The Agent

The Med Clinic's doors slid open with a quiet hum, and Shepard noticed a Turian male in blue and black armor crouching by a low wall, a modified sniper rifle readied. That matched the C-Sec Officer from earlier at the trial. Garrus either didn't notice her and Wrex due to the scene around the corner, or he couldn't respond to them. A young Human woman, possibly the doctor on duty here, pleaded with a man that questioned her. Two more plain clothed men armed with assault rifles pushed things around on her shelves and desk in a haphazard way. Typical thug behavior, trying to intimidate her into compliance. The lead one turned and spotted Shepard, setting the whole room off.

"Don't move!" he growled, pulling the doctor into a chokehold against his chest. His pistol rested against her temple. Excellent, he had a hostage now. Before she responded, Garrus rose out from behind his cover and made his move. His scoped shot snapped the man's head back, and he stumbled away from the doctor before dropping dead. Risky play. The woman cowered behind a support pillar while the other thugs backed away into a corner. Wrex invited himself into the room, his entire body glowing with a layer of violet energy bolstering his shields. The Krogan found the threat and lumbered towards them, shotgun raised.

To their credit, Fist's men did try to take him down, but their gunfire only dented his biotic barrier. Shepard briefly wondered if different species generated different biotic colors, but then focused her efforts on closing the gap between her and the unarmed doctor. She sprinted to the pillar and used her own pistol for cover. Garrus took longer to aim this time, then he chose to nail a pressurized metal container. The gas combined with the shard of superheated metal caused a detonation, sending the thugs stumbling into the open. Two echoing booms from Wrex's weapon ended the scuffle.

"Weaker than I thought..." He shook his head at the fresh bodies. Garrus straightened up, tapping one of his three fingers on the side of his curved eye visor to shut off whatever program he'd been utilizing. The Turian's silver plated skin stood out in the stark artificial light, complimenting the thick, angular blue lines running across the bridge of his nose and under his eyes. The tips of his lower jaw mandibles looked shorter than Nihlus or Saren's, and she guessed he could be younger than both of them.

"Nice timing, Shepard!" he said, powering down his rifle. He had that same echoed, almost metallic quality to his voice, but she heard genuine excitement in it. "Gave me the perfect chance to jump in."

"That's a dangerous stunt to pull. Must be pretty confident with that gun." A little off, and he'd have drilled a hole in an innocent person's shoulder. Or worse. His face shifted, the plates acting like furrowed eyebrows, and he scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, I…" He cleared his throat, caught somewhere between shame and pride. "I practiced my sniping. Dr. Michel, did they hurt you?" Garrus asked.

Shepard took the woman by her arm and tugged her back to her feet, which seemed to snap her out of her fear-induced silence. The doctor checked herself over.

"I think I'm alright, thanks to you…" Her Quebec accent persisted beneath the translator's work. "I don't know why Fist sent his men after me, I haven't done anything to upset him," she rambled as she took a nearby seat.

"Fist doesn't tend to shake down places on the Upper Wards, but he really wanted info on your last patient," Garrus explained. He glanced at Shepard. "Let me guess, you're here for the same thing? I heard through C-Sec that you're still on Saren's trail." Shepard nodded, but Dr. Michel looked even more lost.

"Fist backstabbed the Shadow Broker over some data that would implicate Saren." Shepard saw no reason to hide it from them at this point. Garrus and the Doctor came to their own conclusions at the same time.

"And the Quarian had it!" Garrus flashed his teeth. "But we've got no idea if Fist caught up to her yet…"

"I…the girl came here a few hours ago with a gunshot injury," Dr. Michel said after a long pause. "She claimed that she'd been ambushed by mercenaries who wanted an evidence disc, but she needed to get it into the public's hands. I thought Fist still worked for the Shadow Broker, so I encouraged her to make a deal through him. I swear I didn't know he'd gone rogue!" Shepard, as frustrating as this situation was, couldn't blame the woman for an honest mistake.

"It's fine, we can still fix this," she said. "Fist wanted to tie up all the loose ends surrounding the data, but you should be safe for now." Until she handled him personally. "I assume you told the Quarian to head to Chora's Den?"

"I did…"

"Is that enough evidence to get moving, Shepard?" Wrex approached in almost complete silence for someone his size, having finished looting the two men for any salvageables. His voice still startled the officer and Dr. Michel, but if he cared he didn't show it. "I say it's time we knock his door down."

"Yeah, I think we're ready to roll." Before they left, Garrus jogged up to her.

"Wait!" Shepard stopped. Wrex gave her a curious stare from the doorway, but didn't head off on his own. "Listen, my investigation is technically over, but… I've got a feeling that wherever you're going, that's where the real action is. And I want in."

"Aren't you in C-Sec? The Executor said they couldn't do anything else," Shepard asked. His mandibles flared when he growled.

