Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

09 - I Fix Problems Like You

"Been here one day and already getting threats from the staff," Piper scoffed. "Can't wait to get started."

"I'm not talking about consequences from the academy," Mattise replied. "I'm talking about your implants. I'm not sure you understand the full gravity of what the good Doctor Carstairs uncovered when he scanned you."

"That apparently I was born this way. Yeah, I know."

"What you don't know is that even academy sanctioned grafts can be very volatile if not properly controlled and nurtured by the user. To be frank, we don't know what you might be capable of, and neither do you."

Piper forced herself to look him in the eye. "Meaning what, exactly?"

"It means that if you don't put in the time to understand and control your implants, they could quite easily kill you." Mattise's hand flashed out towards the holographic screen, and it projected out a large two-dimensional image. After a moment Piper realised it was her house, dead codewraith and all.

Her stomach flipped.

Mattise saw her expression and gave a knowing smile. "Oh, yes, I'm well aware of your little incident with the wraiths." He pointed at the display. "If you can do that without even meaning to, it means there's an awful lot of power in that body of yours that you have no idea how to use.

"I've seen idiot students in this place blow themselves to pieces because they thought they knew better than their instructors. I've seen kids crippled beyond repair; seen brains scorched into husks, bodies torched from the inside out; seen people disappear into data streams and never come back. That is what I mean by consequences. If you don't apply yourself and show this place the respect it deserves, you'll be dead long before anyone here has a chance to do anything to you."

Piper squirmed under his gaze and glanced at Odiye. Her companion just nodded. He means it. Returning her attention to Mattise, she swallowed down all the bile and hate that wanted to come leaping out, and reluctantly dipped her head to him.

"Okay, I get the point," she said quietly.

"Good." His face brightened. "You're unique, Piper, but you are also a problem. It is my job to fix problems like you. I'd like to find a solution that doesn't involve you destroying yourself and taking half the academy with you."

"That'd be nice."

"Alright then." He was back behind his desk in a flash. "Now that we are all on the same page, you'll be attending your first classes today. Normally our students are financed by corporate sponsors, and the academy is necessarily structured around its benefactors. You, rather obviously, don't fit into that structure."

"Sorry about that."

"I'm sure." Fingers danced through the holographic interface. "But I prefer it that way. I'd rather not have you leashed to someone who doesn't understand the full ramifications of what you are. We will siphon an adequate percentage of discretionary funds to apply to your training for now. If things progress sufficiently, a corporate sponsor will take on the costs at a later date."

Piper felt the anger coming back, jaw tightening. "And if I don't want a sponsor?"

"You can argue about that with someone else."

Her data pad bleeped and a lesson log emerged onto the main screen, closely followed by meal schedules, curfew times and an academy map. Right behind them came something labelled as the AmpCore Excellence Review.

Piper tapped the file and up sprang the leaderboard, the same one she'd been seeing all over the academy during her whirlwind tour.

"What is this table... scoreboard thing?" She raised the turned the screen to Mattise. "I've seen it on half the walls in this place."