Chapter 23: Romance, Rescue and Ruin

Things were going... well, they weren't going to hell. Yet. For once. Weapons were fine. Upgrades were installed. Progress was finally being made on that Reaper IFF—who would've thought integrating alien tech into our systems would be so damn complicated? My social life was actually humming above nonexistent, thanks to the 'office work dates' I'd been having with Miranda.

You may have noticed that I omitted descriptors like 'clandestine' or 'secret' from that last bit. It was a safe bet that at least one or two people were starting to notice. I was pretty sure it wasn't common scuttlebutt, simply because I wasn't getting secret looks from the crew and they weren't descending into secretive whispers whenever my back was turned. Nevertheless, some people were putting two and two together. (1)

My first hint was when I was bugging Mordin to see if he had a minute to talk. I figured he'd blow me off with his latest mad science experiment.

"Actually, wanted to talk. Medical matters."

Say what?

"Aware that mission is dangerous."

And he was just figuring that out now? I thought Mordin was a genius.

"Different species react differently to stress."

Right. He spoke faster than the average salarian. I shamelessly looted random rooms of their valuables.

"Sexual activity common for humans in such times. Understand it intellectually. Recommend caution when dealing with Cerberus."

Wait... did this mean he knew about me and...? Was he giving...? "You have a recommendation as a doctor?" I finally asked.

"Watch for bugs. Could be planted anywhere. Can perform exam later if necessary. Will need probes."

Did he just say probes?

"Biotic ability also gives benefits," Mordin continued, activating his omni-tool. "Forwarding booklet to your quarters. Includes diagrams, exercises, inventive uses of mass effect fields."

Inventive use of what?

"Can supply oils or ointments to reduce discomfort. Gave EDI electronic relationship demonstration vids to use as necessary."

"Wait a minute, Mordin," I grinned. "You're just yanking me around, aren't you?"

Mordin stiffened. "Shocking suggestion! Doctor-patient confidentiality a sacred trust. Would never dream of mockery... or yanking."

Um...

He reached over and patted me on the shoulder. "Enjoy yourself while possible, Shepard. Will be here, studying cell reproduction. Much simpler. Less alcohol and mood music required."

...I got nothing.

The other person who made it clear that she was in the know was Kasumi. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have teased her about her collection of musty old books—many of which were cheesy romance novels. After defending the tactile pleasures of flipping musty old pages, she turned the tables on me.

"Miranda is the last person I'd want pissed off at me," she said. "I guess you are as brave as they say."

"Come again?" I asked.

"It's really weird to see Miranda smiling while she's working," Kasumi said. "And it's all because of you."

"What are you trying to—"

"Shep," Kasumi interrupted firmly. "I'm not stupid. One of the side benefits of being a master thief is that you tend to pick up on what people are trying to hide. That goes double when you have a cloaking device."

Uh oh. "Kasumi..." I warned.

"Oh, don't worry," Kasumi reassured me. "My lips are sealed. I think it's wonderful that you two are finding some happiness together, especially in such stressful times. If anyone deserves it, it's you two."

"I'm still pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming," I said wryly.

"Oh, you're not."

"Just checking." Boy, this was getting intense. Time to distract Kasumi. The question was: with what? Past capers? Too obvious. Local scuttlebutt? Possible. A certain Armoury Officer? Oh yeah! "So, have you put the moves on Jacob yet?"

Even while hiding underneath her hood, I could see Kasumi smile. "Jacob... MMMMMMM!" she hummed dreamily. "He's pretty intense, don't you think?"

He was very intense and serious, I had to agree. I would also have to say that Kasumi was quite lighthearted and cheerful without being flighty or fickle. "Seems to me like the two of you would balance each other out nicely," I suggested.

"Maybe," Kasumi said. "Do you think he might like Japanese girls with a penchant for kleptomania?"

"Shepard," EDI called out over the comm before I could reply. "There is a situation that requires your attention."

"Did Grunt empty out the larders again?" I sighed.

"No. We are receiving a distress call from a luxury resort on Eletania. It appears there is a hostage situation."

"I see," I frowned. "And where is everyone else, might I ask? We aren't exactly in the neighbourhood."

"Local security forces were ill-equipped to fend off the hostage-takers, nor are they capable of mounting any sort of rescue. Other sources of aid are at least two days away. We are the closest ship that is in a position to offer assistance."

Oh goody. "Any other good news?" I asked.

"Looks like the Reaper IFF is finally hooked up and ready to go," Joker reported.

About time. That thing had been a pain in the neck ever since we swiped it from that derelict Reaper. Just about every report covering the installation of the damn thing could be summarized as: "Not working, not cooperating, error messages, crashed some other system, or all of the above." Until now, that is.

"That is not entirely accurate, Mr. Moreau," EDI corrected, much to my dismay. "The device is powered up and functioning, but it is causing some unusual instability in other systems. I recommend a more thorough analysis before you attempt to use it."

"We can't exactly put the mission on hold forever," I reminded them. "Sooner or later, we'll have to face the Collectors. How long will this take?"

I could hear Joker sigh in frustration. He was clearly just as annoyed as I was. "Even a basic scan of a couple components takes an hour or two. A full scan? Who knows with this thing? Maybe you'd better take the shuttle for this mission. I'll make sure we're up and running when you get back."

I glimpsed Kasumi scrolling through a message on her omni-tool just before a new voice entered the conversation. "Commander? It's Miranda. I've already notified the rest of the squad."

