Author's Note: Just a short one today. Some background and more Shadow Brokery stuff.

Dossiers

Liara hadn't gotten much sleep lately. The last mission was a complete failure. She was starting to lose hope in the Shadow Broker operative, and was gaining hope in an indoctrinated sleeper agent. That thought didn't help. She had no idea where the Controlled forces were seemingly gone, and she strongly suspected they were building a Reaper somewhere.

And baby Synthia was keeping her parents up all night.

Liara had decided that she was naming her daughter after the Savior of the Galaxy. Regardless of what Shepard had to say about it.

But at least Tali and Miranda were able to get her some information.

She listened to Tali's information first.

"Liara," the message started, "sorry we're going to be late. Garrus didn't want to leave without me, and I've got this whole Xen thing to deal with. But I did what you asked. Your human agent, Clara I think? She seems to have taken up a kind of leadership role. There is that kind of… way she walks and talks, or doesn't talk as she seems like the quiet type, that reminds me of Shepard. That kind of fire that will get people to follow her into the mouth of hell. But she looks like she is under considerable stress. I don't know if she can take it. Then there is the turian. She worries me. She tried to kill two of our captives. Almost killed Xen before we could get any information out of her. The turian is dangerous. And as soon as I exile Xen, Garrus and I will head out. I've got to make sure everyone knows that crimes like this against the geth are crimes against the quarian people. Wish me luck."

Tali's message only confirmed with Liara suspected. The turian did turn out to be completely indoctrinated. But she suspects that it only happened after the events on Omega, which is equally concerning. The Controlled have a way of forcing indoctrination on people without any Reapers. Now she only has one indoctrinated on her side and she still doesn't know if it is a good thing or not.

The other message was from Miranda. It was a very formal looking message, probably copied straight from the Cerberus records with some commentary by the former operative.

"Olivia Murray. Born Eden Prime. Tech and stealth training. High proficiency in sniper rifles. Failed N7 Shadow training. Could be of use for Phantom program, lack of biotics could make this difficult," it read. Liara didn't know about the Shadow training. She just assumed that all N7 training was similar. Shepard doesn't like to talk about it. To Liara, it sounds like a sort of cult the way all N7 operatives don't talk about what happens there.

"Lost on-again off-again boyfriend on the SSV Chicago when it went down. Loss of arm. Potential recruit for Lazarus Project. Get Alliance Brass to discharge her from duty. Wait it out for a week or two, let her hit bottom before offering her a new position."

Liara scowled. She never liked Cerberus, but this was low, even for them. They were playing with the lives of wounded veterans to get recruits.

"Murray responded well to our initial offers. Recovery of Shepard's body has been successful. Recommend Murray placed in Lazarus Cell."

She was at least grateful that Clara had gotten something out of the deal, and she had helped Shepard out in some way or another. The following notes were from Miranda's personal files. Possibly more valuable than the Cerberus documents. Miranda always took detailed notes of just about everything so there was a lot to go through.

"Operative Murray reported on time for the evaluation. Other than the recent alcohol binges she appears in excellent condition. She'd be a prime candidate for the prototype implants. If successful we can use them in the Commander. The damage to Shepard is catastrophic. We need to start testing ASAP. I've ordered Murray to detox immediately. She didn't question the order. Some hope remains."

Liara choked back a sob when she remembered recovering the Commander's mostly dead body. She is still at a loss about how the Commander ever came back from that.

"Operative Murray has reported for duty. She has taken herself off alcohol completely. She says she did it cold turkey, fearing any more drugs would disqualify her from the study. Impressive, if true. Blood work sent to lab for work up. The candidate is promising; she is of similar age and physique to Commander Shepard. They even have the same general fighting style. Murray is even an N7, failed but she made it through all of it except the final test. When pressed her response to why was simply that she doesn't test well."

Liara looked over the medical notes from Miranda's tests. It looked like Clara didn't lie, and she did cold turkey off her drug of choice. The Shadow Broker jumped ahead a few pages to when Clara finally got her new arm.

"The graphs have taken rather well. Healing at the operation site has been faster than expected. Almost a 25% increase. Suspect that injuries to the implant will heal twice as quick as other bodily injuries. The operative doesn't complain of any pain, unsure if it is military machismo or actual lack of pain.

Murray reports full use of motor controls and feeling in her arm. The implants have taken quite well. Operative Murray is eager to get to physical therapy, but I have concerns about the healing process. I want to make sure the implants aren't going to tear themselves out before we are ready for the physical tests."

"Murray has been confined to bed rest for a day. She tore out some of her stitches trying to do push-ups while confined in her room. She managed almost two hundred before the stitches gave out. The implants preformed exceptionally well. Require further testing. Physical therapy will start tomorrow. Live combat training by the end of the week.

Murray is remarkably strong willed. She has done all of the physical therapy exercises twice while alone in her room, and then some things on top of it. The implants are performing much better than expected. She has been complaining of pain, but strongly suspect the pain is from her over exertion. Recommend implants start being tailored for Commander Shepard. Murray is seeing live fire tomorrow.

Live fire went better than expected. Murray has seen no loss in accuracy or strength. In fact we can assume marked improves over Alliance aptitude scores. Prototype considered successful. Murray ready for active duty."

The report ends with a large series of tests and numbers proving Miranda's notes correct. Clara, formerly Olivia Murray, had accepted the implants exceptionally well and managed to do just as well as could hope. So that Commander Shepard could live.

Liara felt like she should thank her for that. But she hopes that the will that Miranda noted, and so did Tali, would keep her from getting fully indoctrinated. She saw what happened with Kurana, the turian. She needed one more indoctrinated to keep the mission alive.

And Baht was starting to become a liability.

The whole mission was crumbling around her.

And she wasn't about to drag either Synthia into it. She would need to solve this herself, one way or the other.