Chapter 25
Zakera Ward, The Citadel, August 2168
"Yes, James, take him to the location without me. I've got some things that need doing here." He said into his tool.
"What about the Intelligence Office agents?"
"What about them? I don't have to notify them of my movements. Right now I'm practically doing their job for them."
"Technically we do, though. Right?"
"Yes, though I choose to ignore certain laws in favor of stopping others from breaking larger ones. It's like the laws on legal speed limits."
"Point taken. I'll take Charlie John to the place. Want him to bring the other generator?"
"I packed four of them. I assume you'll need them. Get them set up, and then get back to me using the long route. Make sure to take a dip in some ions to get rid of whatever bugs may have been attached to the hull while we've been parked here. I am sure C-sec would love to take a closer look at our Quarian made vessel."
He did like his Yacht. Quarians made things so nicely. The entire shape of the vessel was like a smaller version of a Quarian heavy frigate, with a large section in front that was shaped like a standing circular object. Behind it was a more human shaped part of the vessel, with four wings that came out of the back of the circle. Settled at thirty degrees off of the flat plane, it looked like a large elegant ship with rounded edges and blade like wings. It was also armed, but only lightly. The spots on the frame where heavier weapons could be mounted were still empty. Those would come later. Either way, it was faster than anything that could be produced by Humanity or the Turians. Asari made engines were mounted on this, with a Quarian designed Element Zero core. Batarian designed firing controls, with Elcor gravity generators. Expensive, but done faster than any human shipyard would have done it. More importantly, there were no standardization rules to worry about. It allowed for some levels of customization.
The Quarians even offered him some shield emitters, but he only got the basic ones. In five years, when the Prothean shield emitters would be translated and reverse engineered, he would replace them. The Asari would introduce them as their own design, of course. The new ship had a wonderful name.
He had threatened to name it Enterprise, but the Alliance Council of Communications, who were in charge of naming of ships, had told him no. So, instead, he had it named the Acheron instead. Naming his yacht after the river to the Underworld was rather audacious, but very much his style. He couldn't wait to throw parties on board, where Jones couldn't intervene. He had some partners to pay back and plenty of debt to work off.
As for the crew, it was limited to one Quarian on their pilgrimage, Amandeep, and James. Getting security forces on board wasn't hard, but finding ones that checked out with the legal rules that weren't on the dime of the Intelligence Office was nearly impossible. Eventually he could make one out of regular rental security teams, and from there build his own. But then again he preferred the stronger type of muscle. Strong, intelligent, and somewhat loyal. Loyal enough for him to hire them, at least. Truly loyal people stayed with their first client and never left. People with that kind of honor were in short supply.
Hannah marched back into the room, carrying another data pad. She had left a few minutes ago, going to gather some information where Jack 'couldn't possibly interfere.' When she came back in, she was wearing her regular armor, instead of the shapeless jumpsuit. That at least meant there would be some sort of actions on her part.
"I found someone with the most interesting alias. Once we ran it through our electronics group, we found a nice hit. You were right on with the Eclipse contracts. They've got some big names in there. Funny enough, the Reds only have contracts on escort duty heading into the Terminus."
"Any humans on the Eclipse client list?"
"Oh yeah. One especially that you might be interested in." She opened the data pad and showed him a name and a picture. Zachary Elias. Strangely, the picture seemed off. "The picture is a fake. Whoever he is, he can get as many passports from the Alliance as he wants. We've found a staff list of over two hundred for his estate, which is located right on the-"
"Kiakin Bluff." Jack finished. "I know exactly who this is." Of course, it would be hard to explain that he only knew it because of a small Japanese thief. "This is not someone you can go after yet. If you expose him, then we will all pay overall."
"Is he someone you owe money to? I've heard that is quite a list." Hannah ribbed. "But seriously, who is he that we aren't allowed to take him out?"
"Majority Leader and Chairman of the Naval Committee, as well as one of the advisors for Anita Goyle in her position as Alliance Ambassador." Jack opened up the ExtraPedia page for the man in question. "I give you Donovan Hock, corrupt to the very depth of his soul and my chief creditor."
"So, you won't help me because you owe him money?" Hannah gave him a curious look, nearly incredulous. "I would think you would be more willing to help me get rid of a debt!"
"To get rid of Donovan, you have to expose his problems at home. He's too ingrained into his position, and as a Majority Leader he has connections all over the administration. Even though he is the opposite party. Hock also has the dubious record of being a pacifist. His liberal tendencies have supposedly calmed down decades of war in South Africa, the country he represents in the Alliance. Removing him would be extremely harmful."
"Well, what can we do to expose him?" she asked. "If he has that kind of immunity could we convince someone to oppose him?"
"Sadly, they got assassinated a couple years ago. Replacing him from delegates from South Africa is impossible. Anyone that gets too loud takes a forced retirement. So, trying to replace him from within is not an option. Creating a scandal, however, is well within your possibilities. Enough scandal that personally implicates Hock and he will be removed from the Naval committee."
Thinking back, he considered what had gotten Hock sacked in the first place. It was something about fraud. It took years to resolve, and by the time Hock had been removed from power he had settled comfortably into Citadel Space. Hardly anything was a disadvantage for him. Unless they could find some way of exposing him somehow, there would be just more trouble over the territory. Hock would only benefit from further angst between the Alliance and the Hegemony if the humans rioted during the diplomatic talks.
So, how to do this? "I've got something that might help."
"Like what?"
"Got any way of placing evidence?"
"We can always get sloppy at a murder site. What kind of evidence do you have?"
Jack grinned. "A few years ago Donovan decided to have me throw a party in his honor, after I had borrowed heavily from him. Considering how much money I owed him, this was a fine way of paying it back, and allowing him to network with my richer colleagues and partners. I still owe him some money, so I can get away with inviting him to a party here on the Citadel. From there, we can try to get him framed."
"Well, Alexei would prefer that you hired help through him, but that might just highlight your connections. How do you plan on convincing him to come?"
"I'll create a guest list that he can't refuse."
"So how does that get him to our crime scene?"
"Simple. You bring a squad to attack my party. You beat down whatever rental security forces we have on hand and you try to kill him. If you fail or succeed, you'll be doing the world a favor. I'll release some information on the extranet to bring some scrutiny upon him, and as long as you release anything that connects your gang problem to him, there will have to be an investigation by the government. Or at least there should be. He might just pay to have it covered up."
"But, it's progress." Hannah said. "When is this party going to happen? We will need a few hours notice."
"I'll give you a few days. Expect some Alliance Intelligence Agents on site." Jack told her, standing up. He brushed off his coat, finding many pieces of lint and other unknown pieces of fabric from the chair. "I'll have you know, the poor service here is being added to your tab."
Hannah chortled. "I'll pay you back for some things, Jack, but not everything."
"So, what, the shuttle rides? Or perhaps the back pay I shorted you?"
"I'll cover you for the bits i've bled over, and that's that." She said, smirking.
"If you're going to pay that back, get your old face back for that. You looked much better as a redhead."
