Chapter 12

The Sinkhole - New Cousteau - Trident

Shepard, as well as Zellin and Ash entered the small rat hole of a bar near the seedier center of the city of New Cousteau. When she entered, a few of the local drunks looked up at her briefly before turning away again and returning to their drinks. But her eyes locked onto the one person who didn't look back down. She had heavily shadowed eyes and short, mousy, black hair that was even shorter than Shepard's.

When she entered with the new coat she wore over her armor, the woman stared up at her and locked eyes, a small, curious smile gracing her dainty lips. Wearing little more than a pair of shorts and a bikini top, the woman spun on her barstool and got to her feet. Grabbing her drink, the odd woman aimed a thumb towards the back door of the establishment. Shepard nodded and waved her hand to Williams and Zellin, both of which took a seat at the bar.

As Shepard and the woman went upstairs, Ash watched her go before turning to the bartender. Her lip curled slightly as she took in the appearance of the odd woman. She looked every inch the woman who wanted everyone to call her "momma." From the large, very billowy orange locks of hair on her head, to her country getup of regular Earth blue jeans and a flannel shirt. The woman was currently staring at Zellin with wide eyes.

Looking over at the salarian curiously, Ash leaned against the bar and stretched herself out. "Want a beer?" she asked curiously.

"This is hardly the time…" said Zellin sternly as he stood next to the bar.

"Yer one o' them greys, aincha?" asked the bartender, who got a strange look from both Ashley and Zellin.

"Greys?" asked the spectre, bewildered at the term.

"Greyman. Back before we had spaceflight ourselves, some very unstable humans used to claim that they had been abducted by aliens. The term for them was greymen because they had grey skin, large eyes like salarians, and large, round heads," said Ash as she shook her head at the early human psyche. "Shortly after humans made contact with the Citadel, we actually had one man try and sue the salarian government, claiming that his ancestors were...ahem, probed by salarians." As she explained, she accepted a cold bottle of beer from the woman.

Zellin stared at Ash for a long moment before pulling up his own omni-tool and looking the term up on the extranet. Seeing a picture of the frightful figure that haunted pre-spaceflight humans, he shook his head and closed the device down. "There are some resemblances, but I'm afraid that I have no interest in probing your kind, miss," he said firmly.

"Shame…" said the older woman playfully as she walked away. Ash had just taken a drink when the woman spoke, making her spit foam and beer out in a reaction that left her coughing.

Zellin looked down at the human, unamused at the development. "Do try to refrain from drowning yourself. The...boss...would be quite upset if you choked on your beer bottle," he said almost threateningly.

Ashley covered her mouth, hiding her smile and holding back a laugh as she set the beer aside. "Don't worry about me Romeo, I'll be alright," she said with a smirk that only annoyed him further.

"I don't know what this Romeo is, but I hate it already…" grumbled the salarian as he looked away, trying to ignore the laughing chief.

The Sinkhole - New Cousteau - Trident

"Well well, if it isn't the great Commander Shepard! Savior of Elysium, the Ghost in the Machine, and now we can add Spectre to that list of titles," said the woman as she led the redhead upstairs.

Jane said nothing as she followed the informant up the stairs and into what was essentially the private room of the bar owner. It was no more or less beat up than the rest of the rundown establishment. She had a table in the corner with a dozen or so beer bottles on it, a bed in the opposing corner that was missing its sheets and blanket both. Next to the bed was a small nightstand with a lamp, and a bookshelf that was overflowing with books that weren't even stacked correctly on the shelves.

"What's the matter, Commander? Turian got your tongue?" she asked as she smirked and clicked her pierced tongue against her teeth. "You're a lot quieter than usual."

"This is the first time you and I have had to meet face to face, Nellie," said Shepard as she crossed her armored arms.

"Yeah, I figured you'd invite me to lunch or something the first time. If I knew you were coming, I'd have cleaned the place up," said the woman as she walked over to the table. Hidden among the beer cans were what looked like three different white dice. Reaching up to her earring, she pulled it off, showing a black dice that contrasted the other three on the table. Arranging them accordingly resulted in a loud click from the bookshelf.

