Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect IP, that belongs to EA/Bioware and any others with a legal claim.
There are few sights in life I find more existentially depressing than a public park on a giant space station. In a sense they're a lot like the parks you see in big cities, some grass, some trees, not enough to make you forget. No chance of hiding the view of the residential towers. Lots of people, but up above it all is just a view of more wards and the purple and pink nebula clouds. It's not nature; just a lot of people trying forget it's not nature.
I take a drag of nicotine laced water-vapor. It's not smoking, not like I was used to, but the Systems Alliance has a strong control over the shipment of actual cigarettes. Without a real base of human settlement here on the Citadel I was probably lucky to even find this technological knock-off. Not that I'm complaining. There's something decidedly convenient about not leaving butts everywhere.
I tap a spot at the base of my jaw and say out loud, "Citadel Security, Internal Affairs office." The subcutaneous transponder takes care of the rest, connecting the call. That's a bit hard to come by too, but it's not uncommon to get a bit of outer edge mil-tech when you work for the right people.
"Internal Affairs, how may I direct your call?" It's a Turian, I can hear it in the voice plain as day. Not too unpleasant, though, if you like that tenor range rumble they all seem to have.
"I need to get in touch with an agent named Soleia Solvus. It's about a case she's working on," I say. My eyes scan the crowd carefully picking out the tell-tale blue of C-Sec. I'd never exactly seen them as friends before, but right now they all looked like enemies. They all looked like death, and thirty-two was enough for me.
"May I ask who's calling?" He says.
"No." I decide to leave it at that.
"Alright, I'll try to connect you but I can't guarantee anything without knowing who you are." He tells me.
"Fine." It's not worth the effort if it doesn't go through. Besides, I see my target bumbling into the park now. Jahn doesn't know who I am. I only told him I'd call him after he was in the park. Might as well let him sweat a little while. I slide my eyes from C-Sec officer to C-Sec officer looking for someone a little too interested in the Volus. There is a part of me that needs to know just how deep this really goes. Nobody's taking the bait though.
"Agent Solvus, Internal Affairs," her voice is cold… and low.
"I'm not interrupting you in the field, am I?" I ask with a grin I know she can hear.
"Laura… what the hell are you doing calling me like this?" She asks. Okay, now I think she's angry.
"I need to talk to you about a case, that's all. Something to do with… a friend of mine… and some little league hitmen on the inside." I talk quickly, but calmly.
"Alright so talk," she says, definitely angry.
"There's a couple Turians, work down by the seven hundred block. They probably got a good bit of money in their accounts recently from unknown sources." I think for a moment and decide to test out a theory. "And I'm pretty sure they have a certain internal affairs agent tailing them."
She swore in three different languages. "How do you know where I am!"
"I didn't but thanks for the info," I say. I can't help an amused chuckle as she throws out an even longer string of expletives.
"Point is I think they've got a hit out on someone and I need to know who ordered it." I say.
"I can't talk about an open investigation with the general public and certainly not with you." She replies.
"I'm hurt. What's so wrong with me?" I ask.
"Do I really have to answer that?" She asks.
"Look, maybe we can talk about this later… I can treat you to dinner somewhere," I offer.
"Oh, so now you're threatening to poison me when you don't get your way?" She sniffs in contempt.
I laugh, "You know that's not what I meant. We're at the Asari-Turian mating capital of the galaxy. I know there are some good places that serve both palates around here."
"Right, so you're really expecting me to believe you can speak Asari. I never figured you for having that much class." She says.
"Oh I don't, that's what translators are for." I bite back.
"Where are you?" She suddenly asks.
"Just sitting in a park, enjoying the view," I say. I watch the nervous Volus sliding around from person to person trying not to draw too much attention while he searches for his appointed rendezvous. Another drag from the cig and life is pretty good. Now if only I can get Soleia to agree to this date…
"Get out of there. Now." Her voice is pure steel and it makes the pit of my stomach drop. She's definitely serious about this. I stand and take a few steps. Suddenly there's a deafeningly loud bang from just inside my ear and I drop to my knees in pain.
"The fu-" I'm cut off by the sight of Jahn exploding in a shower of gore. Volus are definitely uglier on the inside. There's a second explosive sound and I roll hard to my left. An Asari jogger who just ran past me is cut in two by a localized explosion. Her dark blood rains down in a warm shower.
