Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

57 - Beyond the Walls of Logic

You're living proof.

Piper tried to focus on her breathing as Mattise's words sunk into her feet in wet cement. The others looked just as stunned, trading astonished looks as they tried to make sense of what they'd just heard. There were a lot of mad stories about tech lost in the Schism – most of the time they were fairytales. Now they had Piper, a fairytale brought to life – or a nightmare, depending on who you asked.

"I don't ... I don't get it." Holly pinched the bridge on her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. "Why would they even want to make something like this?"

"It's economics," Arrow murmured.

"What?"

"Economics," the repeated, sinking down into one of the chairs in the lecture hall and hugging themselves. "Every person who's implanted at the academy costs the corps millions of crypts. This way it happens for free, and they can just scoop up the babies when they're old enough."

"I've heard all the stories," Odiye said. "All the rumours; living metal black tech, but it's not possible. This isn't possible."

Toran cupped his chin thoughtfully, looking Piper up and down with interest. "Maybe it's the biological component that they needed. Like... like some kind of growth medium?"

"I'm not a fucking growth medium," she whispered.

"That's not what I meant," he said quickly. "I just mean, maybe this process can only work inside a living human."

"Speculate as much as you want," Mattise said, straightening out the jacket of his uniform. He looked at Piper. "This is the last time I'm going to speak to you about this, Ms. Russell. If you've got anything else to ask, now's the time."

She thought about that for a moment. Piper licked dry lips and rubbed her eyes.

"Did you know who my mother was?" she asked.

It came out of her in a small, plaintive voice. Mattise's face softened, and in that instant he suddenly seemed more human than she'd ever seen him before. His shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath and stepped over to her.

"I wish I knew," he told her, "but he never told me about anyone. I'm afraid that's an answer you'll need to find on your own." Clearing his throat, he turned abruptly and marched towards the main door of the lecture hall.

"Remember what I said," Mattise called back over his shoulder as he crossed the threshold. "Tell no-one about this."

Then he disappeared from sight, swallowed back up by the glittering chaos of AmpCore once more. Piper felt her legs shake and she dropped down into one of the chairs, dragging both hands down her face and letting out a heavy groan.

"Well, at least now we know," Arrow ventured awkwardly, sitting down beside Piper. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, I've given up trying to tell anymore." Piper blew out her cheeks in a sigh, resting her elbows on her knees. "So dear old dad worked for AmpCore. Maybe I'm not as out of place as I thought, eh?"

Odiye gave her a rueful smile. "Perhaps not."

"Sounds like the corps still buried him though."

"We don't know that?"

"Don't we?" She gave him a pitying look. "C'mon, Odiye."

He shifted uncomfortably but didn't argue. They all lapsed into an uneasy silence. What was there to really say? She reached back into her memories, hunting for some image of her father, the mythical Casimir, but there was nothing there. Just a void. She breathed out; let her head loll forwards.