SECTION 8
CHAPTER TEN
PANAMA, SOUTH AMERICA
N7 TRAINING FACILITY
FORT MERCY EN ROUTE TO AIRSTRIP
NOVEMBER 2ND 2184
2327 HOURS
Ashley and Shepard hopped into the nearest transport they could find. Both were visibly pissed off and embarrassed that they were being tricked the whole time.
"Damn it," Shepard exclaimed as he took his frustration out on the dash board in front of him, "Son of a bitch planned the whole thing!"
"Dog tags don't show race and our systems been down throughout the entire time the hurricane has been blowing through!" Ashley explained, "there's no way we could have known."
"What Hanger is his transport head off from?"
"Hanger four!" Ashley replied as she punched the transport into the highest gear possible.
Clocking in at about 250 miles per hour they arrived with moments to spare.
The leader of the CID group transporting the now discovered to be Kaiden Alenko, turned to see Ashley running up to him.
"Sir!" she called out to him, "I need to speak with your prisoner right now!"
"What lieutenant?"
"I need to take him back for questioning," explained Ashley.
Unfortunately for Kaiden no one noticed Shepard as he calmly but swiftly strode through the guards. When he finally reached Kaiden, he grabbed him by the arm.
"We're not finished with you yet Kaiden!"
"Wanna bet?" Alenko replied.
The guards managed to push back Shepard and allowed Kaiden to retreat up the steps to the transport, an A90 Heavy Goliath transport ship that is used by the military for transport supplies and people from point A to be point B.
After struggling against the guards, and much to Ashley's dismay, Shepard suddenly came out of the group with a handgun. The guards instantly backed away as he sent a few rounds skywards.
"What the hell are you doing Shepard?" yelled Ashley.
Shepard ignored her.
Instead he walked around the perimeter of the guards and to the side of the stairs that led up to the transport.
"Come on down Kaiden," Shepard ordered.
"What? You wanna talk Sky-ball?" taunted Kaiden, "huh Shepard? Come on, let's talk Skyball."
Shepard jumped up to Kaiden and pulled him over the side.
Kaiden hit the ground with a loud thump before Shepard was back on top of him shoving the pistol right in his face.
"You wanna know what happens when you lie Kaiden?"
Shepard shot a round within five inches of Kaiden's head.
"You got nothing on me man! You're not going to shoot me!"
"Wanna bet?" Shepard said before placing a round so close to Kaiden's ear that it drew blood.
The two screamed at each other for several moments, each daring the other to try something.
Finally the confrontation was ended with a sharp hit to Kaiden's head.
Shepard stood from Kaiden, wiping the blood off of his hand and pistol.
As he walked by Ashley and the leader of the CID team, Major Kal Reeger he uttered one phrase.
"Get that pile of shit back to Fort Mercy."
To Ashley's surprise the guards saluted him, to which he didn't seem overall annoyed by, and followed his orders to the letter.
Soon she found herself, along with Reeger, Udina and Shepard as they patiently waited for Kaiden Alenko to properly retell the events of the previous night.
"We were all in the bunker," began Kaiden, "Wrex, Krios, and Jack were trying to get Zaeed and Taylor on their side. Trying to figure out what to do with Anderson… how to kill him. Zaeed was already pretty much convinced and Taylor hated Anderson's guts so he was going to come around."
"What about you?" asked Ashley.
"Me? Those guys didn't give two shits about me. I was the weak link in the group. I knew that if I tried to speak out against them, they could easily pin the whole thing on me. And with my beautiful past with Anderson, no jury would say otherwise."
"What happened next?" asked Udina.
Kaiden lit up a cigarette.
"In walked the bastard himself."
PANAMA CANAL
N7 TRAINING ZONE BRAVO
RALLY POINT X-RAY
NOVEMBER 1ST 2184
1345 HOURS
The bunker was filled with the noise of conversation and arguing with the storm outside adding to the effect. Wrex was trying to convince Taylor to see 'reason', Krios and Jack were filling Zaeed in on the plan and Kaiden was sitting by himself on the opposite side of the bunker, drying himself off.
It was when the flap that served as the door to the bunker flew open did everyone shut up. Standing in the doorway was none other than Anderson himself.
"Well, well, well, what do we got here?"
Jack looked over to Wrex and Thane, "I told you… he knows."
"Wait," interrupted Shepard, "knows about what?"
"About the other operation," Kaiden clarified.
"What other operation?"
"The red sand. They were sending hundreds of pounds of it all over Alliance space using military supply lines. Harper was hiding it in crates of files. Hell, he would probably shipped it in a corpse if he had to. Anderson found out about a week ago. He was going to go to the colonel. Wrex and Thane must have decided to take him out of the equation before that could happen."
Anderson took an aggressive step into the bunker.
"You must be the dumbest mother fuckers in the whole goddamn 'verse. You think you can ship that shit right under my nose?"
He was answered by the butt of a rifle from behind. Anderson fell to the ground, unmoving. Wrex, standing above the body, chuckled menacingly.
"Wrex! What the hell are you doing?" exclaimed Kaiden as he grabbed his weapon.
