The tall Chinese man with the black coat walked in the foggy, smelly office. He looked around and took the seat he was offered. From behind his desk, Lieutenant Carver cast him a vague look. He lit a cigarette, clenched it between his lips and puffed off a cloud of smoke.

«So, what can I do for you, Mr...?»

«Wang. I need your help.»

Carver shrugged. «That’s what we’re here for.»

«No, not LAPD. I need you.»

«There isn’t much difference.»

The man muttered something inaudible, then resumed. «I’m looking for a Replicant. I want her tracked down.»

«I see. That’s my job too,» said Carver. Wang smiled. «What model are we talking?»

The Chinese’s voice dropped as he spoke. «LT16-AB004.»

«Oh come on!» Carver sat back and scowled in disgust. «That’s repelling.»

«None of your business!» Wang roared.

Carver fixed him a glare and the Chinese fumbled with his coat. From a pocket he produced the hardcopy of a photograph. Carver shook his head and took it with two fingers. It portrayed a girl with bright pink hair who couldn’t look older than sixteen. He knew the Tyrell Corporation still produced Lolita models, even though they were largely frowned upon, but he had never hunted one down before.

«I see,» he said as he put the photo away in a folder.

«Are you going to find her?» Wang asked, concerned.

«Of course. Give me a few days.»

«Sooner.»

Carver laughed nervously. «You’ve got to be kidding. The Rep Unit is busy. You can wait.»

Wang seemed offended for a moment and was about to reply, but then stood up and just said, «I want her back. Soon. Do your job, and...»

«Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second there,» Carver stood too and put off the cig. «What are you talking about, ‘want her back?’ The Blade Runner unit *retires* Replicants.»

«You kill them, I know...»

«The term is ‘retirement’.»

«... and I’ll give you money if you find her and take her back to me instead of ‘retiring’ her.»

Carver’s nostrils flared. «Look, if you’re trying to corrupt me...» Wang placed five 100-credit bills on top of the cop’s desk. «... then you may have a chance,» Carver finished the sentence before even realising what he’d said.

He looked at the money and knew it was genuine. He also remembered how he’d have liked to buy a cat – a real one, not just another replica. Five hundred credits was just what he’d need to start a loan. But to find a Replicant and not retire it? He’d never even done that before.

«Well...» he stammered.

«Lieutenant Carver, I need Lilo back home.»

Carver took the bills and sighed.

«She’s been a naughty girl escaping, you see,» Wang continued, «and I need to discipline her.»

The cop didn’t really hear that; he was too focused tracing the silken bills in his hand. And then he didn’t care why the man wanted her back exactly – he knew all he really needed to know already.

«You’ve got a deal, Mr. Wang.»

~|~|~

The Bookkeeper’s office was even messier than his, Carver thought as he stepped in and hung his coat. It was always so hot in there. Inra Gazul, the little man with one eye and the pointy nose, sat on a high stool behind a desk so filled with dusty papers it might’ve fallen under its own weight at any time.

«Carver, ol’ boy!» Gazul intoned in his shrilly voice. «Dun see ya down here offen do I!»

«I guess not.» Carver smiled just a bit. «Need Rep info.»

«Ov curse, why comin’ here oderwise?» Gazul reached for a computer console and a screen flickered on on the wall behind him. «Whatcha lookin’ for?»

«LT16-AB004, name Lilo Wang.»

Gazul typed in the data. «Ahh, special type!» he giggled like a preschooler.

«C’mon, it’s a case.»

«Yah, yah...» he said knowingly.

Soon a large photo of Lilo filled the screen, letters and numbers everywhere.

«The girl’s been built Off-World,» Carver read aloud. «Three months ago. Regularly purchased.»

«Sounds smooth.»

«Yeah. But look at that. ‘Submission Patch’.»

«Dat ain’t weird, ol’ boy. Specialy fer da thhsssex models!»

Carver nodded. Gazul was right. But it was a complex brain implant, and therefore not something that the Tyrell Corporation would include in their every product. It required special permits, not to mention a whole lot of credits.

«Yer man’s rich man, ol’ boy.»

«Chinese.»

