Author's Note:
For this chapter, it is important to know that Red Sand is a stimulant with biotic-enhancing properties. When taken nasally, it creates a brief but intense euphoria, and gives the user (whether he or she already possess biotic abilities or not) short-term biotic abilities.
Chapter 6: The Getaway
"You will tell me… or you will die."
Lakota increased the pressure of the pistol on Finch's forehead which seemed to make him shrink down in size. His eyes were shut tight and his whole body quivered as a lock of red hair fell across the gun's barrel. Blood from the wound on his lip continued to drip off his chin and onto his sweater. He didn't say a word.
Wrex was watching the doorway. It would have been a mistake to think he wasn't paying attention to the rest of the room though. He noticed everything.
"They had you kill Torres," said Lakota. "They killed three others by blowing them up with a grenade." Pausing for effect, the Spectre leaned in and then whispered, "What makes you think they're not going to want to shut you up, too?"
Even with the pistol pressing into forehead, Finch shook his head- either in denial or in lieu of answering.
"These are stone-cold killers, little man. They aren't cuddly like me," Wrex said. "You continue to mess with this and they will kill you." The deep tenor of his voice added an underlining finality to the statement.
Finch's eyes opened wide, fear resonating in their piercing blue depths. Wrex's words rocked him. The krogan saying it somehow made it more forceful and disturbing. Lakota wondered how he got that effect and finally concluded that it was because Wrex didn't care. He didn't care if Finch believed him; he didn't care if Finch was killed.
As Finch opened his mouth to speak, a commotion sounded out from one of the other rooms. Lakota cursed under her breath, grabbed the front of Finch's sweater with her left hand and pulled him down to the ground, behind a cylindrical storage container. It wasn't large enough to offer full coverage, but its metal wall offered more protection than nothing. Wrex took cover behind a large shipping crate.
"We know you're in there, Spectre!" said a formless voice. Lakota guessed it originated from the sand lab. "Release Finch and you won't be harmed. We'll walk away and you can go free."
"Oh…" Lakota said, her tone was raised so it would carry to the other room, "that's tempting… let me think about it." She looked over the room trying to ascertain a route of escape. Not finding one, she looked over at Wrex who had come up with the same empty answer.
"Be reasonable, Spectre" said the formless voice, "there's no other way out."
Lakota looked over at Wrex. "Apparently, they think I'm stalling."
"You are," said the krogan.
"I know that and you know that, but I wish to hell they didn't know that."
As Lakota's mind shuffled through a multitude of different getaway scenarios, Finch unexpectedly jerked away, leaping toward the small table he had been using to line up his Red Sand. Instinctively the Spectre reached out for the fleeing man, stepping out of cover momentarily and was immediately fired upon by the formless voice and his buddies. Diving back behind the cylinder, she heard the continuing burble of gunshots ring out as the bullets from multiple assault rifles imbedded themselves into the walls and crates around her. She even felt them ricochet off the metal container she was using as a shield.
Wrex had switched out his shotgun with his assault rifle and returned fire into the shadowy corridor that connected the lab keeping the formless voice and his friends from charging the room.
Lakota glanced over at Finch who was sprawled out on the floor- face down and on his belly. He was partial out of sight because the table he'd been using when they found him had been knocked over. Multiple small bags of Red Sand were lying on the ground as well as the product Finch had been preparing for himself. She could see his hands moving frantically along the ground, trying to sweep up the red, powdery substance that was spread across the floor. Then, as though a thirsty man whose day in the desert ended with a cup of cool, spring water, he began to greedily sniff what he'd collected. He swept his nose along the ground- a finger keeping one nostril closed, and inhaled every bit of dust there was to be found.
"Finch," Lakota warned, "don't be stupid."
Her former comrade rolled behind the table for cover. "You think you're better than other people!"
While Wrex covered the entrance, Lakota focused on Finch. "Not everyone. Just the ones I'm better than."
Finch stood up- his face no longer adorning a look of fear. Now it had a look of maniacal rage. The very air around him seemed to be electrified with a rotating blue hue and his eyes, dilated to the point where they looked like black holes that were ready to pop out of their sockets.
"Oh shit…," Lakota said, "you've been sniffing the really good stuff, haven't you?"
Her pistol, which had been trained on him the whole time, rang out. The armor piercing ammo she used bounced ineffectually off the energy barrier the drug induced biotic had manifested.
Gunfire from the sand lab rained into the room once again. It was focused on both Wrex and Lakota keeping them behind their impromptu shields and low to the ground.
