1 August 2185, Shadow Broker Vessel/Hagalaz
We took only a few moments to pull off our cold-weather gear and breathing masks. The air inside the Broker's ship seemed cool and dry, tasting faintly of metal, but it would support us.
I glanced around. We stood at one end of a long corridor, which ran fifty or sixty meters straight to a distant ramp. I saw no branches or side corridors, and no doors in all that distance.
"They are here," said Thane.
Sure enough, I saw some of the Broker's soldiers pelting down the ramp, lifting firearms and rocket launchers to point in our direction. We all took cover. Garrus fired once, then twice up the corridor to discourage the enemy, but I couldn't see that he hit anything.
"How many soldiers does the Shadow Broker have?" I complained.
"I told you so," muttered Shepard.
"We are trapped," Samara pointed out. "It would be best not to remain still. That will only give them a chance to bring up overwhelming force."
"Agreed . . . but don't think of it as us being locked in here with them." Shepard smiled grimly. "Think of it as them being locked in here with us."
"Brave words," said Thane dubiously. "What are your orders?"
"Watch my flanks, take out anyone who seems likely to get behind me, and try to keep up."
My eyes widened.
Shepard leaned out to take in the situation at the far end of the corridor for a moment, unconcerned at the rising clatter of gunfire and the first rocket launched in our direction. Then he stood tall, leaning forward slightly as if about to start a race. He blurred and vanished. A thunderbolt flashed down the corridor, and then he stood there, in the midst of the Shadow Broker's men, a whirl of fists, feet, and shotgun fire.
"Come on!" shouted Garrus, pausing only to fire once with his sniper rifle. A trooper who had managed to keep his feet through Shepard's charge suddenly staggered and fell, dropping his weapon.
We ran, firing and exercising our own biotics along the way. By the time we approached Shepard's position the immediate fight was over, but we could hear more of the Broker's men approaching from further along the corridor. So Shepard gave us only a moment's glance, and then he was off again, a biotic grenade exploding into the enemy's face.
The whole fight through the Broker's ship seemed like that. No longer afraid of charging off into an abyss, Shepard could fight without hesitation or restraint. The rest of us often had difficulty keeping up, even at a dead run.
Thane and Samara kept their sidearms out, providing covering fire and picking off Broker troops who survived each of Shepard's charges. Garrus occasionally stopped for a moment to line up a shot with his sniper rifle. On the other hand, after the first few moments I put my sidearm away. My marksmanship was passable, but Shepard was constantly in motion and I was terrified of hitting him. In any case I could be far more effective with my biotics. I used singularities to block side passages, warps to tear down shields and barriers, even my new stasis technique to lock down enemies who might otherwise have flanked Shepard.
It took us more than an hour to slowly pick our way across the ship's hull. It took us less than five minutes to smash through the Broker's defenses and get into the control centers of the vast ship.
By that time, we had completely shattered the Broker's soldiers. We could hear the survivors trying to coordinate a response, but we had knocked out too many of their officers and gotten too far behind their defense lines. It gave us a breathing space. I found an office untended, hacked into a computer terminal, and downloaded an extended schematic of the ship.
"We're getting close to the prison block . . . and Feron," I reported.
"He must have been important to you," said Shepard quietly, as we moved down another corridor.
"Not really. Not at the time." I shook my head. "I just hired him to help me find and recover your remains. It's funny, he betrayed me more than once, but in the end he came through. I couldn't have rescued you without him. I probably couldn't have gotten away with my own life without him."
He gave me a sharp glance. "He's the soldier you had to leave behind."
"Yes."
"I understand. That's one of the toughest calls you'll ever have to make."
I remembered Kaidan and nodded.
Another squad of the Broker's soldiers guarded the prison block. Knowing we were at large, they did their best to set up an ambush, but Thane spotted them before they saw us. We diverted through a side corridor, came in behind the ambush, and took them by surprise. Once we had defeated them, I ran to the nearest computer console and hacked in to check the records.
"He was moved to Room 101 less than an hour ago," I reported. "Come on."
