The two got the tracker over to the evidence lockers, before heading out in one of the other cars. Cassandra had initially thought about staying back at the station for a while, to check if anything else could have been gotten out of looking at the tracker. There was still a chance that the first analysis of its structure had been crude in some form, stopping the system from correctly identifying it with its counterparts that had already been discovered earlier on.

Yet they still moved on, the woman not truly trusting that such a mistake could have ever been made. Not like the machines ever only did one scan of any item nowadays, thousands being done by the milliseconds. In fact, with how much power there was in those bastards, the woman wouldn't have been too shocked about it having reached the millions by now. Anything being missed by the eyes of the machines was quite the miracle, no matter what the consequences of that were.

The drive over to the site wasn't long, bordering on not even taking a full minute. Then again, it was Jules driving, and the automation had clearly grown out of the steady pace that had been witnessed the day prior. Cassandra most certainly held on to dear life, as she witnessed mania beginning to sprout in that which should not have had the ability to gain such a condition. Truly a vacant yet abhorrent sight to witness. Especially when it involved the woman being frightened due to the chance of being bashed against the sidewalk.

Not that Cassandra really did need to worry about that. The worst that would happen at the current speed was her getting a few bruises among other things. She could perhaps twist an ankle if she hit the road at the wrong angle, yet nothing worse could really happen. When mixed with the woman’s training of high-velocity bracing, there weren't any lethal dangers associated with being thrown out of the car. It would hurt, yes, but it wasn't like she would die from it.

Maybe it was more the anticipation of it all that drove her mad. The idea that it could happen. If she had been thrown out the moment she sat down on the seat, Cassandra wasn't too sure she would have been bothered by it as she normally was. It would be a quick flying, a quick impact, and then end with her being permanently in the driver’s seat instead of the automation. In reality, it was just a constant state of almost being about to crash. There was never a moment where Cassandra didn't doubt that a single distraction could be the reason that they would check the structural security of a light pole.

Nevertheless, these fears were never actually realised during their journey. Not that Cassandra didn't doubt that it was likely to happen sometime in the future. She was just happy that it hadn't happened that day.

For if it had, she might not have been able to see the sight that met the two officers, as they stepped out of their car on a very specific street. Cassandra couldn't actually get the name to stick in her head, yet the sight seen made it very obvious why she would forever remember it after that point.

Snow had certainly fallen during the last couple of nights, yet the sun had clearly been at work too, melting the snow on top just barely. Yet the overall temperature did always win out in the end, the water melted turning into ice that could reflect in the sun that shined beautifully.

Yet that ice that could be seen everywhere was more than a little deceptive, and Cassandra had to stand there for a few seconds before realising what was amiss about the whole thing. The ice reflected everything to every side, giving the woman small light dots to see everywhere she looked. That was not how ice worked at all, the surface not jagged enough to constantly be in her eye. That could only mean one thing.

That something other than the ice sat on the ground, shining the lights from beneath. And those somethings could be very clearly seen the moment that Cassandra bent her knees a little to get closer to the ground.

A thousand wasn't enough of a count. That was her first thought, as she looked upon the millions of shards that littered the whole street. Most of the shop’s around her had gotten all the windows inside shattered, with the wind having seemingly picked it all out and strewed it as an even layer across the whole place.

It was a minefield where nobody ever needed to fall, lest the glass would cut their legs and hands up without mercy. Cassandra did see some beauty in that, even if her idea about why it had been done isn't exactly clear.

What purpose had the thieves seen for doing all of this? It must have taken more than a little effort to blow out every window in every store. Wouldn't one window for each place have been enough? Cassandra couldn't see the point of it all, every floor of every store not having a single hint of remaining glass hanging. It was unbearable to think about the property damage, how much it would cost to have it all fixed.

And that didn't even account for the inside of the places. Just like the wind, the snow falling to the ground had been free to fall inside the shops. From her position in the street, Cassandra could clearly see mounds of snow gathered on the insides of the stores. She was more than sure that the second and third floors had it much worse.

“Any idea of where we should start with this?” Jules asked, walking over to her. Cassandra had barely noticed that the construction had done so until it spoke, too stupefied with how it all looked. So much destruction with so little reason. The only thing it did was create chaos.

… Was that what they wanted out of it? Chaos? Destruction? Something that equalled the damage that had been dealt to them, perhaps. There was a chance that they hadn't appreciated the number of times where they had been ambushed. Cassandra had personally witnessed other criminals lashing out due to that, not making it impossible that the same had happened here.

“I don't think there is any good place to… “ Cassandra began but stopped by herself. Her eyes had turned around, scanning the area yet again. And during that sweep, she saw the one shop that had been talked about so much that very morning. “That one. It’s what caused all this mayhem to begin with.”

“I didn't think we normally put all the blame on a shop but whatever. Let’s go give it a chance to hear exactly what we think of it!” Jules said, clearly not being on the same wave length as Cassandra. Not that the woman would have noticed it, being too focused on walking steadily. The ice was still ice, and the road meant to stop it from gathering in the first place was clearly not working as intended. Maybe glass shards really were that much more of a deterrent than anybody could have previously predicted.

