"It just doesn't make sense to me," Cassandra said for what felt like the third time in the last five minutes. "Why does the studio sound lag when the reporters on the field have perfect quality? There aren't any other problems than the voices. They can’t possibly have had a machine error and not fixed it by now."

"It could be that they’re just that incompetent," Jules proposed, making fun of the way that Cassandra put pressure on certain words. The woman gave the automation an annoyed glare before going right back into the conspiracy. "It isn't the first time a news station left in obvious errors in favour of letting things run without pause."

If the automation brought up the example of the wrong time on dates one more time, the woman was sure she would beat some sense into the blasted thing. Not instantly, however, the woman tried to get a clear diagram on how the broadcasting worked for the show. There were surprisingly few schematics online for how the broadcast worked. Maybe people weren’t as interested in it as her or maybe the woman wasn't allowed to find it. Either way, every passing second left the woman with a stronger and stronger desire to take the mountain of paperwork with a smile, as long as she got to see the intricacies of the news network as payment for it.

"Not a chance," Cassandra said, refuting their point. "Five months ago, they had a similar error that was shown. According to the sources on their wiki, it took them seven seconds to pause the broadcast, immediately notifying viewers of the mistake, while also fixing the actual mistake within five minutes of its discovery. There is no chance that they wouldn't do something similar in this case or at least notify the viewers of the technical issues."

Cassandra wouldn't even try to figure out why exactly somebody had gone to the extent of making the network a wiki. She only knew it was well-sourced with clips and that it was one of the most viewed wikis in the country. Old people really didn't have anything to do in the current years.

"You certainly have a lot of knowledge on that subject. Ever thought of requesting the editing role on that wiki? You might know more than the network itself at this point," Jules joked with a laugh to accompany it. The construct got a shove from the side because of it, no matter how little power was put into it. The woman just couldn't understand it. "It just seems like you’re reading too much into it. If the chat isn't questioning it, doesn't that mean that it isn't too far out of the ordinary? Maybe the studio is preparing some long rant for one of the hosts to give or maybe somebody spilt a cup of coffee on one of the anchors. There could even be some kind of ritual for grilled cheese that wasn't good for viewership but simultaneous couldn't be delayed."

The automations words went on deaf ears, Cassandra hardly concentrating on what was being said. The woman had given herself ten minutes to figure out the mystery, and there was no way that she would fail in her mission. Grunwald’s automation wouldn't reach them before she had reached enlightenment.

Could it be an extra boost in quality due to a delay? It could be that packets were being sent in different sizes due to cable malfunctions, some piece of it forced to use more than what it was meant to and being unable to do it all in a reasonable time frame, throttling the connection on one end because of it… No, that was stupid. Even the woman was enough of a tech expert to know the likelihood of that happening.

Cassandra settled back on the theory of the signal actually being the reverse of the standard. Instead of the broadcast originating from the studio, it was actually coming from where the interview was being conducted. Earlier in the show, before the interview had begun, a small flicker of sorts had been noticeable, as if an extra overlay had been hastily added on. That could have been proper shading meant to stop viewers from releasing the view had been switched out on the connection-end. Not that such a technique had ever been mentioned much on the internet, but it would make sense for the connection to be that way. Cassandra could certainly see some reason in rerouting connections to make the interview quality would be above everything else.

"There is a secret about how this works, and I need to get to the bottom of it," Cassandra stated, her level of desire reaching a new level. Another minute had passed, and the other automation available would soon come bearing the gifts of tire-changes. The mental image of such brought an idea to the woman’s mind. "Jules. You have the same access level as me, correct?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"One step higher but functionally yes," the automation said. Ignoring the fact that the construct had an access level on the same level as the one Grunwald had, Cassandra was quick to ignore her questioning. Or, it was more close to direct orders than anything.

"I need you to access the news network and give me the detail about how their network broadcasting works. I don't care what papers you have to sign to tell. Just give me an answer this very minute," Cassandra said without taking a breath. She didn't need air. She needed answers.

"Are you sure you want to request that of me? It entails me promising some-"

"I don’t care if you promised them your third cheek," Cassandra cut in instantly, not wanting to hear a word more. "Get me that info."

Jules stared at her for a second before just shrugging and closing its eyes. That allowed the woman to close hers as well and get a few breaths into her system. She was getting stressed out from the tires and diverting the anger that came from it over to somebody else. That was not a nice thing to do and she needed to control herself.

"Done."

"Send it over to me this instant or your stomach won't be the only thing that got crushed today!"

"... Alright."

Calm thoughts. Calm mind. Calm soul. Cassandra fueled those thoughts onto herself as she studied the date. The automation had done much more than just sending her the raw data, however, instead outright giving her a raw connection into the studio and everything that was happening. With it, she could study what each component was connected to, where each wire sat, and what everybody was saying. In fact, she could even tune into the broadcast through the connection. Not that she wanted, though, the woman already having it open on…

What?

The feeds… were different. On one end, Grunwald and the reporter were continuing to answer the questions asked by the studio without any hesitation. It was the sight that the woman had grown accustomed to. Yet, on just the other side, Cassandra saw the studio apologizing profusely for the errors, repeatedly assuring anybody hearing them that everything would be sorted in just a minute.

‘We believe that we are experiencing a computer virus or something like it,’ the reporter named Tom said, not looking as fine and handsome as before. In fact, there was a small bit of sweat going down the man’s forehead. He seemed stressed. ‘Our control of the broadcast has been changed, with permissions on our network rerouted fully. To any viewers, I must again apologize for the changed up viewing experience. I assure everybody that things will be up and running within the next minute or so.’

That was a live feed. A real-life feed without any sound errors. No problems with the video either, with everything shown in perfect quality. Just… what?

‘Please describe in detail what was seen yesterday,’ the other Tom, or whatever they were, requested from the other feed, the reporter beside Grunwald repeating the question. The voices were exactly the same. How was this possible?

"Jules," Cassandra said, her voice calm but still incredibly serious. "Look at the feed we are getting from the station and compare it to the one being sent out."

The automation was on the same page within an instant.

"I don’t know how, but it seems we have issues with the channel," Cassandra stated. Already, it was clear that things were not as they were supposed to be. Thinking back on it all, the woman wondered just what was possibly wrong. What had stuck out… the voices! "The sound errors during the questions. They always messed up at the same point. The same part of the same words is always missing. It's not because of some error. It lags because they don't have a recording for that sound!"

"Somebody’s using clips and matching them together," Jules surmised. "Somebody is asking questions. Deliberate delay-tactics?"

"Yes… but why?" Casandra asked. Looking at the time, Grunwald's automation was supposed to be beside them at any minute. Actually… It was a minute late. "Can you see the other automation on the map?"

"... Shit. It disappeared when it got to the station," Jules said.

The station, the station, the station. Bringing up camera feeds related to the station, close to the station, or even just inside the station, Cassandra found nothing but blank screens. The entire place was a digital black space. She couldn't even reach Jared’s medical condition.

"We need to get to the police station this instant," Cassandra said, getting out of the car. "The tires won’t be coming, so we have to run."

"That will take us too long."

"Doing anything else will take even longer," Cassandra fired back, knowing it to be true. However, there was one other human closer to the station. One who was in need of being told what was going on.

‘Grunwald. The interview is being dragged on by a third party. The police station has turned into a black spot digitally. We are likely being manipulated. We need to get there this instant.’

Having the feed open, Cassandra was able to see Grunwald instantly react to the message, not even saying goodbye or anything to the reporter the man just started running out of sight, the camera having trouble panning over to the rest of the street in time.

Then the screams started to ring out, and pandemonium was upon them.