Walking over to it, she pulled shelving open, revealing a small tube-like elevator, similar to those seen on the Presidium. "Sorry, but I'm in a bit of a rush. Pleasantries will have to wait," replied Shepard as she stepped onto the elevator.

Quickly, the tube shot them down below ground level, stopping shortly afterward and letting them out into a small, almost pristine office. The room looked like a domed cockpit, somewhat resembling the small hovel that Joker had made at home on the Normandy. In the center was a chair that looked like it had plenty of function besides just spinning. In front of the chair was a screen that showed the vast ocean that Trident was known for, with creatures of so many different species swimming by that it would take an AI to accurately count them. But, as soon as Nellie's behind hit the chair, the serene ocean vanished, and in its place were screens of scrolling text.

"So, Jane, since you're not here for pleasantries, how about you tell me what you're actually doing here?" asked the agent as she spun around and stared at the Spectre through her dark eyes.

Lifting her arm, Shepard activated her omni-tool and opened the dossier of Harris, as well as a picture of the ship he arrived on. "I'm looking for this man. I got his information from the port security office, so I know he landed here. But that's all I can find," she said as she passed the information to the agent.

Nellie accepted it and loaded it into her terminal. "Shouldn't be too hard. I've pretty much got a tab on anyone in and out of this place…" she said as she brought up her camera display. She then pulled up the picture and allowed her algorithm to start matching up facial features. Turning back to the spectre, the woman grinned. "So?" asked Nellie with a Cheshire-like grin.

"What do you want for the information?" asked Shepard, cocking one of her fiery eyebrows at the woman.

"Oh, that shouldn't be too hard. I'll even give it to you on a tab given this is apparently urgent enough for you to show up at my doorstep," said Nellie as she smacked her palms against her bare legs. "I want someone out of the way."

Shepard's gaze darkened. "You know my rule…" she growled as her armored forearms crossed over her chest again.

"I know I know…" she said, raising her hands defensively. "But a mercenary has been trying to track me down recently. He's not close, of course, but he's a lot cleverer than I anticipated."

"His record?" asked the spectre as she received the information from the woman.

"Where do I start?" she asked sarcastically. "He didn't make underboss by acting like Mister Rogers, that's for sure. He started off in the Quinn family as a simple Go Boy. Someone to do errands. Then apparently, he overheard that the Triad leader's niece was trying to muscle in on their territory. He...took care of her," said Nellie as she looked away from the spectre.

"Took care of her?" asked Shepard curiously as she looked over the man's file.

"Let's just say that even someone that kills as frequently as you would feel your stomach turn when you saw her. It was not pleasant, and she didn't die quickly. That's for certain," said Nellie as she turned back and stared at her long-time partner.

"So, how did you come into the picture?" asked Jane as she tucked her omni-tool away and leaned against the wall near the door.

"I'm fine with killing, theft, contraband…" she said as she waved her hands dramatically. "It's all part of the game of life when you live in a place like Trident. You have to look away from some things in order to fix the bigger issues. But he crossed a serious line," she said with a bit of a growl in her voice. "He managed to pin the blame on a former specialist of the Romanov's that lived out on Widow's Web. Afterward, the Triad and the Romanov Bratva all but went to war with each other. The plan would have had the two houses fight and weaken one another, which would have given them the perfect opening for the Quinn family to swoop in and crush them both…" said Nellie as she leaned forward.

"Would have?" asked Shepard curiously with a sly smirk. Nellie nodded enthusiastically.

"Ooooh, you should have seen the groveling when the Triad and the Bratva came together and confronted them," she said, practically snickering at her deed. "What remains of his house has either moved off-planet or is feeding the tyrant sharks. He himself, however, managed to weasel his way into a mercenary group without them realizing he was still alive. And now he's using their resources to find out where I'm at."

"How close is he?" asked Shepard as the scan behind the woman finally beeped.

