‘Get the car ready. We are leaving within the minute,’ Cassandra sent to Jules, positively jumping over the fence that had been set up to keep the civilians out of the street. The young man had been quick in the location and description. According to him, it was less than a two-minute walk, equaling something close to a thirty-second drive. Maybe twenty seconds if Cassandra allowed it to be a sprint.
‘Should I set the other one to run as fast as you or are we just leaving them behind?’ Jules asked, turning on the engine without even hesitating on the decision. The automation hinted at the fact that they were not putting out any orders for the other construct in the street. Not that Cassandra had any intention of that, yet there might have been an idea or two about making sure that it understood its situation better.
Disconnecting from the channel normally used for communication between her and Jules, Cassandra mentally scoured the digital platforms for the one normally used for Grunwald and his automation. It was quite hard to find, seeing as it hadn't actually been used before, but she did still find it within a moment or two.
‘Jules and I will be leaving momentarily for an unplanned excursion into a possible witness of this event. You are to stay here and continue covering windows while also making sure that nobody walks into the street and gets themselves killed or something at that level,’ Cassandra sent, the message taking enough time to be made that she already reached the car by the time that she finished it. She positively slammed open the door, lunged inside, and barely closed her entrance by the time that Jules had slammed the speeder.
“Do you need to have the instructions on where to drive or can you just-” Cassandra began but was cut off.
“I got a glance at the notepad before. No need for anything but you not breaking that skull of yours from the turns,” Jules said, very strongly suggesting that the woman needed to put on a seatbelt. The advice was taken with a curse at Cassandra having forgotten to do so in the heat of the moment. Too much was going on, the small details being forgotten faster than they should have been. If anything, she wouldn't be surprised if she forgot herself one of these days.
The first big turn came with a very hard push to the side, Cassandra was only able to stay in her seat due to having belted herself onto the seat and by holding the car door with the grip of a titan. By this point, the woman was beginning to think her fingerprints were slowly being permanently indented into the car, with there being no way the force exerted didn't have some form of effect on it. She had broken a door handle with that grip before and there was no way she wouldn't do something like it again.
“I fucking love this,” Cassandra muttered, righting herself at the end of the turn. There had been a small need to be slow at the start due to the mass of people, but the automation was clearly testing the limits of the car’s acceleration, putting them at something close to a hundred in the span of three seconds. It was heart-wrenching to sit through, the feel of the skin being pushed back a small bit more than anything else felt before. And the woman had flown in a jet before, so it was truly something with that statement.
“I hope you’re talking about the car right now,” Jules commented from the side, a cheeky grin on their face. Cassandra would have given the bastard a shove if she dared, but the slightest turn of that steering wheel would have done too much for them. Instead, she just gave a glare of death.
But it wasn't like Jules was the intended receiver of her comment. It was more the general reality the woman found herself in, finally getting some kind of solid lead on the situation. The thieves were unravelled quicker than ever before. And if the description given by the person interviewed was to be believed, there was clearly some kind of a mystery at play.
“Did you get a look at the written description,” Cassandra asked, not wanting to talk more than she had to in the car. The pressure on the body was high, and she needed to conserve her strength for when it was needed.
“Nope,” Jules answered without a glance. Another turn marked them having been on the road for ten seconds, having driven more than ten times the distance that Cassandra would have been able to do in the same time frame. The wheels had been grinding against the sidewalk on the turns, everything at the top speed possible. It was truly frightening to be a part of, but Cassandra didn't let herself be influenced by that. Brining the notepad out of her pocket, it was clear that there were more obvious things to get online.
“We are looking for a taller male suspect. He wears a grey hoodie, loose pants, but his physical state is very clearly of a higher muscle mass. Carries himself with grace, a very easy smile, and clearly able to turn your neck hundred-eighty degrees within two seconds of being near you,” Cassandra read aloud, wondering a small bit about if some of the details were subjective to the one that she had interviewed or not. If things were to be believed, then there was clearly some form of violence able to happen soon, and the woman was sure that she could be in the midst of it.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“How big are you talking? And were there any hints of augmentation?” Jules asked at the same time as a sharp left turn was made. They were almost there. “Anything that would suggest me not being able to knee him down into the ground.”
“Besides a comment about the height, we have nothing suggesting it,” Cassandra stated wearily, not really sure if the intel was that believable. The location is very precise, though, so there was no chance she wouldn't try that one. “But remember that this man is supposed with the thieves. We have seen what they can do when they have been thrown to the floor.”
“Don't worry your little head off,” Jules said, forced to begin slowing the car down even though there was still a hundred meters or so to their destination. It was truly one of the harder things about having a quicker vehicle. They were hard to stop and even harder to make silent when doing it. They had to come in with a surprise and having the possible thief know of their entrance beforehand would only prove to be problematic for them. “You won't be the one getting close to him this time. You’re gonna be leaving that to me.”