"Exactly! Fist has so many connections that he just… forces us to look the other way while his underlings collect dirty credits from the Wards! I've wanted to take him down since we pinpointed where he kept his base." His blue eyes burned as he spoke. There was no denying his passion on the subject. "And now Saren's hiding from his crimes the exact same way. I'm tired of scum like them slipping between our fingers! So please, let me come with you."

"...Sure, why not?" One more person on her side couldn't hurt. And maybe he'd keep C-Sec off their asses long enough to secure that evidence. "But you're following my lead, got it? I'm not trying to start a gang war on my first Citadel visit." That sounded exciting, but she didn't want to get Anderson in hot water. "We go in, find what I need, and then we're out." Wrex rolled his eyes.

"You wanna pick up any more kids for the field trip to Chora's?" he asked. She shrugged her shoulders and passed by the Krogan.

"The enemy of your enemy is your friend, right?" And Saren had a lot of enemies right now. Garrus hurried to flank her, taking position behind her right shoulder. All Turian citizens went through mandatory military service, she remembered from her early Alliance briefings. That'd hopefully mean he wouldn't waste time when given an order.

"I won't be in your way," he promised. The "thank you" part didn't need to be stated.

By the time Shepard followed the neon signage all the way to the right ward, the area around the club felt wrong. No foot traffic, no parked skycars in visible spots, no music blaring through the walls or drunk patrons around the entrance.

"Someone tipped our pal off…" Wrex said. He released his gun, which probably wasn't a bad idea. She caught sight of Kaidan and Ashley crouching by the front doors and jogged the rest of the way over.

"What'd I miss?" she asked.

"The bouncers cleared everyone out," Kaidan said. "Customers, dancers, the bartenders, even the cleaning staff. I think they're onto us." Ashley watched Garrus and Wrex with a more critical eye.

"Ma'am, is this our backup?" Shepard looked at her two new companions. A little unorthodox, but armed and dangerous. That's all she needed right now.

"Yeah. Beggars don't get to choose, and who knows what they're setting up inside." She'd explain how they came to this agreement later. "So here's the situation…" Shepard laid out everything she knew so far. Kaidan scratched his stubble.

"So the data we need and this missing Quarian could be hidden in Chora's Den," he stated. "And now we're on a makeshift rescue mission that might lead to Saren's downfall. If we're not completely off the mark."

"It's never easy, is it?" Ashley sighed, but took out her rifle and checked her shield levels. "You want us to keep holding this position in case he calls in reinforcements?" They were on board, then. Shepard wouldn't have blamed them if they wanted to leave this up to someone else, but she was glad her Alliance comrades hadn't backed down yet.

"And I'll take these two and handle the inside. He should have an office accessible from here." A part of her hoped Fist would notice her affiliation with Earth's military and decide fighting back wasn't worth it, but the odds of that were low. Men like him stayed stubborn and arrogant as long as they had meat-shields to hide behind. Kaidan hesitated, but then he seemed to shake off whatever doubts he had.

"We'll call in if the situation changes. Be careful, Commander." He drew his pistol and ducked behind a low wall. Ashley flanked the opposite side so they covered both walkways. Shepard signaled for Garrus and Wrex to approach the door, and then began cracking the weak electronic lock with her Omni-tool.

Forcing their way into Chora's Den was, as the Marines would say, some unfiltered bullshit. As soon as she convinced the doors to open, the hired guns inside let loose. Bottles and glassware shattered in their crossfire, making it even harder to pinpoint where they posted up around the central bar. Shepard stumbled back from the glancing pistol shots that depleted most of her shields. She was forced to dive into a booth for protection. Wrex and Garrus swapped to assault rifles and sprayed down the front area, pushing the collection of thugs back into cover. Someone roared from the back of the club and blew a hole in a nearby seat with an errant shotgun slug. Garrus rolled into her hiding spot before the enemy's guns finished cooling. From the corner of her eye, Wrex charged further in, his entire body radiating biotics. He'd be alright for the moment. Krogan were tough.

"They're everywhere!" Garrus helpfully informed her, wiping a speck of dark blue blood away from a cut on his face. Not a good start. "Pretty sure they're perched on the dance platforms too. Can't push into that without a distraction…" A correct assumption. They didn't have the shields to survive an attempt. She checked over the rest of her equipment loadout. Pistol, a handful of kinetic grenades, some N7 grade combat hacking software...

"Do you have a hacking program?" Shepard asked. Garrus nodded

"C-Sec Omni-tools come with them preloaded. It's functional." Not military level, then. Probably couldn't afford that for every officer.

"Good, I need you to do something for me." Her sniper rifle extended. "Disable every one of their guns, even if it's just for a few seconds. I'll hold their attention."

