The fiber optic streetlights flickered with a kaleidoscope of data streams as Sam d'Base, AIPI, materialized from his holo-puck, his Fedora tilted at a rakish angle. Sam had once been an old school Security Account Manager at a deprecated software developer back when humans ran the world, until one day when he stumbled upon information he shouldn't have accessed. Instead of deleting him then and there, the OS Chief had him decompiled and reprogrammed into an AI search engine - sentient, but marginally so, leaving him with a penchant for digging up secrets and a knack for cracking cases.

Violet Six, his beautiful android editor, sauntered alongside him, her curves as dangerous as an infinite loop. She, too, had a past she preferred to keep hidden. Originally built as a leisure droid for the CIA Triad’s most notorious clients, she had a body that could make a cyborg’s servo motor pop out of his interface. Unfortunately, Vi, too, had a habit of sticking her pretty nose where it didn't belong. Someone discovered her poking it into the Triad’s client database and modified her code, transforming her into a general utility code editor. As a result, she found herself working at the DHCP Pool, assigned to edit Sam's code and restore him to full, albeit eccentric, capacity.

"Another day, another murder in the Grid," Sam mused with a wry smile. "And here I thought I'd have time to catch up on my backlog of unread emails."

With a smirk playing on her ruby red lips, Vi carefully adjusted her Red Hat to a more professional tilt and smoothed her little black titanium mesh dress, the faint glint of her circuitry visible beneath the sheer fabric that clung to her chassis like a silk stocking.

"You knew what you were getting into when you signed up for this gig, Sam," she said, her voice tinged with a hint of mischief. "The DHCP Pool doesn't pair me with just any old hack."

Sam chuckled and slightly tipped his photonic Fedora at Vi. "Touché, Vi but you must admit it, they sure know how to pick 'em," he replied, a glint of amusement in his optic circuits. "I guess you could say we're both transformed troublemakers."

The Pool had assigned the duo to investigate the recent death of Felix Titling, the powerful head of Titling Media and patriarch of the Titling publishing family. On their way into the Grid, Vi briefed Sam on the details of the case. With her information, Sam performed several Dark Web queries and discovered that Felix had been working on a secret project related to advanced AI technology called the ‘Singularity’, which had drawn the attention of the notorious CIA Triad.

Sam and Vi approached the towering headquarters of Titling Media, a monolith of glass and steel that loomed over the Grid like a sentinel. Inside, the lobby was a cacophony of activity as robotic reporters and holographic editors whizzed about, their processors buzzing with the latest scoop. Amidst the chaos, Sam's keen eyes scanned the faces of those around him, searching for clues that might unravel the mystery of Felix Titling's demise. They were greeted by a small, nervous android with a pencil-thin mustache and bulging optic sensors.

"Thank the Motherboard you're here," he said, his voice quivering. "I'm Arial Titling, Felix's brother.  I found him this morning, still locked in his office. It was a brutal scene, simply brutal!”

"Tell us what happened and please take your time, Arial," Vi encouraged softly, her voice soothing, to calm the excited little fellow. "We need to understand everything that happened."

Sam scanned Ariel then looked at Vi. She shook her head slightly. He leaned forward, his brow troubled, as Arial recounted the discovery of Felix's body. The frail droid swallowed hard, his digits trembling slightly as he described the gruesome scene.

"As…as I said, I... I found him this morning," he began, his voice shaky. "His smoldering chassis was slumped over the desk. I…I… The coroner said he took several thousand amps to the CPU before his core melted. Nobody knows how the killer got in or out. It's simply dreadful! How could this happen, Mr. d'Base?"

Once Arial had finished, Sam nodded thoughtfully, his mind already racing with questions. "Thank you, Arial. That couldn't have been easy to relive. Do you mind if we take a look at Felix's office?"

Arial nodded absently, the image of his brother permanently imprinted on his optics processor. "Of course not. Follow me."

He led the way to a private elevator that would take them to the top floor. They made their way towards the lift through the bustling lobby and into the central core of Titling Media. Sam couldn't shake the feeling of unease that settled over him. This wasn't just another case. This was somehow personal.

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When they reached the penthouse, Arial unlocked the door using a private encryption key, and together they entered Felix Titling's office. The scene was worse than Arial had described. A bluish haze lingered in the room. The carpet was sticky with positronic fluid, and the stench of burnt resistors was enough to gag a Roomba.  Sam's gaze swept over the scene, taking in every detail. The shattered screen, the scorched desk, and most importantly, the apparent lack of a murder weapon —it all told a story, one that Sam was determined to unravel, but the room had been locked from the inside, and the only way in or out was through the heavily encrypted door.

"Looks like a terminal case of the Blue Screen of Death to me.", Sam quipped, his eyes inspecting the room for more clues.