She rolled her eyes. "Get out of the brothel, Jack. You'll see me soon."
The Presidium, The Citadel, September 2168
The Ritz-Carlton had just recently been opened on the Citadel. Real wood paneling, rich red rugs all across the floor. Taking up more than two hundred thousand square feet of space, the hotel had been built on top of a large set of housing units built into the side of the Presidium, so it shared some of the space on the first part of the Zakera Ward, and had some Presidium space. Jack could applaud the man who pulled off the genius move, Johann Gordon-Ritz. The affluent owner of the hotel chain had come out of nowhere and surprised everyone by buying out prime pieces of real estate on the citadel, in exchange for some property in Europe and the North American States, as well as a heap of money.
He was going to make all of that back, and more. He had this massive property for the next two hundred years on a lease, and was for certain going to have enough to make sure his inheritor could afford to buy it out when the lease came up. But that would be long after his time. Jack admired his efforts, as he had taken only a couple of years to refurbish and create a purely human high quality hotel on the Citadel. Other groups had bought out cheaper locations, but Johann had gone the distance and created an extremely upper crust experience.
Naturally, Jack had to use it. The ballroom seated a few hundred, and the dining staff supported any allergic response that any race would suffer from. Jack didn't have to deal with complications like food and drink. Security was handled by some Alliance SuperPAC funded group, highly rated and deemed very trustworthy.
Johann's hotel manager was all too happy to host such an amazing party, and the invitations went out to all of the right people. Anita Goyle, Alliance President Shwartz, some of his cabinet, along with some of their largest supporters. Their largest donors and sycophants were in attendance, and Jack was only too happy to give them their own room. He reserved another set of rooms for the buffet hall, and there were a couple of small rooms for other meetings.
Donovan Hock and Henry Lawson were invited. Todd Hisloppwas, along with most of his board of directors. Julia and Miranda had asked to come, but he had told them that it was out of the question. With people like Benezia and the current standing Council invited, he knew it was going to get dangerous. He didn't want them exposed to the violence, at least not yet. For alibi's sake, he had made sure that his new yacht was not on The Citadel.
"Any luck yet, Charles?" He asked across the office, where four haptic screens had been set up by the young Engineer.
"I don't think you understand how monumentally time-consuming it is going to be to even try to write any code or rewrite code for this. It's like the Protheans would write code in with some sort of compiler, and then cut out all of the basic programming required to compile new code. Hell, I even need to write something to link data files. They don't use pointers or linkers either, like the entire system is meant to be as restrictive as possible!" Charles hadn't slept much since meeting Vigil, it seemed. "I need to create a compiler in Prothean binary, so that we can access the logical process faults in the same language, and then write who knows what other programs just to let the VI think for itself. If I ever meet whoever wrote this I swear I'll kill 'em!"
"Wouldn't it be better to just have them write it for you?" Jack asked hypothetically. "If they have all the experience of writing in Prothean code already."
"They're all dead anyways, though."
"So it is claimed. The Asari might have some population of Protheans that they are keeping from the rest of the galaxy, but for all intents and purposes the Protheans will not be remaking their empire anytime soon."
"Have you been trying to find out if the Asari do have hidden populations?"
"Among other things, the Asari are the most powerful race in the galaxy, and would like to stay that way. In the past, when a race has done something outside of their purview, they take it personally and that race gets removed from civilized society. Especially if that race has the capactiy to be better than them." Jack grinned. "Quarian products are hitting the market again after three hundred years. Asari have banned them from their space, for fear of them replacing their own products. Humanity likes them well enough, as do the Batarians. The Turians are pragmatic enough to buy them, but traditional enough to let the Asari ban the products from their area of space. Salarians are just going to follow after their political masters, while stealing all of the well thought out parts of the technology."
"So, they feel threatened by us too?"
"As long as you can give me a Prothean AI, then their fears will be hidden behind awe for a short while. Enough to possibly shake up the status quo so badly that it will need to be rebuilt from the ground up." Jack noticed a small message left on his account he had created to intercept his children's activities. Julia and Miranda have decided to sneak into your party. Their absence was noted fifteen minutes ago and the security in the hangar noticed that one of the shuttles is missing. They had help, most certainly. "New fire, Charles. My daughters have escaped from Tartarus. They convinced someone to help them escape, and I think Julia has seen me type in my password too many times."
"How many times would that be?" Charles asked, honestly curious. It was rare that Jack turned the topic to what his kids could do.
"Only once. Her memory is extremely good, and she has been suspicious of me lately as it is. I have to find them before this party starts in a few hours. Which reminds me, you shouldn't leave the yacht. Stay here unless I specifically say otherwise."
"Don't have to tell me twice. Your party sounds like a bunch of snobby people all talking and threatening one another. No thanks."
Tracking devices for Julia and Miranda showed that they were still in the Sol system, but had gotten on a shuttle or something headed for the relay. Some of the devices were left back on Tartarus, but they still had their Omni-tools. They gave off bursts of data when they looked up anything on the extranet or sent any messages.
More complications. Wonderful. His door alarm chimed, and automatically the haptic interfaces purges themselves of any relevant data. Charles took that as a sign that he could go take a nap, standing up and walking towards the door as it opened to let in Major Jones. Who was wearing something besides her uniform for once. She wasn't what you could call brutish, but her arms seemed a bit off, almost too rounded.
Her dress was very traditional, very modest. It had some sleeves and a coat, but her arms just seemed off. "Cybernetics?" He asked as she walked in.
"Long story, and no, Jack, I won't explain it. I just barely got off of cleanup for that mess in Sidon when I heard that you were throwing some party and inviting VIP's of every race. Including Batarians."
"They compromised with us on colonization rights. I figure it would be at least cordial to try to foster some goodwill between our races."
"To have some of them in the same room as the President? The Council? Did you invite the Hegemon, too?"
"Of course not. I am not one of the Rak'skal. I don't have the right to request anything of his Emenence." He said mockingly. For Batarians, unless you were one step below the Hegemon in the hierarchy, you couldn't even speak to him. The Rak'skal were his inner circle, those he felt were either too dangerous to go unnoticed or too important were there. He kept a close eye on them, as they were the likely people to try to dethrone him. Strange how that society clustered all of their most powerful people into one area. While it centralized government and kept things together in the event of a coup, it also made the chance that one could kill all of the others very high. Best of all, it was almost a tradition to do it.
"You'll be happy to know that my office is sending fourteen agents to secure this 'party' of yours. I'll need invitations and security clearances."
Jack shrugged. "I'm not in charge of security. You'll have to talk to the hotel for that. As for invitations, I can justify you, as well as one date. I planned for that much. The President has his own security, also coordinated through the hotel, and C-sec has their own contingent in place. If your office hasn't been selected for security by the administration, then I can only justify you and one other person. Pick carefully." Jack told her. He certainly wasn't going to help them assassinate someone.
Jones gave off only an annoyed twitching in her eyes. "Anything else I should be aware of?"
"I'm considering spiking the Elcor drinks. Any concerns I should be aware of?"
