Chapter 20, Broken Memories, Part I.
Chapter 20: Broken memories Part I.
Smith has been desperately looking for her lover’s locker at the dressings rooms of the station with no luck. He’s aware Barbara changes lockers when she’s annoyed with him, Smith usually buys Barbara’s forgiveness with expensive gifts and he is looking for a chance to slide an expensive necklace and two tickets for the Tiger’s game in her locker aiming to be forgiven this time. After a while, Simon gives up and walks towards the files’ room hoping to find someone that can help him with his quest.
Smith: Come on man, I know you have a master key that opens all the lockers, I just need it for some minutes, I need to leave a present for my girlfriend, come on. It’s her birthday…
Cecil: No…no. I can’t give access to the lockers to any of you guys unless Sergeant Reed agrees with it, don’t get me into trouble Smith.
Smith: Oh don’t be like that! I just want to make her happy. If you help me out, I’ll buy you some beers?
Cecil: I don’t like beer. I don’t drink.
Smith: What do you like then man? Video games…?
Cecil: I…I love video games.
Smith: Look, I have a discount card I use when I take my son to that 3D interactive video game place that is in Ground Zero’s lair, right next to Zero Zone, we can go there after work, you and I…like good buddies, what do you think? Huh?
Making new friends at the station is tempting for Officer Cecil Starkweather since he spends most of his working hours isolated at the files rooms classifying reports and barely relates to the other cops, as he is usually ignored by them. Furthermore, Cecil thinks Smith wants to do something sweet for his girlfriend and he wishes he was lucky enough to have a girlfriend at the station too.
Cecil: I can…activate a cardboard temp card, so you look for Estevez’s locker…it will last only for 15 minutes so you have to be quick before it expires. You gotta promise you will destroy it afterwards…
Smith takes the temporary card and rushes to find Estevez locker, he is lucky as the third locker he opens seems to have a familiar object inside he recognizes. The black shiny purse Smith just found and belongs to Estevez is the perfect wrapping for his two gifts, although he is shocked to see a woman’s bra inside it as he opens it.
Smith knows it doesn’t belong to Barbara as the owner of it seems to be a taller woman of smaller breast size than his girlfriend.
Simon’s first thoughts are tainted with jealousy, by thinking Estevez is cheating on him with another woman. However, he thinks again and remembers someone else borrowing that purse recently. He quickly comes to the conclusion that the locker he just opened belongs to Lewis and not to Estevez as he also recognizes a mobile phone that looks very expensive and Lewis was using the night they were celebrating Mason’s birthday.
The morbid curiosity of finding out what Lewis has been doing with RoboCop off everyone’s sight makes him hesitate whether to remove the memory card out of the mobile phone or just close the locker and keep on looking. Time is ticking and he is nervously holding the device in his hands not knowing what to do. Smith thinks of Riggs and how unfairly treated he was at his misconduct hearing and he thinks that perhaps by giving Riggs the memory card he could do a bit of justice to him.
Smith finally opens the phone although he is troubled as the mechanism seems quite complex, there are three memory cards that look like round microchips. Smith randomly picks one. He rearranges things in Lewis’ locker, closing it afterwards and rushing to find Estevez’s now. Smith is lucky again as he finds his lover’s locker before the temporary card that Cecil had programed for him expired. The gifts have been delivered. He will surely be forgiven now.
“They are planning a riot, a big one, the Splatterpunks and the Nuke for whatever messiah gang will fight the territory, and this is why we ran away, it will turn into a war zone…”
Sergeant Reed has been at the city’s court of law privately interrogating some members of the families that were escorted out of Clover Hills and were put under a witness protection program aiming to find more evidence that will help him bring the rehab team into justice.
Matt, the man that previously helped Lewis and Robo in Clover Hills seems to be the leader of the people as he is the one daring to give Reed all the information he is requesting.
The Nuke for Christ gang was obsessed on finding a new source of Nuke once the stock they religiously kept in River Rouge had run out. They badly developed a new version of the drug that was more potent and toxic than its predecessor. The N14, This new drug is suicidal in high doses. “Ease the pain” is the phrase used among them when they know they have no way out or they are slowly dying and they need to overdose to kill themselves before someone else does.