"If I let him go at his own pace, and he had unlimited resources, he might find me in another six months. With what he's working with now, I'd give him five years," she responded as she opened a small compartment and pulled out a small tube of what looked like chocolate pudding. Looking up at Shepard, she held it up. "Want one?"

"I'm good…" said the Spectre as she began harvesting the data from the facial scan. "So, if he's not even close, then why do you want him taken care of?"

"Oh, it's not about him finding me. If he ever even crossed the threshold of this place, he'd be dead. But…" she said with a sigh. "The things he did to her were evil. This went beyond business. Beyond tapping someone in the back of the head for a botched red sand deal. This was pure malice."

Shepard began to draw a clearer picture as she finished receiving her data. "You want an example…" said the spectre.

Nellie looked up at Shepard as she opened her pudding tube. "I was no fan of the niece. She was an art snob who refused to drive the same car two days in a row. But she actually looked out for the little guys around them. She was a bit of a sweetheart snob, if such a thing exists…"

"So, this is a revenge killing?" asked Shepard skeptically.

"Look, I know your rule about revenge, but think of it like this. If he were to go free, then one of your special agents would be in danger!" she said animatedly as she opened her eyes wide in a puppy dog fashion. But Shepard's stern stare blocked her attempts. Finally, Nellie sighed. "I just want to close my eyes again without having to see her body in the condition it was in…"

"When I find him, I'll take care of him. But if you want to continue our friendly relationship, then you need to be more respectful of my boundaries," she remarked solidly.

"Fine fine. It'll be enough to know that he's out of the picture…" she said waving her hand dismissively.

"Which begs the question, why don't you just tell the Triad that he's still alive?" asked the spectre as she opened the elevator.

"They contacted me the first time. I have to play things neutral here, otherwise, I stand a chance of compromising myself," said Nellie as she shrugged in her bikini top. "If I go out of my way to give them the information, then they might pick up that I'm trying to get rid of him, then they catch him and find out that he's chasing me…" she said as she waved her hand in a circle as if the rest was easy to pick up on. "If you do it, the investigation ends, the Triad doesn't know anything more about me, and anyone who cares about my identity is gone. I get my revenge, you get your info, and you get to keep a reliable information source, and all by getting rid of a little stain of a human being like Kelly Hanrahan."

Shepard grunted in acknowledgment, knowing that the woman was right. It was easy enough for her to bring up the news story on the way down and see what Nellie had seen while they were on the elevator. And she knew Nellie enough to know that she wouldn't lie to her just to get her to kill someone. She had plenty of methods of getting rid of someone if she really wanted. But this turned out to be personal. And, sending a message was also a specialty of Shepard's, so she couldn't deny that she was the right one for the job.

When they arrived in the scraggly room again, the woman walked over and scattered the dice across the table in a random order, while putting the black dice earring back into her ear. "I hope you finish your business fast. The sooner Hanrahan gets what's coming to him, the sooner I can get back into my routine," she said as she left the room and headed back downstairs.

The Sinkhole - New Cousteau - Trident

"I'd hate to be the LT right now. The humidity is killing me and I'm inside…" groaned Ash as she sat at the bar nursing a bottle of water. "How long is she gonna be up there?"

"That's the tenth time you've asked that question, none of which have received answers. So, do us both a favor and stay silent until…" started Zellin angrily before the door to the back opened again and the odd, pierced, bikini-clad woman walked out again. Shortly afterward, Shepard followed and nodded to the two of them. "Whew, thought you got lost Commander," said Ash with a bit of a smirk as the three headed for the door.

"You're buying me a drink next time!" called the short-haired woman as she took her place at the bar and waved.

Ash looked at her, then back at Shepard curiously. She wasn't sure what the connection between the two was, but she knew that Shepard did have a thing for other women...she thought. But she immediately dashed the thought, knowing that the mission they were on was far too important for the hardass Commander Shepard to skip it for a booty call. She began to wonder exactly what the woman was to her as they left the building and headed down the street.

"So...who was she?" asked Ashley curiously as they rounded the corner and began to use the same route that they had taken to get to the bar.