Great. Spending a nice prolonged trip crammed in a floating coffin with an entire squad donned in bulky armour and weapons. Guess I didn't have any other choice, though. I couldn't exactly hang out in my cabin and listen to jazz when there was something else that I could do. "Then I guess I'll start gearing up. Have everyone assemble in the comm room. Try to get some intel so we have some clue of what we're getting ourselves into. Joker, we'll depart in the shuttle once we've cleared the Attican Beta mass relay."

"Understood, Commander."

I headed for the door so I could grab my hardsuit from my cabin. "Oh, Shep," Kasumi called out as I was starting to leave.

"Yeah?"

"About Miranda? Be gentle with her."

I paused before silently acknowledging her with a nod and departing.

It didn't take long to suit up. Benefit of going on way too many dangerous assignments, I guess. Before I went to the armoury to grab my weapons, I checked my e-mail. There was a new message from Mordin. One with several attachments.

It couldn't be. I thought he was joking. I opened it, bracing myself for a virus attack.

...

He wasn't kidding. About anything he said he'd forward to me. This was...

...

Wait. That's actually possible?

"OK, what do we know?" I asked once the squad was crammed into the comm room. (2)

"Eletania is a study in contrasts," Miranda started. "On the one hand, it is teeming with a rich variety of mosses, algae and lichen that adds a picturesque quality to the valleys and mountain formations that covers the planet. On the other hand, it also boasts a set of microscopic fauna that exists in a symbiotic relationship with the local flora... and causes anaphylactic shock to non-native—"

"Get to the point, Cheerleader," Jack interrupted impatiently.

Miranda gave her a single cold stare—which Jack returned—before summarizing: "It's very pretty, but breathing the air without filters or masks could kill you."

That I remembered all too well. Hackett had sent us there on one of his many random assignments to retrieve a recon satellite containing data on geth movements in the Attican Beta Cluster. We'd had to fully suit up before deploying. "So where is this luxury resort, exactly?" I asked.

"It is the latest addition to the chain of establishments owned and operated by Serenade Resorts," Miranda replied. "The resort is located near the equator, at the top of a mountain approximately 2200 metres above sea level. It seems it was chosen both for the view as well as the fact that its altitude was well out of the native range of the microscopic organisms."

So the staff and customers wouldn't have to worry about sneezing themselves to death. More importantly, we wouldn't either. Good to know. "What do we know about the situation over there? How many hostages? How many hostiles?"

Garrus took over. "We managed to contact the security commander and operations director. According to them, a shuttle crash-landed just outside the resort. The passengers got out, stormed the resort and took hostages."

"How many?"

"Twelve guests are currently registered as signed in, along with a support staff of sixty. Some of the guests and over half of the staff managed to escape to the outskirts of the resort, but that still leaves about thirty hostages trapped. Vid-recordings of the initial assault suggests anywhere from nine to twelve hostiles."

"What do they want?" Jacob frowned.

Garrus shrugged. "Don't know. So far, they haven't made contact."

"Anything else?"

"The operations director directed us to the resort's transport pad," Garrus replied. "Once we are there, he'll send someone to escort us to the command outpost they set up."

Well, it was better than nothing. "We'll find out more once we hit the ground," I decided. "Joker?"

"Just entered the Attican Beta Cluster," Joker reported. "You can take the shuttle to Eletania from here."

"Understood," I replied. Ship's all yours, Joker. Take care of her."

"Aye aye, Commander."

Most orbit-to-surface trips take anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes. This trip took almost ten hours. Needless to say, we were very happy when we finally touched down at Serenade-Eletania and could stumble out. We were greeted by a stern-looking man, bearing an assault rifle and one very bristly beard. "Commander Shepard?" he asked.

"That's me," I confirmed.

"Captain Dario Cruz. Thank you for responding so quickly—is that a geth?"

"Yep," I confirmed without bothering to turn around. "Don't worry: they're with us."

"If you say so," Cruz said dubiously. "Please come with me."

Straight to business. I could deal with that. We followed him through a door, down some stairs and through several maintenance tunnels, which meant I missed all the wonderful architecture and wide open spaces that the resort brochures probably boasted ad nauseum. We finally wound up in some kind of bunker, filled with tables, computers and people. I later found out it was the backup maintenance control room, which probably explained why it looked like a bunker.

A nervous-looking blonde man with a receding hairline ran over to meet us. "You must be Commander Shepard," he said. "Mike Dennis, operations director. Welcome to Serenade-Eletania. I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Likewise," I nodded. "Before we get started, Mr. Dennis, we need to set up a command centre with full access to communications, monitoring capability, computers, the works. We also need some space so we can move around and plan our next move without tripping over your staff."

"Captain Cruz has already set that up," he replied, leading us to an office at the back. A bit small, but definitely large enough to hold the entire squad. It also had several computer terminals and a couple tables. More importantly, it gave us a place to think and plan in peace. "Good," I approved. "Now then. What's the situation?"

"We've had a chance to do a more thorough head-count since our last conversation with the Normandy," he replied. "We can now confirm that six of our guests are still trapped along with twenty-seven staff."

That made 33 hostages. "Where exactly?"

"Cabin 38, on the northeast side. Based on the eyewitness accounts of everyone who made it out, we were attacked by eleven prisoners."

"Prisoners?" I repeated. We'd just arrived and already things were going south.

"Yeah, they were all dressed in prison clothes, the kind inmates wear."

Aw, crap. "And the shuttle crashed? It didn't touch down?"

"That's right."

So the hostiles would have to rely on us to get away. That gave us a bit more control to work with. "Go on," I urged. "What can you tell me about them?"