"YOU ARE NOTHING!" screamed Finch at the top of his lungs. The inflection of his voice had an imposing, hysterical quality as though bellowed by a deranged man beset by personal demons. His arms were outstretched above his head in a V-like shape as if attempting to make his form bigger and a blue-white typhoon of energy swirled around him, energizing the air particles encompassing him which caused his red hair stand on end. "THIS IS MY HOUR!"
With his final words, Finch brought his straight arms down into a clap and sent a powerful biotic shockwave through the room which launched Lakota, the cylinder shield and excess debris into the air. Ultimately they all slammed hard upon the metal alloy wall behind Wrex and then fell slightly less hard upon the ground. The krogan had put up a biotic barrier that protected him from the buffeted energy attack and then he countered with successive rifle blasts. For protection, the drug addled man had raised a shield barrier and then ran out of the room.
As the gun fire from the sand lab continued to spray into the storage space, Wrex focused on the large crate in front of him. He gathered his biotic energy and forcefully pushed the crate into the doorway, lodging it corner-first between the metal studs which bent slightly by the force of the impact. Any and all line of sight or view of the corridor was gone. There was no way in, but now there was also no way out.
"Shepard?"
"Wrex." Lakota slowly picked herself up off the ground shrugging the stiffness from her back and shoulders. The combat exoskeleton upgrade on her Mercenary armor absorbed some of the impact force when she hit the wall, but not enough for her to avoid all discomfort. "That's gonna leave a mark." She immediately returned to the task of seeking another way out of the disheveled room.
"There's no way out now, Spectre!" The formless voice was muffled by the large shipping crate.
"He's gotta get a new line," Lakota groused.
The formless voice sounded out again. "We'll blow your ass out of that room if we have to!"
Lakota rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"You asked for a new line," Wrex said.
"Now they start listening to me?"
Movement could be heard on the other side of the jammed shipping container and both the krogan and human assumed someone was setting up an explosive device to clear the threshold.
"The crate won't keep them out for long," stated Wrex.
"I know." Lakota playfully offered the first thought that came to mind. "We could charge 'em. Full frontal assault."
"Might as well shoot ourselves here," Wrex said. "Save us the time waiting for them."
Lakota walked toward the back of the room and examined the posterior wall. "We're not going to die, Wrex. We're too pretty."
"Shepard, I'm krogan. Krogan aren't pretty."
"Then I'll be pretty for the both of us." Lakota pointed toward the wall. "What kind of ammo are you carrying?"
Following the Spectre's train of thought, Wrex said, "The right kind." He pulled out his assault rifle and immediately changed out the tungsten rounds for inferno rounds. "We won't have much time once I start shooting. And they may have someone on the outside."
Lakota walked over to the table lying on its side. "I'm counting on it." Small plastic bags of Red Sand were lying on the ground, the same substance that Finch had snorted. She kneeled down and gathered up a half dozen bags and put them in her utility pouch with the other items she took from the sand lab. When she was done, she stood and then activated her omni-tool and began to punch in some activation codes. "When I swept the perimeter, I left a few flashy and explosive surprises. I'll be able to set the bombs off with a push of a button. I want to wait though… until we get a good look at who wants us dead."
"What's this 'us'? They want you dead, not me."
"Awww… Wrex. You have to look at the big picture. They don't care who they shoot, just as long as they shoot someone. I'd bet my reputation on that."
"Shepard," said the krogan, "you don't have a reputation."
"Okay, so it's not a risky bet."
Wrex moved in front of the rear wall, leveling his assault rifle at it. "Ready?"
Lakota drew her pistol and then nodded her head. "Ready."
Wrex fired a continuous string of short bursts. The bullets riddled the rear wall forming a pattern – an outline of an arch. As the inferno ammo lodged into the alloy steel wall, they secreted a toxic chemical which burned through the material like a heated knife slicing through butter. After the pattern was complete, Lakota waited a few seconds, and then proceeded with a front kick – the heel of her armored boot landing solidly in the middle of the outline knocking it onto the ground outside.
They quickly scanned the outer area and then dropped behind the cover of a generator that was feeding power to the building. The Spectre promptly holstered her pistol and unveiled her sniper rifle, Styx. Nobody had been stationed on the perimeter of the building, but Lakota knew their pursuers would come around looking for them. She didn't know how many were after them nor from which direction they would approach, but she wanted to find out. She wanted to know who was trying to kill them, but she also knew she needed to wait, be patient. It takes a lot of discipline to be patient when you know someone is hunting you.
