Chapter 22 - The Shadow Broker's Ominous Message
In This Edition Of Fornax:
Elkos Combine Debuts Its 2186 Virtual Intelligence Sexbot Line - Our Experts Test & Rate!
'I Love Nailing Asari. They Squeal Like Schoolgirls' - Pictorial & Interview With Security Expert Gianna Parasini.
Volus Nudism - The Rise of 'Exo-Suit Optional' Resorts On Ammonia Atmosphere Planets!
Biotic Sex Toys - How To Make Mass Effect Fields Perfectly Contoured To Your Partner's Orifices!
Dr. Solus Advises - Organic/Synthetic Relations: Why Positioning Is Crucial To Success!
'It's Not Like In The Porn Vids. Except During Group Showers' - Pictorial: Asari Commandos Tell All & Bare All!
"Quet, are you sure it was room 322?" Jacana muttered into her omni-tool as she glanced around the room she was standing in.
"Of course I'm sure!" the salarian Citadel Security officer indignantly replied.
"Because I'm standing in 322 and it definitely looks like a men's bathroom to me."
"You're an asari! How would you even know what a men's bathroom looks like?" Quet shot back, then added, "Hmm, maybe it was 223?"
Jacana sighed heavily, mentally cursing her salarian friend's capacity to get into situations like this, as well as his insistence that she always get him out of them. She was already testing her luck by being a civilian inside C-Sec headquarters. The ruse that Jacana was Quet's mistress could get her past Quet's buddies guarding the front door but now she was in a restricted area. It would take just one random passer-by deciding that the asari civilian looked suspicious to put her in a heap of trouble with the law. The Shadow Broker would not be amused.
"First, it was 323, then it was 232, I thought salarians were supposed to be good with numbers!" she hissed into her omni-tool. "Can you at least look out the window and give me an idea of what floor you're on?"
"No windows," Quet explained. "No light switch either, as far as I can tell. And it's a bit cramped in here so if you could hurry up…"
"No lights in a monitoring room?" Jacana questioned, "Are you sure it's not a janitor's closet?"
"Of course I'm sure!" Quet snapped, "That wouldn't make any sense at all! Why would Bailey lock me in a janitor's closet?"
Jacana bit her togue at that, the potential comebacks felt far too easy. "How are you locked in anyway?" she asked as she peaked out the door of the men's bathroom and silently made her way down the empty corridor.
"Don't know," Quet muttered. "I keep trying my keycard but it says I'm not authorized. This must be the highest level security monitoring room if even my top level clearance isn't enough! Ow!"
"You okay?" Jacana asked as Quet squealed.
"Yeah, just knocked something off a shelf. Ew… smells like bleach…"
"Don't worry, I'm sure the janitor will clean it up when he gets back," Jacana sighed as she came to the end of the corridor. "Quet, I don't think it's this floor."
"Wait!" he declared, "I've got an idea. JACANA!" He screamed into the com, making her jump a meter in the air and swear in quarian.
"Goddess, Quet! Are you trying to get me caught!?"
"You heard me!" he shouted excitedly. "That means you're nearby!"
"Of course I heard you, you imbecile!" Jacana retorted. "We're talking over the com!"
"Oh, right, hang on." Quet cut off the call before Jacana could stop him, leaving her tapping her foot impatiently and resisting the urge to punch something in annoyance before he called back thirty seconds later.
"Did you hear me?" he asked hopefully.
"No."
"Oh. Hmm. Come to think of it, these high tech monitoring rooms tend to be soundproofed… ouch!"
"What's wrong?" Jacana asked.
"Nothing. Just stepped in a mop bucket."
The pair fumbled around for another ten minutes before Jacana found an interactive display near the main building elevators. On a hunch she requested a listing of C-Sec Headquarters janitorial closets and discovered that the building's fifth floor had one numbered '522.' When she arrived at the room's door, she discovered its locking mechanism wasn't sophisticated but was only found on the exterior side of the door. In the dark of the tiny room, Quet had been mistakenly waving his keycard at the control panel for an automated toilet de-clogger. While he may have been authorized to use C-Sec's decryption and surveillance hardware, his authority did not extend to the plumbing systems.
Quet stumbled out of the cramped room and frowned at its contents, now illuminated in the lights from the corridor.
"Huh," he muttered, scratching his head. "They do a great job of disguising these high security monitoring rooms don't they? You'd never know it wasn't a janitor closet."
