Shepard was the first one down the hatch. Once he hit the floor he turned his rifle's flashlight on and scanned the room. Ashley and Kasumi followed suit. After determining the room was clear, Shepard opened a door allowing Ashley and Kasumi to scout the hallway. The sight that greeted them was not a pretty one.

Bodies of palace security guards were scattered throughout the hallway. Each one was riddled with several bullet holes. But something else got Shepard's attention. Some of the bodies were not security guards. He could tell because they were not wearing the uniforms the guards wore. It was bad news to see the guards dead but it was good to know that some of Balak's men were dead too. This meant there would be fewer terrorists for them to deal with.

Besides the bodies, the only other items in the hallway were rows of statues on pedestals. Before Shepard could enter the hallway with the ladies, Ashley tapped her ear. She could hear something.

They all listened and could hear voices coming at the end of the hallway. Shepard turned off his flashlight and ordered everyone to get behind cover. The statues provided it easily. Shepard peaked around the statue he was hiding behind and saw two batarians coming down the hallway. It was dark but Shepard could see that they were not wearing palace guard uniforms. They had to be some of Balak's remaining men. He was about to give some signals to Ashley and Kasumi but then something else caught his attention. The dark still made it hard to see many details but something about the terrorists' clothes was triggering a warning bell in his head. Before he could place it, he heard something that sounded like an air leak. It was Ashley making a hissing sound.

"Orders skipper?" she whispered.

Shepard was about to respond when the terrorists started talking again. He held his hand out and waved it down telling Ashley and Kasumi to stay down. Something was wrong with what the terrorists were saying.

"Where could he be?" the first terrorist said. "Balak said this was supposed to be a get in, take out the target and get out mission. We should have been gone by now."

"I know," said the second terrorist, "and add that to that Alliance shuttle that crashed outside, we might not have as much time as we want."

This was great news. The terrorists hadn't found Pazness yet meaning Shepard and his squad still had a chance to stop the assassination. Shepard continued to watch as the terrorists came closer but then decided to enter one of the rooms. Once they were out of the hallway, Shepard opened another room and waved Ashley and Kasumi inside.

"They haven't found Pazness yet," Shepard said, "if we're going to find him before Balak does we need to split up. Before we arrived I called the batarian councilor and asked him to send me a floor plan for the palace. He not only sent them, but he sent me one that has some recently made notes about where some panic rooms had been installed."

As Shepard said his last statement, he used his omni-tool to send the floor plan to Ashley and Kasumi's omni-tools.

"There are three of them," Shepard continued, "two on this floor and one on the floor below us. Williams and I will take the two on this floor. Kasumi you can use your tactical cloak to sneak down to the first floor undetected and check the panic room down there. Any batarian not wearing a guard uniform is to be considered hostile. They already know we're here but they don't know exactly where we are so let's not give them any hints. Take hostiles out only if it can't be avoided."

Ashley and Kasumi nodded, acknowledging they understood their orders. Shepard cracked the door open and looked outside and saw the terrorists hadn't come back into the hall. He gave an all clear signal and Ashley and Kasumi exited the room to head for their respected panic rooms. Shepard closed the door behind him and went to his room. Adrenaline was flowing through him. If he could find Pazness first, not only would Pazness be safe but Balak wouldn't have any cards to play. Balak was not going to get away from him this time.

Shepard's advice for Kasumi paid off. She was able to sneak down to the first floor all the while using her tactical cloak to remain unseen. Although the tactical cloak did allow her remain invisible to the naked eye, there was still the risk that she would give herself away by the sounds of her footsteps. Fortunately Kasumi could move as quiet as a mouse. It affected her speed but it was better to take it slow and steady instead of fast and rough.

After sneaking by the two guards who were based at the bottom of the stairs, Kasumi made her way to the panic room. There weren't many guards on the first floor so it was easy for her to get there quickly. The room where the panic room was located was the palace library. According to the floor plan Shepard gave her, it was behind a bookshelf along the wall opposite the door. Kasumi felt along the bookshelf until she felt a book that felt hollow. It had to be the switch that opened the panic room. But was that all that the book did?

Kasumi pulled up her x-ray vision. She could see that the book was connected to a series of gears that could open the door. Other than that, there didn't seem to be any other security systems on the door. Kasumi thought that was strange. It wasn't much of a panic room if just anyone could open it, unless this wasn't meant to be a panic room. Kasumi pulled the book and the shelf moved to the side revealing the hidden room. Right on the other side of the room was another door. Based on Kasumi's position in the palace, the door had to lead outside.