The giant medical shop was something of a sensation a few months back. Cassandra remembered reading about it in one of the online newspapers while she had tried to dig up information about the city itself. Apparently, it had been quite the boost in popularity for the area as a whole, the brand causing more to visit for shopping.

It helped that it was the only shop of its size and kind within a good fifty kilometres. If there was ever a need for medicine not commonly used, folks from other cities were always forced to travel to the one before Cassandra at that very moment. It was the reason that so many had gotten the restorative items that were needed to survive.

Going inside the shop, the woman similarly noticed that it had sold all these life necessities set at prices she, as a government-hired specialist, could hardly afford with her acquired budget. Sure, she did put most of her money away into stocks, but that was purely due to necessity. She needed capital in the future, and that could only be gained from investment instead of one-use luxuries. There was a reason she ate health-affecting snacks after all. The healthy ones that tasted good cost quintuple the amount, not even close to fitting within Cassandra's budget.

Just how did normal people afford such medicine? Cassandra knew her salary was above average. meaning that those in actual need of going to a store for a packet of medicine had a much lower income than her. If she had trouble fitting it into her spending, just how was the poor doing it without any need for skipping a single day?

The woman tried not to think about it, instead of putting her mind towards the idea that the prices would never again be fulfilled, that people would be unable to ever buy the products from the store again.

Nearly every product within twenty meters of any opening had been utterly ruined, with those further inside littered with small glass shards. Cassandra wasn't surprised if the government would require for it all to be thrown out, the dangers of giving it over to civilians being too high. Glass powder was an extreme weapon, after all, the inhalation of even small quantities being enough for extraordinary damage to the lungs.

Picking one up that was close to her, more specifically one that had clearly been touched as of recently, Cassandra looked over what it was. From the image alone, it was clearly an expensive piece of medical technology, likely meant to be used during hiking or any other activity that would make it hard to travel to a hospital quickly.

Not that it actually prevented the need for a hospital visit, as the back of it said. The tools within only allowed for temporary stasis of wounds, allowing for rescue vehicles to arrive at the location before any serious effects were begun on the body. That’s… clearly useless to the thieves.

Cassandra fully understood why the criminals had not taken it. Going further inside, to the place that the actual sought item was supposed to be, Cassandra could see that there were footsteps in the broken glass. Somebody had been there before them after the glass had broken onto the ground and pretty much everywhere. They had been seeking the much more expensive version of the product that the woman had held only a moment ago.

Yet it had never been found. They might have looked for hours on end, yet they wouldn't have found a single hint of what they would have needed. Cassandra had made sure that Jared knew where they all were, and that he would take every single one of them with him. There wasn't a chance that they would have been able to retrieve one. That was one point for the police and zero points for the criminals.

Nonetheless… looking over at all the destruction that had occurred while the whole thing had been going on, seeing the millions or almost billions in property damage, and seeing all the lives financially ruined, the officer felt like it was closer to calling it a draw. They had won the round, but at what cost? They were meant to minimize destruction, to stop the thieves from destroying the foundations of the economy, yet instead of stealing they had instead simply destroyed out of spite. It would have been easier to bargain with them at this point, yet the woman knew that it would be impossible to make the boss understand that. Their capture was already too important, too many resources having been spent on that goal. They were viable to be fired if they even showed the slightest hint of giving up now.

Fired, huh? Cassandra knew she couldn't risk getting sacked, yet she also knew that she couldn't let something like what she saw happen to her happen again. Both would ruin all opportunities of her career ever becoming something more than it was. Both would make her lose all ground she had gained through tooth and nail. It would make her be put back into the silent corner of society, made to nestle with the rest of the civilians that she had turned into. A fate worse than death in her eyes, yet that might just have been her overexaggerating. Cassandra had been awake for a long while, and even she was beginning to realise that she was feeling the effects of that fact.

“This isn't the prettiest place in the world, to be honest. Makes me wonder how it has such good reviews and all,” Jules said, walking a bit to the side, and looking generally around the place. Cassandra supposed she had simply spent too much time staring at the single empty spot, boring the automation half to death. How humourous and exciting it was to have a construct incapable of waiting around for more than thirty seconds, while the woman gathered her thoughts. The old constructs were more than happy to leave her alone for several minutes, yet the one beside her couldn't help but jabber on about some inane and completely unnoticed fact about their location. It was something that could be worked with, the woman supposed she could have overlooked it, yet the complete uselessness of the comments made it a severe distraction and nothing else but that.

“This place was a centrepiece of the economy around here,” Cassandra answered. “It would make sense for the people to treasure it as such.”

“Well, they aren't going to be treasuring it anymore at least. This place might glitter like fine booty but it's less worthless than the ground outside this place. Nobody wants glittering glass-shards, after all.”

Cassandra supposed that was true, at least. She mentally changed her opinion of the construct verbal antics, before looking back at the empty spot on the shelf. There was much to ponder about.