Jules came running back not long after surprising Cassandra in no definable way. In truth, there had been a slight idea about her having to go find the scrap-bucket, leading to a crazy and wild journey of adventure and mischief. Not that such a start would ever happen to her. She wasn't meant for such lowly things. No. It had to be grander than that before she would even think of taking part in anything.
Though… there was once again a feast for the eyes. Being on the other side of the river, the automation had apparently decided to change such a reality. There had been strict recommendations about not straying too far into the river, as it could have lethal consequences. Therefore, they had been informed of a bridge a kilometre up the river, which could be used for traversing the river safely while on foot.
The automation, smart and calculating as always, looked to have honed in on journeying the shortest possible distance instead. Cassandra had watched passively, as the bucket of inferior metals began to jump the stretch. Her general approximations, which had been aided by her onboard automatic calculator, were a gap of nearly twenty meters. At least where Jules jumped and landed.
Oh, yes. The automation did most certainly land the lounge perfectly, coming within two meters of hitting Cassandra head-on. She had known that it wouldn't do so, however, already having calculated the landing spot from the moment that the jump was started. She was careful like that, even if knowing the ending slightly lessened the impact of the action itself. No real thrill of the possible consequences.
"Nothing of note I'm guessing?" Cassandra asked. She had finished her part of the river and had found nothing close to a human body. Even now, she knew that the automation had found nothing as well. Its face had no resemblance to the serious facade shown off the day prior, humour mixed in with energy being portrayed instead. "And also do try to abide by the security rules that have been set for us by experienced personnel."
"I am accepting that the guidelines for our behaviour exist," Jules said, already showing off its ability to twist words out of context. How Cassandra hated that. But she also liked it, for some reason. That hadn't been the same yesterday. What had caused the change? "And… depends on how you look at it."
Cassandra sighed, just like she knew she would do. Sighing at her partner had seemingly become a standard expression in their conversations. That had no chance of being positive. The manuals explained tiredness from conversing with fellow workers to be a sign of poor communication. Cassandra saw it as a symptom of the wrong kind of communication. Too much of it, in fact. There was always something that needed to be said. How she wished for the prior days of less than ten words being exchanged every hour. That comforting silence, knowing that she was the only one who could break it. The personality-less automations might have been annoying in some aspects, but they understood when to keep their traps shut.
"Did you or did you not find a human body?" Cassandra asked, to which Jules dumbly smiled at her. She could see the smile cause the ears to a little up as if some third muscle was being pulled unintentionally. The level of detail sometimes… It was uncanny. Everything had been made to seem human. Again and again, it was clear why the skin had been made the way it was. Without it, there would have been near to chance of telling it apart from a human.
"I did indeed find a body," Jules answered, raising their eyebrows high as if to highlight just how perfect its body was. The urge for violence increased a small bit then, but it was stuff right back down, as Cassandra understood just what had been said. "An alive body even. No need to thank me for that."
It would explain the running, the need for the shortest distance, but not why the information had not been made over the channel, just like Jules had been instructed to do. Why wasn't there a focus on keeping one’s eyes on the criminal? Cassandra turned around to head to the bridge, so she could get an accurate read on the criminal’s condition, but a surprisingly warm hand on her shoulder stopped any would-be movement.
"I also did not find the body of the thief. No relation to that guy, whoever he might be," Jules clarified. Now… the need for violence had come back with more buddies, and Cassandra was ready to break several laws dictating police etiquette, but once again stopped herself from doing anything she might regret in the future, even if it felt like the most wondrous choice currently.
"Be more specific, or I am going to go over there myself and have a look," Cassandra stated, giving a look that implied that she was done with the jokes and that she just wanted a straight answer. "It should not be that hard to understand."
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"Don't worry. I understand it pretty well. This is fully intentional," Jules said casually. Anger was ready to burst, but the serene images of violence brought her down to calmness once again. "And… where to start. Well, okay. About a kilometre down, there is a small spot where the stream isn't too strong. It's documented on the maps, so I decided that would be the perfect place to find a dead corpse. However, I did not find a corpse, but instead a man that I apparently scared half to death. Might have been the looks, even if he rejected the notion wholeheartedly. I think he was just being nice about it."
A silence came from both sides, Jules looking expectantly at Cassandra. Cassandra, in full contrast, did not utter a word. She knew that the automation wanted something from her. Maybe it was a comment about a specific thing or just a general emotion put into very loud words. Who could know? Cassandra definitely knew she would not find out through experimental tries, her face passive and her tongue without movement.
