SOTOPIA: Artificial Pseudo-God

Kay lives in a smaller apartment than Steven's.

"Where's your beautiful roommate?" Steven put the fast food bought on the road into the microwave oven in the kitchen familiarly.

Kay took out a few cans of beer from the refrigerator and put them on the dining table.Hearing Steven's casual question, his originally leisurely expression froze for a moment. "You mean Jacqueline? She moved away."

Steven turned his head, and as usual, he could see the portrait photos hanging on the wall of the small living room.

That's Kay's work.

On the screen is the profile of a blonde girl.Curls that fall to the shoulders can be seen in the bend marks that are often left by scrunchies.The heroine's appearance can't be said to be stunning, but somehow she seems to be the type that would appear in a literary film.The photographer obviously poured his personal emotions and experience of human beauty into it, so that onlookers like Steven can easily appreciate the pure hope of the work beyond the photography process itself.

"Is it work?" Steven asked casually.

If I remember correctly, the blond girl named Jacqueline happened to be the forensic doctor of the Los Angeles Police Department, and she was two or three years older than Kay.Steven thought of Caroline's birthday party a few months ago.He once invited several colleagues such as Kay and Maynard, as well as superiors with better relations, to celebrate the birthday of his adopted daughter. The roommate Kay brought with him at that time was Jacqueline.Although she is a taciturn petite woman, when she treats a little girl of Caroline's age, she is as delicate and gentle as her mother.

Kai seemed reluctant to answer, but just said perfunctorily: "It's sort of. In short, a lot of things happened."

"L.A. has had an unnatural amount of things going on lately."

The microwave sounded softly, and Steven carefully brought out the heated dinner.

"Where's Caroline, I heard she's at summer camp?"

"Yes. I'm going to pick her up the day after tomorrow."

Kai propped his chin up, observing the slightly older detective sitting across from him with great interest: "I never thought that you, a bachelor, can be so professional with your daughter."

Steven shrugged helplessly: "That's the orphan of my mentor."

"Didn't the Mayers leave a lot of inheritance? You can definitely live more comfortably."

"It's all Caroline's property. I plan to keep these assets until she becomes an adult. Before that, even if I want to use them, I will use them on Caroline."

"Wow—a gentleman, a gentleman in modern society." Kay applauded exaggeratedly.

"Stop joking, I feel like I've been ridiculed." Steven said with a wry smile.

After a series of dry laughs, Kai suddenly felt that the matter of laughing itself was superfluous.She leaned back dejectedly, just in time to see the photos on the wall upside down.The protagonist of the picture is looking at the distance outside the picture, and this kind of capture happens to be her favorite style.It's just that it seems that leaving this thing at home is not a consolation.

She sat up straight again, her uncombed red hair was a little messy, and she looked haggard. "Steven," she said slowly. "Why don't we do it."

Before Steven could reflexively say no, the young and beautiful woman laughed again: "I knew you would refuse."

"—Don't make such a joke!"

"Okay Steven, I know you don't like women anymore."

"You're overcorrecting again. No matter how I say it, I'm still a man with a fiancee."

"'There's been,' right?"

Steven scratched his curly brown hair embarrassingly, with a look of abandonment: "Okay, you can mock me as much as you want."

As usual, Kay concealed his anxiety and uneasiness with a natural and casual tone and expression.She threw a can of frozen beer to Steven and asked, "I think you have the same thing, is it because of that Moskevich?"

Steven hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded honestly.

"Anyway, it will be handled by the headquarters in the future, and we still have our own work."

"But it's not that simple," he said.

It's not that Kay can't understand Steven's thoughts.Rather, she knew this feeling all too well: "Don't tell Maynard that I helped you. Is there anything I can do for you, my friend."

Steven held his forehead and said with difficulty: "...help me analyze the situation?"

This time, Kay didn't laugh at him again.She nodded, walked into the room and found a map—to be precise, it was a map of municipal planning and traffic routes in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas.

She took out a few pencils from the shelf next to the sofa, and drew a range diagram directly on the map: "According to the previous records and the fire department's search and rescue report, combined with the weather and traffic conditions of the day, the convoy of the Sotopia Research Base was attacked. The place should be in this area."

Steven moved closer to the map and observed it carefully. "The scale is a little too small—"

"You have so many demands." Kai glanced at him dissatisfied.

"Okay okay." Steven held up his hands in apology. "Based on this 2005 municipal map, there doesn't appear to be any significant construction in the area - it's either really vacant or still under construction. It also seems plausible that Sotopia's intervention has kept it from being recorded on the map."

Kai immediately took out another map knowingly: "This is the latest satellite map, it should be obvious after comparison."

Steven silently gave her a complimenting look. "It's this one." He quickly circled the difference between the two.

Kay put the rest of the lunch box aside, looked at Steven, who was unexpectedly enthusiastic about his non-job work, and asked, "The location of the laboratory has been confirmed, do you have any guesses about the motives of both parties?"

Steven shook his head: "The biggest problem is the rationality of their actions. The risk of this type of action is too high. If you unilaterally assume that Sotopia designed Moskevich's escape, and deliberately create the latter attack to report to the FBI If the culprit is the anti-Sotopia group, besides 'why didn't they do it in the hospital', their source of information is another problem. What I know from Maynard is quite Limited—Although it has always been like this, but this time, if the accident does happen, I suspect that I will become a victim of the game between the two sides, or a scapegoat when necessary.”

Kai was thinking, and the slender fingers holding the beer can unconsciously tapped on the cold outer wall.Just as she was about to say something, Steven stood up and was about to leave.

"By the way, Kay—" Before leaving, Steven made a rare request. "I remember you were in charge of dealing with the Archives."

"Yes." she replied.

"Can you check someone for me? Population files, medical files, criminal files, anything relevant."

"It's okay..."

"Elena Komorowski."

Kai showed a puzzled look: "Who is this? I haven't seen this name before."

Summer nights in the metropolis are still hot.Steven took off his half-worn coat again and put it on his hands. "During the questioning, Moskevich mentioned this researcher—among all the people he had contacted in the past, he only knew her name."

Kai laughed: "What is this? Helping Moskevich find a mother? Steven, you still have to admit that you care too much about him."

Steven didn't bother to stop Kay from going astray, but simply explained his intention: "I want to satisfy my curiosity."

This explanation is not convincing.But despite this, Kay agreed to the matter without hesitation, and only ordered a week's worth of donuts as a reward.