"An associate from my time in the Alliance," said Shepard as they marched their way down the street. Suddenly, gunfire erupted off towards the docks, stopping them in their tracks. Growling, Shepard opened her omni-tool and began to type away as she approached an aircar. Its engine started in seconds and she opened the door. "Get your asses in!" she shouted as she jumped into the driver's seat.

New Cousteau Port - New Cousteau - Trident

"Stand guard over the shuttle she said! It'll be easy she said!" shouted Kaidan as he ducked behind the shuttle again, more rounds from gangster weapons pinging off the metal surface. "I'm standing here in 40-degree heat, sweating my ass off when all the sudden these assholes…" shouted the lieutenant as he spun around and aimed his biotics at the enemy. As soon as they were caught in his dark energy, he raised his weapons to fire. But out of nowhere, an aircar blasted out of an alleyway and slammed into all three of the attackers, sending them soaring and crashing as his biotics finally wore off.

Shielding his eyes from the bright cloud cover, he spied the vehicle as it approached. Feeling slightly relieved at seeing the redhead in the cockpit, he sighed. "Sorry we're a bit late," said Shepard as she stepped out of the vehicle, allowing the Gunnery Chief to exit as well. "Alenko, Williams, I want you two to take the shuttle back up to the ship and wait for me to call for extraction."

Both of the soldiers eyed the commander curiously. "You sure about that sir? As you can see, this place isn't just...ah, who am I talking to?" asked Kaidan as he stopped himself and turned towards the shuttle. Ash watched him get into the pilot's seat, slightly speechless as she turned back to Shepard.

"O-On it Skipper," she said as she turned back to the shuttle and boarded with the lieutenant. When Ash had buckled herself in, she immediately turned to Kaidan with a questioning look. "Why'd you give up so easily?"

"Ash, she's seen more combat than both of us combined," he said, then looked at her apprehensively. "Though, I'm aware that you didn't have much choice in the matter…" he started, then just shook his head. "I'm just well aware of what she's capable of. She can take care of herself."

"If you say so," said Ash as she turned and looked down towards the pair of spectres.

New Cousteau Port - New Cousteau - Trident

"I assume this assignment is about to get a lot messier," said Zellin as he turned to the commander.

"You've got that right…" she said, turning back to the aircar. "Hop in. You and I are going to track down our target, then I've got a favor to finish up," she ordered as she raised her pistol and finished off one of the men who was trying to get to his feet after his heavy impact into the ground. Jumping into the aircar, the salarian followed.

For the first time since he took this assignment, he had a relative smirk on his face. "It will be interesting seeing you work without your team," he said as he buckled himself into the seat.

Together, the pair flew across the battleground of a city. Random shots were fired in the streets, corporations battled against the numerous crime families that had taken up the small archipelago that dotted the surface of Trident. Despite the disastrous city below, the view of the oceans was gorgeous, especially when viewed from an above. But she had little time for that as she put the aircar on auto and activated her omni-tool.

"Harris was last seen heading into Romanov territory, a place known as the Window's Web," said Shepard as she brought up the map of the area.

"Widow's Web?" asked Zellin as he eyed the curious area.

"It's one of the smaller islands, controlled by the Romanov family. Due to its small size, they had to use houseboats, rafts, barges, anything they could find that floats to make up the majority of it. Then they chained it all together, making it look like a web created by Earth spiders," said the commander, getting a nod from the salarian.

"And here comes the bad news…" he said as he eyed her curiously. "If we're going into Romanov territory, then the potential buyer for Harris' carcinogenic bomb…"

"Is a Romanov," she said with a sigh. "We might have to take out one of their family, which means that we aren't going to have an easy time getting off the planet."

"But you have a plan?" he asked her as he reached behind him and pulled his briefcase up. Opening it, he shoved the datapads aside and checked his weapons to make sure they were ready.

"I always have a plan," she said with a confident smirk.

Yusupov Floating Grill - Widow's Web - Trident

Annoyed was probably the tamest thing he could think to call what he was feeling right now. Livid would have fit better as he looked at the chronometer on his omni-tool. Days they had kept him waiting.

