Citadel March 3, 2183
Talking the council in circles to buy time for Garrus should have been easy. She had years of practice talking C-Sec in loops for the same reasons — buying time. The council wasn't all too different, and wasn't like Saren was any good at talking. It was easy enough to trick him into casting suspicion on himself. The real problem was Udina.
The man didn't know when to shut up.
Every time she pushed Saren into a corner, Udina opened his mouth, pulling the spotlight to himself. She'd known he was impatient and crude, but she'd hoped he'd at least have the sense not to try to bludgeon results out of the council. It was infuriating. It had been a fight and a half just to leave the case open-ended. Not to mention the guts he had to berate her after the council had had enough of him.
She didn't bother to mask her annoyance as she waited for Udina to stop yelling long enough to get a word in.
He was still yelling when Garrus pinged her coms with a location, and she'd decided she'd had enough. She had work to do, and she was done with him.
She gestured to her squad to leave, trying to ignore Udina's offended sputtering. She wouldn't have stopped if he hadn't grabbed her wrist.
She pried his fingers off less than gently shooting him a glare. "Look, it's like you've been saying, ambassador. I should stick to my job. Unfortunately, you spent the entire goddamn meeting undermining my efforts to buy my contact time to follow his lead. So, I had to improvise. The council should have enough doubt they'll be willing to reopen the case, and if they don't, that's your doing, not mine. Now, I have a lead to follow up on. So, if my captain will grant me permission to follow it." She glanced at Anderson.
He nodded. "Granted."
She nodded, leading her squad out of the council chambers.
Garrus had sent her to C-Sec, surprisingly. With how often he complained about her presence in it, she figured he'd choose a different location. What wasn't a surprise was that he was bickering with a krogan twice his size with no regard to the fact that the krogan could crush him if he wanted to. Luckily, the krogan looked more annoyed than angry.
"You know if you wanted to add a krogan to the equation, you could have asked, Garrus." She murmured just quiet enough for him to hear. "Kinky."
Garrus choked on his next words.
Garrus had given her the gist of the situation when he'd pinged her. His investigation hinged on a man named Fist who had betrayed his employer for Saren. The krogan had been hired to deal with him.
The krogan eyed her, taking her in. "Do I know you, human?"
"Name's Shepard. I hear we have a mutual enemy. You with your contract on Fist and me…" She tilted her head. "Not really caring about Fist."
Shepard could see Garrus shake his head out of the corner of her eye.
"You're welcome to tag along if I can interrogate him first."
Wrex let out a snort. "Shepard? Commander Shepard? I've heard a lot about you." He took a step forward. "We're both warriors, Shepard. So out of respect, I'll give you fair warning. I'm going to kill Fist."
She looked him in the eye, letting out a sigh. "Part of your contract, I take it. I don't usually condemn people to die, but… He's slimy.
She didn't need Kaidan and Ashley for this part of the job. Garrus and Wrex knew the Citadel far better than they did, and any more than three people would have drawn attention. Instead, she sent them back to the Normandy. Besides, Wrex was a professional, and she trusted Garrus more than anyone.
She didn't like the fact that Fist's death was necessary to earn Wrex's respect, but she could accept it. Fist wasn't a good person by any means. His club especially had a nasty reputation for red-sand dealers and profiting off of them. That wasn't mentioning the things Fist did personally.
The closer they got to Fist's club, the grimier the streets got. Bottles and cans littered the street alongside vandalism and garbage. On most nights, the neon lights flickered slightly offbeat to music that could be heard a block away.
It was silent today.
Fist wasn't entirely stupid. He'd likely heard about the contract on his life by now. His guards patrolled the streets, waiting for Shepard and her team. Compared to the husks on Eden Prime… Well, there was no real comparison.
The husks were relentless swarming enemies that struggled to die. The mix of mercenaries Fist had employed were a bunch of idiots, practically walking into her line of fire.
Shepard's first shot landed in his knee, downing the man before he had time to react. Her second went through his omni-tool, the fragile circuitry wrapped around his wrist shattering.
Fist gripped his bleeding arm as Shepard approached, whimpering. She stopped in front of him, her eyes assessing him.
"Let's talk about Saren."
"I- I- I- yeah?" Fist stuttered. "Saren, uh…"
Shepard tapped her foot, clicking her tongue. She waved a hand, gesturing for him to continue. "You betrayed the shadow broker for him."
"R- right. The quarian."
Shepard knelt, gripping his face with one hand. "Get on with it already. Who's the quarian, and why does Saren want them dead?"
"She has information on Saren, wanted to trade it with the broker for safe passage. I don't know what it is. She said she'd only tell the broker."
Wrex grunted behind her. "Stupid, even I was contracted through an agent."
"I know that," Fist snapped. "I told her he'd meet her in the alley not far from here."
"So, she's walking into a trap," Shepard stated, flatly. "Great, I'll be sure to say hello for you after I get her out of it."
Shepard turned, waving for Garrus to follow her out of the room. Wrex cocked his shotgun.
"Wait, wait, wait! I thought you said you'd let me live." Fist raised his hands.
Shepard paused, looking back at him. "I said I'd think about it, and I did. It's not really my decision, though. I'm not the one with the contract."
She didn't wait for Wrex, stalking out of Fist's office before he fired.
"Before you say anything, I know it wasn't right, Garrus." she moved through the wrecked bar quickly, not quite running, so Wrex could catch up with them.
"I wasn't gu-"
"You were." Shepard cut him off. "I know it isn't like me."
"You've told me about Earth," he nudged her arm. "I get it. Let's just focus on saving this quarian."
The quarian — Tali — wouldn't have survived on her own, but she was still capable. What Tali lacked if pure strength, she more than made up for in creativity and technological skill. Not only was her information exactly what they needed to prove Saren's involvement on Eden Prime, she'd also managed to salvage the data Nihlus had given them.
It had been a good call to give Tali the file. Though, Shepard hadn't anticipated the contents of it.
A familiar voice filled the hallway outside Udina's office as the video played.
"Saren?" Nihlus' voice asked through staticy footage. "This isn't your mission Saren. What are you doing here?"
"Nihlus, the council thought you could use more help. I volunteered."
"It's been a mess. We weren't expecting a full-scale attack from the Geth, unless the council learned something and didn't tell me." She could hear the cautious edge to his voice. "Why are you really here, Saren? Why did you bring the Geth here?" The audio cut out.
Garrus whistled. "Well, that's… Pretty damning."
Citadel March 4, 2183
"You're back earlier than expected." the turian councillor stated flatly, staring Shepard down. "I've read your file. You're persistent for a human."
Shepard let out a short laugh. "It's a human trait. We don't give up easily. Though, this time the honour goes to the only person more stubborn than me." She waved a hand to Garrus behind her.
The turian councillor twitched but made no comment. Instead, he shared a look with the other councillors.
The salarian councillor cleared his throat. "Your ambassador said you'd found evidence."
"Recovered is a better word. Nihlus sent me a file on Eden Prime when it was uncertain if he would survive. It took some time to make it playable as well your stubborn C-Sec officer found his own lead."
The councillors shared another look before the asari councillor spoke up. "We'd be interested in seeing this evidence for ourselves."