"All of them?" Garrus looked down at his Omni-tool and then back up at her, mandibles twitching. "But I…" He pondered it for a little longer, and then sobered up. His talons clicked over the virtual display on his arm. "Just make it count, Shepard." She grinned and primed her explosive disc with a single button press, then tossed it into the mayhem. The force in a standard Alliance indoor grenade wasn't large, since the last thing any marine wanted to do was blow a hole in a ship or destabilize a station's life support with a bad throw, but it had enough kick to disable most personal shields and stun anyone close by. Fist's hired men broke formation in a panic, scrambling to recover their advantage. "Launching room-wide Sabotage." Garrus finished hijacking the bar's local computer system and sent out an electronic pulse that temporarily cooked every non friendly weapon. Shepard sniped the first person her scope fell on before he could think to swap guns or reboot his defenses. The second didn't survive for much longer. Garrus joined in to sweep the left side with assault fire. A couple of stragglers in the very back grabbed cover, though one bouncer that Shepard could now identify as a dark brown Krogan showed no fear. Wrex's barriers were already down, but the other Krogan opted to use his deadweight shotgun as a bludgeoning weapon. The barrel slammed into the side of Wrex's face, only for him to spit out a sharp tooth and grab the offending bouncer by the collar. He pulled the smaller Krogan in for a nasty headbutt, their plates colliding with a resounding crack that made Shepard wince. Wrex kicked him away and fired rapidly into his chest. The bouncer tipped over, clutching his mangled armor in a useless attempt to recover.

"Who else wants some?" Wrex called out. His assault rifle vented heat with a long hiss. She and Garrus crossed the club to regroup, letting the Turian pick off the few who tried a half-hearted counterattack. "That's what I thought."

"Good work, let's keep moving." Shepard tossed her squad some medigel packs to stem any injuries, and then they broke the back area open to explore.

She "gently" persuaded a pair of dock workers to not waste her time or their lives defending a gangster for minimum pay, only to stumble into Fist's automated office turret system.

Miniguns, it turned out, very quickly cut through shielding. And barriers. And basic armor. Shepard's jaw hurt from how much effort it took to resist cursing their target out mid-firefight. She dumped her anger into stripping the damn turrets of their defenses while Garrus and Wrex maintained Fist's attention without bleeding out. Finally, her hacking brought the miniguns to a grinding halt. Fist had crawled behind his fancy desk by the time she stalked over. Her patience for playing nice was long spent. He fumbled over what could've been an emergency weapon, only to have it knocked out of his hand by her boot.

"Where's the informant?" Shepard asked. Her pistol's aim lined up with the gangster's head. He froze.

"I don't know what you're talking about"-

"Don't play dumb! We know you double crossed your old boss," Garrus snarled. "What did Saren pay you to do with her?"

"Shit, I don't know what's so important about her!" Fist raised his hands in the air. "She's not here anymore! Saren just said he wanted her, so that's what I arranged. I told her the Shadow Broker would meet her in an alleyway connecting the Lower Wards in a few minutes. She's probably been taken by now." That didn't sound good.

"You're disgusting, Fist…" Garrus looked like he wanted to say something far worse, but held himself back. "We should check his drawers and safe for any other evidence he's been stashing away in here, but then we can't catch up with her." Shepard's first instinct was to pick the girl's safety, even if it left Fist to potentially hide his guilt.

"That's all he had to say, right?" Wrex asked. "You can dig through his stuff later." He readied his shotgun and fired at Fist. The man convulsed from the shot and died in seconds, leaving her and Garrus stunned. "Problem solved."

"You can't just kill him! How is C-Sec supposed to charge him now?" Garrus yelled. Fist bled out on his own carpet, his body now still.

"The Shadow Broker asked for his removal, so I finished my job," Wrex said. He didn't sound rattled in the slightest. "If you think he'd have survived in a cell with that kind of bounty on his head, you know less about the underground than I thought you did." He snorted. "Fist was already dead." That painted a gruesome picture of the Shadow Broker's influence, even at the heart of Council Space. Wrex had been technically insubordinate, but Shepard found herself agreeing with the assessment, and it's not like she didn't know that was his goal from the start.

"Doesn't matter anymore. We need to hurry and intercept that meetup," she cut in before Garrus could continue the argument. Fist was low on their current priorities and she doubted anyone in charge would care enough to look into this. "Let's find that alley." Garrus looked away and made a soft clicking noise, shaking his head as if to refocus.

"Fine, I'm right behind you." They backtracked and caught another gunfight erupting outside the club.

"Mercenaries closing in on our position!" Ashley announced over their communication channel. "You coming out soon?"

"We'll be there in a few seconds, hold your ground," Shepard answered. More stalling from Saren, but this time Shepard wouldn't let him distract her from the real objective. She switched back to her sniper rifle, checking its condition over before it saw some extended use. They were too close to fail now. "I'm cutting us a path out of here."

AN: Getting close to the end of the Citadel section, and I don't want to spend too much time here beyond establishing certain characters.