Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

59 - Ground Zero

"That's our baby," Nevay murmured, looking down her sight. "What'd we say this place was supposed to be?"

"Battery plant," Kirk replied absently.

Far below their vantage point on top of the freight warehouse, they had a good view of the sprawling plant. On the surface it didn't look that different to any of the thousands of factories, fabrication yards and warehouses that filled this part of the city.

The skyline was a forest of neon glowing smokestacks, multi-storied warehouse blocks, the long arms of construction and loading cranes, power pylons and transformer stations, all lit up by gigantic billboards bigger than Kirk's house. He scanned it all with mild interest, having never set foot in this part of the city before. It was the same but different; still lathered in corporate logos and crypts – but this was the engine-house of Hadrian.

He let his attention drift back to their target. The plant itself was a jungle of crackling pylons and transformers, all growing around a half dozen bulky structures. There were several corporate logos plastered across the walls, but none of them were the major players. No sign of Skiltron, Wayfinder, Kaysar or Gammaton. He didn't even recognise most of them.

"Look there," he whispered, touching Nevay gently on the arm and pointing at a quartet of black-armoured men and women that emerged from one of the buildings. Even from this distance he could make out their heavy rifles. "They've got guards all over this place."

"Yep. There's more over by the main gates," Nevay murmured, "and another patrol moving along the perimeter wall." She eased her eye away from the scope for a moment. "Surprised they actually stamped the corp logos on this place."

"Around here it would stick out more if they didn't," Kirk pointed out. "They're probably front companies

"Drone," Delgado hissed suddenly. "Down."

The three of them ducked below the edge of the wall as the silvery hide of the drone came skimming by, just a couple of feet below the roof of the warehouse. When the whine of its engine had faded away they slowly rose from their hiding spot and he looked at Nevay. Her mouth twitched into a grin that he was beginning to get used to.

"That's a lot of security for some fucking batteries, don't you think?"

"Yes I do."

"No sign of any codewraiths," Delgado mused as she examined the place through a set of small black binoculars.

He gave her a bemused look. "Well, they're not going to have them out in the fucking lobby are they?"

"I'm just saying, you cheeky little shit."

"Thought you were a detective," Nevay chuckled.

"Laugh it up." Delgado shuffled along sideways, her brows furrowing above the binoculars. "Well, wraiths or no wraiths, there's a lot of heavy down there."

"So we're not going in the front door?"

"Wouldn't be my first choice." She looked at Kirk. "You got those prints there?"

"Yeah." Slithering back from the edge of the rooftop, he tugged the frayed and battered rolls of paper out of his pack and laid them out flat on the rooftop, pressing the corners down with both hands.

"So if this thing is accurate there should be a secondary loading bay around the north side," Delgado said, tapping the paper with one finger.

"I wouldn't swear my life on it," Kirk answered. "This is a plan from before the Schism. They would have had to copy some of the major design features, but it's not as though they'll have built the damn thing to the same spec, rivet by rivet."