Connections

Sy couldn't sit still. She paced her apartment, biting her fingernails, grasping at her hair. At random she pulled things out of her dreads and put them aside. “It ain’t yo fault,” she kept muttering. “You din’t do shit. It was a coincidence. It ain't yo fault." It did nothing to assuage the gnawing feeling in her stomach. Worse, it was growing stronger. She kept seeing the mech crush the OSEC Alpha, kept hearing the screaming of the Neophyte who'd been with him. Sy was not surprised when she looked down and saw she had scratched herself so hard she was drawing blood. “An’ fuckin’ stop doin’ that too, nigga bitch," she told herself as she went for a paper towel to stop the bleeding. “You got enough scars.”

When she looked at the clock, she found 7 hours had passed since returning to her apartment. She stared for a minute, then her face contorted and she wound her arm back, and struck her bedframe. “OW! FUCK!" She held her hand and let off a stream of curses. “Righ’, fuck it. That's it.” She knew she was being rash, but she had to do something. Anything. She activated Heimdall. She couldn't send much data with it, it was simply not its purpose. But she could inject some code, and maybe the Neos could pick up on it. Maybe they would accept her apology.

She flew to the Spire in virtual space. There were just a few of the glowing nerve systems walking around. No way to tell who was who, unless she’d try and draw data directly from a Neo’s brain and that was gonna be starting off on the wrong foot. Instead, she sent a tiny data package to a random Neo nearby, through the filter of 800,000 coffee machines. It contained just a short string, reading: <I think I let out the Neo that killed the Alpha officer by the train bomb site today. I’m sorry. It was an accident.>

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Piper understood the need to get out of the Spire for a few moments herself all too well. It wasn’t long ago when she grabbed Roach, the nearest Alpha to sit outside and stop the chatter for just a moment or two, when Romeo was still in debriefing -and the bombardment she got was nothing compared to this. Losing your Alpha, she didn’t have to imagine it -- Every Neo inside the Spire was living it right alongside Blue Jay. Everyone felt her loss, her sorrow. All chatter was in hushed tones, everyone trying to do their part to take the hurt away, even for just one moment.

They meant well, but the bonded were the only few that knew how deep she was truly cut. Being distracted, taking her mind off ‘it’ was a disservice to Zulu. So when Blue gave her a sorrowful glance, Piper volunteered her and Romeo to sit outside with the brokenhearted Neo to listen and let her grieve.

“ … I said I had ‘em, I did have ‘em …” Blue’s voice trembled. “ … I didn’t see it and it was too late.” She said with a shaky breath wiping away tears with her sleeve. It was fresh still. Her Zulu was there one moment and in a second he was gone.

“He wouldn’t blame you.” Piper said, tears burning behind her own lids as she held Blue’s hand. ”And I know it won’t help, but it wasn’t your fault, there was nothing you could do. He was your Alpha. He knew how much you--” Piper stopped short, drawing in a sharp gasp of air. Something was intruding, invading its way into her mind.

*<I think I let out the Neo that killed the Alpha officer by the train bomb site today. I’m sorry. It was an accident.>*Piper put a hand to her temple and frowned. There was something coming through, but something was off, about it. It wasn’t like an errant frequency, a shortwave radio message picked up in error. It pricked her brain, the same feeling as if there were a grain of sand in your eye, and something causing the message to vacillate, waver in the middle, almost like lag.

“The hell?” She asked, letting Blue’s hand go, standing back up. Her eyes darted suspiciously. “Did you get that too? Did you hear it?”

“Piper?” Blue blinked looking at her curiously. Frankly, the poor neo was wrapped up in her sorrow to really ‘see’ what was going on.

Romeo sat up straighter. He knew that look in his Neo, he also knew not to pester her with questions while she worked. Romeo like most well-bonded Alpha trusted his Neo without question and would clue him in as soon as she could.

“That ping, that message - did you get that too?”

“Message? No, I didn’t hear anything? Out here?” Blue’s voice rose, the impact of what Piper was saying hitting her. “What did it say?”

“It’s, off, I don’t think it’s one of *us*.” Piper said, her eyes moving rapidly as she, slipped in and out of any streams around her to find the same signature. ”It was about Zu.” Like all Neo - she was honest to her sibling. Lying to spare feelings wasn’t something practiced among the Neo, not when everyone would know your every thought inside the Spire anyway.

Blue was a riot of emotion. “What about Zu? I don’t understand … is it a rogue Neo?” She asked squinting trying to peek at the code.

Romeo though was not playing around. He called it in, his brother just died and the Neo left behind was destroyed over the loss. If this rogue Neo Piper was picking up had anything to do with it … they were going to get brought in.

“I don’t know - it was off, like… really off … It said it was an accident, something about letting a Neo out. It’s -- sorry, at least that’s what it said, but that’s not how it felt.” She wasn’t picking up a reading of any emotion, it was masked, maybe that’s what was off? Piper swung her eyes towards Romeo, having heard her Alpha on his radio in a hushed tone calling in a possible code. She nodded an affirmation to him before closing her eyes and trying to shut out as much as she could around her while still looking for the signature.

*They have info about what happened with Zu..*She told Blue, then turned her attention back to the outsider. *You know about Zulu? We’re just looking for some answers..* She didn’t want to press too much, too soon, not until she found what she was looking for.

There it was. A fuzzy, staticky line opened, and a new message, hijacking the connection between Piper and Blue the moment she’d started sending. But this time the tunnel stayed open.

