Sorry about the delay. Grandfather passed while I was at burning man, and that took a big chunk out of my desire to write stories about dying family members. I'm doing okay, I just wasn't in the mood to write for quite a while.


Garrus peered at the external camera feed on his omni-tool and sighed. Somebody on the Citadel had leaked the story, or at least part of it, and what was supposed to be the quiet coming and going of an Alliance frigate had turned into a massive production, with media, C-Sec security, temporary barriers, and far more fol-de-rol than anyone needed.

All because a human soldier is bringing back a dead asari, he thought grumpily.

Although, he mused, that was quite fair. It wasn't just any soldier, and it wasn't just any asari, either. Benezia hadn't been the most public of figures, but she was still quite influential in her own way, and Shepard as the first human Spectre obviously stood out like a sore thumb. That, in turn, had led them to delay disembarking to put on a good show for the masses, which had turned into Shepard telling her admiralty off for trying to meddle in how she ran her ship, thank you very much.

"Keelah," Tali muttered under her breath while looking over his shoulder. "Are they all here for us?"

Garrus nodded, shifting the display to give her a better view. "It looks like it. Damn, I think this is most of the precinct."

"Who do you think spilled the beans?" Ashley asked, rubbing an imaginary spot off her armor. "I mean, there weren't that many people that knew we were coming, right?"

"Probably the Alliance," Kaidan said, sighing. "They drop an 'anonymous' tip to the press saying that the first human Spectre's coming back with the body of Saren's right hand woman, that'll play real well for the crowds. Then they go leverage that success in talks with the Council for concessions, like getting more human Spectres, or fast-tracking approval of other projects."

Garrus raised an eyebrow at the human. That was a... remarkably blunt view of his own service, although, if he was being honest, likely an accurate one.

"Hrh," Wrex grunted. "Waste of time, if you ask me. I could be drinking."

"You'll get your chance, I promise," Shepard said, walking briskly up from the bridge. "They're almost done getting Benezia's casket ready for transport. Apparently, the Alliance insists it be moved out via the airlock, instead of out the main hold ramp like every other one."

Her tone was light, but Garrus could see the irritation in her eyes. She was being made into a show, and he'd never seen a competent soldiers that liked being shown off like a toy.

At the end of the hall, the elevator pinged once again, revealing a standard issue steel casket lifted by a pair of eezo jacks and pushed by four of the ship's marine company. Liara stood nearby, dressed in one of her newer work uniforms, her expression almost as irritated as Shepard's.

"Goddess, if I have to listen to one more matriarch telling me what to wear-" she muttered, and Garrus' mandibles flared in silent laughter.

"All set?" Shepard asked the soldiers, and one of the men in front nodded. "Good. Now, I will go through on the first airlock cycle, along with the rest of the ground team. After that-"

Garrus tuned her out. The whole situation was patently ridiculous. The Alliance wanted a show of victory over Saren. The asari wanted to make sure one of their fallen elders was treated with respect, even if she was a traitor. The hierarchy would have preferred if none of this came up at all, given that the traitor was a turian.

Which raises the question, why agree to do it? The only real 'winners' of a stunt like this that she cares about are the krogan and quarians. Any news is good news, and all that...

"-okay, cycling the lock," Shepard said, slipping around him to tap the command into the door panel. "Try not to trip on the ramp."


"That was the biggest waste of time I've been in since they had me mopping rain in basic," Ashley grumbled as they walked out of the mortician's office where Benezia's body was being taken. "Really, ma'am, was there a reason we couldn't have done that without the wall of spectators, flashing lights, and pissed off cops?"

Shepard sighed. "Wasn't my idea, Chief."

"Wish I knew whose it was," Ash went on. "Might have some words with them."

"As your commanding officer, it is my responsibility to remind you that assaulting diplomatic staff tends to result in pesky things like court-martials, and as such you are not to engage in such behavior – even if provoked."

"Noted, ma'am," Ash said with a grin. "Nice to think about, though, yeah?"

"No comment," Shepard said primly, and Ash burst out laughing.

"Now," Shepard said, smile fading slightly, "on a slightly more serious note... we have a few things to take care of, so listen up. I need to go speak with the Citadel Council about our recent mission and to get the location of the STG scouting teams, which will take some time. I need someone to go speak with the SAINTs about setting up some automated drone sweeps of the endpoint systems on the Mu relay – ideally somebody with Alliance security clearance."

