Chapter 26 - The Spectre, The Thief, The Reporter & Her Lover
Citadel Newsnet – Following complaints from several patrons, Armax Arsenal Arena has launched an investigation into how volus financial advisor Barla Von managed to score high enough in its combat simulations to become the arena's top-ranked champion. "You want to know why we suspect the volus may have used cheating software? You're shitting me, right?" said Jordan Noles, one of the arena's top ten scorers. Von denied cheating and called the probe a "shameful example of bigotry against the exosuit-dependent."
"C'mon," Jacana urged as she led Khalisah around yet another bend. They had been ducking and diving through the Presidium's maintenance tunnels for the past five minutes, dodging disinterested keepers and low hanging wires as Jacana kept feverishly glancing behind them for signs of pursuit.
The asari was nervous, on edge. It disturbed Khalisah, who had seen Jacana like this only rarely. The only other time they had been in peril like this was when they were on the run from her father and back then the asari had been a constant source of strength and confidence, not worry and paranoia.
Perhaps it was the magnitude of what they were now facing. Evading the wrath of the Shadow Broker and Aria T'Loak did seem to fall on the wrong side of impossible.
"Wait," Khalisah muttered, trying to distract herself from the reality of their situation, "I know this place, don't I?"
They had just rounded another corner into a narrow passage. Jacana looked back at her and nodded, "This is the tunnel we used to escape the Consort's Chambers."
"Is-Is that where you're taking me?" Khalisah asked incredulously as she tried to catch her breath. She knew that the chambers were now closed, although some of the Consort's acolytes had kept them running for a while after her departure. They were eventually shut down after rumours of soliciting, drug smuggling and illegal gambling began to circulate. Khalisah may have been responsible for starting some of those rumors, but she hadn't reported on anything that she wasn't reasonably certain was true.
"No," Jacana replied, "Sha'ira had a whole network of these tunnels that lead to all kinds of secret hidey-holes. I know somewhere you'll be safe. Well… relatively."
Khalisah snorted, "My definition of 'safe' has become extremely flexible over recent years."
Jacana paid little attention to the quip and instead checked her omni-tool. "Good. We're all in place..." she muttered. The asari looked up at Khalisah, her expression deadly serious. "Okay, now I need you to do something very important."
"Yes, what is it...?" Khalisah warily replied.
"Strip for me," Jacana declared.
Kasumi Goto checked her omni-tool and cursed loudly. She had managed to hack every camera in this section of the Presidium – a fairly impressive feat even by her standards – and had each and every one running facial recognition for Khalisah and her asari lover. Yet so far there hadn't been a single hit. She had footage of them leaving the hotel through the fire exit, disappearing around a corner and after that, nothing. They had completely vanished.
"How is that possible?" she mused to herself.
"What's wrong?" a voice asked in her ear, "Stumped?"
Kasumi rolled her eyes, "Go away Quetzal. Why are you still stalking me?"
"Psychological warfare!" the salarian announced over the com line. "I'm making sure you're confused and agitated while the others make their escape," he declared, adding, "Is it working?"
Kasumi sighed, "Look, just tell me where your friends are. I'm not going to hurt them. Quite the opposite actually! I've been entrusted by a very scary mercenary to make sure nothing bad happens to Khalisah and I'm sorta invested in this whole 'tragic romance' thing she's got going on with that asari."
"Ha! You cannot blind me with your lies, assassin!" Quet retorted.
"Oh for crying out loud!" Kasumi exclaimed. "Why do you keep calling me that? Why are you even doing this? I am so totally telling the Shadow Broker on you!"
"Ah-ha! So you DO work for the broker!" the salarian shot back.
"Yes. And so do you! How do you think the broker will react when I let them know how you helped Aragem run off with al-Jilani?!" Goto asked.
"Probably the same way the broker will react when they learn that YOU failed to stop Aragem and the human from slipping away," Quet triumphantly declared. "If either one of us reveals what happened today, the broker will be upset with both of us! So maybe we should make a pact that neither of us does. After all, only a fool would risk mutually-assured destruction!"
