The office of Senior Induction Officer Mattise felt even more clinical than the medical bay. Not a thing out of place – all right angles and impossibly clean. A desk confronted her, gleaming with a perfectly rectangular holograph display. On it she saw two data pads; matching styluses and nothing else.
Weirdly austere by corp standards, she thought. The walls of the room to the left and right were filled by the rolling advertisements on one side, and the strange academy league tables on the other. Between them stood Mattise, back turned, examining something on the shining cobalt lens of his holographic visor. The glow abruptly disappeared as they entered the room.
"You are late, Mr Tambo." A voice like icewater. She glanced at Odiye; he twitched, standing to attention as though on a military parade ground, but didn't reply.
With an impossibly smooth motion, Mattise turned to face them.
He stood tall, his white uniform fitting immaculately to his lean frame. Equally immaculate black hair was slicked back, shining with chemicals, and Piper could see the two brass-coloured squares fitted to the man's temples where the visor would be generated. Clean-shaven, his jaw looked like it could cut throats. The visor flashed back into life again, forming a narrow screen that shielded her from Mattise's piercing grey eyes.
"Piper Russell," he murmured. She could see the visor flickering as her information flowed past the instructor's eyes. "Warehouse apprentice 3rd class, Modell-Maxiar Freight Solutions, Cartwright Residential Block 7538. Graduated from Cartwright/Skiltron Institute 24A with academy C-Standard qualifications. Daughter of Annabelle Russell, sister to Arden Russell. And very much not where you're supposed to be."
His mouth smiled, but it didn't seem to have his consent to do so. The visor vanished and Mattise wrestled his expression back into one of disinterested neutrality. Piper fought down her insults, her pride prickling at having to listen to her life distilled down into a few bland sentences by some corporate spiv.
"I guess not," she managed, her voice tight.
"Whatever the case, you are here, and you've brought a lot of questions."
"Yeah, I got that."
Mattise's brow creased. "Let me be candid with you, Ms. Russell."
"Don't strain yourself on my account."
"If you want to survive here," he continued sharply. "You would do well do think before you speak."
She caught Odiye's warning glance and with an effort, shut up. Mattise waited, and when she didn't goad him any further he gave a slight nod.
"So we understand each other." He picked up one of the data pads and stylus from the desk and stepped around the table, thrusting them into her hands. "This is your data capture. All assignments, lesson schedules and progress reports will be uploaded automatically through the academy network. You may also use it to take notes if you feel it necessary." His strange smile flickered again. "I assure you, it will be necessary."
Piper looked at the data pad – a rectangular thing maybe six inches square. Emblazoned across the top of the screen was her new designation: Initiate NameLog, Russell, P – AcademyLog, Semester1.
Tagged and collared. The unpleasant thought forced its way into her mind. Piper shoved it back down and tried to focus as Mattise continued.
"You will adhere to your schedule," he said. He opened one palm and a small holographic interface seemed to project right up out of his skin. Implants of his own, it seemed. The fingers of his other hand flickered through it and her data pad bleeped. "The things you will learn here are dangerous, for yourself and for others. I don't care how you came here, or how sorry for yourself you feel. You will listen to your instructors, you will learn, and you will apply yourself. If you do not, there will be consequences."
"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."
"The Excellence Review – it tracks the progress of the AmpCore members until they graduate."
"You rank the students?"
"Of course."
"Publicly?"
"Healthy competition drives excellence," Mattise told her with such conviction that she knew he believed every syllable.
"O-kay." Piper couldn't stop her eyebrow raising in surprise. "So how exactly does that work?"
"There are rolling examinations throughout the year. Results are tallied across all disciplines and rankings updated accordingly. Sponsors wish to know how their money is being spent – this keeps them abreast of how their people are progressing. And no sponsor is going to shy away from a good rivalry."
"Don't think about it too much," Odiye interjected. "Without a sponsor you won't be ranked."
"Oh, I'm afraid she will, Mr Tambo." Mattise's tone sharpened, a snake's grin splitting his features. "There are certain conditions attached to this 'experiment' I'm afraid. If you can't perform to a level that will allow adequate study of your implants, then I'm afraid the proposals from Operative Demir will be very much back on the table – if you'll excuse the pun."
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Piper exploded. "So if I don't score on these stupid rankings you're going to kill me?!"
"Sir, this can't-,"
"I don't make the rules." Mattise cut them off with a chop of his hand. "And I can't help you any more than I have. Work hard at your classes and you won't have to worry about it. Now, Mr Tambo, please can you show Piper to her first lesson? We're finished here."
Odiye gave a reluctant salute. "Sir."
Piper twisted away from Mattise, ready to smash this place to rubble if she got half a chance. Every corporate slug in the city was watching, waiting, hoping to snap her up for her own in this sick game of theirs. But if she didn't play she was as good as dead. She was out the door in a flash with Odiye scrambling to catch up.
"Well, that's just great," she muttered as he drew level with her.
"Piper, I'm sorry – honestly I had no idea," he blurted desperately.
"Never occurred to me that you did, for what it's worth." She shot him a pitying look. "You're not nasty enough for corporate wetwork, Odiye. You're the kind they keep around to put on a nice face."
"Is that really how you see me?"
"I guess time's gonna tell." Piper stopped, suddenly realising she had no idea where to go. Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, she sighed, just trying to focus on one problem at a time. Mattise was right, she supposed. If she could drag herself up those stupid ranking tables she could at least rid herself of one set of worries.
"Okay, let's just get this done," she said. "Want to show me where we're going?"
He led her from the upper offices, back into the bowels of the academy and past the large training areas, through into a clustered network of smaller classrooms and lecture halls housed in an adjacent block. The place thronged with other students of all shapes and sizes racing to get to their first appointment of the day.
Odiye stopped at an open door. Beyond it she could see a semi-circle of straight backed seats looking in on a small stage that was awash with holographic diagrams. A middle-aged woman in white instructor garb paced back and forth as students filtered in.
"I've got my own lessons to get to," Odiye told her. "I... will you be alright?"
"I'll struggle along somehow." She clicked her tongue, examining the room again. It was hardly a surprise. He might have been assigned to show her around but Odiye couldn't follow her everywhere.
"I'm sorry, Piper," he said, as though speaking to a wounded puppy. "But I'm afraid you're on your own from here. I'll catch up with you as soon as I can."
His tone needled her and she stiffened, spitting out her words. "I can look after myself, you know. I did it for my whole life before you and AmpCore came along."
"I didn't mean-,"
"I know what you meant, and I don't need it." Piper fixed him with a vicious stare. "You can be all nice and polite; show me around like I'm just the new girl in class, but I don't want to be here, Odiye. I don't need a white knight, and if I'm going to be stuck in this corporate shit-heap I'm going to deal with it my way." She tapped her temple with one finger. "Get that through your head."
A hurt expression flashed across his face, but right now Piper didn't care. Acting like he was doing her some kind of favour by showing her around this place like he was a fucking tour guide – Odiye needed a reality check. Her words left him in a stunned silence that she didn't want him to fill.
She clenched her fists, turned away, and stepped into the classroom, leaving Odiye behind.
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