«Ahh! Gotcha.»

«Can you file it?»

«Sure, sure!»

Gazul transferred the data to a small transparent disc, that he gave to Carver. The cop pocketed it and thanked. «See you around, mate.»

«Take yer time wid da gal!» Gazul giggled. Carver shook his head.

~|~|~

A submission-patched Replicant on the run. The thing itself was contradictory. Those machines didn’t escape. Reps seldom did in general, mostly because they didn’t know they were Reps, and sure not those whose brain had been designed to obey their owner’s every wish.

Carver’s stomach churned upon thinking the kinds of ‘wish’ that Wang might have had concerning Lilo, but he told himself yet again that it wasn’t any of his business.

As he drove his speeder two hundred feet from the ground in the huge, messy, dirty, rainy metropolis that was Los Angeles, he also wondered about another remark of Wang’s. He had said he wanted to ‘discipline’ the girl. He wondered what he meant by that. Acts of cruelty towards Replicants weren’t unusual; people didn’t seem to understand that only Blade Runners could do the actual retirement. But still, certain things unsettled even him to a degree.

The first place to look while searching for a Rep on the run was spacecrafts leaving Terra, or Earth as some called it. Anyone could find a quick job as a prostitute on Mars, especially a young girl. So he spent the rest of the morning browsing the ID files of hundreds of passengers.

Carver wasn’t usually a lucky man, but not that day. ‘Wang, Lilo’ departed from Los Angeles, Terra, seventeen hours earlier. Destination: Phobos Trading Post, a Martian station. Just as predicted. She was not alone, though. Jon Miller. Who was he? A computer search only returned his age (19) and the name of his school. Carver rode the speeder again and was on his way.

At the school, they said he’d left unexpectedly a week earlier, without any explanation. He didn’t have a family. Just when Carver thought he’d have to follow them to the Off-World colonies, he got a call from the Police Station. A colleague of his named Crys said there were sightings of the Rep girl in downtown – and they were recent. Carver wondered if they had left the planet at all.

«Where?»

«Animoid Row,» said Crys. «About four hours ago, says the man.»

«Who?»

«Informant. Says he wanted to talk to her and she panicked. A boy dragged her away. They were dirty and rushed.»

«Smells like Rep.»

«Yeah. Thought you’d like to know.»

«I do. Thanks babe.»

~|~|~

The Animoid Row wasn’t the place where you like to hang out when you want to stay out of trouble. Rep activity in the area was frequent, mostly for the Mechanics shops around.

Carver parked the speeder in a dark road and went on foot, showing the photo, asking questions. When people say ‘never seen her’, they mean it; you don’t mess with a Blade Runner. If anything, they’d tell you crap to earn themselves a few bucks.

That one guy wasn’t telling crap. He described Lilo without seeing the picture.

«How long ago?» Carver asked.

«After lunch. Not much.» He spoke with a foreign accent. «She with boy.»

«Really.»

«Nice boy. Nice girl.»

«Where?»

«Koshini’s Restaurant.»

Carver patted his back and smiled. «Thanks. Get lost now.»

It wasn’t hard finding the restaurant, despite the tiny insignia. The proprietor, who was also cook and waiter and cashier, said they’d left less than two hours before. They looked hurried, but were very intimate with each other during their brief stay.

The cop quirked an eyebrow and started thinking. That was weird in itself, unless... yeah. Of course. He smiled to himself as he went back to the speeder, but instead of driving back to the Police Station, he headed for Wang’s house downtown.

~|~|~

He wasn’t at the apartment as he’d told him to. She must have known his working hours too. Carver saw a bike leaning against the wall right outside the flat’s door. He kept a hand near the gun as he used his Police pass to hack the door’s computer, but didn’t draw the piece. It was no use to scare two kids...

... and in fact, there was Lilo, staring at him wide-eyed and open-mouthed. The boy gulped and stood between her and the cop.

«Here you are,» Carver said to the girl, and made a big show of keeping his hand away from the gun. She didn’t look reassured in the least.

«Leave us alone!» said Jon.

«I can’t. I have a commitment...»