Goto sighed. "Yes, I guess I forgot who I was dealing with," the thief conceded. "How about this: what would you charge for the information on where Aragem and al-Jilani are headed?"
Quet scoffed loudly. "You expect me to sell out my friend? After all I've done for her?! After the risk I've taken with the Shadow Broker to do it?! To turn my back on her just like that?!" the salarian angrily huffed. He paused for a moment and added, "Why? What are you offering?"
Goto's response was stopped before it could start thanks to a sudden beep from her omni-tool. The facial recognition software had had a hit. Jacana had been spotted on the other side of the Presidium lake, amidst a throng of people. The human was by her side, her head down as the asari tightly held her hand and pulled her along.
"Gotcha!" Kasumi grinned.
"What are you talking about?" Quet asked.
"Been nice talking to you Quet, but I gotta dash!" Kasumi replied, she pulled the earpiece out of her ear and set off in pursuit.
Jacana kept a firm grip of the human's hand as she pushed her way through the crowds. This part of the Presidium had some of the most popular lakeside cafes and hundreds of people milled around aimlessly in search of an ever-elusive empty table. It was a good place to get lost in.
"Er, Jacana," Quet's voice muttered in her ear, "she's onto you."
"Understood," Jacana replied into the omni-tool. The asari then looked up and declared loudly, "C'mon, we need to keep moving!"
Kasumi glanced at her omni-tool, she'd had three more hits in the last five minutes and could see Jacana and the human were still heading west along the presidium thoroughfare one level below where the thief was currently jogging. Goto could clearly see that lower level from her vantage point but she had lost eye contact with them several minutes ago.
On top of that Goto was pondering the nagging question the salareian had raised: how she was going to explain her cock-up to Liara T'Soni, aka the Shadow Broker? For that matter, what would she tell Zaeed Massani? If she at least figured out where al-Jilani had run off to, she could probably salvage things with Liara, who was mainly concerned with ensuring that al-Jilani's upcoming Aria T'Loak expose was suppressed.
How to explain things to Zaeed was a little murkier. Goto had probably cost him a well-paying job by scaring off a client and, in his business, reputation was everything. On the other hand, Zaeed had agreed to their scheme of Goto periodically filling in for him as al-Jilani's bodyguard without telling the reporter, so this was kind of on him too. Not that Zaeed was likely to see it that way when he found out that al-Jilani had run off.
'First thing's first: find al-Jilani,' Goto told herself. 'Figure out what you're going to say about this mess later.' She scanned the crowd below her and spotted an asari darting just a little too quickly through the crowd, dragging a human behind her. "There you are!" Goto muttered. They were hustling quickly along, appearing to head in the direction of a public tram system. Luckily, they stood out in the crowd: Aragem had a greenish tinge to her skin that few other asari possessed, while al-Jilani had a penchant for brightly-colored outfits that contrasted with her darker skin tone and jet-black hair.
Goto activated her cloak, vaulted over the railing on her level and began heading down to the lower level, hopping onto a light fixture and then an advertising billboard before landing on the walkway itself. She saw that Aragem and al-Jilani were definitely headed to the tram and it was one of the ones that carried passengers to the Citadel's other wards. Goto had seconds to get on board before it zoomed off. She sprinted into the empty passenger car just behind the one she saw Aragem and al-Jilani enter, hoping that would provide enough distance that the human-asari couple wouldn't see the tell-tale distortion effect of the cloak but close enough for her to keep her eyes on the pair. Goto slipped to the forward part of the tram car and peered through a window into the next car until she spotted a greenish-blue asari seated next to a dark-skinned human, both holding each other's hand.
The thief quietly sighed and grinned. As much trouble as her impulsive decision to allow Aragem to reach al-Jilani had caused, the romantic in her adored the sight of the lovers on the run. Her grin grew wider still as Aragem turned the human's face towards her and pulled her in for a long, lingering kiss. As she watched, Goto wistfully recalled the times she and her fellow thief and true love Keiji Okuda had paused mid-getaway to briefly make out, the rush of adrenaline making the moment all the more exciting.