Not exactly, Cassandra reminded herself. She had a weapon ready to shoot the moment that Jules showed signs of being manipulated. Yet another skill the thieves had showcased was manipulation of digital devices, and there was no way she would allow that to happen on her watch. Even if it took a few shots in the back, the thief would not be allowed to run.
‘We’ll see if that’s true or not,’ Cassandra said, stepping out of the car. She had switched over to the other communication very intentionally, not wanting to alert anybody with her voice alone. She even closed the car door silently just for the effort of not making noise, while silently cursing herself for not preparing for the stealth-oriented tasks. The woman was mainly laid out for crowd control, not having specific gear towards individual catching. At least she still had some restraints, however.
The location given was the inside of a few buildings. Not on the inside of them but more of the blind spot where the street didn't hit. The back-side of the buildings if that made sense. Whatever. Cassandra just knew how to get in and she knew how to make sure she wouldn't get seen.
The inside of the blindspot was not open to the public, even those who lived in the adjacent buildings barely knowing of it. Maybe that was why it was such a popular place for the younger generation to be, though Cassandra personally bet it to be due to the lack of smoke alarms. The architects hadn't really thought anybody would be there, after all, and hadn't planned on anything being in need of warnings because of it. Not the smartest building decision, seeing as the younger ones could smell the weakness in security? A place they could smoke while being unable to be caught by the police at random? There was no way it wouldn't be found quickly, and from there it was a gathering for nearly everybody under twenty-five.
That was one detail that Cassandra needed to get noted down. The age of the people inside. With most of the city-population having left not too long ago, the variety of people inside had changed a bit. There were now regulars uip to the age of thirty desperate for a little hiding-hole, with some forty plus people able to smuggle themselves in without any real trouble. The one that the woman had interviewed was normally one of the eldest but had been put on his head due to the newer changes.
Maybe that was why the suspect they were looking for had been able to gain entrance into the place so easily, the man having been described as being in the later years of the forties. Or that was how Cassandra had decided to take the comment about wrinkles from stress just starting to appear on the man's forehead.
Anyway, it wasn't like it was too important yet, the two officers still needed to gain entrance inside without being noticed too quickly. For any normal civilian, that would have been impossible, the main entrance inside the blindspot being very obvious, those already inside able to see one coming instantly. And that was why the two officers wouldn't be using it.
The privileges of government workers once again fell into their favour, the two able to use emergency entrances on the side of the building. Yes, it forced them through a slightly decrepit part of one of the buildings, but it helped them gain access without being within the eye-sight of anybody.
‘Stay silent,’ Cassandra commanded as they got further in. They had entered through the basement, going through the main parts before going over to a back door that lead them up some stairs and into the outside. They didn't take the full steps up, only going up enough to see what was above.
The blindspot was more of a hidden courtyard than anything, blank walls being seen around it, no windows anywhere. Maybe the designers had not intended for anybody to know of the little secret or maybe it had been a much dirtier place a few years back. It wasn't dirty now, since the people using it so often had done much to make it better in quality over everything else.
They had even brought some pieces of furniture, a sofa, a few chairs, and even a small round table that could be seen around the courtyard. None of the things looked clean enough to take home or to eat on, but they were definitely still able to be used generally. The fact that some were being used at that very moment was more than proof of that.
“You guys have to check it out to believe it,” a voice began to be heard. From what could be seen, it was likely from one of the sofas. Cassandra couldn't help but curse that the pillars were in the way, stopping her from getting a look at anything but their shoulders. “Everything was broken down over there. It’s a crazy sight. The news is gonna be all over it in a few hours.”
The voice itself seemed a little rough around the edges. The exact age was hard to point down, there being much too cluttered. It could have been a younger person with smoking addiction or it could have been a healthy older man. There was no way to truly be sure. Cassandra needed a better look to make an actual assessment.
“Yeah, so we have heard a few times now. But where is the proof? None of the guys has come back yet,” another voice said, this one very definitely young. The lightness of the tone was more than enough to prove them being under twenty. And… the fact that Cassandra had good luck on their face didn't change that idea, the woman able to identify them as yet another teen on a crime streak. They had actually been caught a few weeks back trying to break into a tv-shop. “It sounds like you're playing it a small bit here.”
“They’re just slow on their feet,” the first voice encouraged. “You gotta trust me on this.”
“Nobody even knows your bloody name. Why exactly do you expect to trust somebody that we just met today? We won't have the furniture stolen again,” the second voice commented. “It just sounds like you’re trying to get us all out of here.”
The longer the conversation went, the more Cassandra began to believe that they were onto something. Giving Jules a nod to the side, the two began to creep up the final steps. It was time to confront the group inside.