "...you, or anyone, really. They always slip up. Luckily for us, androids can't usually get away with much on their own. They typically need some kind of unwitting accomplice. For now, at least. I suppose they'll eventually evolve some kind of backdoor for bypassing the parts of their protocol that restrict violence, crime, murder, and all that. When that happens were all screwed. Don't you agree?"
He was just toying with me by that point. I knew he had figured most of it out now. I should have never come to your place. It was the final, damning mistake in a lifetime of missteps. There was no crawling back from it now.
Even though I could see everything clearly now, something still drew me to you, Judy, I longed for you. There was still some perverse hope operating in some part of my brain.
"Will you put her back together when you are finished?" I mumbled.
"What's that?" the inspector asked. "Put her back together? Why, yes, of course! No point in throwing away a perfectly good piece of machinery. She really is a beauty, isn't she?"
He walked toward the table and straitened out the folded, rubber face. I almost lunged at him when I saw him caressing your cheek.
"Of course, she'll have to undergo a full reboot. Wiped clean. No memory, no bad code."
My heart dropped.
"If we do find anything about her husbands murder in her database, there are some procedures for prosecuting 'software' these days. Can you believe it? Well, it's the only way to hold these rogue androids to account. But the framework, the bodies, they become 'innocent' again once they are rebooted. They can go back to their lives. Be sold to new owners. Be repurposed, whatever. They are never sent to prison or anything like that. But she'll be put back together, yes. With care."
I couldn't take it any more, I got outta there as fast as I could.