"Mostly humans, though there were two batarians amongst their ranks. One of the batarians accidentally killed himself while trying to stop some of our guests from fleeing. Sounds like his gun blew up in his face."

Oops.

"Another prisoner came in with serious injuries. He's being treated in our medical facility under armed guard."

"That still leaves nine hostiles to deal with," I summarized. "Do you have any blueprints of the cabin and the area around it?"

Cruz obligingly pulled up a 3D display , which hovered over one of the tables. It... wasn't exactly what I wanted to see.

I wasn't the only one who regarded it with a certain amount of dismay. "Lots of space all around it," Jacob groaned.

"Look at all the goddamned windows," Zaeed added morosely.

"It would be difficult to get close without our enemies noticing us," Samara concluded.

"Is there another way to get to the cabin?" I asked.

"We do have a network of maintenance tunnels running throughout the resort," Dennis said. "One of them runs right underneath the cabin. But it doesn't provide direct access into the cabin itself, just the heating and cooling systems."

"At least we have one way in," I sighed. "We just have to make a hole."

"And figure out a way to avoid attracting any attention in the process," Garrus added.

"There might be another way," Miranda said thoughtfully.

I looked at her. "Miranda?" I prompted.

"There might be a blind spot through the skycar garage," she frowned, crouching down and looking at the blueprints at eye level. I tried to ignore the fact that it offered a tantalizing view of her ass. "It's hard to tell, though. I'd like to see it for myself. Even if it's from a distance."

"Mr. Cruz can take you to the roof," Dennis offered.

"Good," I said. "One more thing: if we wanted to get a good vantage point of the cabin, where would we go?"

Cruz worked his computer magic again. "Cabin 27 and 31. North and west of Cabin 38, respectively."

"Okay," I said, staring intently at the blueprints. "We'll need snipers at each of those points. Legion, Thane; you're up."

"Understood."

"Very well."

"Tali, familiarize yourself with the computers here. I want constant surveillance feeds on that cabin. Continual scans of comm frequencies in case the bad guys are trying to contact someone. That sort of thing."

"Got it."

"Garrus and I will stay here for now and try to establish contact with them. Miranda, take everyone else to the roof and assess the terrain."

"Right."

I crossed my fingers that this whole thing wouldn't blow up in our faces.

Tali wound up making a couple changes here and there. Mostly formatting tweaks and rearranging icons to match what we had on the Normandy.

Miranda reported in just as she was wrapping up. "Shepard?"

"I'm here," I replied. "How's the view?"

"Great if you're on vacation, horrible if you're trying to storm the cabin without being spotted."

"Good to know. Our buddies haven't contacted us yet. Maybe we'll be lucky."

"How so?"

"Maybe they're not in a rush. It's only—" I paused to check my chronometer. "—six hours until sunset."

"It would be easier to implement a tactical insertion at night," Miranda agreed.

"Of course, we could be really lucky and manage to negotiate a peaceful solution."

"We'll see about that."

Miranda sounded doubtful. I couldn't blame her.

"In the meantime, I've asked Captain Cruz to take us to one of the cabins on the west side. Cabin 8, to be exact."

Dennis moved the holo-map to Cabin 38. Sure enough, it was on the west side and well out of the hostiles' line of sight. "You want to run some exercises," I guessed.

"Captain Cruz told us that the layout of the cabin and maintenance tunnels is identical," Miranda confirmed. "The surrounding terrain is similar as well."

"It would be nice to determine our options, rather than charge in blind."

"Indeed. I'll keep you updated on our findings. Miranda out."

With nothing to do, Garrus, Tali and I decided to review the vid-recordings ourselves. Maybe we could ID a couple of them. We'd just gotten started when a young woman burst in. "Sir," she said, looking at Dennis, "Cabin 38 is calling us."

"Patch them in," I said.

The woman did as I asked with a couple keystrokes on her omni-tool. A blinking icon appeared on my HUD. I was just about to select it when Garrus grabbed my arm.

"Garrus?" I prompted.

"I thought one of those guys looked familiar," he replied. "Human male, short brown hair."

"And?"

"Still don't know who he is, but I remember where I saw him. He was one of the prisoners we passed during our visit to Purgatory."

Where a simple pickup of a certain foul-mouthed, tattooed convict turned into yet another firefight. "So we know they came from Purgatory," I said. "So what?"

"So they may know that the prison staff had arranged to sell Jack to Cerberus."

I suddenly realized what he was getting at. "And if that's the case, they may also know that I was the one who they'd be handing her over to. You think that'll make them less inclined to listen to me?"

"It's possible."

"You realize that I was also responsible for Purgatory falling apart and giving them the chance to break out," I reminded him. "Indirectly, at least. Wouldn't that make them more receptive?"

"It might," Garrus conceded. "Or that might mean they would be grateful to Jack rather than you."

Um. Yeah. The thought of Jack trying to talk them down kinda freaked me out a little. "Maybe you should do the negotiating. Just in case." (3)

"Right," he nodded. He reached over and activated the comm channel with his omni-tool. "This is Garrus Vakarian," he said out loud. "I have been asked to negotiate for the safe release of the men and women you took hostage. Who am I speaking to?"

"The guy issuing our demands."

"And your name is?" Garrus asked again.

The guy with the demands didn't take the bait. "You will release Louis Manson—"

"Who?"

"The man you captured. You will release him into our custody."

Must be nice to be so popular.

"You will also hand over a FTL-capable shuttle."

"That could take a while," Garrus said. "That man is—"

"Call me back when our terms have been met," the man interrupted. A flashing indicator told us that he terminated the call.

"I'll start an extranet search on the name Louis Manson," Tali said.

