“Quit it with the crawling now,” Cassandra said, getting over to the young man. With a hood on and his stomach down, it was impossible to see any facial features. Though, that didn't stop her from imagining it was a strained one, trying to fight against the impossible foe of advanced sedatives. They were strong-willed, at the very least. Most would have given up by then. Maybe that other shot would be worth it. “You're just making it harder for yourself.”

“Not sure that's the best of ideas,” the young man muttered under his breath. That made Cassandra tense slightly. Sending the signal through to the automation, it had not yet found anything. The other thief was still at large. Yet, the man here was speaking to the other as if they were mere meters apart.

Her eyes narrowed. Taking off the hood, a head full of long hair filled her peripheral. However, Cassandra paid no attention to the length, looking instead at one of the young man’s ears. An earpiece sat inside it. While the model was not known on the market, it was clearly meant as communications. They were currently talking.

Another warning sent out. If the two thieves could talk no matter the distance, there was no telling if there were others in the area. She would have to get another batch of automations out of the station if this continued. This was becoming quite the operation now. First off, however, there was one task that she needed to get taken care of. Identification of the suspect.

With all that hair, no features could be seen. And it wasn't like the young man was making an effort to do anything. Obeying Cassandra’s words, the man hardly breathed. It was like he was trying to blend in with the scenery. It was scary how effective it was. That couldn't be allowed to go on. Taking a hold of the suspect's shoulder, she turned his body over. There was no resistance, allowing her to see the-

Cassandra had to rebalance herself, as she half-stumbled back, more shocked than anything else. What she had expected to see was a face. What she got was a blurry, glitchy mess that hurt her head to look at. Sputterings of colour came out and made the environment seem blurry as well. She actually felt a bit queasy from the ordeal.

“Face to the ground. Now!” Cassandra ordered. She couldn't even see the previous damage from falling to the ground. She could see no identifiable markers at all! Just how was this happening.

The young man obeyed silently, getting back on his stomach and lying back down. It took the products of years of dedicated acting for her not to sigh in relief. It was something to see visual bugs and glitches on screens. It was another thing entirely to see them in real life, all realistic and ready to take a stab at her.

Only… it was not really real. There was not a chance that what she saw was a product of reality. No, it was fabricated afterwards, made to look like it did because of an outside influence. She could only guess that it was the same influence as what had caused the initial blurring on the cameras.

If she had seen with her eyes, she would have seen the man’s face in full detail. She could have seen the crevices in the skin, the colour of his eyes, and overall detail as perfect as the individual placement of each hair. But, there was no such thing as her eyes anymore. One part of her job was to get most of the front part replaced with artificial parts. It allowed for a detailed overview to show up easily, while also not having the negatives that the brain implant usually had when showing off its visual aspects.

However, it did also have other negatives. While most could be negated with practice, there was nothing that could stop the artificial from being what it was. It would never be organic, always able to be influenced from the outside. That meant that it was utterly useless against the cloaking, at least in some form. The details were being kept away from her.

It was of no matter in the end. Even if she could not see his face herself, she had other methods at hand. It would require for her to transport the man back to the station, though, and that would have to wait for some time. A look at what the automation had looked through showed that the other thief was not in the storage room anymore. Well, at least not if the man still had a pulse. One thing that could not easily be hidden was the blood that circulated in the veins. And it made enough sound to be located. The sound of blood was louder than what one would think, and it was there that it could be exploited.

Though, that left no need for her to wait. Even if the automation would perhaps find the accomplice at some point, waiting around for too long would invite outside trouble to pop in. As of now, there was still no read on if they were part of a larger group or not. Getting over to the man, Cassandra got a bit more down, getting close enough that her speaking voice was louder than it had any right to be.

“Your accomplice is near. If you make them surrender now, I can promise reduced sentencing for cooperating with us. If they continue to hide, the length will increase indefinitely. Make your decision now, or face the punishment I don't doubt you deserve.”