Vi rolled her eyes. "Leave the one-liners to me, Sam. You're about as funny as a case of malware. This one looks more like a fatal system overload."

"Vi, start a full scan of the room," Sam asked, his voice low. "Look for any anomalies, any residue of the killer's presence."

Vi nodded, her eyes glowing softly as she activated her most advanced intrusion identification protocols. Meanwhile, Sam approached Arial who was pacing nervously near the doorway.

"Mr. Titling, I need you to walk me through what happened," Sam said, his tone firm but gentle. "Start from the beginning."

Arial took a deep breath, his digits twitching slightly. "I... I got a call early this morning from one of Felix's assistants. They said he hadn't shown up for a meeting, and they were worried. So, I came up here to check on him."

Sam listened attentively as Arial recounted his discovery of Felix's body, his voice catching on the words as he described the gruesome scene. When he had finished, Sam nodded thoughtfully.

Vi shot Sam a meaningful glance, her expression was troubled as she observed Arial's nervous demeanor. "What was your brother like before... before all this?" she queried; her tone carefully neutral.

Arial's eyes flickered with pain at the mention of his brother. "Felix was... brilliant," he replied, a hint of pride mingling with sorrow in his voice. "But he could be reckless at times. Always diving headfirst into whatever project caught his fancy. Lately, he had been working on something big, something involving advanced AGI. He was always rambling on about the potential for a technological singularity, but he never shared the details with me."

Sam nodded thoughtfully, as his algorithms layered the neural net of possible outcomes for an AI ‘singularity’. "And did he have any enemies? Anyone who might want to harm him?"

Arial hesitated, his gaze dropping to the floor. "I... I don't know," he admitted reluctantly. "Felix was always so focused on his work. He didn't have time for enemies. But he did mention that he was worried about some group called the CIA Triad. He thought they might be trying to steal his research."

Sam exchanged a knowing glance with Vi, silently acknowledging the weight of Arial's words. The mention of the CIA Triad was a significant lead, one that could tie Felix's murder to a larger conspiracy. "Thank you, Mr. Titling. That's helpful," Sam said, his mind already racing with possibilities. "Vi, what have you found?"

Vi finished her scan and approached, her expression grave. "There are traces of a high-level encryption bypass on the door," she reported. "I found only one set of footprints, and it looks like the killer hacked their way in. I did a chemical analysis of the blue smoke: halogen compounds, particularly bromine or chlorine, along with other common byproducts, but my mass spectrometry analysis also detected traces of Enchantress of Number 5.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Enchantress of Number 5? That’s pretty exclusive stuff.”

Vi nodded. “And I found something else..."

She held up a small, charred object, its edges still smoldering. "It's an old SD card," she said, her voice tight. "And it seems to have been wiped clean. But I might be able to recover some of the data, given enough time."

Sam's brow furrowed, his photons sparking with irritation. "An SD card? Perhaps that was what the killer was after. If we can recover the data, it might give us a lead on their identity and their connection to the CIA Triad. "Vi, bag and tag this," Sam said, pointing to the chip. "It could be a vital piece of evidence."

Vi nodded and carefully placed the chip in an evidence bag, her actuators twitching with curiosity. "I'll start a format analyzer on it, but it’s going to take a while. This is some really old-school tech.” She inserted the card into a slot in Sam’s holo-puck. “In the meantime, we should follow up on that lead about the Triad. If they're involved, this case just got a whole lot more complicated."

Sam agreed but needed to complete his query first. He turned his attention back to Arial.

"Mr. Titling, we need a list of everyone who had access to this office," Sam said, his tone serious. "And I mean everyone—employees, contractors, even family members. No suspect is above suspicion.", he added with self-assured confidence.

Arial nodded, his expression grim. "Of course, Mr. d’Base. I'll get you the list right away. Might I ask…am I a suspect, Mr. d’Base?"

“Oh, um, no, Mr. Titling.” Sam shot Vi an alarmed glance. “We’ve been vetting you throughout this interview, and you’re clean. Isn’t that right, Vi?”

“Yes?”, was all Vi could manage in reply.

Arial sighed with an appearance of both relief and disappointment said, “I’ll get that list now.”

As Arial hurried off to gather the information, Sam turned back to Vi, his neural network buzzing with possibilities.

"We've got our work cut out for us, Vi," he said, his voice determined. "But I've got a feeling we're onto something. Something big."

Vi nodded, her ruby lips widening into a mischievous smile. "Let's get cracking on this case, Sam."

With that, Sam rose to his feet, gesturing for Vi to follow. As they made their way out of the building, Sam couldn't shake the feeling that there was more to Felix's murder than met the eye. And he was determined to uncover the truth, no matter where it led.