I hadn't recovered from the ordeal at the warehouse yet, but this didn't stop Pallin from starting a holy inquisition to find where it all had screwed up, the first issue on the ballot being me.
"Tell me how Lieutenant Commander Dorn was killed, when all else were spared," the turian inquired as he made his rounds about me back at Talek's office in the SRD.
The Commander himself was sitting in on the questioning, his regular pensive look dominating his demeanor, although I saw several times in the last few hours his anger get stirred by the whole situation, and the mention of Dorn just now.
"I...don't know, I just stumbled upon him," I lied blatantly. There was no way to include all that had happened, from Kasumi to Benezia, without implicating myself in some way.
"Then explain your ability to stay conscious while your squad was rendered incapacitated. Maybe the respirator found close to Dorn's body?" Pallin prodded, his eyes narrowing at me.
"I...found that near the entrance," I responded slowly with the excuse I'd thought of earlier.
"And you didn't even think to let your fellow squad members of your discovery? Or even question its use as you put it on? Or warn them of a potential hazard?" the Executor asked, his voice beginning to rise.
"Executor, there was not enough time allotted to explain-" Talek tried to butt in, but the opposing turian cut him short.
"I don't care. This human may have cost us the entire operation simply because of his gross negligence," Pallin snapped back.
Okay, I had dealt with this guy enough, through a TV screen and now in real life, and although I was an incredibly passive person, everyone has their limit. I didn't care if he was the Executor, I knew what was at stake and he didn't, and that overrid any caution or timidity I felt in challenging him.
"What about the gas, huh? Why wasn't anyone prepared for that?" I said, twisting around in my seat and glaring at the Executor. This really pissed him off, as was apparent by the low growl he let out and the look of livid rage on his face as he approached me and looked about ready to backhand me. I might have been regretful and apprehensive of what was to come next if it wasn't the entire galaxy on the line.
I prepared for the assault, but instead the uncannily even voice of the Commander interjected, saying, "Special Operations gear is hard-sealed against known toxins, but this gas is a complete unknown, something we couldn't have prepared for."
This statement stopped Pallin in his tracks, why I don't know, maybe he was taken off guard by how tempered the Commander was given the situation, but this didn't last long as he turned on his subordinate, anger still coloring his expression as he gestured at me and said, "This is what I was speaking of, blatant subordination and lack of respect for protocols that likely cost us the mission. This is unacceptable!"
"Then, sir, if you believe this so strongly, you shouldn't have allowed him in the field in the first place," Talek replied in a calm but tense voice, his eyes flaring once again. The two stared at each other for a prolonged moment, both not giving ground, until Pallin let out a huff of air and said, " This matter is not concluded. We will address this issue later, but I have a report to present to the Council, so it'll have to wait. I expect you to continue to question the others involved and give me a full report of the results."
He turned quickly at this, giving me a scowl on the way out, then he was gone. The Commander sighed after a few seconds and rubbed his eyes, before clasping his hands on the table in front of him and looking at me inspectfully. "You did act negligently Derek, but out of no fault of your own, so I do not hold you accountable," he started. "But, without the Executor present, I want to hear the full story though, no exclusions," he said as he regarded me with an iron gaze.
My muscles felt weak at this, and I didn't know how to reply. What could I say, that a notorious criminal helped me to undermine an indoctrinated agent, who was in fact the Commander's XO, and was there for reasons unknown even to me? What about Benezia? Could I accuse her of being there without getting some sort of backlash?
Then it occurred to me, maybe if I did say she was there then some investigation could be started ahead of ME1 time, which might lead to her and Saren being taken down earlier, which meant the events of ME1 had a chance of not even happening! It was worth a shot.
"There was an asari there...she attacked me biotically after everyone else was out, but left when she heard reinforcements coming in. I think her name was Benezia," I told him in a tentative voice.
Talek perked up at this and frowned. "Benezia? I've heard of her before, she's a Matriarch in the Asari Republics. How do you know that name, and what proof do you have that it was her?" he asked as his frown deepened. Okay, I needed to tread lightly here.
