XXXI

Victim's Justice: The Quarry

Overhead, machinery hummed. A bullet whistled past Garrus's skull. He tracked the trajectory immediately. Dodged left, ducked, and brought up his omni-tool in a single movement. Halfway across the room, a batarian cried out as his shields sizzled and disappeared. Goto's Locust broke out behind Garrus as he slid into cover behind a large, armored crate—weapons or medication transport.

The back part of Harkin's hideout was laid out differently than the front. The meandering aisles were gone. Garrus looked out at a series of gradated platforms climbing up, and at the back and top of the room, looking over the foundry, the overseer's office. Harkin would be there—the most defensible position in the room.

Garrus's visor tagged six, seven life signs spread out over the platforms leading up to the office. Snipers and assault troops. They had altitude, cover, entrenched 'd be more mechs. Three more shots buzzed by, and swinging from the conveyer lines overhead, more crates hung suspended.

EDI's voice came over the radio. "Shepard, I have patched into the warehouse scanners," she reported. "The crates in the transport carriers overhead are rigged to explode when dropped."

A second Locust joined in the chorus with the first. Garrus registered Shepard's weapon change automatically. On the far right side of the room, one of the flying crates ignited. It plummeted from its snapped wire cable to crash on top of two human Suns stationed on a platform beneath. One of them had time to scream. Garrus used the second of confusion to clip his assault rifle back into place and extend the Mantis.

Shepard's voice over the radio was grim. "Good to know."

In the wake of the exploded crate, three more transport carriers came swooping down from the office at the top of the room. Each of them carried a LOKI, folded up to absorb impact on the ground.

Harkin's voice snarled over the foundry loudspeaker, addressing them directly this time. "Why don't you just turn around?"

Goto let out an irritated huff over the radio. "Okay, this guy's annoying me now."

"Only now?" returned Shepard. The LOKIs fell from the transport carriers. Before they landed, she'd stolen the power of one to boost her shields. It fell sparking to the ground, and Shepard passed on Garrus's left, firing at another.

"Shepard—" he warned change in weapons, the aggressive stance—the room had changed and Shepard was changing tactics. And now five Blue Suns up above and two LOKIs had Shepard lined up in a nice little crossfire. She sent eight bullets into the central processor of her target and faded out, but not before at least ten shots cut into the area where she was.

Garrus bit back a curse and focused on the plan—infrared showed Shepard moving smoothly into cover around the left side of the room, while three Suns were still completely exposed, firing at the place she had been. He lined up the first shot without thinking, fired. The Mantis tore through a batarian's shields and tunneled into his head in one shot. There was a fountain of red, and he died before he could cry out.

Garrus ejected a heat sink, reloaded, and retargeted in a second. Fired. This second shot was harder—the angle was a disadvantage, and the human could easily drop into cover. But no—just like before, the shot took out the shields. It went up through the target's throat into the mouth and through the skull. Garrus was already turning to take the third shot—but no. The LOKI, the turian, and the two humans remaining had registered he was the sniper now and reevaluated him as the biggest threat in the room. His target had dropped into cover. A crackling blue tech attack was rocketing toward him. Garrus dodged, as Shepard started her second press.

She vaulted up onto the first platform, fully visible again, shields only half restored, and one of the humans yelled. "There she is!" She diverted the energy from the last LOKI to boost her shields again—but three more mechs were coming in from the top of the room.

On a platform to the right, the air flickered. "No—there!" Goto decloaked, already firing.

Garrus smiled, stepped out from cover, and started moving to a better position.

"I'm not running from you, Shepard!" Harkin shouted. Fear and fury and disbelief crackled through his voice on the loudspeaker. One of the first humans in C-Sec, a cold place in the back of Garrus's brain recalled. A political test case. An addict. A criminal. Had he ever seen the way real soldiers operated?

Pay attention, Harkin. It isn't likely you'll get another chance.

