Patrolling shopping districts was usually very boring, at least for him. Petty thefts, occasional shootouts between rival gangs of mercenaries... Nothing that took his breath away and made his heart beat faster.
However, sometimes here he could catch a bigger fish than an ordinary mercenary.
That was what the Citadel security officer was doing today, having received a lead from a top-secret source. A big red sand dealer was about to hire the Blue Suns to assassinate his partner, and the meeting of their representatives was supposed to be somewhere here.
The officer walked through the shopping district, looking discretely at suspicious men. Throughout his years of service in the C-Sec, he learned to recognize this kind of scum.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, the Turian noticed a woman. She stood near the shop of a volus, who was an arms dealer.
The officer froze and turned his head toward the stranger. There was nothing remarkable or catchy about her appearance, as if she wanted to blend into the crowd: black armor without any identification marks, however, not cheap, rather, even exclusive, a pair of "decent", as local shopkeepers often put it, guns... In the shopping districts a lot of people were adding to their arsenal and renewing equipment, so there was nothing remarkable about the woman... except her red hair, put up in a messy bun. This detail of her appearance was noteworthy only for the officer: human women with such bright hair color had always caught his eye. And of course, as always, he must be mistaken. It was about time to get used to it. And yet every time the same thing came to mind... what if it was her?
But now his attention was drawn to something else: her back was to him, and she stood lovingly stroking the weapon offered by the merchant, as if she were stalling for time. Soon she put the rifle on the counter and took off her gloves. The Turian watched, captivated, every movement of the woman, who took the rifle again to run her unprotected fingers over it. She half-turned to the involuntary observer, and suddenly... he noticed a sign on her wrist, not hidden by her sleeve... There, of course! It just couldn't be her... It just couldn't be... He was mistaken again, that was the proof of that... Familiar feeling of relief and disappointment overwhelmed him.
But this woman was the "bait", with a rifle in her hands and a blue sun on her wrist; she was supposed to attract a "bigger fish"...
The stranger continued to scrutinize the Black Widow, looked into the scope and turned to him...
The officer watched her slowly lower her weapon, smile and tilt her head to the side.
The Turian swallowed hard...
He wished he was wrong...
If he had given himself a chance to think, he would have found more than one excuse for the woman who now smiled so warmly at him, but he just couldn't do it, not after such a long separation from her. Not after seeing that cursed mark - the tattoo on her wrist; it was as if a stigma was branded onto her skin, though the owners of such signs hardly considered them disgraceful... He had not given up on her so she could become part of a gangster group. So that was the road she'd chosen in life... she'd given up on what they'd had and could have had together...
The Turian was in a blind rage, there couldn't have been any other way – there had been too many hard, regretful and sad minutes he'd had to go through in the past three years.
"What the hell?" She asked, outraged, when the Turian dragged her to a secluded corner, away from pryingeyes and ears. "Let go of me!"
The woman tried to free her left hand out of his grip.
"What the hell is this?" He roared, pointing at the sign on her wrist.
"Oh, that... I'll give youthree guesses." The woman stopped struggling and smiled crookedly.
"You're a mercenary now?"
"I think it's obvious." She pulled her hand free from his fingers.
The officer shook his head, unbelieving, looking at... the mercenary.
"The Blue Suns trooper? They were your sworn enemies, as I remember."
"So were you..." the woman answered and suddenly started gently stroking his cheek. "What are you doing here? What were you doing in the shopping district? Oh..." She noticed the S-Cec insignia on his armor and asked, smiling: "Should I call you Officer Vakarian now?"
The Turian abruptly pushed away the mercenary's hand.
"I'm conducting a secret surveillance... to prevent an assassination and to put a big dealer behind bars. I've got a lead on him and his representative was supposed to meet a Blue Suns hit man. The dealer's representative was supposed to recognize the killer by the Black Widow in his/her hands." His gaze was insightful and reproachful.
"Ah... I see... Well... I got caught... But you're gonna let me go, for old times' sake, aren't you..? I'll make it up to you..." the mercenary whispered in a seductive voice, and her hand slipped down his armor to codpiece. "You missed me, didn't you, Turian? I missed you. How about... we remember the good old days? We can do it right here, and then you'll let me go and pretend you didn't see anything."
Those words brought back a lot of pleasant memories for the officer... of the warmth and smoothness of her skin, her supple body, her languid moans...
He wanted her here and now. To rip off her armor and clothes... and take her right in this dirty little corner...
