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The entry hall to the Citadel passed by windows that were open to the C-Sec offices. Thane and Garrus both looked them over with a certain amount of amused contempt. Thane muttered, "You'd think Citadel security would be the best in the galaxy."

Garrus snorted. "I know C-Sec far too well to think that."

Thane studied the view. "I see no fewer than fourteen fatal flaws a skilled assassin could exploit. Eight of them existed when I was here ten years ago."

"You mean they're getting worse?" Shepard asked. The turian C-Sec officer manning the doors was watching them, and she jerked her head in his direction to get her team to keep moving.

"I can't believe that's a surprise to you, Shepard," Garrus replied.

"It probably shouldn't be," she agreed, "but it seems like C-Sec should be fixing their problems, not adding to them."

"You of all people should know that solving a problem all too often simply means adding another one," Thane pointed out.

"True enough."

They made it through the security checkpoint without a problem—surprising, given the collective amount of firepower they carried—and found the C-Sec entry office.

Captain Bailey looked up from his vid screen. "Back again, Commander?" He looked past her, his eyes widening. "Garrus Vakarian! The stories I've heard about you!"

"All good, I'm sure," Garrus said dryly.

"Uh … yeah." Bailey looked back at Shepard. "This a business trip, Commander?"

"Is there any other kind?" Shepard remembered those all-too-brief days of relative inaction on the Citadel with Kaidan after Sovereign's attack, wondering if anything like them would ever come again. Wondering if Kaidan was on the Citadel, and if so, would she run into him.

"Anything I can help with?" Bailey asked.

"We're looking for someone calling himself 'Fade'."

A pained expression crossed Bailey's face. "Yeah, I know him."

Garrus stepped closer to the desk. "You know where we can find him?"

"If I knew that, you'd be finding him in a cell. He's too good at hiding to be caught. I think someone in C-Sec might be feeding him information."

"Sadly, not surprising." Garrus sighed.

Bailey looked around before nodding. "I wish it was outside the realm of possibility, but what are you going to do? Best place to start looking is a warehouse off the marketplace—a lot of Fade's contacts work from there. Go ask them some questions." He looked up at Shepard with a twinkle in his eye. "Gently, of course."

"We're always gentle," Garrus said, chuckling.

"So I've heard. Anything else?" Bailey added with a curious look at Thane, who had been not only silent but completely removed from the conversation, so worried about his son that he was practically vibrating with it.

"My associate is trying to find his son. We think a local criminal may have hired him."

Bailey glanced at Thane again. "That shouldn't be too hard. We don't see many drell here." He tapped a few keys, watching the screen as the information scrolled past. "There we go. One of my men reported seeing a drell recently. Oh … he was talkin' to Mouse," he added, as if that somehow changed things.

"Mouse?" Thane asked abruptly. His face was shuttered—Shepard couldn't read any of what he was thinking.

"Yeah, he's a petty criminal, a former duct rat. Probably not the guy who hired your boy but a messenger. He runs errands for anyone who'll pay."

All three of the men seemed to understand the term Bailey had used, but Shepard's time on the Citadel had mostly been spent in the Presidium, the embassies, and the markets. "What's a duct rat?"

"Local slang for the poor kids who grow up on the station. When they're small, they tend to play in the ventilation ducts where adults can't get to them."

"That doesn't sound safe."

"It isn't." Bailey sighed. "Every couple of months we pull a little body out of them: lacerated by fan blades, broken by a dead fall, suffocated by vaccuum exposure. And those are just the ones we know about; most of them probably end up spaced, or fall into the protein vats the keepers use. Mouse survived long enough that he can't fit in the ducts anymore. He was one of the smarter ones. Or the luckier ones."

Thane looked as though he were going to say something, then thought better of it.

Shepard glanced at him, waiting to see if he had more to say, but Bailey spoke up before either of them could say anything. "One of Mouse's side jobs is selling illegal VI personalities. If you find him, you should ask him about them—he was selling one of you."

"Me?" Shepard didn't know whether to be flattered or annoyed.

"Yeah." Bailey grinned. "When you erased a file it would say 'I delete data like you on the way to real errors.'"

"That's pretty extreme, Commander," Garrus said. "You should take it easy on the poor data."

Shepard shook her head. "Laugh it up, Vakarian."

He chuckled. Bailey did, too, adding, "It was buggy, though. The error message was about how the galaxy was at stake and you should fix the problem yourself."

Garrus gave a mock sigh. "There you go again, Commander, with an inflated sense of your own importance."

"I think you missed your calling, Garrus. You should go into comedy."

"And leave you without my talents at your side? Perish the thought."

Rolling her eyes, Shepard turned back to Bailey. She hadn't missed the fact that Thane had ignored the entire conversation; the mention of Mouse seemed to have him even more upset than he had already been. "Anything you can tell us about Mouse's whereabouts?"

"You can usually find him outside the Dark Star. He works out of a public comm terminal."

"Thank you."

Bailey glanced Thane's way with sympathy. "Sounds like your boy is running with the wrong crowd."

"Yes. I agree," Thane replied sorrowfully.

"Look, if Mouse can't get you in touch with your son directly, he'll know who can." Bailey hesitated, then added, "I'll give you whatever help I can, if you need it."

"I appreciate the help a great deal, Captain, but you don't know us." Shepard regarded him with curiosity. "Why are you so willing to help?"

Bailey looked up at Thane, his face showing the strain of his work. "I've worked down here in Zakera for two years. Every day, I see kids who have turned to crime because it was the only way for them to survive; because their parents don't care. You're trying to save yours, and I want to help you with that."

Thane gave him that courteous nod of his. "Thank you. He faces a dark path."

"That he does. Let's get him off it and back on a different road."

"We will." Shepard looked at Thane and repeated the words. "We will."

"Yes." But he didn't sound convinced. As they left the office, he drew near to Shepard, saying softly, "I noticed that you didn't tell him that Kolyat plans to assassinate someone."

"Well, you didn't mention that you kill people for a living, either," Shepard pointed out. "Besides, we're going to stop Kolyat before that happens, aren't we?"

"Yes." Thane nodded. "Thank you, Shepard."

"Don't thank me yet. Let's get this done."