Chapter Four: The Turian
2185 – The Citadel
Harsh fluorescent lights revealed every detail of his son's stony face. Echoes of Irikah stared back at him from across the plain metal table in the plain C-Sec office. It had been that resemblance that had stunned him – a man whose survival regularly hinged on his ability to act quickly– into inaction in Talid's apartment. Had it not been for Shepard's intervention, he would have let Kolyat slip away again. He would not allow this opportunity to pass.
The silence stretched taut between them. Thane sighed and looked at his hands, clasped loosely before him. This angry young man was so different from the child he'd left behind on Kahje. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, to break the impasse, but Kolyat spoke first.
"Why are you here?"
"Because you are." The answer slipped from him without conscious thought. Kolyat sneered at him.
"You weren't there before, how are things any different now?"
"I am different."
Kolyat snorted. "Yeah, right." He leaned back and crossed his arms. The leather of his jacket pulled over broad shoulders, and Thane felt the sharp pain of having missed when the fragile young boy he had left on Kahje had transformed into this powerful man. "Because you're, what, dying? I think your Cerberus friend would call that bullshit."
The assassin drew a long breath in through his nose and held it for a slow five count. His lungs burned as he exhaled.
"I deserve that," he said finally. "That and much, much, more. I abandoned you, after your mother's death."
"You abandoned us long before that! I can't remember a time when you didn't put your incoming messages, your hits, before us. You weren't there to see the way she shut down when you left." The dam had broken. A river of words flowed from Kolyat, thick and fast, and his voice broke on the rocks of his emotion. "She was happier, we were happier with you there than anything your money could buy."
The words drove a spike of pain through Thane, the ache of body and soul reunited for the first time since Irikah died. Shepard had brought the two halves of his self closer to each other than they had been in years with her curiosity and conversation. But it was the anguish in his son's eyes that bridged the final gap.
"I know." Thane bowed his head under the weight of his guilt. "There is no excuse, no explanation that can justify what I did to you and your mother. And there is no way I can make up for what you lost both when your mother died, and after."
He finally met his son's eyes and, regardless of the differences, it was like seeing Irikah for the first time all over again. He fought the subsumation that came with that memory. Kolyat did not need to be reminded of how his parents met. He needed his father.
"However, if you will allow me, I would like to try."
2179 – Cipritine
The instant he stepped off the transport, he felt his lungs tighten and his breath shorten. The doctors said it was too early in the disease's progression for him to notice any effects, but he had been honing his body into a weapon for nearly three decades. It had been the hitch and rasp of his breath that had driven him back to Kahje and its doctors. They had only confirmed the death sentence he had been suspecting for some time.
It was fitting that he, who had brought swift and sudden death to so many, should die gasping.
He pulled the hood of his cloak higher, hiding his features in its depths. Drell were still not common enough in the galaxy for one to pass unremarked, even in populous cities with highly transient, multi-species populations. Cipritine was none of those things, though it did host a hanar embassy that would provide him with some cover.
A summit of primarchs was being held, giving him a window of opportunity on a target he'd been hunting for over a year. The assassination of Altakiril's Primarch Livia Maxil at a diplomatic function would prompt a massive investigation that would not only reveal Maxil's deep ties to mercenaries, slavers and warlords, but also the branches of a web of corruption that spread from Palaven, to the Citadel, to Omega and the Terminus Systems. He hoped that, as one would tease out an Earth arachnid, plucking this thread would reveal the shape of the Shadow Broker. Thane had long ago given up any hope of retribution against the being who had sold his home address to the stars, but that did not mean he wouldn't pass by an opportunity to make life difficult for him.
The assassin slipped into a back entrance to the embassy and found the uniform left for him in a supply closet. He spotted his target hours later when the function was in full swing. Her silvery plates and vibrant red colony markings made her noticeable in any crowd. He slipped through the dignitaries like smoke and presented his tray of alcoholic beverages, all liberally laced with fentharra berry extract. It was a harmless compound to most turians, but an allergen for Maxil, comparable to mild lactose intolerance in humans.
He moved on easily, circulating through the room until his tray was empty. He dropped it off in the kitchen and melted into the background, all but disappearing into the mass of servers, cooks, cleaning staff and event coordinators. He picked up a broom and dustpan and strode out of the kitchen. The secret to blending in in any busy facility was to look and act like you belonged there.
His timing, as always, was perfect. The keynote speaker had just taken the stage when Maxil began to feel the effects of the fentharra. The halls surrounding the event room were deserted save for himself, and the slim turian rushing to the restroom. She paid no attention to him as he paced down the hall toward her, noticing only his uniform and dismissing him as a threat.
Sloppy.
He set the broom and dustpan aside as he drew closer. Maxil was peering at the placards on doors, searching for the toilet. Faster than any eye could follow, he snapped both fists at the red marked plates beneath her eyes, blinding and stunning her. He followed up by bringing his right elbow down hard on her collar bone and sweeping her legs from under her. He gripped her short fringe and wrenched her neck around vaulting over her falling body.
When he was sure of the kill, he placed an optical storage disk with the evidence that formed a trail of breadcrumbs for Hierarchy investigators to follow. It would lead them to the edges of Maxil's corrupt dealings.
He picked up the items he'd stolen from the kitchen and calmly made his way back to the same storage room he'd found the uniform in. It wasn't long before he was on yet another transport.
As the shuttle broke atmosphere, he opened his omni-tool and keyed a brief message to Reyya, including a passcode for an account he'd set up for Kolyat. Irikah's sister had mentioned that Kolyat had hit another growth spurt and was in need of new clothing. Thane sighed and allowed himself to slip into a brief memory of happier times with his family.
It had only been a year since Irikah's death, the Seven Stars no longer existed, and he could go back to his son. Reyya had hinted often enough that Kolyat missed him. But that was impossible at this point. He had entered a battlesleep. A dissociated father was worse than no father at all.
