Abigail Shepard
Opening the glass door between the partition of the main floor and Anderson's temporary office he was given in the Terra City Fourth Precinct, she grabbed at her side and winced from a sudden influx of pain.
Anderson turned at the noise and waved her on in as he was still taking a call from command.
"Yes, sir...Yes, sir...no we haven't gotten the results from the autopsy yet...yes, sir she's standing right here...will do sir."
Abigail did her best to straighten to attention as cut the comlink and faced her fully.
"Shepard, how is the wound doing?"
She smiled and nodded back, "its fine sir, just a little tender. The medi-gel bandage is doing its job, the med tech says I'll be back to combat shape in a day or so."
He nodded, "You know that was reckless."
She didn't know what to say so she just stood there, waiting for him to make his point.
He sighed, and gave her an overly severe, suffering look. "Do you have a death wish Shepard? On top of everything else?"
The question took her aback, "sir, I-I-"
"Its a simple enough question," his tone was cool, "Do you have a death wish?!"
"No, I don't think," she was uncomfortable, before she knew it he was there grasping her shoulders, holding her, staring at her, making her wilt.
"That was reckless Shepard, more then reckless it was stupid. You could've easily been killed and we would be down one more N7, and we cannot afford to loose you."
She held her ground, her ire rising, "it was either that or let us die. He had us dead to rights, our cover wouldn't have held for long, I needed to act."
"Our cover was adequate, long enough for me to do what I did anyways, its not like they were lobbing explosives at us...so I have to wonder do you have a death wish? And I cannot have a soldier in my squad who I cannot trust to want to keep herself alive."
She shrugged, the accusation hitting home, "well if I did have a death wish...what do I have to look forward to? More prison time?"
He released her.
He stalked over to the other side of the room and put his hands on his table. After another moment he sighed, "Look Shepard I can't-"
A knock on the open door drew their attention, Abigail and Anderson both whirled on it to see Ronnie standing there with a report in her hand.
"Sorry, was I interrupting anything?"
Anderson gave her the eye but then sighed, "no, you weren't, what can we do for you?"
"The autopsy was finished by our medical staff," she looked down at the report, "from the hotel corpses...and they were...four Batarians and a human." She looked up, her face grim. "So it seems its official, this is now your operation...Anderson."
The Commander shot his comrade a look but Abigail did her best to ignore him.
"You don't seem happy about this," she pointed out.
"Well no one should like loosing jurisdiction to the military of all people for their investigation. I was the one who pushed for the Alliance not sending in the military until we were sure."
"Well we do have a certain expertise when dealing with these things," Abby pointed out, and Ronnie frowned, "but this is still your turf so you can still help us with our investigation."
Ronnie looked surprised but then she shot Shepard a grateful smile.
"And yet the human is an interesting addition," Anderson pointed out as well, "it is an oddity."
Ronnie nodded, "that is what I was thinking but then there are no known human organizations with Batarians...so I appreciate the thought but this is clearly a foreign matter."
Abigail shook her head and turned away from the group gazing out into the main office of the Fourth Precinct. She scratched at the back of her neck and shook her head, gazing out on the reports which were coming in over the smart boards.
"Shepard what is it?" Ronnie asked looking over at her.
Abby turned around and folded her arms up under her chest and frowned back at them, "this whole thing bothers me."
"The human with the Batarians?" Anderson clarified.
"No," she shook her head then gestured before returning her hands, "everything." She turned back to the wall.
Her thoughts were going in five different directions at once. I'm not an investigator but something just isn't adding up.
"OK..." she breathed aloud, looking skyward, "the Batarians attack a human refinery on Terra Nova and then they just sit waiting, but they don't talk about it."
"Well they were clearly just waiting in ambush for any first responders and media teams to come in and then kill them. Hell they probably hit us too soon and were waiting for more of a presence, we had to keep the media off of the site for a little while." Ronnie pointed out.
Abigail turned back to them and flexed her hands, "Yeah, but what terrorist organization doesn't talk about their exploits? Announce it to the world? And still no one has taken credit for this attack."
"Maybe they haven't distributed it? Maybe they are waiting on confirmation?" Anderson wondered, they were starting to get into the devil's advocate phase of the debating.
