Chapter 29 - Midnight Confessions
Citadel Newsnet - Following public outcry and threats of a boycott on Tuchanka, krogan distillery Thax Spirits has abandoned plans to roll out a new brand of ryncol that would have been call "Trobror" and marketed to humans. The liquor would have been 19 parts water and one part ryncol, just barely enough to qualify the beverage as "non-lethal" to most humans according to the Systems Alliance Health Ministry. Thax Spirits had been hoping to break into the human market following reports that some Systems Alliance Marine units had held contests to see who could drink the most straight ryncol without getting hospitalized. An estimated two dozen deaths have been linked to the incidents. The distillery's krogan customers argued the new beverage would tarnish Tuchanka's reputation as a place inhospitable to all alien life. "Is nothing sacred?!" asked actor Jorgal Dreed, who has appeared in some Thax Spirits ad campaigns but objected vehemently to the new product. "Do we start selling vermin kabobs to humans next!? Where does it end?!" - Emily Wong reporting
Khalisah sat very still as Jacana gently brushed back the locks of her hair. She couldn't remember when somebody other than a hairdresser had brushed her hair for her and was finding that it was a surprisingly intimate act when done by the right person. Jacana was quiet though, pensive as she worked. She hadn't been quite herself ever since she had come back that night.
"What made you want to braid my hair?" Khalisah asked as the asari began to twist the brushed locks into a plait.
"My cousins taught me, back on Rannoch," she said absently. "I got talking with a quarian recently. It's made me nostalgic."
Khalisah could tell there was something else. "Are you alright?" she ventured.
"Yes," Jacana replied too quickly, too firmly and with no further explanation. Khalisah tensed, suspicion prickling at her senses. As much as she hated her paranoid side sometimes, she also couldn't ignore her instincts.
"You're hiding something from me," she stated, then immediately regretted it, afraid of starting an argument.
Jacana laughed softly. "I'm not hiding anything from you. But if I say there's a secret that isn't mine to tell, will you trust me?"
Khalisah looked round at her, frowning into Jacana's peppermint eyes. Not trusting the asari had brought her nothing but pain and annoyance and she really didn't want to keep making the same mistakes. She pushed aside all her natural instincts and sighed.
"Okay," the human announced.
"Thank you," Jacana replied with a smile. "And don't worry, if what I think is about to happen happens, you'll hear about it soon enough anyway."
Khalisah continued to frown. Jacana seemed melancholy and it bothered her that she didn't know why. The asari interrupted her before she could ask further though.
"When you got back to the Citadel you said you were going to cut your hair short again, why didn't you?" Jacana inquired.
Khalisah quirked an eyebrow. "Why didn't I find time to nip to the hairdressers between being hunted by the Shadow Broker and stalked by my crazy ex-girlfriend?"
"Bosh'tet!" Jacana shouted as she tugged playfully on a loose strand of hair.
"Ack!" Khalisah shrieked, than began laughing.
"Seriously, tell me," implored Jacana.
Khalisah shrugged. "You said you liked it long. I couldn't bring myself to cut it off."
The conversation was interrupted by a beeping on Khalisah's omni-tool. She pulled up the device and uttered "Wha?" when she saw the name on the incoming, audio-only call. "It's Adria S'Voz!" she announced. "Why is she contacting me?"
"Maybe being drugged and waking up in a random skycab is a turn-on for her?" Jacana quipped before adding, "Take it. I'm as curious as you are."
Khalisah nodded and opened the line. "Ms. al-Jilani, please listen carefully," S'voz demanded before Khalisah could even get a word in. The asari actress was trying to sound calm and measured but her tone betrayed a clear anxiousness. "Aria T'Loak has had a security breach in her network and for the time being cannot risk either contacting you directly or using any other intermediaries besides myself."
Jacana and Khalisah simultaneously raised a single bow at the news. "What do you think happened?" Khalisah whispered. Jacana could only shrug in response.
"I heard that. Exactly what happened is not your concern, Ms al-Jilani. What I can say is that Aria knows that you were not involved," S'Voz continued. "In any event, you are to disregard any other messages purporting to come for Aria and respond only to ones from me. Any others are fakes coming from people who have hacked into her system. Responding to them could result in your location being traced," S'Voz declared before taking a breath and adding, "Do you understand everything I have just said?"
"Yes," Khalisah responded. "Does Ms. T'Loak know who the hackers are or what they're trying to do?"
