《The Glitch》


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 CHAPTER 1

    What would hell be without a little music?


    Piper found herself musing on that thought, bumping her heel against the metal crate she sat on. Around her, the sweltering dockyard of Hadrian North''s riverbank boiled with a noise despite the late hour. Fat, steam-spewing cargo ships crawled by like beetles on the murk of the river, its waters sin-black from decades of pollution. They had to add extra sheets of galvanised armour to the hulls just to get through in one piece. Cranes groaned and engines sputtered in the neon twilight.


    Cutting through it all was the jaunty dance of Kirk''s fiddle. She bit absent-mindedly into the greasy meat kebab in her hands, eyes sliding to his nimble figure as he pranced and whirled on the edge of the jetty. His right hand moved with the savagery of a saw as he played, a wry smirk plastered across his features, fire-red hair flopping and flailing in all directions.


    Passers-by tapped their wrist bands and globecards against the little receiver set up in the metal violin case at his feet, transferring a dribble of crypts into his account. Piper chewed, watching and examining.


    No great shine of Hadrian''s mega-corporations at this end of dock slums, just a sludge of greys, blacks and browns; all trench coats, heavy boots and ragged clothes. Thick whorls of cigarette smoke formed a smog above it all. Piper watched the flow intently ¨C she wasn''t just here to admire Kirk''s finger-work. Somebody had to be his spotter, just in case some asshole cutter tried to rob him blind while he played.


    Today wasn''t that day, happily. Kirk finished off the rapid jig and gave an enthusiastic bow to the small group that had stopped to watch his performance. Piper shifted along the crate to make room for him, sweeping errant locks of ink-black hair back behind her ears with her free hand. Once he''d finished packing up his gear she beckoned, patting the space beside her.


    "Not a bad catch," Kirk said brightly, still panting from his exertions. He slung the violin case across his back and hopped up onto the crate to join her.


    "That''s my little dancer." Piper gave him a coy smile, shovelling her fingers through his tousled mass of hair. "How''d we do?"


    Kirk flashed the screen of his wristband to her and didn''t manage to maintain his smile. Her face dropped as she stared at the number. Low. Too low for them both.


    "Tight bastards out tonight?"


    "I guess." His mouth twisted awkwardly. "Everybody''s getting squeezed a little harder these days."


    "It''s not enough."


    "Yeah, I know." Kirk''s mouth twisted awkwardly. "We''ll split seventy-thirty tonight. Make sure your folks get some food."


    "But-,"


    "I''ll be fine tonight. Dad''s still got some waterscrap to drain out. Should get us a few crypts once it''s cleaned and polished."


    "Kirk..."


    He shook his head. "Piper, I''ll be fine."


    "Thanks," she said after a moment, unable to keep the sadness out of her smile as she handed him the kebab. "Then get some of that down you."


    Kirk sighed, and swayed over to kiss the ghost-pale skin of her cheek, before ripping a hunk out of the kebab with his teeth and chewing voraciously. His own skin was flushed crimson after two hours of non-stop dancing and playing.


    "S''not bad," he muttered around the mouthful. "What''d they have today?"


    "Probably better if we don''t know what''s in it," she replied with a wry smile. "But it better be good. Skimmed me ten crypts for it."


    "Bugger me." Kirk swallowed, tore another mouthful loose and handed it back.


    She sidled closer, pressing her thigh against his and resting a head on his shoulder, biting into the kebab. Whatever it was, the vendor had lathered it with enough synthetic spices to make it taste pretty good.


    She let her gaze wander past the docks. On their left, rising like a cliff was the great fortress bridge that connected the two halves of Hadrian, glittering with searchlights that revealed the silhouettes of corporate security patrolling its length. Massive guard towers climbed into the night, their eyes trained on the black wreckage across the water. Nothing and no-one crossed that bridge with out the corps'' say-so.


    "Look close," Kirk said quietly. "You can see the wraiths out there on the banks."


    Piper followed his pointing figure. Squinting, she could just make out dark shapes on the far bank slouching back and forth with all the energy of a trance, their metal frames glinting dully as they reflected the neon-plastered shore of Hadrian North. The codewraiths: remnants of another time ¨C a reminder that humans and AIs had once tried to share power.


    The ruin of Hadrian South was testament to how well that had gone.


    "Creepy bastards," Piper muttered. "Can''t believe they''re still out there after all this time."