As Garrus pulled up onto a platform, he heard one of the humans go down. Shepard and Goto had caught him in a crossfire. Goto was in more trouble than Shepard was; she faded out, and Garrus took down the shields of the Sun firing on her as she did. Lined up a shot, killed his target as Shepard hacked one of the three new mechs below to turn on the others.

Shepard fell into formation on his left flank. They were looking down at a place where the platforms fell off—a stretch of open, low ground before the last three platforms climbing up to the foreman's office. The last Sun standing was stationed off to the left behind some crates. Pale. Gripping his assault rifle way too tight in shaking hands. Goto flickered back into visibility on Garrus's right. Twisted her wrist and exploded one of the LOKIs down below.

Garrus looked down at the Sun. The human screamed, a wordless shriek of defiance and despair, opened fire in a wide arc that went over their heads by more than a meter, and cut in a dead run back toward the exit. Garrus clocked his trajectory, turned, and fired a single shot. The last man fell forward, facedown. Well. He would have done if he had still had a face.

Shepard and Goto had taken care of the LOKIs below. "Come on," Goto said, impatient, starting forward.

"Hold!" Shepard snapped. Kasumi stopped up short and threw an inquiring glance over her shoulder. Garrus was busy watching the ceiling.

"Ah, crap!" he cried, seeing the transport carriers inbound again, carrying metal chassises a lot bigger than the LOKIs. "Two heavy mechs, incoming!"

"Do you really think you can take me down, Shepard?" Harkin screamed.

"That, right?" Goto asked, pointing her Locust at the YMIRs dropping from the ceiling.

"That," Garrus agreed. "Take cover!" He jumped over a crate, taking his own advice as the mechs hit the floor of the foundry, unfolded, and opened fire. The sound of four simultaneous mass effect accelerator machine guns going off cut over everything else. Garrus winced and set his teeth against the aural assault. He signaled at Goto. You and me. He brought up his omni-tool and waved it at her, hoping she got the message. Saw her blink, then nod. A soldier would have signaled a thumbs-up or okay, but when a tech attack flew out from her omni-tool, taking down the shields of one of the mechs below to half strength, Garrus decided Goto probably understood. He followed up to finish the job as the rockets started flying from where Shepard was stationed on the left.

The YMIRs staggered back as rocket after rocket impacted right on top of them. But when both of them retargeted on Shepard's position, the crate she was crouched behind didn't last two seconds.

Then, overhead, Garrus saw it. He targeted and fired in an instant, and another explosive crate fell, severed from the conveyer line above. It detonated right on top of theYMIRs—and two cannons stopped firing in the blast. The other mech was blown back almost a meter. "Defenses offline," it said confusedly. It staggered, catching its balance just in time to catch twelve bullets from Goto's Locust and another two rockets too. It exploded, and the sound fell away to the slightly less deafening dull roar of moving machinery.

"Now?" Goto asked.

"Now," Shepard told her.

The three of them dropped down to the ground and started toward the last platforms climbing to the foreman's office. As they approached, the platforms shrieked and began to rise—programmed at the last minute to slow them down. Garrus heard Kasumi scoff. She caught hold of the rebar and simply began climbing—but Garrus saw something else off to the right: a corridor the Suns had tried to hide behind some crates, a back exit away from the obvious approach, down from the foreman's office and leading out to the rest of the foundry.

"Please desist your violent attack," a voice said from the top of the stairs on the left. LOKIs, held back as the last line of defense to guard the foreman's office. Garrus heard a shriek of metal and saw two mechs fall down the steps. Shepard looked down at him, and he signaled his intention up to her. Okay, she signaled back, and Garrus continued right and headed up the stair the Blue Suns had tried to hide—Harkin's emergency escape route.

