"I've seen some stupid things in my time here," Senior Mattise said in an incredulous hiss. "But this may be worst. What the hell were you thinking?"
Odiye winced, the instructor's words hitting him like a knife. He wanted to argue; wanted to claim that it somehow wasn't his fault that Piper was in the academy infirmary, but he knew there was no point. He might not have been the one that put her there, but he should have stopped the fight. He should have stopped her ever going to the Sharks.
He should never have let it get that far.
"We tolerate Miss Thibault's 'club' on the basis that it can help sharpen the skills of our students, but it is not to affect their academy duties."
"I know, sir."
"If you know, then perhaps you can understand my problem here?"
Odiye nodded grimly. "I do."
"Then maybe you'd like to explain just how you let Piper almost get herself killed in a duel?"
"She was invited to the Sharks," he said, knowing how pitiful the excuse was. "Ferra challenged her, and Piper accepted. Was I supposed to restrain her? Lock her in her room?"
"It might have been preferable to what we've got instead," Mattise replied icily.
Odiye bristled. "Ferra is not someone that we can afford to get on the wrong side of. Sir, you know the kind of pull she has with the other students, especially the Sharks. If Piper backed down-,"
"I don't have time to untangle your little cliques," the instructor snapped. "Losing face is better than her getting killed. Piper Russell doesn't have the luxury of being prideful – not here. I suggest you get that message into her head, or I will do it for you." His eyes flickered briefly to the screen. "She's already struggling in her classes and now she will fall even further behind."
"I know, I know. She'll catch up, sir, I promise." He hesitated. "A few of us have been trying to help Piper outside of her classes."
"Yes, yes." A dismissive wave of the hand. "I gather until last night she'd been taking to her new amplifier quite well." Odiye blinked in surprise. Mattise allowed himself a small nod of approval. "Arrow always has had a knack for forgework, but I didn't realise how far they'd come."
"You know...?"
"Of course I know." Mattise snorted and resumed pacing, his face painted with incredulity. "Good God, Odiye, did you really think you and your little band could hide what you were doing from the entire academy?"
"Well, no, but-,"
"I'm well aware of all Miss Russell's extra-curricular activities." He sighed, stopping and leaning with his hands on the table. "I allowed it because you seemed like you were being sensible about it. I've seen her scores and I know just how unlikely it is that she's going to meet the targets on her own. But this? This is crossing the line. She is not ready to be duelling others – let alone someone as proficient as Ferra Thibault."
"I know." Odiye felt his shoulders tightening, frustration seeping through him. His implants crackled against his bones, reacting to his heightened emotions. "I tried to stop her."
"Not hard enough."
"She's angry, she's frustrated, and we've been lying to her since she came here," he shot back, his tone sharpening as he looked Mattise in the eye. "She wants to see her family."
"What she wants is not the point," the instructor snarled. "She's not going to see anyone if she gets herself killed in that damned duelling club."
"Well, where are her family?" Odiye demanded. "Why can't she speak to them? Every day we keep her locked up in here we make things worse."
"Her mother and sister are being kept away from this situation. For their own safety, and the fewer distractions Piper has around her right now, the better her chances of actually making it through our programme alive. Providing we can avoid any further unsanctioned duels."
A sizzle of anger burned in the pits of Odiye's stomach at the words, and he felt an abrupt jolt of empathy with Piper. No answers, just orders. An insubordinate tirade lurked just on the tip of his tongue, ready to explode forth, but with an effort he swallowed it back down. No need to make a bad situation worse.
Mattise stared at him, as thought waiting for the eruption. When it didn't come his face twitched and he almost looked disappointed. Taking a deep breath, he brought his visor flickering back to life, examining its contents.
"You were lucky," he muttered. "Lucky that Miss Thibault was only trying to show off a little. And lucky that Piper's a lot tougher than she looks."
"What now?"
"Well, Miss Russell has a few days at least to spend in the infirmary, so I suppose you won't be needed as a chaperone." The visor vanished again and Mattise's dagger of stare was waiting. "Get out. I'll think of something suitable to occupy your time, but right now I need to write up a report that can explain some of this without getting the lot of you thrown out of the academy."
*
When Mattise was finished with him, Odiye vented his frustrations in one of the academy training ranges, unleashing blast after blast of combustive energy and melting half a ton of metal into molten slag in the process.
With evening dragging into night, drenched in sweat and not really feeling any better, he eventually decided to apply himself to something a little more useful than random destruction.
The codewraiths.
They'd heard nothing about the investigation since they'd brought Piper here. No word, no explanation. Just go back to your lives and don't say another word. But Odiye hadn't forgotten. He hadn't forgotten the visceral fear that had clawed at his guts when he faced down that wraith.
Training was all well and good, but no-one – not him, not Toran, not the instructors – had ever seriously expected to find a live codewraith rampaging through Hadrian North. It shouldn't have been possible.
He wanted answers, for himself and for Piper. A wraith didn't just walk out of the water and try to kill some random girl from the docks. The connection had to be her implants, but right now he had absolutely no idea what that might be.
The codewraiths. The AmpCore agents cleaned up the site after he and Toran carted Piper and her family away. They must have. The evidence of the assault was within the academy walls, whether in files or shut in a vault somewhere. He didn't have access to the latter – only Demir and the senior operatives could authorise it, and something told him he wouldn't get the nod.