Ashley and Kaidan glanced at one another, before they both shrugged. "We'll go together, ma'am," he said, "unless you want us flying solo?"

Shepard shook her head. "No, I think that should be fine. Feel free to wave my authority around if you think it'll help."

"Copy that, ma'am."

"Good. Liara, take Tali with you and go hit the Citadel library. I know you said it wasn't likely to bear fruit," she said, holding up a hand forestall the inevitable polite protest, "but we'd be remiss in our duty if we didn't hunt down every possible lead."

"Do you want me to message my contacts at university, as well?" Liara asked.

Shepard nodded. "If you're willing to, yes."

Liara smiled, a gleam in her eye. "It would be my pleasure," she almost purred, prompting Shepard to narrow her eyes at the asari.

"Don't taunt them too much," Shepard chided, but softened it with a smile.

"I will take your suggestion under advisement," Liara replied loftily, then giggled. "I will be nice, Shepard, I promise."

"Riiiiiiiight," Shepard said slowly. "Well, they're your contacts. Now, Wrex is doing some private work I need taken care of, so he'll be out on his own. And Garrus-"

He straightened slightly at the sound of his name. "Yes, Shepard?" he asked.

She glanced down at her omni-tool. "I have two things that I was asked to handle but don't really have the time for, if you're willing," she said. "One is some straightforward public safety spy work, the other is... a bit strange."

He cocked his head at her. Public safety spy work? And if that's not strange, I'm not sure I want to know what is. "I'm listening."

She nodded. "I have a request from an investigative journalist to do a little snooping around the Citadel ATC," she explained. "Apparently, they're putting in way more hours than they're supposed to be and hiding faking the records. I told the reporter if there were concerns to go to C-Sec, but-"

"Let me guess," Garrus interrupted. "C-Sec told her to fill out some paperwork and they'd get to the complaint... sometime?"

Shepard gave him a lopsided smile. "More or less. She contacted me – or rather, she contacted someone at the Systems Alliance who forwarded it to me – and suggested planting a bug in their sign-in system. She'll then cross-reference that with some camera footage of people entering and exiting."

"And this reporter, she's trustworthy?" Garrus asked. "Wouldn't be the first time someone used an 'investigative journalist' as a spy."

"Emily Wong," Shepard said, and shrugged. "Name's not familiar to me, but she turns up a lot in the news, so..."

Garrus resisted the urge to rub his head in irritation. Of course it's her. "She's legitimate," he sighed. "Irksome, but legitimate."

"If she's legitimate, then go ahead and meet with her, find out the details, and if you think it's reasonable, go ahead and take care of it on my authority," Shepard said. "Now, the other thing- I got a request from a researcher seeking to study the keepers."

"Yeah, we get those from time to time," Garrus said, putting the matter of spying on the Citadel traffic control workers out of his mind for the time being. "We have to turn 'em down, because station leadership takes a dim view of interfering with the creatures that keep this place working."

"Frankly, I'm appalled that you don't know more about this place," Shepard said with a grimace. "It would be the first thing on my to-do list before moving in and relying on them for air, power, and the like."

Garrus sighed in aggravation. "It's-"

"Out of your hands, I know," Shepard interrupted with a smirk. "Except now it isn't. I read up on the rules, and unless I'm doing something that threatens the Council or going directly against their orders, there's nothing stopping me – or those I deputize – in doing things that might have negative consequences, so long as it's relevant to my mission. Now, it might be a bit of a stretch to say that scanning keepers is relevant to catching Saren... but I must admit a degree of curiosity, and I highly doubt anyone will try to argue if you say you're working for me."

Shepard reached into a hip pouch and pulled out an older model omni-tool with several wires trailing from it and a small box hastily bolted to the side of the housing. "This is the scanner the researcher gave me when he asked for the favor," Shepard explained, handing the device over to him. "I tested it out on a few, and it doesn't explode or seem to bother them – they just carry on doing whatever it is they do."

Garrus accepted the device and strapped it to the outside of his hardshell's wrist armor. I won't be winning any fashion contests, but at least they gave it long enough straps, he thought ruefully. "Scan the keepers and meet the reporter. Anything else for me to handle, Shepard?"

Shepard tapped her jaw with a finger and shook her head. "No, that's it. Oh, right – the researcher's name is Chorban. His commcode is in the modified omni-tool."

"Understood," Garrus said.

