“Don’t you think it’s evil making it do everything?” Jules asked.

“I think it provides a life lesson, so… not at all,” Cassandra said, wondering if she should have bought some popcorn. The machine in front of them was acting high and mighty while at the same time bowing down to a piece of a broken building. Quite the comical sight for somebody deprived of any real entertainment. Or maybe the woman was just a sadistic piece of garbage.

“You are definitely among the bigger pieces of sadistic garbage,” Jules commented in a low brow manner, apparently having gained the ability to read minds while Cassandra wasn't looking. Not that she cared too much, the bloody likely having been able to know exactly what she was thinking without it. Modern information-gathering technology was simply too advanced for her feeble attempts at masking. “Just drinking refreshments while somebody drives away their body, breaking their backs, and constantly being forced to move… how could you possibly like this?”

“I like seeing people in pain, it seems,” Cassandra stated, more sure about that one sentence than most things in her life. Being able to put out harder tasks for entities that annoyed her was always the greatest part of being superior. Even better was that she had a great excuse for it.

Of course, the automation couldn't get a break! They had a strict deadline to uphold. And, no, Jules couldn't help it, because that construct was overseeing the destruction of the road clutter. Cassandra certainly couldn't provide her own arms, the woman already stressed with overviewing the general site, keeping away civilians, and wondering about what kind of noodles she would eat that afternoon. About the latter, there was a general consensus about it being curry, but chicken curry was slowly beginning to seem extra delicious. Cassandra was certain that the next hour had to be spent on that and nothing else.

“Not even denying it anymore?” Jules said, feigning shock at her statement. It wasn't even good acting, making the sight even more infuriating. “You truly have fallen deep. First, you want to reprogram everybody to your liking and now you want to see them suffer.”

“I told you that I didn't want to do it to you!” Cassandra objected instantly, not wanting to get into that argument again. The automation was a wall of opinion that refused to be changed. “It was meant for somebody else.”

“Yeah, and it was your friend that had trouble seeing the worth of people below the poverty line,” Jules remarked, showing off just how much research it had done into her search history. A clear history at that, making it obvious that the thing hadn't just perused it casually. “We all believe you. Don't worry.”

“I wanted to reprogram that thing over there,” Cassandra said, pointing at the other automation forced to put on covers for the many windows. “Nothing but that, I promise.”

“Of course, dearie. Nobody would ever have any desire to remove this charming personality of mine.”

If Cassandra had been a five-year-old, she would have likely have huffed into the air, made an angry expression, and looked away from the automation in feigned neutrality. But, she was a full-grown adult, capable of making adult-level decisions, which was exactly why she sent the automation the digital equivalent of a middle finger and instead focused her attention on the other construct within a hundred meters.

Or… that might have been a hundred and fifty. It was hard to truly tell at that length, the car and the seat within having been placed on the outer edge of the street. Cassandra wanted to be close to the outskirts so she would have been able to scare off the civilians without getting out of her seat, yet that decision was quickly proving itself to be without any other good sides.

Her entertainment was quickly disappearing into the distance, after all. Even when the automations seemed human, the woman had to remind herself that they could well and truly work at inhuman levels, boarding up windows faster than a whole crew could do. And she was talking about the trained crews used in the big cities, the ones working together for decades to build up teamwork5+. Maybe it was the lack of physical restraints that helped? The covers were more than most humans could carry without being crushed to death, so the woman supposed being able to freely move them around might have provided a good chunk of the time-waste.

As she continued her mental observations, the woman realised that even the augmented cleaners couldn't do what she was seeing. The strength, speed, and dexterity were impossible without augmentations worth the city as a whole. Was… was the cleaners going to be replaced by automations within the next few years? The woman hadn't thought about it before, but it was beginning to look like that. They could do it all faster, quicker, and better.

The event before her was more than just proof of that. The automation was alone. A normal crew was about ten full-grown men. The automation could complete one full-sized shop window in the span of forty seconds. A normal crew would need ten minutes to do the same. The automation could then move on to the next window in the span of ten seconds, needing no time to get the tools up from the ground. A normal crew would have to bring in one of the machines from other crews to make them move it, the time for that being upwards of several minutes.

What would happen if the numbers match? What could ten automations do when working together? They could lift a truck from the wreckage, could destroy the blocks of steel blocking crumbled buildings, and they could do it all quickly and without any need for other tools. They were the tools needed for most things, with the strength and speed to match it. They were the ultimate handyman, the ultimate rescue team, and what would truly cause it all to be held together.