The room Kasumi was in was not designed to hide Pazness, it was meant to give him an escape route. Somehow Kasumi felt that Pazness didn't get a chance to use it. Balak's men would have hit the palace immediately after the bomb went off cutting off any chance for Pazness to get to the escape route. His best chance would have been to get to one of the actual panic rooms on the second floor. All Kasumi could do now was hope that Shepard or Ashley would call to confirm they had located Pazness. At any rate she had to regroup with them so she made her way out of the secret room back into the library.

"Kasumi."

Kasumi froze before she could take a step out of the secret room.

"Oh no," she thought, "not again."

"Kasumi."

Keiji's voice was calling for her again. Kasumi spun in a circle trying to see where the voice was coming from. Finally she saw him standing in the secret room. He didn't gesture for her to follow him like last time. He just stood there staring at her. Kasumi started taking steps back to head out of the library. Then Keiji started walking toward her. His face, which up until this point was nothing more than an emotionless stare, was now displaying pure anger. Kasumi pulled out her Kassa Locust and aimed at Keiji.

"Keiji stay back," she said with a slight stutter.

Keiji seemed to show no sign that he even heard what Kasumi said. He just kept moving closer and closer to her. His face was now turning red. It was almost as if his head was a volcano and was boiling towards the blasting point. Kasumi's hand started to shake as she continued to take steps away from Keiji.

"Kasumi….Kasumi….Kasumi."

Keiji started chanting Kasumi's name. Each time he said it, his tone grew more and more aggressive. Kasumi was starting to hear other voices in her head but couldn't understand what was being said because of Keiji's chanting. Her finger slowly started to pull her gun's trigger.

"Kasumi. Kasumi! KASUMI!

"DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS KEIJI!" Kasumi screamed.

The next sound to fill the room was the sound of multiple shots being fired.

A Few Minutes Earlier

Shepard had managed to sneak past the guards that were on the floor he was on and was approaching Pazness' office. He raised his rifle and stepped inside. A quick scan of the room revealed no one inside. It made sense to him. Balak and his men already searched here for Pazness and moved on. Hopefully it was because they didn't know about the panic room.

The floor plan indicated that a button in Pazness' desk opened the safe room. With his gun still raised, Shepard eased his way towards the desk. He scanned the desk but couldn't find any buttons on the surface. Shepard smiled. That would have been too easy. He felt underneath the desk but still had no luck. Kneeling down, he looked through all the drawers but he still couldn't find a button. Could the floor plan have been wrong?

Before Shepard rose up from his kneeling position, he noticed something on the underside of the desk. There was a small spot that was a different color from the rest of the desk. He felt the spot and realized that it was the button already pressed in. Shepard figured it was designed to lock so that no one on outside could open the panic room once Pazness used it. Pazness had to be in the panic room.

Shepard then noticed a painting of a landscape located on the wall to the right of the desk. The blueprint did mention that was where the door to the panic room was located.

"Pazness," he said as quietly as he could, "I'm Captain Shepard with the Citadel Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. If you can hear me, knock twice."

Silence followed. Scanning the room revealed that there were no cameras. Pazness had no way of seeing who was on the other side of the door. Shepard was going to need to figure some way to convince Pazness that he was who he said he was.

"Pazness you know me. My ship the Normandy came and rescued you from Camala when the Reapers had control of the system. Again, if you can hear me, knock twice."

Finally two knocks were heard coming from behind the wall. It worked.

"Ok sir. The terrorists don't know about the panic room so you'll be safe in here. My team and I will clear the building and come to get you out when it's all clear. Knock once if you understand."

Knock.

After receiving the confirmation knock, Shepard started to head out of the office. He stopped when he heard Ashley's voice coming over his comm.

"Captain this is Williams," she said, "I've searched the panic room in the master bedroom. No sign of Pazness. What about you?"

"I've got him," Shepard replied, "He'll be safe in the panic room here in the office. Now that we know he's secure we can engage the hostiles. Keep your weapons suppressed though. The longer we have surprise on our side the better."

"Copy skipper, I'll meet you back at the office."

"Roger that. Kasumi, Pazness is secure. We are now weapons free on hostiles. Williams and I will clear the second floor and will join you downstairs when we're done."

Silence.

"Kasumi do you copy? Kasumi?"

"DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS KEIJI!"

Shepard was initially surprised by the sudden scream that came over his comm. Then he heard what sounded like sub-machine gunfire coming from downstairs followed by voices coming from the hallways. If Shepard and his squad had an element of surprise, it had just vanished over the course of a few seconds.