The main ingredients to being a good sniper are discipline, cleverness and patience. Being a good shot was important, but without the other ingredients a sniper would be subpar. Lakota Shepard was gifted with all of those qualities and a few more. She was a keen observer who paid attention to details and stayed aware of her surroundings and everything that was going on around her. She was particularly clever and had been trained to deceive the enemy as to her position. She was an expert at making the enemy think she was somewhere where she was not. She used these skills to briskly pick out the best placement to set up with her sniper rifle – the spot that offered line of sight around either side of the building and provided her with the most cover. That ideal placement was located behind two small mounds of piled up metal wreckage and debris, in a direction away from the expandable building and five meters from the generator that Wrex was using for cover. Lakota settled into place- hidden from view- with Styx in position to strike, and waited.
Las Catacumbas as a whole was in turmoil. Those who had heard the gunfire were screaming and running away from the sectional building containing the sand lab. Those who had not heard the shots were panicking because of the frenzied confusion of the crowds attempting to escape the area. People were scrambling in their stalls trying to either hide or rapidly pack up their belongings. The sporadic gunshots had echoed through the compound making it difficult for some to pinpoint the origination, leaving the marketplace in utter chaos as individuals ran in all directions in a frantic attempt to flee an unknown monster.
It didn't take long for the enemy to reveal themselves though. Lakota saw movement at both the right and left corners of the building- shadowy images and the tips of assault rifles. The enemy had split up in the hopes of flanking them from both sides. Because of the generator's angle, she knew Wrex would only be able to see the figures edging out from the right corner, so she focused on the left. When it came to warfare, the krogan and human moved together in picture perfect harmony- effortlessly, as though able to read each other's mind and predict what the other would do next. In short, she trusted Wrex's observational abilities, his tactical skills and the fact that he had her back.
Lakota brought her shadowy target into the crosshairs of Styx's the scope. When he edged around the corner for a quick view of the terrain, she recognized him immediately - the man who'd let them into Las Catacumbas, the one who'd taken comm traffic. She watched as he yelled out, "You can't hide from us, Spectre. We have you surrounded." The formless voice now had form.
"He looked bigger when I couldn't see him," mumbled the Spectre to no one.
She continued to observe as the man slipped partially behind the corner and gave hand signals to the men around him. He didn't know where the Spectre was, so he didn't know he wasn't fully hidden from her line of sight. The moment he stepped from around the corner and into full view, Lakota fired Styx - perfect headshot. The man fell to the ground as though a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Immediately gunfire erupted and voices sounded out. They were all yelling. Lakota saw the other three armored men from the entrance with another eight, equally armored individuals; they were firing their assault rifles randomly in the vicinity of her position. She lined up another enemy – a woman- and fired. She went down quickly which increased her comrades haphazard shooting and panicked dialogue.
"Where the fuck is she?"
"Where's the krogan?"
"FUCK! She got Gino and Del."
"The boss never said nothing about her being a sniper!"
"The boss don't have to tell you SHIT!"
"The both of you idiots better fucking shut up and fucking fan out before the boss comes down here and kills you herself!"
Lakota knew it was time to move. She'd heard enough and if she and Wrex were stationary any longer, they would be outflanked and in the kill zone of too many rifles. At her hand signal, the krogan began laying down a suppressing fire, blanketing the area with inferno rounds from his assault rifle. She settled into a low crouch, scooting to the end of her debris shield and then dove headlong toward the safety of the generator.
The Spectre rolled onto her feet, crouching but alert behind the generator with Styx in both hands. "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance; riddle them with bullets, eh Wrex?"
The krogan kept his focus on shooting. "Saves time on wasted conversation."
Cautiously, Lakota peered around the corner of the generator, opposite of Wrex, aimed at the debris the enemy was using for cover and fired a shot. She wasn't attempting to hit anyone, just make enough noise to make them stay down.
Except for the group firing on them, the area around the sand lab was deserted. The marketplace crowds had disappeared as the uninterrupted gunfire persisted.
"You ready to get out of this place, Wrex?" asked Lakota.
"Chaos, panic, disorder… our work here is done, Shepard."
The Spectre activated her omni-tool and pressed a few keys. Instantaneously, four flash bombs detonated at the corners of the expandable structure. They were near enough for the enemy to be disoriented by the loud blasts and bright flash of lights. Three seconds later two more explosions rang out. These were from custom designed sticky bombs Lakota had adhered to the building's load bearing struts. They were fashioned to produce small, contained blasts and were placed to collapse the building – which they did.