Room 101 turned out a large compartment, set up as an odd mix of server room and torture chamber. Immediately behind the main entrance, there stood an observation platform. Below that, behind a thick pane of glass, network racks and electronic equipment loomed in a circle around a reclining chair. In the chair, pinned down by restraints, lay a male drell: naked, his bones terribly prominent, covered with scars, his scales dull and many of them abraded away.
"Feron!" I hurried across the platform to a control panel, my friends following.
The drell rolled his head, opened his eyes wearily. "Liara?"
"Hang on, we'll have you out of there in a moment," I promised, beginning to hack the console.
"No . . . wait . . ."
Something went wrong. The console flared red and made a harsh buzzing sound. Down in the room electricity surged, forcing Feron to convulse painfully. A terrible rasping scream tore through his throat.
Garrus seized my arm. "Stop! Liara, he's booby-trapped!"
I recoiled from the console in horror.
"He's right," said Feron weakly, as soon as he could speak. "They've set this apparatus up on the highest level of sensitivity. Tamper with it even a little, and my brain cooks. You might be able to figure it out eventually, but I'll be dead long before then."
"Goddess, what has he done to you?"
He licked his lips painfully. "He knew you were coming. Had his men put me in this thing. He knows you'll have to come to him now."
"You say him," said Shepard. "The Shadow Broker? It's really an individual, a he?"
"Yes." Feron took a deep breath. "I've never seen more than a glimpse of him, in the darkness. No one has. But he's definitely a single entity. Big. Powerful. All his men are afraid of him."
"A krogan?" wondered Garrus.
"No. Bigger."
Shepard and I exchanged a glance. I could see him weigh whether to risk everything on one roll of the dice . . . but I could also see that having me as part of the stakes made him hesitate. I lifted my chin in determination, gave him a small uncompromising nod.
He saw what I had left unsaid. He nodded in return. "All right. Feron, we'll have you out of there yet. Even if it means taking the Shadow Broker's bait."
Feron let his head roll against the restraints. "Good. I'll . . . try not to go anywhere while I wait."
"Arashu keep you in the shadow of her wings," said Thane unexpectedly. "Do not despair, brother."
Feron raised his head again, saw the drell standing with us, and blinked slowly. "Thank you."
"Arashu has wings?" Samara asked quietly as we moved away.
"Sometimes," said Thane.
"Interesting."
From that point on we saw almost no resistance. I suspected the Shadow Broker had directed his men to stay away from us, that he planned to deal with us himself. He had to know our numbers, our identities, and our capabilities. I felt deep unease, thinking about the supreme confidence that would deliberately invite us into his presence.
Perhaps he wants to negotiate after all.
I didn't really believe it.
We ended at what appeared to be a blank wall, deep in the heart of the ship. Shepard stepped up to the dead-end, examining it closely. Suddenly we heard a quiet beep, and a very ordinary door-control panel appeared in the exact center of the wall. It shone red at first to indicate a lock, but almost immediately it beeped again and turned an inviting green.
"Okay, that's just a little creepy," said Garrus.
"I have seen no cameras along the walls or ceiling for some time," said Thane. "How is he observing us?"
"Only one way to find out," said Shepard, reaching out to tap the hologram once.
We heard a deep booming sound. The apparent wall receded slightly and divided in two, revealing itself as a pair of thick metal partitions, grinding away to either side. Behind them we found a corridor, sloped gently down, almost completely dark. We followed it, soon hearing the boom of the door slamming shut again behind us.
We emerged into a great darkened amphitheater.
I glanced around and saw a large oval, perhaps fifty meters long and thirty wide at the floor. Instead of sheer walls on all sides, I saw three higher levels, each set further back from the floor to provide more working space. Spaced regularly around the oval, I saw access ramps for reaching the higher levels, as well as tunnel entrances that must have led to other compartments behind the walls. Computer equipment lined every level of the chamber, server stacks and consoles and display screens, all of it alive and humming with activity. At the far end of the space loomed a vast vertical array of holographic windows, full of more data than I could easily fathom, also constantly in motion. Behind the array I could see a raised platform like a theatrical stage, apparently supporting even more workstations. Further yet, I thought I could see a corridor leading off to more compartments, perhaps living quarters or laboratory space. The ceiling arched far overhead, with a great crystal lens in the center, glowing with bright actinic light. Behind the lens I could see plasma moving, part of the power system that drove the whole intricate machine. Everything seemed stark and austere, bare metal and bundles of cables, poorly lit by the lens and the dim glow of a thousand holographic windows.