The data streams were a different matter though. And he knew someone who could probably help.
Towelling himself off, Odiye traded his sodden t-shirt for a long sleeved black top, and then sidled up to the nearest corporate advertisement that blared obliviously along the walls.
After glancing around quickly to make sure no-one was watching, he slid his amplifier out of the then black holder at his belt. Matte black and tinged with spidery ribs of red-gold, he felt the warmth of connection as it linked to his implants, opening his world up to something a normal person could never know. Right now he could have conjured a storm inside this room. He could have ripped the foundations from the floor if he wanted to.
More importantly, he could see the never-ending stream of data that coursed through AmpCore. Taking a breath, he touched the tip of the amplifier against the advert, and then he was flying.
It took a lot of practice to navigate these streams without anybody noticing, but he'd learned the nuances of the Logistic principle from the best. Arrow Gibbs might not have been the most powerful operative in AmpCore, but they could work a system over like nobody else.
He skated along with the adverts, following the mindless stream of code through bones of the academy. Odiye's eyes drifted shut, his breathing shallow as he watched for every deviation of course, matching it exactly. It was like following a path with bumpers on either side. If you struck one, you'd cause an error in the flow of information. The more complex the system, the tighter the path.
Odiye swept his consciousness through a well-travelled route, hunting for the unique implant signature – distinctive as a fingerprint and a lot harder to remove. For all the potential dangers of riding the data streams like this, it was a hell of a lot quicker than trying to hunt someone down in person if you knew what you were doing.
Eventually he landed in a private computer. Privacy at AmpCore was all relative, he supposed, as all the actual files he could 'see' were hardened against a passing incursion like this. The implants translated the raw data into something visual his mind could process, showing great crimson barriers blocking dozens of highways all around him. Travelling the streams was one thing; actually hacking a system this way was quite another.
Fortunately, he wasn't here to hack anyone's personal files. Odiye slithered his mind around the room and into the comms grill inside the door.
"Holly?" he said quietly. His voice sounded tinny and thin, stretched through the filter of the AmpCore data stream.
"Woah-WHAT?!" the blurt of surprise knifed into his ears and he winced. A moment later, Holly's voice came back in a harsh whisper. "Fuck! Odiye, is that you?"
"It's me."
"It's rude to spy on a lady you know."
He scowled. "I'm only connected to the speaker."
"Guess I'll just have to take your word on that." She let out an exasperated sigh. "What do you want? Why are you data hopping? Just use the academy comms like everybody else!"
"I needed to talk to you," he said. "Off the record."
"Oh, good." The sarcasm in her voice was like thick treacle. "I take it this is about Piper?"
"Sort of."
"Odiye, it's late, I'm tired. What the hell do you mean sort of? Is she alright?"
"Carstairs says she will be after a few days in the infirmary."
"Okay, so no real harm done. Ferra's had her fun and now we can all just get on with our lives again. Stop beating yourself up about it.."
"This isn't about Ferra. I want to know about Piper's family."
"What for?"
"Because promising to letting her see them again was the only way I got her to come to AmpCore in the first place. Now no-one will tell me where they are or what happened to them." A squirm of unease turned his stomach. "Since they took them to the safe house I haven't heard anything."
"Stonewalled you? Out of your own op?" Holly sounded incredulous. "That's against regulations."
"We all know Skiltron are happy to bend the rules when it suits them."
She gave an irritated snort. "That's certainly true."
"I need to know about the family – that they're safe. Then we need to let Piper at least talk to them. It's all that's keeping her going, but she's not going to wait forever."
"She's not really in a place to make demands, Odiye," Holly pointed out. "But I can see your point."
"And it's not just about the family." He continued. "What about the wraiths?"
A couple of seconds of silence ebbed by. "They're dead, aren't they? You killed one."
"I did."
"So what about them?"
"Aren't you curious about how they got on our side of the river? About why they came after her?"
"Of course I am, but that's Demir's assignment now – above our pay grade."
"Toran and I were the first on the scene. We saw what happened, but they've just cut us out. Demir doesn't like me and he's never trusted me. With him in charge this whole thing's going to just disappear."
"Skiltron do like to keep their toys to themselves," Holly mused. "So what do you want to do? Go behind their backs?"
"I want to look at the incident files," he replied. "Code Vector doesn't have enough clout around here to get me the clearance, but you could do it."
"I suppose I could."
"And admit it, you're curious."
He almost heard her smile. "I suppose I am."
"So you'll help me?"
"We'll see." Holly's voice took on a stern edge.
"Holly, please. We have to do something."
"Alright, alright, shit. But I'm not picking a fight with Skiltron over this, Odiye. I'll help you look into what I can, but sometimes things are out of your control and you've got to just let the process run."
A small burst of data flashed across the stream he'd used to find her. In his mind the words, 'Ness-Net Class-Server 11437' blinked.
"Twenty four hours. Meet me there." Then she shut the speaker off, blocking out his access.
Odiye breathed in deep, dragging his stretched consciousness back into his body. The snap was like an elastic bang pinging back into place, and a jolt of pain rattled around inside his skull for a few seconds. When it subsided, he straightened, feeling his implants crackling with resolve.
Time to get some answers.
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