"I just saw a murder happen."
"What?"
Kang turned down his holo-display by pinching his fingers together as the Civilian Assistance CIT bot slowed to a stop right next to him, but still hovering too high to make eye contact with him.
A somewhat overweight Caucasian male, who, judging by his gear, wasn't any better of a natural athlete than Kang himself, slumped in the seat of the all-terrain robot. His eyes were focused on the scene through the CIT bot's front window, but lowered when he noticed Kang staring back at him.
"My apologies," Kang said, removing his hands from his ears. "I didn't hear what you just said."
The CIT bot's AI re-started the conversation. "I said, I just saw a murder happen."
Kang turned up his display. "Are you sure?"
"He was stabbed in the heart, so yeah." The CIT bot's driver cleared his throat. "Unless that's the new way for someone to wish you 'hello'."
Kang rolled his eyes and quickly pulled up the CIT bot's default destination, which was still a few blocks away. That was at least two minutes of travel that he had to make up.
"Is it bad?" The CIT bot's voice sounded muffled through his ears as he mumbled through his usual sonic dampening hood.
"What is it?"
"The old guy. I think he stabbed himself in the heart."
In some ways, the CIT bot's perception of the scene was far more accurate than Kang's. The AI had more sensory data at its disposal and was more accurate in determining locations, vital signs and directions, which Kang lacked. The drawback of that was the CIT bot's usually loquaciously quick-to-answer voice could only communicate in text.
"That's great," Kang said. "You got any idea who they are?"
The CIT bot waved its hand off to one side. "No idea. The emergency services weren't doing anything though. I keep seeing these cams on the far side so I don't think they were on their way to help."
"What about the camera feeds on our side?"
The CIT bot waved its hand back to its side. "They're not showing anything. I have no idea where they are, which is scary."
Kang nodded in agreement. The CIT bot was always watching from either side of the street as its main mission of assisting civilians in semi-dangerous scenarios. Any of the civilians nearby could request their intervention, but more often than not, they were set up to watch over the busy areas of downtown Philadelphia as they watched clusters of people moving in between shops and restaurants. If someone was doing something out of the ordinary, such as staring off into space in the middle of a busy parking lot, chances are the CIT bots would have noticed.
"Yup, that's beyond scary," Kang said. "Just focus on the job at hand for now. What's the big picture of the scene?"
"I've got a body on the street, one tall and one short. They're definitely not from the murder, though. They're in some kind of trouble. The tall one's shooting a handgun."
Kang remembered how that sounded. All of the sudden, he had the CIT bot's history and data in front of him again. "What's their name? What are the details of the crime?"
"I told you. I don't know. I'm headed to the crime scene."
"You're going there without any discernible exterior items that might be able to help me? Are you serious?"
The CIT bot never lowered its voice as it replied, "Of course."
"That's not even funny." Kang let out a huff of breath. "I thought you wanted to help people. I get that you want to help people. But are you seriously going there without a communicator?"
The CIT bot's driver let out a quiet giggle. The AI wasn't funny. Virtually anyone outside the local area would be able to call the CIT bots to request assistance, but since they knew where the CIT bots were at all times, they didn't take their occupation as a joke, especially since they were programmed to make their job as difficult as possible.
"I told you. I don't have one. I don't even have a watch with a communicator clasp."
Kang had only just crossed over Divisadero Street. He pulled down the holo-display and backed up while the CIT bot did the same on the opposite side of the street. Traffic instantly picked up, but the bots themselves did not move.
"I told you, I don't have a communicator. I'm not wearing one; I'm not carrying one."
"Then how do you have a life? Are you carrying around a walkie-talkie?"
Kang crossed back and the bots crossed with him this time. Their top speeds were at forty miles per hour, just short of Kang's own.
"Walkie-talkies are for emergencies," the CIT bot's driver stated. "I know you don't understand all of this yet, but when a citizen calls us, it gets delivered to the nearest bot, who is then instructed to either go to their location or head to a nearby CIT pod, which are located as far as ten miles away. We can't drive! We can't use the roads. We don't have the capacity to handle the demands of the job, but they want romancey talkie-talkie service like the one you watched when you were at the mall during your girl scout expedition."
"Fair," Kang conceded. "Let's get in the middle of this. I have a feeling that I'm about to be there soon. How much time travel do we have?"
"I don't have time to count down. Just focus on why we're being sent."
The light turned green and Kang looked in the rearview mirror to see the CIT bot on his left-rear side mirror, still as it ever was. He had been driving for barely an hour and he was already accustomed to the strangeness of only tracking one thing. It was a new way of life and he wasn't used to it.
"Okay," he said. "I got you."
"Why were you given this case?" the CIT bot's driver asked.
"I was told to handle this."
"That's a first."
Kang let out a sigh as he looked up at the sky. Even though he knew it was daytime, the weather was graying incredibly quickly. An incoming storm was beginning to roll in. He had forgotten just how much he disliked the rain.
"Not a smart one by any stretch of imagination," the CIT bot's driver continued. "I would say you're the mastermind; I think you're probably going to vanish after this."
"If that happens," Kang stated. "I'm not going to go quietly. I will have justice for you, for the people."
The bots did not reply.