That entire echoing space had a single occupant.
The Shadow Broker sat behind a large desk, not unlike the one in my personal office on Illium, but deeper and arranged in almost a complete half-circle around him. When we appeared he glanced up, closed down a set of holographic windows, folded his hands on the desktop, and watched all of us with an air of patient tolerance. It seemed an incongruously delicate gesture, given his sheer size and alien shape.
Most of the available light came from behind the Shadow Broker, making him difficult to see in detail. I had the impression of enormous bulk, bigger than any krogan. His face was a nightmare of eight sharp eyes, fluttering ears, and an enormous three-sided maw full of viciously sharp teeth.
At first, I could see nothing but a monster . . . but then I realized the shape looked somehow familiar. I thought furiously, searching my memory.
The Broker spoke, his voice a rumbling basso profundo, weirdly articulate and cultured coming from such a hulking shape. "Here for the drell? Reckless, even for you, Commander."
"Sending your army to shoot its way through Nos Astra wasn't exactly subtle," Shepard retorted.
"Extreme, but necessary. Dr. T'Soni's actions required me to defend my interests."
"Be smart. Let Feron walk out with us. Then we're going to have a talk about your alliances with the Collectors . . . and with the Reapers."
The Broker did not move, and his voice remained perfectly calm. "I must refuse. I am not prepared to discuss my mutually profitable relationships with other clients. You are in no position to bargain in any case. At least this incident has brought you back into my control. The Collector offer for you remains open. Some small profit might also be realized from open bounties on the assassin Thane Krios and the vigilante Archangel. The asari are of no value in trade, but their elimination will dispose of a minor threat."
"You're quite confident for someone with nowhere left to hide," I said flatly, training my sidearm on the Broker. The others followed suit, fanning out slightly to ensure clear lines of fire. "You're not putting a hand on anyone!"
"It's pointless to challenge me, asari. I knew your every secret, while you fumble in the dark."
"Is that right?"
When I first opened my mouth to speak, I had no idea what I needed to say . . . but then it felt as if a friendly daimon had whispered in my ear. In an instant, I recognized the Broker, knew where he had come from, and that set off a whole chain of lightning-fast logic. I immediately threw myself headlong into it, not even knowing at first where it would end, only hoping that it would give me some lever to use against him.
"You're a yahg," I continued, throwing a specific flavor of contempt into my voice: the civilized sophisticate looking down on the crude barbarian. "A pre-spaceflight species, quarantined to its homeworld for massacring the Council's first-contact teams. The Shadow Broker's existence predates your planet's discovery, so I'm guessing you must have killed the original Broker and taken his place. As for how you got the opportunity? No doubt the original Broker had you taken from your homeworld because he wanted a slave. Or a pet."
No reaction from the Broker's vast bulk, except that his fan-shaped ears began to twitch.
You guessed right, Liara. You've got him.
I gave him a vicious little smile. "How am I doing?"
He stood up. And up. And up. Fully erect, the Shadow Broker towered over all of us, well over half a metric ton of viciously angry carnivore.
"Oh fuck," observed Garrus.
The Broker roared, a terribly loud and bestial sound that made my hindbrain want to flee in terror. Then he smashed the desk in front of him, seizing a chunk of the wreckage and hurling it.
Right at me.
Shepard threw himself into action, tackling me around the waist and bringing us both to the floor, the desk-fragment flying over us to smash against a computer pylon behind.
The Broker roared again, terribly close by. Then I heard another sound, a high-pitched whirr.
"Combat drones!" shouted Thane, sprinting for cover.