The Splatterpunks that had come to Detroit running away from the Prisma Police, had established themselves in Cadillac Heights, however, once they realized the Nuke for Christ gang had N14 in Clover Hills, they decided to move to the other town aiming to kill the gang and keep the drug stock for themselves. The criminal gang was encouraged by the fact they owned police arsenal thanks to the rehab team that had hired them to steal it from the OCP Warehouses. The Splatterpunks decided to not deliver the last batch and go fight the territory of Clover Hill to claim it as theirs.
Reed: Some say there is a woman, Bertha and her group have been terrorizing the city for some time
Matt: And she is not over yet with her personal revenge. That woman is mental Sergeant Reed…I used to work at the explosive factory, tried to help the rebel movement but Bertha’s plans are unrealistic…she wants to find the rehab base and blow it up.
…She thinks we can face the group of mercenaries that have been slowly slaughtering us with just our homemade explosives…I am going to have a child, her plans are suicidal, this is why I ran away, I asked more people to join us…just a few did and I am so grateful to RoboCop and officer Lewis for escorting us out…
Reed: Hold on Matt. You are saying here, Bertha knows where the rehab base is? If she goes out with her group and they blow it up, she will completely wreck my investigation, I plan to put the rehab team under custody and to make the OCP executive that created the group face criminal charges, but if this irrational woman acts first, the rehab team will be terminated and there will be no way to bring them to court. She will make them martyrs…victims of a terrorist attack…
Matt: Then you gotta stop her…we will declare, you just have to give us a little more time…some of my friends are still scared.
Days go by and Lewis is busy at the basement of the police station cleaning up her cruiser’s windshield wondering why she has a car back home she never drives. Suddenly the heart-warming sensation of incredible protection only the arms of the one she loves can give her.
In RoboCop’s particular world, lifting up the woman that has dared to unconditionally accept his closeness is a way to make himself feel, he is like any other man. A man with enhanced strength that has no problem keeping her up for as long as she wants.
Robo knows and has learned to read her emotional responses by now and he’s aware that this sudden demonstration of affection will make her happy. It doesn’t matter how annoyed or stressed she might be. Robo just got the reward he wanted as they are face to face now, Lewis smirking surrounding his neck with her arms as if he was carrying her away from a dangerous zone, although there is no danger around.
They have reasons to share an instance of happiness as Sergeant Reed has finally agreed on Robo and Lewis going back to Clover Hills with the purpose of them stopping the rebels from attacking the rehab base.
RoboCop: You smile…
Lewis: Well who doesn’t like to be up in the arms of such a strong guy like yourself, huh?
Their moment of joy doesn’t last for very long as Lewis glimpses there are some officers coming their way. “Put me down, people are coming” Robo immediately complies and Lewis remains standing next to him in silence as the officers walk past them.
Unfortunately more patrol cars are coming too. Lewis finally dares to hold Robo’s hand in a very discreet way, a silent message to stop him from feeling discouraged to be affectionate again, the next time, when there is no one around.
Miles away from the station, Riggs and Adams are sharing a moment of partnership as they are spending their lunch time at the Strawberry and Melon club, under the excuse they are doing surveillance in the place.
A beautiful woman approaches their table to deliver drinks, Olga, a tall dark haired Ukrainian dancer is just another girl Riggs has made empty love promises to and although he had been generous with the stunning stripper more than once, John isn’t seriously thinking about marrying her and bringing her family from Ukraine to live with them. Smith is also at the table and he cannot hide how jealous he is of the attention Riggs receives from women.
Adams: So, any luck with the memory card so far?
Riggs: I have taken the damn thing to several hackers but no one can decrypt the information, we might as well, just throw it away…
Adams: No, man… you’re giving up this easily? Have you forgotten what all of them did to you? Besides, Smith here, seems to have made a new friend, right? He recently took him out and shit…he might help you too?
Smith: Fuck me, that boring idiot of Cecil. I’m never doing that again. Although Adams is right, the little hacker of shit has access to the main OCP computer at the files’ rooms. I am sure he can decrypt that crap for you, he likes video games just take him to one of those kid’s video game places and pretend to play with him for some hours.