It had been a week since he had hit his huge breakthrough. A glorious week of tying off loose ends, erasing his paper trail, closing his credit accounts, and all but uplifting himself to the Terminus Systems. He had gotten himself a nice place on Omega where he could wine and dine til the end of his days with a new asari stripper in his lap each night of the week. But that meant getting paid first. He had already put forward the first down payment to Aria, now he needed the promised income that would allow him his luxurious retirement.

Ever since he had left Arcturus, he had been jerked around left and right. First, he was instructed to go to that ridiculous cultist colony and use it as a test sight. Not a huge deal until whoever it was that was driving around on the surface showed up. He couldn't tell who, or what they were, but from the look of their vehicle, they were heavily armed. And he wasn't about to start scrapping with some random merc group when he already had all the footage he needed.

So, he fled, sent them the affirmative, and waited. Hours he waited for their reply. But it finally came, and they told him to meet them here. They didn't even give him the courtesy of telling him who he'd meet, just a location. So, he sat and waited, knowing that they were likely scoping him out to make sure he hadn't been followed. Even after the fairly high cost of his down payment on Omega, he still had some funds to throw around. He was considering going to one of the nearby clubs and perhaps getting a hit of red sand. But his hopes of a quick bump were dashed when he got a chime on his omni-tool.

Looking down, he noticed that it was a nav point directing him towards a large tanker ship to the east. Snorting, he slammed the rest of his beer and stood up, marching dutifully with his briefcase chained to his wrist towards his payday. It took all of ten minutes for him to get to the ship, and as soon as he arrived, he was waved onto the ship by some rather unsavory looking security. The guards for the ship looked like the stereotypical corrupt security companies back on Earth, the kind who started wars rather than patrolled areas.

But confident that he had covered his bases, he walked aboard the ship and was guided into the underdeck, where it was wet, dark, and menacing. But the greying scientist just rolled his eyes in annoyance at the cliche method of intimidation the buyer was trying to pull. "Look, it's been a long week, and I'd like to at least get my dick wet on this hell hole of a planet before I have to depart for Omega. So, if we could stop all the theatrics and get this done, that'd be great…"

A single, amused chuckled echoed from behind one of the conex shipping containers before the silhouette of a figure emerged into the light given off by the industrial lighting above. "Straight to the point, I like it," said the man as he stepped forward. Leonard eyed the man cautiously. He had smooth dark hair to his shoulders, where it met with the leather of his long jacket. He would have said that the man was trying too hard to look "in-style," if he didn't immediately recognize the coat for what it was. His eyes widened as he saw the stars on either side of the collar, as well as the subtle stripes that were aimed downwards on either side of the silver buttons. It was an officer coat.

"Ahhh...I see, you're part of the family then?" asked Harris with a sly grin.

"Ever observant of your doctor. But let's skip the pleasantries and get down to business, yes?" asked the man, his voice tinged with a light Russian accent. "You have the proof, yes?" asked the taller, dark-haired man who currently had several burly bodyguards on either side of him.

"I do," said the doctor as he opened his omni-tool and passed the data over. However, the man simply smiled and stared at Leonard through his piercing green eyes. "J-Just in case you're getting any funny ideas, there're incendiary grenades in this case, that'll go off should something happen to me…" he said as he reached up and pulled his collar away from his heated neck nervously.

But the gangster simply held his hands out as if welcoming him, all the while sporting a giant smile. "Doctor! Why in the world would I kill you?" he asked as he stepped forward, making Harris take a step back. "I need you!" he said before finally getting close enough to put his arm around the man's shoulder. "See, this…" said the Russian as he tapped the briefcase. "This is just the beginning."

"What are you talking about?" asked Harris, who was currently cringing at having the man's strong, jacket-clad arm around him, but too terrified to pull away.

"See, we know you had plans to move to Omega. But we're going to need you to make arrangements to have those canceled. Instead, you're going to stay here with us!" said the Romanov as he let out a happy sigh. "Today is a good day!"