*Piper immediately looked to the other Neo, questioning herself. Outside of the Spire, sometimes Neo’s saw or heard things that may not have been there, the brain’s way of coping with not being able to keep up with the influx of information. She spun around, searching the sky. If this was some sort fucked up glitchy vision, she’d owe Blue a ton of apologies. She brought her off hand to her temple too, trying to reach back. *What do you mean, a trap? Let a Neo out from where? What happened?**

 **It was strange, receiving such messages that didn’t seem attached to a person. It was just plain text, no emotion, intonation or affectation attached. <There was an underground chamber with the Neo inside. I think it was set to open when someone scanned its data because when I did, the chamber opened. There may be more traps like that. Be careful.>**

**Ping! YES! Piper found what she was looking for and locked in. *I will, we’ll be careful. Who are you?*She asked, trying to keep her ‘voice’ soft and even. Blue had seniority, but the anomaly reached Piper first, and besides, this one was close to the heart for Blue. Piper sectioned off the line of communication with a highly encrypted firewall and looked to Blue.**

**“I just nailed a signature, but I’m going to need help tracing this. All of our help. Can you get the pairs and senior levels, tell Wren to run interference - the highest level he has so everyone’s cloaked? I don’t want to spook the anomaly yet.” *I’m Piper, what’s your name?***

**Romeo put the confirmation in and walked into the Spire with Blue to call out for a mobilization.**

**<I… I can’t give you my name. Call me Frey. That will do. You're OSEC, I> The text stopped for a minute, two minutes. The line stayed open, and Piper could detect a large network of slave nodes, thousands upon thousands of them, obfuscating the signal. <Do you have any files about a man named Bryce Wiles?>**

***I’m a Neophyte, Frey. We fall under OSEC.* Piper replied, holding onto the signal. *I can requisition to access files.*“We have a name, Bryce Wiles,” she said out loud. *Why do you need them?***

**<I’m… He was… I knew him from work at Sevo,> the text continued. <He found they were doing something really bad. Then he disappeared. I want to know what he found. And I think he may still be alive to tell me.> Piper could sense occasional pings underneath the curtain of nodes. Coffee machines? She thought she could smell coffee. Something was trying to throw the Neo off. But the original signal origin lay somewhere in the southern slums, she was sure of it.**

**Inside the Spire Blue’s request was like tossing a cigarette on gasoline. The boots of Neo pairs and the Neo seniors were hitting the ground racing down to the gardens. Blue relayed what Romeo told her and there was only a slight delay from the Curators before approval for a hive mind and a trace was approved.**

**It was only a few minutes before they were swarming out like ants. The went into a natural spiral formation with Piper at the center, each Neo touching the shoulder of the Neo in front of them. The formation from above looked like a vortex of people, four lines converging on Piper in a display of ingrained training and intuitive likeness of mind.**

**At this point, there was no need to talk. They were of one mind, with one goal and totally unified intention. Wren cycled a program to hide the Neo’s running traces, others broke off to cross-reference the scene, tapping into the camera that had recorded the event. A few went to try to dig up what they could on ‘Bryce Wiles’.**

**In AR it was a spectacular sight. The Neo’s avatars broke into hundreds of thousands of birds taking flight, tracers were near invisible; the only evidence of movement was the faint outline seen as they broke off from the main group following the hundreds of thousands of proxies.**

**The information flew through the group like water, when one knew they ALL knew with hardly any of the delay that would occur from speaking.**

***You used to work at Sevo, Frey?*Immediately, several hundred of the birds broke off to access and cross reference any files they could find at Sevo. *How long were you there for?***

**<Not important>. The reply was short now, almost curt, and it took another few moments before anything else happened. Focusing on the swarm of signals from her fellow Neos, Piper had an easier time filtering out the obfuscating wall of coffee machines. She could locate the origin pings more easily, pointing to an apartment building in Zone 43. But a last message suddenly came through, and though the text was as plain as it ever was, the harshness of its intent was like an ice pick, and Piper knew it would be the last. <YOU FUCK>. And the tunnel was gone.**

**Piper looked back to her Alpha. “Location is a lock, but we better move and fast, because they aren’t gonna stick around. Also? Apparently, I’m a fuck.”**

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**Sy was hyperventilating. Her eyes were so wide and white they seemed to float in the darkness. She’d given herself away. All she’d wanted was to apologize for the mess she’d made, for the damage and sorrow she’d caused. Now they were onto her. Thank god she’d disconnected in time not to give her exact location away… Had she? Her thoughts raced as she tried to get her breath under control. *What to do what to do what to do what to do…* She jumped up, glanced at the Spire through Heimdall, trying to keep a distance. The handful of Neos she could see were running around. The image was blurry, bits of information seemed to jump in and out of existence. The one called Piper had a little label on her now, and she was accompanied by someone that ran alongside her, the node bouncing in great strides. They didn’t seem to be searching now. They looked like they were heading out to leave.**

**Sy turned off Heimdall and started shoving only necessities in a large knapsack. Her tools, her Clickbox, a hoodie, some components she would need to augment Heimdall and change its core signature. Her heart was pounding in her throat so hard she could feel it pulse in her temples, behind her eyes. “Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she kept saying, chastising herself for her own idiocy. “Why not just ring the fuckin’ door bell you goddamn nigga cunt. Fuck!” She checked Heimdall again, realizing it might not be safe, but when she checked the Spire, she did not see Piper’s label. Her heart was practically jumping out of her chest as she wildly scoured the city, panic clawing its way up her throat.**

**And then she saw them.**

**They were flying through the air, speeding in her direction in a cruiser faster than any she'd seen. They had found her location. They would make it to her building before she could make it downstairs.**

**Sy had nowhere left to go.**