"I...met her daughter on my way to the Citadel. She showed me a picture of her," I replied, hoping the half-truth would pass for whole. Talek examined me for a few whole seconds before replying, "Even if that were true, and I'm leaning towards it's not," he nodded at my startled look, "there is no concrete evidence she was there, or has any involvement in the Heralder's activities, unless you have some proof you are not revealing," he said, eying me. I shook my head, he nodding again and continuing, "I'm still wondering how you know that name, when most humans can't even look beyond the asari as sex symbols," he said giving a smirk, making me relax after he had found me out.
"I expect complete truth from my operatives, understood?" Talek said after a moment. I relaxed even further as I said, "Yes sir." There was an awkward pause before I decided to change the subject slightly and asked, "Was there nothing recovered at the scene?"
Talek shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. The whole area was cleaned out. Seems like they were forewarned."
"What about the thing?" I asked him, talking about what we had seen on the feeds before they went black. He picked up on my meaning, a strange distant look appearing on his face as he said, "No, nothing. Everyone except Lieutenant Commander Dorn was unharmed."
He seemed to grow somber with this and looked down. They must've been close, even though the Commander had, at least around me, berated him for being so casual. I felt sadness creeping up on me as well. He had been so open and inviting, already treating me as if I was part of the team, even after I had judged him. I was already hating the Reapers for corrupting him, and my determinedness had been all the more hardened.
"The service for him will be in a few days," I heard the Commander say. I looked up from my thoughts and saw he was looking back at me again.
"Who could've informed them we were coming?" I said, reverting back to our original conversation. I was angry we hadn't been able to get there in time to stop someone who was known to me as instrumental in helping Saren achieve his plan to help the Reapers. Not that I could say that.
Talek seem to stiffen at this inquiry as he replied, "Not your concern candidate. For now you are to proceed with your training as I try to keep the Executor off your back," he said with a small smile. I returned it, thinking of Pallin throwing a temper tantrum because of my presence at the SRD.
"I'm promoting Operative C'Den to acting squad leader until we can determine who to replace XO Dorn, so you will be reporting to her. You're dismissed."
I got up and saluted, then left and went to the cafeteria seeing it was lunch time, and in what felt like deja vu everyone turned to look at me as I sat down at what had become my usual spot next to Myrna, the squad giving me solemn looks and nods, excluding Killek of course.
There was no speaking for a good period until Teirla decided to pipe up saying, "So, I can safely assume the Commander is up to his neck in bureaucratic crap right now?" Larcks snickered at this, which seemed to break the ice as we all relaxed.
"Yep," I replied, giving the asari a grin. She shrugged back at me with a smirk on as she leaned back in her seat casually.
"Well, it seems like it'd suck to have Pallin as a boss, what with him constantly breathing down your neck."
"Yeah, and no one to share that burden with, now that Dorn's gone," I said, then instantly regretted it. Everyone turned to stare at me, making me look down and away from them and mutter a meek apology. I don't why, but I had the uncanny ability of saying the worst things at the worst times. No harm intended, but still causing it.
"You were probably the cause of his death in the first place human!" I heard Killek snarl as he slammed a fist into the table, causing everyone about to stop and look at the turian.
"Killek!" Teirla shouted as loud as him, grabbing his attention. Now there was nothing going on around us, all had stopped to watch the exchange.
The asari continued to stare at him intently, then said in a low but concrete voice, "Until we find the real reason for his death, I want no accusations, especially against this human who has a name. As Dorn's replacement for now, I'm keeping us together, and if you're threatening to tear us apart with your temper, I will tear you apart, and you know who will win one on one, got it?"
The two stared at each other tensely for several seconds, while everyone waited with bated breath for the next move, Larcks looking like he was ready to restrain Killek if necessary, Myrna in the same position with Teirla. The turian finally backed down and jumped up from his seat, rushing quickly out of the room while everyone looked on and my shoulders slumped in relief.
Turians just seemed to hate me, not counting the Commander, and maybe Garrus in the future. How was I going to go about convincing Killek that I wasn't who he thought I was? It was already apparent I sucked socially, much less with a hostile aliens, so it seemed I was at an impasse with him. I so desperately wanted to fit in and thrive here, this was supposed to be my dream world after all, but I was quickly learning this was not a fantasy trip.
