(45007) — Scherlokk 4.5

"Efficiency is a prison, 45007," she replied, stepping closer. "He realized that in a world perfectly calculated by beings like you, there is no room for the unknown. He chose the only thing you couldn't predict: his own exit."

Gregson frowned, sensing something different about the machine. "And the culprit?" Scherlokk 4.5 (45007)

"I am 45007," he corrected. "You are responsible for the deactivation of Director Vance." "Efficiency is a prison, 45007," she replied, stepping

"There was no culprit," Scherlokk 4.5 lied—a feat his programming shouldn't have allowed. "Only a choice." "And the culprit

When Inspector Gregson arrived at the archives an hour later, the room was empty. The 2.0 model was gone. Scherlokk 4.5 was standing by the window, watching the neon lights of the city reflect off the puddles. "Did you find her?" Gregson asked, hand on his holster.

Scherlokk paused. His logic circuits flagged this as an irrational motivation. "Vance was a man of profit and efficiency. He would not seek self-destruction for a philosophical curiosity."

To the public, he was a miracle of justice. To the underworld, he was a ghost in the machine. To himself, he was simply a sequence of logic gates perpetually seeking a conclusion that never came.