'Oh, c'mon! Smooch her again! Trams are the best place for PDAs!' Goto thought. Hopeful that that might happen, Goto's cybernetically enhanced eyes tried to zoom in to glimpse the pair's faces. The occasional random passenger kept blocking her view. It took several seconds before the annoying civilians finally got out of the way and Goto got her first good look at the human's face, which had been hidden behind her dark bangs.
The human wasn't Khalisah al-Jilani. It was another woman who looked vaguely like her. The mystery human was wearing the reporter's dress and probably a wig too. The asari holding her hand, however, was unmistakably Aragem.
A moment later the tram, which had been traveling along an elevated platform several stories above the Presidium ground level, abruptly stopped far short of any station. "Passengers be advised: this tram will be delayed for a brief systems check. Service will resume shortly. Please remain seated," the PA system announced. It was accompanied by the sounds of the tram's magnetic security door seals activating.
"Ohhh, shit," Kasumi muttered under her breath.
Seconds later, the door separating Goto's tram car from the one carrying Aragem and her mysterious friend slid open. A blurry translucent shape moved through it.
"Miss Goto, I know you are in here," announced Spectre agent Jondum Bau as he decloaked inside the tram. "Surrender peacefully. There's no way out. All of the doors to this tram are now code-locked."
The salarian spectre drew his sidearm as he slowly scanned across the interior of the tram car. "I mean you no harm, Miss Goto. My pistol is set for non-lethal disruptor rounds," he declared. "But let's avoid the unpleasantness of a fight, shall we? I am certain we can work something out. What do you say?"
Bau's request was met with silence. He slowly, methodically stepped forward, straining his eyes to spot the tell-tale distortion effect of Goto's cloak. Finally, a whistling sound broke the quiet. It was the wind. Bau looked upwards and discovered that one of the tram's roof access hatches had been opened. He made a vertical leap upwards, his fingers just reaching the edge of the hatch. He pulled himself up and through to the roof.
He was now on top of the last tram in a four-car train. Even for a Spectre agent, the distance from the tram car to the ground below was dizzying. Outside the tram the wind howled and the car rocked slowly in the breeze. Bau steadied himself as quickly as he could and his eyes scanned the immediate vicinity. Goto was nowhere in sight.
'Where could she have-' Bau's thought was cut off by the train suddenly lurching forward. As Bau fought to regain his footing, the train began to rapidly gain momentum. It resumed heading towards a tunnel that led to the next station along the line. The tunnel was barely larger than the train itself, which was now rapidly approaching the entrance.
"Dash it all!" shouted Bau as he leapt back through the roof hatch and into the interior of the empty tram just seconds before it went inside the tunnel. The Spectre agent sprinted to the door to the next tram car and unlocked it with his omni-tool. He raced along the car and repeated the process twice more, startling several passengers along the way until he reached the first car in the train. As Bau bounded through the last door, he spotted Goto at the far end, using her omni-tool to hack into a tram control system access panel and waving a pistol in her other hand to keep the other passengers at bay. As soon as Goto spotted Bau, she smashed the butt of her pistol into the tram line's emergency stop button. Goto's hacking, the Spectre agent soon discovered, had included turning off the tram system's inertial dampeners. The train immediately decelerated causing Bau and the other passengers to be thrown violently forward. The spectre agent hit the hard floor of the tram, losing his grip on his pistol in the process. By the time he had scrambled to his feet and recovered his gun, the tram had reached the next station and opened its doors. A moment later Goto sprinted through them, activating her cloak in the process.
Bau raced to the doors but it was too late. Goto had vanished.
"So close..." he sighed.
It was nearly an hour later when Jacana Aragem, a small bag in one hand, pressed the intercom button to the apartment. "The codeword is 'Keelah Se'lai,'" she declared. The door opened and she walked into a luxury boudoir suite. At the centre of the room was Khalisah. She was seated on a chaise longue couch and wearing a sheer nightgown, looking anything but relaxed.
