“You know If the wind changes then your face is going to be stuck like that.”

Cassandra’s neck felt rusty as she slowly moved over to the irritant in the car. They had barely sat down before the scrap-bucket needed to let her know of its existence. And with a comment like that, there was once again ideas of breaking conduct and slapping it on the neck. The woman felt that the construct more than deserved a bit of mishandling.

“Shut up and drive,” Cassandra ordered.

“Shutting up and driving, sir,” Jules answered with a swift nod and a foot slammed onto the speeder. It somehow failed to surprise her in the slightest. If that wasn't an indicator of how her life was going as of late, she didn't know what was.

Not like she was really going to do it. There might have been some fantasies about putting out some extreme violence, yes, but there was not a doubt in her mind about the realizations of those dreams. It would be political suicide for her, after all. A l'appel du vide, as the France-that-was called it. Call of the void, ready to embrace it. Thoughts like that were completely normal, according to most that had wrangled that confession out of her. Cassandra believed it fine enough, even if it might have been a comforting lie. No reason to stress herself about it too much.

A swerve came, the automation clearly not having that much sense when it came to going by standard speeding laws. They were technically on a narrow road in a large city. Pressing the speeder all the way down would have normally equalled either a large-scale accident or a complete ban on driving any vehicles in the future. For humans, that is. The automation was wholly immune to such restrictions. And it seemed to be enjoying that fact a little more than anybody close to it wanted it to be.

“I don't believe you have any reason to drive in such a way currently,” Cassandra commented, holding onto her seat, lest she would be thrown around more than she could handle. Even she could become nauseous with enough movement, and they were clearly getting close to that point. How the construct was able to counsel accelerate, while still swerving between buildings and roads, was something that could not be answered easily. By now, most humans would have already hit a tree or something. Cassandra could barely see any details outside before they had already driven past it.

“Oh, you can think of this as me doing you a big favour,” Jules said right back, putting on a smile that did not fit the situation. No favours were being made, forgoing the stress-testing of the woman’s innards… was there?

“In just what manner would you be doing that?” Cassandra got out before an especially hard turn to the left caused her side to be smashed against the car door. It was not a comfortable experience, and there was no desire for it to be repeated.

“I'm letting us get there faster,” Jules explained, waving its hands above its head for a moment before quickly putting them back on the steering wheel. A sharp turn stopped them from crashing the national bank. How utterly fun. “You’ll be able to be the first at the station, able to invite the other two inside with some serious look on your face. Officers do love those serious faces after serious situations, right? There’s a perfect opportunity for that here. And, you’ll be able to rub it into their faces that you were right about everything, so there really aren't any negatives about this.”

…

Cassandra let her head hit the headrest the next time the car accelerated. The impact hurt a bit, but she felt that it was more than deserved. Here she was, being so sad about herself and everything in her life, while the pile of scrap beside her was thinking more about the political consequences of her actions.

Nearly the entire day had just been spent making sure it would all work out in her favour, and she couldn't even get herself together to deliberate on it all? The past version of her would be ashamed. Cassandra was more than sure about that, feeling all the worse about her situation because of it. But, that degrading of herself was not alone for long, the woman pulling herself together. She needed to, or she would have bigger problems soon enough.

It had all started the day before, during the meeting about the current situation. Jared had told of the thieves apparent death, what it had done, and what they would likely have to do about it. Cassandra had already then suspected that the so-called demise was wrong, and she had done her best to get the others to believe the same.

It hadn't been too long after that initial meeting that the woman had breached the idea of the criminal surviving the fall. The other two hadn't been too receptive to the idea, both due to the problems with surviving the fall itself and the apparent lack of the criminal resurfacing. And that was true, in some fashion. Those points were leading towards the conclusion of actual death.

Not that she had accepted that, of course. No, there was no way she would have. Cassandra had an idea and she wouldn't let go of it no matter what. So… after some minor discussions on just what was needed to prove that she was right, an agreement of sorts came up.

One of the arguments for why the thief's body never resurfaced was that it got caught under the water in the river, impaled on one of the many sharper edges that it had. This was apparently a very frequent issue and one of the many reasons why civilians were generally discouraged from swimming in the river.

There were also other reasons, of course. One of them was the strong current, ready to pull any wanna-be happy-goes underwater and drowning them within a minute or two. And, as the most important factor of all, the river crossed the border one of the more rare ways. With the help of a near-century old attempt at terraforming, a large part of the river was underground, passing through one of the larger hills. It just so happened that this underground passage was between the two countries, right on the border, making any rescues from the place near-impossible. In other words, if people survived up to that point but went in regardless, all searches were called off. There really wasn't any reason to search at that point, the body likely to never reach the other side.