"Derek, I know you didn't mean what you said like Killek thought, but you need to keep your mouth shut around him until you're taught a few moves to defend yourself," Teirla chided me, making me unearth out of my thoughts. She was wearing a smirk when I looked over at her, and I guessed what was coming next.
"Myrna will be teaching you CQC, while me and Larcks will go through everything else with you. We're going to make you an Adept, whether Pallin, or Killek, is on board or not," she said as she got up from her seat, the rest of the squad doing the same.
"Let's go candidate," Teirla stressed as she motioned me towards to the door. I jumped up hurriedly and followed, all four of us fitting in to the elevator before going to the fourth floor and then bypassing the range, going to another side room. This one though could be accessed straight from the range room, and was unlocked by a code from Teirla. The room brightened immediately when we stepped in, letting me see the arena was in a simple square shape and had a spartan appearance to it, having a padded mat spanning the whole room and a few racks against the back wall populated with what looked to be boxing gloves and some other sparring gear.
"He's all yours Myrna," Teirla said as she gestured to me with a devious smile. That wasn't good. She and Larcks stepped back off the mat and leaned against the wall like this was all a spectator sport as Myrna approached and stopped a few feet away from me, her black eyes tinted with silver examining me.
"Hands up," she said suddenly, speaking for the first time in front of me, a raspy edge to her feminine voice, similar to Thane's. I raised my clenched fists, and in a barely noticeable flash I found them swiftly swatted out of the way and her fist connecting with my exposed face, making me stagger backwards and see specks of black as pain consumed my vision. An involuntary gasp came out as my mind registered the impact of it all, and I realized something was out of place. My hand gingerly touched my nose, and found it slanted to the right out of its normal position, making me gasp again as just the slightest touch made me wince.
"Come here," Myrna commanded as I heard background chuckling from the two onlookers. I stepped towards her, expecting some sort of follow up blow, but instead she grabbed me by the shoulder, holding me in place, and then jerked left with her hand on my nose, righting it and making me exhale sharply.
"No hands, no defense," the drell said as she pushed me back roughly. She raised her fists again as an example, and this time I tried to offer some resistance when she jabbed at me, but was taken off guard as she decided to go with a left hook that slammed into my cheek, sending me staggering to the side. She didn't stop this time and let me recover, instead raining several different combos of punches down on me as I tried desperately to fend them off, failing miserably while ending up on the ground and flinching as she stepped towards me. Surprising to me she extended a hand and I cautiously took it, she lifting me swiftly to my feet and looking probingly into my eyes.
"You must learn to anticipate the enemy's attack and then be able to deflect them. Once you accomplish this, then none will be able to take advantage of you," she said, then thrust me away again, raising her fists another time.
She came at me with the same philosophy, throwing unpredictable punches, me hoping I'd be able to deflect them in time. Which most of the next half hour I didn't. Although this exercise was getting on my nerves, not to mention giving me bruises, I started to notice a basic pattern to her attacks and adjusted accordingly. She went through several different cycles of punches, shuffling them yes, but eventually she came back around to the same combination, and this time I was ready. By the third punch I knew what she was doing, and began to deflect her attacks readily.
"Good," she said, stopping after that last combo, "you're starting to adapt. Now, we'll add something more."
We once again arrayed ourselves into fighting stance, but now she unexpectedly lashed out with her left leg at the end of the cycle of blows, hitting me at the waist and bringing me to one knee. She swung out again, but with her other leg, connecting with my neck this time and making me face-plant.
"Alright, that's enough for one time. We'll need him standing for the rest," I heard Teirla say as I tasted blood. The next second I felt myself being lifted up, this time by the asari, and she smirked when she saw my pained expression.
"It's never personal Derek," she said as she applied a dose of medi-gel to my wounds, the cooling salve easing the pain of the wounds. I looked over to Myrna to see if she shared the same sentiment, but I should've learned by now that her kind could be emotionless as an elcor with their expressions. "Come on, we'll do something a bit less bruising, hmm?" Teirla assured.