"I'm not at liberty to say any more than I have," S'Voz replied. "Aria has her people at work on this and they hope to have the matter resolved soon. In the meantime, Aria wants to meet with you face-to-face tomorrow to finalize the details of the deal between you two. I will play host. Come to the Blasto set in the morning, alone. I'll arrange for the ban on you to be suspended, though you will have to arrive at the front gate in disguise. Tell the guards that you are 'Peggy Shippen' and they'll let you through."
"How will you guarantee her safety?" Jacana interjected.
"That was your asari bondmate, I assume?" S'Voz asked. "Well, I will be there tomorrow and before you leave in the morning you can tell whomever you want that Adria S'Voz arranged the meeting. They'll believe it because who else has the clout to get Khalisah al-Jilani back on the Blasto set? You can have someone trustworthy watch you getting past the front gate. You can contact them again once you're inside, if you like. That way, should anything happen to you while you're on the set, well, that would be precisely the public scandal that Aria and I are trying to avoid, wouldn't it?"
Jacana leaned in to Khalisah's omni-tool. "And if she refuses?" the asari demanded to know.
"Then the deal is off," S'Voz flatly replied. "I urge you not to test Aria on this. Things are... delicate for her right now due to the security breach. She will honor an agreement if she believes the other side is dealing honestly with her. If not, Aria will do whatever she deems necessary to protect herself," S'Voz warned, adding, "Remember: Tomorrow morning, front gate of the Blasto vid, some form of disguise, announce yourself as 'Peggy Shippen.' Come alone. Don't take any other messages purporting to come from Aria in the meantime." The line clicked off.
"Do you want to go through with it?" Jacana asked.
"Yes," Khalisah replied. "If we get my spare camera drone out of storage, we can have that record me entering the Blasto set as insurance." She got up and walked over to a hotel room window, which was currently set to be opaque. She tapped a button to turn window transparent and stared out at the fuzzy lights on the Citadel ward skyline. "I'm tired of hiding out in this gilded cage. I'm tired of being afraid of my own shadow," she announced. "I'm Khalisah Bin Sinan al-Jilani, dammit. I go where I'm NOT welcome. That's what I do," Khalisah turned and looked back at Jacana. "That's who I am," she declared.
Jacana walked over to the window and wrapped her arms around her human lover. "I understand. Just be careful," she asked. "No matter what, I'll be right outside the studio. Give me the signal and I'll come charging in," she vowed as she squeezed Khalisah. "Besides, it's been a few days since since I last invaded your privacy. You don't want me to get rusty, do you?" Jacana softly whispered as she planted a kiss on Khalisah's neck, causing the human to shiver and giggle slightly in response. Jacana then grabbed Khalisah's halfway-braided hair and playfully tugged her head backwards. "In the meantime, you bosh'tet, just try and keep my fingers off of this..." she declared, prompting an "Ack!" and even louder giggles from her human lover.
Lyle Jeddick tapped the com line off. "Well, what did you think? Think she bought it?" he asked the three humans seated nearby in his Presidium hotel room.
"It sounded perfect!" Smiley O'Rourke announced as he started popping open four beers and passing them around. "I never would have known that you weren't S'Voz herself on that call! How were you able to do it?"
The two other humans besides O'Rourke were Abigail Veruca, a 40-ish woman with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail and tattoos up and down both arms, and Sandy "Stick" Carlino, a slim man with thinning black hair and a moustache. All of them were friends of Jeddick and fellow pirates from the Terminus Systems. They had been slumming on the Citadel like Jeddick.
"Yeah, how did you pull that off?" Carlino asked.
Jeddick grinned as he grabbed his beer. "Well, one part of it was that pricey mimicry tech that Abby was able to, umm, acquire. Thanks, babe!" he chuckled. Veruca winked at him and took a slug of her beer. Jeddick winked back and continued, "S'Voz having done vids for hundreds of years meant I didn't even need to record her myself to allow the tech to copy her voice. I could just play the vids. And I was able to get the specs for S'Voz's omni-tool right from the source by hacking it while she thought I was working on the special effects gizmos on her costume earlier today. Once I had those, I could copy the signal her omni-tool sent! And I still had the messaging address for al-Jilani's omni-tool from back when she tried to interview me. She probably has my address blocked now, but I took a gamble she wouldn't do that for S'Voz." He took a long swig from his beer and leaned back. "Guess that paid off, huh? From there, it was just a matter of concocting a plausible cover story to get that traitorous bitch to come to the vid set tomorrow."
"I was wondering why you suddenly had me angle for the front gate gig, Lyle," Carlino remarked. "Dontcha think it'll look fishy that I did that, let al-Jilani through, then quit the job right afterwards and headed straight for a transport off of the station?"
