Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

40 - Make It Rain

Delgado sipped wearily at a beer that tasted of sharp citrus and almost real hops. She allowed herself the small luxury. She figured she owed herself that. The corps hadn't locked her accounts – at least not yet – so she had a small window of opportunity to shovel what funds she had away from their grabbing fingers.

Maybe, they were still trying to keep some of this craziness under wraps. Maybe someone somewhere didn't think she was worth any further attention. Hell, maybe they thought she'd crawled away and died of her wounds.

Given the thoroughness of surveillance in Hadrian, she doubted that somehow, but no point looking a gift horse in the mouth.

So she drank, and she waited. The bar was about half full, a place high enough up and back from the Hadrian River to avoid the chemical backwash of the polluted waterway. Old bluesy guitar music rumbled from a jukebox and a stream of adverts for new beers, spirits and heavily processed foods rolled around the data stream in the walls.

Rain arrived a few minutes later.

The woman walked through the bar with the breezy stride of someone who didn't have to be afraid of anything – not anymore. A green Kaysar jacket hung open, revealing a form-fit sheathe of body-armour that covered her from throat to waist, disappearing beneath her baggy trousers.

Corporate luxury – comfort combined with a protective mesh that could stop a bullet from even point blank range. The bulk of a matte-black firearm jutted from her right hip and people edged out of her way as she strode towards Delgado's table. A wry smile filled Rain's mouth as she stopped, leaning forward to place her elbows on the chair back opposite.

"Well, well," she said. "This place takes me back."

Delgado raised her beer and winked. "All good memories I hope."

"Some."

"You look good."

"Thanks." Rain's smile faded slightly as she examined Delgado's battered, bandaged frame. "You look like you've been through a warzone. Are you alright?"

"Oh, you know, just surviving." She indicated the chair with a nod. "You going to sit down?"

Rain frowned, but slid the chair out and sat. Her visor sprang into life for a couple of seconds with a golden band across her eyes, then disappeared. A moment later a waiter appeared and set a metal tankard of beer down beside her. She didn't say anything, instead taking a gulp and breathing deep, smacking her lips with satisfaction.

"Alright," Rain said eventually. "You've got about as long as it takes me to finish this drink. If Kaysar realise I've been gone too long I'll have to start answering questions."

"Good to know I'm a cheap date."

"Chloe, I'm serious. Talk fast."

"Alright, alright, alright." Delgado took another sip of her own beer and leaned forward, keeping her voice low. "You said the situation with the wraiths – it was worse than I knew?"

Rain gave her a grim look. "Yeah. You didn't hear this from me, but the incidents out at the docks are not the real problem. There have been incidents in the heart. They've tried to keep it quiet but, well, Kaysar run half the security contracts out there. I hear things."

"What kind of things?"

"That AmpCore and about a dozen of those wraiths blasted up a whole intersection. Somebody put a lid on it before we could investigate anything." Rain leaned closer too, sliding the beer tankard around in front of her and gripping it with both hands. "I tried doing some digging but I got stonewalled. Whatever's going on is well above my pay grade."