The rest of the day was spent getting me accustomed to the tech of the future, which I was more than happy to learn about. Larcks, with his barely followable talking pace, delved into the ins and outs of omni-tools, showing me different ways to maximize even my standard-grade omni's potential by bypassing protocols set in place by the manufacturer and overclocking the core inside to be up to the processing power needed to help an Adept in the field with their biotic potential.
"So I'm sure the Commander told you it's all in the mind when it comes to biotics. Well, yes it is, but having the technical advantage might decide if you get screwed over or not," the salarian said coarsely as he was bent over my omni cuff that I had taken off. We were in the Division's workshop, where all the "genius" happened as the tech savvy salarian phrased it. He was doing something similar to soldering on it while I looked on and listened in to his lecture.
"Well, that's the best I can do for it as of now, but there's only so much you can do with these things," he said with something similar to a sniff of disdain as he weighed the cuff in his hands. "Should be able to get you an implant one once you're a full-fledged Adept, but I'll show you how to optimize any platform to out perform the enemy," he said with a tricky grin.
It was actually pretty simplistic; a few lines of code bypassed the factory settings on the omni-tool and allowed Larcks to jury rig the system to run a military grade program that heightened the ability of a biotic to react faster and channel more of the destructive force, although at the cost of greater fatigue later.
"Unless you're going up against a Blue Suns commander and his team by yourself, and you won't, there should be no need for concern," the salarian said dismissively as he handed the cuff back to me. His eyes suddenly went narrow as he looked at me. "You've been examining me human. Why?"
Crap, I'd finally been caught staring at the salarian's immense amount of tattoos, trying to decipher what the heck they meant. The truth seemed to have served me well so far, so I just went with that.
"Sorry, I uh was just wondering what those meant," I said, pointing to one of the tats arrayed on his face.
His hardened gaze softened slightly after a moment as he responded, "It's a mixture of things. Technical jargon, proverbs, wise sayings. I believe I even have a quote from your revered Gandhi," he said, revealing an inscription that coiled around his arm I didn't recognize.
"It says: 'The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.' So, every time I extend my arm, I see that saying and am reminded what I'm here for." He let down his sleeve and gave a genuine smile. "If one of your race can be so thought provoking, I think I can give the benefit of the doubt to the rest."
I found myself warming up to this salarian and was grateful for his favor, so I found myself compulsively offering my hand to him, and although he didn't seem to understand at first he caught on quickly and shook it firmly with his three fingered hand in the age old symbol of agreement. We left the grip after a moment and went back to everything omni-tool until a beep resounded from the salarian's own, making him look down and examine the notice.
"Teirla has suggested we go a round in the simulator, the whole team, you included," the salarian said, looking up at me for a response. I had no qualms against doing it, in fact I was looking forward to it after the other match, I was just hoping Killek wouldn't find an opportunity to shoot me in the back if he got the chance. "Don't worry, Killek will take out his anger on the holos, it's his way of venting," the salarian assured me nonchalantly as he put down his tools. "Oh, and he won't cross Teirla either."
"So what's he fighting for?" I asked, thinking of Larcks's earlier sentiment and genuinely wanting into know. The salarian chuckled at this and looked amused as he crossed his arms.
"We don't know. Turians have an issue created by their society, the problem of employment. They go off for a year or two to fulfill their required time in the military, and once they're out again someone has taken their place at their former work, leaving them with no purpose or heading. Very flawed system, something us salarians don't have the lifespan for," Larcks remarked.
That didn't explain the turian's blatant racism towards me and my kind, but it was a question that would have to wait till later as the tatted salarian sprung himself off the table he was leaning on and asked, "Ready?"
I nodded, and we made our way back to the practice area and to the staging room, where the rest of the squad was gathered and was already suiting up, but this time in full combat gear.
"Derek, I've laid out your armor's components over there. See how fast you can get it on," Teirla said with a challenging smile.
I looked over and saw on the bench opposite of her lay the pieces of the armor. And wait- it wasn't the same as the other day, it was actual human armor by the look of it. I glanced back at the asari who was smirking at my reaction as she commented, "The Commander thought you could use some proper protection as you train. On loan from the C-Sec Academy. Not as good as our gear, but I think you'll find it a bit more fitting than that lanky turian armor."