"Good." I turned to Mr. Dennis. "Could you pull up our patient's medical status?"

Tali wordlessly pointed to one of the consoles in the midst of her typing. Dennis nodded and nervously moved over. As he started tapping away at the console, he looked at me. "Normally I'd want to do everything we can to save our guests and staff. But wouldn't giving in to their demands be a bad thing?"

"Like Shepard said, we need more information," Garrus explained. "That includes figuring out how the... the patient is doing, whether he's stable enough for transport and who exactly they are. That will give us a better understanding of who we are dealing with."

As Garrus talked, the medical records came up. Unfortunately, they were all a bunch of numbers and acronyms to me, so I decided to talk to the attending doctor instead. Only took a few false starts before I got through. "How's the patient doing?" I asked after identifying myself.

"Quite well, all things considered," she replied. "If he was one of our guests, I'd say he could leave right now."

"Let me rephrase my question," I said. "The sooner Mr. Manson leaves, the sooner they get more impatient about taking off and the harder it will be to rescue the hostages. So I'll ask again: how's the patient doing?"

She caught on to what I was getting at. "Some of his results are a little abnormal. I'll need to run more tests. Plus, I'd like him to wake up of his own accord, rather than awakening him with stimulants. A couple hours, at least."

"Thank you," I said.

"Okay," I said after signing off. It didn't take long for the extranet to give us some answers. "Louis Manson believed the Alliance was fundamentally flawed, and the Council even more so," Tali reported. "Organized several protests, linked to a couple riots. According to this report, he finally left with a couple dozen followers to found his own colony—New Helford.

"They rejected any authority but their own, vowing to repel any 'foreign influences seeking to enslave them' by whatever means they deemed appropriate," Garrus added, peering over Tali's shoulder.

"But they didn't go far enough," I finished, peeking over Tali's other shoulder. "The Alliance raided the colony within a year. According to this report, they said they received reports that Manson was stockpiling biological weapons. They justified the raid by saying the colony was within Alliance space."

"While Manson claimed that New Helford was located inside the Terminus Systems," Tali finished. "If I'm reading this right, the raid was a disaster. Casualties on both sides. (4) The surviving colonists were taken into custody.

I glanced at Garrus. "Good thing you opened negotiations,"

"In their eyes, you're both an Alliance covert operative and a Council Spectre," Garrus agreed. "That combination could set them off."

"Now that we know where they came from," I said, "maybe we could ID them. Greeting them by their actual names would throw them off-balance."

"Cross-referencing the surveillance feeds with extranet reports now," Tali called out. As she searched around, I looked at the feeds again. "There!" I pointed at one of the bad guys. "Looks like that guy was directing the others, telling them to grab hostages and pointing them towards the cabin."

"That was the one I recognized earlier," Garrus told me.

"Carl Sorensen," Tali identified. "Has a criminal record for gun trafficking and murder. Escaped during a prison riot instigated by Manson. He joined his group and quickly became his second-in-command."

"Anything else?"

Tali managed to ID three more humans and the batarian. None of them were what you'd call fans of authority figures or the establishment, either because of political beliefs or because they'd run into trouble with the law. I contacted the rest of the squad and filled them in. "Miranda, how are you doing?"

"Still working on establishing blind spots to reach the cabin," Miranda reported.

"How about the maintenance tunnels?" I asked.

"We've confirmed that it runs underneath the cabin, but we'd have to use explosives to make an entrance."

"I'd be careful about that," Dennis cautioned. "You don't want to blow up the heating or cooling systems."

"Agreed," Miranda said. "We've already mapped out the location of those systems. I'm a bit concerned about the fact that we need to use explosives in the first place. That's going to make some noise."

"Is there any way we could muffle that?" I asked Dennis. "Fly some shuttles overhead or run some machinery really, really loud?"

Dennis shook his head. "All of our equipment and vehicles were customized to minimize noise output, for the consideration of our guests." He stopped as if remembering something. "We did have an earthquake yesterday, though. The rumbling definitely made the ground shake, and it was loud enough to hear, but our sensor grid gave us advance notice. We warned our guests days before it happened."

"We could use that as a cover," I speculated. "Warn them of an aftershock just before setting off the explosives."

"Even if we could create an entrance, we'd still need time to climb up and get into the cabin," Miranda reminded us.

"So you'll have to determine where the hostages are and where the hostiles are before picking an insertion point," I agreed. "Otherwise, they'll be right on top of you."

"Meanwhile, we're mapping out the blind spots around the cabin," Miranda said. "Once we identify them, we can use them to get close and set up vid-cams."

Garrus and I exchanged a look. "You think?"

"It's about time," Garrus agreed.

"Time for what?" Tali and Dennis asked, more or less in unison.

"Time for us to initiate contact on our own instead of calling in response to their demands," I replied as Garrus opened the comm channel that the bad guys had used earlier. "Takes away their control."

"Yeah?" we heard over the comm. "You ready to free Manson yet?"

"Carl Sorensen?" Garrus responded.

There was a pause. If we wanted to throw him off balance, we'd just succeeded.

"I don't want things to turn out like they did in New Helford," Garrus said. "Neither do you, am I right?"

"Wh-what the hell do you know about New Helford?"

Garrus didn't flinch, possibly because the speaker wasn't pressed against his ear. "I know that you wanted to be left alone, Carl. I know that people got hurt. People got killed. On both sides."

Sorensen let out a bitter laugh. "You don't know anything. Just what the Alliance told the media lapdogs to say after they attacked us without cause or provocation. They trespassed on our territory, murdered our friends and family members. Locked us up and threw away the key. And no one cared."

