Amanda Kenson watched blankly as, seeming to melt out of the very air, a human commando appeared, grabbed the unsuspecting batarian guard and plunged a knife skillfully in the soft spot between skull and neck. The body went lax and the soldier, after disengaging her knife, eased the body onto the ground.

The soldier straightened, brilliantly-colored eyes fixed on her face. "Doctor?"

"Ye-es?" Kenson asked uncertainly.

The soldier nodded once as if confirming something, then disappeared out of Kenson's visual range.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, a little sharply.

"I'm Commander Shepard; Admiral Hackett sent me to get you out of here."

[…Shepard…]

Kenson blinked several times, moistened her lips which were suddenly dryer than ever.

Suddenly, the restraints holding her released. She would have collapsed face first had Shepard not anticipated the moment of weakness and disorientation.

[Detain Shepard.]

"Steven? He received my message?" That was good news…and this timely rescue was the best news possible.

"Loud and clear. Do you think you can walk?" Suddenly, Shepard held up a hand for silence, flattened herself against the wall, and triggered whatever-it-was that made her almost invisible. Kenson lost track of the rippling distortion in the air, but heard a very faint sound, accompanied by a heavy object hitting the ground. "We have to go. Now."

[Detain Shepard.]

"Yes," Kenson agreed, looking around.

Shepard cued her omnitool, began to work briskly, her ears pricked for oncoming footsteps.

"What are you doing?" Kenson got slowly to her feet, found them steady beneath her, but only because of the iron-strong determination that Shepard had to be relocated to home base. It was the safest place.

[The very safest place. She must not stop the Arrival.]

Kenson's brows knit as the whispers coalesced into audible, pounding mental sound.

"I hacked into the system earlier, set some surprises up," came the vague answer.

"Surprises?"

Shepard's mouth twisted into a grim smile. "I'm going to give them what they expect. Come here," Shepard beckoned to her, unclipped from her web gear a small device like a shield generator. "This turns it on. This turns it off." She clipped the generator to Kenson's belt. "Let me see you do it."

Kenson obeyed, turned the generator on, felt the shiver as the field activated, then turned it back off.

"Good. I have a shuttle on call—we're going to go back the way I came in. Not a lot of guards, and there'll be less in a few minutes." Then, seeing that Kenson meant to make further inquiries into the plan, "I'm going to sound an intruder alert. Send them off in the wrong direction."

[Detain Shepard. She must not stop the Arrival]

"I see." It was a decent plan, as far as plans went.

Alarms suddenly began blaring. "Cue your generator. Keep it running unless I tell you otherwise." Shepard vanished a moment before Kenson herself did. It was disconcerting when Shepard's invisible hand reached out, took her by the arm, and began to pull her along.

[Shepard must not stop the Arrival.]

And Shepard would try. She couldn't kill Shepard outright, but she could…Object Rho. That might be of some use. It gave visions. It might show Shepard how wrong she was, would be, to oppose the Arrival. She was confused; the Prothean Beacon had to be responsible for that. With their lies burned into her mind and memory how could she not be prone to mistaken beliefs…?

[Detain Shepard.]

It was not easy to follow Shepard, especially when the soldier stopped short—there was usually little warning, which meant Kenson was prone to walking right into her. Shepard took it in stride, though. The cascading effects Shepard had preprogrammed—which seemed to amuse the soldier—really did make it look like they were escaping in the opposite direction: fire alarms, power failures, communication lines jamming…and no one was sure where the infiltration unit (when the comms did work, the batarians were convinced they were dealing with a unit) actually was.

It might have been amusing had the tight grip on her wrist not indicated how seriously Shepard took this escape, and how often the soldier stopped, as if somehow checking the air, like a tracking dog coming across an unfamiliar smell.

[Detain Shepard.]

She would need to warn the others, have them get ready. Kenson took careful note of the chain of events Shepard's…system bomb…created. She would know, should Shepard somehow try it at the facility, what to look for and what to ignore. That pesky tactical cloak—which gave out and had to be reactivated several times—would be a problem.

Shepard seemed to have the interval during which it offered protection before sputtering out memorized to the second. They were always in an unobserved corner when the cloak needed to be 'reset'—that was Shepard's word for it.

[Detain Shepard.]

And she would. She had to. Shepard would try to stop the Arrival. She couldn't be allowed to do it.

Shepard heaved a sigh of relief as they gained the outdoors. The rain still fell hard, the air still clung uncomfortably, but they were outside. Within moments they were visible and headed for Shepard's shuttle. "You came alone? You're braver than I expected," Kenson announced, then winced. 'Expected' was not a word that should be used…

…but Shepard seemed to think that notoriety left people with many expectations, and she did not come to full alert at the word. "Hackett was explicit. This happens quietly."

"Well, it has at that," Kenson agreed.

"Do you have coordinates for where we're going, or will you need to pilot?" Shepard asked.

[Detain Shepard.]

That was better than Kenson could have hoped for. "I'll need to pilot…and as soon as possible, I need to get in contact with the others. They'll want to know I'm safe."

Shepard nodded her agreement to this, then led Kenson around a bank of undergrowth, and there was a Kodiak, waiting quietly.

[Detain Shepard. She must not stop the Arrival.]