Garrus hurriedly strode through the halls of the Citadel Tower, heading towards the Council Chambers. His meeting with Primarch Victus had taken longer than expected; the older turian was keen to organise Council supply drops for some colonies sitting on the outer edges of Hierarchy space. But now he was late.

Garrus agitatedly spammed the elevator button as he waited for it to arrive at his level. It was beyond him how they could travel from star system to star system and they'd even survived the Reapers, but elevators were so damn slow.

Finally it arrived and Garrus stepped inside. "Sir! Hold the door!" he heard his assistant call from behind before he came dashing into the elevator, looking more than a little dishevelled. "We have a problem with Chellick, sir," Verran panted out.

"Explain," Garrus demanded, crossing his arms as he patiently waited for his subordinate to catch his breath.

Once his breathing was at least partially less erratic, Verran did his best to regain his composure, as was proper for a turian to do in front of his superior, "He's catching onto your investigation regarding the Batarians."

Garrus fluttered his mandibles in annoyance, "Security recordings?"

He cursed silently when Verran nodded in confirmation. He'd actually anticipated this move, Chellick was the C-Sec Executor, after all, but now he realised he had underestimated how quickly the man would catch on.

"Get whatever information you can on him, anything we can use," Garrus ordered after a moment of consideration, "I don't care how. Just do it."

Verran, as a lower ranking officer, had been assigned to Garrus during his C-Sec years. The kid had always had a sharp mind, and like himself, had been willing to do what was necessary to keep the streets safe. By the time Garrus had returned to the Citadel to take up the position of Councillor, Verran had become a full-fledged C-Sec detective. He was smart and loyal, just the person Garrus needed. Verran had pounced at the opportunity when he had offered him the position of Chief Secretary to the Turian Councillor.

The younger turian was someone Garrus could count on to get the job done.

"Right away," Verran acknowledge as the elevator doors opened, "Have fun in there, sir."

"Thanks," Garrus replied sarcastically before heading straight towards the Chambers.

Later in the afternoon, Garrus was sitting in his office, going through some financial reports when his omnitool alerted him of a private message. It was on his personal encrypted channel, which meant it could only be from a select few individuals.

Situation is bigger than I thought.

Councillor Salini is prime suspect.

I need more time to investigate.

JV

As short and succinct as the message was, Garrus read and reread the thing several times over, especially the second line. Councillor Salini is prime suspect. This revelation shocked him only for a moment though; logistically, it all made sense. Both sides of the Batarian conflict were being supplied with high grade weapons, seemingly from nowhere. Weapons didn't just pop out of thin air, especially those as big as the ones the Batarians were shooting each other with. Someone like Salini could definitely pull some strings to make it happen, but what eluded Garrus was the asari Councillor's motive. What would she gain from doing such a thing? Was it just for a cut of those new eezo mines? To make matters worse, he only knew who was arming one side of the conflict; who was providing for the other? And he didn't even know which side she was supporting.

He was tempted to send a reply message, but Vega was already taking on a huge risk by transmitting over the comm channel in the first place, no matter how well encrypted. Garrus knew he was being monitored by Chellick, and Vega was probably deep in hostile territory; communications silence was key for the both of them.

Silence is golden, he mused, remembering one of the many odd 'first encounters' he had shared with Shepard.

And then it clicked. There was someone else he could contact, someone who wasn't being watched, someone completely under the radar. Garrus tapped his omnitool to open a communications line, leaning comfortably back on his leather padded chair. Kasumi Goto was the perfect choice.

Garrus would have asked Liara for a request like this, but she was no longer the Shadow Broker; in fact, nobody was. The not-so-young asari had disappeared shortly after the war had ended, leaving behind only one method of contacting her; a quantum entanglement communicator only to be used for an absolute emergency, she'd emphasised. Comms didn't get much securer than a QED, which seemed quite important to her when she had left, although Garrus had no idea why. He suspected none of the other ex-Normandy crew knew either.

The other side of the communications line picked up.

"It's been too long, Councillor," Kasumi emphasised cheekily.

"Indeed it has," Garrus replied, his mandibles twitching in amusement, "I'd say that's partly your fault, though. You can be a little hard to get a hold of."

"Flatterer," the thief said with an audible smirk. "So, what's up? Has the time finally come for the big shot politician to start reconnecting with his old, plebeian friends, or…" she trailed off.

"Sorry to disappoint," Garrus replied, this time it was his turn to smirk with his subharmonics, "But this isn't exactly a social call."

"What is it? You want me to steal something? Please tell me you want me to steal something," Kasumi begged, her voice dripping with mischief.