Piper was so stunned that she almost didn't notice the first codewraith come stomping into the house over the corpse of the second.
It screeched like some kind of animal; its clawed feet crushed the wreckage of its comrade. Piper's stared as a fresh jolt of terror blasted through her, and this time she didn't feel anything. No-connection - no miraculous smiting from the gods of technology.
She was as good as dead.
The codewraith lunged towards her and she threw her hands up in a futile attempt to protect herself, letting out one last petrified yowl. Before the fatal blow could land, however, something yanked the crazed machine backwards.
Dumbfounded, she watched as it went flying back through the hole in the wall, smashing down into the street beyond. A figure pivoted into view outside the house: a young man with his back to her. In his right hand some kind of short rod glowed viciously in the gloom.
The codewraith blared static, righting itself and leaping at the newcomer. He stood his ground and for a horrible instant Piper thought he was about to be torn apart, but at the last second he raised the rod. Its tip erupted with an effervescent bolt of boiling blue energy and she felt the heat even from within the house as the blast struck the codewraith, flinging it backwards.
It crashed to the concrete, and this time it didn't get up. Molten slag dribbled onto the street and a wheezing, electronic gargle rattled out of the demented machine before its appendages finally stopped twitching. She could smell burning. Then she realised she was shaking all over.
Her saviour stood there for a few seconds, apparently making sure the wraith was completely dead. The glow coming from his weapon subsided, and suddenly things seemed overwhelmingly dark. Piper scrubbed her hands across her eyes, trying to make some sense of the chaos that had just unfolded.
Footsteps made her look up.
The newcomer was in the house, looking down at her.
"Are you alright?"
Are you alright?
Despite everything that had just happened Piper wanted to punch him square in the mouth. She jerked away, shuffling backwards on all fours until she hit the wall. Piper pushed herself upright, clutching her hair with one hand, the other clenched into a tight fist to keep from trembling as she surveyed the wreck that had once been her kitchen.
"Do I look alright to you?!" she blurted shrilly.
"Sorry, I-,"
"Two of those fucking wraiths just tried to kill me!" Piper bulldozed through his words. "They wrecked my house and almost killed my family! No, I am not okay. What the hell is going on? How did those things get across the water? Who are you?! What just happened? What... what..."
The tirade gushed out of her with such force that her knees buckled and she hung her head in her hands, trying to remember how to breathe. When she straightened up again the stranger was standing facing her.
He held up one hand, doing his best to look unthreatening. In the other, the strange metal wand he carried still glowed with residual energy. The heat from ... whatever he'd done still lingered in the street.
It was enough, however, for Piper to take a breath and actually look at him. She was shocked to see that his serious-looking long black coat and iron-grey body armour did nothing to disguise the fact he wasn't much older than her. Solidly built, he had dark brown skin and a short fuzz of curling black hair. His eyes were a stormy green, staring at her with an intensity that she found uncomfortable.
That didn't stop her also noticing that he was startlingly attractive. His shoulders were solid and broad beneath the jacket, and his clean-shaven face revealed the strong lines of his jaw. His nose was wide; features round and welcoming. She saw him physically try and soften his stare and his gaze became a shade more bearable.
"Maybe I should rephrase," he began carefully. "Are you hurt?"
She didn't recognise his accent - he certainly wasn't Hadrian-born. Maybe somewhere in southern Carthage from the way he sharpened the ends of words and heavily accented his vowels. She couldn't pinpoint anything closer than that. Geography wasn't something Hadrian's corp-sponsored academy schools impressed upon the lower dregs of society.
"I..." Piper examined herself, and discovered that miraculously, barring a few cuts and bruises, she was in one piece. "I don't think so," she managed.
"Good." The glow from the weapon faded away, leaving something behind that just looked like an unremarkable rod of metal maybe twelve inches long. In a slow, deliberate motion, he pulled his jacket open with one hand and slid the rod into a holder in his belt.
As his jacket shifted, she noticed something else: a logo branded on the left shoulder. It was a cobalt circle with a line cutting diagonally through it, surrounded by a pattern that looked like links in a chain. She couldn't remember the name, but she'd seen that symbol branded some of Hadrian's corporate offices and warehouses on the dock.
Suddenly he didn't look so attractive.
