Author's Note: Short Chapter, but hopefully Interesting. Stay Tuned for More.
The Humbling River
X
A flash of blue static appeared in front of the Illusive Man. He sat in a simple two legged chair, a shot of scotch in one hand, and a smoking cigarette in the other, an ash tray underneath. The blue static dissipated and a well built human female, with shoulder length hair, and wearing a skin-tight Cerberus outfit, hexagonal patterns imprinted all over it. It was Miranda Lawson, also known as the Illusive Man's pet, and the commander of the Lazarus cell. And she did not appear very pleased.
"Miranda," the Illusive man simply stated, raising his glass in acknowledgement, then finishing it off, "What have you got to tell me?"
"The mission objectives were succeeded, but there were, and are, complications," she said hesitantly.
The Illusive man was silent, but unfazed, "Complications? Elaborate."
"Well lets prioritize things. In relation to our primary mission of stopping the Collectors, its possible we may lose a team mate. Vakarian was injured, his arm, blown off in combat, but we can easily replace his arm, so long as he doesn't die from the blood loss. But the Doctor..."
The Illusive Man sighed with distaste then took a draw of his cigarette, "What the hell exactly happened down there, Miranda?"
"Shepard isn't telling me everything. All he said is that he engaged hostiles, he said that they were Collectors, and they got away with the colonists. But I know he's lying, one because I can plain tell, the Commander being easy to read, and second, because I saw images of a Collector ship, the one that killed Commander Shepard, downed and wrecked on the planet. Mordin Solus was exposed to third degree burns, and lost a lot of blood as well."
The Illusive man absorbed this information, then said, "And you were not privy to any of the mission comms at all? How do you not know what happened?"
"Well, Shepard cut me off from his Comm, set it only able to contact Moreau, until he needed me to alert Chakwas. I had no knowledge of what was going on. I was working in my office, when I heard that Vakarian and Solus were being brought to the medical bay in intensive care."
The Illusive man paused once again and said, "He still doesn't trust us."
"No, sir."
"Which means we will have to find out ourselves what just happened down there."
"Yes, sir."
The Illusive man sighed, "With the Collector ship down, we now have some downtime. I would assume that they have other ships but, it would be also safe to assume that they will be on the defensive now. This new enemy, one that can take out Collectors, is our new priority."
"Understood, sir."
"Very good, stand by for new orders. If Shepard proves unreliable, we may have to take steps to ensure he can't cause any trouble for us."
"Also understood, sir."
"Good, you are dismissed. Inform me by E-mail of what becomes of the Turian and the Doctor."
Miranda fizzed out and left.
The Illusive Man frowned. Then he got up and turned to his many screens, flashing with countless threads of information. He manipulated some interface buttons and said, "Contact , Operative Leng."
A loading screen appeared for a few seconds then a dark, foreboding voice sounded out, "Operative Leng Reporting. Ready for orders, sir."
"Take a task force to this coordinates, on the Bedouin system. I'll fill you on the way there."
"As you command."