Jacana sighed heavily but resisted slapping her own forehead in despair. "How did you get locked in there in the first place?" she asked.
Quet shrugged. "It is was in the early morning hours. There was an anonymous report regarding an unknown turian civilian having a health problem inside the Council Chambers. I was just about to set up a file on this for our mutual employer when a communications officer came by and said Commander Bailey had a special project for me and to follow along. I did and he led me inside this room, closed the door and left. He must have been mistakenly activated a security lock."
Jacana rolled her eyes but said nothing. Attempting to correct one of Quet's misperceptions was like fighting a krogan over the last cookie in the bag: a lot of effort for little reward. Besides, she was intrigued by the mysterious business at the Council Chambers. "Did you find out anything else before you were led into this clos- er, high security monitoring room?"
The C-Sec officer shook his head. "No, but I can find out more. How much is it worth?"
Jacana folded her arms as Quet stared at her, no hint of irony in his large eyes. "It's worth me not throwing you back in that closet and 'mistakenly activating' the security lock," she replied, giving him her nicest smile.
"There's no need for that," Quet huffed, folding his arms indignantly. "I'm entitled to make an honest living. Though I suppose I do owe you for your help," he added as Jacana's eyes narrowed. "Let's slip back to my office and I'll see what else I can dig up. Then we do an even split on the data for the Shadow Broker. Say, 70/30?"
The asari smirked in spite of herself. "That's what I like about you, Quet. You never try to completely screw me over."
Quet warmly smiled back at Jacana. "Hey, that's what friends do, right?"
Jacana nodded. "You are a great friend. You're always right there when you need me."
Back in the relative safety of Quet's office in C-Sec's Cyber-Security Division, it only took the salarian a few minutes to pull up the main files relating to the Council Chambers incident. "Okay, here's what I've found out so far: the turian civilian they found at the scene was one 'Savara Korek.' She works for 6th Dimension Vids. She was taken to Huerta Memorial Hospital suffering from 'dextro shock: type 5 allergic reaction.' Not sure what that is, though."
"It means that in addition to some non-dextro-amino acid-based material getting into her system and the violent reaction that would cause, she had an additional allergic reaction to the material as well," explained Jacana, who was standing behind Quet and reading over his shoulder.
Quet turned around, a surprised look on his face. "Since when are you an expert in turian biology?"
Jacana shrugged. "Turian biology? No. But I grew up on Rannoch, remember? My father was a quarian along with most of my extended family. If there's one thing I know about it's not letting dextro-amino acid get into your body. My mother and I had to have our food, medicine and even things like skin balms specially imported from off-planet. I couldn't ever share my birthday cakes with my cousins or any of my friends. A single bite would have caused a medical emergency and ruin the festivities."
Jacana snorted as memories flooded back. "But accidents did happen. Every so often, I'd inadvertantly eat or drink something I shouldn't. Or go a little too far when making out with a schoolmate behind the library... You wouldn't believe how painful it is once that stuff enters your system. Your whole body just seizes up. And if that wasn't bad enough, sometimes you discover that you have a special vulnerability to whatever it was that got into you. A weakness that others of your species wouldn't automatically have. Something unique to your own body chemistry. An allergy. And since you avoid dextro-amino stuff ordinarily, you almost never know you even have the allergy until the accident happens. It's rare, but when it occurs that's when the situation gets really dangerous."
Quet arched a brow. "You nearly killed a schoolmate by engaging in amorous activity with them? Even though you knew how dangerous it could be?"
"Only once," Jacana retorted. "All the other times, *I* was the one that ended up in the hospital."
"All the other times?" Quet repeated, arching his brow even higher.
Jacana smiled. "If you were any other species, Quet, you would understand."
Quet leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "I just feel that, as your lover, you should have given me a warning about how dangerous this role could be."
"Okay, first of all, neither one of us belongs to a dextro-amino acid-based species, so this health risk doesn't come into play," Jacana declared, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Second, we are NOT lovers. That's just the cover we use so your C-Sec buddies will let me slip inside this building and do things like getting highly-trained security experts out of the surveillance monitoring rooms disguised as janitorial closets that they got locked inside."
Quet slowly nodded in response. "And knowing what I know now, I am very glad of that fact," he remarked. "I say we keep our phony relationship on that professional level, alright?"
"Fine by me," exclaimed Jacana. "We're getting side-tracked anyway. The point I was making about the turian woman's health issue is that it was probably something completely unexpected that interrupted whatever she was doing in the chambers. What else have you dug up about the incident?"