And they were also massive pricks that sometimes needed to be learned a lesson, but Cassandra didn't exactly feel that that detail needed to be put into the inspirational rant. Stating the negatives to a salesperson was never a good idea, lest they could haphazardly mumble them to a potential client.

The automation set on window-covering was slowly moving back towards the two in the car. Not because of it to ask questions or anything, but due to it having completed the first floor on the right side of the street. It would take another bit of time before it had completed the other side but Cassandra could hardly wait.

The woman idly wondered how exactly it would be taking care of the second floor. Maybe a ladder? If so, they certainly hadn't brought one. Or… maybe it would just climb up and go through that way?

Looking at the architecture, the woman considered the chances of that happening. While the buildings might have looked appealing to any wannabe climbers, the scaffolds were but the trickery of the mind. The broken glass on the outside provided little for the fingers to grasp, and the weird angles they were set up would hardly make it a pleasant experience. Mixed together with the fact that it was the middle of winter meant that only somebody truly depraved would even think of making the climb.

Cassandra could hardly imagine anybody even doing it, then climb down being close to blind. And the glass shards. Even previously mentioned, the thoughts of those being forced into her skin made the woman feel crawling all over. Not the great feeling in the world.

Though… when she thought about it again, couldn't the automation simply enter through the front door and use the stairs to gain entrance to the second floor.

…

“By the way, I don’t think you ever mentioned how it went with your boss,” Jules said, bringing Cassandra out of her own prison of embarrassment for failing to remember basic architecture. She truly wasn't happy with it. And, oh yeah, she hadn't actually said a word about her experience.

“Must have slipped my mind, I suppose,” Cassandra said, sighing at the old thoughts starting to slip back into that head of hers. How better it had been when everything inside was local embarrassment instead of… whatever she was supposed to call the clusterfuck that was the real world.

“Well? Are you going to give an update of some sort? Your boss hasn't really written anything into the system, so I can’t really be told anything without you opening that mouth of yours,” Jules said, clearly not thinking much about how it was phrasing the sentences. A certain spy would have certainly commented on it.

“There isn't much I truly want to say,” Cassandra stated, trying to distract herself by looking over at the automation in the distance again. Yet, her idea failed catastrophically, her mind already centred on the one beside her. “I went over to see Grunwald, we talked for a bit, and discovered that somebody had been using my mail account without there being any obvious way that it could have been done traditionally. “

“I feel like there is some context to this that I really need,” Jules replied. Which, in Cassandra’s honest opinion, was completely fair.

“The error on the report sheet,” Cassandra began. “Grunwald and I originally chalked it up as being due to a decently serious computer error, but not one that we needed to be fearful about. That turned into a whole other discussion when we realised that there were some differences in what we each thought I had done the previous night. Grunwald had apparently received a message from me that included the report and a request for him to send it in for me. So… when there was a difference, we began to understand that the thieves might just have gained access to the network, placed a report in my place, and did basically nothing else.”

A moment was spent making sure that everything important was covered. When her mind came with a positive, the woman waited in silence, knowing exactly what would come after.

“... What, thieves that we very narrowly didn't catch a few days ago?”

“The very same. That’s what Grunwald thinks, at least,” Cassandra said, still not sure what she personally thought. At the time, she had supported the man wholeheartedly, yet there were just more and more things wrong with it all. Something isn't adding up. “They, for whatever dumb reason, decided to be the ones that reported themselves, letting us know exactly what they had done.”

“That seems kinda stupid.”

“My point exactly.”

But, it wasn't stupid. No matter how deluded Cassandra had become over the past week, she wouldn't allow herself to underestimate them again. They were smarter than this. They knew better than to simply show off. They were planning something.

Looking over at the other automation again, Cassandra saw something quite peculiar. The construct had somehow… sped up from before. Its movements were that quicker, only being worth a few percentages. But, it was definitely there, and more than enough for the woman with the tired woman to notice. There were a few thoughts about why that might have been, but the woman ended up not questioning it. Maybe the resources were truly beginning to show their lack of worth, with time truly more important than anything. Looking at the time it was clear they still had a good while before the reporters would come around, though, so Cassandra had to wonder just why the change occurred then of all times.

“So, the thieves were the ones who reported it, instead of some random civilian?” Jules asked for some weird reason.

“Yes?” Cassandra answered, not really sure what to say. “That is indeed what I said thirty seconds ago.

“Okay… so, if it wasn't a civilian who told the other civilians what was happening here, who told them?”

“The thieves, of course. Why do you even need to…”

Yeah, Cassandra suddenly had something she needed to do. And it would all start with interviewing a lot of people.