"So, sushi," Joker observed cheerfully. "Or was this just the last place you expected anyone to go looking for you?"
Shepard's posture tensed, her eyelids lowered and her head shifted ever so slightly. He realized there must be something reflective behind him, and she was using it to look at the room beyond.
"I didn't send you a message, Joker. I got one from you saying 'meet me here,'" she answered quietly.
Joker's stomach went cold with nerves, though the calm control in Shepard's tone kept him from looking around and 'giving the game away.'
"We need to leave. Now. Waiter!" Shepard's voice carried calm and collected, but Joker saw what others would miss: she'd activated her shields. Any second now, she'd turn the safety on her pistol off. And he knew for a fact that Shepard always walked around with a round in the chamber.
"Madame wishes…?" came the polite if somewhat nervous inquiry by the young waiter who promptly hurried over.
"I'm sorry for the inconvenience. My friend isn't feeling well, so I'm taking him home," she spoke calmly, politely, but Joker saw what the boy she spoke to did not: the tense readiness, like a spring being compressed.
She was like a pinball machine gearing up.
It was, maybe, the wrong thing to say to a place that served pufferfish. "But, Madame, there is nothing wrong with the food! Our chef, he is properly certified to—"
Discreetly, Joker cued his radio. "EDI, put the away team on standby. Something's spooked Shepard."
"At once, Jeff. Is there anything else I can do?" EDI asked, a trifle anxiously—well, her words sounded anxious.
"No. Yes. Tell Alenko something weird is going on." Better safe than sorry.
"I think it's all the field rations catching up with him," Shepard concluded soothingly.
Joker grimaced. "Thanks a lot, Shepard."
She got five paces away from the guy and the table, into clear view of the stairs, when she stopped as if frozen. "Shit."
Stomping into the restaurant and armed to the teeth were maybe a dozen mercs. They didn't seem to have any particular affiliation, but they were definitely on the warpath.
"Get back," Shepard hissed, stepping back softly and forcing Joker to do so as well. Once he was pushed down behind their table, Shepard peered over the surface.
"Who are they?" Joker breathed.
"No idea. Let's find—"
"Captain Shepard! We know you're in here!" one of the mercs shouted. She had a desperate edge to her voice that Joker didn't like. "We know it's not in your nature to care about the people around you, but make no mistake! We are ready to execute everyone who stands between us and you. It is in the best interest of you patrons not to shield this woman!"
"What the hell?" Joker asked, unsure what he was hearing. It didn't sound like any of the usual ranting or rhetoric involved with people planning to kill Shepard.
"Well, now we know what they want," Shepard shook her head. "Listen, there's an exit just back there. Go through it and get out of here."
"I'll rally the troops," Joker said, patting her shoulder.
"Do that." Then, louder, "I'm here. Speak your piece."
The merc wandered forward, looking for her. "Come out now!"
"How about you tell me what this is about, first. Then I'll take it under consideration."
Shepard proceeded to mutter 'go go go' until he complied.
"I found her pilot!" another voice screamed. Joker looked up to discover his line of travel too him just into view.
Shepard jumped and put two rounds into the merc trying to hamper Joker's escape, then dropped down again then gave a roar of effort followed by the sounds of things falling off the table.
Joker sprinted for the door she'd indicated and reached it, half falling as gunfire riddled the portal just behind him. He felt bones snap with the impact. "EDI! We need help!"
"I am already en route, as is the rest of the ground team." EDI announced. "Are you safe?"
"For the moment…" Joker forced himself to sit up.
"Are you hurt?"
"Definitely," he panted.
"So what's your problem?" Shepard's voice demanded from outside.
"Problem? The problem isn't us, Captain—it's you! Your bloody march across this galaxy ends today!"
"My what?"
"Do you think the Reapers are here for no reason?" the leader demanded. "Do you think that Mindoir was destroyed for no reason? It was your presence that brought the invaders to destroy our colony and it was your antagonism that began the war with the Reapers! But that war ends when we lay your corpse at their feet!"
"Jeff. Commander Bailey is sending C-Sec reinforcements as well. They should arrive after I do."
"Hurry up, EDI, the Reapers've got to them."
"And I suppose a Reaper told you that!" Shepard snarled, caught between her usual attitude towards the Indoctrinated—their deaths being regrettable, but they'd do so much more harm if left to themselves—and the sheer helplessness of finding them thrown at her as a concerted unit. "Mindoir and this war have nothing to do with each other!"
"Wrong!" the merc shrieked. "They have everything to do with one another! They have you! And Harbinger says that—"
Joker had never heard Shepard swear like that.
"—if we deliver you up to it, the Reapers will have no reason to continue fighting us! If we give them their war criminal, they'll be glad to negotiate peace!"
Joker could almost hear Shepard's indignant mental shriek of 'war criminal?!"
"Harbinger told you that, did he?" Shepard asked in a low tone that carried nonetheless. "And when was this?"
"When it came to Mindoir! It knew we'd harbored you once and came to ensure you hadn't taken refuge among us again!"
"You weren't even part of the original colony!"
Harbinger had definitely primed these people. They knew exactly where to kick to make Shepard mad, contrary to her custom.