Jones nodded. "There are a few Turians invited that I would prefer you don't speak with or approach. The Executor of C-Sec is coming, along with her security team, led by Desolous Arterius. Try to not approach them. Elias Scipion, their most important shipyard magnate, is also here. I don't want you to approach any of those sensitive persons, and we can all avoid a political nightmare." She brought up her Omni-tool, pinging his network for access. He let her use one of the non-networked giant haptic screens. "Lastly, we found out that there are a couple of Human groups who have cells on the Citadel that might attack or use this party as an excuse to make us look bad. Most notably are a group of Reds who have been rather active lately."
"Is that your excuse for trying to get more than your allotted amount of agents inside? I can trust C-sec to keep them out. It is the monsters that got an invitation that worry me more." He brought up a picture of an Asari with sprawling designs on either side of her face, in the shape of Prothean script going down into the neckline of her shirt. "This is Matriarch -"
"Tevos." Jones finished. "She is earmarked to replace Sharanya as Councillor. Has had an adopted child from a Turian, and that child did not survive the First Contact War. She has a grudge with the Human race, and isn't afraid of showing it. She is also somewhat religious, politically active, and has had over a century of experience as a commando."
"I was going to say connected to a family line of Ardat Yakshi, but that fits just as well." Jones started typing that into her translator. "They are known as Demons of the Night Wind. That last pronunciation of Shi in their language is only connected to things that are extremely heinous or offensive. For them, she is more than a little terrifying. She has one other child, but she didn't carry it due to her genetic potential to birth one of the Yakshi."
"I'll assume you know that from your study of the Asari language. Not from any dalliances with Benezia. Is she coming?"
"She, along with her daughter Liara, are coming. They will be avoiding the other Asari for the most part, due to their differing religious opinion. The Siari movement doesn't earn any friends in that society. They will have a couple of extended family members as guards. We have less to worry about from them. I worry more about the Councillors coming. If they choose not to it will be seen as a major slight, but I do not expect Councillor Sparatus to attend. He doesn't grace us with his presence directly."
"The Salarians? They'll take the time to place bugs all over that hotel."
"Not my problem. I'm more worried about the casual scans they will be doing on anyone with a Salarian model Omni-tool. Who knows what kind of malware they might be using to get to information. Built in weaknesses, goodness knows what else." Jack said, pointing out the newest model via haptic screen. "That will be the most dangerous part of the night, I think."
"Let's hope data theft is the worst of it." Jones responded. "Put down the name of my date as David Anderson."
"That brute?" Jack said. He did not want Anderson anywhere near Hannah. He was tactically skilled, very intelligent, and rated as one of the best ground agents that Cerberus had created. No, having Anderson there was going to make things dangerous. "I can trust him to not shoot first and ask questions later. Let's keep him and the Turians far away from each other."
"In that, we are in agreement. Will there be a way to smuggle in any gear?"
Jack grinned. "On your own, yes. I will not be helping you in any underhanded actions that could dirty my reputation." He had to keep himself from smirking at the idea that he had a clean reputation. "You can go and use the main doors like everyone else. I need to make sure that everything else is taken care of." Now he just had to get Jones off of his ship so that he could warn Hannah.
Zakera Ward Docks, The Citadel, September 2168
Hannah tried working her lips around the plastic that connected them. Her teeth ached a little bit from the fake dentures she had, as well as the weird feeling of her skin being contained in something. "You're sure this is going to work?"
Alexei was sitting across from her in the shuttle. "Synthflesh synthesized in the most advanced printer we have, with electronic layers to simulate blood flow and neurological activity. Element Zero in certain nodules to simulate a biotic. You'll be a few degrees cooler than normal to their scans, to simulate an Asari's normal body temperature. They like the warmer worlds, after all."
"I didn't want you to repeat all that junk about the suit, Alexei, I wanted to know how you felt about all this."
Hannah was wearing an Asari synthetic skinsuit. Under any detection device, it would look like there was an Asari standing there. On top of that she had some designer dress on that she couldn't care less about. A small handbag contained the rest of her needs, with a small perfume bottle and some makeup. She couldn't read exactly what it was, since it was all written in Asari, but the bottles and filters instead held something more dangerous. Her murder weapon, after all, had to leave no trace. One perfume bottle was prepared for her target, and the other was prepared for anything else that tried to stop her.
She had no knives other than what she would find inside, and no guns anywhere inside the hotel. She had to get in, make the attempt, and get out. Jack wanted them to outright attack the party, but that was a terrible idea. Alexei instead came up with a synthetic skinsuit for her to wear. It was ingenious, yes, but it was also very expensive. It wouldn't last very long, as the electron-powered fake blood vessels would shut down eventually, and the ingredients that made up the blood of the suit would break down. She had less than forty hours before this thing would just become a really creepy outfit, losing all color and shape.
"I don't trust anyone else with this kind of plan, Allison." Alexei responded. "I don't have a good extraction plan, and I don't know what we are dealing with. But Jack has promised us a large sum of money. Not to mention a deal to break a number of our men free from a prison on Earth. If you don't see a chance to pull this off, then leave. I won't be called a fool for risking your life unnecessarily, and I won't feel bad if you got close but couldn't do it. If you get the shot, take it. If you don't, walk away. I prefer alive and unsuccessful better than dead and victorious."
"Not to mention the publicity." She remarked. "Too much trouble."
"Chidov. Yes. Too much trouble. The Dawn will welcome you home proudly, Allison. Much of the money deserves to be in your hands, if that helps."
"It doesn't, really. Neither does knowing that this all plays into Jack Harper's schemes somehow. Has he ever mentioned any plans for the future to you?"
"No. Won't go drinking with me either." Hannah could at least say that she was comfortable enough to drink with. "He just sends work my way in exchange for getting me more manpower. He's one of those people that's sort of a sociopath. Hates everyone else but himself, eh?" Jack Harper was not a sociopath. He was much worse than that. Jack Harper was a smart, adaptable, and unpredictable. She wasn't sure if he had sociopathic tendencies, but he for sure could read into a social environment.
She felt clammy inside the skinsuit, and tried to school her features into that arrogant half-smirk that most of the Asari were using when she walked by them in the street. It wasn't hard. They had everything better than most of the other races, and their technology was more advanced, and their culture so much more developed. Of course they would feel that way. So, she adopted the same shape to her face. The head tentacles kept her hair out of trouble, and her hands looked a bit larger than normal Asari hands. That was unavoidable, but shouldn't create too much to worry about. She wasn't using any guns tonight.
"You get me an invitation?"
"Yeah. Intercepted some invitation for a girl named Mirala. Mirala Ti'ren-la-a-uh-eh." Alexei slowly tried to pronounce. "Yeah, that. Just go by Mirala. Should be no trouble."
"So, what kind of person am I replacing? You can't just steal someone's identity and not give me any details."
Alexei shrugged. "I couldn't find anything on her. Invite came from the Asari ambassador, over an encrypted channel. So you should probably avoid any of the Asari and just get the job done."
