Chapter 9
Quickly checking his surroundings one last time, Holt made sure no ears were listening in. Quickly scanning the area one last time, Holt made sure there were hidden bugs around. He was down in the cargo area of the Normandy trying to establish a secure connection to the outside world. Some of the cadets were close enough to see him but outside hearing range. Feeling confident enough in his preparations his fingers started working away on his omni-tool. It only took a second before the person on the other end of the call picked up.
"Holt, darling! It's been ages!" Making one last check with his omni-tool, he couldn't see anyone listening in.
"The connection is secure, Tela. No need pretending to be nice."
"Well aren't you a little ray of sunshine? What brought you into such a foul mood?"
"The mood on this ship rubbed off on me." Which was true, him returning to The Normandy had not gone as planned. As Tela went silent he figured she wanted him to continue. "Once we were back on The Normandy and in the briefing room, Shepard thought it to be a good idea to mention that I was working for a information broker."
"I hope you didn't-"
"Don't worry, I only said enough to imply that I was working for a information broker. Don't forget that it was you who taught me that the best lies is the ones not far from the truth."
"... Right..." She didn't sound convinced. "And exactly how did their team react?"
"The Alliance people demanded that I was to be violently escorted out of the ship in the middle of space. A turian wanted to arrest me and actually tried until Shepard stopped him. A krogan, who I met a couple of days ago in the Citadel funnily enough, didn't seem to care. And then there was a quarian who I really couldn't tell what she was thinking."
"What kind of team is Shepard putting together?" Tela said after letting out a drawn-out sigh. "So, other than their hatred for your profession, what else did you learn from the debrief about Edolus?"
"I'll come back to you about that later when they actually know what happened there themselves."
"Fair enough. What else have you learned about The Normandy since you got on there earlier today?"
"It can fly through space." Another sigh could be heard. Holt knew he was getting on her nerves but he was protected by the ship, she couldn't touch him.
"Have they put you under surveillance again?"
"Not officially but it seems like news spread quickly around here. I can't take two steps without having ten pair of eyes on me."
"So you getting on that ship was a waste of time?"
"Too early to tell, give me some time and I'll earn their trust."
"... Fine, but you'll have to give me something to present to the boss sooner rather than later. He was, and still is, sceptical to you infiltrating The Normandy." Something big and bulky was suddenly making its way over to Holt. Unless one of the other crew members had swollen up to twice their size it could only mean one thing.
"I know you miss me but we'll meet again soon enough." Wrex was now standing next to him, waiting for him to finish his conversation. "I promise I'll come visit you the next chance I get so please stop crying." He ignored the angry mumbling of Tela and continued. "Yes, yes. I promise. Love ya babe, bye!" And with that he quickly turned off the omni-tool before facing Wrex with a well practised poker face. "Stop nagging me about it, I wasn't trying to steal your kill."
"That is not why I came over here, Holt." The krogan sounded serious. Holt knew that Wrex knew about his connection to The Shadow Broker but was hoping that he wasn't loyal enough to Shepard to rat out on him. Maybe he would have to deal with this problem as soon as possible.
"Oh? So we're actually gonna have a proper conversation?"
"Sort of... What's your real reason for being here?" He said while folding his arms across his chest. Krogans doing that always looked funny to Holt with how tiny their arms were compared to the rest of their bodies. He focused on not laughing in the krogans face. Weaponless and backed into a corner, angering a krogan would be a bad idea.
"As I said during the debrief, stopping Sar-"
"That might be one of the reasons but not the only one. Did the Shadow Broker send you?" Damn damn damn damn damn.
"The Shadow Broker isn't my only employer and right now I'm not being paid to secure any kind of information for anyone." Come on poker face, work your magic.
"I don't care if you're being hired or not. I just want to know if you'll be denying me the battles that Shepard promised to bring to me." Oh, was that it?
"Of course I won't. What would I hope to gain by keeping Shepard away from her mission?"
"You could be working for Saren."
"Do I look like a geth to you?"
"Shepard mentioned some asari working with Saren if you're to trust her vision. Asaris' aren't geth either."
"Well, Saren isn't paying me." Wrex simply let out a low grunt and went back to his corner in the cargo bay. Didn't seem like he would be any problem as long as Holt didn't steal any of his kills. There were far less people in here than it had been when he contacted Tela, must mean that most of them went to sleep. Thinking about doing the same he decided that winning the hearts and minds of the crew members took priority. With a light-hearted whistle, which earned him a few questioning looks from the skeleton crew, he headed towards the elevator. Getting on good terms with the pilot seemed like a good idea.
