Chapter 26

Hello Atilius

Garrus bolted down the stairway.

His father stood outside the apartment block in deep discussions with a person he had not seen in some time.

"General Atilius! It is very good to see you, especially right now," he said as he joined the small group.

Atilius grinned, "Well, look at you. The younger Vakarian! It has been awhile since we last met. Actually, wasn't it the night of the vote against Victus? I do believe it was."

Garrus grimaced.

"Oh relax. I don't bear grudges and neither does Adrien... mostly. Well, lets clarify that a bit; if you went against himself then no. But if you did anything to harm the young Tiberius... lets just say that you really shouldn't. Anyway, I see that you still have the misfortune of looking like your old man."

Avtius snorted, "Better he look like me than you."

The General burst out laughing. "You would have cause for concern if it was the other case!"

Atilius eventually stopped laughing and settled down to business.

"So, you and me are working together. Nice for a change. I get bored with your father's insistence on not killing everyone."

"You defeat the purpose of sneaking in to a facility if you murder everyone in there, Atilius."

"I beg to differ! It is a way of showing just how good you are."

Avitus shook his head while Atilius grinned.

"All right guys. We do need to move quickly on this," Garrus said flatly.

His father turned to his old friend. "I am going to take on the Marius boy alone."

Atilius seemed nonplussed by that announcement. "Should be easy enough for you. Try not to kill him though. It might upset his uncle. Now you know me, I am all for pissing on August but there is still the other project to be considered."

"I can make no promises. I don't take kindly to those who hurt my family."

Garrus turned to his father and swallowed nervously before he murmured, "You know about what happened at the gym, don't you..."

"My grandson and I had a long talk about it when I stayed the night at Victus's place. He was still quite upset but I reassured him."

"Dad..."

"It is alright, Garrus. You would have told me eventually and I rather prefer hearing Gaius's side first. He needed to vent about what happened more than you. I also talked to Shepard..."

The two Vakarians stared directly at each other.

"Oh," mumbled Garrus.

"You could have asked for my aid at any time. Instead... well, here we are."

Garrus blurted out, "I made the mistake. It got so far so quickly that..."

"Just stop. You remember when, on Earth, I told you that I would help you go after Shepard to Noveria, that you shouldn't live a lie when there was other ways of ensuring Hadrian's safety."

"Dad..."

"Let us leave this subject for now, my son. We need to get Shepard back. Then we..." Avitus and Atillius looked at each other with something passing between them unspoken, "... we will see on how much you should know."

"Adrien won't be too happy with that," muttered Atilius.

"I know. I will talk to him."

Atilius shrugged. "He won't and you know why."

Avitus nodded and sighed, "I know, Atilius. Spirits, I know."

The General rubbed the back of his neck. "You can ask him on your own. I am staying well out of it."

The older turian turned his attention to Garrus.

"Right. Its time to contact the Marius boy. Silly little prick that he is. I always had the feeling that Appius was one of the kids who picked fights then ran away when the going got too tough. He most definitely should have gotten a good kicking when young to sort him out."

Garrus smiled faintly before he placed the call. Atilius activated his own omnitool and hacked into the line.

"Ah, Vakarian. I had almost thought that you wouldn't call me back. You must not care for the little Spectre as much as you used to."

"Shut up, Marius. You have yourself a deal. Where did the man taking Shepard go?"

Garrus grimaced as Appius chuckled down the line.

"I saw the human drag her to a waiting car. He is obviously completely inexperienced in this sort of thing as I managed to pretty much stroll up and put a tracking device on the rear of it. It stopped moving down in the Tayseri ward. Here -" The omnitool beeped as it received the information, "- this is its signal. I think it is at some sort of warehouse."

Garrus hung up before Appius said any more.

Atilius looked over the signal. "Hmm. Tayseri ward eh? Isn't that place still all banged up from both Sovereign and the Reapers?"

Garrus nodded, "Yeah. Place is like a karsec nest in some places. I... I have been there recently."

"Oh?" queried his father.

"Yeah. Met an old... colleague. Hmm. This can't be coincidental."

"No. I would imagine not," Atilius said softly before he clapped his hands together and rubbed the palms excitedly. "Lets go and kill some idiots!"

Avitus coughed.

"Ah, right. I mean, let's go and save Shepard!"

They parted ways from Avitus.

"Dad, I really don't want you taking on Appius."

"You worry too much. Relax. Concentrate on Shepard."

Atilius slapped Garrus on the shoulder. "Listen to your old man. He knows what he is doing most of the time."

"Most of the time?" said Avitus incredulously with a brow-plate raised.

"There was the incident when we went into that bar on Thessia."

"Now wait just one damn minute here! You started that brawl!"

Atilius grinned, "Yeah but you sure as hell finished it. The whole bar was sick as varren for months after. The asari Republics were up in arms over the 'mysterious illness' that afflicted them."

Avtius just shook his head while his friend laughed heartily.

Shepard's eyes slowly adjusted to the bright lights that shone directly on her face as she awoke.

She rubbed her temples and slowly sat up. Shepard took a bleary eyed look at where she was.

It was a room devoid of items bar the bed she was on. The ceiling was completely covered in high-powered lights, which cast everything in a brilliant white.

She gingerly put her legs over the edge of the bed while she tried to remember what had happened.

She had left Garrus at the apartment and was just near the bakery when...

Suddenly it all rushed back. Mark had met her there.

He was gibbering something about someone being dead and how he needed her to leave with him right away.

Shepard had tried to talk him down but it didn't work. He pulled out a strange sort of device, shaped like an auto injector. Everything after that was a blank.

Where the hell was she?