She nodded. "Hopefully I don't run into the real thing. Asari can hold a mean grudge." She pursed her new lips, the smacking noise not quite what she was wanting. Clicking her teeth was the same way, and her saliva glands were just not doing enough to make her mouth feet better. The synthetic flesh suit went into her mouth enough that it limited how much her saliva could reach in her mouth. The front of her teeth and gums were dry, which was disconcerting.
The feet sections of the skinsuit had missing sections along the underside of the arch, with a small plastic clip holding the suit together. If she needed to remove it, it would be done through that. The synthetic skin required a contact gel to stick to her skin and keep it at a lower body temperature. To remove all of the suit would take a long time. Not to mention leave a piece of evidence somewhere that would point back to her. Hair and skin samples all over everything.
Her shoes were some Asari ones, made to appear like water in the shape of low raised shoes. Pretty, but not something Hannah could wear ever. More importantly, there was hardly any metal in this outfit to make cloaking difficult. She could cloak and move around no problem, especially with all of the motion going on with the skinsuit. She walked out of the Zakera Ward docks, getting looks all the while. It wasn't often you saw a spruced up Asari walking through the human parts of the Citadel, after all. She just gave them the half-smirk and didn't meet anyone's eyes. Her contacts that came with the skinsuit were enough to hide her actual eye coloring, make them blue.
The party that Jack was throwing was in some trumped up hotel. Ritz-Carlton, the sign said. There was a line to get in that went through C-sec scanning procedures as well as hotel security. Here, she was able to calm down in the monotony of moving slowly through the line. Most of the people on this side were Human, or Turian. None of them tried to speak to her, and a few leered or got a few looks at her.
When she finally got to the front of the line, it was an Asari security officer and a Turian one at the front. Hannah moved towards the Turian, who checked her things and ran them through the computer system. "Miss Ti'renlaaue. Have a pleasant evening. Please step through the scanner." He pronounced it very different than Alexei had. It was admirable, for a Turian mouth to be able to pronounce Asari language. For that, Hannah painstakingly raised one eyebrow and nodded her head with a smile. It took years of pointless training exercises in the Intelligence Office to get her eyebrow to do that. The Turian lit up, his mandibles rising in a smile. He must get very little in terms of happy responses from all of the humans in the area.
The scanner had to be run twice, but the Turian didn't seem to worry very much at her plight. Inside, Hannah was considering what would happen if they decided to take a closer scan. They would probably find the highly dangerous mixture in her purse, in its spray bottle. For today's mission, she had crystallized aluminum inside of a blend of Asari perfume and ammonia. When the crystals hit the airway, and broke free of the solution they were in right now, they would expand and block the path of air, and the ammonia would fill the target's lungs with poison, so even after the airways could be unclogged, the ammonia would just poison any oxygen that was produced.
The rest of the blend was just a bit of nitrate and the perfume itself, which would make the target cough as to its intensity. This was her murder weapon, as she could use it and the coughing wouldn't start for at least five seconds. Five seconds to get away and get out, and the real murder wouldn't even start to occur until at least twenty seconds of coughing had happened, when the airways would close off completely. So, thirty seconds before the panic. Plenty of time.
Her other bottle used a nitrate-mercury compound that once breathed in, would overoxidize blood vessels and cause them to burst on its way through the bloodstream. It worked on other races, and was much more showy. It was her defense. Scarily enough, she had a pocket of it installed into her fake lips, so that she could just blow on her lips and out would come a cloud of death. It was a one-shot use, though. The bottle of it in her bag was just in case she couldn't easily use it.
If she needed another weapon, she would have to steal it off of someone else. Not hard, if you could just turn invisible whenever you wanted. So, she entered the party after another search check from the hotel staff, who used just Omni-tool based scanners to check the guests. She was allowed through with some scrutiny, but the hotel staff were just trying to get people through and into the party.
The party itself was amazing. Buffet tables full of food, labeled by race and which could eat other types of food. The Asari buffet was filled with all kinds of goods, and the human buffet tables were labeled by which colony they had come from. Earth, obviously, had the largest amount of variety, along with a wetbar. Hannah decided that would be the first place she wanted to go, but then remembered that the film that covered her lip's poison sac could break down if she drank alcohol. Drat.
Still, she got a drink and some food as she scoped out the area. It was nice to see all of the people of different races all standing together. She even saw some Turians talking with humans. That was a start. Asari were in all of the different groups, mingling freely and doing very little of the talking. Her target wasn't in view yet. But she did see Jack Harper. He was surrounded by all sorts of people, with Henry right next to him. Henry's wife and some blonde woman were right next to them.
Then she saw David Anderson. That was not someone she wanted to tangle with. She had worked with him during his training, and he was sharp. Very capable. The bulge against his shoulder was definitely not a hold-out pistol. No, there was no way she was getting close to Jack tonight. She had hoped she could freak him out again, but there was no chance to get close or risk it.
Then she noticed that there was another circle of people right next to Jack's circle. She saw the President of the Alliance there, along with a few other important political figures. Donovan Hock was right there in the middle of them. Naturally, he was in the most secure location in the room. Asari commandos and Alliance security agents prowled all around, and the Alliance agents were the only ones who weren't dressed for the occasion. They had on low profile sets of armor. The commandos looked almost like the Asari you found in night clubs, except without the aura of sleeziness.
She slipped off to one side of the chambers, where many of the Asari had avoided. This was mostly due to the amount of humans and Salarian guests clogging the area, and the lack of food tables. Here was where many of the security patrols made their connection point, and mingled. Small rooms were off to the side, and some of them were filled. One at least was stuffed to the gills with STG. There was no reason for that many Salarians to be piled into a room without them to be involved. Or at least that is what she would like to believe. They all had their Omni-tools out and had haptic feeds listed across the walls of the room.
The next room that had people in it was the farthest away from the Salarian room. She activated her Omni-tool for a moment, sending out a small drone. Salarians would notice any kind of wrongdoing technologically, and just that with their natural vision. Their eyes could take in far more detail than human eyes could. But the voices she heard in this room were female, and either human or Asari.
The drone slipped underneath the closed door. She kept walking, finding a nice spot to hide. This was not the first drone she had deployed that night. The first she had dropped on some middle wage worker for the hotel, but that drone had revealed nothing of note. Another had ended up on a Turian's drink and on an Elcor. Still, nothing of use. This one she hoped would at least reveal something.
"I told you to be subtle, you fool!"
"You promised me an invitation to this mess."
"I did send you it. If you were too ignorant to notice it, then you should have told me."
"No invitation came. I came anyways. You said this job was important?"
"To the extreme. What I am worried about is that there is another Mirala running around out there. Someone else is planning something." The sound of a slap came through the drone. "Don't smirk like you're enjoying this. I didn't create this alias so you could just er'asha all over it! You'll go out there and do your job. Don't screw this up."
"Fine, Vasir. You'll get your mark. Just make sure that vent shaft is open after the security seals slam down."