The stair led straight up to the foreman's office. As Garrus turned into a dimly lit work station, he saw Shepard and Goto across the room, coming in at the other door—and Harkin, much closer to Garrus than he was to the two of them, but still focused on Shepard. "You were close," Harkin sneered, "But not close e—"

Garrus knocked Harkin back with the barrel of his pistol, and Harkin's words broke off into a scream. Harkin fell to the ground, and Garrus holstered his gun, seized Harkin bodily, and shoved him hard into the back wall. His talons vibrated with the impact. With his right arm across Harkin's throat, he could feel the rasp of Harkin's breath, smell his fear and the egg salad he'd had for lunch. He stared into Harkin's eyes, centimeters away from his face, and saw the moment when his old coworker finally saw past the scars and realized this had never been about Shepard.

"So, 'Fade'—couldn't make yourself disappear, huh?"

Harkin scrabbled at his right arm. Garrus shoved harder, and he wheezed. "Come on, Garrus. We can work this out. What do you need?"

Garrus let him go. He saw Shepard and Goto, positioned with their weapons raised to provide backup if Harkin tried anything. "I'm looking for someone."

Harkin stood up straight. He rolled his shoulders and neck and smirked. "Well, I guess we both have something the other one wants."

He wanted a better price, but Harkin had miscalculated badly if he thought it was time to negotiate. Garrus had crossed back over to him in a second. A hand to the shoulder kept him from backing off. An armored knee to an unprotected crotch sent Harkin to his knees again, coughing and groaning, eyes streaming now.

"We're not here to ask favors, Harkin," Shepard cut in, voice cold.

Harkin spat, wincing, as he slowly climbed to his feet again. "You don't say."

"You helped a friend of mine disappear," Garrus told him. "I need to find him."

Harkin shook his head. "I might need a little more information than that."

Garrus started pacing. "His name was Sidonis. A turian. Came from th—"

Harkin's eyes fell on the stylized wings on Garrus's armor as he spoke. He backed up two paces as everything suddenly fell into place for him. "I know who he is, and I'm not telling you squat," he declared. His voice shook.

Shepard had come up to stand beside Garrus. She folded her arms. "I'd reconsider that if I were you," she said mildly.

Harkin made a violent, obscene gesture toward her with his left hand. "Screw you! I don't give out client information. It's bad for business."

Like you care about business ethics.

Garrus kneed him again, harder this time. He heard the breath as it was expelled from Harkin's lungs in a rush when he hit the wall. "You know what else is bad for business?" he demanded, stepping forward and onto Harkin's throat. "A broken neck!"

The toes of his boots cut into Harkin's face. Garrus shifted his foot, grinding Harkin's face against the concrete wall of the office even as he pressed down on the ass's throat. Harkin wheezed and sputtered. His arms flailed, useless against a body and legs he couldn't reach. Years of laziness and substance abuse had dulled whatever C-Sec training he'd showed up for back in the day. He was an insect, an ugly, creeping thing that crawled in the dark, dragged out into the light and ready to be squashed.

"All right! All right!" Harkin yelled. "Get off me! Aah!"

It wouldn't take much pressure. Push his face to the wall at a different angle, and he'd suffocate in a little under two minutes. Press down on his throat, and he'd die faster than that. Hold him right where he was, and he'd feel like he was dying but stay alive.

A small, strong hand, with too many fingers, closed over his elbow, and Garrus looked back into calm gray eyes. He stepped back and let Harkin stagger to his feet again. Shepard let go of his arm.

Harkin was panting, face bleeding from a couple of small cuts and abrasions. He'd bruise, too, but not too bad. He massaged his throat and spoke hoarsely. "Terminus really changed you, huh, Garrus?"

Garrus shook his head and took another step back to stand next to Shepard. "And you're the same bastard you always were, without the mask." He nodded at a nearby communications terminal. "Arrange a meeting."

Harkin looked past Garrus and Shepard back at Goto. She didn't move. At Shepard. She shrugged, and Garrus gestured at the terminal again. Harkin lifted his hands. "I'm going," he muttered.