"Not that much..." the salarian said as he swung back around in his chair back towards his computer monitor. "The initial report was made anonymously, but it came from inside a turbolift to the chambers. The turian was taken immediately to the hospital and C-Sec still doesn't have a statement from her. Commander Bailey personally directed a whole team of officers to sweep the chambers but they found nothing out of the ordinary. The only items tagged as evidence were some clothes apparently belonging to the turian, a backpack and... a highly sophisticated camera/recording device. Hmm..." Quet muttered as he leaned into the screen and read through the report.
"And...?" Jacana impatiently asked.
The salarian continued reading the screen for a few more moments, his six fingers drumming on his desk, then announced, "Well, this is unusual: they recovered a data disc from the camera and it had a substantial amount of information on it. But I cannot access any of that information."
Jacana scoffed. "Why not? Aren't you the one who's always boasting that you can hack into any system?"
"I can," Quet huffily retorted. "The issue here is that the information doesn't appear to be in the system in the first place. As far as I can tell, nothing on the data disc was ever downloaded into C-Sec's mainframe. There has to be something important on the disc though. The incident report says the disc is being stored inside a special high-security safe and that only Bailey knows the code."
"It's almost as though Bailey was afraid that if the data had been entered into the system that a hacker might find it and sell it," Jacana quipped.
Quet ignored the comment and began tapping away at his computer's interface. "We're not beaten yet," he declared, and pulled up a new screen. "If we can't find out what's on the disc Bailey is holding, we CAN find out what piqued his interest after he returned from the Council Chambers..."
For the first time all morning, Quet had managed to impress Jacana. "You hack into your own boss' files? Gutsy."
"His extranet history too," the salarian revealed. "Did you know that Vaenia is Bailey's favorite vid? He watches it in his office sometimes. Only for about 15-20 minutes at a stretch though... Ah-ha! Here we go: right after Bailey returned he accessed the criminal file for one 'Zaeed Massani.' Studied it for a while too. Let's see who that is..."
Quet tapped the screen and Massani's mug shot and other pictures of him appeared. Jacana felt the blood drain from her face. "That's the human Khalisah hired as her bodyguard," she muttered, her voice sobering. It seemed that everything in her life kept coming back to Khalisah, and it was usually because the human was putting herself in some kind of mortal danger.
"It is?" the salarian hacker remarked. "Well, your friend picked one of the most notorious hired guns in the galaxy: his file goes back decades. He was a co-founder of the Blue Suns mercenary group, but later split with them. More recently, he's been on Cerberus' payroll."
Jacana felt sick. "How did Khalisah even manage to get in contact with him? And how is he involved with what happened in the chambers?"
Quet tapped away at the interface prompting a new screen to appear. "Here's something else interesting: Massani's file was recently accessed by Jondum Bau of the Council's Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch. And that was prior to this incident inside the Council Chambers."
"A Spectre?" Jacana said. "Why would he be interested? Unless... Maybe he was already aware that Massani was planning something involving the Council? Quet, can you access the files at the Spectre headquarters on the Citadel and find out what Bau was doing?"
The salarian hacker grimaced. "I could, but the problem is preventing the Spectres from discovering that their files have been hacked is a trick I don't yet know. And I'd rather not risk having a Spectre trace the hack back to me. Not while we're both on the Citadel. There may be another way to find out though."
"What are you thinking?" the asari asked.
Quet swung his chair back around to face Jacana. "Well, I'm not just a hacker. I am also highly-skilled in the other arts of espionage. The ones that require a personal touch. As it happens, Bau has been stopping by C-Sec regularly. The next time he shows up, I'll just trick him into giving me the information - and without him even realizing it!"
The salarian caught the skeptical look being cast by his asari friend, but wasn't fazed by it. A smug expression appeared on his own face. "It's going to be a battle of wits between me and this elite Spectre agent," he declared with a chuckle, then casually leaned back in his chair. "I'm pretty sure we both know who is going to come out on top."
"Umm..." Jacana began, but then thought better of it. Both Quet and Bau were salarians, she thought, so maybe, just maybe, Quet did know some way to get the information that members of other species wouldn't know. In truth, she didn't have any better ideas and the revelation that Khalisah had hired a contractor for Cerberus as her protector had her dreadfully worried. Jacana had to find out more about what Massani was up to and what the Spectre might know.
"Try not to get yourself killed," she told Quet, "Or arrested. Or locked in any more janitor's closets."
