Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

40 - Make It Rain

Delgado couldn't suppress a smile. "Some things never change, eh? Did you really think it was going to be that different working on the inside?"

"Don't start, Chloe."

"I'm just saying. We had a good thing going-,"

"Did we?" Rain's eyes flared with anger. "Look where it got you, Chloe. You're a damned fugitive now, all because you tried to go against the corporations by yourself. You should have come with me!"

"I'd take a dozen more bullets before I'd let Kaysar – or anyone – else stick a fucking leash on me, Rain. You know that."

"Yeah, I suppose I do." She swigged her drink and sighed. "Do you want to hear what I have to say or not?"

Delgado felt a twinge of remorse. Whatever had happened between them in the past, Rain was throwing her a lifeline now, and that would never come without a risk, not with the corps.

No need to be a bitch about it.

"Sorry, you're right." She nodded apologetically. "So who's stonewalling you?"

"Internally, my own bloody captain. Beyond that, every enquiry I make dumps me from one private security firm after another. Contractors from Skiltron, Code Vector, Ardenne, Gammaton, Prometheus – you name it." She shook her head in frustration. "I knew what I was getting into when I joined Kaysar. I know how the corps work and I know how to play the game, but this is different. It's like everyone in the damned city wants to keep this from me."

"Ah." Delgado smiled thinly. "I might be able to help explain that."

Rain gave her a scathingly sceptical look. "Do tell?"

"I told you they were building codewraiths."

"Yeah. It doesn't sound any less crazy hearing it in person."

"Humour me."

Her companion gestured for her to continue, settling back into her seat with her drink. And so Delgado started talking. She told her about Piper Russell; about the wraith attacks. She recounted everything she and Kirk and Arden had dug up, the theories of the dock tech, Selbray, the compartmentalised contracts, factory blueprints, links to the Schism, all the way through to her shoot out with the corporate security squad just a couple of nights ago.

To her credit, Rain just listened. Her expression slowly morphed from one of incredulity, into concern, into disbelief. She periodically glanced around, as though afraid that any second more jackbooted thugs might come crashing through the bar to carry Delgado off.

When the tale was finished, Delgado sagged back into her chair, trying to ignore the pain that throbbed through her wounds and taking a steadying glug of beer. Then she waited.

"Shit," Rain said eventually. "That's a hell of a story."

"Believe me, I know."

"So this girl – Piper – she's connected to the wraith attacks somehow?"

"Seems like it. The way they told me, the first night those things were after her specifically. Then she disappeared. Word that we have is that she's locked up with AmpCore." She shrugged. "Until we find her, that's all I know. But the wraiths seemed to be hunting her. That's why they ended up in the heart scaring the shit out of the corporations."

Rain nodded. "Let's say I buy all of this. What exactly is it you need from me?"

"This whole contract thing," Delgado explained. "They'd need security from somebody, to keep people away from the factory site. There must be a paper trail somewhere. You get bet your ass that somebody from Kaysar's covering for this."