"Well there are people who care now," Garrus replied. "I just talked to the doctor looking after Manson. She tells me he's out of immediate danger and making progress."

"And you'll let him go?"

"Once the doc gives the all-clear: she's currently running the last batch of tests. Plus, Mr. Manson's been through a lot, so she doesn't want to put too much strain on his system by jolting him awake with stimulants."

"Just like that?" Sorensen sounded skeptical. " You'll give back our leader and let us go?"

"We're working on that," Garrus said, sidestepping the question. "I'll be honest with you, there's a lot of people who aren't happy with giving into what they see as a bunch of criminals. Now I know that's not true. You just want your leader back. Your friend. You want to get away and start a new life, am I right? You don't want to hurt anyone."

"Yeah. Yeah, that's right."

"Good. That's good. My boss'll be glad to hear that."

"And you'll get us that shuttle?"

"That's next on my to-do list. But here's the thing: even the biggest shuttle can only carry so many people. Maybe you could make it easier on yourselves and let some of the hostages go."

"What?"

"Come on," Garrus coaxed. "You telling me that when Manson arrives and you guys fly off, you want to worry about all that excess baggage?"

"You—"

"I'm talking about a gesture of good faith, here. Nothing—"

"Y-you what? You want a gesture of good faith. Are you fucking kidding me?! We've been on the level from the beginning. It's guys like you who've been lying and murdering. YOU'RE THE ONES WHO HAVE TO PROVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED! You have thirty minutes to deliver Manson and the shuttle! After that..."

The comm channel closed. "Sorensen?" Garrus tried. "Mr. Sorensen? Carl?" He turned to look at the rest of us. "Well... that could have gone better."

Yep. "Plan A's getting dicier by the second. Tali, get in touch with the doctor again. Tell her that we may need Manson conscious and ready to move."

"Got it."

"Garrus, stand by in case Sorensen tries to contact us again."

"Right."

"Miranda?"

"Shepard?"

"What's your sitrep?"

"We've mapped out the cabin's blind zones for approach and are running simulations to set up vid-cams."

"That's good, because our buddies are getting testy. They've given us a deadline of..." I checked my chronometer. "Twenty-nine minutes."

"That's not enough time, Shepard."

"I know," I sighed, "but you'll have to make do. Don't worry about trying to map out every possible permutation. Just get one dry run under your belt. Then send Kasumi on ahead to set up the vid-cams, split the squad up and get moving."

"Understood."

"Keep your comms open and on receive-only mode," I added. "So you can keep up to date on how things develop."

"Got it."

Tali reported as soon as I finished with Miranda. "Shepard, the doctor says that Manson will be ready to leave in ten minutes. Maybe less."

"Ten minutes is good, Tali. Thanks. Can you get her to send over some proof that he's doing well, just in case we need it? A vid-recording or something?"

"On it."

Garrus had been listening while Tali and I were occupied. "You know, Shepard," he said. "If they're as militant as their records and conversations suggest—"

"Then the likelihood of talking them down and resolving everything peacefully becomes even less likely," I groaned. "I know. That's what Plan B is for."

"You think Miranda can get the squad into position and ready in time?"

"If anyone can do it, she can," I shrugged. "But maybe we can help her out."

"Re-open the lines of communication?" Garrus guessed.

"That'll slow things down," I agreed. "Distract them from the clock."

"What'll really help is Manson."

I frowned. "You're not thinking of letting him loose as soon as he's ready, are you?"

Garrus shook his head. "Not unless we have to. But if we let Sorensen know how he's doing, he might be more cooperative."

"All right," I decided. "Do it."

Garrus got on the comm again. "Carl?"

"You have twenty-six minutes, Vakarian!" he barked. Clearly he was still agitated from the way the last conversation ended. "Talking about it won't change anything."

"We just wanted to warn you that you might feel a few aftershocks from the earthquake that hit yesterday. Also, Manson's doing well. The doctor's confident that he can be discharged soon."

There was a pause. "That's... well, we're... that's good. Then tell the doc to let him go. Let him go. Bring him to us."

Sorensen was definitely less adversarial now. I wasn't the only one who noted that. "Just like that?" Garrus asked. "Come on, Carl. My boss needs to see some people released before anything else happens."

"Garrus, please. What do you think will happen here? We know they're not Alliance soldiers. We don't have a problem with them. We just want to leave in peace."

"I know that," Garrus assured him as I started tapping madly on my omni-tool. "I do." He paused to see the message I sent to him: **Tone shift: mad to pleading.** "But my boss is firm on this: you don't get anything unless we get something from you first."

There was a pause. "Fine. We'll give you five."

"Five?" Garrus saw me typing away again. "That's a start, but you can do better than five and we both know that."

I sent another message to him: **Emphasize control. We're doing him a favour.**

"Look at it this way: you give us five, you still have twenty-eight. Twenty-eight people who'll get hungry or thirsty or need to use the bathroom. Twenty-eight people who'll get anxious or temperamental or restless. Maybe even act up. Trust me: that's going to happen. Do you really want to babysit twenty-eight innocent civilians?"

"Well, um... maybe, ten."

Garrus raised the ante. "How 'bout fifteen? You give us fifteen civilians and it'll be that much easier to keep control of the situation in there."

Another pause. "All right. Fifteen."

"Good," Garrus said. "That's good. We'll send over two of our guys to direct the traffic. They'll stay out of your way and won't try to get in. I promise."

"Hold on: how do we know Manson's alive."

Garrus tapped his omni-tool. "I'm sending over a vid-recording the doctor made. Do you have it?"