"I'm not going to live my days in some kind of mob laboratory making weapons just so you can get rich off of them!" snapped Harris with a growl. "You're paying for this supply, nothing else. If, and that's IF you pay well enough, then I'd be happy to make you more from my own place on Omega. But you couldn't pay me enough to live on this hellhole."

Chuckling, the gangster patted the man's shoulder. "You let me outline future, yes?" asked the Russian as he finally pulled away.

Harris sighed, then finally nodded. "Fine. You've got five minutes to convince me before I go and find another buyer...what the hell was your name?"

"You as a friend can call me Artem," said the Russian as he put a cigarette between his lips and inhaled while one of the bodyguards lit it. "You see Leo...can I call you Leo?" he asked amusedly.

"I'd rather you not…" said the man with a grumble.

"You see Leo, you stay with us. You work to make us this weapon. This makes Romanov family most powerful on Trident," he said as he inhaled more smoke and let out a thick cloud before continuing. "Being most powerful family, means no more enemies, no more competition. No more competition means we get richer," he said as he stepped up to the man, allowing some of the light from above to shine on his shockingly handsome face. "We take over Trident, then we start taking over other places."

Harris' eyes widened slightly at the implication. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

"He's saying he's going to take over Omega with your assistance, and afterward, probably the rest of the Terminus systems," came a voice from the shadows again. Immediately, every one of the bodyguards drew their weapons and aimed for the darkness. However, with the metal room being packed and rather cramped, it was hard to tell exactly where the voice had come from. Suddenly, an apple flew out of the darkness and soared between the two men. One of the bodyguards screamed something in Russian before the apple exploded between them, splattering both Artem and Harris with fruit. Everyone froze stiff, not wanting to be the next target.

"Who are you?" asked Artem in annoyance as he held his hands up. "Do you know who you are messing with?"

"I'm well aware of who you are Mister Romanov. I know all about your family, as I've had to deal with a few of them in the past. The question is, do you know who you are messing with?" came the voice again. "Now, as you all have seen, I have a sniper who is a crack shot staring at all of you through the scope of my own rifle. If any of you even move an inch, apple sauce. I hope I've made my point clear," came the voice again.

"Blatantly…" growled the Romanov as he held his hands in the air. Suddenly, he went rigid as he felt something touch his head. Standing dead still, he watched as the doctor doubled over in pain, as if he had just been struck. "W-What…?" he asked, then suddenly a shorter, heavily armored woman began to appear right in front of him.

"Shhhh…" said the woman as she put a finger up to her helmeted lips. "Don't want that apple to fall off. It could end very poorly," she said as she reached down and started pressing buttons on her omni-tool. Suddenly, Harris cried out loud as his omni-tool practically exploded off of his arm. "Now, I'm going to take him, his project, his notes, and his weapon back to the Alliance."

"What is your name?" asked Artem with cold calmness.

"You can call me Spectre," she said with a smirk in her tone. The man's eyes widened at the revelation, but he stayed still.

"Well, Spectre, I certainly hope you've made peace with whatever gods you…" he started, but froze when she spun around and glared at him.

"You're not too bright, are you Mister Romanov?" asked the woman as she eyed him through her face shield. "If you want to keep your head, then I wouldn't recommend threatening the person who has a crosshair on it," she said as she grabbed the scientist and began dragging him unceremoniously out of the building. "Hope your arms don't get tired, you're gonna be there for a while!" shouted the operative as she exited the building.

When she was outside, she immediately secured his hands behind his back and threw him forward with the barrel of a silenced weapon against him. "Get in the car," she ordered firmly.

"Don't touch me! I have…" started Harris, but she rolled her eyes at him.

"You have a briefcase with a powerful bio-weapon and six grenades that I disabled when I was inside. Now, you're going to get in the car, or I'll beat you senseless and drag you in myself," she ordered, shoving him into the passenger seat of the running vehicle. He did as he was told and sat in the seat with a sour look on his face.