Killek snorted at this as he was getting his things assembled, but I payed it no heed as I eagerly inspected the armor components in front of me made specifically for my race, which attached some sort of significance to it in my mind. The different parts of it were made of more malleable stuff than the turian suit had been comprised of, but the main aspects of it still formed a hard shell around me, with the different pieces of the outer hardsuit armor being attached around a flexible undergarment. I still had to be reminded a bit how to attach certain parts of it, Larcks coming over to help, but got it on eventually in what felt like record time, finally snapping on the helmet as Teirla briefed me on the specifics as a HUD display sprung to life in the visor.
"You have an in-suit VI, that, once all components are connected, regulates everything from temperature to shields and comms," I heard the asari's muffled voice say as I looked at her through the visor.
"Now, tell the VI to tune to SRD channel 3.5," Teirla told me as she clicked on her helmet. I did so, and a second later I heard the crackle of radio static, then the clear voice of the squad leader as she said, "Good, now you're patched in to all four of us. Once we're fully suited up we will go by call signs only. Got any questions?"
"Uh, how do asari hear?" I asked, curious to know about something that had been devoid from the Codex. I heard Larcks give a faint snicker over the comms, while Killek and Teirla sighed almost in unison as the asari replied in an exasperated voice, "Sound waves, how do you think?"
"Don't take an offense to her Pilgrim, she just hates explaining it to every human she come into contact with," Larcks replied with some jesting in his voice.
"Like she needs to explain anything to a degenerate race like his," Killek muttered back.
We went silent at this, until Myrna spoke up with, "Specialized pores where the human ear canal should be."
"Thanks Myr," Teirla said in a flat voice as she moved to the door of the simulator area. We all followed, and once we gathered around she explained the differences between the scenario me and Dorn had run compared to what we were up for. It was going to be a hostage situation, hostiles colored in red and captives in blue.
"Pilgrim, since you haven't received assault rifle training yet, you will acting as our spotter and sniper, and-" Teirla interjected as Killek scoffed, "if any have objections, take it up with the Commander." This silenced the disgruntled turian as Teirla listed off the rest of the squad's positions.
"Pranas," which was Larcks, "with me. Executor," seemed liked something Killek would call himself, "with Siha."
Didn't know the significance attached to that word by the drell, but she seemed to wear it well. We walked out to red line as before, Teirla indicating the area where she wanted me to set up, then the familiar bell dinged, and Maw Squad sprung off the starting line, instantly dashing for their respective positions. Luckily my rooftop and the corresponding staircase was straight in front of me, allowing me to ascend with no problems and get into a prone position to survey the area.
"Pilgrim, report," Teirla commanded after a few seconds. I looked down the sight, which had a remarkable range of a 1000 meters, and took stock of the situation. First, I noticed the not so subtle difference that the buildings had been completely rearranged, changing my view of the whole arena and where I thought things should be situated. The second was hostile holograms had been placed scattered all across the room with no pattern it seemed, and there were probably more inside where I couldn't see. Several sentinels also stood watch on other rooftops, patrolling back and forth in what looked like predetermined paths. These enemies I deduced to be the biggest threat, and so decided to take the initiative and spoke into the comm, "Several lookouts patrolling the rooftops. Permission to eliminate?"
"No, wait until we get to each of the buildings. Don't want to forewarn them," Teirla replied as I saw her and Larcks approach the first building on one side, while the two others advanced through a circuitous route.
"Sitrep on the first objective," Myrna requested from hers and Killek's position on the opposite side of the structure. I scoped their position, and saw they were poised to take the place with two stories from behind, the hostage in blue on their knees in the second floor with several guards acting as lookouts at the windows.
"You've got guards clustered on the top floor with a hostage," I relayed to them. "Permission to take out?"
"Take- out? Is my translator messing up?" Killek questioned with a mutter.
"Uh- I meant terminate them," I replied quickly.
"Wait until we breach," Myrna told me quietly, as if she would alert the holos to their presence if they spoke up louder. They reached the building opposite of the hostage house and paused.