The other followed suit arming their rifles and pistols.
"Get his weapon," ordered Krios.
Zaeed was the first to jump towards the Sergeant. However just as he reached Anderson's body, Anderson sprung up and speared the corporal through the gut with a mean looking blade he had hand carved himself.
Zaeed fell clutching his stomach as he let out his final breath.
Wrex attempted to attack Anderson but the Staff Sergeant was much too fast.
He twirled around Wrex like he was water against rock, tucking his blade under Wrex's chin and aiming his pistol and the group of four recruits.
"Put it down Sarge," ordered Taylor.
"Fuck you. This isn't some anonymous drive by; you think you can kill a man face-to-face?"
"Put it down Taylor!" yelled Kaiden, "He'll fucking shoot you!"
But no one listened to him.
"I am your objective right?" Anderson asked the three conspirators.
"You fire, I slice, and then you're down to four. Make that three, you can't trust him," Anderson said pointing to Kaiden, "Maybe I take one or two of you before you get me. The odds are increasingly in your favor that at least two of you will walk out of here alive. Conversely, there is absolutely no way I should be able to walk out of this bunker."
Anderson took a look at each recruit. Just as the lightning flashed, Wrex fell to the ground, unharmed, and Anderson seemed to have simply disappeared.
"This is bullshit!" screamed Jack, "I'll do it!"
She charged forth with her rifle at the ready, passed the corpse of Zaeed and into the storm. She took a look around before charging into the open.
Above her, standing on top of the bunker, was Anderson, with two silenced predators armed and ready.
"So pretty," he uttered as he fired three times into Jack's back.
"And so dead," he finished as her body fell to the ground.
In the bunker the survivors all watched helplessly as Jack falls dead. Suddenly the roof erupts in gunfire as Anderson gives away his position by firing blindly into the bunker through the roof.
Startled, the recruits, except Kaiden, each open up, returning a salvo of gunfire into Anderson's last known location.
Thane waved for them all to cease fire. He then made the sign for grenade and pointed to the roof.
Kaiden watched as Wrex and Taylor primed their Phosphorus grenades and toss them.
PANAMA, SOUTH AMERICA
N7 TRAINING FACILITY
FORT MERCY MESS HALL
NOVEMBER 3rd 2184
0124 HOURS
Kaiden took another drag on his cigarette and stomped it out in the ashtray before him. He caught a glance from Shepard that told him the SpecTre agent wasn't buying it.
"What… you don't believe me?"
Shepard simply chuckled at the irony of Kaiden's question.
"Medical crate 8-4-6-9-7-2-3 in shipping D waiting transfer. You can see for yourself."
Ashley rose and presented Kaiden's data to MP officer Lang who immediately departed for the evidence.
"Harper and whoever his partner was must have been making millions together."
Udina shot a quick glance to Shepard before asking, "Where did the sand come from?"
"Fuck if I know," Kaiden said shrugging, "this is Panama. Throw a rock in any direction and you'll hit three cartels."
PANAMA CANAL
N7 TRAINING ZONE BRAVO
RALLY POINT X-RAY
NOVEMBER 1ST 2184
1445 HOURS
"About an hour later, Krios and I found Taylor. He was dead."
Kaiden bends over Taylor's motionless corpse and snags his dog tags. The sound of a muffled shot, followed by Thane's pained screams alerted Kaiden to Anderson's presence.
He saw him, his black hat, emerging from the bush with both weapons ready to fire. Kaiden instantly raised his own. It was a classic Mexican standoff.
"Put it down! Put it down, son!" Anderson ordered.
Kaiden held his ground, "I just want to go!"
"Understandable, now put the gun down!"
"Look," Kaiden said with his will beginning to falter, "I never meant to hurt anybody!"
"Good," responded Anderson, "Let's keep it that way. Now you surrender and I take you in. I know it sounds like a shitty deal, but you get to live."
Kaiden thought about before shaking his head.
"How about I go my way, and you go yours?"
"Ain't going to happen. You either surrender or we die where we stand. What's it going to be?"
That was when Kaiden saw Wrex rise from the bushes and take aim on Anderson. Before Kaiden could warn him, Wrex fired two three round bursts, hitting Anderson squarely in the chest.
As Kaiden watch Anderson fall, he raised his own weapon and returned fire on Wrex who fell in the distance.
"I knew if the Sarge died they'd blame me. That's why I took Taylor's dog tags."
Kaiden ran over to his black hat who was bleeding terribly. Anderson looked up at Kaiden as he exhaled his dying breath. Kaiden watched at the Sarge's eyes glaze over and his body go motionless.
PANAMA, SOUTH AMERICA
N7 TRAINING FACILITY
FORT MERCY MESS HALL
NOVEMBER 3rd 2184
0124 HOURS
"Wrex didn't die after all… he came after us with a vengeance. You know the rest," Kaiden finished.
Ashley spotted Lang approaching with the box Kaiden had mentioned earlier.
"How did you get Krios to go along with you switching the tags?" she asked as she approached Lang.
"Easy. I just gave him a choice. Either go along or I drop the dime on the drug scam."