"Almost… here we go… yeah. Yeah, we see him."

"He's alive and well, right?"

"Uh huh."

"So… do we have a deal?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we have a deal."

"Thank you. Thank you, Carl."

"Just remember, Vakarian: we'll be watching. Any extra guys out there, any hint that you're trying to double-cross us and things'll get really, really ugly. You hear me?"

"Yeah, Carl. I hear you. We'll send two guys your way. No more, I promise."

"Fine. Let's do this."

Garrus visibly sagged after that conversation. I patted him on the shoulder while opening the squad comm channel. "Miranda?" I called out. "You hear that?"

"I'm sending Jacob and Mordin to you now. The rest of us will start moving into position. Just in case."

I let out a breath as Sorensen signed off. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

You'd think I'd know better than to be so damn optimistic.

Things started off okay. From our improvised command centre, I watched as Jacob and Mordin slowly moved towards the base, taking the clearest and most open path to avoid any hint of subterfuge. Legion and Thane kept a close eye on Cabin 38. Miranda helped the resort staff organize one of the conference centres into an improvised shelter where the hostages could find refuge.

"Fifty metres to the cabin and closing," Jacob reported.

"Stay alert," I cautioned. "If anything gets hinky, protect the hostages."

"Copy that."

"Understood."

"Affirmative."

"Very well."

I tapped into one of the vid-cams and zoomed in on the cabin. "Main cabin door opening," Jacob said.

"This way," Mordin called out. I could see him gesturing towards the hostages. "Over her and towards the asari." (5)

Tali counted the hostages as they exited. "One... two..."

"Shepard-Commander. Target lock established on hostile in the dining room."

"I have a partial shot on another hostile, Shepard," Thane added. "In the living room."

"Three... four..."

"Hold your fire," I replied. "I repeat: everyone hold your fire."

"Five... six... seven..."

"Come on! This way! Keep going!"

"Ten... eleven..."

"Keep going! That's it!"

"Twelve..."

"Doing good, doing goo—"

"What was that?"

"Shots fired! Shots fired!"

Dennis looked at me in alarm. "What's going on?"

I motioned for him to stay quiet. "Snipers: report."

"Target lost."

"No solution."

To their credit, Jacob and Mordin kept their cool while the situation unravelled before their very eyes. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!" he urged.

"Thirteen... fourteen..." Tali counted as a steward ran out, carrying a little girl over her shoulder. I caught a glimpse of a hand reaching out from the cabin door—a mother or father, perhaps?—before the door slammed shut.

"Jacob, Mordin—get out of there," I said over the comm.

"Standby." They waited until the last hostages arrived before grabbing them and whipping them around the corner. "We're clear."

"Good," I sighed, breathing out heavily.

"Commander Shepard," Dennis piped up. "What does that mean? I didn't want anybody hurt. But there were gunshots and—"

I didn't blame him for being rattled. So was I. But I had to pretend everything was fine or he'd lose it. (6) "Mr. Dennis," I interrupted gently. "I know you're worried. We all are. We're going to find out what's going on. But we need you to stay back and let us do our job, okay?"

"But—"

"Just sit tight, okay? We've got fourteen hostages out safely and we're going to do everything we can to get the rest of them."

"All right."

Garrus was trying to contact the hostiles again. He tried for a full minute before shaking his head. "Nothing."

At this point, it would take a miracle to resurrect Plan A. Time to get Plan B moving, I decided. That meant more intel. "Jacob, Mordin: as soon as the medical staff clears them—"

"Interview them and get everything they know," Jacob finished. "On it."

"Kasumi, I want eyes and ears on Cabin 38."

"Sure thing."

"Legion, Thane—"

"We will continue to monitor the cabin," Thane reassured me.

"Good. Tali: establish a remote connection to the shuttle. Get her airborne and start scanning Cabin 38. Keep your distance, but get me some thermal readings and bio-signs so we know where everyone is."

"All right, Shepard."

And then all I could do was sit back and wait.

"Shepard."

"Yeah, Garrus?"

"Hostiles are contacting us again."

Garrus had been trying to reach them on and off since the gunshots rang out. "Okay," I nodded. "Answer it."

He opened the comm channel. "Sorensen?"

"Vakarian. Where's Manson?"

Terse. Tense. Great. "Glad to hear your voice again," Garrus said. "How're you doing?"

"Pissed. We were cooperating, but one of the guys decided to play hero."

"But you and your colleagues are all right?"

"Yeah, yeah. No thanks to that jerk."

"And the jerk?"

"I shot him in the shoulder. He's off in a corner crying like a baby."

"Well at least he's alive."

"I was aiming for his head."

"Oh."

"Look. We did our part. Now it's your turn. We want Manson!"

While they were talking, vid-feeds from the cameras Kasumi set up were coming online. I started looking them over and comparing the data with Zaeed's scans while Garrus tried to calm down an increasingly agitated Sorensen. "Carl, I know you want him back—"

"You know nothing, god damnit! Clock's ticking! You have fifteen minutes. After that, we shoot a hostage. And this time, we won't miss! GOT IT?!"

"Fifteen minutes until you shoot a hostage," Garrus repeated. "Got it."

He made sure the comm channel was closed before looking at me. "Shepard, what do you think?"

"The shuttle scans show nineteen life-signs clustered in the master bedroom," I replied. A quick tap brought them up as a bunch of yellow dots on the holo-map. "We have two more life-signs outside the bedroom—one at the north door, the other at the south." Two more yellow dots.