"Right. Does anyone have any questions before we get going?" she asked, and every shook their heads. "Great. Comm me if you have trouble, otherwise I'll see you all back at the Normandy this evening."


Some people might have been grumpy at being given the leftover grunt work by Shepard, but not Garrus. True, none of it was wildly important or even directly related to their current mission, but he understood the need to curry favor. Besides, the tasks she had him taking care of were reasonable enough, and they let him visit his old stomping grounds, say hello to the proprietors of the shops along what had been his section of the wards, and even managed to snag lunch at an excellent little dextro restaurant a little ways off the main thoroughfare.

"Inspector Vakarian? Garrus?"

The voice was hesitant, tentative, which usually meant something bad was about to land in his lap. Not really an ideal time, perhaps, but such was the life in public service, and he turned around with his sympathetic cop face firmly in place.

"It is you! I thought it was, but I wasn't sure..." the turian woman smiled. "You probably don't remember me. It's been a few years – I'm Vasira Ikaros, you helped me with that salarian doctor? Saleon?"

Recognition bloomed, and Garrus professional smile quickly turned into an honest one. "Of course! How are you? Doing well, I hope?"

"Oh, well, you know how things are..." she said, and began a long mild complaint about her new job on the Citadel, as well as the stresses of day-to-day life. She'd managed to overcome the worst traumas, it seemed, thanks to the help of a fair amount of therapy and the age-old tincture of time.

"... and he keeps telling me to find 'closure,' and I tell him that's not really possible with how C-Sec works," she finished with a huff. "Well, sometimes life turns out that way."

Wait. C-Sec might work that way, but you don't need to any more, he thought viciously. "Actually, Miss Ikaros, I'm not working with C-Sec any more," he said.

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "They didn't fire you, did they? You always were butting heads with that sergeant-"

"No, no," Garrus reassured her quickly. "I took a leave of absence to help a Spectre with an important mission. C-Sec might not be able to go after Doctor Saleon, but I might be able to talk the Spectre into doing it." Especially if all we're doing now is waiting for information to come to us, he thought.

"Is it the human woman I saw on the news the other week?" Vasira asked.

"Could have been," Garrus said. "Pale pink with dark red coloring, wearing a lot of armor?"

"I think so?" Vasira said, face scrunched up in effort. "Might have been in clothes and not armor."

"Probably still her," Garrus said. "She's been in the news a lot lately."

"Well, I wasn't so sure about having a human in the Spectres, but if she has you working with her, she can't be all bad," Vasira said with another smile.

"You flatter me," Garrus replied, then sobered. "I'll talk to her about Saleon. The galaxy doesn't need people like him running loose."

"You won't here any objections from me," Vasira said fervently. "Anyway, Inspector, I just wanted to thank you for everything. It's nice to see you doing well."

"Likewise, Miss Ikaros," Garrus said, inclining his head slightly at the woman.


Kaidan and Ashley were the last ones to return to the Normandy that evening, and both of them looked more than a little worse for wear. There was nothing physically wrong, at least to Garrus' eye, but their shoulders were drooped, their faces were drawn, and their normally purposeful stride was barely more than a shuffle.

"I think I've seen you two come out of combat missions less haggard," Shepard remarked before lifting her plate at the two. "There's still dinner. Go get food, then we can figure out who needs to be shot."

The two staggered off in the direction of the mess, and Shepard shook her head. "I'm surprised they ran into trouble with the Saints, to be honest," she said, half to herself. "They're usually quite helpful."

Liara cleared her throught. "Ah... forgive me, Shepard, but I've been meaning to ask... why do you call your Intelligence agency 'holy men'? I fear that I am missing something..."

"Holy men?" Shepard blinked in confusion, then laughed. "Oh! Saints! It's a pun. In English – the language I speak – the word for "saint" is made of five letters: Ess, a, i, en, tee," she explained, drawing their shapes in the air with her finger as she went. "The first letter of the word 'Systems' is also an ess, the first letter of 'Alliance' is also an a, and the first three letters of 'Intelligence' are 'i, en, tee,' so when combined together... SA-INT, or Saints, for short."

"Besides," she said, the corner of her mouth quirking up, "in human mythology and religion, saints were figures touched by their gods in some way who did great things for mankind. I think our Intelligence organization like the insinuation, so it stuck."

"Euuugh," Ashley groaned, collapsing into the seat next to Shepard, her haphazardly loaded plate landing with a clatter in front of her. "God above, ma'am, if I'd known what a mess that would be, I'd have volunteered for KP from now until eternity."

