"Why would somebody even send in a report about this?" Cassandra asked. Something about it just wasn't making sense for her. "Why not something… more? They had access to a very important account in the system. Sure, they might not be able to access state secrets, but they could have pulled nearly all information about every citizen in the whole country. Why waste that opportunity on sending a report about a robbery?"
And they had definitely wasted the opportunity. Whoever they were, there was no chance of them using the account again, Grunwald having been quick to quarantine, upgrade safety measures, and reset every password even slightly related to it. It was almost frightening how quick it all was, being under a minute spent in total to do it. At just the same time, the woman’s profile could have been wiped completely. Quite the thought to have.
"I don’t think either of us would be able to answer that," Grunwald stated. The man’s eyes were flickering around, likely parsing through extreme amounts of information. Maybe a manual check on the security walls? It was hard to truly know. "The reasons are hard to understand when it comes to people like this. They should only have been able to access your account through a proxy of sorts, though I can’t see how that would have restricted what they could do."
The woman’s ears twitched at the very specific details heard. Or, it was at least specific compared to how much they had known a few moments ago.
"You’re saying it like you know who did it," Cass stated, righting her back up. It was serious, and she needed her full focus. If the man could know more than her at this point, it either meant he had more information or that she was slacking. And with the new access given to her, Cassandra could only point at the latter as being the true cause. "Any leads that I didn't notice?"
"I would rather call it a leap of faith," Grunwald stated, looking straight into her eyes with what could only be called a look of ‘Really?’ She was apparently expected to have come to the same conclusion already. "With any other group or person, something else would have been done. Anything. But, the only real manipulation that I could find was related to that specific report. No errors, no changes, nothing that anybody reasonable would. There weren't even any queries or searches for information. The ones who accessed the database knew exactly what they were here for and left the moment they got it."
An in-and-out operation. Clearly planned extensively, from what Cassandra could parse. That… was dangerous. That meant something that she couldn't understand. Even more, was that she had a very good idea of just who Grunwald was hinting towards.
"It’s the thieves that revealed what they had done."
"That is the current theory that I am having. Reporting an isolated incident wouldn't make sense if the intruders hoped to just make their presence known. They would have done something more obvious," Grunwald stated. The man tapped the table with his fingers, looking like an old man craving a cheap vociferate. Cassandra wouldn't have been surprised if that was actually the case. His breathing had turned quite deep. "Which brings us to one important question. Or two, I suppose. The first would be how and where they gained access. And, Cass, what would the second question be?"
"What do they gain from this?" Cassandra tried, that being the large thought that she couldn't get out of her head. It was important, it was the most important, and it was also the one she was having the biggest trouble with. The search for information would have made so much more sense.
Or, they could even have used it for less obvious actions. They could have tracked each officer's location through the trackers, they could have sent out fake warnings, or they could have made each person think that there was an emergency in another city that required their help immediately. So much could have been done to distract them, destroy them, or create a larger problem. They could have leaked close to all vital information or even just copied it for their own gain. So… why just send a fake report? Why send in information about the crime that they had done a few days ago?
"They gained something. That’s all we know without going into the realms of speculation," Grunwald stated. "We know that they wanted us to know about the robberies. Maybe it was to send out a warning about their capabilities. Hell, it might be a warning to let them have what they want. We can’t know. We can only be warier now."
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The boss had spoken, yet the woman couldn't help but continue her speculations. The idea about it being a warning was something that she had considered before, to the point where she had looked at it as fact. But… what if it was more.
"Maybe it was intended to help put a bad light on us?" Cassandra suggested. "Since the news stations were called, I would imagine that a messy street would cause outrage at our lacking capabilities from the public. It could be that they're trying to destabilize faith in us?"
Grunwald was silent for a moment, likely needing time to digest her words. Or maybe he just wanted to figure out what was the easiest way to reject her theories. It could be either with his previous rejection of speculation.