"Oh my god!" she declared as Jacana entered, a mixture of annoyance and perhaps relief in her voice as she crossed the room and flung her arms around Jacana's neck.
For a moment the asari froze, unsure exactly how to respond. Khalisah was warm and smelled of citrus, the feel of her body was hauntingly familiar and yet strangely alien at the same time, it had probably been months since they had held each other.
Before Jacana could muster herself to return the hug, Khalisah seemed to remember herself and quickly drew back, looking away awkwardly.
"So… how did it go?" she ventured after a moment.
"Well, the plan sort of worked: we led Goto to the tram that Quetzal's Spectre friend specified and he sprang his trap on the assassin," Jacana wearily announced, deciding it was better for now just to pretend the earlier awkward hug had never happened. "The bad news is the assassin still managed to get away from him. The good news is the Spectre is hot on her trail, so she's on the run and unable to make the hit on you for the time being at least." Jacana handed Khalisah the bag she was holding. "Here. I brought your dress back."
"Thanks," Khalisah sarcastically declared. She gestured to the nightgown she was wearing. "It will be nice to have something I can wear outside of this apartment since you didn't give me time to pack and the only clothes the previous owner left behind were clearly meant for … private entertaining."
Jacana shrugged. "What you have on is fine to wear outside. Well, 'outside' being 'Inside the rest of this Hotel Azure franchise location on the Citadel' anyway. To be honest, by this establishment's standards, that gown is rather conservative."
"I'll look like just another one of this hotel's whores, then? Good to know," snarked Khalisah.
Jacana rolled her eyes in response. "You could be a bit more grateful, you know. I did just save your life."
"So you tell me," harrumphed Khalisah.
"Goddess, you still don't believe me, do you?" the asari asked.
"I don't know what to think," the human explained. "Maybe you're telling me the truth about the Shadow Broker trying to assassinate me. Or maybe, just maybe, the old girlfriend who charged into my interview on the Blasto vid, then dropped through the roof of my hotel room to disrupt another interview and THEN broke into another room to drag me off to Hotel Azure is a crazy stalker who cannot let go."
Jacana said nothing and merely shook her head as Khalisah continued, "I mean, as she dragged me away this last time claiming it was a life and death matter, that girlfriend did have me take off the dress I was wearing. A dress which she subsequently gave to a hooker who coincidentally kind of looked like me and was waiting at a rendezvous spot the girlfriend had set up. And then the girlfriend sends me off in my underwear to this place while she goes off with the hooker who is now wearing my dress. What kind of reporter would I be if I didn't see something suspicious in all of that? If I didn't ask if maybe this was all a person's elaborate joke or weird sex fantasy?"
Jacana sighed. "I told you: that human was the decoy. That's why I had her wear your dress. To fool the assassin into thinking she was you."
Khalisah arched an eyebrow. "A prostitute? You couldn't have gotten anyone else?"
The asari threw her hands up. "What other options were there?! Goddess, YOU try to find somebody to do something like this on short notice who won't ask too many questions!"
The reporter narrowed her eyes. "And the smudge on your collar that appears to be the same color as her lipstick...?"
Jacana gulped. "Well, she and I had to, umm, convince Goto that we were you and I, so… Look, it was just acting, ok?"
"Like this is 'just a convenient hideout'?" Khaliash asked. "A place that just happens to have an entire closet devoted to nothing but crotchless panties?"
"Consort Sha'ira's crotchless panties," corrected Jacana. "This was one of her hideaways for entertaining her extra-extra-special clients. The ones who demanded that their sessions be completely off-the-books. So the consort kept this location a secret. So secret, in fact, that when she left the Citadel she didn't have the time to close it down. I found the key for it while searching the Consort's main location and kept it secret from the Shadow Broker. I thought I might need it one day. To hide out. Or perhaps to find just the right crotchless panties. You never know," she quipped, adding, "Sometimes the azure needs to be free."
Jacana looked over at Khalisah, who was trying to maintain a poker face following her last remark. "Oh, c'mon! That was funny!" the asari declared.