"There's one life-sign each in the foyer, the dining room, the living room and the garage—the remaining rooms with access to the outside. Kasumi's vid-cams confirm that the bodies in the first three are hostiles." I designated those dots as red. "We can't get a clean view into the garage, though." The last dot popped up as yellow.

"Finally, there are three life-signs in the kitchen. Thankfully, one of Kasumi's vid-cams got a line of sight into there through the dining room windows, so we can confirm that they are also hostiles." Six red dots now.

"So we know where six of the hostiles are," Garrus summarized. "Logically, the last three would be guarding the master bedroom and the garage."

"The interviews that Jacob and Mordin did with the hostages we rescued would confirm that," I agreed.

"But we can't be sure. They may have moved people around since then."

"True."

We turned around as the door opened. "Miranda," I greeted her as she stepped in.

"Shepard. Garrus. Tali."

"Miranda."

"Miranda."

"Mr. Dennis."

"Ms. Lawson."

Now that all the greetings were dealt with, we could focus on the mission. Naturally, Miranda had a plan. "Send two teams in. Team One goes through the garage and secures the bedroom, eliminating any hostiles on the way. Team Two goes in through the front door, through the foyer and into the kitchen."

"Thane and Legion can take out the hostiles in the dining room and living room," I added.

"I can see how Team One would go in," Garrus said slowly. "But what about Team Two? Are you thinking of using the maintenance tunnels?"

Miranda shook her head. "No, it would take too long and blowing a hole would rouse suspicions. We can't count on the hostiles to buy the 'earthquake aftershock' excuse."

"We could send Team Two over using the shuttle," I realized. "Bring them straight to the cabin's doorsteps."

"But we'd need a way to distract the guard at the front door," Miranda pointed out.

"Kasumi," I decided. "She can sneak in under cloak and take him out."

"While she's at it, she can take out the guard at the south door to the master bedroom and the garage," Miranda added.

"Which would ensure that we don't accidentally kill any hostages when we storm the cabin."

"Now we could use another distraction."

"Got it: we land another shuttle on the north side, outside the dining room. As a decoy."

"Tell them that it's the getaway shuttle they requested, with Manson onboard," Miranda finished. "This could work."

"This could work," I agreed.

Dennis looked at Garrus. "Do they always do that?"

"You get used to it," Garrus shrugged.

"Report," I called out.

"Team One approaching insertion point," Miranda reported.

"Team Two on final approach to insertion point," Jacob called in.

"I've almost cracked the cabin security," Kasumi whispered.

"Target lock established, Shepard-Commander," Legion told me.

"I have a solution," Thane said. (7)

"Remote connection to decoy shuttle confirmed," Tali added. "Standing by."

Garrus and I exchanged looks. "I hate this sitting by and doing nothing."

"Agreed," I groused.

Unfortunately, we didn't really have a choice. Garrus had to be ready on the off chance that Sorensen would call again, and it would be really awkward to do that while wielding a sniper rifle. And I had to coordinate everybody, which would be really difficult to do in the field.

At least we weren't forced to just listen to reports over the comm: our shuttle—currently carrying Team Two—was running continuous sensor sweeps. That data was being relayed to the holo-map, giving us real-time updates on everyone's movements. And I mean everyone: as I watched, a green dot entered the cabin. It—or perhaps I should say she—moved to the red dot guarding the foyer. A second later, the green and red dots started moving together. A few seconds after that, the green dot started moving again.

"Hostile in foyer neutralized. Bypassing front door lock now."

I entered a command to turn that particular dot black—the colour I'd chosen to designate unconscious life-signs. "Tali, launch the decoy shuttle."

"Launching now."

"Team One has arrived at insertion point."

"Team Two touching down now." (8)

So far, so good. We watched as Kasumi neutralized the guard at the south bedroom door. A few minutes later, the garage guard was disabled. "Open sesame," Kasumi whispered.

"Team One is in the garage," Miranda interpreted.

"Team Two is on the ground. We're ready to enter."

I had a thought. "Kasumi: take out the guard at the north bedroom door, then enter and secure the bedroom. Team One will go through the dining room and into the kitchen." That would sandwich the remaining hostiles between both teams. The only risk, of course, was that the chances of friendly fire had dramatically increased. Hopefully, the squad would be able to keep any itchy trigger fingers in check.

The squad quickly adapted to the change in plan. Kasumi's dot moved towards her target, Team One following at a safe distance. It didn't take long before Kasumi's dot and the last guard's dot entered the bedroom. "Everybody, I'm with the... police. Please stay calm. Final target neutralized. Hostages secured. And can I say that calling myself a cop is really weird?"

"Not now," I said with gritted teeth.

"Right. Sorry."

"Final check," I requested.

"Team One ready."

"Team Two ready."

"Decoy shuttle landing now," Tali told me.

"Alert: decoy shuttle obstructing view. Target lock lost."

"I still have a solution," Thane assured me.

"Tali, move the shuttle..." I paused to look at the holo-map again. "...five metres east."

"On it."

"Target lock re-established."

"Weapons free," I ordered. "We go in five... four... three..."

I had to mentally sync what I was seeing on the holo-map with my memories of the plan. At two, Legion and Thane took out their targets—which the holo-map showed by prompting deleting their corresponding dots. At one, Team One entered the cabin.

"Go, go, go!" I yelled.

Over the comm, I heard Zaeed's flashbang explode, the high-pitched squeal making its way through the speakers.

"Drop your weapon!"

"Drop your weapon!"

Gunshots.

"On your knees!"

"Drop your weapon!"

"I said, drop your—"

More gunshots.

"Drop your weapon!"