In the bedlam of explosions, gunfire, screaming, dust and smoke, Lakota and Wrex hustled toward the outer perimeter. They stayed low, under cover, looking for signs of movement. They began to make their way back toward the entrance of Las Catacumbas. They could have tried to wander past the perimeter and chance their way in the dark, but there was no guarantee they would find another exit out of the black depths of the Citadel's sub-tunnels. So they headed to the one place they knew would lead them to the surface. They hastily journeyed through the marketplace, continuing to negotiate over debris and rows lined with abandoned stalls, until they entered upon a large open area that led to the exit corridor.
In one motion Lakota held up her left hand then crouched down behind an empty stall, bringing the threshold of the exit in sight with her sniper scope. Four men armed with assault rifles were scrutinizing the area around entrance. One of the men had a pot belly and thin moustache. "Well," Lakota murmured, "aren't you a waste of two billion years of evolution."
The Spectre turned her head slightly, catching Wrex in her periphery. "It's the counterman from the store," she said. "He must work for whoever sent those thugs after us."
"After you," corrected the krogan. "He's a point man."
Lakota gave a slight nod while continuing to look through the scope. "And they covered the way out in case the ambush failed."
"Thorough bastards," said Wrex. "I told you people would kill you for free."
"Who says they're doing it for free?"
"Free or not, the others will be heading this way fast," said Wrex.
"I can take out two or three, but the minute I start shooting the rest will be on top of us." Lakota was quiet for a moment. "A diversion would be better."
Wrex grinned. "We are good at causing diversions."
"I can take that power cable out," said Lakota. "Kill the lighting."
"But before you do, I will circle around the side. When things go dark, I will move them out of the way." To Lakota's eye, the expression on his face looked almost gleeful.
With his assault rifle leading the way, Wrex headed off into the shadows. When he wanted the Battlemaster could move quickly and quietly and stay hidden in a landscape that wasn't krogan-shape friendly. Lakota knew that was one of the reasons why the krogan mercenary was so deadly.
Once he was in place, Lakota locked onto the power cable feeding the perimeter lights with her sniper scope and pulled the trigger. The shot nailed its target and the area fell into darkness as most of the ambient light in Las Catacumbas disappeared. The only illumination the Spectre saw came from the corridor leading to the surface – she assumed it was fed from the electronics store. The panicked men, who were standing in front of the entrance with the only light in the area spotlighting their position, were now sitting ducks.
The very moment the light disappeared, Lakota saw the familiar bluish arc of biotic tendrils ignite to left of the armored men and push out like a tidal wave – sending all four humans soaring into the dark.
Her sniper rifle holstered, Lakota took off running toward the corridor, sprinting as fast as she could. Wrex's shape came into view his shotgun firing in the direction the men had flown. She passed by the krogan and then stopped just inside the entrance. Still firing his shotgun, Wrex backed through the open door and then Lakota closed it. She grinned at the krogan and then they both ran down the corridor and up the stairs into the electronic shop. They waited silently, pistol and shotgun drawn, at the top of the stairs listening for any noise.
After a few moments, Lakota said, "I don't hear any hot pursuit."
"They probably didn't chase us."
"Because?"
Wrex grinned. "They were afraid they might catch us."
With the guns still drawn they made their way through the shop and onto the streets of the Bachjret Ward. The artificial environment now mimic early morning as people walked briskly toward their intended destination. To be less conspicuous, the krogan and human holstered their weapons and set off to find a cab to take them back to the docking bay.
"Finch was tight lipped," said Wrex.
While they walked, Lakota thought back upon the scene with her former comrade. "He was scared of something, but it wasn't me."
"What could be scarier than you?"
The Spectre raised her hand to her mouth, covering a yawn. "You."
"True."
Lakota slowed her pace momentarily as she studied the area around them once again. This time the elusively familiar layout didn't take her by surprise, instead it made her contemplative. Mexico City, the Reds, Tomas Finch, Cerberus, an asari corporation, Red Sand… her mind swirled with unanswerable questions which presented themselves as small landmines of frustration. She breathed in deeply and focused on what she did know. It felt good to be above ground. It felt good to be in the light. And even the processed air in the Ward was refreshing.
When they reached the Avina terminal, Wrex asked, "What's next?"
Lakota punched in her Spectre ID number, their destination and then stepped back to wait for the cab. "I want to talk to Lysandra again. She knows more than she is saying. But before that happens, I want to get the product we found in the sand lab analyzed."
"What about Finch?"
The Spectre narrowed her eyes- a dangerous glint sparkling in their green depths. "I want to find the bastard. I don't like loose ends."
As the cab pulled up, Wrex said, "Loose ends have a way of strangling you."
Next up: El Pasado, Primera Parte