«Wang paid you to kill me?» That was Lilo, in a little voice that would be typical of a girl half the age she looked.

«Quite the contrary,» Carver said, and that was all he was going to reveal about it.

«No, please! I don’t want to live here!»

He was about to ask why she was back home then, when he noticed open suitcases on the floor, and clothes and toys everywhere. His eye fell on two tickets for the Off-World Express, the least expensive way to leave Terra – the least safe, too. Incidents were common.

«You wanna get killed?» Carver pointed at the tickets.

«At least they don’t record passengers,» said the boy. There was anger in his voice.

«It’s because they don’t have to refund families for the loss,» Carver explained.

«Bullshit.»

«Watch your mouth, kid,» he raised his voice. Then smirked at him: «You even know who she is?»

«He knows I’m a Replicant,» said Lilo in a whisper, eyes downcast. She bit her lip and seemed on the verge of tears.

«Yes, I do. And I love her!»

«You what?»

«You hear me, cop. I’m in love with her. We’re leaving this goddamn rock and you can’t stop us, you hear me?»

Carver was irritated by such straight-out stubbornness, even though it was almost amusing. In his career, he hadn’t yet heard of humans falling in love with Reps, while the opposite was very common, given that most Reps did not know they were Reps.

Lilo did, though, and once again, that was strange in itself. Why tell a LT Rep of her status?

«Well, that’s very romantic,» Carver teased, «but I have my orders and I need to get the girl back to her tutor. If you’ll just step aside, boy, we’ll try to make this clean and...»

«The hell I will!» he yelled. «You’re gonna have to kill me first.»

Carver sighed. Not that the death of a sympathising human was unacceptable in order to retire a Rep, but still, he wasn’t one who liked to use the gun, especially with a youngster.

«Be reasonable now. I promise she won’t be hurt,» he said.

That was wild. He, who had killed oh so many Reps, was now vouching for the well-being of one.

«No that’s not true,» said Lilo.

For the first time since he’d walked in, she detached from Jon and took a couple of steps in Carver’s direction. The boy followed her though.

«Sir, you...» she said hesitantly. «You don’t know my dad, Mr. Wang. He’s a very cruel man. He likes to hit me.»

«Huh?» Wang’s words about ‘discipline’ came back to Carver’s mind.

«He says that he spanks me because he wants me to be a good girl... but I know he likes it.»

«That’s what he bought her for, the pig,» Jon mouthed, and that almost made Lilo cry for real.

«Well I think I deserve it when I get spanked,» said Lilo, and Carver thought that must have been the submission patch at work... «But I don’t like it that he likes it. And he’s unfair.» ...but that was not working too well.

Carver couldn’t help but wonder whether she knew or not about the submission patch. He had his answer a moment later.

«You see?» Jon said. «She even thinks it’s fair. I tried to un-patch her but it did no good.»

«Only a bit... it’s a fine software,» she murmured, and even in the faint light Carver saw her blush.

«You can’t un-patch her,» the cop said, scraping the back of his head. «She’s too old. Gotta do it during the first week.»

«Crap, I know a way. But it won’t work with her and I don’t know why...»

«Because,» said a voice behind Carver, which brought him back to attention, «because I explicitly told the Tyrell Corporation to give Lilo a non-changeable programming.»

The slender, tall frame of Wang appeared in the doorway. He bore a strict face... but his lips were curved up in a grin as he looked at Lilo.

«You get away from her!» Jon yelled.

«You filthy little scumbag,» Wang hissed, while the girl whimpered and sought shelter behind the boy again.

«Hold on a sec, everyone,» Carver stepped in. «This can’t even be disputed. There’s a law, and...»

«The law, Mr. Carver,» said Wang with sarcasm, «is that you take out your gun and shoot at Lilo right between her eyes. Am I right?»

Carver couldn’t but think that he was right – and then he thought of the 500 credits already secured in his bank account. He’d accepted to give the girl back to the man and couldn’t withdraw now.

«I suppose I see what you mean.»

Wang smiled. «Good, good.»

«Noooo!» was Lilo’s loud reply. «You’re not going to lay a finger on me again!» she yelled, and collapsed in loud sobs in Jon’s shirt.