    "Right enough." Kirk sighed. "But that''s those corporate spivs for you. Wreck a world and leave the mess for someone else to sweep up."Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    She nodded. At eighteen, Kirk was a year younger than her, but sometimes he seemed to have a weary old head on his shoulders. He could have filled books with every rant about the injustices in Hadrian.


    They lapsed into silence, trading bites of the kebab and watching the wraiths'' mindless procession until night took full grip of Hadrian. Eventually a cigarette-sucking dock supervisor shooed them away and they took off, hand in hand, scampering across the jetties, dodging growling forklifts and swinging cargo crates until they slipped into the narrow streets beyond.


    Bright lights belched at them from stores that were little more than cupboards jammed into the outer walls. Metal-sheeted buildings formed a grimy labyrinth, its air thick with chemical tang.


    Around here nothing could get more than a couple of stories high ¨C the cheap crap the corps used to build the slums would implode if they put any more strain on them. More than once Piper had managed to stick a boot straight through the floor in her own house. Above it she could see the arrogant skyscrapers of Hadrian''s self-styled rulers, hundred-storey advertising boards for each vampire at the top of the food chain.


    She tried not to think about that right now. At least tonight she would be able to scrape together proper meals for her mother and sister. There was only room for so much fury in her mind each day. You could go crazy if you let yourself think about everything wrong with the world.


    "Ahhh, you''ve gotta be kidding me."


    Kirk''s groan jerked her from her thoughts and she felt his hand tighten around hers. She looked up sharply and saw at a bend in the alley ahead, three figures had emerged. After a couple of seconds she recognised them.


    "Shit, Kirk," she muttered, nudging him as they halted. "I thought we squared up with Barson already! What the hell did you do to him this time?"


    "We did square up," Kirk muttered contemptuously. "Idiot just wants to play at being a big bad gangster like his daddy and shake down half the bloody bloc."


    Piper pulled a sour face, one hand slipping into the back pocket of her jeans and closing around the solid grip of her flick-blade. As the trio of youths swaggered into place to block their path she eased it free, keeping it closed for now. The leader stepped forward ¨C a gangly, narrow-eyed young man whose black overcoat hung awkwardly on his skeletal frame. His skull was shaven, and a feeble attempt at a beard darkened his chin. His mouth opened in a gross smile, revealing half a dozen metal teeth.


    "If it ain''t the dock''s favourite little double act," Barson sneered. "Hoped we''d catch up to you tonight."


    "I don''t do private gigs," Kirk shot back. "And I''m pretty sure we already paid up for the month."


    "Rates change." Barson shrugged. "And I reckon from your haul tonight you''re good for an extra ten percent."


    Piper felt rage creeping through her body. Barson was a bullying little shit who got away with what he did because of his father ¨C a genuinely scary individual who ran the rackets on the eastern docks. They''d already paid their cut to allow Kirk to ply his trade. Barson was just trying to prove he was as hard as his old man.


    "You should lay off the pills; they''re missing with your RAM," she said icily, tapping her temple with one finger. "Take your ten percent and shove it right up your ass. You''ve got everything we owe you."


    Barson''s eyes turned to her; his smile broadened and he exchanged a mischievous look with the boys to his left and right.


    "C''mon, Piper, y'' really want to follow around this little folk wannabe for the rest of your life?" He sniggered, looking her up and down with a lecherous eye. "Bet you me ''n the boys could show you a real good time." He took a step towards them and Piper decided she''d heard enough. It had been a long day and the last thing she needed was this grandstanding prick.


    In a swift motion she snapped her blade open with a flick of the wrist and stared Barson down, daring him to make a move ¨C to lay a finger on her. She''d cut him in places he''d never forget. The leering boy on the left edged forward and her arm rose sharply, the glint of metal shining in the docklight as she pointed her blade between his eyes.


    "Take another step," she challenged, cocking her head to one side. "Giveme an excuse."


    Beside her Kirk bristled; she could sense his stance shifting, ready to spring. He had a knife of his own somewhere, but the metal violin case was more than serviceable as a blunt weapon in a tight spot. Piper rotated slightly, ready to spring. Although Barson and his cronies were bigger than her, years of hard living on Hadrian''s streets had given her a slim, ripcord of a frame. More than one would-be mugger had found out the hard way that she was stronger than she looked.


    "Back it up, big man," Kirk grated. "I do business, and I pay my dues, but I''m not gonna piss myself and bend over cos you think you can hack a little extra off the side. I don''t give a shitwho your dad is. Keep this up and I''ll send you back to him on a fucking slab."


