Alec Ryder set the datapad down on his desk, leaning back in his chair. "Is that all, Lexi?"

Lexi T'Perro hesitated. Although they'd been acquainted for only several months, Alec had come to trust her on her keen instinct on shortlisting Pathfinder team candidates for his perusal; she was brutally honest and straightforward, qualities that may not exactly garner the appreciation of her patients at the bedside, but yielded promising candidates as far as he could tell. After all, she seconded his opinion of one Liam Kosta, former police officer, currently with Heavy Urban Search, Terrain-1.

He had just gone through the latest batch of personnel records; unfortunately, none of them were up to the task, in the doctor's own words. Meaning, they did not have the appropriate mentality to be a member of the team. A shame, that; many of them had looked so promising, with skill sets and experience that would be invaluable for exploration and discovery.

For her to hesitate now was uncharacteristic of her. Alec could not recall a situation where Lexi had ever had doubts about something.

She reached for the datapad. "May I, Alec?"

He grunted, wiping a hand across his face. He still had his doubts about the Initiative: Jien Garson he could trust, since he knew her from his pre-N7 days, until she became a recluse on some quiet corner of Earth while he was the Alliance military attaché to the Citadel. She had her eccentricities, yes, but she had vision, one that he could marvel at, despite all that he'd seen, he'd been through.

What worried him was just who the 'benefactor' was. While the mysterious party had pointed him towards Garson, resulting in his recruitment into the Initiative as Pathfinder, the fact that even his Intelligence contacts in the Alliance couldn't get a definitive ID on the benefactor was troubling news. Garson herself had expressed her doubts as well, but she was desperate to see the project through; she went all in, and almost went broke as a result.

Lexi scooped up the datapad, summoning a profile from the in-house secure network, handing it to him. Alec cleared his head, studying the profile. The attached holo showed a young male, clad in the black-and-maroon of the Alliance Engineering Corps, the Alliance logo gleaming on his left breast. It was hard to determine his heritage based on his features; thanks to the prevalence of interracial marriages in the last hundred years or so, distinct racial features were hard to come by. Short black hair, neatly trimmed, sat atop a face with a look that Alec was all too familiar with – eyes with a thousand-yard stare, lips pressed together into a thin line. No one who sat down to take a personnel holo would ever pose in that way.

This was a man who had seen the horrors of war, or worse.

"Jonathan Chang Walker," recited Lexi from memory, looking at Alec. "Grew up on Earth, according to his own account, enlisted in the Alliance military in 2179. Passed through AIT and was assigned to the AEC in 2180 due to exceptional technical abilities. He volunteered to crew Alliance Geological Service survey teams in the Verge, helping to build security and monitoring outposts for two years. Then, 2183 when –"

"Akuze happened," interjected Alec, his face darkening as he recalled the much-publicized incident, barely a month ago.

"Yes. The survivor, it's him, Walker. Alec, I believe that you'll find his achievements at such a young age makes him a desirable choice for the team, but I'm concerned with his psych profile. I reached out for an interview with him but he refused. There's also the matter of his pre-Alliance records – I found none, Alec. He was a complete blank before 2179."

Alec swiped through the attached files on Walker, his eyebrows rising slowly with each page he looked through. Multiple commendations. A citation from a chief engineer. A personal recommendation from Alliance R&D.

"Hm. Impressive. Where is he now?"

Lexi brought up her omnitool. "He was last seen on the Citadel, but he hasn't checked into any Alliance facilities. Maybe he's trying to keep a low profile."

Alec stood, transferring the engineer's profile to his omnitool. "I'll deal with it, Lexi. Get your questions ready. Sam?"

"Yes, Pathfinder."

"Track down my kids. Tell them their old man needs to talk – it's urgent."

"Right away."

"I need to be at the Citadel anyway," he answered Lexi's unasked question. "Need to meet Garson. Might as well."

She noted the deepening of the crow's feet around his eyes – something was bothering Alec Ryder, one of the most level-headed men she'd ever met. But she kept that thought to herself, stepping aside as Alec swept past her.

"Of course, Alec. Good hunting."