"Alright, Chief, spit it out," Shepard said. "I know you're dying to tell me, anyway."

The gunnery chief opened an eye and grinned tiredly. "Maybe a little, ma'am, but only because misery loves company... plus, we're probably gonna have to do work."

"Oh, and we swore we wouldn't tell anyone except you, so, uh," she glanced around at the very obviously non-Alliance members and sighed. "Pretend you didn't hear this?"

Well, Garrus thought in surprise, that's different.

He'd taken the liberty of reading a little on the background of his crewmates when Shepard had brought him aboard. It was a habit he'd gotten into back on the force after one too many incompetent or philosophically opposed partner had nearly gotten him fired. Luckily for him, most of the ground crew – and some of the flight crew, for that matter – had publicly available records that he could read without too much effort. Some didn't have much, like the lieutenant or the quarian, while others were more defined by their relations to far more famous figures, like Liara T'Soni and, to his great surprise, the gunnery chief.

He had not expected a descendant of the commander of the Relay 314 incident to be serving on a vessel partly designed and built by turians. Her discomfort with him was obvious from the beginning, but it wasn't overt, and at least it seemed impersonal enough.

What shocked him, though, was how quickly she'd come around to work with him. Oh, he doubted she'd ever really be a good friend – not that his profession let him have many – but he no longer caught her staring at his back in suspicion every time he looked over at her.

Humans certainly seem to change their minds quickly, he thought. Still don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's certainly something to be aware of.

"Sooooo," Ash drawled. "Turns out the reason it was so damn hard to get this is because it's something of an embarrassment for the Systems Alliance. As in, 'might provoke a serious incident' level of embarrassing."

"I sent you two to go ask them for access to scouting probe data," Shepard frowned. "That really shouldn't be that controversial."

"It is if included among the modern probes are a set of old military spy probes armed with fission tamper guards," Kaidan said grimly, and Shepard rubbed her temples in exasperation. "Back during the First Contact War, the Alliance sent out a whole bunch of automated spy probes, since we didn't know who was where or what the shape of the relay network was like. In order to keep a galaxy full of potentially hostile aliens from knowing who we were, where we were, and what we were looking for, the probes had nuclear devices installed on them. If you try to get into one without the right sequence, well..." he trailed off, and Shepard nodded tiredly.

"So there are some nuclear traps sitting around the Traverse, and we put them there. Okay, that's definitely not good, but I'm still not sure why this interferes with our plans now. Is there a reason we can't get copies of their modern probe data?"

"Because they don't have any data, ma'am," Kaidan said. "The whole 'collect spy data' program in the Traverse is on hold. Their modern probes are local download only to keep them harder to find if you don't know where to look. Well, they sent out a ship to go grab some data, and they found what they thought was a malfunctioning spy probe. They hauled it in and tried to open it up, and things ended... predictably."

Shepard stared at Kaidan.

"It's the truth, ma'am," he said with a helpless shrug.

"Wonderful," Shepard muttered, shaking her head. "Okay. Fine. What do they need from us?"

"They're going to send a formal request 'soon,'" Kaidan said, "but unofficially, they want us to use the Normandy's stealth systems to go fly up to their probes, check if they're old spy probes or new spy probes, and blow up all the old ones from a safe distance. If we do that, that frees up some assets they can dedicate to our task, plus we're welcome to any relevant data on the probes themselves."

"I suppose we don't have much of a choice," Shepard said, although Garrus could swear there was something... off about the Spectre's unhappiness about the errand. "We'll bump that to the top of the queue, then, and head out in the morning."

"Sounds good, ma'am," Kaidan said. "What about you? How are things with the Council?"

"Things are fine with the Council," Shepard said, "it's the people who have the Council's ear that are the problem."

"What do you mean?" Kaidan asked. "Are there problems with system governments?"

Shepard shook her head. "No more than usual. No, this time it's the companies whose toes we've been stepping on that are expressing their displeasure in my willingness to interfere with their affairs."

"That's bullshit," Ash spat around a mouthful of dinner. "We wouldn't be bothering them if they weren't breeding monsters or enslaving people."

"Be that as it may," Shepard shrugged, "they dislike having an authority figure who is willing to cost them money, and they're making their displeasure known. I'm not in danger yet, but if something goes wrong, they won't hesitate to pounce on it."

