Cassandra didn’t waste too much time escorting the prisoner back to this cell. Jules had it covered for the entire duration, taking a hold of him this time around to spare her the effort. The man didn’t stop his ranting though, even when they got closer and closer to the cell. The struggle to get out of his restraints was ceaseless. Just what was he expecting from the doctor?

“Listen, they are gonna kill all of us. This is way above the security level of anything you have ever touched before. This isn’t something you had to sign a paper for to be excused. This is something where you have to be contained for the rest of your life if you want to have the slightest chance of living until next week!” Troy shouted, never stopping for breath. Jules sent in an info packet about how much cardio the man must have done to have such good lungs, but Cassandra just ignored it. “They don’t trust you enough to live. The moment we’re gone from this place, they’ll just shoot the place up. You will be erased from history just to make sure nobody has a chance at ever learning about what’s truly going on.”

It was neverending right until they got him locked onto the wall in the cell. It took more effort than Cassandra realized to not answer back. Jules closed the door for her as she watched Manson to make sure he didn’t try and make a move. Strangely, he was more interested in Troy. She knew that couldn’t mean well.

“Is it safe to leave those two alone in the cell?” Jules questioned as they walked back towards the break room. The other officers in the station had situated themselves thereafter getting everything else back under control. “We both saw those looks.”

“And we both know you’re monitoring their damn breathing habits,” Cassandra retorted. Even without glancing towards the cameras inside the place, she’d know perfectly well that Jules was studying him more than casually. The orders to make sure nothing bad happened was more than enough for the automation to be on high alert, whatever that meant in robotic terms.

“Still. Don’t you think it would be best to put one of them into confined solitary? The risks are still much higher than they should be,” Jules continued. Risks… There sure seemed to be a lot of risks in everything nowadays.

Everything was a risk, everything had the consequence of them all dying, and there wasn’t a single right choice to make anymore. There was only the choice made by those above her, that being to wait for the so-called Doctor Fidelis to arrive by helicopter. Or maybe a plane. She wasn’t sure how they would get here, only knowing he was expected in about three hours from now.

Who was this Fidelis even? He had made a large enough impact that it could make another man feel crazed in his attempts to escape. The vital signs from the man had certainly jumped the moment the name had been mentioned, hinting at extreme trauma in the past. Cassandra would have requested physiatry for the man if not for the impending extraction.

Back to the topic of figuring out identities, Cassandra did her best in searching up the name. Fidelis was indeed Latin but she had no real desire to look more into it, instead of searching up the government dossier of public servants. There were a few with the name, though none of them had anything close to a doctor’s degree. Even weirder, though, was that she had to submit reasoning for searching up the name, to begin with. It was as if the system was discouraging it.

‘Send in a request for Dr Fidelis’ profile,’ Cassandra instructed Jules. She didn’t say it out loud, knowing that Grunwald would hear through the walls. ‘And then send the information from it over to me.’

‘You realize that’s highly illegal and that I’d need to send in a request to share the information as well, right?’ Jules questioned.

‘Could you do it without sending in that last request?’ Cassandra asked right back, ignoring the automation’s question.

‘Technically, yes.’

‘Then do it.’

‘...Sure. Why not break more than a few laws just because you asked,’ Jules said, walking a bit slower as it now had three tasks to focus on at the same time. Filling out request forms was surprisingly hard when one had to go up several levels of security.

It gave Cassandra enough time to wonder just how likely it was that the man had been speaking the truth. A doctor known from before was being sent over to confirm the identity of the prisoner so they could make sure that they were the actual culprits of a previous incident, that incident being them rescuing a child from a life of torture.

The lack of respect for life was just a chance to gain more for the government. Cassandra initially thought it pure fantasy but slowly realized what she’d seen herself mere days before. An entire camp blasted to pieces, even when a child had been right in the middle of it.

… She needed to know more.

‘Are we sure that Grunwald gave us the right name?’ Jules asked after a few more seconds of walking. ‘The system didn't have anything to give me even when I asked twice. There is not a single person above our pay-grade who has that name.’

Well, that was certainly peculiar. Cassandra would’ve thought the same thing if not for the reaction of a certain prisoner.

‘Keep searching. He might just be under a variation of the name,’ Cassandra ordered, though she knew it likely wasn’t the case. Something weird was going on. She needed another human to talk to.

Lucky for them, they had walked far enough to reach the cafeteria, voices coming from the inside easily. Jared and Grunwald were spending the time with small-talk, not seeming to mention the events experienced not even a day before. The last of the protesters had barely been taken care of and there they were sipping a bit of tea. How she loved it.

Oh, and Nero was there in the corner as well. The automation seemed entranced with the empty tea bags, slowly drawing its fingers across the surface of the items. Cassandra wondered whether or not to comment on it but decided to let that part of the room stay with the automations. Jules was already on its way over to join the other walking bag of electronics anyway.

“Ah! I see the star of the hour is here,” Jared said, raising his cup of tea high into the air. The high temperature of the cup’s outside made the man retract the raised liquid quickly, though, making a few silent swears as he held the burned skin. “Did you get anything good out of the prisoner?”

“Nothing other than a few threats to my life and some very deluded views about the world,” Cassandra said as she sat down next to them. Her words were the height of recent humour, Jared certainly finding it funny. Grunwald even had a small smile on his face, though it was much more muted.

“Nothing to worry about then,” Jared assured her, smiles still being planted safely on that face of his. “We didn’t expect much else. We just had to be sure that he was the one robbing those other times. Your questions showed that well enough.”

Right. They had been behind the glass, just as law mandated. They’d seen it all for themselves. That would make the next step easier.

“Yeah, it was quite peculiar in the way he acted,” Cassandra agreed before looking over at Grunwald. “Especially when I mentioned this Dr Fidelis you know. Is he more known than I thought?”

The smile fell off her superior face faster than anything before. Cassandra felt worried.