A/N: As promised chapter 29 enjoy.
Ch. 29
"I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it"
Mae West Quotes
After we'd entered the party I'd fallen off to the sides, moving through groups of people, catching bits of conversation.
"All it took was a swift application of force." A woman in a red dress says to me as if I would be impressed.
"Impressive…" I clench my teeth through a smile. I hate these underworld types. On any other day I would break them all in two… unfortunately I'm on the job right now. I'd never risk a job… especially since it's Kasumi's mission.
"What did you say the name of your company was?" She asks, "I've been looking for a group to handle a problem of mine."
"Suicide Squad," I blurt suddenly. "We're a small company that focuses on high risk missions." I sigh formulating it a bit more in my mind. "We've fought in several conflicts, usually aiming to end wars before they even start, we actually prevented a small insurrection on Garvug by eliminating Warlord Marduk."
"Who?"
Wow, there went my ego. I have one job I thought was a big deal that I might have been able to take a bit of pride in… but noooo.
"We're currently on an assignment so I'm afraid we wouldn't be open to hiring." I try and cover… lies pile on lies till you get caught. I check my omni-tool and pretend to check a message. "I apologize but my… wife needs me." I smile a fake, fake smile.
It drops the moment I'm away from her and the group; I hate those smiles, false smiles that only serve to take people off guard. I wear them though; I hate myself a bit I think…
There she is, and a genuine smile comes to my face for a moment. "Allison." She doesn't turn, but I stop speaking… the setting sun has framed her so beautifully, her hair contrasting the bright orange of the sky and I'm probably looking through rose tinted glasses… but if I am or not… She's beautiful… and I can feel that in my heart.
I walk and lean on the railing next to her. "It's beautiful isn't it?" She asks.
"Yeah…" She puts her hand on the railing… barely a distance from me. I could reach out and… I acted while thinking… my hand is on hers, and she turns to me… and I don't know what to say at that moment. Both of us framed in the sunset, staring into each other's eyes… My hearts pounding so hard I wouldn't be surprised if I broke a rib.
"Do you remember when we first met?" She doesn't break her gaze.
"On Eden Prime?" I half ask, "of course I remember…"
"Why were you really there?" She asks suddenly…
"To find you." I answer truthfully… at least that was the real reason I was there.
"Wi… Solomon, you aren't hiding anything from me still are you?" She's very suspiscious for some reason today.
"Of course I am," I answer, "everyone has something they want to hide, things they have no control over that they want to forget." My actions as a Cerberus agent, my family in another dimension. I let out a sigh, I hate thinking about my family… it gets me thinking on how I'll never see them again… "There are things I'd rather forget, those are the things I'm not telling you."
She pulls in closer to me, to the point where we're inches apart from each other. Then… she hugs me, and I'm frozen for an instant before I hug her back. I've almost accepted that I'll never see my family again, I've accepted that I'll be stuck here forever… but I know how much of a disappointment I've been… and if they knew what I'd done… become a mercenary, assassinate people, and all those other horrible things… they would've taken away my video games for life…
Shepard pulls me from that thought, back to the moment... Us alone on the balcony a sunset in the background, her hands clasped in mine. We're staring into each others eyes... and, I freeze, my heart is hammering in my chest as she pulls me closer, and closer and... She whispers in my ear, "Kasumi needs us now."
Der… I… huh? She… Was it just me who thought that was a romantic moment? I mean… come on sunset, hands, quiet breathy speaking… Oh I'm gonna get her back for this that's for sure. My mind for a moment holds the fleeting thought of what almost happened.
We met back at the vault Kasumi was uncloaked her omni tool was glowing a confident grin on her face. Shepard stood off to the side, smiling… like she'd pulled the best joke in history on me. My face doesn't show any emotion, I'm in business mode again.
"Looks like it'll be more than a combination," I remark truly looking at the vault… I wasn't a cracker, I was the muscle in an operation most of the time… the visible muscle at least.
"Not by much, we need a password that Hock needs to speak and we have to have a sample of his DNA." She looks between us.
"A hair or some skin cells would do right?" I ask.
"Then we'll get it from his room," Shepard suggests.
"That works, the password should be in a security station."
"As for the voice prints just get him talking and I should be able to work with it." Looks like we've got a plan…
"We should get the skin samples first, then get the voice print and finally the password." A good order of events in my opinion.
"We could split up and get the skin sample and speech then get the password from the security station together." Shepard counters, why do I feel like she's suggesting this just because I came up with the other plan, we both stare at Kasumi. She's suddenly the center of attention.
"Let's go with Shepard." Traitor.
"Right I'll talk to Hock you get the DNA sample," I suggest.
"You think you can get a man to talk more than I can?" She puts her hands on her hips… she's surprisingly animated.
"Who are we?" I ask suddenly, she starts to answer, "when did we meet?" I continue, "what issue of badass weekly were we on?" She doesn't answer. "Solomon and Allison gunn I took your name due to my separation from my family, we met on Omega two years ago, we were hunting the same target and arrived at there at the same time, and we were on the July issue, cover thanks to our marriage getting hit by our rival group we had to fight while saying our vows." "I've thought this through, you don't respond to your name." I might be a little cross at what she did earlier and that may be affecting my judgment.
"You've thought it through," Shepard responds.
"It's a variation on other thoughts I've had," I turn away, "and I read the files Kasumi gave us on our covers." I head back up the tunnel.
"Sir," A guard approaches me. "What were you doing down there?"
"I'm sorry I got a bit turned around."
"Sir?" He doesn't believe me.
"My wife and I had a fight, I stormed off without thinking and ended up down there," I admit with a tinge of regret in my voice. "She feels we don't communicate enough and…"
"I understand," the guy breaks a stony face for a second, "my wife's the same, but being married to a merc isn't what she expected." I take a mental image of his face, flat top blond brown eyes, I won't shoot you if things get bad.