I looked up, and the air seemed full of flying weapons.
The drones were small devices, perhaps half a meter long, but they flew on mass-effect fields and fired short, powerful bursts of laser light. One of them hit Shepard as he struggled to rise, slicing directly through his kinetic barriers and burning a gouge along the chest-plate of his armor.
Samara saved us. It took a few seconds for Shepard and me to roll to our feet and think about finding cover. That should have been enough time for eight of the drones to converge and slice us into bleeding chunks . . . but Samara held her ground, stood over us and calmly refused to give way. One gesture sent a drone tumbling to the side to crash into another. A second gesture threw a third drone soaring up toward the high ceiling, out of control. Two bursts of gunfire took out two more drones. Then Shepard and I reached our feet and ran.
"Samara! Go!" yelled Shepard.
Too late. The last drones in the swarm converged on the justicar. Rather than slice her to ribbons, two of them leaped forward and stabbed her with sharp prongs. Some kind of energy discharged. Her eyes widened and she went down, apparently alive but paralyzed.
"It's like the stasis imposed by the Collectors' seeker swarms," I said breathlessly.
"More Collector tech." From our place of momentary concealment, Shepard looked around. "Where is everybody?"
I peeked out as well. Aside from Samara's unmoving form on the floor, the space appeared empty, patrolled only by a dozen combat drones moving in a slow circuit around the perimeter. "Garrus and Thane must have made it to cover in the upper tiers. I don't see the Shadow Broker anywhere . . ."
Some intuition must have warned Shepard. He glanced behind us, his eyes widening, and then he shoved me hard to the side.
The Broker's great mass slammed down on the floor, right where we had been crouching. He roared in frustration, one arm lashing out and catching me across the face. He was strong, horribly strong. I flew backwards and sprawled on the floor at the base of a computer pylon.
I glanced up, lights still swimming in my field of vision, and saw Shepard in a close-quarters duel with the Broker. He ducked under the monster's swing, dodged to the side, took three rapid steps back and discharged a shotgun in the Broker's face. None of it had any effect. The Broker was no biotic to have a telekinetic barrier up, but his technological shields seemed as unyielding as granite.
Then the Broker produced his own sidearm: a minigun that wouldn't have been out of place mounted on a combat vehicle. He brought it to bear and fired one-handed.
Shepard fled at a dead run, less than a second ahead of a hail of high-caliber bullets that would have punched through his shields almost instantaneously.
The Broker whirled, snarling, but I had learned; I no longer sprawled on the floor at his feet. I moved as fast as I could among the computer equipment, exposing myself as little as possible, spitting blood from where my teeth had gashed the inside of my mouth. A thought led me to activate my radio. "Garrus? Thane?"
"Here," said the drell calmly. "Under cover, dealing with the combat drones as opportunity arises."
"Same here," said Garrus. "Damn, Liara, you really pissed him off."
"Yes, but now he's fighting stupidly. I hope."
"Even fighting stupidly he may be a match for all of us," said Thane. "I assess the drones as the most immediate threat. One of us is already down and the rest of us dare not concentrate our forces while the drones remain active. If we destroy them, we can focus our remaining efforts on the Broker."
"Agreed." I thought fast for a moment. "I have an idea, but it will take me a few moments to try. See if you can attract their attention."
I heard a cynical grunt from Garrus.
"Acknowledged," said Thane.
I worked my way toward the far end of the Broker's lair, where most of the high-stakes computer displays and controls seemed to cluster. I saw no sign of the drell or the turian, but I did hear a rattle of gunfire off in the distance, and the drones seemed to crowd off in that direction.
I had a moment to access a computer console. Frantically, wishing I was as technically adept as Arin or Tali, I hacked my way through the file hierarchy. It seemed surprisingly easy. I found no access controls to speak of.
Control Room Defensive Systems.
Movement, in the corner of my eye.
Like lightning I sent a virus from my omni-tool into the file system, then disengaged and rolled frantically across the floor, just as a burst of laser light scored the floor where I had huddled a moment before.
Then the drone seemed to pause, lose track of my location for a moment.