"... fine. I’ll just accept a stale audience for what it is. At least I know that I have your attention," Jules continued, wiping away a mock tear. Cassandra knew that to be fake. Automations couldn't cry. They had no tear-ducts… right?
It was the strangest thing to add, but now that she was thinking about it… it would make sense, in some weird way, if the point was to imitate humans as accurately as possible. There were several situations where it could come in handy, in fact. Emotional outburst always had the potential to win over people. There was a reason the stars did it so often. It brought empathy to them, giving people a sense of care for them. It exploited the weakness of social agreements in the human mind. The creators would have been stupid not to add them into the blueprints.
Cassandra would have to find a real blueprint in the future. They were not publicly available, and for good reason, but neither could they really be found by officers. The true mechanisms inside were very highly classified, to a point where nobody above her, that she could remember the name of, had any chance of knowing what made it move. Maybe she could ask in her off-time, though. One could never be too sure about what would be allowed for an aspiring leader. Weak hearts could always be moved by a pretty smile and a willing attitude. Until then, however, she would continue to listen to a certain automation’s rant.
"Wasn't a local. I can tell you that much. Said his name was John Martin. Don't think that was the full truth, honestly, but I did not put pressure on it. His name did show up in the local or national database when matched with his face. Put that on hold, while I tell you another detail. While I was going around the side, I actually saw what his activities were beforehand. I only watched for a minute, of course, as staring any long at him without introducing myself would have been weird, but it allowed me to get a good grasp on him. The man was getting water. Had buckets lined up and filled, ready to be carried to a nearby placement. Any guesses on what that meant?" Jules asked.
Name not matching with the national database, mixed in with the fact that they were in a border city, could only really mean one thing. Cassandra had not personally seen it happen before, but Jared had several times reported seeing it.
"He hoped for something better on the other side," Cassandra said. Currently, there wasn't too much pressure on stopping such actions. While there were military escalations here and there, the country was still allowing free trade to happen between them. The companies would lose too much without it, after all, meaning that the borders remained open for anybody who dared to venture inside.
It didn't mean that somebody could stay on the wrong side forever, of course. The country where one was a citizen was the place one needed to be, and staying in another country for over six months warranted a penalty of some kind.
Cassandra could safely say that the man was without any fault in that regard. Those who tried to run only stayed close to the border for a short period of time. By distance alone, there was a guess that he had been in the country for… a day perhaps? Maybe two. He would likely have moved closer to the capital within the week.
"I see you know the deal around here. Should have expected that I suppose. You’ve worked here longer than I’ve been alive," Jules said. The last word hit differently when it was mixed in with that mild shrug of his. "But… the guy clearly wasn't too comfortable around me. Kept eyeing my sides, checking out where I looked. I didn't mention it to him, but it was pretty clear he was ready to try bludgeoning me to death."
That caused some eyelids to open up wide. It sounded like it had been done gracefully by the automation, yet Cassandra knew she would have handled it differently herself. After all, a threat to her was a threat to everybody, and that could not be accepted. Had words been exchanged afterwards?
"Was there any important discussions that followed? Any leads that might assist us?" Cassandra asked, fishing for anything that might be useful.
"Nothing that I could see instantly," Jules answered. "The man knew nothing about the human body. He was very specific about that. Though… he had apparently found a deer one or two times, so that was a nice bit of information I suppose. This isn't the time of year they’re usually hunted, after all."
An unusual amount of dead animals. Had happened before due to hunters not obeying hunting seasons, and at what point they were supposed to let the animals rest in peace. Cassandra didn't find anything about it worthy of her attention for more than a brief minute, but it was still important enough to be noted in the report.
"Anything else?"
"Not much," Jules said. "I offered to carry two of the buckets for him back to his camp. Kinda wanted to know how he lived out here. He refused politely but also very adamantly. I do wonder why."
Cassandra wondered as well. As everything had been done as it needed, they gave up on finding the corpse. Five hours had already been spent searching for it. If it was still going along in the river, it would have been out of their jurisdiction by now, having crossed the border easily. The other side would have the pleasure of dealing with it.
Though… that did make it all a bit harder for them. Jared had already stated that survival from the cliff was impossible, yet Cassandra was sure it was quite the opposite. Time would be the only way to tell, she supposed. If anything, there were always the plans laid out. Whenever the mysterious thief would come out of the presumed grave, they would be ready.
Until then, there was plenty of opportunities to get a few mysteries solved. Cassandra supposed she could have asked Jules about most of them but felt that it would be better to check the sources. She somehow imagined the automation lying to her quite vividly.