Cassandra damned everything around her. She had him! She had been so close to getting that thief. How could she have been so careless? It frustrated her to no end, her actions putting everything in jeopardy.

What was the rule of engagement with augmented criminals? Never get into close range. What had Cassandra done, fully knowing this simple and fully understandable rule? She had allowed the thief to get close. And now she had to deal with the consequences.

Even now, she had no real clue on what actually happened, her mind not comprehending the moment. Cassandra couldn't actually remember those first seconds of disorientation, only the timer on her feed letting her be sure about the passage of time. In one second, she had gotten the thief down on the ground, had put them in a position where any normal person would find it impossible to escape without first dislocating their shoulder. There had even been preparations to fulfil the next step of the capture, sticking the thief's hands together with the help of adhesive paste. But that dream had ended quicker than she had gotten back on her feet.

Yet again, Cassandra could not help but feel frustrated. She knew he would come, and this was how it went! They had made so many plans, created so many fail-safes. She had waited for the perfect moment before making her initial shot, going so far as to equip a quintuple dose of the sedative, enough to kill a normal person. And he had dodged it, having no warning other than the small swoosh of the projectile escaping the cylinder. Augmented opponents were hard to predict in times like that.

But there was no reason to be angry about the past, the woman preferring much more to be angry about the present. During a moment away from the conscious world, the thief had run away. From the store-front, that was. Cassandra knew he couldn't have gone far, the back-door still swaying from its recent use.

‘He is coming to the roof!’ Cassandra predicted, not even bothering to think that the thief would get through the back exit. Jules had been outside, watching the thief move around. When the criminal had entered, the automation had been made to forcefully lock the door down. It broke regulations on fire-safeties, but it allowed for a movable wall to replace the easy escape route.

Because they had thought about that. Jules came back with a thumbs up, as Cassandra began sprinting for all she was worth. The automation would cut the thief up at the roof itself, while she would stop him from getting down the ladder. Together, they would force him into a tight corner and capture him from there. While the criminal had tricks up his sleeve, they would not hold up for long.

Her legs pounded, as she swung herself through the initial storage room. The tight corners stopped any real speed from being gathered, but she made do with what she had. In the meanwhile, the left-over focus was spent getting a message out to the other two officers. Each of them had been stationed at different places across the city. While it would likely be futile for them to drive to her location, it wouldn't matter much. If they knew the thief was near, the bigger numbers would increase the chance of a successful capture.

‘I have him,’ Jules reported through the police channel, as Cassandra came to the ladder. That was good news, yes, but the woman was still more than a little wary. With haste, she began climbing it, the steps on it more spaced out than the average, throwing her off by the slightest bit. More was the loud exclamation that came from Jules up on the roof, making the officer halt in her steps.

‘What happened?’ Cassandra said, continuing her climb while figuring out if there would be a need for weapons to be drawn again. She had dropped the tranquillizer on the store floor, yes, but she would hesitate to bring out more lethal weaponry if there was a danger to be had.

‘Thief got out of my grip. Disable his hands and legs, and then come over and help me,’ Jules replied. Looking over at the automations statistics, Cassandra noted an extreme amount of energy being used on the constructs arms. What was happening?

The ladder finally ended, letting Cassandra take the lounge up to the roof. Before her feet touched the ground, a weapon was already drawn, in the form of a projectile-based handgun. It wasn't that great on the accuracy, but it would work for what it was worth.

‘What do you need help with?’ Cassandra sent out, before accessing the situation as quickly as she could. Her eyes flew across the roof, scanning it for what it was worth. First, she saw the thief, already over the railing and getting ready to jump.

Then there was Jules, looking ready to shoot. Not at the thief and not at Cassandra, but itself. The automation was getting ready to shoot itself. With one of its arms, at least. The other was actively pushing against the one with the gun, stopping the weapon from getting into position.

‘Arm’s hacked. Don't know-how. Help me fix it when you get the thief,’ Jules answered quickly, the automation nodding towards the thief still hanging on the railing. Cassandra looked at the criminal as well.

‘How did your arm get hacked and not your entire body?’ Cassandra asked, still standing still, not sure what to do. Sure, the communication happened all within the same second, but it still felt like an eternity of time wasted.