    Barson''s face twisted in anger and he slipped a curved knife from the sheathe at his hip. The others followed suite; blades appearing, shining in the half-light of the alley.


    But before anyone could move, a high-pitched screech of static blurted across the air, stinging Piper''s eardrums. She let out a hiss of pain, clapping one hand to her ear and looking around for the source.


    Then something clunked into view at the far end of the alley.


    Something big.


    Barson and his lackeys turned towards the figure, and Piper felt a chill of pure terror crawl up her spine when she saw just what had come stomping out of the night.


    The thing had a blister of red lighting nodes where its eyes ought to have been, and its vaguely humanoid frame dripped acrid river water; a mess of angular black metal swaddled in ragged fabrics. It had clawed feet that cut into the paving of the alley and where hands ought to have been, there were two club-like appendages of mangled metal, whirring and twisting mindlessly.


    A codewraith.


    Piper could barely believe her eyes. How the hell did it get here? Even a wraith couldn''t swim the polluted waters of the river ¨C it would have been corroded and swept away into nothingness before it got halfway across.


    But possible or not, it was standing right in front of her. The red clump of eyes swivelled with a mechanical whirr, and Piper felt them lock onto her; felt it in her bones, like a prickle of needles.


    It moved before anyone could react.


    The speed of it was frightening. It lurched towards them and one bucket-fist struck the side of Barson''s head, snapping his neck with contemptuous ease. The crack echoed through the alley and Barson spun drunkenly for a couple of eerie seconds, his head lolling at an unnatural angle. Then his body seemed to deflate, crumpling in a limp heap on the damp concrete.


    Piper just stared. Her mouth hung agape. Her brain frantically scrambled to catch up with what had just happened. For a moment no-one moved. The hesitation cost one of Barson''s cronies his life as the codewraith swung again, smashing the spindly youth out of its path and flaying his chest open. Blood sprayed the alley walls. Frozen in place, the surviving thug stared in terror at the wraith.


    But he wasn''t in its path. Obstacles removed, the codewraith stalked past with deliberate steps, its clustered red eyes focusing on Piper again. She stepped back instinctively, raising her knife for all the use it would be.


    Then something grey and bulky flew out of the corner of her eye. An instant later Kirk''s violin case smashed into the thing''s head with an echoing clang of metal on metal. The sturdy case stayed intact, bouncing off their attacker and clattering to the alley floor. The codewraith stumbled backwards, a blurt of enraged binary code ripping through the air.


    A hand clamped down on her wrist and pulled.


    "Piper, RUN!"

 CHAPTER 2

    "What the shit?" Kirk babbled as they pelted through the dock streets. "Was that what I think it was?!"


    "Codewraith," Piper panted, stumbling as she went skidding around a corner. "Has to be."


    "How did it get here?"


    "How should I know? Let''s just get out of here!"


    They kept running, and she pulled out in front without thinking, pure terror lending her speed. Heavy metal steps echoed like someone striking a gong as the wraith gave chase, blurting out random scraps of binary codescreams. Piper felt her bones jangle every time the noise caught up to her, like the thing''s animal howls were cutting right through her skin.


    She hurtled around a narrow bend, skidding through the detritus of old food wrappers and bottles as she went. Another tight alley stretched off ahead of her, and she set off. But she only made it a few steps before she heard a curse and a clatter from behind her.


    Twisting to a halt, she looked back to see that Kirk had lost his footing coming around the corner, sliding into a heap on the alley floor. He scrambled upright; glanced back the way they''d come.


    Then the codewraith exploded into view.


    It towered over him, easily seven feet in height, and Piper couldn''t contain a scream as it swung one of its lethal appendages at him. In her mind he was already dead, pounded into a bloody pulp before her eyes.


    She should have given him more credit.


    Kirk''s reflexes saved his life as he ducked, narrowly avoiding a blow that would have torn his head off. But the wraith barrelled on. Its heavy bulk cannoned into him, with enough force to lift him clean off his feet and hurl him into the flimsy wall of one of the pre-fab dwellings.


    He smashed straight through it and vanished from sight. A howl of pain cut through the resulting crash of falling metal, a cloud of dust and sparks exploding all around the man-sized hole in the side of the building.


    "KIRK!" Piper shrieked, taking half a step forward.