Riggs: Who is Cecil? The four eyed geek that doesn’t talk to anyone? No, that guy despises me; he nitpicks mistakes in my reports and tells Reed about them…then I get an earful from the big chief thanks to him
Adams: Then use your Don Juan powers and send that chick Patel to give him a boner. The poor guy will immediately agree to hack the shit. I wonder if women have ever talked to him…
Riggs: Nah…she hates me, she’d probably throw a cup of hot coffee in my face before helping me with this…
Adams: That’s what the little annoying bitch says but she still has the hots for you. All chicks do.
Smith: Well, not all of them, some girls would prefer to be fucked by a washing machine instead of you…?
Adams and Smith hi five then burst into laughs and Riggs is annoyed enduring their sarcastic laughter. Olga is back and is trying to playfully sit on Riggs’ lap, although he slowly pushes her away whilst saying: “Not now, honey, just bring us coffee, I am still in service” “Okej” the girl replies with her poor English: “But will you come back on the Saturday my love?” Riggs takes out a bill and puts it in her shiny green sexy outfit, spanking her afterwards and replying “Sure baby, I will”.
Adams and Smith have stopped bullying Riggs and they’re just gazing at spectacular Olga walking away as if they were kids ogling at the ice cream truck passing by, Riggs then thinks to himself, he is still capable of making women do what he wants after all.
One clean shot is all it takes for the skilled female officer to disarm the intoxicated man that was holding a knife in one hand and a gasoline gallon in another whilst threatening with setting his own son on fire if the police didn’t go away.
Not even the hysterical cry of the mother of the kid distracted Lewis from finishing the arrest in a proficient way. There was no need for Robo to use brute force; he just worked as the shield that protected Lewis from the man’s attempts to hit them by throwing small home appliances at both police officers.
Another call for domestic violence attended by Robo and Lewis that was successfully stopped by the duo and everything would have been perfect if hours later Robo wasn’t distressed driving in circles thinking of the best way to ask his partner that has passed out of exhaustion in the seat next to him to stop working overtime hours. Robo finally decided to drive towards Lewis building. Upon his arrival, he abruptly brakes on purpose, making Lewis shake and wake up as a result.
Lewis: Hey, where are we? You driving me home now? Shit I just lost track of the time, what time is it?
RoboCop: 11:03. You are home now…
Lewis: Alright. Cool, see you here tomorrow
RoboCop: I won’t be here tomorrow. You have to stop working overtime hours.
Lewis: Why? No, not a chance, stop being a pain in the ass, I’ll see you tomorrow
RoboCop: No cop can endure what you are putting yourself through, you’ve got to stop.
Lewis: You can…
RoboCop: And look at what they did to me to be able to do that.
Lewis: Very well, we can ask OCP to rebuild me too, so I can spend day and night with you…I can even chose a color that matches yours?
RoboCop: Anne, your reflexes have started to fail. I need you fully functional with me on the streets. You won’t be the great shooter you are now if you keep pushing the boundaries of your physical resistance.
Lewis: So you think I’m a great shooter and you need me on the streets? That is so sweet, oh and you just called me Anne again…You are just full of romantic words for me tonight, huh?
RoboCop: I… won’t be here tomorrow.
Lewis: As you wish. I have to wash my car now since it’s very gross. I’ll also have to wake up earlier since it takes me 45 minutes to reach the station under the heavy traffic. I guess I will barely sleep tonight. See you at the station in that case?
RoboCop knows he has lost this time and it’s clear for him Lewis is as stubborn as a partner as she is as a girlfriend and in the end, he won’t be able to stop her from coming to work on the following day.
Robo looks through the driver’s window avoiding eye contact with Lewis whilst replying in an upset low metallic voice: “I will be here…”
The following day seems to be a promising one for Cecil as he thinks his popularity among the officers is suddenly rising up. Starkweather has put aside some of the pending work he needs to report back to Reed as someone has dropped by to say hello.
Vanessa Patel, a bubbly co-worker is sitting on Cecil’s desk having a fun chat with him and he is already wondering if he is dreaming whilst awake. Patel doesn’t mind to be borderline flirty with geeky Cecil as long as she gets what Riggs asked her to.