"Leeches," Ash grumbled.

"It's alright," Shepard said. "I have some insurance in place."

From his corner of the table, Wrex gave an evil chuckle, and Garrus did his best not to stare at the krogan. Insurance? Do I want to know?

"But never mind that," Shepard said, waving the topic off. "Let me worry about what the Council is up to. For now, we should focus on tracking down Saren. If the Saints can't find anything without us taking care of their little nuclear problem, then we'll do that first. Now, Liara," she said, turning to the asari, "any luck on the academic side of things?"

"More than I had expected and less than I had hoped," Liara said while Tali nodded beside her. "We were able to make contact with several univsersities, and all were more willing to help than I had anticipated. However, even with Tali's assistance constructing search programs, it will be some time before we have anything resembling a definitive answer as to whether they possess leads on more beacons."

"I also received... condolences... on my mother's passing," she said, voice thickening slightly. "It seems that there is a great deal of confusion over the exact nature of her demise... and my extended family is only helping to muddy the waters, likely to save face," she shook her head bitterly.

Tali reached around and gave Liara a gentle hug, and Liara smiled at her.

"Regardless, I anticipate at least some information within the next day or two at most," Liara finished. "Hopefully good, but..." she shrugged helplessly.

"There's no guarantees, I know," Shepard said. "Alright. Wrex?"

The krogan said nothing, but nodded once.

"Perfect. Garrus? How about you?"

Garrus leaned back in his chair. "Reporter's request was no big deal. Flashed my badge, planted the bug, left. Couldn't have taken more than five minutes," he said shaking his head. "They really need to up their security."

"Their loss is our gain," Shepard said. "And the keepers?"

"That was a bit weirder," he admitted. "The scanning wasn't an issue, but there's some bad blood between the original requester and a co-worker. I think it's sorted out, and the data's been sent out to the appropriate people, but I think that might turn up again if we're not careful."

"Oh," Shepard said, snapping a finger, "I don't suppose you managed to get a copy for me? I know I didn't ask, but-"

Garrus grinned and pulled a storage drive out of his omni-tool's slot. "What kind of inspector do you take me for, anyway?" he teased. "Everything that omni-tool sent, plus everything that was on it when you gave it to me."

Shepard took the drive and tucked it into a pocket. "I knew there was a reason I brought you on board," she said with a smile of her own.

"Beyond my dashing good looks, you mean?" Garrus said, then winced. Shit.

It was, he supposed, a good sign – he was getting along well enough with the crew to let his guard down, but that was a double-edged sword. Despite how easy many of the crew were to talk to, he was not in C-Sec, and the kind of banter that was the norm while working there did not necessarily fly here.

Shepard's eyes narrowed and she leaned back, putting her hands on her hips, staring at him closely. "I'm not sure I'm really the right person to judge," she said. "Williams? Would you say that that the inspector has 'dashing good looks?'"

"Wha- why me, ma'am?" Ash sputtered.

Shepard grinned. "Well, you were the one who talked about kissing turian cheeks..." she teased, and Ash groaned and let her head drop down to the table. "I'm kidding, Chief. As for you, Vakarian, yes, we brought you for more than your 'dashing good looks.'"

Garrus coughed into his hand. "Good to know, commander."

"Just the truth," Shepard said. "Now, unless anyone has anything else to cover-"

"Actually," Garrus said slowly, "if we're headed for the Traverse, there is a stop I'd like to make."

Shepard cocked her head at him. "What do you need?" she asked.

"This is, ah, going to take a little explaining, and fair warning, it's kind of gruesome," he warned. "Story from fairly early on in my C-Sec career."

Shepard made a go ahead gesture, so he settled down in his chair. "Right. Back... oh, it was five or six years ago now, I was a fresh recruit working on some counter-smuggling operations. Nothing really interesting – they don't give hard contraband cases like red sand or weapons to newbies – but we'd cover tax dodgers, alcohol, and the like."

"During the course of the investigation, we kept running into black market body parts. Organs, mostly, livers, kidneys, and the like. You see some of that on the Citadel, usually a black market lab that's growing them and selling them, or even a legitimate group selling some on the side, but not in the numbers I was seeing."

"Wait a minute," Ash said. "You said 'usually.' Are there other sources?"

Garrus nodded. "It's rare, but sometimes you'll see psychos try to sell pieces of their victims. There was an elcor diplomat serial killer who did that a few years ago, hacking people up and selling their parts. Had the station in a bit of a panic."

