"He's gone, Garrus. It's over."
"No, it's not. Mercs never do anything just to screw with your head. They want credits."
He turned to Li. "We'll offer a ransom."
"If he's not already dead." The Quarian slowly made his way to where Garrus was standing and sat on one of the many cargo crates lying around in the hangar, filled with the stolen goods recovered from various mercenary groups across the Terminus Systems. "If they'd kidnapped a leader, a council member, Shepard, even you, then they'd be expecting a ransom. I'm sorry Garrus, they took the information they wanted and killed him."
"We have to at least try."
"Fine. I'm coming though – someone needs to be there to save your ass."
Li chuckled and made his way to the elevator.
"Come on," he said, "We got a call to make."
Garrus briskly walked down the abandoned bridge, in his hand a briefcase containing a credcheque for nearly all the funds given by the council and rewards for stopping mercenaries combined.
Behind him walked Li and Emily, both in awe of the planet's amazing views and ancient Prothian skyscrapers.
Garrus on the other hand was focussed dead ahead, waiting for Davis to emerge from the building in the distance, Sidonis behind him. He had been on Feros before, seen the sights, and fought a war. He missed the days he spent under Shepard's command, the scenery was better.
"So how much exactly in this case?" Emily said, interrupting his thoughts.
"A lot."
"The money we're meant to be spending on weaponry and upgrades for the ship?"
"Yes. And more."
Li sighed.
"The council will not be happy."
Garrus chuckled to himself.
"Oh well, the beauty of being freelancers is that they can't stop us."
"I want numbers. How many credits are we paying?" Emily asked.
Garrus sighed.
"Twenty million."
Emily stopped in her tracks.
"Too far, Garrus."
Li and Garrus turned to her.
"Do you really think I'm going to let them take it?"
"It's still too much of a risk even having a real cheque that big here." She said, "Why not an empty case?"
"They'll bring scanners. They know how valuable Sidonis is to Garrus. They think they've gotten lucky and are about to make a fortune."
Emily pointed at the tower.
"I'm glad we know how to fight."
Davis emerged through the gate, three heavily armed guards on either side of him and Sidonis bound and held by two more. The bridge was similar to the thousands others on Feros, suspended between two skyscrapers, each kilometres high. Davis and Garrus had agreed to dock at the eastern and western towers respectively, and meet between them at the centre of the bridge at sundown. The exchange was simple – the two parties were to stop at a one hundred metre distance from eachother, Davis and Sidonis were to make their way to the centre at the same time as Garrus. The Turian was to hand the briefcase to Davis as Sidonis began to make his was to Li and Emily.
But Garrus knew he couldn't trust Davis. He also knew that Davis shouldn't trust him. Garrus had set up snipers and taken the liberty of placing explosive charges underneath the bridge. Garrus would have preferred being in the tower behind the scope of his rifle than in the open where he was vulnerable to a multitude of swift deaths – but he wanted to deal with this personally.
Li and Emily stopped but Garrus marched on. Davis signalled for the guards to halt and release Sidonis, and continued to make his way towards Garrus. The human and Turian met at the centre of the bridge.
"I've had your charges disabled and your snipers are probably dead by now. No funny business."
Garrus held his posture and kept a calm air.
"It was just reported to me that your assassins are dead and you still have three shots aimed for you meatbag head. No funny business."
Davis was visibly shocked, but quickly composed himself.
"Very well." He mumbled as he pulled a credit scanner from his belt. "Open."
"Sidonis, start walking." Garrus said as he began to open the case. He held it out in front of Davis who ran the device over the cheque. He looked at the screen.
"Twenty mil, as I asked. Very good. I'm glad this went easily. Now let's hope your snipers don't receive an order to shoot me or you too, will end up with a skull full of lead."
Garrus nodded as Davis took the cheque from the case and started walking away. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Sidonis had arrived at his comrades safely, and Emily was escorting him back to the tower. Garrus turned to his left and made his way towards an old ExoGeni vehicle left abandoned during the Geth attack. Davis's guards panicked and shouted out for their leader's attention. Davis turned towards Garrus just in time to see the Turian take cover behind the buggy.
Garrus activated his com unit.
"Fire."
Davis fell to the ground and dropped the cheque, blood dripping from the bullet hole in the centre of his forehead. Li sprinted towards a heap of rubble nearby as the mercenary snipers took wild shots in here general direction. Sidonis and Emily were safely inside the skyscraper and on their way to the dock.
Garrus picked up an assault rifle he had hidden under the vehicle. He leant around the buggy and fired wildly at the mercenary soldiers running towards Davis's corpse to retrieve the credits.
"Joker," he said into the radio, "Get out here and take out that tower."
"Emily just got back with Sidonis. We're on the way."
Garrus took cover, panting, shields weakened by enemy fire. He needed to get the cheque and get off of the brdge before the tower fell or the mercenaries on Davis's ship joined the fight.
"Sniper team, take out the guards and anyone that comes out of that tower - I'm trusting you."
"Yes sir!"
A guard reached the cheque but fell to the ground as a sniper round pierced his neck. Garrus activated his com unit.
"Li, I'm going after the cheque. I need you to put up a biotic barrier around my head, just in case."
"Are you crazy Garrus? I'm too far away it won't be strong enough."
"It's going to have to be." He said as he stepped out from his cover and broke into a sprint. Davis's men were all dead, the cheque somewhere amongst their bodies. Garrus was only a hundred metres away. He could make it.
The ship emerged from the rear of the tower and flew low over the bridge. It overtook Garrus and began circling the eastern skyscraper.
"Ready when you are"
"Hang on…"
Garrus only had fifty left to his target when his shields went offline. He felt a flash of pain in his left shoulder.
"Rubbish snipers." He whispered under his breath.
Li was running a long way behind him, struggling to maintain the biotic barrier. It wouldn't be long before the barrier would fall and Garrus would be left open to fatal shots to the head. Such a shot was fired. The barrier shattered. Li passed out.
The "rubbish sniper" saw Li fall and took aim at the back of the fallen Quarian's head. He fired.
Garrus reached.