As Quet stood in line at the C-Sec commissary, his mind was focused on one thing and one thing only: should he get the soup of the day? Being locked inside a closet all night had made him quite hungry and the pangs in his stomach were getting severe. It wasn't until he had settled on the soup and half-sandwich combo deal and taken a seat that he began to ponder the other urgent matter he had to deal with: how to out-maneuver Jondum Bau. Spectre agents were the elite of the elite. Getting the information he needed without the agent even realizing it was a daunting task. Despite his earlier boast to Jacana, Quet didn't yet have a plan to do this. Nevertheless, he was determined to prove the asari's skepticism wrong.
He ran through several scenarios in his head as he ate his lunch. He could approach Bau, claim to be a fellow Spectre and say he also needed the information relating to Massani. He dropped the idea when he realized that the Spectres might use code phrases to identify each other or perhaps had a secret handshake. Quet also nixed shouting, "Hey, look over there!" and planting a bug on the agent when his back was turned. He couldn't be certain that at the precise moment he tried to plant the bug that there would be something interesting enough to point to and distract the spectre. Could he pose as Councilor Valern and fool Bau into handing over the information that way? There were two problems with that plan: Quet lacked Valern's distinctive facial markings and their voices were quite different. Perhaps if he wore a hood and claimed to have a cold?
Quet was still turning the idea over in his head when a voice asked, "Excuse me, are you Officer Quetzal with the cyber-security branch?" The question had come from a tall, tan-skinned salarian male in body armor standing by Quet's table. "My name is Jondum Bau, Council Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch," the spectre explained. "Commander Bailey recommended you. I need someone who can help me to decrypt these messages I've intercepted between a human fugitive I'm pursuing and one of her contacts here on the Citadel. I also need you to help me find some further information on the contact, a human mercenary named Zaeed Massani. Can you spare an hour?" Bau then hastily added, "Once you've finished with your lunch, of course."
The C-Sec officer swallowed a bite of his sandwich and replied, "I think I can find the time..."
It was a long walk back to her apartment for Jacana, not least because she decided to take a totally unnecessary detour to the Presidium. The revelations that Quet had given her left her craving a brisk stroll and some recycled air that was marginally fresher than that of the wards.
She had no idea what to do.
Should she reach out to Khalisah and tell her of what she'd just learned? Did the human already know who she had hired as her bodyguard? Was it all part of one of her elaborate plans? If Massani was watching Khalisah's every move would contacting her even be safe?
Maybe there was nothing to worry about. Maybe it was all just a big coincidence?
The thoughts ran in circles around her head and her pace quickened until eventually they overwhelmed her and she stopped dead in her tracks, surprising the turian woman behind her who was hurriedly carrying a tray of coffees back to her workplace.
She ignored the insults being hurled in her direction as hot coffee spilled all over the ground and wandered over to the nearby railing, leaning against it to gaze out at the lake.
The artificial sky reflected off the shimmering surface, so clear that you could see the fish swimming beneath. Alien children ran around the edge of the lake, perilously close to the water as their parents watched from picnic blankets beneath the trees that sheltered them from non-existent sunlight. Up above, birds were chirping to each other and if she closed her eyes, the draft from the skycars zooming overhead almost felt like a natural breeze.
She and Khalisah had taken many walks along this part of the Presidium. They must have sampled every coffee shop and café within seven kilometers, sharing breakfasts and lunch breaks. On days off they had sometimes gone down to the lake themselves and sat beneath the trees.
Their dates had never been extravagant. There had been no theatre or cinema trips, no days out to the Presidium's many tourist attractions. They had enjoyed talking more than anything, whether it be a 10 minute catch-up between work about nothing more than the frustrations of the day or losing hours to conversations that saw them share secrets and stories no others had ever heard.
Jacana had 600 years of life to share but she'd found that Khalisah never ran out of stories either. They could easily have shared everything in a meld, of course, without need for words at all, and they often did. But talking was important to humans. It was how trust unfolded for them and Jacana had respected that. With Khalisah, she learned to enjoy it.
The dialogue between them had been almost continuous, their little catch-ups had been daily even when both of them were swamped with work. They always managed to shoe-horn 10 or so minutes together somewhere and the conversations would be continued in messages that flitted back and forth all day. Not in an obsessive or unhealthy way though. They had simply become part of the chemistry of each other's lives.
It was a ridiculous and sentimental cliché, but when Khalisah had left the Citadel, it was like she had taken half the world with her. Her absence created an emptiness that had seemed almost incomprehensible. But now that Khalisah was back it was almost worse.