Shaking off the shock of my near death moment I get up and run flat out. My connection to Soleia is still open and it's her voice that keeps me company as I sprint away from the park. "Internal Affairs, freeze! Don't even think about it fucker." There's a brief exchange of shots echoing within my ear, and then a prolonged moment of silence. "You really want to go for it? Go ahead, join your friend." Sounds like she has it well in hand.
Finally back in the crowds of the Ward's main streets I feel more comfortable. Well, comfortable may be an overstatement. I'm sweating, and my breath is ragged as fuck, not to mention this sticky sweetness that I'm pretty sure is Asari juice. But at least I don't feel completely exposed. I can finally get a look around me to see if any C-Sec followed me out.
There's a thud within my ear. "Soleia?" No answer. Subcutaneous transmitters have the distinct problem that they don't really catch sound outside of the person very well. Things like gunshots are loud enough to carry, but not casual conversations.
"Get her legs!" Shouted conversations seem to work though. The connection cuts with a loud hiss.
I grab a random Asari out of the crowd and pull her to the side. "Listen to me, this is a life or death matter. I need you to call C-Sec and report that someone has attacked an agent named Soleia Solvus." I give her a serious look directly in the eyes. She looks back with equal seriousness.
"Soleia Solvus was the name and she's been attacked. Where is this?" The woman asked thankfully playing along. Of course it occurs to me that my still warm Asari entrails may be having an impact on her.
"I don't know exactly. Somewhere with a view of the park." I put my hands on her shoulders, "Can I count on you for this?"
She nods, "yes… And who should I say you are?"
I release her and am already sliding off into the crowd before I call back, "Laura Faust!"
My hotel room is thankfully unmolested. A quick shower and a change of clothes and I'm good as new. I reach under the mattress and pull out the armband style bandolier that has all of my 'save points' in it. A few seconds of fidgeting and I have it in place on my left arm where it belongs.
I count the totals of the credit chits I have on hand and find the result bleak. Any other job I would have considered it enough, not this time. There's a suspicion forming in my gut and I do not like where it's going.
Finally certain I have everything in order I check the news feeds to see if the park has made headlines yet. Instead I'm greeted by a confirmation of my worst suspicions. Six dead in a bar bombing. I already know which bar just from the picture. Looks like I'm alone from here out.
That's alright, I'm used to it. Besides, I already have some idea who the fucker with the sniper rifle is. Assuming he was one of the Turians who gunned me down outside Jahn's shop there's really only one place he could have gotten a rifle of that high of grade.
"Beta, my boy, how's it going?" I ask, grabbing the Salarian's arms and pinning them to the counter before he can escape.
"Laura. Leave. I've got nothing for you here." He says in clipped sentences.
"Nothing for me, but you had something for your new friends. Something long and shiny with a great. big. barrel." I'm not sure if the Salarian even understands double entendre, but it isn't really for him at this point.
He twitches and does his best to look away, scanning the crowds. "Please. Laura. If they even think I told you anything, I'm already dead. Just leave me alone. Don't drag the rest of us down with you."
"At least give me some hint who they are. I don't even know how deep in it I am here, Beta." I say.
"Deep. Real deep. That's all I can tell you." He says finally looking me in the eye.
I nod to myself. "Well… then I guess I'm almost sorry about this." The almost apology is my only sacrifice to politeness as I twist both his fingers back breaking them. If I were a common thug this would be the question and answer segment. I'm not a common thug.
Ignoring his cries of distress I pull his arm over to my side of the counter keeping a firm grip on his fingers. The pain is almost enough to knock him off his feet… but it doesn't so I don't worry about. I just activate his omni-tool so I can get a good look at his recent finances. Beta is smart. Smart enough to keep most of his books off-site, but that sniper rifle they'd used is a recent purchase. I take a moment to record the relevant account number into my iWatch then release him.
He falls to the floor almost immediately whimpering something about his own imminent death. I ignore him as I leave. I have a lot to do and not enough time to coddle every prick I'm going to have to fuck to get it done.
I'm brought up short as I'm passing a reflective surface. My own reflection always startles me these days. My face is hard edged and my eyes are ringed with the dark purple that marks me as an insomniac. The eyes themselves are always what surprise me the most though. They aren't the eyes of someone who'd grown up in eternal sun and summer. They are the eyes of someone who'd just broken fingers as a shortcut to information.
I don't have time for this shit, I think and continue on my way.
A/N: I've had to really tighten things up in my mind after playing Extended Cut, but I now have a coherent plot covering all the way till the end of ME3's epilogue. I'll need to tweak some of the earlier plot arcs to make them more reflective of the overall theme, but I don't think it's caused any serious problems.