"Who the hell are you?" she asked, on guard in an instant.
"My name is Odiye," he replied, straightening his jacket out. "Odiye Tambo."
"And you're a corporate spiv."
He stiffened a little at the jibe. "I saved you from that wraith."
Piper snorted. "Yeah, and if I know corps, I'll be paying that debt off until I'm rusting in the fucking ground."
"Please," Odiye snapped, holding up both hands. "Yes, I am sponsored by Code and Vector Incorporated." He tapped the logo on his shoulder with two fingers. "I am from AmpCore. Do you know of this?"
AmpCore.
She swallowed hard. "Some kinda corp secret police."
"Something like that." A smile flickered enticingly across Odiye's face, but it was gone as quickly as it came. "What is your name?"
"Like you don't already know."
"I am not a spy," he said, sounding slightly hurt. "I help people. Now can you please tell me your name?"
She regarded him for a moment, then relented. "I'm Piper. Now, are you going tell me what is going on? How the hell did two codewraiths get loose on this side of the river?"
"That, I do not know." He sank into a crouch, examining the dead wraith in her kitchen. "They did not cross the bridge, and they could not swim the waters. Maybe someone smuggled them across?"
"Why?"
For a moment he didn't answer, his face thoughtful. "That wraith," he said eventually, inclining his head to the wreckage. "How did you do that?"
Piper looked down at the dead codewraith and felt her heart start to slam in her chest again. The memories rushed back, and she remembered the feeling of connection, the brief glimpse into the machine's demented brain.
"I'm not sure what happened," she said haltingly. "I felt some kind of ... I don't know - connection - with the thing and I just wanted it to die. Next thing I know it just sort of... blew up."
Odiye's brow furrowed and he glanced around, as though looking for anyone who might overhear them. Then he stepped towards her, lowering his voice. "Piper, I saw what happened."
"Then maybe you can explain it!"
"Yes, I think I can."
The answer knocked some of the hostility out of her voice. She looked down at the ruined machine; back up at Odiye. "What does that mean?"
"It means you need to come with me."
"Not a chance." She made a sweeping gesture to the ruin of her home. "I can't just leave. What about my family? Where are they?"
"They are safe, I assure you. My colleagues have seen to it."
"And I'm just supposed to take your word for it?"
Odiye seemed to consider that for a moment, then nodded. "I understand. Please, follow me." He turned and trudged out through the hole in the kitchen wall, and beckoned her.
Taking a shuddering breath, she edged around slag heap of the dead wraith and slunk out into the street. Her mind was spinning; she could feel her limbs trembling as adrenaline flooded out of her system.
Why of all the poor, shitty lives in Hadrian had this mess flooded into hers?
Out on the street she was confronted with a series of security cordons, beams of electric blue fencing off half the block. Corporate security guards patrolled, sleek-barrelled rifles shining in the light. Three equally sleek cars were parked nearby, jet black from tip to tail with more guards being directed by a young man wearing the same long jacket and body armour as Odiye.
She saw two familiar figures being bundled into the back of one of the vehicles.
"Mum! ARDEN!" she shrieked as her mother disappeared into car, her high voice slicing through the air like a stiletto. Heads snapped towards them and she saw Arden trying break free from the cordon.
"PIPER?! What is-?" She got two steps before one of the guards caught her and wrestled her into the back seat.
Piper was about to start running towards them but a firm grip clamped around her upper arm, holding her in place. She turned a blazing glare on Odiye, and he gave an apologetic shake of the head.
"I am sorry, Piper. You cannot go with them."
"Where are they taking them?!"
"Somewhere safe until the situation is secured and repair teams can be dispatched to your home."
"Get off me!" She wrenched herself loose, but it was too late. The car carrying her family glided off into the night. Piper grabbed two fistfuls of her hair, letting out a shrill, wordless noise, unable to vocalise the tornado of emotions racing through her.
"Your family are safe," Odiye said quietly. "Now I need you to come with me."
"Why?" she gasped.
"Because we all need answers. You want to know how you destroyed that wraith? Want to know why it came after you in the first place? Then you need to trust me."
"I don't trust anyone branded by a corp."
"Please, Piper, you are in more danger than you know."