"What about the bodies?" asked Shepard.
"The hurricane almost lifted me off the ground… but they're out there. Somewhere…"
Lang finishes his search as he removes a false bottom in the crate. Sure enough, the bottom is packed to the brim with red sand.
"It's there," reported Ashley, "just like you said."
Major Reeger approached Kaiden, "So you'll testify to all this?"
Kaiden nodded his head.
"I don't think you're getting any deals," stated Ashley.
Kaiden made eye contact with her, "I don't want any deals…"
Lang and Verner approached Kaiden and began to lead him out of the mess hall but not before Kaiden stopped before Shepard.
"We should have died out there with the others… Did you get what you wanted?"
Shepard shook his head and drifting his eyes to the floor, "Not even close…"
A look of confusion was ever so present of Kaiden's face for the briefest of seconds before it disappeared completely and the young private continued to walk from the room.
As the three remaining personnel watched Kaiden be removed from the room, Udina sighed and checked his watch. He gave Shepard a disturbing glance before heading to his office.
Shepard sat there for a moment perplexed, as if he was about to do something he really didn't want to. Ashley noticed this but he held up his hand, preemptively silencing her before following Colonel Udina to his office.
He knocked once on Udina's door.
"Come," replied a voice on the other side.
Shepard opened the door, "Permission to come in?"
Udina chuckled and retrieved two glasses and a bottle of whiskey from his desk.
"There's just one thing I wanted to ask you," Shepard said as he entered.
Shepard was about to sit down when his comm began to ring.
"This is Shepard… okay… yes, thank you," he said to an unknown person on the other line.
Shepard sat down.
"The kid said that Anderson was going to wait until the end of the week to tell the colonel. Now why would he wait to tell you? That doesn't sound like the Anderson we knew."
Udina watched Shepard take a swig of his whiskey.
"Do you think the kid was lying?" Udina asked.
Shepard shuddered from the drink, "No, I don't."
His eyes rose to meet Udina's.
"I think you are," Shepard added.
"What?" Udina chocked out as he nearly spills his drink.
"I do… I think you're lying. I think that Anderson came to you and…"
"And?"
"And I think you told Wrex and Krios to kill him."
Udina laughed loudly.
"What? Are you serious right now?" Udina managed to utter in between his laughs, "what did I do, go and poison Krios?"
Shepard's face got serious, "Who said anything about poisoned?"
Udina was silent for a moment before laughing once again.
"What?"
"I just found out. The hospital found out three minutes ago I was just on the phone with a pathologist."
"He was puking up blood… all over the hospital," said Udina as he continued to laugh, "I'm mean, a gunshot and child birth didn't seem to fit so I took a wild-ass fucking guess."
Shepard took a swig from his whiskey and began to laugh along with Udina.
"Was that really the pathologist?"
"No," Shepard said as he paused to catch his breath before resuming his laughing, "that was my message service!"
"Even if it was, does that prove anything?"
"Yeah," Shepard suddenly got serious. His face went from laughing uncontrollably to instant seriousness in less time it takes for a cell to divide, "But you're forgetting I don't have to."
"Have to what?"
"I don't have to prove anything because… because it's not my job," Shepard stated. Although his face was serious his tone was not. His tone suggested that he was horsing around with Udina.
"I just- I just have to get you to the real guys," Shepard said as he rose to leave.
Just before he reached the door Udina stopped him with the words Shepard was hoping not to have to hear. The ones that would completely damn his friend if Shepard ever heard them uttered.
"One third," Udina said with a flat face.
Shepard stopped and turned around leaning up against the wall.
"Come on, John. You've never met a bribe you didn't like."
"Oh I see… You called me, so that just in case I stumbled upon something, you could buy me off."
"I'd be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind," Udina admitted.
Shepard grunted, "Hmm…"
"It's like I said, they were never going to make me a general anyway. This is about the quality of life."
Udina rose from his desk and looked Shepard from top to bottom.
"Jesus John, look at yourself. You've had a hell of a run with bad luck. Bounced out of the military, hanging by a thread in the SpecTres… at this rate you'll become a fucking process server."
Udina took a swig from his whiskey and sat back down.
"When you lose enough times what you become is a loser. Why don't you cut yourself a break for Christ sakes? 40 percent," Udina offered, "at least once I'm up and running again."
"Up and running again?" asked Shepard.
"This is just a hiccup… I can get another three or four months out of this gimmick before they close this place down."
Shepard's electric baby blue eyes met Udina's dark brown fiery ones. Each man held their gaze, not faltering in the slightest.
Finally it was Shepard who backed away, "Gee Donald…"
Shepard made a clicking sound with his tongue.
"I guess I'll have to think about that."
Shepard was about to leave when he heard the unmistakable sound of Udina priming a handgun.
BANG – BANG – BANG
The gunshots were followed by the sound of a body hit the floor.
A/N:
This is it. The second to last chapter of this story is finished and all that remains is the grand finally. Trust me, you won't see this coming! Or will you (twirls evil moustache and fixes evil monocle) Ha Ha HA!
So any questions go ahead and ask, it's not like I'm going to knee cap you or anything…