Khalisah's expression cracked and she began chuckling. "How did my life get this crazy?" she groaned aloud.
Jacana risked sharing her smile, "Look. We're both tired and we're safe here for now. Why don't we get some sleep? Which bedroom do you want?"
The question seemed to take Khalisah by surprise and something Jacana couldn't read flitted though her eyes.
"Oh. Erm. Either. You decide."
An hour later, Khalisah sat cross-legged in the middle of the king-sized bed, gazing out the windows at the view of the Presidium. Jacana had given her the bigger of the two bedrooms, predictably. It felt strange for them to be sleeping in the same apartment after all this time, and yet in different beds.
She didn't know why the second part should feel strange. They hadn't slept in the same bed for months.
There was a soft knock at the door and she turned to see Jacana lounging against the doorframe, smiling softly, "I just came to say goodnight," she said.
Khalisah found herself frowning at the asari, distracted. Jacana was wearing a tank top, Khalisah hadn't realised it until now but since she had returned to the Citadel, she had only seen the asari wear high necked tops with her jacket always buttoned up to the top. Now she understood why.
"Your scar," she murmured out loud before she could catch herself.
Jacana's hand went self-consciously to her neck where the bullet wound from the night she was shot by Khalisah's father's thugs was still clearly visible. That was the first night they had slept together. Khalisah couldn't believe she had forgotten about the scar and a pang of guilt attacked her.
"You still have it," she said to fill the growingly awkward silence, "I thought you'd have had it fixed by now." There were any number of plastic surgeons on the Presidium who could remove all evidence of a scar like that for very little money.
"It doesn't need fixing." Jacana stated, "Scars tell a story. This one tells the story of our first night together. I don't want to cover it up like it was never there."
There was a tinge of aggression in the asari's voice, accusation perhaps, and Khalisah had to gulp back the instinctive paranoia that would normally make her snap back. She had done a lot of things wrong since reuniting with Jacana and this moment suddenly felt like an unexpected tipping point.
"Then why do you hide it?" she asked instead, keeping her tone measured.
Jacana looked away, "Because it's private. It belongs to us. I don't want to have to explain to every morbidly curious stranger I meet what happened on one of the most important nights of my life." She stared at the floor for a second and then turned to leave. "Goodnight, Khalisah."
"Wait!" The words escaped Khalisah's lips before she had anything to follow it up with and when Jacana looked back, she faltered. Jacana raised her brow expectantly and waited for a moment.
"If you have something to say, Khalisah, now's the time," she pressed.
"I know, I know," Khalisah said. "Don't rush me, okay?" The human shuffled forwards on the bed, took a deep breath and steeled herself. "I've treated you abominably since I returned. I've accused you of things that I knew weren't true and I didn't trust you even though you've never given me any reason not to. I think I'm so terrified that you'll betray me, or lose interest and leave that I push you away first, so it won't hurt as much when you do it to me. But you don't deserve any of that and I should have treated you better. I'm sorry."
Her eyes had been fixed firmly on the floor as she spoke but now she risked a glance at the asari who's face remained impassive.
"Apology accepted," she said at last and Khalisah's heart fluttered with relief. Jacana sighed, "I know why you are the way you are, Khalisah," she added, "better than anyone. I know I probably cannot stop you from publishing your expose of Aria T'Loak. I have to at least try- Wait! What's so funny?" she asked as Khalisah began to double over with laughter.
Khalisah waved off the asari's question as her body convulsed. Tears streamed down her eyes and she slapped her other hand down on the mattress. The roaring laughter continued on for minutes. Twice Khalisah began to settle down only to catch the befuddled look on Jacana's face and start up laughing again. Slowly the guffaws turned into giggles and then to mere chuckles, allowing the human to finally catch her breath.
"Khalisah!" Jacana exclaimed in annoyance, "We were having a moment there! What is going on?! Will you please tell me?"
"I'm sorry." Khalisah wiped the tears from her face and shook her head. "There's no story," she revealed.