"On my mark," Teirla said from her and Larcks position. I waited with bated breath and sweaty hands for the crucial command.
"Execute!" came the order, and the two teams rushed the building, smashing the doors and gaining the immediate attention of at least the visible holos on the second floor. The second they turned I sighted one down and fired, taking it down easily, but having to adjust quickly as the other caught on and got off a stray shot at my general position, catching me off guard and messing up my aim, making my brain fly in several different directions as I tried to adjust, oddly stirring up in my mind the now age-old adage slow is smooth, smooth is fast. This strangely brought a measure of calm to my senses as I settled down and honed in on the second holo, dissipating it with another crack of my rifle.
"Hostiles cleared on first floor, advancing to the second," Teirla informed. I switched my scope to thermal as Dorn had shown me, and saw four blurry figures of heat steadily ascending the stairs and advancing to the room with the two holos. I had already taken them out, so it should be an easy rescue...
But wait, as I switched back to regular vision, I saw as the team breached the door a third red holo had produced itself and had walked behind the "hostage" with a virtual gun brandished against its head. I swore at myself for being so careless, trying desperately to hone in on the thing before it was too late. The problem was it was, as I saw the team breach the door and come upon the two holos, the standing red one with an electronic zap fired into the kneeling blue projection, causing it to dissipate and a synthetic voice to declare, "Hostage Simulation failed."
The remaining holograms vanished as I heard Killek growl in frustration and Larcks sigh. I expected an angry outburst by Teirla, but she simply ordered everyone back to the starting line, me arriving before everyone else, my heart sinking as I saw them walk up. They gathered around me in a circle as I expected a tirade of angered questions, but only Teirla spoke up asking, "So, what did you do wrong Pilgrim?" She knew the answer, but she wanted me to admit it.
"I didn't see the third hologram," I replied in a low voice.
"No, you could've seen him if you had properly scanned the whole area. Long range warfare is all about perceiving the environment thoroughly and acting in sync with it. But, since we are an outfit specializing in close combat, I believe we can let it slide this once. I just wanted to test your perception skills."
I could hear the grin in her voice as she said this, although if it was because she predicted the exasperated growl that came next from Killek, I don't know.
"Additionally, you have yet to be trained with assault rifles, so we'll save all this for tomorrow. Everyone's dismissed," she said, then began walking back to the staging room, everyone following suit.
Once we were back and done undressing from our respective armors, Teirla met me at the door to the hallway, an odd look of complete composure combined with a flat, indifferent expression that I'd come to expect from her displayed across her face. "I'm thinking about starting around ten o' clock tomorrow. I'm a little more lax than the Commander, and I know once in a while you have to get a full night's rest to recharge."
She leaned up against the doorpost and gave a hint of a mischievous smile. "Then again, you could come out with us tonight. We'll be going to the Starlux bar, it's the place SRD grunts like us tend to frequent."
Despite the prospect of hanging out with my future squad being a very appealing one, several things dissuaded me, one being my lack of sleep which Teirla so poignantly pointed out, two was my distaste for anything alcoholic, seeing that I'd acted like an idiot the one time I had drank (plus, liquor tastes like crap, and I had no desire to go near it if it was that way and it made me act like a moron). Three and probably most glaring reason was my apprehensiveness in being in an all-night group social situation. Odd as that sounds, I hadn't taken part in really any type of group interaction since the one party I'd gone to my sophomore year in high school, and I left it feeling so awkward and alienated I never even felt the desire to go to another one, or take part in anything that put pressure on me to perform or be out of my comfort zone. So, with all this in mind I replied, "Uh, I think I'll go get some sleep," in the most awkward voice possible, which I cursed myself inwardly for.
Teirla didn't seemed to mind though as she nodded and said, "Okay, but don't plan on giving us the cold shoulder too often, alright?"
She gave me an oddly knowing smile before departing with the rest of the squad, who gave me spanning from a wink by Larcks to an expressionless nod from Myrna and a scowl from Killek. I was left alone in the arena, and began walking out a moment later, ruminating on all the developments of the past few days.