But it was just as likely to have never reached that point, impaled by the edges of the underwater. That was something all the officers were able to agree on, making it much easier for Cassandra to argue for her case.

She, along with Jules, would go through the impact site and a bit further beyond, scanning underwater for any traces of the criminal. If a body was found, everything would be carved into stone, and it would all be put into the past. If there wasn't a body? Well… the two other officers had agreed to consider any of her proposals at that point. Cassandra was very happy about that.

Especially when there was nothing to be found. No trace of anything. No clothing torn apart and still lying on the rocks. No nothing. While it might not have proven entirely that the thief was alive, it was clear that they weren't close by anymore.

It was at that point where the next part came in. During the last interaction with the criminal, Jared had brought back an item that intrigued Cassandra to no end. An emergency organ stabilisation device with a built-in battery. It was an extremely specific item, only sold in three stores in the entire city. And even then, they were in so few amounts that they all could be held at once by a single augmented person.

And the thieves wanted it. Through the use of data analysis, it became obvious that this was what had been searched for the entire time. Cassandra had studied the criminals for so long. They took pills and smaller items, yes, but never before had they taken anything with a weight higher than three kilograms. They had been desperate in their desires. It was obvious, really, since they had combed through so many stores before.

Yet they had failed in the one store where they had finally found it. With the recent actions, Cassandra was beginning to think that they had grown bolder. They spent longer at each store and went for the bigger ones as well. Their moves were broader and stronger. They were desperate.

Which was why she had an idea. If they were looking for one specific item, and they knew just where that item was, was it not an idea to prepare an ambush at that location? It was clear to her that they would attempt to gain access to the item again since they had sought it for such a long while.

The others thought so as well, allowing Cassandra to play this move. With their help, it became possible to quickly put up various security measures, making it all seem guarded by automatic systems. A false sense of security, one could call it. It was perfect, and Cassandra was proud of the work done. Even if some minor alterations came in the form of two other stores getting similar treatment at the behest of her boss, the woman did not mind it too much. Officer Grunwald wanted the items under lock and key after the stake-out, and he wanted to make sure that the thieves wouldn't access it without his knowledge. Cassandra had been perfectly fine with that, seeing logic with it. She even helped prepare one of the storage rooms in the station for them.

And so, the night came around once again. It took a long time, where Cassandra had to wait silently, hidden in the darkest spot possibly. The time had passed so slowly back then, to the point her heartbeat had seemed closer to that of a whale. It was hard, yes, but the light of success had been seen.

Jules had warned her of an incoming figure in the night. There had been a suggestion of the construct attempting a catch singlehandedly at that point since the criminal had looked to be alone. Cassandra had rejected the idea at the time, yet she wasn't sure if that was the correct choice or not.

Nevertheless, things had progressed from that point on. The thief had entered the building, Jules had shorted the door control manually, and the set-up for the trap had been created. Everything had seemed so perfect.

Then it all messed up at once. Cassandra couldn't land a hit with the tranquillizer, and then let herself be disarmed and blinded to the point of a temporary sensory black-out. Jules had similarly been revealed to have a fatal weakness to the thief, being incapacitated the moment the thief laid their hands on the construct. How fun that had been.

All in all, it resulted in one big failure. All the work, all the pain, and all the sweat spent all led up to them not succeeding at the most critical point. Cassandra had bet so much on the outcome, having spent close to an hour convincing the two others to allow it to happen at all. Sure, they likely saw her point with why it was necessary, but there were serious doubts if she would be allowed to lead them again.

A political deep-dive. She was well and utterly ruined. The work of weeks, months, and years was getting close to being complete. Just… What was she expected to do?

Something new was needed. Cassandra needed to take a step back from it all and look at the big picture. If she could make it fit together, removing all forms of attachment from it, a new decision could be made. A decision that would allow her to succeed.

But first off, there needed to be some minor restoration of the work ruined. The situation was still not over and was still fully able to be the cause for further destruction. If Cassandra left it all unattended, the others would begin to look at her in an even more negative light. No… this time, she would follow the words heard. While the source might have been slightly dubious, there was wisdom to be had.

“Then drive a little faster. I need my hair set up perfectly,” Cassandra said, already doing adjustments on her face. If she was going to be making an apology, she would make it while looking good.

She would make it perfect. And while she could not see it, Jules’ smile grew just a bit, as the construct sped up even more. The day was not yet over and it could all be restored. It just needed time.