    The codewraith examined the ruined wall for an instant before what passed for its head snapped towards her like a snake. Then it started walking, metal clawed toes pulverising the ruined sheeting of the wall as it moved, gathering speed with every step. Another scream of code dug its way into her brain and she felt the boiling cauldron of rage that coursed through the machine''s processors.


    That was when she truly knew it only wanted her.


    Meaning that right now, if Kirk was alive, he was safer than she was. Piper strangled down a sob of fear, spun around and started running. Her worst fears were confirmed when a blurt of codescream echoed down the alley after her, followed by a crescendo of heavy footfalls.


    This couldn''t be happening. It was all too insane. It shouldn''t have been here; shouldn''t have been chasing some no-name street girl through a god forsaken slum.


    But maybe that was just Hadrian for you ¨C bad luck piled on calamity, piled on catastrophe.


    Piper could feel her lungs screaming as she pelted through the tight-packed, ramshackle housing block, mind racing as she tried to think of an escape. Small mercies; the wraith didn''t seem to be quicker than her, clanking along on rust-atrophied limbs, misfiring circuits making its movements jerky as it gave chase. With any luck, she knew the streets better than this creature that had walked out of Hadrian''s sordid history books.


    She twisted left, racing up an incline for a half a block before flinging herself into a tiny crevice of an alley on the right. Her slight frame ricocheted off the walls which shuddered dangerously, but luck kept the whole row of houses from crashing down around her. The smash and clang of the codewraith''s steps didn''t seem so close now, and she risked a glance back.


    The wraith shuddered to a halt and rotated its body into the narrow defile. She''d gained some distance, but the thing wrestled its bulk in after her. Piper gulped in a lungful of air and kept running.


    The narrow defile spat her out onto a broader street, this one full of people half-in, half-out of bars and clubs. A wall of cigarette smoke rolled over her and she jinked left, bolting into the thickest crowd of bodies she could find without breaking stride. Her shoulder crashed off of something solid and human; a wave of curses snapped at her heels but she kept running.


    Cries of alarm rose behind her and she knew the codewraith had come blundering into the night. A scream cut through the bass music thumping out of windows on either sides, followed by a sputtering chorus of gunshots as residents took matters into their own hands.


    Piper didn''t stop. Maybe she''d get lucky and her fellow dock-dwellers would kill the wraith, but somehow she doubted it. Instead she went barging straight through the double doors of one seedy looking bar, ducking the swiping hand of the bouncer on the door. Her wild charge didn''t stop for anything as she was engulfed in a sea of blazing neon and pounding techno music that shook her ribcage. A tray of luminous drinks went sailing across the bar as she clattered into a waiter, but she just spun with the impact, thinking of nothing but the crazed machine chasing her.


    She blundered her way through to one of the grimy bathrooms, knife in hand. The thick smell of marijuana made her cough, and two bleary eyed patrons turned to her in confusion, but she barged them aside. One foot jammed down onto a pipe in the back wall, then she was up, levering herself to the small window that led out onto the back street.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    With a wrench of the knife she snapped the flimsy, old-fashioned clasp holding the window shut and tumbled back outside. She hit the concrete below, rolled to her feet and sprinted off into the night.


    *


    Piper would have described her house as a dump to most people, but right now it was the most beautiful thing in the world.


    With the codewraith apparently swallowed up by Hadrian''s nightlife, she had raced through the dock slums until she reached the little clump of steel cubes that made up her neighbourhood. Every wall plate of every crappy dwelling bore a black stencilled logo of a hammer striking an anvil ¨C the emblem of Cartwright Multi-Fab Construction Solutions ¨C reminding every resident on a daily basis just who owned them. Just visible further away from the river was the multi-storey bulk of the local academy, an ugly cube of a thing lathered with corporate logos.


    On another day it all would have filled her with anger, but right now she had bigger problems. She scrambled through the potholed street until she found her house. It didn''t look any different to the other gun-metal blocks that lined the street, but muscle memory helped her find her way.


    Piper swiped her wrist-link against the lock. Three seconds passed ¨C long enough to almost make her scream ¨C before the mechanism bleeped and she hurled herself inside.


    Almost hyperventilating with fear, Piper slammed the door shut behind her and threw herself against it, eyes wide as she tried to get breath into her lungs. She dug one hand into her hair, a wordless noise of disbelief slipping from her gritted teeth.


    Kirk? She didn''t even know if he was alive. She hadn''t seen any blood, but the thing had struck him hard enough to break bones.