"Nu huh, I don't buy it." Abigail shook her head. "Remember the Rising Sun? The terrorist group that attacked Shanxi a few years back? They just couldn't wait to announce to the whole galaxy what they did...so fast that they didn't realize their plan actually failed. They had a clearly defined pre released speech to give out and released it on schedule...without checking in."
"Or they could've wanted to not spoil their ambush?"
Abigail shrugged, "maybe. But on the other hand it really shouldn't have been an issue and maybe letting us know we would've just deployed more personnel...and well the time issue would've still been something. We'd know by now, but the ambush still happened awhile ago. No, there is something else going on here that we can't see."
"What are you thinking, Shepard?"
"Just something we are missing..." her eyes narrowed...and then widened. "Wait what's that?" She pointed at the report board that was continuing to scroll in the distance, it dutifully paused itself.
"What?" Ronnie asked.
"That, the assault on the orphanage?"
"Yeah an orphanage was assaulted the same night as the terrorist attack on the refinery. Five males and one female teenager was taken, ages ranging...fourteen to sixteen."
"The same night?" Abigail whirled on the FIS agent.
"Yeah, within an hour in fact," Ronnie's tone was confused.
"Why wasn't this flagged?" Abigail's tone was incredulous.
"Why would it be? What possible use could the Batarians have with human kids?" Ronnie's brows furrowed. "Yes, the timing is convenient I'll grant you, but where is the connection?"
Abigail turned towards Anderson, "Michael Elisson."
Anderson groaned his eyes darting towards the other agent in the room who was not cleared for classified information.
"Whose Michael Elisson?" Ronnie asked the Commander.
Anderson gave Shepard a now see what you have done look.
"Michael Elisson, he is a human geneticist who has...defected...to the Batarians. We believe he is involved in a plot to abduct human teenagers, young adults, adolescents, for purposes unknown."
"Why weren't we told?!" Ronnie's outrage was palpable. "Let me guess its classified?" She spat.
Anderson didn't look amused but he took it like a champ, "We didn't even know there was a connection. We didn't know about the kidnappings at the orphanage until we got here remember? And the Batarians are slavers, them kidnapping children should hardly be 'news'."
"Maybe so but they also show up in giant ships and abduct people in job lots, if we knew they were engaged in this kind of targeted abduction then we could've made the connection."
"Which may not have done any good," Anderson pointed out practically.
"Look, Commander its still a lead we should consider pursuing." Abigail pointed out, hoping to forestall any further argument.
"I agree," Anderson nodded, "Ronnie want to provide us transport?"
"I'll requisition a squad car," she still didn't sound happy, but she would do her job.
The aircar parked just outside the entrance to the Adler orphanage and Abigail stepped out before clipping her sunglasses to the front of her blouse.
A woman was waiting for them at the top of the steps, she looked matronly enough that she had to be the headmistress or main provider for the entire community. She regarded them with a certain weary hostility as they approached and Abigail tensed, figuring she knew what this was about.
"Special Agent Price, FIS," Ronnie greeted while flashing her ident card.
"Welcome to the Adler Orphanage. I am Rebekah Adler, welcome. If you will follow me."
Despite the sturdiness of the exterior the interior looked like something she had seen a dozen times before, separate rooms, some for teaching and eating, some for sleep quarters.
Abigail looked around as Ronnie started the interrogation, this place brought bad memories to her and she felt like a little girl again. She shivered.
The woman before them was a bit resentful and evasive in the questions that Ronnie was asking her.
Abigail sighed and moved forward, "look I am sorry to interrupt but I am...Agent Shepard."
Anderson groaned.
"We need to get her to trust us," Shepard snapped at him, tired of the meaningless cloak and dagger bull that they had to put up with.
Adler looked between the two of them and then smiled, "I'm not sure if this is some good cop or bad cop situation or not."
"Why the hostility?" Abigail asked mildly, before sitting down on a desk in the middle of the room, making herself look nonthreatening.
"Because the attack on the refinery meant that they assigned a junior case officer to this case, they didn't consider it as important as their precious eezo." Her voice cracked. "And dammit these are my kids."
Abby nodded, "I know. I've been there."