Patel is moved by her desire to get Riggs back. Perhaps by doing a small favor to him, John will probably wake up now to finally see, she is the one he should be with.
Patel: And then I thought: Who is the smartest guy in this station? The genius! The only one that could help me out with this…? I have my life saved in this memory card…I don’t want to lose my photos, my messages…
Cecil: Well, no, no you won’t we will decrypt it don’t worry. And I wouldn’t call myself a genius, although well, I did take a technical course at the tech college of Detroit a few years back…
Cecil inserts the card in the main OCP computer when there isn’t anyone around but him and Patel, he quickly downloads a program that helps him decrypt the information, although he is surprised on the results.
Cecil: This isn’t a memory card…this is a microchip and we are hacking an operating system, did you know about it? The system is partitioned in three different units; do you have the remaining ones? Is this even yours?
Patel: Well…you’ve caught me. This is more like a favor for a friend…does it matter to you? But hey, if you help me, you can get photos of me? Anything in particular you’d like to see…?
Cecil blushes as he keeps on nervously typing, aiming to extract the contents of the microchip proficiently trying to not let his new friend down, although he dares to reply in a shy voice:
“A photo of you smiling would be fine…”
The contents are extracted and Cecil and Patel are surprised as they grasp the card belongs to Lewis’ phone. They find interesting voice messages; however, the shocking part is listening to Lewis’ recorded voice saying she has just had sex with RoboCop. Patel is furious now by grasping Riggs’ obsession over Lewis continues. Patel feels used and is thinking now about a good way to get her own personal revenge against Riggs. Once again, she was dumb enough to believe his empty promises.
Patel: Well, we always knew those two did some kinky shit together huh?
Cecil: I think…we should stop listening now, this is not polite anymore, just take the minidisc with the saved information and give it to your friend Riggs…
Patel: I will, but I have another idea. Wouldn’t it funny for the station to hear all these audios?? You know, as a joke on the newsflash radio?
Cecil: No…no, you, you will get me into trouble; we aren’t supposed to play with the newsflash radio…
Patel: That’s what Reed says, but you and I know nobody listens. Besides, don’t you think they deserve to suffer for a bit? They just walk around by believing they’re better cops than you and me, they’re just plain arrogant…let’s give them a reality check!
Cecil is observing Patel by thinking she has a point. Lewis barely talks to him and Robo doesn’t even say hello when he comes into the room to download information. Furthermore, Patel is funny and gorgeous; perfect tanned skin, long black hair that she puts up beautifully with a hairclip. Cecil is already imagining a lifetime with her, fantasizing on what the other officers would say if they knew Vanessa and him are starting to develop a relationship.
Cecil: You are probably right…they do think they’re better cops than us…they don’t even say hello to me…
Although vexed, Patel is glad to know Lewis is with someone else even if it’s RoboCop. Broadcasting Lewis’ private audios on the newsflash radio is the perfect opportunity to publicly embarrass and ridicule Riggs. Patel can’t care any less about exposing Lewis and Robo’s privacy or the consequences that can bring to the pair. She is just focused on her personal revenge.
A couple of days later Lewis prepares for an important undercover mission. She had finally washed her silver plated Lexus and is driving towards the police station to pick up her partner and start doing police work together. Both cops will head up to Clover Hills in Lewis’ personal vehicle at night, trying to be as discreet as possible.
Their goal is to find Bertha at the explosives factory again, and stop her from attacking the rehab base before the police force takes action against the rehab group. Lewis’ car’s GPS is not as effective as the one they have in their cruiser and Robo asks Lewis to turn on Alana’s instead.
Lewis informs him that sadly Alana has been silent recently and she doesn’t seem to work properly anymore: “Perhaps she wasn’t supposed to last for very long?” Robo laments Alana not being functional as he had realized the device was a great tool that could help their police work.
Robo and Lewis find the factory and Bertha. They inform her they know who she really is and demand to know where the rehab base is located. Bertha’s deep hatred towards the rehab team seems to override her rational thoughts and she’d prefer to be killed by the cops before disclosing her plans.