Veruca laughed so hard that she coughed up some of her beer. "It'll look fishy as hell! That's the point, dumbass!" she roared. "Sooner or later C-Sec or some reporter will figure out that the front gate guard that let al-Jilani in used to work as a Terminus Systems pirate! They'll think T'Loak paid you off!"
Jeddick took another swig of his beer. "Precisely! Trust 'Stabby Abby' to see the point!" he laughed. "Remember, Stick, I need you to sign the traitor in as 'al-Jilani' to create a trail for when C-Sec investigates later on. Just don't alert anybody else right then. Once you let her in, direct her to head to the vacant building that I tell you, then you skedaddle as quick as you can. Smiley, Abby and I will do the rest."
Smiley slowly shook his head. "Okay, so that's how we get al-Jilani to the Blasto set and in a place isolated enough to ice her. What I don't understand is this: how we make it look like Aria T'Loak did it? I mean, yeah, 'Her Majesty' might be a suspect if al-Jilani turns up with a hole in her head or her throat cut. Or T'Loak might have a good alibi for tomorrow. We don't know what precisely that blue has-been will be doing in the morning."
Jeddick smiled and shrugged. "T'Loak might very well have a great alibi. Probably not though. She doesn't go in public that much," Jeddick argued. "But what if al-Jilani is killed in a way that only T'Loak and maybe a few others were capable of doing? Then she'd look guilty no matter what her alibi is!"
"So, we're not shanking al-Jilani?!" Veruca sarcastically cackled. "Dammit! I was hoping we could watch the alien-lover bleed out! Way to be a fucking spoilsport, Lyle!"
Jeddick mimed a coy "Who? Me?" in response.
"So, what ARE you planning, Lyle?" Smiley impatiently asked.
Jeddick's grin got even wider. "Right now, I'm planning on cutting you off after this beer. We've still got some work to do tonight. Some literal heavy lifting, in fact," he announced. "The last part of the plan involves us heading over to the Blasto set to make some special final preparations. You'll see what I mean when we get there."
The door to the storage building slid open in the dead of night. The faint amount of light the doorway let in was soon overwhelmed by the beams emanating from four humans' omni tools. "C'mon. It's down this way," Jeddick told his three co-conspirators as he lead them through rows of heavy equipment including lights, coils of power cables, service mechs, transports and power generators. "There, that's what we'll use," he declared pointing to one large device, part of five placed side-by-side.
"That's it?" asked Smiley O'Rourke. "An industrial mass effect field generator? How does that figure into the plan?"
"Beaut, isn't she?" Jeddick replied as he ran his hand along its exterior. "This generator is the same basic device used in spaceports to create the force field buffers for when ships dock. What's different about this is that it has been adjusted to create much smaller, more precisely calibrated fields. That's how they'll film the action scenes that take place near the top of the Citadel Tower. This device, along with a few others, will alter the gravity so all of the actors and camera mechs can stand on the side of the tower like it was the ground. It'll take hours to film the scenes and a shit-ton of mass effect energy to do it. Too risky to do that with a smaller generator - it could get overtaxed and conk out after a while - so they're using these big boys."
"How's that help us?" O'Rourke persisted in asking.
"Patience, I'm getting to it," Jeddick chuckled. "They had to jury-rig these suckers because there's usually no practical need to generate that much mass effect energy in such a small area. I'd be like taking a ship-to-ship cannon and making it fire pistol rounds. It would be pure overkill. It would leave a pretty distinctive corpse though," he explained. "Most biotics aren't skilled enough to generate that much energy for even a few seconds. It can be done though. I've been told that doing it requires centuries of practice. The type of thing that, say... oh, I don't know... an asari who's nearly a millennia old could pull off."
Smiley broke into a wide grin. "I get it! We use this thing to pulverize al-Jilani. We leave enough mass effect radiation on her corpse that C-Sec starts searching for a high-level biotic as the killer. Aria T'Loak would automatically be on their short list."
Jeddick slapped his friend on the back. "Exactly! I knew you couldn't be as dumb as you look, Smiley! That just ain't possible!"
"Why wouldn't C-Sec think this generator might have been used to off the bitch?" Veruca inquired. "I mean, the studio's got, what, five of these?"
"Ehh, C-Sec might figure it out," Jeddick conceded. "But remember that these are otherwise standard industrial generators. They don't look any different outwardly, anyhow. So I'm guessing C-Sec won't realize for a while that one of them might have been used. Hell, they might never figure it out if we move this thing out of here real quiet and return it before anyone discovers it was missing. So, let's get to it, huh? Stick, get the mobile platform over here."