    "Piper? Piper is that you?"


    A bleary voice cut through the fear. After checking the door was locked tight, she spun around. Tin-plated walls closed in around her to form a narrow hall, lit by an anaemic blue-white bulb in the ceiling.


    "Mum?"


    "Me too!" said another, younger voice.


    "Arden?"


    "Well, who else is it gonna be?"


    Shit, shit, shit!


    Knife still clutching in one violently trembling hand, Piper stumbled through the entry passage and into the dwelling''s kitchen.


    "Jesus!" her sister exclaimed as she blundered into the room. "What the hell happened to you?"


    Piper''s mouth opened but the words didn''t come out. She stood for a moment, staring at Arden and trying to figure out what to say. Two years younger, Arden sported a pixie cut of dark hair, a dust of freckles across the bridge of her nose, and eyes currently goggling with surprise. A tank top hung loose on her elfin frame above a pair of ragged shorts. In one hand, a protein cracker had paused halfway to her mouth.


    "Wraith," Piper eventually managed to blurt. "Codewraith on the docks."


    Arden gave her an incredulous look. "How much have youbeen drinking?"


    "I''m not fucking drunk, Arden," she snarled. "One of those things just tried to kill me!"


    "What is going on?" grumbled the other voice. Piper swivelled to see her mother come sloping into the kitchen swaddled in a flimsy robe. Her brown hair was dishevelled with sleep and she yawned, scrubbing at her eyes with one hand.


    "Piper''s seeing ghosts," Arden teased.


    "Listen, you little-,"


    "Piper!" her mother barked, rapidly gathering her senses. "Calm down. What happened?"


    The story spilled out of her like a waterfall. She let it go in a frantic rush, watching the faces of her mother and sister grow more and more incredulous. By the time she''d finished her breakneck retelling she was almost panting.


    Sucking in a deep breath, she clamped her hands over her face for a moment, trying to steady her nerves. For a moment nobody said anything. Arden crunched down on the protein cracker; swallowed and cleared her throat.


    "You''re serious?" she said eventually.


    "Yes."


    "I''ll ping the police," her mother declared. "If there really is something out there they need to know."


    "What about Kirk?" Arden asked. "Is he alright?"


    "I... I don''t know." Piper shook her head. "The wraiths were chasing me so I tried to lead them away from him."


    "Why were they chasing you?"


    Piper never got the chance to answer, because the back wall of the kitchen caved in.


    Arden screeched and hurled herself away from the cascade of broken metal and sealant, covering her head with her hands. Piper''s eyes went wide as a hulking shape loomed into view, letting out a fearsome codescream that made half the electronics into the house spark and smoke.


    It was another codewraith, this one bulkier than the first, with a single crimson iris mounted in the centre of its anvil-shaped head. Multiple arms splurged from its barrel torso, and it crunched forward on a tripod of legs, looking straight at her.


    "Oh my God," he mother gasped. "Piper, get back-,"


    "It''s after me!" she yelled, quickly scuttling away from her family, the wraith following her movement. "Get Arden out of here!"


    "Piper, what are you-,"


    Arden''s stunned cry disappeared in another screech of binary as the wraith crashed forward, demolishing a whole section of the kitchen as it moved. A chair disintegrated underfoot and the metal floors warped and buckled.


    "GO!" Piper hollered, ripping their microwave unit from the counter-top and launching it at the machine with all the strength she could muster. It clanged harmlessly off the head section. She glanced to her left to see her mother wrenching Arden backwards out of the room. The codewraith paid no attention to them, instead stomping forward and raising three of its arms fitted with an array of blades.


    She started grabbing anything and everything she could find, and launching them at the crazed killing machine. Knives, plates, a data pad, a screwdriver, a half-frozen hunk of synthmeat, all of them clattered against the thing''s armoured hide, but it didn''t slow down.


    Piper dropped flat as two of the appendages when scything overhead. She rolled through the debris as a third punched a hole through the floor where she''d been lying. Then her body struck the door frame.


    A shadow loomed over her.


    Biting back a sob, she flipped over onto her back and found herself looking up at the codewraith, bathed in a hellish glow from its red iris. Circuits sparked and a million tiny mechanisms whirred as it screeched, the noise avalanching through her body and biting into her veins.


    In that moment of complete terror she suddenly felt the wraith ¨C felt every twisted balk of metal, every piece of corrupted circuitry; every screeching howl of agonized code in its traumatized skull. Once, this thing had been able to think. It had been alive. Then the corporations, not willing to share a world with anyone else, had torn it all away.