"Drop it now!"

Another round of gunshots.

...

Was this what it was like for superiors or bystanders listening or watching from afar?

...

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"Five hostiles down."

"Hostages still unharmed."

Dennis started clapping his hands together. Outside our improvised command centre, I could hear the rest of the staff breaking into applause as well.

We had done it.

We had actually done it.

Wow.

Cruz and his security personnel were sent in to secure the surviving hostiles and escort the remaining hostages to safety as soon as I gave the all-clear. After checking to see that the hostages were all right, albeit severely rattled, I led the squad to our shuttle. Took a while to get there, since we had to wade through the hostages—and security guards—who wanted to thank us. To my surprise, Dennis met us next to the shuttle.

"Thank you, Commander Shepard," he said, shaking my hand again. "I don't know what we would have done without you."

"Just doing my job," I shrugged. (9)

"I very much doubt that," Dennis laughed, "and I'm not the only one." He handed me a comm device.

"You were keeping other people appraised of our progress?" I frowned. "Because if you were, and the hostiles tapped into your signal, you could have jeopardized the entire—"

"I know," Dennis interrupted, "and it wasn't me. I don't know how, but the father of one of the hostages somehow knew about the hostage crisis and how you resolved it. He'd like to talk to you."

I slowly took the comm device from Dennis. "Hello?"

"Commander Shepard," a voice—British, judging by the accent—piped out. "My name is Hartley McArthur, CEO of McArthur Mining."

I'd heard of his company. Main competitor of Eldfell-Ashland Energy, both because of their extensive suite of operations and because they didn't have to deal with celebrity heiresses and their red sand-fuelled PR disasters. (10) "Nice to meet you," I said gamely.

"I understand there was a hostage situation at Serenade-Eletania. One that you thwarted without any loss of innocent life."

"You are very well informed."

"When it comes to the safety of my daughter, I make it a point to stay informed," McArthur replied. "I would like to thank you for saving the hostages, including my Vivian."

"Just doing my job," I repeated.

"Well if that's your definition of 'doing your job,' then I'd love to see that work ethic firsthand. Say, as my new head of security."

I blinked. "Are you offering me a job?"

"I am."

"While I appreciate your proposal, I—"

"I think you'll find the salary and benefits package to be very attractive. The signing bonus alone is double your official annual income as a Spectre."

Interesting how a CEO of a mining company was aware of little things like off-the-book accounts. Either he assumed that everyone who was smart enough adopted dodgy corporate practises or there was more to Hartley McArthur than a legit businessman. (11) "I'm afraid I have to decline your offer," I said politely. "I have commitments that I simply can't drop right now and, before you ask, I don't know when that will change."

"I understand," McArthur said after a pause. "To be honest, I would have been surprised—and disappointed—if you had immediately said yes. Having said that, the offer still stands if and when you fulfill those commitments. Trust me; we'll have so much fun together. Again, my sincere thanks for all you have done today."

"You're welcome," I replied before signing off. Handing the comm back to Dennis, I shook his hand. "Take care, Mr. Dennis."

"You too, Commander."

A minute later, we were all strapped in and taking off. As we cleared Eletania's atmosphere, I opened a comm channel to the Normandy. "Normandy, this is Shepard. Come in, Normandy."

To my surprise, EDI responded. "Commander. Are you damaged?"

"Um... no," I replied slowly. "I'm fine. Same with the squad. Why?"

"There's been a development."

I listened to what EDI had to say and gave an ETA before signing off. Miranda was the first to pick up that something was amiss. "Shepard? What happened?"

"Well, there's some good news and some bad news," I replied. "The good news is that the Reaper IFF is finally online and operational."

"And the bad news?"

"The Collectors dropped by while the Normandy was running her field tests. Aside from Joker, the entire crew's been abducted."

(1): A common occurrence aboard any starship.

(2): This is an exaggeration. The communications room of the Normandy SR-2 was actually more spacious than the close confines of the Kodiak shuttle's passenger compartment.

(3): Garrus would later confide that he was apprehensive about assuming such a role, as he had limited experience with hostage negotiations-and those incidents were as the designated backup negotiator. Needless to say, he was wise enough to keep those concerns to himself.

(4): Subsequent debriefings and reviews determined that the local commander acted prematurely before adequate intelligence could be gathered. Even worse, the biological weapons that New Helford were stockpiling were ones that the Alliance had already synthesized vaccines and antidotes for.

(5): Shepard had taken care to choose a route that would get the hostages out of harm's way as quickly as possible. This route led the hostages past Jacob and Mordin and around the corner of another cabin—Cabin 37, for curious readers. From there, Samara would direct the hostages past her and down the main path towards the convention centre.

(6): A situation faced by anyone bearing the burdens of command.

(7): Shepard generally resisted using an abundance of terminology, citing past experience as an Alliance operative working with non-Alliance allies and the frequent miscommunications and confusion associated with translating acronyms and phrases. Certainly this habit served him well as a Spectre, since over half of his squadmates were nonhumans and most of them were non-Alliance. That makes his use of Alliance military and police terminology in this mission all the more striking.

(8): In her spare time, Tali had taken the trouble to modify the Kodiak shuttle with quieter engines.

(9): When Admiral Hackett thanked Shepard for taking the time out of his primary mission of tracking down Saren to assist him, Shepard gave the same response. Hackett expressed his wishes that all Alliance personnel shared his sense of values, duty and responsibility.

(10): Shepard is referring to Aishwarya Ashland, granddaughter of EAE founder Jonah Ashland.

(11): As usual, Shepard's suspicions were right on the nose.