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Tali moved more slowly through the facility than Shepard or Garrus—a natural researcher, she wanted to stop and look at things, study what had been happening here. Shepard just wanted to get to Kai Leng and kill him. Garrus had to admit he concurred with Shepard, although Tali was probably right. The more they knew, the better.

"Shepard." Tali's voice through the environmental suit was urgent. "Come listen to this." She pressed play on a voice recording on the terminal in front of her.

An unfamiliar man's voice identified itself as Henry Lawson before launching into a report. "We've confirmed the results of Cerberus experiments involving the husk creatures, a crude, but necessary, first step in decoding how the Reapers communicate. The key is how the Reaper signal interacts with the nanides implanted within the subject's body. I've spent the last week making small adjustments to increase processing efficiency. There is no shortage of subjects; indeed, I am told there is a long line outside the main gate."

"Bosh'tet," Tali muttered under her breath.

The recording played on despite her interruption. "The deception is an unfortunate necessity. Time is very short. We've proven that adrenaline—and it's cross-species equivalents—is most effective and efficient."

Garrus looked around the silent facility, which appeared to be almost completely abandoned. He tried to picture it running, researchers busy at the terminals, terrified refugees being forced into pods, husks in the pods being tortured in the name of science. But he couldn't really wrap his head around it all. He said as much to Shepard and Tali.

"I'd rather not imagine it," Shepard said. "I'd rather just destroy it."

He looked at her in alarm—it wasn't a particularly Shepard thing to say. She had been through so much, it was starting to tell on her, not only in her attitudes, but in the lines in her face and the shadows under her eyes and the set of her mouth.

Tali had paused the recording, but now she pressed play again, and Henry Lawson's voice resumed, cold and clinical and unemotional. "The pursuit of efficiency has revealed an important fact. The Reapers' use of 'dragon's teeth' to create husks is ingenious. The Reaper nanides attach themselves to the adrenaline released and quickly move through the body to speed conversion to the final husk state."

"That brilliant mad bastard," Tali whispered. "Using their own technology to try to control them."

"Yes, we see where that got him." Shepard gestured to the empty facility, where somewhere ahead of them Reaper forces awaited.

"And just when Cerberus and the Reapers were getting along." Garrus clucked disapprovingly. "The Illusive Man over-reached this time."

"We always knew he would."

In the doorway to the next room there was another video terminal. Shepard ran the video and saw Miranda again, expressing her intention of trying to reach the communication scrambler in the tower, in order to get the word out and keep any more refugees from landing. "Some refugees are turned into husks," Miranda said earnestly to the video screen. "Some are indoctrinated and shipped to the Illusive Man. Whoever's left is used in experiments. The data indicate that my father is trying to figure out how Reaper indoctrination works."

"Shepard, whole families came here," Tali said. "They used children to do this."

"I know it," Shepard responded grimly. "And for what? Not to help us fight. Not to save lives. If I ever get my hands on the Illusive Man, I'll—"

"Maybe you can."

Shepard stopped and looked at Tali. "How?"

"Miranda said that shipments were sent to the Illusive Man. Maybe we can use that to find him."

"It's thin," Garrus said, shaking his head doubtfully.

"It's all we have," Shepard told him.

Tali had been working at the console. "Shepard, there's more here. Watch."

On the screen, a man who must be Henry Lawson was standing in front of a display. "We've done it! We've found a way to co-opt their control signal. As long as the Reaper troops remain in close proximity to our signal, we can maintain control indefinitely." The Illusive Man's voice echoed through some communication relay. "How could we extrapolate this technique to apply to the Reapers themselves?" Lawson dropped his head. "That's a much bigger challenge."

The communication cut out. "Well, if all they have is 'a much bigger challenge,' that's not much use to us," Shepard decided. "Come on, let's see if we can catch up to Miranda, shut down this place once and for all."

"I guess we know why the Reapers attacked," Garrus said.

"If they discovered this and connected it with Cerberus, that's bad news for the Illusive Man," Tali added.

"Maybe he'll finally get his comeuppance."

"Don't underestimate him," Shepard cautioned. "He always seems to manage to land on his feet."

She led the way deeper into the facility, through the trapped Reaper troops, until finally they had cleared a path to the ladder leading up to the communications tower.

Henry Lawson was there, with Oriana. As soon as he saw Shepard coming around the corner, he grabbed the girl, leveling a gun in Shepard's direction. "Commander Shepard. Excellent timing."

"Put the gun down."

"No. Oriana tried to shoot me. Miranda's poisonous influence, no doubt."

"I'm sorry she missed. Where's Kai Leng?"

"Gone," Lawson said. "He took my research and left us here to die."

"Damn it!"

Following Shepard through the room, Garrus got his first view of Miranda, wounded on the floor in front of her father and her sister. "Miranda! Are you all right?"

"Fine," she managed, although she sounded far from it. She managed to get up off the floor, only to find her father's gun in her face.

"That's far enough. All of you," he added, swinging the gun back to point at Shepard, as if knowing that neither Garrus nor Tali would endanger her willingly.

"Shepard … don't let him take her," Miranda pleaded.

Shepard lowered her gun. "Look, Lawson, I don't have a problem with you. I just want Oriana and the research data."

"You want a lot."

"You get your life in return. How much is that worth to you?"

Lawson mulled it over. At last he pushed Oriana out of his reach, still holding the gun trained on Shepard. "All right. Take her. But I want out alive. Deal?"

Miranda said, "No deal." And with all the strength she had left, she used her biotics and threw her father through the glass window, his body falling down and down into the facility below. The husks he had created, any that were still left, would take care of him. A fitting end, in Garrus's opinion.

Oriana rushed to her sister's side, catching Miranda when she would have collapsed, and they held each other, murmuring words of comfort to one another.

At last Miranda looked up at Shepard. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Glad we caught you. You all right?"

"I'll be fine. Really."

"This whole thing was a huge risk. You should have come to me. I would have helped."

"You have a war to win, Shepard," Miranda reminded her. "And this was my fight. It's been a long time coming." She glanced over at Tali, who was doing a deep dive into Lawson's computer, looking for whatever might be left. "What do we have?"

"The research data is gone, but I've still got basic facility information like shuttle arrivals and departures … Cerberus included. It's not a direct link, but it's something to work with."

"Grab anything you can. We'll take it all back to be analyzed."

"I can do better than that," Miranda said.

"What?"

"Before Kai Leng took off, I planted a tracer on him. If you act fast, you'll track him right to the Illusive Man."

"You thought of everything," Shepard said appreciatively.

"Not quite, but then … nobody's perfect." She managed a semblance of her usual grin, refused Shepard's offer of a lift on the Normandy and the services of Dr. Chakwas, and limped off with her sister.

"A hell of a woman," Garrus said.

"She did a good thing today," Shepard agreed. "Now, let's make sure everyone knows about this place and go get Kai Leng." She recorded an outgoing message warning people away, and they made their way back through the ruined facility to the Normandy. Garrus would have liked to stop and blow the place up, but there was no time for that.