‘Sloppy instructions. Go get him now!’ the automation sent. The limits on the restraining arm were being reached. It was estimated to fail within ten seconds.

‘Throw the gun away then,’ Cassandra sent.

‘It’s not that sloppy! Run after the bastard now, or he will get away again!’

The automation was right. If Cassandra wasted any more time making a baseless decision, the criminal they had spent so much time on catching would be lost, and there would be nothing to show for it. Looking between the two choices in front of her, there was only one real answer to make.

As the thief finally jumped off the roof, Cassandra knew she had made the right choice, her feet creating hard thuds as she ran as fast as she could. With how open the roof was, there was nothing stopping her from picking up speed, and there was no chance it wouldn't be used.

‘You absolute moron!’

Within seven seconds, the automation had been reached, Cassandra putting all her weight behind a kick to the construct main hand. The weapon in it was pelted away, with damage from the massive force put on it. Even high-grade materials had a hard time dealing with explosive pressure.

With that dealt with, two more seconds spent making sure the automation wasn't going after any more weapons, Cassandra ran over to the edge. Upon reaching it, her eyes once again searched the ground below. But there was nothing to see, and no sounds to listen after. The snowstorm had picked up to extreme levels, her eyes being forced to a near-close from the small bits of snow hitting her constantly.

The thief was gone from sight. Jumping down onto the snow, every trace had been cleaned off the white powder. There was no sign of where the criminal had run. And with the snow as thick as it was, there was no chance of hearing where he had gone. The ten seconds spent had cost her everything.

Jules jumped down a few seconds after, likely needing the extra time to get the thrown equipment. The construct did not look too happy.

“Well… that was five hours wasted on nothing. Hope you feel happy about yourself,” Jules stated, clapping Cassandra on the shoulder. The woman threw off the hand quickly enough.

“Nothing has been wasted. It was a decision between capture or the safety of a co-worker. You would have shot yourself if it wasn't for me,” Cassandra stiffly replied, staring daggers at the construct. It did not look convinced by her words.

“So what? It’s not like we lose that much from me having another hole in my head. Maybe a few errors with the eyes, but nothing that serious,” Jules replied, looking much too casual about the earlier experience. Forced suicide was perhaps not that serious for unliving entities. But, for Cassandra, it was more serious than anything else. “And there isn't anything important in this head of mine anyways. Like I said before, all the important stuff is in the chest. The worst thing that could have happened would be that I needed to get a replacement for the moving parts.”

… Cassandra was not happy. She was furious, actually, to the point where it would not be too hard for her to break down and hit a tree. Unneeded violence was calling for her, and there was doubt that she had what it took to resist it.

After much deliberation, the woman sent out the message to the other two officers, informing them of the failed capture. There was a request for details, but Cassandra just replied that it would be in the report. It was all too much to deal with recently.

“Think on the positive side of things,” Jules said, half-embracing Cassandra from the side. “You were right in your predictions. The bastard is alive and well, ready to be brought to justice!”

Not much joy in only having the cake. But… Cassandra supposed it was good to have her hypothesis confirmed. With the actions witnessed, it was clearer than ever that they were dealing with a higher tier of thieves. Augmented, carrying equipment, and able to disguise themselves. And speaking of equipment…

“Any clues on how they got control of your arm?” Cassandra asked. It was a serious threat if anybody would be able to do something like that in the future. A crisis, actually, if it was reproducible on other automations. Jules had called it sloppy, but a total take-over of the constructs had the potential of leading to very serious consequences. An army of robots was not what the world needed.

“No clue. I'm guessing that it has something to do with close contact. The thief put his hand on my face and all before it started up. There was a whole bunch of overload warnings in the start, before the arm just started moving on its own,” Jules stated, putting forward the aforementioned arm. The fingers on the hand were bent the wrong way, but the automation fixed that up easily with the help of its other digits. No sound came from it.

Contact-based then. Yet another reason to avoid close-range. Already, Cassandra was planning for future encounters. For they would come. And the next time she would be ready. She would capture that thief the moment she saw him.