R-Investigator 24955: Connection established.

Holding the controllers in each hand, and with the sleek black helmet fitted snugly over his head, Laith tried to remember what he’d learned from his training sessions with the Rinvestigators a few years ago. It had been a while, but he was pretty certain he still knew the important pieces of information about controlling a Rinvestigator and getting what he needed. Still, he had to admit, he was a bit rusty and out of practice.

Truth be told, he’d been due for a refresher course more than six months ago, but given the slow-moving pace of the homicide department at the Heliopolis Police, nobody had really thought it an urgent matter. Other departments usually got prioritized in weapons and equipment training, given that they saw a lot more action that the homicide department ever seemed to. We’ll probably never get to use one, anyway, his colleagues had said with a shrug, and Laith had allowed himself to agree with them and neglect his training.

A small twinge of regret made its way into his mind, but now was not the time to feel disappointed or sorry for himself. Besides, these things were relatively easy to control, if memory served, and they interfaced with PATET’s artificial intelligence to create a smooth and intuitive experience for the controller. All he needed to do, really, was nudge it in the right direction.

Welcome, Detective Laith Alazraq of the Heliopolis Police Department Homicide Division.

Please wait while connection to audiovisual feed is established.

The screen in his helmet visor came to life to present a direct feed of the Rinvestigator’s field of vision, which at first consisted of complete darkness. Then the doors to the Rinvestigator’s pod opened, and Laith began controlling the robot remotely, leading it out of the small structure – one of dozens lined up in neat rows, row atop row. His Rinvestigator was on the second row up, and so when it left its pod, it jumped and landed, its legs bending mechanically to lighten the impact. He led it out of Rinvestigator Hold #67 and into the sun-drenched street, heading for the nearest border checkpoint.

The Rinvestigators were located on the inner perimeter of the city, which made it easier for them to be commanded remotely for investigations or expeditions that required journeys out of the safety of the limits of Heliopolis and into the lawless expanse that were the Ruins. The retrieval of Aster Lockwood’s Slate was one such journey.

If Laith was lucky, that would be where he could find Lockwood, too – though he was highly doubtful of that possibility, as the slate hadn’t moved at all since he’d first asked PATET to track it. Nevertheless, it was worth it to go out there and retrieve the Slate. If it was still being picked up by PATET, then it might still be functional, and he could learn more about Lockwood and Grove.

He had reached the checkpoint at the outer limits of Southern Heliopolis, and passed through it without any trouble. PATET acknowledged that a Rinvestigator could only be taken out with clearance from the relevant authorities, but every Rinvestigator was linked to the system, and at all times PATET knew what each Rinvestigator was up to and why.

Laith sucked in a deep breath, officially on the other side of the three-layered checkpoint now and in the Ruins. Even though he was sitting in the safety of his office and was controlling the robot remotely, it was unsettling to be outside of the city. He had heard so many stories – stories on the news and stories starring a friend of a friend and stories told by fellow colleagues – that painted a very hazardous image of the realm beyond the eco-cities of the world. The Ruins were a frightening place to be, in person. Would Aster Lockwood even be alive, out here on his own?

The better question, Laith reminded himself, was why he was out here – if he was. The presence of his Slate didn’t necessarily equate to his presence as well. He might have dropped it off and ran. Or it might have been stolen. Laith always tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Things looked pretty bad for Aster Lockwood, but maybe he really was innocent. And maybe he was just another victim.

As he tilted the controllers forward, moving the engineering feat that was the Rinvestigator through the grim and cluttered landscape of the Ruins, he wondered what life had been like for people here, once upon a time. What was the name of this place? He’d read it somewhere in a book, but couldn’t remember now.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

The Rinvestigator passed through the crumbling buildings, overrun with moss, ivy, and a range of persistent wild weeds, and Laith had the strange feeling that something was moving in the corner of his vision. He turned to survey the area – the buildings, many of which sported broken windows and hollow, cave-like interiors, were empty. But the growing sense of anxiety would not let him be.

Move forward, he told himself, swallowing hard. Find the Slate and go home. That was all he had to do.