Two Asari emerged from the room, one of them dressed in commando gear. She had a long red stripe down the front of her face, while the other was dressed in a normal dress for an Asari, and her face was devoid of markings. It was pale, and had bizarre freckles around the edge of the face. Pale eyes completed the set, and no weapons were visible. Biotics would be enough. Hannah just let them walk by, but sent her drone to attach to one of them, while she sent another to attach to the Asari in commando gear.
She let them walk on before standing up, planning on following them for a while. Perhaps she could get one of them to create a distraction for her to get close to her target. That was interrupted when she felt a clawed hand dig into her wrist and push her towards one of the rooms. It wasn't the same one that the Asari were in, but it was full already. A single Turian was in the room, his Omni-tool active and open.
"That will be enough Corporal. Just secure the door for now, and I will let you know when to come back in." The Turian said with a higher-chirping accent of Turian. But she knew the face. "Sit down, you and I have much to talk about." Said Pontus Vakarian, a mini turret deployed on the wall facing her and watching her every move. She of course chose to sit down, sharing the table space with the detective.
Jack had been assured by James that he had the location of his children's Omni-tools and was intercepting them before they could get to the Citadel. He had recruited Charles to get on the STG and stop them from doing everything they wanted to. That was keeping him busy, and the young man had a mouth to him.
"You think you can steal that?" "I wouldn't want to steal that! No one wants a cheap Fornax account! You don't need to care about that! You-" A small gasp went over the line. "Oooh, That kind of crap belongs on the extranet. I'll upload that rather than let you use it."
Jack was in the middle of an extremely boring conversation with some Slovakian politician who had some family tradition of being at the right place at the right time. Something about being there when the Alliance was first formed, as well as his father being there when Slovakia gained its independence from Russia yet again. He was in the middle of describing some other relative's experience when his Omni-tool chimed loudly.
"Excuse me a moment. I have to take this." He said, being as short as possible while still being polite. This man was still one of the people on the Naval Committee, so he merited at least a small amount of politeness. "What's going on?"
"Omni-tools were abandoned in a shuttle. The girls never left the Sol system. They're somewhere else!" James' voice came over the comm. "They must have left their tools on this shuttle. It came from Earth and then stopped at Arcturus. The pilot says he was shipping freight, and didn't notice any kids when he stopped at Arcturus."
"Perfect. It means they could be anywhere. Did the shuttle stop at Home?" Home being Tartarus, in this case.
"Connected in London. Commercial Spaceport. Lax security on it compared to the civilian transportation hub. So I don't know how they got off the station, or how they got it all to happen."
"Thanks James. I'll try to figure out more from our end." He switched channels, hearing some ribald swearing coming from the new line. "Charles!"
The swearing cut off. "Uhm, yes?"
"I need you to multitask. My daughters created an elaborate plan and are trying to distract me away from some other objective. I need you to find out what's going on. I cannot leave here early." He saw a familiar face approaching, coming directly at him. It was not a face that he wanted to see. "I have to go. Find out what happened with my daughters in addition to slowing down the STG."
"Wha? I can't… I'll try…?"
"Update me on your progress. Or else." He cut off the connection as the Asari that had him worried walked towards a group of people in conversation. She wasn't coming for him, but it was enough to have him worried. Morinth, Ardat-Yakshi and supposedly hiding in the Terminus systems, was at his party. He hadn't given her an invitation, which meant that someone else from the Council invitations had invited her. She was conversing politely with some aide from one of the Turians. Jack, removed from conversation already, took a moment to head for the lifts. He needed to figure out what she was doing here.
He couldn't exactly get caught hacking security records from the main floor. The STG were observing everyone here, and he knew it. He had to get out of the range of whatever drones they had here. He grabbed a drink from a table and walked into the lift, the shiny Ritz-Carlton symbol glinting as he walked in. He was about to pull up his Omni-tool when the lift filled with two more people. Looking up, he saw the bemused face of Jones and the bored one of Anderson.
"What spooked you, Harper?" Jones asked. "You don't run away from an opportunity to move up in the world unless you feel threatened."
He decided that they merited at least a cordial response. "My daughters decided to scare me and go off the detection grid. I can't find them. I thought I had found them, but it turns out that they had dropped their Omni-tools and the tracking devices that were enclosed in them. So, my daughters are loose on earth, and are some of the most highly valued human biotics that exist. I doubt you can help me find them, but if you do so it will be appreciated."
Jones looked actually concerned. "I'll contact Central Offices, see if they have seen them. They are under our watch as well, and the fact that they haven't been heard from is surprising."
Anderson gave a grunt. "Were you going to use your own methods?"
Jack nodded. "I have trust issues. As well as authority issues. I don't ask for help and I don't expect it. Nor do I thank them when help is given, as that would create an expectation or favor-barter system."
"We try not to ask him for anything in return." Jones sniped. "So, you're going to try to find your daughters from here?"
"Yes. Any other questions?"
The lift suddenly stopped, and the emergency lights came on. "For the record, I didn't do that. Nor do I have any hatred for the Intelligence Office." Total lie, but for the record it was alright.
"For the record, we tolerate you better than some of the other megalomaniacal nutjobs we have under surveillance. But that doesn't earn you any kind of right to flirt with me or make my life harder."
"Deal. Plus, you have nothing I want to flirt with. Anderson has real arms, after all." Jack leaned down to the control panel, and found it to be very difficult to open. It wasn't designed to be messed with, after all. "Anderson, I believe the hotel is going into a security lockdown. All extranet access is locked out, and comms are limited. I don't have any backup communication methods right now. Are you armed?"
Anderson nodded, pulling out a gun barrel and a larger section that would have to be the firing mechanism. A darker than normal metal ammo block was fitted in as well. It took him a moment to get the pistol put together. "The metal block will take some time to set in place. The ammo mechanism on this depends on it being at a specific temperature before firing."
"Isn't that one of the Markov lines we developed for the First Contact War?"
Anderson shrugged. "Found it in a salvage dump. But it can go through armor like nothing else."
Many of the other races had their nasty weapons, and this was one of the ones banned after the war. It fired out slightly larger 'tracer' rounds from the barrel, which would then continue to burn until all of the material cooled down from the extremely high temperature. That would occur long after it would be buried inside of someone's armor, or destabilizing heavy armor pieces. It was also quite illegal, which was probably why Anderson had all of the pieces separated.
"I think we need to get back to my party. I can pay for any damages to the elevator." He pointed at the access panel. "I need access to here."
"What about the emergency call button?" Jones asked. She motioned towards the red sphere. "Don't trust the hotel staff?"
"For all I know, my daughters are the ones who are bleeding out somewhere. Waiting for some security patrol to come and unlock the elevator would be worse than torture."
"I'll talk to them then, goodness." Jones muttered, pressing the button and reaching past both of them. With the up close view of her shoulder, he could see some sort of cybernetic joint holding it all together. Her skin there was definitely synthetic, and didn't do a great job of hiding the joint. "Hello?"
"Our lines are currently busy. The system VI would like to remind all patrons of the Ritz-Carlton to make their way to emergency exits calmly and carefully. Please stay out of the way of emergency workers. Thank you for your patience."