    Piper wanted to care. She wanted to pretend that she felt some sort of sympathy for the codewraith. In other circumstances she might have, but right now it it was trying to kill her, and her only sensation was one of self-preservation.


    So she screamed, and into that scream she channelled one thought: die.


    And she felt the codewraith''s whole existence come apart.


    Its joints exploded in a maelstrom of snapping bearings and sparking wires. The red iris shattered, sending microshards of glass in all directions. Its chest imploded; she felt the core at its heart sputter and die and the mangled corpse of the machine crashed to the ground in front of her. The whole room shook as it landed, smoke rising from the remains.


    Piper felt numb, and all she could do was stare.


    Had she really just done that?


    She waited to see if the whole thing was some kind of blissful mirage that a metal fist was about to obliterate, along with her skull, but it didn''t happen. She sat there, alive and tingling all over. The feeling was raw in her mind ¨C the sense of knowing every molecule of the codewraith.


    Looking down at her hands, she took in a sharp breath. A faint orange red glow seemed to flicker beneath her skin, so quickly she couldn''t be totally sure she''d seen it.


    What the hell just happened?

 CHAPTER 3

    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 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?"Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    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."

 CHAPTER 4

    The car slid through Hadrian''s streets with startling quietness. The engine purred; she didn''t feel so much as a bump as the slums rolled by. All the seats were sheathed in sleek, ink-dark leather, and she could smell some kind of pine-scented freshener wafting through the interior. This thing was probably worth more than her house ten times over.


    Travelling in corporate luxury might have been nice if it had actually been her idea.


    Piper sat sullenly in the back seat, arms folded as she watched the city fly by through the tinted windows. In the driver''s seat, Toran directed the vehicle with deft, effortless movements, while Odiye lounged on the passenger side.


    She thought all kinds of nasty thoughts, about ramming a boot into the back of Toran''s smug head; about slashing throats with the flick-blade she''d managed to hold onto through the whole mess. They hadn''t searched her before bundling her into the car; the smug bastards didn''t think she was a threat.


    "Piper," Odiye said quietly as the car rose up a shallow incline. "I know you are confused right now but please, do not do anything foolish."


    "Like what?"


    "I know you still have your knife."


    She blinked in surprise. "What about it?" she managed after a moment.


    He craned his neck leaning around to look at her with an attempt at a reassuring smile. "We are not your enemies here, and I do not wish to see you hurt."


    "Yeah, what a shame that would be," Toran muttered. "Just keep your little sticker to yourself and we''ll get along fine."


    Piper bristled, but in the end she relented, sliding the flick-blade from her pocket and placing it down on the seat beside her. She gave Odiye a pointed look.


    "Happy?"


    "Happier."


    She pulled a face at that, and Odiye turned back around. Piper folded her arms again and shifted in her seat, still seething. Her mind snapped back to Arden and her mother getting carted off to god-only-knew where by these spivs. Could she really trust these corporate bludgeons to protect them if the codewraiths came back?


    Then, like a thunderbolt, someone else exploded into her mind and she jerked upright in shock. With everything that had happened he''d slipped out of her mind


    "Oh, shit!" The guilt hit her like a punch in the face. "We''ve got to go back!"


    "We''re not going back," Toran grunted, accenting the point by lazily swinging the car to the right around the next bend.


    "No, you don''t understand, when the wraith came after me I wasn''t on my own!" The words came out in a torrent. "Please, my boyfriend, he wasn''t at the house. One of those things smashed him clean through a wall. He needs help ¨C a doctor! God, I don''t even know if he''s alive!"


    "Piper, slow down-,"


    "We can''t go back." Toran shot Odiye a frustrated glance.


    Odiye waved a dismissive hand at his comrade, keeping his eyes on Piper. "What is his name?"


    "Kirk! Kirk Balfour."


    "And where is he?"


    She raked her hands through her hair, trying to think. "I... we were on our way back up on the docks. We were at... err... Cannington Rig Way, then the first one of those things jumped us."


    Odiye bit his lip; glanced at Toran. The other operative gave an exasperated shrug.


    "We can''t go back for him," Odiye told her, his voice tight. "We have to take you to AmpCore."


    "So you''re just doing nothing?!"


    "I think you''ve confused us with a couple of slum-cops," Toran snapped, and she felt the car accelerate.


