Senior Operative Adeyemi didn't look very happy.
She peered at Odiye from across her desk, bright, brown eyes appraising him with both annoyance and resignation. She had dark skin, rounded features, and her hair was cut to just below her neck, bundled into thick black braids. Her black jacket hung open, revealing a strong and sinewy frame beneath.
Her shoulder patch bore the cobalt circle and diagonal line motif of Code and Vector Incorporated. An ally, one of the few he had in any position of influence, and he'd just used one of the few favours he could realistically ask of her.
But a promise was a promise. He was sick of being made to feel like a liar.
"Well?"
"This is not a good idea."
"She's got a right to see them."
"She's got the rights the academy says she has, Odiye," Adeyemi snapped. "As you well know. Idealism and high morals are not enough."
"Will you just pull the logs?" Odiye gave her a beseeching look. "If we don't give her this – if we don't keep her on our side, then none of this is going to matter. She'll snap – sooner or later – and then Demir and the rest will have her put down like a dog."
That cut through some of Adeyemi's protests. Her posture stiffened; the corner of her eye twitched with irritation.
"Wasteful fools," she muttered. "So, you really want to take her out there? With the wraiths hunting her?"
"I killed the last wraith," he reminded her.
"There's another at large."
She said it so matter-of-factly that he almost didn't register the weight of her words. He looked at her for a moment, then managed an uncertain, "what?"
"We had reports of another wraith – close to the financial districts."
"I didn't hear about that."
"It's not common knowledge, because no-one knows where it is." Adeyemi frowned, steepling her fingers together. "It killed four people. We had a drone tracking in the area but there was some kind of interference generated from the wraith's systems. There's no clear footage."
Odiye looked at her in disbelief. "And they have no idea where it is now?"
"Not that I've been told." She lowered her voice, leaning closer to him. "This is not common knowledge, Odiye, so for the love of the gods, don't go blabbering this to your friends – especially Operative Knox."
"Of course."
"No further deaths have been reported, but it's still out there somewhere."
He bit his lip, one foot knocking uneasily against the table in front of him. In the end he shook his head.
"It doesn't matter," he told her. "We know where the safe house is. We can plot a safe route and we'll have an escort. She'll be safe."
"Do you want to promise me that?"
"Don't you trust me?"
Adeyemi smiled grimly. "I trust you. I'm not so sure about the girl."
"Please, Usua," Odiye said. "You told my father you'd help me, if I needed it."
"I meant it." Her smile faded. "But are you sure you want to risk us both over... this?"
"I am."
Usua Adeyemi let out a heavy sigh. "As you wish."
With a kick of her heels she shunted her chair closer to the table and made a twisting gesture with one hand. A cobalt holographic keyboard shimmered into existence beneath her fingers and she started typing, keys pulsing softly with each touch.
"They're being held at the Mollinar Motel." he said. "Castleway Grid 1873. But when I tried to check the status of the mother and sister I got a Colossus-005 security rating shoved in my face."
"I see." Adeyemi's expression darkened even further. The screen in front of her blinked through the progressions as the Senior Operative utilised her superior clearance. An incident log splurged across the screen and she leaned back, casting a critical eye over the rows of text.
"You're sure this is where they were taken?"
"It's the closest safe house to the incident site," he replied. "And it's one of ours."
"We own the building," Adeyemi said, shooting him a weary look. "That doesn't mean we own what goes on inside it."
Odiye felt a coil of unease in his stomach. "Why do you ask?"
In reply, she swivelled the screen around so he could see it in its entirety. A large block of shining white text dominated the centre of the screen against a dark blue backdrop, detailing the security logs of the safe house.
His eyes flashed towards the dates at the top. The log rolled from the day after he'd first met Piper. The new arrivals were marked on that top line – Civilian Assignees, Temporary AmpCore Custody Approved. So far nothing he didn't know. A few days of bland reports, shift changes, and activity logs followed.
Then about halfway down the screen he found what had unsettled Adeyemi.
28.09.2467 | 18.01 |
Incident Report: CONTAINMENT BREACHED.