But as the woman walked around to get into the driver's seat, he hopped over and slammed his foot onto the aircar's accelerator. The car jumped forward and hit her, making her slide across the roof before flying over the back and rolling across the ground while he escaped in the vehicle.

Romanov Barge - Widow's Web - Trident

It wasn't the proudest laugh he'd ever had, but it was most certainly one he enjoyed as he stared down at the ex-Alliance soldier laying on the ground. He knew her enough to know that the vehicle hadn't hurt her, but the way she was laying on the ground meant she was definitely thinking.

"You alright, Spectre?" asked Zellin, trying to hide the amusement from his voice as he approached the woman and helped her up.

"Ever plan something out so well, only to find out you overlooked one detail that threw a wrench into it?" she asked in an annoyed tone as she sat up.

"Several times actually. Salarian minds work rather quickly, so sometimes we can miss a detail here or there," he said as she dusted herself off. "So, did your bluff work?"

"Like a charm. Now, I have to radio the Normandy to make sure he doesn't end up getting off this planet. You find us a new aircar," she ordered as she opened her comm to the Normandy.

Romanov Barge - Widow's Web - Trident

As he stood, frozen to the spot with the apple sitting on his head of dark hair, his eyes roamed the room curiously. It definitely took a minute or two, but slowly he began to come to a realization. "Alexei…?" asked Artem curiously.

"Yeah, boss?" asked one of the henchmen as he stood stiff, trying not to agitate the sniper.

"Are there windows in here?" asked the annoyed man as he searched the remains of the apple at his feet.

"No boss... why?" asked the man curiously.

Artem let out a sigh as his eyes locked onto a small bead on the ground. Putting his tired arms down, he moved his head and caught the apple as it fell. All of his bodyguards stared in horror for a long moment before they too began to catch on. "If there are no windows, then the sniper would have to still be in the room with us…" he growled as he activated his omni-tool. "Rufus, I hope you got them leaving the compound!" he shouted into the comm as he began to run towards the exit. But he got no response.

"Nobody is responding from any channel boss!" shouted Alexei as they finally burst out of the enclosure.

"They must have blocked our...sig...nal…" said the Russian as his eyes widened. Sitting on the barge in front of him were the bodies of all of his men. He didn't know whether they were alive or dead, but they were definitely unresponsive and stacked up like some kind of grotesque pyramid. "Or not…"

"Who the hell could have done this?" asked Alexei, bewildered at the sight of so many of his trained men haphazardly thrown into the pile.

Artem stared off into the distance with a heavy sigh. "A Spectre…" he said, hurling the apple off of the ship and into the water before turning around and heading back inside.

New Cousteau Port - New Cousteau - Trident

His aircar came to a screeching halt as he pulled up to the docking area. The grubby man at the entrance tried to stop him but could do little as he flew straight past him and landed almost directly on the ramp that led to his spacecraft. It wasn't easy guiding the car with bound hands, but his ship was mostly automated anyway, so he had a way of getting out of here regardless.

He growled angrily as he kicked the door to the aircar open and stomped towards the ship with his briefcase still in his hands. The deal went so far south that his bitterness almost made him want to puke. But there was still a way to salvage the situation. Aria would probably like a weapon of this magnitude. It would probably help her secure herself even more on the station, so he could always trade it to her to keep his place.

He began running the plan through his head quickly as he entered his small personal craft and began the automation to exit the system. "Vixen, take me to Omega," he ordered, getting a confirming chime from the VI before he finally plopped down in his seat. "Stupid bitch...who the hell was that anyway?"

"You can call me Shepard," came a voice through the ship's speakers. He felt a chill go down his spine as his head smacked back against the seat in surprise. "You're at the end of your rope Harris. Either hand yourself and the weapon over to the Alliance, or else."

"Go to hell! Where I'm going, you'll never be able to get your hands on me!" he shouted into the comm as he grabbed the flight wheel of his ship, which switched it to manual and gunned it for escape velocity.

"Last chance Harris. Give yourself up or you and the weapon become a distant memory," growled Shepard. He looked at his scanner and found that her ship was following his, though from the looks of it, wasn't keeping up very well.