"That would be possible. We need to make sure that the sight seen by the cameras isn't close to what the street is now. Get back to the street and start cleaning the obvious parts of the stores. Or maybe put up protection in the window’s stead. It needs to look professional," Grunwald stated. "If need be, you can take my automation with you as a helping hand. The work is growing bigger by the second if you understand what I’m saying."
"The extra help would be great, sir," Cassandra said, giving a small smile to mirror the one on her boss. Standing up, she clearly signed at being able to understand the mood. "I will get out your hair and begin the extra clean-up. Would you mind it if I took some items from the tool room?"
"Whatever you need is in your hands. Just write up a report about it and send it over to me," Grunwald said before doing a mental reboot. "Wait… no, don't send it. Give it to me in person."
That small bit of humour was their final interaction, Cassandra going out the door and closing it. Thoughts about what to do were replaced with her body moving of its own accord since the woman knew where the entrance to the basement was by heart. It was easier than expected to find from only one visit. Maybe it had given her the right impression.
For whatever reason there might have been, she was able to navigate through the empty space downstairs quickly, going through the proper spaces and doors with ease. It took close to no time to get to the place she had known from the previous day.
Or, she supposed it was technically the same. She had spent enough time down there for it to have passed midnight, making it so that she had technically been there that day already. Whatever. It was a small detail in the grand scheme of things. And there were more important things to have a look at.
Unlike the previous time there, the woman had no trouble navigating through the room. The floor was nearly free of spots, pools of blue blood, tools, or pretty much anything that would stop her from taking a step forward. It was most definitely a change from the night before, the place having been filled with more clutter than she could mentally picture. She could still remember accidentally stepping on one of the metal plates.
How annoyed Jules had been at the time, the automation not able to understand why she had ruined the perfect set-up. It wasn't like Cassandra had been able to see the system of everything spread out on the floor, but the construct had apparently found some way to systematize it.
Not that it was like that anymore, with everything having been put back into where it was supposed to be. Where exactly where that was was quite the mystery. Aside from the table in the middle, nothing hinting of a shelf or container or anything to put stuff in could be seen. Just where could they be hiding it all?
Cassandra wondered about just that as she walked through the room, right over to the wall of dead automations. No… that didn't truly fit what they really were. How could something be dead if it wasn't alive, to begin with? By that logic, a rock would have been dead, and there wasn't enough time for a funeral for each of them.
The automations were simply turned off, never having been able to have power run through their veins. And, there was quite the chance that none of them would experience it for a few more months. Or years, depending on how long the current ones would be able to hold on. It depended on how long Cassandra could hold on.
…
But not all the automations were like the others. One on the side, with a few blue marks on its hands, stood out to the woman quite clearly. It wasn't the face or the body but the attitude she remembered it having. Always a stickler for rules, the thing had wanted to throw her out of the room when she was first here. Oh, how she knew the next moments of her life would be fun.
Through the power of the brain implant, she sent a command for the automation to be activated. The effects were near-instantaneous, the construct being sent onto the floor, eyes barely able to open before its face was on the floor.
It made so much more sense why Jules grabbed it last time. Not that Cassandra would ever do that herself, the woman knowing fully that she would be crushed by the sheer weight before anything else. In fact, the first sign of movement had actually made the woman take a step back. Good that she did, lest the fact might have hit her shoes. Even that could have created a few broken toes.
"What is the reason for my activation?" the automation asked, getting up as if it hadn't just face-planted. It clearly knew how to move with dignity after that slap-stick start. Cassandra was wise to not comment on it, though her face might have betrayed her feelings about the incident.
"Officer Grunwald offered your assistance in my cleaning operations," Cassandra said, sending over the footage of the situation before the automation even requested it. She knew that the construct would ask for proof and had prepared herself accordingly.
"Proof confirmed," the automation said without even saying anything else. Cassandra felt a hello would have sufficed but whatever. Her social expectations of the thing were close to non-existent, to begin with. "Please lead the way to the site needing cleaning."
"Slow down there," Cassandra said, beginning to walk towards the door. The construct followed without a word. "First, we have to get some supplies. And you are going to carry all of it."
How the woman loved delegating the physical labour. She needed to ask Grunwald for his automation more often.