The distance that seemed to exist between them now gnawed at Jacana all the more because the human was within arm's reach. But the thought of reaching out to her made Jacana feel sick. Why? She wondered. Maybe they had never really been that compatible after all. Maybe they had just been in the 'honeymoon phase' as humans called it. Ignoring each other's flaws so they could enjoy the rush of each other's company. Maybe, underneath it all, there wasn't that much of a connection between them after all.
If that was the case, why was she so sick with worry over what Quet had just told her? She buried her face in her hands, trying to rub away the stream of thoughts as they looped back right to where they had started.
This wasn't doing anyone any good. She needed to focus on what was important: keeping Khalisah alive and safe, she could work out her mess of feelings for the human later. Though considering Khalisah's skill for recklessly endangering herself, the first task seemed almost as overwhelming as the second. She would just have to trust that Quet would come through for her.
That thought made her groan as she turned to head back to her apartment, stepping over a pool of spilt coffee in the process.
Jacana had only just made it through the door when her omni-tool began to ping. It was Quetzal. 'What could he possibly want now?' she wondered.
"Which closet are you locked inside this time?" she sarcastically asked as she opened the com line.
A loud "harumph!" came from the other end. "I'm calling to let you know that I have obtained the information from the Spectre agent," Quet triumphantly declared.
"Already?" Jacana blurted. "How did you-? You know what? Never mind. Just tell me."
"I have my ways," the salarian proudly explained. "The Spectre agent had no idea that-"
The asari sharply cut him off. "Quet, just tell me already."
"Okay, okay, okay... Well, this Massani fellow has been in regular contact with a human criminal and fugitive from justice named 'Kasumi Goto.' She's bad news. Her other known associate here on the Citadel is a drell named Thane Krios, one of the galaxy's top contract killers. Bau is interested in Goto mainly. He's been pursuing her for a while but she's quite elusive. He's been monitoring Krios and Massani in the hopes of tracking her through them. Bau was able to intercept a recent exchange between Massani and Goto. It seems his security protections aren't as tight as hers."
The name "Kasumi Goto" rang a distant bell in Jacana's head. "What does Bau want Goto for?"
Quet took a breath. "Are you sitting down? She's a top suspect in the murder of Donovan Hock."
"WHAT?!" sputtered Jacana at the mention of Khalisah's late husband. She then realized that that was where the name "Goto" had wrung a bell: the asari had built a file on Hock's known associates a while back just in case anyone else from Khalisah's past came after her and/or Hock's fortune. Jacana hadn't bothered with the file for months but she recalled that Kasumi Goto was among the people the authorities on Hock's home planet, the colony of Beckenstein, had wanted to question. Her whereabouts were listed as "unknown."
"I'm afraid so," Quet replied. "Bau talked about Goto like she was one of the most skilled covert agents in the galaxy. Like Massani, she's worked with Cerberus. Krios did too - strange, given that he's non-human. Bau believes that all three met while working on the same assignment for Cerberus."
A dreadful, gnawing feeling began to grow in Jacana's stomach. "I'm afraid it gets worse," Quet continued. "The message that Bau wanted me to decrypt between Goto and Massani was about her secretly filing in for him as Khalisah's bodyguard. It appears that some days it is really Goto who is watching Khalisah's every step. She uses some voice-disguising tech to make Khalisah think she is Massani."
The bad feeling gnawing away in Jacana's gut grew sharp fangs. "Please tell me this all a bad joke," she pleaded.
Quet sighed. "No, and there's more still: Bau was also able to find out how Khalisah came to hire Massani in the first place. He was recommended to her by Barla Von."
Jacana staggered against the wall to steady herself. "Von?!" she stammered. "But he's one of our operatives. That is, the Shadow Broker's..."
"I know. The broker's one public face on the Citadel," Quet replied. "Bau has no proof, but he suspects that Goto now works for the Shadow Broker too."
The amount of information felt overwhelming, but a picture slowly began to form for Jacana: the broker had used Von to secretly manipulate Khalisah into hiring Massani. Now the broker was seemingly arranging for Massani to be secretly replaced by Goto, likely the same person who assassinated Khalisah's husband. It was too much of a coincidence. The only question was why, now that Khalisah was firmly in the Shadow Broker's crosshairs, the order to kill her hadn't been given if that was what the broker wanted. Maybe the broker still had some hope of getting control of the Hock fortune? Could that be it? Jacana shuddered as she ran through the possible scenarios in her head.