He laughed, seeing no other airborne ships to stop him. "What a joke! Kiss my ass Shepard!" he said as he pushed the pedal to the metal and finally escaped the worst of Trident's gravitation. But his smile vanished when all the sudden his scanner picked up something else nearby. Looking down, he saw a massive frigate that dwarfed his personal craft appear out of nowhere. "Wha...what the hell? Where did that…?" he started to ask.

But he was cut off as the alert in his ship started going off. The VI began to flash emergency lights in the compartment. "Warning. Sensors indicate we are being targeted by a nearby vessel. Please take all safety precautions and buckle up to make sure there are no unintended accidents."

Harris just sat, staring dumbly at the indicator before holding his head in his hands. "Fuck…"

New Cousteau Airspace - New Cousteau - Trident

"On your order Commander," came the nervous voice of Pressly through her omni-tool. She smirked slightly at his demeanor since her dressing down previously.

"I've already stripped him of all of his data. He refuses to surrender, and has a deadly biological weapon on him," she said firmly before narrowing her eyes at the ship that was currently leaving the atmosphere. "Make sure there's nothing left for them to discover."

"Yes, sir! Fire team, prepare target! Adams, Tali'Zorah, bring us out of stealth so that we don't overclock the internal emission sinks!" came the commanding voice of Pressly over the comm.

Another voice, this time a turian female, interjected. "Fire Team Leader Gavos here, we've got a lock on the craft. Ready to fire!"

"Fire!" shouted the XO.

"Excalibur charged! Firing now!" came the call from the fire team again. Shepard could see plain as day as the scientist's ship erupted into flame and debris. Most of it scattered, flying into the atmosphere to burn up upon reentry.

"Target destroyed Commander," said Pressly, back to his nervous self.

She nodded silently as Zellin flew their own shuttle up to the remains ship, and she saw the gruesome aftermath. Half of the ship had been obliterated by the shot, which meant that the following explosive decompression would have destroyed anything that was left. But she ignored the remains and focused on the briefcase, which had been essentially vaporized by the attack. Letting out a sigh of approval, she nodded and turned back to Zellin. "Let's finish up on Trident and head back to Arcturus."

Nellie's Lab - New Cousteau - Trident

Reaching for her snack stockpile again, the woman sighed as she finally grabbed the last of her pudding tubes and frowned. "Hmmm...now or later? I'll have to go get more…" she groaned as she stared longingly at the treat.

Finally, she gave in and opened it before jamming the open end into her mouth. Reaching over, she flipped on her vidscreen to check and see what all she needed to be aware of in the city. It had been a couple hours, so she didn't expect much. But her eyes widened as she saw a story relating to a mysterious craft being destroyed in the upper stratosphere.

"We aren't sure yet what the make or model of the craft was. The Dynamis Corporation representatives have promised to send up a recovery team to find out what exactly caused the explosion that lit up the sky," said the reporter from the screen. She cocked an eyebrow, wondering if her visitor had any kind of hand in the happenings. Then the next news story popped up with a female anchor, making her drop her half-emptied pudding tube onto the floor.

"In other news, the body of a local mercenary known as Kelly Hanrahan was found today hanging from a transformer tower outside of the Wei family estate. Little was known about the cause of the young mercenary's death until his body was searched. Investigators found in his pocket a cut out newspaper article relating to the incident a month and a half ago when Xiawei Lang, the niece of the head of the Wei Family, was found deceased. Investigators have told us that on the newspaper was written the phrase, "I'm sorry," in the young man's own blood. A quick examination of the deceased's body led investigators to believe that the note was written while he was still alive. As most already know, the case was never "officially solved," leaving some to wonder if the young girl would ever receive justice. However, with these events looking like a self-inflicted act of retribution due to a guilty conscience, perhaps we can all rest easier…"

Nellie just sat, staring in awe at the grisly scene that the media on Trident had no qualms about showing to the people. After a moment, she felt a slight shiver go through her body. "Thank god I'm on her side…" she said as she ran her hands over her exposed arms.