I didn't wait to see whether my improvised hack had worked. I simply fired at the drone and reduced it to scrap metal.
On the floor, Shepard played a cat-and-mouse game with the Broker. He had switched to his Shuriken for longer range, popping up for a moment at a time, just long enough to pepper the yahg with a burst and then roll for new cover.
Suddenly I saw the Broker's shields go down for just a moment. He made a long low growl, like a carnivorous beast in some thick jungle, and struck a pose in the middle of the floor. Energy surged around him, the same color as the plasma behind the lens high above, and his shields began to recover.
I jumped up, fired a long burst right at the Broker's center of mass. Useless. Every bullet was met by a flash of light and deflected.
Shepard stood upright, staring at the Broker. "Stay down! That shield is kinetically sensitive, designed to deflect high-velocity bullets!"
"Then what can we do?"
He smiled grimly. "I'm betting it won't do anything about low-velocity impact."
Then he charged the Broker on foot, ignoring the swarm of combat drones overhead. Somehow they failed to target him, possibly affected by my hack after all. I fired wildly, taking out one drone, then two.
Shepard planted his feet in front of the Broker, and lashed out with his fist.
The yahg recoiled, his massive head rocking to the side. Shepard followed up with a left-right-left combination to the Broker's midsection.
The Broker retreated, growling.
Shepard charged once again.
I saw a flash of red-orange light. The Broker's omni-tool had flash-manufactured something . . . a large shield that covered him from head to feet. The yahg lashed out with his new protection, catching Shepard in mid-charge and sending him reeling back.
The combat drones wheeled and converged.
"Shepard! Run!" I placed a singularity in mid-air, throwing the drones into disarray and giving Shepard some cover as he regained his balance.
Shepard fled for his life.
The Broker followed, breathing hard, his head hunched down now, covering himself with his omni-shield as he lay down fire with his minigun.
"Now what?" I asked the radio.
"He can't cover himself on all sides with that thing," said Garrus, sounding out of breath. "Not too many of those damn stingers left. If we spread out around the upper tiers, take out the last few drones . . ."
"Pack tactics. Like the last fight with Saren."
"I wasn't there, but yeah, that looks like the best bet."
"All right."
I went hunting drones. It was rather exciting, since they also hunted me, but after a while I realized that my hack must have worked. Now each of them operated independently, see-target-shoot-target, without using cooperative tactics. So long as I made sure none of them got behind me, I could move and shoot them down without much trouble. Biotics helped, pulling them off course or snarling them up in singularities as needed. Thane and Garrus did the same from wherever they skulked.
Down on the floor, Shepard kept busy staying alive, continuing to wear away at the Shadow Broker's defenses whenever opportunity appeared. That didn't happen often. The Broker's minigun was a frightening weapon, and he had terribly fast reflexes.
I had no drones in my immediate vicinity. I decided to try something new. I reached out with my biotics, took hold of the Broker's shield, and yanked as hard as I could.
The Broker staggered, giving Shepard the chance to pour in a long burst with his Shuriken and then run to a new vantage point.
I thought so. You may have strong kinetic barriers, but to do its work that shield has to be outside their protection . . . where I can get to it.
Then I had to roll frantically to my own cover, firing blindly at the three drones that spotted me while I had exposed my position.
Still, the drones seemed less of a threat with each passing minute. I could reach out and hit the Shadow Broker with a telekinetic throw again, then again, each time exposing his body to Shepard's gunfire.
A thunderbolt struck the Broker in the middle of his back, Garrus taking a shot with his sniper rifle. The yahg's kinetic barriers flared and went down.
He roared in frustration, moving into the center of the floor once again to strike a pose and rebuild his shields.
This time Shepard needed no encouragement. From his position on the first tier he flash-charged down onto the floor, slamming into the Broker with both fists to his jaw, dodging the counterblow and then driving in once more. The Broker put his omni-shield down, braced himself, and prepared to hold his enemy at bay . . . but Shepard charged in, braced his shoulders against the omni-shield, and pushed.