The path he was taking was one of the old roads – streets made of asphalt concrete, all cracked and battered, weeds poking out of the fissures that time had long since created. Old-fashioned cars, rusting and abandoned, littered the sides of the street – back when everyone seemed to require a car of their own, and purchased vehicles that belched harmful pollutants into the air. Those days were long gone; the cars of the here and now were nothing like their predecessors in that respect. Completely run on clean energy and made to ensure that they didn’t dispel dangerous substances into the air, the vehicles used in Heliopolis and its sister cities were nothing short of environmentally unobtrusive. Nevertheless, Laith had a bit of an urge to try some of them – to see if they still ran and, if so, what it felt like to drive one of these relics.

Instead, Laith passed by them, taking in the sorry sight that was once a city renowned throughout the world, a center of commerce and finance, a hub for the wealthy and powerful. None of that remained now. All that was left were the ruins of a capitalist civilization rendered obsolete by the requirements of human progress. Hollow buildings and broken roads against the ravages of time.

And there was garbage. Lots of garbage. Laith realized now why the Heliopolitan outlook was to clean up the areas surrounding the city and slowly but surely rehabilitate them. It was as much an act of kindness and healing for the earth as it was a necessity for them all. This could not be left the way it was. And, if he'd heard correctly, they were actually planning on repurposing Rinvestigators - or creating robots that worked in the same remote way - for the clean-up efforts, so that workers would not be endangering themselves. Laith wondered when they were planning on getting started. A few minutes in the Ruins and he'd already realized that the sooner this place was cleaned up, the better.

A glance at the small map provided by PATET showed him that he was nearing the location of the Slate. So far, the Rinvestigator had been traveling through the Ruins at a steady pace, which Laith had chosen specifically for its stealth benefits. If there was any truth to the stories he had heard – and he supposed that there was always some truth to be found in such stories – then he didn’t want to let any inhabitants of this particular area know of his arrival. He didn’t want any trouble.

Not that there seemed to be much of it to be had, with the Rinvestigator doing all the work. Its reinforced, armored exoskeleton left little vulnerability to exploit, unless one knew exactly where to look, and it had a range of weapons hidden within its frame that could be used in tricky situations. Laith did not want to use them if he could help it. He’d never felt right about deadly weaponry. All those times during training when he’d been working on his shooting and weapon-related skills, he’d felt wrong. He knew it was important to work on these skills, but he’d always been determined that he’d never have to use them.

500 meters to destination.

Laith glanced at the map. He turned right down a long, narrow street, and the audiovisual feed picked up on some kind of clattering noise. He looked around, but there was nothing to be found. His unease at the situation grew, but he squashed it down and tried to focus on the task at hand, making his way down the street and turning right at the very end.

400 meters to destination.

And so it went. Turning this way and that through a maze of streets using a map of the city prior to its abandonment and dilapidation, he made his way towards the location, the notifications from PATET letting him know that he was getting closer and closer to Aster Lockwood’s Slate. Finally, he reached the destination.

It was an old-fashioned car park, with only a handful of empty spots. Arranged in uneven rows, dozens of cars filled the parking lot, and Laith navigated his Rinvestigator through them all as he honed in on the Slate’s location. He found the item lying conspicuously on the ground in one of the few empty spaces on the lot, and from what he could tell, the screen had been shattered. Perhaps it had fallen. Perhaps it had been left there on purpose. Whatever the case, Laith had located Aster Lockwood’s Slate, and it was time for him to take it back with him.

He took panoramic imaging of the scene, careful to keep the Rinvestigator still as he did so, and waited for a moment while the images rendered and uploaded to the PATET system. Just like the Slate, the Rinvestigator was close enough to the limits of Heliopolis that PATET could still interact with it. It helped, too, that it was fitted with additional signal amplification systems to allow for longer-reaching communication. It didn’t take more than a couple of minutes for the process to be complete. Then, he had the Rinvestigator pick up the slate carefully and place it in its chest compartment – an area of the robot that was kept for storing small pieces of evidence for later analysis.

With the Slate safely tucked away behind the Rinvestigator’s exoskeletal armor, Laith began to guide it back to Heliopolis. Mission accomplished, he told himself with relief. Let’s get this back home and see how Lockwood fits into this whole mess.

He barely made it out of the parking lot when a loud set of cracking noises filled the air, echoing loudly through the empty streets and buildings surrounding him. Wincing, Laith turned down the volume from the audio feed, slightly disoriented by the sudden shock the noise had given him.

Almost immediately, the screen became tinged with red – a warning sign. He read the message that popped up on his helmet’s visor, the sense of unease hurtling into full-blown panic as the flashing words registered in his mind.

Warning: You are under attack.