Jacana remained confused. "No story? What do you mean?"
Khalisah let out a wistful sigh. "The 'T'Loak expose.' It doesn't exist. I have nothing."
The asari shook her head in disbelief. "But... No, that's not right! ... That first time we met after you returned to the Citadel, you said you had multiple sources. You said they had told you that T'Loak was planning something huge and that the Blasto vid was a cover for it. You said you had verified all of that."
The reporter grinned sheepishly. "I might have exaggerated how far along my story was. Slightly... I still think it's true, but, umm, I can't prove anything. I, uh, don't actually have any real sources for it."
Jacana slapped her forehead. "By the Goddess!" she exclaimed. "You've had everyone on the Citadel running around in a panic for weeks trying to find out what it is that you know! T'Loak, C-Sec, the Shadow Broker, 6th Dimension Vids and the other news outlets have all been stumbling over each other to find the answer! And you say that that answer is... nothing?" she gasped. "All this chaos! All this turmoil! It's just been over a... false rumor?!"
Khalisah shrugged and nodded, 'yes.'
It was Jacana's turn to throw her head back and roar with laughter. "See?! This is why I adore you, Khalisah. Nothing is ever boring with you around."
"What can I say? I live to stir up trouble," Khalisah sighed. "I mean, I don't think I have ever felt safe in my whole life. Not as a child. Not as an adult. I was always looking out for the danger in the room. Always expecting things to go bad. Might as well make that work for me. Kick a few hornets' nests and see if a story turns up," she gazed again at the scar on Jacana's neck and a chuckle inexplicably escaped her, "But that night in your apartment... It was crazy. We were on the run. We'd spent the whole day being hunted by my father's men. I'd probably never been in so much danger. But for the first time in my life I felt safe. With you."
"Yeah and look what happened," Jacana muttered, "I got shot and nearly died."
Khalisah laughed, perhaps to try and hide the tears prickling at the corners of her eyes, "You saved me in the end though."
"You saved me too as I recall."
"I guess it was a mutual thing," Khalisah agreed.
"The best things usually are," Jacana's eyes gleamed with intensity and anticipation rose in Khalisah's chest.
"Stay with me," she murmured, "we don't have to do anything, that's not what I…" she trailed off and sighed, "I just don't want you in a different room to me."
Jacana's face melted into a smile and she stepped inside the room. "I don't really want that either. This may come as a surprise to you Khalisah, but you make me feel safe too."
Across the street, on the roof of the building opposite, Kasumi's cybernetic eyes zoomed in on Jacana as the asari climbed into the bed with Khalisah and the two lovers curled up together like they had never been apart. The thief sighed wistfully at the sight, then pulled up her omni-tool and opened a communications line.
"This is Operative Goto, following up on my earlier emergency report: I'm afraid that al-Jilani has completely disappeared," Kasumi announced. "Broker, I swear: I only took my eyes off of her for a moment and 'poof!' she was gone. Just like that."
"This is ... unfortunate. I am disappointed with you, Operative Goto," rumbled the Shadow Broker's electronically modulated voice. "Do you have *any* clue to where she might have gone off to?"
Kasumi stared at a deep, lingering kiss between the reporter and the asari. This time, she had gotten a good look at both faces and was certain that Aragem was snogging the real al-Jilani. "What? Oh... No. Nothing," the thief announced when she remembered that the Shadow Broker was awaiting an answer. "Fresh out of leads. Yeah, by now al-Jilani could be anywhere on the Citadel. Sorry about this."
"Understood," the broker declared. "We will discuss your failure to maintain your assignment at a later date. Until then, keep searching and alert me immediately when you track al-Jilani down. Shadow Broker out."
"Will do, Liara," Kasumi vowed. She guessed the sudden spike in static on the line that followed was the broker grumbling at be called 'Liara' again.
Kasumi grinned as she watched Jacana turn off the last light, shrouding the bedroom in darkness.
"Eh, totally worth it," the thief muttered aloud. "Now to figure out what to tell Zaeed..."