    "But-,"


    "Our orders were to deal with the wraiths." His eyes flashed back at her irately. "And then we found you, and I really don''t think you understand the mess you''ve made. I don''t give a shit about your boytoy. If he''s hurt he can find a doctor."


    She reached for the flick-blade then; thought she was quick enough.


    Odiye was faster. Before she could grab the weapon, it was yanked away from her grasping fingers by an unseen force, and thumped into Odiye''s open palm. In his other hand his rod glowed faintly. She stared at him for a moment, mind racing as she thought about lunging into the front seat and just taking her chances with her fists.


    In the end, the rational part of her brain won out. She''d be no help to Kirk if she got herself locked in a cell or killed. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she contented herself with kicking the back of his chair.


    "I''m sorry," he said, wincing. "But Kirk is not important right now."


    "Maybe not to you."


    He turned back around, stuffing the blade into his pocket. "Not to the people that matter."


    The words should have been an insult, but she caught an undercurrent of something else in Odiye''s voice ¨C a kind of resignation, as though he didn''t matter either. Silence seeped into the car again, with only the hum of the engine to keep them company. The slum buildings outside began to give way to larger structures with firmer foundations; solid steel and blast-hardened rigging.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Billboards started glaring at her, assaulting her eyes with neon promises she could never pay for.


    Protect your home with Skiltron Fireware, the only home defence package that cares as much as you do!


    Level up your gameplay with a Ness-Net Ultraport!


    Choose Ardenne Industries personal protection sheathes: because you have the right to defend yourself.


    Real-Raid Pharmaceuticals ¨C take yourself to greater heights with our Olympus subscription!


    A world she existed in but could never touch. She felt her face twitching. A million ways to drive yourself into a happy, early grave, provided at every expense by the vampires that had Hadrian bought up under lock and key.


    She tried to calm herself down. Tried to convince herself. Kirk was tough. He would still be alive, and they would find each other again. She just needed to play this corporate game for a little while.


    "You say I have these implants," Piper murmured eventually. "So what are they, exactly? Is that how you use those... magic wand things? Are you two cyborgs?"


    "They''re called Amplifiers," Toran replied smoothly. "And cyber augmentations are outlawed. AmpCore uses corporate sanctioned skeletal grafts."


    She raised an eyebrow. "Sounds a lot like augmenting to me."


    "Well, it''s all in the fine print isn''t it?" he said, flashing her a sly smile.


    Typical corporate snake, she thought bitterly. Since the calamity that destroyed Hadrian South all research and development into artificial intelligence and human augmentation had been banned, but she was hardly surprised to find that the corps had their own little work around.


    "And these grafts do... what, exactly?"


    "It''s complicated," Odiye said, casting a warning glance at his partner. "But at bedrock, they allow the manipulation of matter."


    "Oh, is that all?"


    "Think about it." He looked around at her. "You said you felt a connection to the wraith, and that you wanted it to die. Then it did. You made it happen."


    "I don''t know what happened," she snapped back. "And I think I''d know if some corp butcher crammed a bunch of circuits into me."


    "Well, it looks like somebody did," Toran muttered.


    Piper shot him an acid look and sank back into her seat. It was demented. She''d be lucky to scrape together enough crypts to score some basic painkillers, let alone the cutting edge of corporate tech. If she had that kind of money she would have left Hadrian far behind years ago.


    A sudden flare of blazing neon signwork gushed through the car''s tinted windows as they looped left onto a broad highway that cut through the centre of Hadrian. A blizzard of cars surrounded them, humming their way at blistering speeds across the mag-metal lined roadways. Toran flicked a switch beneath the steering wheel, locking the car to its auto trajectory.


    Through the front window, Piper could see exactly where they were going. The great cluster of spires that symbolised everything she hated about this place. The dark heart of the world.


    It took them five minutes to zip along the highway before they hit Hadrian''s centre. As they plunged into the clumped, crypt-lathered district, she could have been sick just looking at it.


    Decadence spilled from every orifice, with whole buildings dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure. Men and women flooded by, all crisp, glittering suits and body-hugging dresses, smoking elegant cigarillos and brash, black cigars. She saw more than one articulated limousine snake by, all watched over by pristinely uniformed corporate security officers. No walk-the-beat, knuckle-dragging cops for this part of town, no.


    Only the best.