The quartet slid the bulky generator onto the platform and slowly, carefully guided it through the storage area. It was too large to move through the doorway they had used earlier to enter the building, so Jeddick had to open the main doors for the storage area and hope it was late enough at night that no one was around to notice. "Coast clear, Abby?" he said as loudly as he dared.
Veruca peered out through a window on the opposite side of the doors from where Jeddick was. "Nah, don't see anything..." she replied. Jeddick nodded to Smiley and Stick to get the platform holding the generator ready while he inputted the code to open the doors. The quartet had just moved the generator past the main doors when a voice loudly called out, "Excuse me, what are you doing?"
The four humans collectively spun around and spotted a volus. He had been standing by the window Veruca had peered through, so short that he must have been below her line of sight. "Why are you moving that mass effect generator? It is a vital piece of equipment for this Blasto vid," inquired set designer Telak Gaffno.
Jeddick motioned to the others to let him handle things, then turned to the volus and flashed a smile. "Hey, Telak! You're up awfully late!" he chuckled.
"Yes, I am," Gaffno matter-of-factly declared. "There was a last-minute change in the shooting schedule I was only just alerted to. I need to make sure everything we'll need for tomorrow's scenes is accessible and not blocked off by other things in storage. And now I see you are justifying my fears by moving key equipment!" he grumpily declared in-between the characteristic inhalations and exhalations made by his exosuit. "Now, for the second time, why are you doing this?"
The human sighed and pointed to a small office for the storage building just beyond where the two were standing. "Let's head in there and talk okay?" he asked the volus before turning to his human compatriots and adding, "Just chill for a bit, guys. I'll be back right quick."
Gaffno loudly harrumphed but nevertheless followed the human into the office. It was a sparsely-furnished room with just a desk, a pair of chairs, a single computer monitor and a calendar on the wall featuring female turians with unusually large carapaces. Jeddick shut the door as Gaffno entered, surreptitiously locking it as the volus waddled in the opposite direction towards a chair.
"So, howya been, Telak? Missus treating you alright and all that?" Jeddick began.
"You are stalling, human! Why? What are you doing here?" Gaffno retorted.
Jeddick lightly shrugged. "I want to test out a few things on the generators before we actually get around to the shooting the battle scenes on the tower. You know, see how some of the special effects work under those circumstances. Work out any kinks now rather than at the last minute. No big deal really..."
"Bah!" shouted Gaffno as he waved a finger at the human. "I know what you are doing here! And I am not going to allow it!"
The smile faded from Jeddick's face as he slowly nodded in response to the volus. "Uh-huh. And what precisely is it that you think that I am doing?" the human blandly asked.
"Moving that mass effect generator with non-union labor!" seethed the volus. "Under the terms of 6th Dimension Vids' contract with the Intergalactic Brotherhood of Stage and Vid Technicians only IBSVT members may do that! Are those humans part of the guild? Can you produce their IDs?" he demanded. Jeddick said nothing in response, causing the volus raise his voice even higher. "How-How dare you bring SCAB LABOR on to this set!? I'll have you kicked off the production for this!"
Jeddick rolled his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "Telak, I swear..." he began, then paused and thought for a moment before continuing, "Look, it's just one piece of equipment and they're just a couple of friends of mine. Nobody's job is being-"
The volus curtly interrupted him. "So, you ADMIT to bringing in scab labor?! Pathetic! But what else can we expect from humans?"
Jeddick forced a smile. "C'mon, buddy, be reasonable. I'm sure we can work this out, just you and I... Set design work can't pay that well, can it...?" the human asked as he produced a credit chit.
"You think I can be bribed, human?!" the volus thundered. "I'll have the IBSVT do a full inquiry on you! You'll never work in the vid business again!"
Jeddick chuckled and slowly shook his head. "You really aren't going to let this go, are you?"
"Of course not!" Gaffno shot back. "And might I add, this is no laughing matter!"
The human nodded. The smile again vanished from his face, this time replaced by a cold stare. "The funny part was I *was* trying to give you a break, but you refused to take it. Typical. You aliens are so fucking arrogant," Jeddick explained, the usual aw-shucks tone of voice gone. "You all think you can just walk all over us humans and we'll lie back and take it like a five-credit whore. Well, some of us ain't like that. Some of us fight back. You fucking aliens are gonna know what it feels like to be the one who's getting stomped on for a change."