He held the Shadow Broker in place, even as the yahg pushed back with all his might. He fell back half a step, then another, but no more than that.
Goddess. How is he doing that? The Broker must be five times his mass. Cerberus must have rebuilt him for sheer physical strength on top of everything else.
Then something else struck me.
Why does the Broker keep moving down to the center of the floor to rebuild his shields?
I looked up. Saw the great crystal lens in the ceiling. The plasma behind it, the same color as the yahg's defensive barrier.
I activated my radio. "Shepard! See if you can get him to raise that barrier once more. I have an idea."
Down on the floor, Shepard and the Broker had disengaged. They stared at each other, both breathing hard, like combatants in an arena. I could see Shepard's slight nod, and then the battle resumed.
"This is Thane. Vakarian is down. The last few drones overwhelmed his defenses."
"Is he alive?"
"Yes, but unable to fight." The drell paused for a moment. "I have his sniper rifle."
"Good. Use it."
I couldn't see Shepard's face through his black visor, but he suddenly changed his tactics. He began pressing the Broker, risking the minigun's fire in order to come in close and hammer away with his shotgun. The tactic wasn't very effective with the Broker's omni-shield in the way, but Shepard pulled the yahg around after him.
Away from wherever Thane lurked in the upper tiers.
BOOM.
A long pause, while Thane reloaded the weapon and sighted in on the Broker's bulk once more.
BOOM.
The yahg whirled to face his unseen foe, but that only gave Shepard the chance to rise out of cover and fire his shotgun from a newly exposed direction. Crash. Crash.
The Broker wasn't looking in my direction. I rose out of cover and threw biotic warps, as fast as I could, one-two-three. Not at the Broker. At the crystal lens set into the ceiling. After a few moments of this I could see the crystal starting to crack, the cracks widening and spreading.
Now we have you.
The last of the combat drones fell to the floor in a shower of sparks. Then I finally saw Thane, leaning out from behind a computer console on the second tier, Garrus's Mantis rifle in his own skilled hands.
BOOM.
The Broker's shields flared and went down once more.
Shepard shouted, a great hoarse scream, and charged down an access ramp onto the floor.
The Broker snarled, put his omni-shield down, and ran at Shepard in turn, obviously planning to stamp him into mush on the floor.
I vaulted over the railing of the first tier, landing on the floor not far from Samara's prone form, already reaching out with my mind.
A roar from the Shadow Broker, the yahg swinging his omni-shield in a wide, powerful sweep . . .
Shepard wasn't there. At the last moment he rolled under the Broker, springing back to his feet behind the yahg. "Liara! Now!"
I arched my back, my face raised to the ceiling, my arms wide as if I prayed to Athame in the temple. My corona surged into existence, blue-white radiance sheathing my entire body. My mind locked onto the crystal lens, already weakened and cracked.
I made a pulling gesture with both arms, with only one thought in my mind.
Down.
The Shadow Broker spun, snarling, suddenly realizing what we had in mind.
Too late. The lens cracked, shattered. White plasma poured out of the conduits on the ceiling, a cascade of violent energy falling to the floor. Right where the Shadow Broker stood.
A roar of frustrated rage. A vast hulking shape, falling to its knees, struggling against the incandescence that killed it. A high-pitched whine of feedback, as plasma reacted to the yahg's kinetic shielding.
I threw my hands up to protect my face.
WHAM!
The entire ship trembled slightly under the force of the explosion.
When I could see once more, the Shadow Broker was simply gone, only a great burn-scar in the center of the floor to indicate that he had ever existed.
I heard nothing but a vast and echoing silence.
I crossed the floor to stand over Shepard, smiling down at him, giving him a hand to help him rise. He opened his visor and smiled at me in return, then turned away to see to the others.
I stood alone for a moment, breathing hard with the release of ultimate tension, looking around the vast chamber, data still flooding by on every console and screen. My mind started moving again, and the first coherent thought in my mind was: Now what?
We had killed the Shadow Broker.
We had killed the Shadow Broker.