C. Assignee 2 breached Protective Custody. Whereabouts unknown.
"Whereabouts unknown," he murmured in disbelief, scanning down the page. Days went by, and each one reported the same thing. Whereabouts unknown.
"Assignee 2," Odiye said, fighting to control his disbelief. "That's Arden Russell, the sister?"
Adeyemi nodded grimly. "It looks like she didn't want to stay in the safe house."
"You've got to be kidding me," Odiye exclaimed leaning forward and letting his forehead thump against the table. "They lost her?!"
"It looks that way." Adeyemi let out an embarrassed cough. "I can safely say that someone's getting fired for this."
"How did that happen?"
"Log doesn't say." She shook her head in disdain. "Someone's covering their own ass, but it appears Arden Russell was more resourceful than they anticipated."
Odiye squeezed a clenched fist against his thigh as he raised his head to look at her. "Who's on that case? Who's looking for her?"
"There's no order log attached."
"So no-one is looking for her?!"
"That's not necessarily the case, but we need to-,"
Adeyemi broke off abruptly. Her eyes widened, looking at something over his shoulder. Odiye felt a jolt of dread and spun around in his chair. What he saw was like a punch in the stomach that left him winded.
Piper was standing in the doorway.
*
The shock rooted her to the spot for a moment, and the feeling seemed to be mutual. Odiye and Operative Adeyemi exchanged a dumbstruck look, before they both returned to staring at her. The words she'd heard sunk deeper into her brain, setting off a tremor of anger and disbelief that made her implants vibrate against her bones.
"Odiye...?" Piper took a step back.
His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water for a couple of seconds, before he stammered out, "Piper, what are you doing here?!"
"What am I doing here?" Her face twisted with rage. "I followed you, okay? I wanted to be sure you'd do what you said you'd do. Turns out I made the right choice."
"Piper, wait-,"
"So what were you going to tell me?" Her face twisted with fury. "What fucking excuse is going to cover your ass this time?"
"I wouldn't-"
"I don't want to hear it." She glanced disbelievingly at Adeyemi. "And now you've lost her? My sister?"
"Her whereabouts are currently unknown," the senior operative replied with calculated neutrality.
"Spare me the spiv twisting," Piper snarled. "You've lost my fucking sister. So what are you going to do about it?"
Odiye rose carefully, hands spread wide. "Piper, we will find her. Please, believe me."
"Oh, god how I've been wanting to believe you ever since I got here, Odiye," she shot back. With her face twisting into a bitter sneer she stepped fully into the room. With a twitch of the amplifier in her right hand, she sent the door sliding shut behind her. "But things keep going wrong, don't they?"
"Piper, I will find Arden." Odiye stood up, gesturing back at Adeyemi. "We'll make sure she's safe. She can't have gone far – I'll take a team into the city and track her down. You have my word."
"That's not enough anymore. I'm going with you."
"This is not what we talked about." He shook his head helplessly. "Taking you out to a safe house was one thing, but a live operation in the city, with the wraiths hunting you-,"
"Odiye, I'm going with you."
"Out of the question," Adeyemi said, shooting Odiye a warning glance. "She's not ready for field work, and even if she was, we would never get academy dispensation to assign her to the duty roster. They want to keep her where they can see her." She looked at Piper. "You need to leave this to us."
Odiye's face pinched with frustration. He stopped pacing, eyes turning skyward in a search for inspiration before he gave Piper an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Piper, but she's right. We don't have the authority to get you out of the academy. You have to trust us to handle it. We'll find Arden."
Trust us.
The first thing she felt was utter disbelief at the gall of it. Odiye might have earned himself a little good will, but this was something else. Trust the same people who lost her sister to get her back again in one piece?
Not a chance in hell.
The next thing that came was anger, pure and unfiltered like a drug. Her eyes blazed with hatred.
"Trust you?" she repeated through gritted teeth.
Kill them.
A sudden voice snarled the words inside her head. It was her own voice, but somehow different, crackling and distorted as though coming through some kind of speaker grill, clanging around inside her skull like a pinball.