Harkin limped over to the terminal. He pressed a few keys to connect a comm implant into the Citadel system.

Harkin wasn't wrong, Garrus thought, turning over his pistol in his hand. Back in C-Sec, he'd argued against it, but he'd listened to restrictions and regulations that meant criminals slipped through the cracks, had the chance to go back to their crimes. He'd held back, arrested the same perps over and over again, seen them go on to hurt more decent people. On Omega, he'd stopped the criminals, one by one, only to see more filth ooze back in to fill the gap. It always comes back in the end, and no one can go on forever.

Of course, he didn't have to last forever. Only until Omega-4. But until then, he'd do all the good he could. He'd make things right for the others. He'd stand beside Shepard until the end. And he could take out this bastard to make sure all the demons on Omega didn't get any more of a foothold here.

Garrus heard Harkin's side of the conversation with Lantar. He was good—masking all the pain in his voice, handling a definite compromise of Sidonis's identity like a minor breach, something that might just require some new paperwork or a minor relocation, which Harkin would of course handle free of charge.

He's a little too smooth. The traitor gets stabbed in the back—there's some justice there. But I wonder who besides C-Sec Harkin's been screwing over?

Harkin disconnected and walked back over, scrubbing at the drying blood on his face. "It's all good," he reported wearily. "He wants to meet you in front of Orbital Lounge. Middle of the day." He jerked his thumb at the door. "So if our business is done, I'll be going—"

Garrus snagged the front of Harkin's shirt before he could take another step. "I don't think so. You're a criminal now, Harkin."

Harkin shoved at Garrus's chest uselessly. "So, what? You're just going to kill me? That's not your style, Garrus."

Not my style. Garrus didn't know what the hell that was supposed to be anymore.

The job might be over. Bailey was already looking for Harkin. Between the terminals and the volus, C-Sec would have plenty of evidence to convict, all admissible due to Shepard's Spectre status. Just as long as he doesn't get away. Garrus's mandibles tightened, and he dropped Harkin's shirt. "Kill you? No." He took aim at Harkin's kneecap. "But I don't mind slowing you down a little."

Then she was there again, both hands around his elbow this time, jerking his forearm up. Garrus's shot cracked off above them and lodged in the cheap office ceiling. "You don't need to do that!" Shepard insisted. Her hands tightened, and Garrus stared down at her. He tensed his arm. She didn't let go. "We know his name, we know his methods," she said quietly. "He won't be able to hide from C-Sec now."

It was true enough, and it was one reason Garrus didn't deck her. The other one was that Harkin wasn't worth a bullet. Garrus ripped his arm free of Shepard and shoved her away, but he holstered his pistol. "I guess it's your lucky day," he told Harkin, nodding at the door.

Harkin sneered. "Yeah. I hope we can do this again real soon."

Garrus glanced at him, then stepped forward and delivered a headbutt to make Urdnot Wrex proud. Harkin's head snapped back and he fell to the floor with a soft groan. Garrus watched his chest rise and fall before turning around. He was out cold. He wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.

He shouldered past Shepard toward the exit. "I didn't shoot him."

Shepard sighed. "With you," she told him. "Let's move, Kasumi."

Goto fell into step behind them. "Can I just say I'm glad you were never on my case?" she observed. "That was . . . intense."

"Sidonis better be outside that lounge, or I'm coming back to finish the job."


A quick omni-tool search turned up the lounge Sidonis had told Harkin he'd be at. Garrus flew the public skycar to the right entertainment district in Zakera. Shepard and Goto were quiet as he called in a report to Bailey, identifying former officer Ralph Harkin as Fade and giving C-Sec his location as well as an established base of Blue Suns. "Shepard and I took out maybe thirty that were onsite at the time with our associate, but there may be more. Stay sharp."

"Got it. You've done us a real favor, Vakarian. Sounds like Fade was setting up a nasty little operation there. Could have been some real trouble. I'll send a team over. We'll put away Harkin and any of the Suns you might have missed. Bailey out."