I put a hand on his shoulder, "you've helped alleviate the bad taste my fight has left in my mouth, take this." I pass him roughly 20,000 credits, Cerberus's dime, "buy your wife something nice." I add a wink.
He nods gently and steps back. I spot Hock center of attention where he likes it. I step into the crowd… how to make him talk a lot…
"We've been preparing for a long time for what's to come." Hm?
"What's to come?" I ask calling attention to myself.
Hock glances over at me, "I may as well get to the core of the reason for this gathering." The crowd thickens. "All of us have been affected by this group, raiding our businesses crippling our operations, a shadow that's existed over the underworld since before humanity joined the galactic community, he's affected our bottom line and forced us to use far crueler tactics than necessary when making our deals, and some of us have lost trusted lieutenants who were like family." He catchs the groups eyes, "for all his interference he hides himself, his face even what his species is, this man has poked his nose into our business far too much, and yet all we've been able to gather on him before is a name."
"The Owner." Oh man.
"That was until recently, his operations are becoming more and more open as the days pass and this is our chance to return the favor, to hit his territory disrupt his operations kill his men!"
The crowd around me began clapping at the end of his little speech… it makes me wonder if I should really rob this man… I mean sounds like he'd be willing to work together against a mutual enemy.
"Kasumi? Do you have enough?" I mumble to myself.
"Yes, and we've got the DNA…" I hear an alarm going off behind her followed by an "oops."
I spin and spot the door guard speaks into his com, moments later he's joined by a pair of other guards… one is the guy from earlier… crap. I slip through the back of the crowd and walk after them slipping through as the door closes… they hear me and look back. I step in the middle of the three of them landing a solid right on the center one, accepting counters from the other two, in exchange I grab the blonde guard and slam him into his still standing compatriot taking them both to the ground, and I close the distance and kick each of them in the head knocking them both out.
Shepard comes up the stairs on her own noticing my handy work. "Not bad," she walks up to licks and me her finger and rubs the blood away from the side of my mouth didn't realize I was bleeding must've been one of the two hits I took. "Duck next time."
You confuse me I can't help but think. Either that or I took that hit a bit too hard to my head.
"Next is the password itself."
"Just a couple of armed guards between us and it." I grin to Shepard.
"Let's move." We enter back through the doors and no one moves to intercept us… we need to move fast to get through this before they wake up. We move through the party with a purpose, arm in arm, to at least give some guise of being partygoers. We power through into the security office, and the moment the door opens our pistols are in hand. Bang, bang and no more security.
"Cake." Shepard says. We throw the office upside down. "When did you get like that?" Shepard asks while rifling through the desk.
I'm glaring into the computer, "Like what?"
"You didn't hesitate an instant when we walked in." She sounds… sad? "Before you said you wouldn't…"
"I grew up, and recently I've learned that my stupid little code of honor has no meaning, and could cause my friends to die." I lose focus and curse myself silently.
"A lot has changed in two years…"
"I feel like we've had this conversation," I respond not glancing over my shoulder.
"Bits and pieces." She sighs. "I can't find it."
"Check the datapad on the desk behind you," I respond. I glance through another file… not what I'm looking for. I should've flipped Hocke's room.
"It's here," Shepard responds, "PERUGGIA."
"Is that a planet?" I ask, not moving from the computer.
"Don't know, doesn't matter we've got what we came for…" She pauses and notices my lack of movement, "or I've gotten what I came for…"
"Hock is going after the Owner," I keep focus on the screen, "I'm trying to see if there are any files here..." I sigh I haven't found anything. I search PERUGGIA… and a single file, I grab it we've gotta move anyway before someone comes back.
"Let's go." I shut down the terminal and stand up.
"Yes ma'am," I smile gently. Inside I'm shouting… I couldn't find anything.
We exit silently and walk through the crowds, Hock is giving another speech but I see him glance over at us… He knows… duh he knows how the hell did I forget that he's known all along we came with Kasumi, he wants us to get into the vault so he can get her to crack Keiji's grabox for him. I smack myself in my head hard enough to know me slightly off balance.
"Shepard, be ready, this is going to go bad soon." I clench my fists. We make it to the vault without problems. All was calm, quiet normal… then Shepard started taking off her dress. "oh woah woah woah," I cover my eyes and back away as if she'd suddenly become as bright as the sun.
"What?"
"You, no clothes," I stutter out.
"We need to get in our armor remember?" Oh yeah.
"Wait then how come you nearly killed me when I saw you come out of the shower and the time in the armory?"
"Because you surprised me both times, and I only threw a grenade launcher at you in the armory." I can't see her as I'm covering my eyes with my hand, I hear her grunt and I get slammed in the chest. "Don't forget you brought that."
The grenade launcher… "Toss me my armor," I say through my hand which is still covering my eyes… "just the pants for now." And I turned away, I pull off my jacket, unbuttoned my shirt and for a few moments entertained peeking, but… I didn't. I put on the black undersuit for my armor (which always reminded me of a pitch-black wetsuit), I clasped my one arm-plate (since my geth arm didn't need protecting), threw on my boots, and chest plate. All that was left was my cloak and mask… don't know why the mask is here… I only carry it for when I'm going EVA it connects with the under suit essentially making it vacuum proof, I throw the cloak on and put the mask on, it's already here and with the amount of guns I carry I don't have room anywhere else.
I'm ready, I turn to look at Shepard… and I stop, now I said she's beautiful in a dress… and I may have played down how she looked in armor… but she's in armor that's beautiful on it's own… it adds to how beautiful she is… because…
Shepard's wearing Blood Dragon Armor now.
A/N: Oh you know stuff's gonna get real when Blood Dragon Armor gets involved.