Jones just glared at the button. "Anderson, please shoot the elevator."
Anderson nodded, bringing up the heavy pistol and carefully aligning it with the screws that held the panel in place. "It'll take less than a minute."
"So, after we get out of the elevator, what then?"
"I figure out who shot up my party and humiliated me." He nodded to himself. "Then I figure out what happened to my daughters. So help me, if they are harmed at all I'll have to convince you to kill someone."
Anderson even gave a smirk at that. "Panel is open."
Jack muttered about how hard it was to have a party that didn't end with someone getting shot at. The panel had a simple connection port system to override the elevator. It took him a moment to bypass the system, as he was out of practice, but it popped open and the full diagnostic screen appeared. He pressed the button that would send the elevator back to the lobby, causing the panel to glow green and activate the elevator's motion.
Sadly there was no satisfying ding when the doors opened. There was only Anderson, who pushed out of the doors to scope out the situation. Jones was right behind him, holding up her Omni-tool and scanning for contaminants. It checked out as green, so Jack walked forward. Anderson and Jones stayed by him, oddly.
He walked directly to the security station that had been placed along one wall. He didn't need to be too close to hear what was going on.
"He needs medical attention! Override the security protocols, we need to get him out of here!"
"But the murderer is still in the building! We can't let them escape!"
"It could have just been a neurological response, there might not have been a murder involved."
"Assume the worst until proven wrong, cadet! Now tell me where the rest of my team is!"
"They're supposed to be in one of the side rooms over here, I'll go get them!"
C-sec agents were crawling all over the security station, with hotel security staff pushed off to the side. The one yelling loudest was an older female Turian with some sort of discoloration on some of her scales. He recognized her as the current Executor for the entire C-sec force. A younger Turian was running towards one of the side rooms, his armor pristine. When he got to one of the doors, he held up his talons to his mandibles, and then did the Turian version of gagging. The mandibles would extend to their furthest point outward, and then a hacking sound filled with chirps would emerge.
The younger one started staggering back to the security station, holding himself together. Jack marched his way to the doorway, not knowing what to expect. Seeing the dead bodies of two Turians wasn't unexpected. Seeing Pontus Vakarian covered in his own blood with an engorged throat was. The other Turian looked to have been shot, and the murder weapon was still in the hands of Pontus Vakarian. But the death that Pontus was going through Jack recognized immediately. Acute allergic reaction and bleeding from within the lungs. Caused by metal shards being shoved inside the lungs and some sort of poison or asphyxiate. Hannah's trademark.
But where was Hannah? "Grisly. Anyone else feeling like I'm losing money on the buffet?"
Jones motioned to a stretcher being carried by some of the Imperial Watch Turian soldiers that had been placed in the party as security. Over twenty of them were here now, and only eight had been allowed in. But they were walking with weapons out in the open, ready to shoot at anything that could interfere with their motion towards the rear entrance. There was one body on the stretcher, with long robes that hung down far on the wrists. "Someone killed the Turian Councillor."
Jack visibly winced. That was not what this party was intended to do. Now the races were going to be at each other's throats, and all the good work he had just done to try to bring the Humans and Batarians closer together was going to go down the drain. "Someone get the reporters on this. Camera shots, anything. Jones, figure out if any attempts were made on any Humans, get a headcount." He brought out his Omni-tool and listed her as an emergency contact for the next six hours. "Get me a press conference and get Anita Goyle into it. Get the President as far from this as possible, and make sure that the Batarian contingent and reporters are also invited. Fostering any goodwill that we have left is paramount."
"Why do you care so much about the Batarians? Aren't we in the process of trying to kill them all?" Anderson asked.
"Because they are the most like us in terms of politics and territory. If the Batarians ever became our allies, we would all be able to see past this war that the other races forced us into and realize that we are being lead around by the nose." Jack started, and then cut off as he noticed one of the party guests approaching. "Balak! Good to see that you are still here."
Balak M'Dorme was wearing a black and orange garishly colored set of robes, marking him as a Batarian emissary. Batarian society didn't have a difference between military and civilian at the highest levels. If you held a position in government, you also had a military ranking, and that was non negotiable. All of the military was bound to certain castes, meaning that all of the producers and providers were stuck in the lower classes, and couldn't enter the military or move up in the world. If they sold their children into slavery, they could theoretically become the soldier caste if they lived through their lives long enough. Their children would have the chance to become part of the lesser soldier caste, which meant that at best a lesser caste member could possibly sell a child into slavery to move them higher in the caste system.
But they had to be free and not born into the lesser slavery castes themselves first. Batarian caste system was awkward like that. Slaves that were successful in getting out of the lowest caste levels could have their children become freedmen, and then their grandchildren could be sold as slaves into the middle slave castes, which after two or three more generations might have the chance of being born into the actual military caste. So, over the course of ten generations a slave could expect to overcome it all. Though by being sold into slavery they break all ties with their family, it made it rather hard to keep the same goal going.
Balak was one of those middle caste members, who were lucky enough to be effective in the military at birth and rose up in the ranks as far as he could. Theoretically his grandchildren might live to see a rank higher, but at this point he had advanced in their society as far as he could by birth. He was content in his position, a rare trait in most Batarians. All he had to worry about now were upstarts wanting to replace him. "Harper. I stayed in the hopes that you could give me the codes to unlock your ship. I just recently bought it from the Officer's auction, and saw that it once belonged to you."
"You bought my Talon?" Jack almost laughed. "I doubt it would be as useful as current technology, or what you yourselves could produce."
"I bought it because the SIU doesn't have any observation software in it. Useful for everyone involved. I flaunt a human ship that was rightfully stolen, and I can express my pride in my race without betraying any feelings I have. Then I find out that the central computer is still active, but uses a Salarian bypass device to make everything run. As you were the previous owner, I hope you still have the password on file."
Jack laughed. "Set your Omni-tool to record. The password is an audio file. With the communication blocks currently in place, I can't transfer data right now."
Balak started a chattering laugh when he heard the audio file of Amandeep singing his Urdu music. Jack happily joined him, getting the attention of people around them who were trying to evacuate. He hoped it was memorable. Balak, when the audio file finished, still was making strange noises that equated to brutish guffaws with their biology. "That is a creative password. My thanks to you."
"Always a pleasure to see someone familiar. Or at least familiar enough to consider me friendly."
Balak gave him a needle-toothed grin. "In our society, you would be a fine General. Your mastery of our tongue gives me great respect. I have prepared a location for your request, Harper. Message me when you are ready." Balak gave a long glance at Anderson, and his obvious armament. "May your enemies come before your face rather than your back."
Jones and Anderson were translating using their Omni-tools, so were behind in the conversation. But that last line would definitely throw them off. As the entire conversation had been in Batarian, the translation must have sounded terrible. It was natural to have some levels of miscommunication between languages, but in Batarian it was almost like comparing English to Arabic. "May your enemies fear your passing." Jack returned, giving the answer as an equal.