It was a good old technique aimed at pressuring the person into making a quick decision that would be hated in the future. Cassandra didn't care about the long-term, however, just wanting it to end swiftly. But, it did seem to have great effects on the man, the muscles tightening up for the barest of moments. Even if she was physically incapable of seeing the man’s face, she could still guess that he was trying hard to resist the offer. The young man had already been caught, after all. Surely, the sacrifice of a comrade was not too bad, if it meant that he would get away a bit easier, right? That's how the woman considered the situation at least. Criminals were selfish people, only thinking of themselves most of the time.

Her ears picked something up. It was a small rustling, as something moved through the bushes on the side of the road. They were on the outskirts of the town, after all, so the tree-line was pretty close by. One could hide in there if they wanted to, and Cassandra would have been incapable of seeing them.

One positive of the artificial eyes, however, was the greater attributes it held within. While not too usable most of the time, the colder temperature allowed her to get a better reading on the local life signs. While her eyes might not have been able to see any beings, the air around it would spell the location out easily enough.

And… nature had once again worked against humanity. Not that far away, thirty meters at the most was a batch of air unusually warm. It came out in waves, matching the breathing pattern of a mildly stressed human being. How unusual. It was almost as if there was a certain other thief hiding out there.

‘Go out through the back entrance again. The second thief has been located outside,’ Cassandra sent along, while also giving an approximate location. The automation confirmed silently, a green ping sent back this time. Better than a thumbs-up emoji, the woman supposed, reading her weapon yet again. It would take a moment before she could get into position, but that did not mean she couldn't be busy with her-

“Run!” the young man shouted. His voice was sent directly towards the road, yet the power behind it made it echo off the walls. That was not good. That was an order. What if-

Cassandra’s head flipped back to the other thieves location. The breathing was gone, the criminal had begun to run. Yet… she could still hear it! With it being so out in the open, she could even catch up.

And so, she began the sprint of a lifetime, beating a speed record set a century ago. Her acceleration might not have been within the top percentile, but the common worker could not come close to matching her speed. Much less would a mere criminal match up to her standards.

The automation was not far behind her, picking up speed as well. But, the advantage of an earlier set-off was what held it off her. Likewise was it that which stopped her from catching up to the thief so easily? Too much distance had been created early on.

Yet, it did not matter how long it took. The air told where they ran, and Cassandra would follow diligently. There was nothing that would stop her. She could run until the day was over, and still have energy left to get herself back to the car. If needed, she could make the automation drag both of them back. It had been fully charged up, after all, and somebody needed to make sure it used it all up at some point.

Each time a foot hit the floor, a branch would be stepped over, cracking in the process. The ground was not made to be run on. Nature had not made it so. To many, this would be seen as a disadvantage. Cassandra took it as the prey being stopped as well. And… she had trained for this environment. While having dedicated most of her time to being the perfect city-cop, even she had made sure that the forests were something she would strive for.

The chase continued for five more minutes until the thief succumbed to the variety that came from a full-on sprint. The air became warmer, and the thick forest began to let her see more of the person she would but so many fines on for wasting her time. It had been a good chase, and she had felt her pulse rise because of it, but even she would have to give them a piece of her-

It was a deer. It stood stock-still, staring with wide eyes at her as it breathed heavily. Cassandra had been chasing a deer for over five minutes, causing it to be extremely tired. She had been running after an animal for five minutes. She had wasted five minutes chasing a fucking deer.

The automation chose that moment to catch up, jumping over a particularly large branch before stopping in place right by Cassandra’s side.

“Are we taking the deer in? If so, I do believe we have to take into consideration that human laws do not apply-”

“Shut up,” Cassandra ordered, before beginning to jog right back. She did not want to hear a word out of that scrap-bucket.

Getting back to the road, the woman found… a road. Now, that was expected, of course. What was not expected was the lack of a human laying on it. Looking around, there was no sign of anybody having crawled anywhere. And after looking through everything in a hundred-meter radius, Cassandra had to say one thing.

“Had one. Thought I could get two. Lost both.” What a great day to be alive. Not. Locking up the store, the ride back to the station was spent in speculative anger.

Just how had the first gotten away?