"Do we know anything more about what Massani was doing at the Council Chambers?" she asked.
"Nothing more on that front, I'm afraid," Quet announced. "Bau didn't have any interest in Massani beyond his connection to Goto."
Jacana took a long, deep breath. "Quet, listen to me. We cannot relay any of this to the broker. Not one bit. Khalisah is already in grave danger and if Goto really does work for our mutual employer... " Jacana pleaded. "We cannot let the broker know that Bau is tracking Goto. We have to hope that the Spectre finds her before she does a hit on Khalisah."
Quet winced. "What if we created a list of the facts we've gathered, ranked the items from least to worst according to how dangerous they are to your friend and only sent the top five?" he suggested.
"No!" declared Jacana.
"Top... three?" Quet asked.
"None of it!" Jacana shouted.
"Okay, okay. I see it is important to you..." Quet conceded. "I mean, I do owe you for getting me out of the room, and, well, if it is important to you then it is important to me as well."
"Thank you, Quet," Jacana replied. "Goddess, I didn't realize my friendship meant that much to you..."
The salarian nodded and flashed a smile over the omni-tool com line. "Of course it does," he remarked, then added, "Okay, let's say - purely hypothetically - that somebody already passed along to the broker the information about the pictures taken in the Council Chambers and how Bailey stored them in-"
"QUET!" shouted Jacana.
It was as fitfull and sleepless of a night as Jacana had ever experienced in all of her 600 years. Nightmares of Khalisah being gunned down alternated with long stretches of being awake and turning everything over in her head and trying to make sense of it for the umpteenth time. That and simply staring up at the ceiling. The biggest question of all was, what should she do next? Could she even risk reaching out to Khalisah now that she knew this contract killer Goto was watching the reporter's every move? Would that just get them both killed? Or what if-
"Ping" went the monitor on Jacana's desk. It was the special tone used to indicate that the Shadow Broker was calling.
Jacana sat bolt upright in bed, a chill creeping up her spine. She swung her legs over the bed and stood, eyeing the monitor warily as she approached and sat stiffly in her chair.
She deliberately composed herself and reached out to receive the transmission. "Operative Aragem, receiving you," she stated, drawing on centuries of experience to keep the quiver out of her voice.
"This is the Shadow Broker," rumbled the menacing, electronically-modulated voice. "Operative Aragem, I have special instructions for you."
Jacana hesitated but not long enough to draw suspicion. "Understood."
"Aria T'Loak's activities on the Citadel are not to be impeded in any way," the broker declared. "Therefore, you cannot aid Khalisah al-Jilani in any way. Nor are you to have any contact with her for the foreseeable future. You will have to put your past relationship with her to the side."
Jacana's jaw clenched as prickling suspicions began to morph into anger. If the Shadow Broker was planning to cause any harm to Khalisah…
"Can I ask why?" Jacana forced herself to say through gritted teeth.
"No, you may not," the broker bluntly responded. "Your job is to gather intel. I will decide how it is used."
Jacana's throat went dry and her stomach twisted into knots. She wasn't about to let the Shadow Broker dictate who she cared about or who's life she decided to involve herself in.
"But, if Khalisah publishing an expose of T'Loak is still a potential problem, I could help with that. Appeal to her-"
The broker's voice rose while the words themselves started coming more slowly. Jacana was clearly annoying her boss. "That will not be necessary. I have another operative handling al-Jilani," the broker declared. "Everything will be resolved soon. You are not to interfere. Is that understood?"
Jacana squinted at the screen. "Understood," she said coldly.
"Good. Shadow Broker out." The com line went dead.
Jacana grabbed the edge of the desk, holding in the sharp, panicked breaths that were trying to escape her. The Shadow Broker and Aria T'Loak had formed some kind of alliance and Khalisah was about to be silenced for good. It was the only explanation. There was no one Jacana could trust now and nowhere else she could turn.
She had absolutely no idea what to do next.
Liara T'Soni reached for a nearby cup of tea as the com line blinked out. She furrowed her brow for a moment then called out, "Feron, were you listening just now?"
The drell assistant, seated just a few meters away, looked up from his monitor. "No, I wasn't paying close attention. Why?"
T'Soni took whiff of her tea. "I was wondering if I made that last message to Operative Aragem sound a tad too ominous." She took a sip from her cup, thought for a few seconds and shrugged. "I'm probably just over-thinking things."