Bailey disconnected, and Garrus began lowering the skycar down into the local public transit hub. He shook his head. Harkin would get a few years' jail time at most, after which he'd be released to start the whole thing all over again. "Harkin's a bloody menace. We shouldn't have just let him go. He deserved to be punished."

Shepard looked over at him sharply. "And he will be—but not by you. That's not your job, Garrus. I'm worried about you."

Garrus parked the skycar. He could see the lounge across the street with neon asari dancers out front shifting between two different positions. Sidonis was nowhere in sight yet. Good. "How many criminals has he helped escape justice?" Garrus asked Shepard. "How many mercs did he set on us? You don't think he deserved everything he got and more?"

Shepard didn't answer right away. When Garrus looked over, she looked drawn and tired. She folded her legs up underneath her on the car seat and wrapped both arms around them. "Like that guy we saw on Purgatory?" she asked. She shook her head. "It's not about what he deserves or not. It's about who you are, who you choose to be."

Garrus hit his hand against the steering wheel. "What do you want from me, Shepard? What would you do if someone betrayed you?"

Again, she took her time answering. "I'm not sure," she said. Her voice was soft enough to float him right back to that street where he'd realized what Sidonis had done. "But I wouldn't let it change me."

Garrus shook his head. "I would have said the same thing before it happened to me."

Shepard let her legs fall again. "So don't," she challenged him. "Don't do this. It's not too late to change your mind."

Garrus reached around for his rifle. "Who's going to bring Sidonis to justice if I don't?" he asked. "Nobody else knows what he's done. Nobody else cares. I don't see any other options."

Shepard hesitated, glanced at Kasumi. "Let me talk to him," she suggested.

Garrus let his hand rise and fall. "Talk all you want, but it won't change my mind. I don't care what his reasons were. He screwed us. He deserves to die."

"He was your friend."

That just makes it worse. Garrus closed his eyes. "I appreciate your concern, but I'm not you."

Shepard's retort was immediate. "I'm not asking you to be."

"You're asking me to let him get away with this." Garrus turned the skycar off and turned in his seat to face Shepard. "Why should he go on living when ten good men lie in unmarked graves? I'm sorry, Shepard." He was. He'd do almost anything to wipe that disappointed, distressed look out of her eyes. Almost anything. But not this.

"Words aren't going solve this problem." He caught sight of the chrono on his visor. 1130 local time. "I need to set up." He scanned the street, saw a catwalk off to the left over an intersection. "I can get a clear shot from over there."

Shepard sighed. She lifted her hand and brought it to his shoulder, squeezed. This time he didn't shake her off. "What do you need me to do?"

Garrus felt a rush of gratitude toward her. "Keep him talking, and don't get in my way. I'll let you know when he's in my sights. Give me a signal so I know you're ready, and I'll take the shot." The chrono turned over another minute. If Sidonis got here and saw him sitting in the transit hub, this would all be over. Garrus opened the door and climbed out. "You've got to go. He'll be here soon."

Shepard nodded, climbed out the other side, and headed for the street. Goto fell in line behind Garrus as he edged around it toward the catwalk access.


A/N: Well, that's that. See, if I were Garrus at this juncture, I probably would NOT have sent an obviously conflicted, mostly Paragon Shepard down to talk with the guy I meant to shoot in the head. I mean, Garrus is not an idiot. He's seen what Shepard tends to do when the opportunity comes up to shoot someone who isn't actively shooting back. But, in his defense, he is also not thinking clearly right now. That's pretty obvious. I don't think he knew what he wanted to do with Harkin. He's caught between C-Sec's and his father's Officer Vakarian, Omega's Archangel, and the person he's becoming—and nobody knows who that is yet, maybe least of all Garrus himself. Garrus doesn't even think he'll find out. He doesn't want to find out.

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LMSharp