"Oh yeah, cos I'm gonna be so safe with spivs like you watching my back, eh?" She rounded on him. "Give me a straight answer. What did I do to that wraith?"
Odiye pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Only someone with AmpCore implants could have done what you did, so I am guessing you have them."
"You think I have implants? That's illegal!"
"Very. No-one outside the academy is supposed to have them." He shrugged. "But it's the only thing that makes sense to me."
"This is insane. What kind of implants could even do something like that?!"
At that moment the other AmpCore operative arrived on the scene, strolling with alarming calm and surveying the wreck of the house.
"How is the family?" Odiye asked as he approached.
"Secured," the young man replied, sounding acutely bored of the entire situation. He inclined his head to Piper. "She the sister?" Home-grown this one, his accent twanging - r's rolling.
"Yes."
"Alright, load her-,"
"Toran wait." Odiye hesitated, looking back at her for a moment. Then he stepped closer to his colleague. "There's a second wraith, inside the house. She killed it."
The newcomer's brows rose. He was a lanky individual, pale-skinned and sporting an unruly mess of straw-brown hair above his long face. Sharp eyes appraised her above an even sharper nose, and a shadow of stubble darkened his jawline. Piper stared right back.
"How?"
"Take a look." Odiye gestured to the gaping hole in the wall of Piper's home.
The other man frowned and disappeared inside. They waited and Piper considered making a run for it, her eyes flickering to the unmarked cars and guards, gauging how far she might be able to get. Then her mind flashed back to what she'd seen in the house, watching Odiye obliterate the codewraith without batting an eye. Something told her that just running away wouldn't quite do the job.
Toran re-emerged. His face looked a lot more serious now as he strode over to them. His eyes flicked to her before he addressed Odiye.
"She did that?" he asked, pointing at the house. "You're sure?"
"I saw it."
"Shit." He looked back and forth, wrestling with some internal dilemma. Eventually he sighed. "You know what this means?"
"She's got to come with us."
"I guess so." He made a vague gesture to their surroundings with one hand. "The streets are cordoned off, but we can't keep it that way for much longer. Let's wrap this up." For the first time he addressed Piper directly. "You coming?"
Odiye shifted his footing awkwardly. "We are discussing that."
"Discussing?" Toran shot him a withering look. "C'mon, Odiye, we're not here to negotiate with the locals."
"Oh, no? Who the fuck even are you?" Piper spat unable to contain herself any longer.
"Piper, this is my partner, Toran. Toran Knox," Odiye told her, giving the other operative a disapproving look.
Toran managed a smirk. "Pleased to meet you, Piper," he said, through the greeting felt about as welcoming as a knife in the eye. "Now, let's go - car on the right."
She raised an eyebrow. His jacket bore a logo as well, and this one she recognised all too well. A blood red circle with the a black city silhouette inside it, and a central icon that depicted a mechanical eye watching over it all.
Skiltron Fireware, one of the biggest players in town. That damned logo appeared on everything from food packets to electronics. They had their metal fingers into every pore of Hadrian.
"I'm not going anywhere until you let me see my family."
"Piper, there will be time, I promise," Odiye pleaded. "But right now we have to get you back to AmpCore. You need a full examination."
"No, you need me to have an examination. I need to see my family."
"Oh, for Christ's sake," Toran grunted. "I don't have for this."
In a flashing motion he whipped his own wand from its belt-holster and Piper felt the air around her tremble. The metal rod crackled with a roil of red sparks.
"Toran-,"
"Enough, Odiye, you tried your way." He stepped towards her. She started to back away, but he made a lazy gesture with the wand and a section of the street all around her blew apart.
Piper let out a squeal, shielding her face with her hands as concrete dust and shards of metal engulfed her. Spluttering and coughing, when she opened her eyes again she found Toran standing right in front of her, his face a mask of contempt.
"Listen you stupid dock rat," he snarled. "Get in the fucking car. Otherwise your precious family might find itself without AmpCore protection if the wraiths come back. Understand?"
Shaking, Piper straightened up, feeling a swell of dread in her gut when she realised she didn't have a choice. She had no idea if Toran was someone who could follow through on such a threat, but it wasn't a chance she could take. Biting down her hatred, she looked to Odiye and gave him a tiny, bitter nod.
"Okay. Let's go."
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