It had only been the night before that I had come face-to-face with arguably the second most notorious and lethal villain of the Reapers at this time, and I survived in some miracle way, probably because she delegated the job of killing me to one of her thralls as she went on about her business.
His name was Dorn, Derek, I was reminded by the thought. I didn't mean to be insensitive to his death, far from it, I was just so used to the concept already of mindless husks doing the Reaper's bidding and Shepard's continued dealing with such figures. After a while, especially if you played the complete trilogy, it becomes almost second nature to see cases like the batarian's, and sometimes it felt like I was living through those experiences again instead of dealing with actual people having their wills stripped from them and being made slaves. The thought was terrifying that this was actually reality, and could even happen to me if I wasn't careful. I couldn't hide behind a TV screen anymore, this was actual life, repercussions included.
I arrived back at my room, it reminding me as I stepped in of my dwindling reserve of credits keeping me here, when a familiar voice spoke out giving me the scare of a lifetime saying, "Hey friend, got something for you."
I let out a string of oaths, my biotics even flaring for a moment as I faced the intruder, seeing Kasumi garbed in her Mass Effect style hooded suit and lounging casually on my bed with a comical smirk directed towards me.
"Why do you do that?" I asked her, my voice heated, but really more curious than angrily.
"Oh, no reason, just gives me some entertainment in an otherwise boring life," she said, her smirk turning into a grin as she hopped off the bed with a spring and approached me.
"Not why I'm here though. Wanted to give you something, may give you a leg up in incriminating that asari Matriarch you duked it out with in the warehouse," she said, tapping a few keys on her omni-tool, a moment later a beep emanating from my tool, making me look down and see she had given me an audio file.
Without words I played it, the Matriarch's unsettling voice coming across crystal clear. Kasumi had recorded the whole encounter between me, the asari, and Dorn. After the recording was finished, I looked back up at my unexpected rescuer and simply asked, "Why?"
Kasumi looked down for a moment as she fiddled with her thumbs, as if she was debating what to say next.
"My employer wants to go through...less than direct channels with this info, things that can't be traced back to him. So, you're the lucky recipient," she said as she plopped back down on my bed and criss-crossed her legs.
I had a million and one questions to ask her, but I decided to stick with one of the most obvious ones.
"So what were you doing there in the first place?" I asked, referencing the warehouse.
"Sorry, worker's confidentiality agreement," the thief replied rather quickly, her expression veiled by her hood. "All you need to know is you'll be doing my hiree a great service by exposing that crazy Matriarch and her involvement with the Heralder."
I was starting to get the feeling by now that this Heralder character was Saren himself, judging by all that had been witnessed back at the warehouse, but that info would have to wait for another time, when actual proof emerged. For now, the thought that there was the possibility of prematurely putting the Matriarch away and putting a wrench in Saren's plans took the fore of my mind. The possibility of actually preventing all the death and slaughter that was surely to come with the revealing of Sovereign and the Reapers made my heart lift for a moment, but then sank again when reality set in.
"How am I supposed to relay this info?" I asked, doubt tinging my voice.
"Tell your superior officer?" Kasumi said, her voice saying, come on now, you couldn't have figured that out? She must've seen my expression though, as her voice softened as she continued, "Act like you didn't know the file was there- like you weren't familiar with that setting. Which I'm guessing you're not," she said in a knowing voice. I nodded along with this; not like it wasn't the truth.
"Cool," the hooded woman said as she jumped up, "guess my job here is done." She began walking towards the door, already activating her cloaking program, but I couldn't let her go without saying something of note to a future member of Shepard's team, not to mention she had saved my life.
"Hey!" I said, stopping her shimmering silhouette. I racked my brain for words and finally said softly, "Thank you, for helping me."
"Not a problem accomplice, just returning the favor. Who knows, maybe you'll get a call from me again sometime," she said cryptically before bounding out the door, it slamming behind her.
I thought about how potentially ironic that statement was as I got ready to collapse on my bed from sheer exhaustion from all that had happened. My heart was already beating in anticipation of what I needed to do tomorrow, but was trumped by the drowsiness pulling on the edge of my eyes, so without further ado and a disregard for my dirty body I climbed into bed and swiftly surrendered to sleep.