Balak smirked, giving him a nod before walking away. It was a measure of friendship that he turned his back on Jack before breaking eye contact. Jack waved, a very Human act of expression. Jones was giving him a strange look, and Anderson was still giving Balak a questioning look when Jack finally turned around to face them. "One day, the Batarians might be a worthier ally than the Council. If that might happen, I will be in a position to profit from that."
"Or betray the Alliance and run off to them." Anderson said. Jones gave him a sharp look. "You shouldn't be surprised at some of the things that people say about you."
Jack wasn't. "Behind the Batarians, I am sure that they will be mentioning the Quarians as well. After that, the Asari. Am I correct?"
"Everything but Turians and Volus have been mentioned. Or hinted at." Jones confirmed. "Part of the reason the official types are worried about you. You consort with rogue elements of the Asari government, you avoid Turians at all costs, and you seem to combat Salarian STG teams rather than helping them do their job."
"I can remind you that STG teams are also the ones who disabled SkyNET when they tried to create a competing form of Omni-tool VI system. As well as their attempts to get into Sirta? No, the STG are not my friends. Nor should I trust them with my concerns. If we had a common foe, then I would be much more willing to assist them."
"This is the kind of comment that keeps you on surveillance, Jack. Maybe you should change your tune." Jones said. Anderson probably agreed. But their opinion didn't truly matter in the grand scheme of things. Someone like them would never be able to see the entire picture until it was too late.
"Great. Your trust in me so far has netted the Human race more friends than enemies. Sadly if any of the Quarians had been willing to attend a party with the Council attending, then this could have been even more of a political nightmare. Go organize some sort of press response, make sure that we aren't implicated. Anderson, make sure that Jones isn't hampered. Most people won't see the cybernetic arms or the threat they pose in a panic like this."
"What are you going to do?"
"Go Find Johann and make sure that he knows I am going to pay him back for the elevator." Or perhaps get clearance from C-sec to be removed from the list of people whose Omni-tools were blocked. That seemed to be a much more effective plan. He couldn't see Hock in the confusion, but he hoped that he was dead or dying. He would only create trouble if he kept on living.
"Excuse me, Executor?" He spoke up, pushing past the line of expectant C-sec officers. "A moment of your attention, please?" The party, as expected, was a gigantic political nightmare. Not an unexpected result. His daughters and their agenda now concerned him.
Hannah Shepard watched as the Turian she had heard was hunting her got comfortable across the table. More importantly, his turret stayed focused on her. She kept that in mind as the Turian across from her leaned forward, his Omni-tool out and actively recording data.
"What is your name?"
"I have a lawyer, you know. I am sure they would love to hear that I was unlawfully dragged into some room to be questioned during a party."
"Your lawyer would be a topic of interest, considering I've caught one of your drones already. After seeing you deploy others, I decided to pull you aside for questioning."
"I have a personal invitation from-"
"Your invitation corresponds to an alias for a known chaotic element that we have been observing. No photo is provided, and seeing you dropping drones and being of some considerable curiosity, I decided to ask you some questions."
Hannah's skinsuit was not prepared for such an in depth investigation. At some point he would notice something and the jig would be up. Worse, he might be able to detect the vials of poisonous gasses she had in her handbag. "I would like to request my lawyer be here before I answer anything."
Pontus centered his eyes on her. "You think you are above the law, don't you. You can't stand the younger lived races trying to order you around, eh?" He slammed a claw onto the table. "You're just taking advantage of the system! If I could only see who you really are, and bring you in… Oh, you Asari always preach about peace, but you have the longest lives. Some of you are worse than Krogan Warlords, and have even more crimes attached to your name. Don't think you can just hide behind an alias and expect your crimes to go unnoticed. Are you connected to Eriasha?"
"I don't eve-"
"Your hands have too thick of skin. That means you must have had them rebuilt, the skin reconstructed. Sometimes the new skin comes on too thickly, making the skin bunch up on the wrists." He grabbed her wrist, his taloned claw holding it tightly. "An Asari with burnt hands just recently was held responsible for a massacre of an entire village. If I tear this skin off, I wager that you'll have the same burn marks." His grip tightened. She had to act, but she needed some sort of distraction that would protect her from either the Turian or the turret.
Her answer came in the form of a loud alarm going off. Hannah watched as the lights shifted to red, and the turret that was observing her went into a different mode. It started moving back and forth across the room, obviously starting some sort of passive scan. She could hear some sort of shouting outside, and screaming from multiple races. This was her opportunity.
She pulled the Turian towards her, biting her lip. His talons cut through the synthskin and right into her own, piercing through and making her wrist start bleeding. He noticed the red blood, not blue, pouring from the wound.
"Human!" He said, right as she released the gas pocket in her lip, spraying him with the all purpose killing gas. He realized what she did immediately, trying to press something on his Omni-tool. It was easy to hold his hands apart from each other, watching as he started to choke. To further take advantage, she cloaked and jumped across the table, seeing the health warnings spraying from his Omni-tool. Using a foot to hold down the Omni-tool hand, she tapped the 'ignore' button. The warning passed, and she could hear the flange of choking coming from Pontus' throat. She had heard this before, from all of the other Turians she had killed this way. It took only seconds before their muscles would start failing to pump oxygenated blood back into their lungs, and with each passing moment less and less oxygen would flow into their appendages.
The secondary murder method kicked in, as the flakes of aluminum carved up Pontus' lungs and trachea. Turians were lizard-like, which meant that their blood was even more dependent upon oxygen to flow and keep them working. She could feel the strength leaving his fingers, her wrist freely bleeding. His talons had gone through her synthskin all over, leaving streaks of pale skin showing through. Her dress didn't have any sleeves, so it was going to be impossible to hide this. There was no leaving through traditional methods. She still had drones on the two Asari that she had been listening to, and one of them mentioned an exit strategy.
While cloaked, she spun around behind Pontus, and settled in to wait for his support unit to come in. When the medical alert went out, the other C-sec officer came back in to check on them. He saw Pontus coughing himself to death and no sign of the Asari. He checked the corners, and then ran up to Pontus to save him.
Hannah almost felt bad for him as she brought up Pontus' pistol in his own hand and fired it. It took every single shot to take him down, as Hannah could only aim so well manipulating someone's dying fingers. But the gun finally overheated, the heat sink screaming. Hannah liberated some medigel from Pontus, and tried to not think about the last quaking rattles that his body went through as it died. She was able to close up the wounds on her wrist, but there was red blood covering her arm and ripped skin all over. At least he didn't scratch up her face.
Taking a deep breath and trying to shake off the feeling of panic, she looked down at the Omni-tool on Pontus' wrist. She didn't have anything to EMP or destroy it, but she could at least try to hack it. The OSD was locked into the device, and couldn't be pulled out. She had nothing that could help here. But at least the Omni-tool didn't capture any actual images of her. She brought up her own, seeing that her drones were active still. Pontus noticed one of them, so somehow he had a really nice detection system on his tool.