Adler's mouth looked slack jawed but her eyes were still skeptical, "how have you been here? You are an Alliance soldier, a representative of a government that looks pretty uncaring from where I sit."
Abby chuckled, "tell me about it. And yes, I grew up in probably a dozen places like this in my youth. Let me guess you get your funding from a local synagogue or Talmudic chapter?"
Finally she got through and grew curious, "how'd you know?"
The memories flooded back into her and she grew distant, "Because after a...dark time in my life...a Rabbi took me in, gave me a home when I least expected it and maybe didn't deserve it. But he gave me a second chance, and now I'm here. Now just tell me about that night."
Adler's eyes grew moist with tears, "the truth is I don't know, that is part of the problem, part of the frustration...it all happened so fast."
"We're here to help Rebekah, please, let us. Start from the beginning." Abby started and then she noticed that Anderson was giving her a very intent look.
She sighed, "well I was in the top office going over the funding report when I heard a noise down stairs...now keep in mind I don't believe in keeping personal fire arms around the house...so when I saw a group of heavily armed strangers I couldn't deal with it. But they went in here, were jamming our communications somehow, and hit one of the wards downstairs before escorting the people out at gun point...I'm not sure they saw me."
"Can you think of any descriptions of them? What were they wearing, their arms?"
Adler shrugged and her face went into her hand, "they were helmeted, their features were obscured, but they were professional...military...at least as far as I could tell."
Abigail got up and toggled her Omni-tool's holographic projector, "like this?"
Adler gazed down. "Yes, exactly like that!"
The armor of a Batarian Enforcer.
"If you'll please, take me to the ward where the people were taken." Abby offered placing an arm on her shoulder.
She nodded.
The downstairs room was divided into two double sided rows of beds, one towards each side of the room, each of them were four double bunked beds.
Abigail sighed, as nothing had occurred to her at the moment. The beds were still a mess as the house keepers had kept it the way they could for any future investigators would come in. Abby could just feel the desperation in the air, of the kids screaming for someone to save them as the Batarians led them away.
It matched her own hopeless apathetic mood as she looked around, seeing nothing which stuck out, no smoking gun, nothing the other investigators could've missed that would've pointed to their whereabouts.
"I will say this for the Batarians, they are certainly throughout." Anderson said, in perfect accompaniment to her thoughts.
"Alright," Ronnie murmured, "now that we know this is the Batarians there has to be something we can add for perspective."
Abby frowned at her, "I am not sure how that will help us here. The fact they were Batarians means we are dealing with professionals, they wouldn't just leave evidence...we would've found it already."
"But they would have to have a base near here then?" Ronnie looked between the two of them. "I mean you are the military experts right? If they wanted to get these people off world then they would need a place to gather right?"
"Alright the question is where?" Anderson mused.
"It would have to be close to us." Ronnie pointed out. "Somewhere abandoned?"
"Not a lot of empty real estate around here, downtown like this." Abigail mused.
"Then somewhere that is close to us, but somewhere where they could be left alone, not abandoned but small population." Ronnie counted off on her fingers. "I think I will be able to run the numbers and do some checking, hopefully come up with something soon."
Abby nodded, "sounds good."
"Come on, in the meantime I suggest we get some sleep Shepard, we are operating on twenty hours straight."
She yawned, feeling the truth of it, feeling the weariness pressing down, "alright."
Ronnie left the two of them standing there and Anderson was glancing over at Shepard.
She yawned again before blinking at him, "was any of that true?" He asked.
She almost asked was what true? But then the truth of it came pressing down on her and she couldn't help but feel a little hurt by what he was really asking.
After a moment to make sure she could keep her emotions in check she answered, "yes it was true. All of it. I really did spend most of my life in orphanages and even one much like this. It was part of the Judge's mandate and the offer of one of the friends of the banker my boyfriend...killed. I was given over to the custody of a local home until I became of age to join the military."
"I see."
It was Abigail's turn to ask an impertinent question, "why? Why do you ask? You think I could lie?"
Anderson hesitated before answering, just like she did, "You are just a very practically minded woman Shepard, who seems interested in getting the job done." He sighed. "I'm sorry, I guess its just been a long day."
And without further commentary on the matter he turned to leave, leaving her hurt and confused in his wake.