    Toran guided them through it, retaking control of the car and sliding through the flow. Between the revellers there were swarms of serious-looking people, haloed by glittering data streams, accompanied by floating data screens and chattering into internal comms, eyes shielded by tech visors that danced with market projections, stock holdings and profit-loss margins.


    "You guys live out here?" she asked. "Must be a fat packet AmpCore pays for the hired help."


    "We don''t live here," Odiye said sharply, a shooting a hostile glance back at her. "We live at the academy. AmpCore is supported by corporate sponsors. Not everyone outside of the docks lives a life of luxury."


    Cry me a fucking river.


    "Dear, oh, dear," she chuckled, shaking her head. "Even the secret police are bought and paid for around here, eh?"


    "I''m glad you''ve still got your sense of humour," Toran replied breezily. "But you''d do well to remember who you are, and where you are. If we''re right about what''s under your skin, you shouldn''t even exist. You''re a glitch in the system, Piper."


    She gave him a derisive snort. "Meaning what, exactly?"


    "The people that run Hadrian don''t like glitches. If they want to remove a problem, they will." He glanced back at her with a thin smile that sent a shiver up her spine. "Just keep that in mind next time you start running your mouth."


    That was enough to shut her up. Piper swallowed hard, nervously tucking her hair behind her ears. As corp threats went, that one was pretty explicit, and it set her stomach turning when she realised just how easily her life could be extinguished out here. No friends, no family, just the corporations looking down on an anomaly; calculating whether she should be solved or erased.


    She gnawed a thumbnail and decided to keep her insults to herself until she knew just what the hell she was about to walk into.


    The car swung out of the main district down a bustling side street, the great ziggurats of the corporations vanishing from view. Toran''s fingers flashed at something on the right side of the steering wheel that she couldn''t see, and then twisted the vehicle to the right into a downward spiral of dark mag-metal roadway.


    They were descending, and fast. Light faded away above them before they levelled out and depositing them into a narrow, cylindrical tunnel. She saw something glowing at the far end.


    "What''s that?" she asked as the glow grew in size and intensity.


    "Security field," Toran grunted. "Relax."


    "You relax." Piper bristled, eyes fixed on the approaching light. As they drew close she realised it was a lattice of cobalt coloured lasers. Neither of her chaperones seemed concerned, but she couldn''t stop herself tensing as they passed through it.


    She felt the invasion of privacy. The beams slid formlessly through the car, but she felt them sting her bones, scanning her. For a gut lurching moment her mind seemed to jump out of her body, following one of those streams of light up and up, riding the wave of sensor data through the labyrinth of circuit pathways overhead.


    Then she slammed back into the back seat of the car. Fire blazed behind her eyes and she let out a gasp of pain, clamping her hands to her forehead.


    "What the hell?"


    "Piper?" Odiye''s voice was more confused than anything else. "Are you alright?"


    "Yeah ¨C shit ¨C yeah, I think so." She blinked several times as the pain began to recede, trying to figure out what had just happened. "What is that thing?"


    "It''s just a security scanner, Christ," Toran drawled.


    Odiye frowned. "It shouldn''t create that kind of reaction in anyone."


    "Well, apparently I''m all special," Piper muttered bitterly, massaging her temples. "Are we there yet?"


    "We are indeed."


    Ahead of them a circular door at the end of the tunnel irised open and the car shot through. Piper straightened up, leaning to look between the front seats.


    Her jaw dropped.


    Beneath the streets of Hadrian''s heart, a vast, hemispherical cavern had been excavated, like a whole world under the one she knew. It could easily have encompassed the entire slum of the docks, spanning hundreds of meters in diameter, and at its centre a massive structure jutted out of the cavern base. Piper peered closer, her chest heaving in the constricting embrace of fear and anticipation.


    Shaped like a stepped pyramid, the building climbed up out of the earth, its matte black walls plastered with rolling corporate logos. Smaller structures were clustered around it ¨C a whole satellite village that thrummed with activity. Flares of light erupted in open spaces outside the main building, and she could see tiny figures darting back and forth. Sleek unmarked cars like the one she currently sat in zipped back and forth, and she could see the spindly structures of guard towers that formed a grid across the cavern floor.


    Piper''s stomach lurched as the car suddenly dipped downward, mounting a wide ramp-road that cut straight down towards the neon temple. As the academy drew closer she shrank against the seat back, unable to tear her eyes away. She couldn''t wrap her head around it. This couldn''t be her life. She couldn''t be here.


    "Piper," Odiye murmured. "Welcome to AmpCore."