Her two Asari had split, one of them near the main doors and the other moving through the kitchens. That was an easy decision, as the main entrance would be crawling with people. She made all of the drones that were previously placed except for the one on her Asari disable themselves and head to the nearest trash can. They would be picked up by Citadel Cleaning Services and disappear. The only remaining active one she followed, keeping under her cloaking system and quietly moving through the edges of the room.
Jack is going to be pissed, was the main thought running through her mind. She killed someone and didn't kill Hock. Not that she had a chance to, but she wasn't left with a lot of choices. She still didn't know what caused the panic outside, but it made the difference.
The kitchens were sprawling, large, and empty. Everyone had evacuated. She could see that one of the storage closets had been opened, or left unlocked, and that was where her target went. Inside she could see one of the racks of food had been pushed aside, and one of the Keeper access tunnels was open. Barely open, but the door wasn't perfectly flush with the wall. Hannah pulled it open, seeing a tunnel that she had to crouch to go into, and no layers of dust. Normally dust and other detritus built up in places like this. It was just sort of wrong to see it not here.
Though Hannah was able to pull the door shut, this time she locked it. Her drone was ahead a few hundred feet, almost near the Zakera Ward docks. It had stopped moving, so she slowed down. She wasn't sure what security systems were active down here, and she didn't want to find out. She disabled her cloaking device, letting it start to recharge some. Her shoes clicked, so she took them off and picked them up. When she did so, she could hear something else in the vents.
She cloaked immediately, and stood stock still. The pitter patter of feet and claws moved closer, until she saw a small group of children run past. They wore clothing that looked baggy or out of place, and had no shoes. They didn't seem to be checking their route for dangerous people, nor did they check the turns for other threats. Strange. But as children they could function easily in the four and a half foot tall space. She shook her head and waited for them to keep moving, before moving on herself. The tunnels were somewhat straight, and easy to find exits from. Finding one that let out near where her drone was located was harder to find.
But once she did find it she was able to slip back out into the populated wards. That felt better, for some reason. Super long empty tunnels were just creepy. She had emerged from her exit onto some upper deck that was above the shopping center of the Zakera Ward docks. She walked along the upper deck, not seeing stairs to get down. Though she did see a couple more of those kids, mostly Turian and Human. She also saw some strange creatures that were just moving around seemingly doing things to the walls and floors. They had bulbous bodies and didn't care about anyone or anything moving around.
Up ahead, she could see the kids fighting over something. She recognized it immediately as the dress that the Asari was wearing. Her drone was attached to it. She decloaked, hoping it would scare the kids. With a few screeches, they all got spooked.
"Give that to me." She said, acting as if she had a pistol in her handbag.
"Whatever you want, scary lady!"
"Tell me where you found this!" She yelled at them, prompting pointing fingers towards a doorway to the left. "Many thanks." She told them, having heard Asari thank people like that before. She carried the dress, as well as the drone that was attached to it, through the doorway. Past it was another system of catwalks, leading directly to the docks. She cloaked, on principle. Sure enough, at the far end of the catwalks was the Asari that she had been meaning to follow.
She was dressed in more casual clothing this time, pants instead of some flashy dress. At her hip was a nice standard issue pistol of the Asari military, some curved weapon that looked like it belonged on a wall of an art museum. But their people were so good with technology that they could make their weapons look beautiful and still be more effective than any others made in the galaxy.
Staying invisible was the right thing to do right now. She had to grab hold of a power conduit to stay that way, but she waited. Within an hour of waiting, the other Asari emerged from the shadows to approach.
"Morinth! Did anyone see you?"
Morinth, or Mirala, whatever she called herself, shrugged. "One chef that doesn't remember anything. One guard that only remembers some walking cleavage. Humans are so easily distracted that I didn't even need to use my biotics."
"Humans are the reason you just killed the Turian Councillor." The second Asari said with venom. "The councillor was getting Human-happy. He was starting to talk about expanding reparations. Giving them a Spectre…"
"You just don't want to work with any of them, do you?"
"Humans are worse than the Batarians, and you've seen what they are capable of. Sai'pai'rda even told you that Humans were the greatest threat to our race." She threw some sort of credit chit at Morinth. "Get out of here. Return back to the Eriasha and keep working on things. You aren't even supposed to be here anyways."
"Fine, fine. Next time you need someone killed with just a glance, you know who to call. I'll tell Sai'pai'rda you said hello."
Morinth slipped into another one of the airducts, and the second Asari started walking back where she came from, leaving Hannah alone. She waited a little while, until the coast was clear. Only a few of those bulbous alien workers came by, and perhaps another group of kids moved through the vents nearby. She thought she heard laughter.
"Well, now I know who killed the Turian Councillor. Can I profit from that?" The resounding answer was no. "Well, maybe Jack would like to know about all this. Maybe he will actually pay me the full price."
But then again, she had no proof that this Asari killed them. Still, something bad was going on. She plugged Eriasha and Sai'pai'rda into the extranet, but they didn't return anything useful. Eriasha was some sort of Asari word for poetry, but archaic. The funny thing was that Pontus had mentioned it before she killed him, as well.
Hannah put all of that behind her, figuring that all of this was not her concern. She could sell the information to Jack, he would pay her, and she could finally afford the doctor bill she had been waiting to be able to afford. With that in mind, she started walking towards the nearest public transportation hub, so that she could go to one of the safehouses that she could get this skinsuit off at. She was tired of looking like an Asari.
Author's Note
Sorry for the late update, it has been quite a month. I lost my job, came into Finals Week, and had to rebuild my home server. But in the good news, I have a new job, Finals are over, and my home server can now run Space Engineers, which is a game I find myself happily exploring.
I wanted to introduce skinsuits a bit. They were partially explained in the chapter, but what I would like to explain further is their cost. Creating synthetic skin and blood networks is really intensive on a 3D printing system, even the ones as advanced as Omni-Fabricators. It takes something industrial to be able to produce something that detailed, as well as a bunch of ingredients that are the subject of some scrutiny. Making fake Asari blood vessels and element zero nodules in the same layering is extremely expensive, especially for something that will only be used for a few hours. Still, this is a technology that in the right hands could do some damage. Synthetic skin is something that we can do right now. Synthetic neurons and capillaries, feasible.
I would appreciate all of your thoughts and comments on how you think things are going at this time. I apologize for the late update, again, but life got in the way. Thankfully I don't have kids, yet. But right now I appreciate the chance to indulge in my hobby of writing. As well as skiing and such.
Someone recently messaged me, asking me to write a story that belonged on a very different site. It brings up a topic that I was asked about. I don't write lemony scenes or sex scenes or what not. They are the topic of conversation about certain characters, and yes sex is a natural expression of most sentient races. That does not mean I will write a detailed scene of that nature. Logical Premise, another awesome author who is linked in my profile, has a similar outlook. Sex is something that is a topic that may need to be mentioned but does not need to be the central focus to make a fan fiction amazing. It can add flavor and fun, but Living and Indoctrinated Dream is very much focused on different aspects of life. Thank you all for your support and taking the time to read. For anyone expecting anything super steamy, this would be your wake up call.