A network that spanned the galaxy, tens of thousands of informants and operatives, secrets reaching into the top level of every government, many billions of credits in resources . . . and the one individual who controlled all of that was gone. The network had gone adrift, even if none of its members knew it yet.
Goddess, what have we done?
Well, there was one thing I could do. I moved over to the nearest control console, confirmed the lack of access controls or authentication, and called up the ship's security grid. I cut the power to Room 101 in the prison block.
At least Feron will be able to free himself now.
I almost turned to Shepard once more . . . but a new voice broke in, unfamiliar, coming from the direction of the great wall of displays. "Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat. We've had a momentary transmission failure. Can you confirm status?"
Another voice: "Operative Shora requesting an update. Are we still online?"
Suddenly a flood of messages began, the Broker's senior operatives all talking over each other, all of them demanding to know his status, looking for instructions, seeking scraps of reassurance.
Oh Goddess. The moment the Broker fails to respond, his entire network will know something has gone wrong.
"Liara?" Shepard's voice, from back where he helped Samara to rise.
I glanced around the displays, looking for something, anything to shut off the tide of confusion and dismay. All of the displays, all of them, choked with calls streaming in from all over the ship. Possibly from all over the galaxy.
The network began to crumble, right before my eyes.
Wait a moment.
I stopped.
Closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
The solution appeared. It was so simple.
I glanced across the displays, saw what I would need. Reached out and touched a control.
The flood of incoming messages stopped.
I touched another control, then a third, opening a new holographic panel in front of my face. A channel came up, with voice filtering and reprocessing in place. The channel the yahg had always used to speak with outsiders. The same channel he had used to speak with Feron and me, years before on Alingon.
I took another deep breath, committing myself, and spoke.
"This is the Shadow Broker. The situation is under control. The intruders triggered a power overload before being defeated. This disrupted communications momentarily. However, we are now back online. Resume normal procedures. I want a status report on all operations within one standard day."
I bowed my head, feeling the enormous weight of it settle onto my shoulders.
"Shadow Broker, out."
A drell voice, from behind me. "Goddess of oceans. It's you . . . you. How?"
I turned. Feron was standing there, clothed in a stolen jacket and trousers, lowering a stolen weapon.
I sighed. "Well, everyone else who has ever seen him is dead . . . so . . ."
He nodded slowly, eyes wide. "So you are the new Shadow Broker."
Shepard's eyes went wide with surprise. "Are you sure about this, Liara?"
"It's either that or let his whole network collapse. We can't afford that, not with the Collectors on the march." I looked down at my hands. They were shaking. "With his network and his resources, I can give you . . . I can . . ."
Oh Goddess. What have I done? What burden have I just accepted?
I turned, tears already beginning to stream down my face. I looked up into Shepard's face, and saw nothing there but compassion.
"It's over. Finally, after all of that . . ." My voice broke.
Then he stood close, holding me in his arms for the first time in two years. I melted into the embrace, resting my head on his chestplate.
"It's all right," he told me, and for a moment I believed him.
Far away, I heard Feron's voice. "I'll . . . just go and check the power supply."
He left, our other friends in tow, giving us a moment of privacy.
"No," I said at last, breaking away from Shepard's embrace and staring at him wildly. "This isn't right. It's been two years. You have your mission . . . Shepard, so much has changed, we're two different people . . ."
He gave me an exasperated smile, for just a moment before his hands went around my waist once more, just there, where he had always known to touch me in our previous life together. My eyes fell closed, and then I felt his lips on mine, strong, demanding, possessive and passionate. His tongue slipped into my mouth, and it tasted just as good as I remembered. My consciousness blurred for a long moment.
"Okay," I breathed, once he had drunk his fill and withdrawn a few millimeters. "Okay."
"Okay," he agreed.
I slipped out of Shepard's arms, not wanting to look at his face, fearing that I would lose all control if I did. I took a deep breath. "We should focus. See what our options are."
A few moments with the controls, and it became clear that the Broker's entire network stood completely open. The consoles I had hacked before, during the fight, had been no exception. Everything in the room was ready for us to use.