"But this..." Garrus sighed. "Wasn't that clear cut. We took a DNA sample of one of the organs and ran it through the database. If it's a serial killer, usually it lands a hit on the missing persons list, or no hit at all if they're preying on the underworld. This time, it led us straight to a turian working in the wards who was quite alive and very convinced he hadn't lost his liver. We interviewed him for a while and the only major lead is that he worked with a salrian geneticist named Doctor Saleon."

Garrus took a drink and sighed. "So we went to his lab, figuring we'd be busting open a black market cloning lab. Not glamorous, but necessary. Thing is, when we get there, there's nothing. No salarian hearts, no turian livers, not one krogan testicle."

"Wait," Ash interrupted again. "Krogan testicles? Who in the world wants those?"

"Krogan, of course," Wrex rumbled from the far end of the table. "Some idiots think eating or transplating the nuts of another krogan can make 'em overcome the genophage. Load of shit, but brains aren't really our specialty."

Garrus gestured at the krogan. "As Wrex says. Black market value is high, too – turns out, most krogan aren't too keen on parting with theirs."

"Can't imagine why," Wrex muttered.

"Anyway," Garrus continued, "We brought some employees working for Doctor Saleon for interrogation, to try to get them to talk."

"Were they suspects?" Kaidan asked, frowning.

Garrus shrugged. "They were... people of interest. Regardless, putting them in a room and yelling for a few hours paid off. One of them started bleeding profusely during the interview, and not because of what we did," he said, heading off the inevitable question. "We offered to patch him up and he got frantic. Freaked out. I ordered a full medical examination, and they discovered incisions all over his body. That was the big break – his 'employees' weren't just working with the equipment, they were actually growing the black market organs."

"Goddess," Liara muttered. "That is..."

"Disgusting?" Ash said. "Yeah, I'm gonna go with disgusting."

"When he realized we were on his scent, he ran. Blew his lab, grabbed some 'employees' and headed for the nearest dock. By the time we caught up to him, he was heading out of system and threatening to shoot his workers if we followed," Garrus shook his head bitterly. "They refused. Too close to the Citadel, they said, and too much of a risk of killing the hostages."

"Probably the right call," Kaidan said. "If he'd blown his lab, who knows what he packed his ship full of?"

Ash shuddered. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather be an expanding cloud of gas than be used as a test tube like that."

"Same," Tali said fervently. "Just... eugh."

Shepard shrugged. "Hard call," she said. "He gets away, you have a long line of angry friends and relatives chewing you out for not doing your best to rescue their friends and loved ones. You blow them up, you have the same line yelling at you for a different thing. Easiest answer is to do nothing and point at regulations saying you can't."

"Coward's way out," he grumbled.

'I never said I agreed with it, only that I understood the logic," Shepard said. "I'd probably have taken a shot... but then again, they did make me a Spectre."

"Did you ever catch him?" Ash asked. "I'd sleep easier knowing this guy was dead. Or behind bars, I guess, but I'd really prefer dead."

"No," Garrus shook his head. "Not for lack of trying, though. I put out feelers, thought I'd found him, even – he'd changed his name to Doctor Heart, moved to a new ship. His idea of a joke, perhaps. I told the military, but they weren't convinced it was him."

"Still," he coughed, "I managed to get a relay tracker on his vessel, so every time he goes through a relay, I get a message. They've been piling up in my inbox because I haven't exactly been able to go chasing after him myself."

"And you want to check out his last location," Shepard said.

Garrus nodded. "I ran into a woman on the Citadel today, one of his victims. She's... recovering, but it'd do her a lot of good to know that he's not out there any more."

"This means a lot to you?" Shepard asked.

"I nearly quit C-Sec over it when it happened," he admitted. "I didn't, but it was a close thing. Seeing him go free after everything he did wrong... nobody should get away with that."

Shepard pursed her lips, clearly weighing the value of his request, then nodded. "Get the coordinates to Joker. If he says we can do it without losing too much time, we'll do it. Otherwise it will need to wait."

Spirits be praised, he thought fervently. "Not much point in bringing someone to justice while the galaxy burns, I understand," he said. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet," she warned.


Next up: Garrus' loyalty mission, some revelations, and the trip to Vermire. Please note that while I'm not showing every side quest, you can safely assume they're being done. Next chapter is also mostly done, so it'll go up in the next few days, not the next few months like this one.