Jeddick lunged forward towards Gaffno. The volus tried to hop out of his chair and scamper away, but wasn't quick enough. Jeddick grabbed onto the volus' upper arms and pushed him hard against the desk. Gaffno struggled and yelled at the human to stop, but his efforts were in vain. Jeddick angled the volus so his back was against the corner of the desk and proceeded to repeatedly slam the set designer against the corner's edge with all of his strength. The blows hit an area on the upper back of the volus' exosuit that housed its larger mechanics. On the sixth hit, a sharp cracking sound was heard from inside the suit. The now-panting Jeddick stopped his attack.
Gaffno suddenly began stumbling about like he was in a drunken stupor. The breathing sounds from his suit became increasingly louder and more guttural.
"Learned that trick on one of my first jaunts out with my old man on the Queen Anne's Revenge. Was just 16 years old at the time, can you believe it?" Jeddick laughed in between breaths for air. "Knock that part of a volus' exosuit enough times and the airflow regulator inside it will crack. Don't have to open the suit up or nothing. Plus, it'll look like the gizmo just wore out and broke on its own. Clean, easy way to kill your species. Real painful too, I'm told. Is that true, Telak?"
Gaffno staggered forward to the door of the office. It wouldn't open. The volus began tapping, then hitting the button to open it. Nothing happened. His gasping breaths grew louder still.
"No use, buddy. I locked it," Jeddick snickered, having by now caught his breath. "Hey, let me tell you that story from when I was 16. You'll like it! See, we had stopped this volus merchant freighter. We'd hauled off most of what was valuable in the hold when dad tells the volus captain he's holding out. 'Where's the secret stash?' my old man hollers. The volus all play dumb and expect us to buy it. So the old man has me take a wrench, pick a volus crewmember at random and take a few whacks at that part of his suit. Had the whole rest of the alien ship's crew watch me do it."
Gaffno began pounding his fists at the door. His gasping sounds were now becoming slower and fainter.
Jeddick continued his tale. "After a few smacks the regulator breaks and suddenly the volus' suit stops providing that ammonia air they got on your home world. He suffocates, just like you're doing right now, Telak. That's when my dad says, 'First alien that tells us how to access the secret stash becomes the ONLY one on this ship that doesn't get this treatment.' And just like that, every one of those aliens scrambled to be the first one to sell out their crewmates! Ha!"
The volus stopped pounding on the office door. His breathing became fainter still and he slowly slid to the floor.
"The old man was bluffing about doing that to all of the volus crew, mind you," Jeddick explained. "No need to go through all of that effort when you can just leave them penned up inside and set the ship's mass effect core to overload after you've left. Couldn't leave any witnesses, you understand."
Gaffno laid flat on the office floor. He made a single wheezing breath, then became motionless.
"Still, I'd kind of wished we had taken the time," Jeddick added. "There's just something about watching an alien die right in front of you that never gets old. Maybe it's the fact that he goes out knowing that it was a human who did him in."
Jeddick walked over to Gaffno's body and nudged it with his foot. There was no reaction. The human unlocked the door and walked back outside.
"Everything taken care of, I assume?" Smiley O'Rourke asked.
"We were able to reach an understanding," Jeddick replied. "I can guarantee he'll stay quiet. Does mean we'll have to make a trip back here after we finish moving this generator. Can't have the volus found this close to the storage area..."
"I know a place we can dump him that won't raise additional questions," Stick declared. "I can even be the one to 'discover' him tomorrow. Make sure the initial report says 'exosuit failure' as the cause of death."
"Sounds good!" Jeddick announced. "Alright people, let's get to it while it's still nighttime."
Citadel Security Officer Quetzal stared at his office monitor and mulled over the information on the screen. He leaned back in his chair and opened the special private communications line on his omni-tool. The device indicated that the person on the other end was not responding, so the salarian opted to leave a recorded message.
"Jacana, this is probably nothing but you did ask me to be on alert for anything unusual at the Blasto vid set. Well, it appears that their set designer, a volus named Telak Gaffno, died last night. He was found slumped over a workbench in a construction area. C-Sec investigators found no sign of foul play. His exosuit had malfunctioned. Rare, but it happens. The one wrinkle is, the guy who found his body was a human security guard named Santini Carlino working on contract for 6th Dimension Vids. On a hunch, I did a background check on him. He had a smuggling conviction 11 years ago... in the Terminus Systems."
Quet signed off, then opened a new communications line. "Shadow Broker, I have some fresh, exclusive intel..." he began.