"No safeguards or user restrictions," I said at last. "It's as if he never expected anyone else to be here. It's all ours."
"You guessed that he took over from someone else to become the Shadow Broker," Shepard mused. "Maybe he valued the network he had built, even over his own life. He might not have wanted it to fall apart, even if someone else did the same thing to him."
"Maybe. I don't remember much about the yahg, but that might fit their psychology."
"You don't remember much? How did you know so much about the Broker, then?"
I gave him a shaky smile. "I didn't, not really. I remembered studying what little was known about the yahg back when I was at university. It was nothing but an educated guess."
"T'Soni, remind me never to play poker with you," he said, shaking his head in rueful admiration.
"Hmm. I do play poker now, thanks to your memories. Maybe we should try a game sometime. Just to see if I come up to your standard."
"Oh no. I know better than to fall for that one. So what kind of information do we have?"
I turned back to the consoles. "I . . . I don't know. I couldn't begin to guess what he had at his fingertips. He was the most powerful information broker in the galaxy. Give me some time to work with the databases, figure out how his system worked. I may call some of my people in from Illium to help. A few days and I should be able to give you something useful."
"Good . . . but I'm not sure I can stay that long. The Collectors are still out there."
"At least I can make sure the Broker's network stops helping the Collectors." I stared at him, wide-eyed. "Shepard, all I really wanted was to rescue Feron and hurt the Broker. I never expected to take over for him. Is it wrong that a part of me wants this?"
He rested a gentle hand on my shoulder. "It's not wrong at all. You've been preparing for this ever since I died, whether you realized it or not at the time. I can't think of anyone I'd rather see in this position."
"All right. I know I can help you. Maybe I can turn this operation into something better."
"I know you can."
A thought came to my mind, a terrible realization. "Shepard, there's something you need to do for me."
"Anything."
"When you get back to Normandy, don't tell anyone what happened here. Certainly none of the Cerberus people."
He frowned.
"Tell the others . . . Garrus, Samara, Thane . . . tell them to say I was killed in the fighting. You reached an agreement with the Shadow Broker, convinced him to drop his alliance with the Collectors, but that's all."
"Liara. I can't do that. Do you know what that will do to all the people who care about you?"
I stared up into his face. "I know, but it's necessary. Shepard, I know the Illusive Man will find out what happened here eventually. But if we can keep him in the dark for a while, even for a few days, that might make all the difference. I might be able to put him off-balance. Give you some room to maneuver against him."
"I'm working with him for the time being," he objected. "Not that I expect that state of affairs to last forever."
"You know who and what he is. He will use you, and he will discard you the moment you're no longer of value. Just as he uses and discards everyone else."
He nodded. "I know. I've been looking for an opportunity to break free."
"Maybe I can get you that opportunity, but only if he isn't watching me. Only if I can disappear, operate solely as the Shadow Broker for a while."
"All right." He sighed deeply. "I was really hoping to spend some time with you, but if you're going to play dead . . ."
"I know. You can't linger, or else people will wonder what keeps you here." I rose to kiss him again, briefly this time, but with as much promise as I could manage. "Once our ruse has run its course . . . Shepard, you owe me a night in Azure. Surely the galaxy can spare its champion and the Shadow Broker for one night?"
"I suspect we can manage that much," he said, grinning at me. "Don't be a stranger this time, Liara."
"Small chance of that." I opened my omni-tool, generated a new set of cryptographic keys, and shared them with him. "Here, install these and we'll stay in touch. Where do you think you will go next?"
"The Citadel," he said as he opened his own omni-tool to accept the keys. "One of the dossiers on my list is supposed to meet us there. I want to talk to Anderson too."
"Be careful, Shepard. The Council is not happy with you."
"Story of my life." He looked up into my eyes once more. "Liara . . ."
"I know. I will be all right. Go do what you must."
He laid his hand alongside my cheek, a gentle caress, and then he turned to go.
I turned away, not wanting to see him vanish beyond the great doors.
The display wall loomed before me. All of the galaxy's secrets at my fingertips.
Well. Let's begin.