Wang raised an eyebrow, then looked at Carver. «Ah well, I suppose you’ve been told what happens when Lilo is a naughty girl. First, she is taken to her bedroom, over there,» he seemed oh so eager to describe, «then her clothes are removed, and she is given the sound, severe spanking she so richly deserve. Right here over her Daddy’s lap like a little girl, until her Rep buns shine bright red and she’s a good, repentant Replicant... ready to show her gratitude in many ways...»

Jon fixed the man a glare, while Carver sighed. «Look, mister, I don’t care.»

He didn’t mean it though. He had no sympathy for Reps whatsoever, but somehow this one was different. He knew he shouldn’t have let looks deceive him, but the girl seemed and behaved so human he wouldn’t have believed she wasn’t. And then he disliked Wang with a passion. What huge crap-head would buy a young-looking Rep for his particular pleasures? Once again he found it disgusting, especially after the detailed description of what he put Lilo through.

But reason still overcame him. He had a commitment to LAPD, and he’d sold that for a commitment to Mr. Wang. He had to respect the rules and act accordingly.

«Please, Mr. Carver...» the girl begged.

«You can’t let her go back to him!» said Jon. «He’s an asshole, he bought her Off-World without as much as a certificate or repair insurance...!»

Carver was already outstretching his hand to grab Lilo’s when he heard that. He tilted his head and stopped. Then turned around to face a now pale Mr. Wang.

«Is that true?» he asked.

«It’s... err... it’s none of your business! The girl’s mine! I spent thousands of credits and...»

«Where are the documents of ownership?»

The man didn’t respond, just kept blubbering that he’d spent so much money.

Carver turned to Lilo. «Girl? Is there any piece of paper that states you’re owned by this man?»

The Rep shook her head frightfully, tears cascading down her blushing cheeks. Some fine handiwork had been put in recreating the soft, childlike traits of a teenager’s face.

«I see,» Carver nodded. «Then, Mr. Wang, I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do. I cannot, in all honesty, allow an unlicensed Replicant in a civilian’s house.»

Mr. Wang looked as though he’d seen a ghost. «B-but... but...! You said...!»

«I didn’t know she was unlicensed. My job is to retire her, definitely.» A little scream came from Lilo and both she and Jon started pleading, but Carver continued. «Additionally, I’m afraid I have to put you under arrest for illegal ownership of a Replicant. What happens to said Replicant while I’m arresting you, well, I can’t really be sure about that.»

He took out a pair of cuffs from his belt, and at the same time gave a meaningful look to Jon and Lilo. The youngsters were still terrified, but had somewhat grasped that it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for survival that he was offering them. Jon darted to the door, dragging the girl along.

«Hey,» Carver said as he immobilized a struggling Mr. Wang. Lilo looked at him. «Don’t let me catch you again. My jurisdiction covers the whole planet. Set foot on Terra again, and I’ll have to kill you. You hear me?»

The young girl nodded again, and the ghost of a smile curved her lips before Jon dragged her out of the apartment and away once and for all.

«No! No!» Wang screamed. «That’s not fair! Lilo!!» Then he turned to the cop. «You criminal! You let her go! You...!»

«Huh?» Carver tightened the cuffs around his wrists and locked them. «What are you talking about? I’m arresting a criminal, now. When I got you secure at the Police Station, I’ll chase them. If they happened to have left the planet by then, well, too bad!»

And he walked back to the speeder, not knowing if he’d done the right thing or not, but sure that it was the one choice that would still let him get some sleep in the coming days.

– The End –

This story does not necessarily represent the author’s point of view about anything. It is simply a work of fiction . The characters herein portrayed are invented and do not resemble reality to the best of the author’s knowledge. This account is entirely fictitious . Any similarities to other persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

This story is written for the sane amusement of adult readers. It does not intend harm and does not promote violence of any kind, including spanking. No offence is meant to any group, ethnicity or individuals.

The author does in no way endorse the non-consensual disciplinary spanking of actual children and / or teenagers.

Copyright © 2005 Haley Brimley . Contact for information and / or feedback.