But now he was a servant of the law, and she was a criminal... a murderer; she belonged to those he had to fight.
Looking into his eyes, the mercenary slowly knelt down, about to unbuckle his armor.
The Turian's heart was pounding, he was breathing fast.
"No..." he blurted out and pushed her away so hard, she fell to the ground. "Just go away."
The woman didn't try to get up and asked in a flat voice: "Are you playing the part of a good cop? Well... Are you gonna let me finish my business in the shopping district? I can't leave with nothing. It's important. Vital. Believe me, otherwise I wouldn't ask."
She looked at him, her big green eyes pleading.
Did Blue Suns kill their own people for failing, for breaking a deal?
"Yeah..." the officer said and quickly walked away, as far from the temptation as possible.
He left, knowing that contrary to all reason, his body would always crave this woman... damn her...
***
"Nothing suspicious was found at sector 42," the voice of the Turian was even when he reported to his commanding officer over the radio, who, of course, heard the changes in his subharmonics, but hardly guessed the real reason for that; after all, such things happened because of banal fatigue, not just emotional swings.
"Keep watch in the sector," he heard his CO's voice and the backgroundnoise over the walkie.
Maybe a bad connection prevented his commander officer from noticing the strange intonations of his subordinate?
"Roger that."
The walkie-talkie went silent with a click.
Of course, he would keep watch in the sector... because he had to make sure nothing bad would happen to the mercenary during the deal.
The thought crossed his mind that almost made him laugh. He'd always been a bad Turian, apparently for this reason he had fallen under the spell of a human - the redheaded beasty who was now a hired killer... And he certainly didn't make a much better policeman, otherwise he wouldn't have covered for the criminal, for old times' sake, and even more, he wouldn't have stayed to see if everything went smoothly.
Although he didn't care about the deal and the professional honor, the officer was only concerned about the safety of the mercenary...
The Turian asked himself why he'd rejected her offer to pay the old-fashioned way for him turning a blind eye to the crime. She wouldn't have had a problem with spreading her beautiful long legs for him... and he wanted it more than anything. But for some reason, the mere thought of such "pay" made the officer feel dirty... and it wasn't a matter of professional or personal honor...
As it turned out, he respected this woman too much to take advantage of her unenviable position... besides, he'd been struck by the fact that she'd suddenly appeared after three years of silence and offered herself to him to "pay" for the service, not because what had happened between them in the past still meant something for her... It did for him!
Maybe he was stupid and too sentimental, and yet...
Using S-Cec access codes, the officer connected his omnitool to one of the surveillance cameras next to the volus' shop and, hiding around the corner, began to monitor the mercenary.
He had already managed to scold himself for foolish behavior - to grab and drag her around the corner in front of everybody... jeopardizing the deal... Someone from Blue Suns could have been watching the woman and would certainly report to the leader now...
But at first glance, it went smoothly.
A fat old man showed up to meet her. Of course, it wasn't the dealer himself - the officer didn't expect such a thing - but most likely his... middleman. The Turian sighed with relief: this man did not pose a particular threat to the armed commando.
The man took her aside, they exchanged a few words, and he turned on his omnitool, obviously intending to send some data to the mercenary. Without hesitation, the officer activated his own omnitool and set it up to intercept the data.
***
When the man, who introduced himself as Giovanni, left, the mercenary looked around, hoping that the Turian was still around, but had not noticed him anywhere.
The woman unknowingly began to bite her lower lip with annoyance and resentment... The way the officer had pushed her away... Hell, she certainly had not hoped that after three years he would meet her with open arms... but still... Three years ago she had thought that what had happened then had meant something to him...
And now he pushed her away, threw her away like something nasty, obscene.
Well, of course... three years ago she had been worth paying attention to, and now... Now she was just a dirty mercenary, unworthy to kiss his shoes!
Why did he always value her rank and profession but not her as a person?
How could he be so blind? Or maybe three years ago... he'd been toying with her, pleasing his fucking Turian ego. He'd won the woman the whole Hierarchy'd feared... and now he pushed her away.
She had a lump in her throat, thinking about it.
As if it wasn't enough that he'd almost broke her deal...
The mercenary found herself unwittingly crossing her arms over her chest to hide the tattoo on her wrist...
Shit! Why had she had to run into that fucking Turian!? Fuck him... Except what if he'd happened to be here not by accident?
The woman narrowed her eyes angrily... Oh, someone would to have to explain himself.