They're never going to let you out. Kill them while you can.
Her implants began to heat, sending great pulses of fury through her bones. Piper felt her muscles tensing, and embraced those words.
She was done.
Finished.
And so very, very tired of being told what to do.
"Piper," Odiye said, edging back from her as he felt the surge of power from her implants. "What are you-,"
"Shut up," Piper spat. "Just shut up!"
Red mist filmed across her vision; Odiye and Operative Adeyemi became glowing white outlines: targets to be eliminated. Tendrils of power reached out from within her, assaulting the physical world with their presence. The floor plates around her feet buckled and snapped; a crack ripped through the ceiling above her head and the strips of corporate advertising sputtered, sparked and died.
"Piper, what are you doing?!" Odiye exclaimed. He had his amplifier out now, a look of fear and horror on his face.
"She's my sister!" Piper screamed, and a lash of gravity tore a hole in the wall to her left. "My family! MINE." Heat seeped out of her body. An alarm blared through the office and chunks of metal plating around her began to melt into slag. "And you lost her!"
Adeyemi sprang out of her seat, amplifier in one hand. "Piper, think about what you're doing," she hissed, taking up a fighting stance.
"I'm finished thinking!"
Kill them now.
"Piper, this isn't you!" Odiye suddenly rammed his amplifier back into its holster and stepped towards her, shielding his eyes from the heat. "You're losing control!"
"Tambo!" Adeyemi yelled. "Get back!"
"Piper, listen to me!"
Piper shuddered, and her neck flexed involuntarily to one side. The callous echo of the voice still filled her thoughts and she let that bitter rage linger there. Grinding her teeth, she strangled the overflowing waves of power back under her control, like throttling a python into submission. Odiye edged closer, physically straining with every step as he was buffeted by the waves of force pulsing out of her.
"She's my sister," Piper repeated, her voice a boiling hiss of contained fury. "You don't get to keep her from me. If you are going out into the city to look for her, you are taking me with you."
"Piper, if you do this, you'll never see Arden," he pleaded. "Security are probably already on their way."
"You're never going to let me see her." She let the power begin to trickle out again, eyes flashing to Adeyemi who had her amplifier raised. The senior instructor let loose a bolt of gravity, but she might as well have tossed a pebble into a furnace. Piper swayed slightly, but the power coursing through her bones held her in place.
She was done being helpless, done being pushed and prodded through life by a corporate hand. Not when she could finally do something about it.
"I don't care anymore, Odiye," Piper hissed. "I don't care about the implants, I don't care about AmpCore, and I don't care about you. Take me with you, and let me find my sister, or we're going to find out just how much damage I can really do." Another section of wall blew apart as she let the fury flow to accent her point.
There was no control to it, just random lashes of force, but she could feel the potential. She could feel structure of the academy all around her. All it would take would be for her to let go – to unleash the power churning inside – and she could destroy this place from the inside out.
The outpouring of energy it would take would probably kill her, but right now that seemed worth it.
"What's it going to be?" she challenged. Her implants throbbed with crimson-orange light. The air of the room was getting hotter by the second.
"Alright! Alright, Piper! Just stop!" Odiye raised his hands pleadingly. "We'll find a way. I promise!"
"Tambo," Adeyemi hissed. "You can't-,"
"We have to," he barked, firing a furious glance at her before returning his attention to Piper. He took another step forward, sweat beading on his cheeks as he passed through the curtain of heat surrounding her. "Piper, you have my word. I'll take you with me, no matter what we have to do, okay? Just please don't do this."
He's lying. Kill him.
Piper flinched; shook her head sharply, shaking that voice away. The rational part of her mind suddenly questioned that strange, murderous presence. Was it her? Was it something else? The glow of her implants faded slightly as she fought to regather the boiling cauldron of force. Questions, always more questions. But right now she had other things to worry about. Arden was out there somewhere, alone, scared, probably on the run.
"Then we go now," she growled, glancing at Adeyemi. "I don't care what story you have to make up, but if you tell anyone else what happened here, I swear to you, I'll burn this place to the ground before you've got a chance to regret it."
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