Lewis: We know you and your group are waiting for the night when the confrontation among gangs take place to blow up the rehab base and be undetected by the police force… the game is over Bertha, you will have to come with us now
Bertha: We will die anyway that night. We might as well do something meaningful to be remembered by, before we are slowly slaughtered like pigs by those punks…
RoboCop: No. You don’t die that night. You resist the riot and you allow us to do our work. Squads will be sent here to protect the civilians.
Lewis: And the same squads will keep an eye on you and your group to not do any stupid moves… we will bring the rehab team into charges, you gotta stop the attack, otherwise everything will be a mess…do you want the cops to kill the members of your group? Instead of protecting them…?
Bertha: Protection. Huh. Where were the cops, fifteen years ago when I was beaten up on the streets? When those robbers broke my legs and my hip with metallic tubes? Do you know who saved me? A mechanic, someone without any police training, a good samaritan that was passing by and thought he could be a hero for a day…he was the only one that had mercy of me…
Lewis: We…know, your husband, Moreno Knowles we read the medical files, we are deeply sorry for you loss…
Bertha: You, the cops, the blue police, are sorry for my loss? Do you know, officer, what it’s like, to lose the love of your life? To see him being torn into pieces…? To hear his agony and not being able to help him…?
…He was shot and dragged on the streets and they made me watch…I picked up what was left of him, to be put in a casket, so he could have a decent funeral….apparently, the grey police was sending a warning to us. Well ain’t gonna give them any warnings!!
Lewis and Robo remain in troubled silence. Lewis subconsciously leans on Robo and holds on to her arm, her eyes staring into the void, Anne is reminded of the times she has witnessed Robo’s suffering and wishes she never has to go through that again.
Robo is standing still like a frozen statue; expressionless as he is suddenly conscious on how lost he would ever be if Lewis is ever killed in the line of duty. It feels like a hole in his chest. Lewis reacts first and loses Robo’s arm, although Bertha already came to the conclusion that those cops that never stop chasing her seem to be more than just partners.
Lewis: You will just have to trust us. We will put them in jail I promise you.
RoboCop: They will face criminal charges and pay for their crimes.
Bertha: Is there any guarantee? How can I know you guys are saying the truth…?
Lewis directs Bertha to her car to show her the few weapons they could store in her car’s trunk without being detected by Reed or anyone else at the police station. Robo promises Bertha they will come back and bring more arsenal. They repeatedly ask her to just endure the riot with her people, to keep themselves safe. The police will take over and will break the no-police zone rule in Clover Hills once and for all.
Although their mission was successful, on the way back to the station Robo and Lewis don’t seem to be pleased, they have remained in silence for most of the trip. Finally Lewis parks outside the station, the roles are reversed and she’s the one driving her partner home now.
Lewis: So there you go officer Murphy, you are home now.
RoboCop: That is… a change.
Lewis: What if… I don’t return you at all? Huh? What if I take you with me?
RoboCop: I am OCP’s most expensive toy. They would never let you get away with it.
Lewis: They can bring me into charges then, for stealing their property?
RoboCop: Police…property
Lewis: Police, handsome property?
Lastly, Lewis makes Robo slightly smile. She doesn’t want him to step out of the car, Bertha’s story seem to have affected Lewis emotionally as she feels the impulse to just drive with RoboCop, and take him away from everyone, although she calls herself silly for having those thoughts. Robo remains in silence for a short while, not wanting to go either. Finally he opens the car’s door and Lewis stops him by saying:
“Is this all I am getting from you? I just drove you home, you ungrateful man…?” the goodnight kiss among them seemed cold, almost as if it was a goodbye kiss. A shiver goes down Lewis’ spine as she observes Robo walking away. They were successful to stop the attack and that is what matters Lewis thinks as she starts the engine and drives away.
Robo sits down on his chair and although he feels accomplished for great police work done for the day, he wonders if there is something wrong with him physically as he still feels a hole in his chest. Robo is unaware he is suffering from emotional pain, not physical one.
“What if I take you with me?” deep down, Robo wished Lewis had been serious and had actually driven away with him. Nevertheless he’s aware on how impossible that would ever be. Robo’s eyes slowly shut out of exhaustion.
