Shepard parked the car outside a hotel in one of the seediest parts of Zakera Ward. She looked around and sighed, shaking her head sadly at the humans and aliens drifting with the garbage along the street; just more refuse. "Nothing ever changes, does it?" She opened the top. Looking up the lines of the filthy structure, she winced. "So, this is where we're supposed to find a hiding quarian admiral?"
Nihlus got out. "I guess we'll find out when we get in there."
"True enough." Shepard turned in her seat, unable to hide a soft chuckle. "Little crowded back there, guys?"
When only grumbling answered her, Shepard nodded toward where Nihlus waited. "Wrex and Tali with us."
Outside, a turian stumbled and fell into the front of the car, sliding down onto her knees.
"Sweet baby Jesus." Shepard jumped out, hurried to her side and helped her up. She checked the female's breath for alcohol as she pulled up onto her feet. None. She checked her pupils, but they weren't blown like a Hallex junkie's. Judging by the way her clothes hung off of her, the turian was just starving.
"Are you all right?" Shepard reached into her hip pack for the supplies she'd stuffed in there just in case Nihlus needed them.
"I'm fine," gentle, harmonic tones replied. "Thank you."
Surreptitiously, Shepard slipped the ration bars and medigel packs into her hand. "Take care of yourself."
Releasing the female to go on her way, Shepard got into the car and closed it up before looking back at Kaidan and Garrus. "You in for the long haul, C-Sec, or are we leaving you here?"
The turian stared into her eyes for a moment, then his mandibles flared a little and his chin lifted. "I'm in."
"Good, glad to have you." Nodding sharply, she quirked one corner of her mouth in a smile before letting out a long breath. "Okay, we're going to need to split up to chase both of these leads down. You two get back to the Normandy. Do extranet searches for a Dr. Liara T'Soni. She's a prothean researcher, so I'd start with universities on Thessia. Make calls . . . whatever, just find out where she is."
Shepard's stare locked back on Garrus. "You have ways to cover your tracks, C-Sec? I don't want it to be obvious that we're searching for her."
"I can get us in some back doors," he confirmed.
"Excellent." She opened the car and got out. "Good luck, gentlemen."
Shepard waited until the car lifted off, then turned to Nihlus and gave him a nod, leaving to him to lead the search for the admiral. The Spectre's shock had worn off, leaving an understandable, but highly combustible fury to replace it. She wanted to see what he did with it. He might need to trust her with his life, but she needed to trust him with sixty lives. Better to find out sooner than later if that trust was well-placed. The whole Spectres do whatever they must and sacrifice whatever they must to achieve their objective was more than likely an exaggeration of a larger truth, but she wasn't going to gamble with the lives of her crew.
Looking down the street, Shepard swallowed the bitter taste that rose up in the back of her mouth. All those souls hunkered down amidst the filth, apparently as easily ignored as the trash piled around them . . . it made her want to vomit.
"Does it get worse than this?" she asked, stepping up beside the Spectre.
Nihlus strode toward the front of the hotel. "What do you mean?"
"The squallour. Are there worse places than this on the Citadel?" She stopped for a moment as she spotted a family half-hidden under a battered tarp.
He paused, his hand lifted to palm the door control. "There is a district much like this in all the wards. He glanced down at the family. "Not every story ends happily, Shepard."
The laugh that greeted his revelation came out bitter. "Wow. Thanks for letting me know." She sighed, then said, "It makes me sick," using the words to purge the subject from her mind. A mission lay before her, one she needed to stay focused on.
A glance at Wrex and Tali showed the former keeping a wary eye on their surroundings, the latter wringing her hands and looking like a child anticipating a scolding. She shot Tali a quick wink and nodded toward the now open door.
They entered the hotel and took the elevator up to the ninth floor. The building's interior lived up to its exterior, the overall impression one of terminal dinginess. She knew a hundred places like it, even stayed in a one now and again. Sometimes an N7 needed a place to hole up and heal for a few days under the radar.
"Wrex, watch the elevator," Nihlus ordered as they stepped out, then carried on to a door at the far end of the hallway. It opened onto the stairwell. Smart. Made quick get aways a little easier. Unless, of course, one was surrounded.
Shepard continued into the stairwell and down a couple of flights, just to be sure it was clear. She made it back upstairs just as Nihlus banged on the door. He met her eyes and tilted his head toward the door across the hall. Nodding, she activated her omnitool and bypassed the lock.
"Ready," she said, keeping her voice soft as she slipped her pistol off her hip.
"Yes? Who is it?" a heavily accented voice called from the other side of Nihlus's door.
The Spectre nodded to Tali.
"It's Tali'Zorah. Father? Is that you?" The quarian stepped in front of Nihlus.
"Are you sure that's your father's voice?" Nihlus asked, bending down to whisper next to the quarian's helmet. He sighed when she shrugged.
"Tali?" the voice behind the door called. "How? That matriarch abducted you on Illium."
"I wasn't abducted on Illium. Who is this?" The youngster looked up at Nihlus. "It sounds like father, but the voice is too muffled to tell."
The door cracked open, and Nihlus turned to check with Shepard. She just nodded and raised her hand to the door control.
"Where were you abducted?" the voice whispered through the crack.
"Omega. Father? If that's you, we need to speak to you." Tali stepped up to the door and started pushing it open.
Shepard pressed herself against the wall next to the other door then palmed the control. It opened with the slight grinding of metal on metal to reveal a dark, narrow passage from the door to the main part of the room. A closet and the bathroom door broke up the wall on the left.
Nothing moved. Adrenaline hit her blood like the first hit of Hallex. Her heart thumped quick and strong, her senses sharpening, extending out into the dark like hair-fine feelers. She bent her knees, crouching a little as she swung through the door. Left hip brushing along the wall, she entered, her pistol preceding her into the room.
Her finely tuned ambush detector went off inside her head. Someone was in there with her. She swept the closet door open. Empty. Another couple of steps, she pushed the bathroom door open, her stare straight ahead, only darting to the side for a second to scan the bathroom. It too stood empty.
Nihlus called across the hall. "This room is empty, Shep . . .."
The muzzle of a rifle appeared at the end of the narrow entry. Shepard dropped into a quick somersault, coming up underneath it, her shoulder jamming into the wielder's hands. Not giving him time to react, she shoved her pistol into his belly.
"I suggest you drop that," she said, keeping her voice soft.
Her assailant hesitated, so she jabbed the pistol into the yielding flesh. "Drop it, or I put a couple of holes through that very lovely suit."
The lights flicked on, blinding her for a moment. Her prisoner made a move for her pistol, but she grabbed the rifle and flipped the entire person over her head, tearing the weapon from his grasp in the process. He, she saw it actually was a he despite his being upside down, recovered quickly and flipped over into a crouch, apparently ready to take them all on.
"Han'Gerrel?" Tali asked, running over to help the downed quarian. "Han, where's father? What's going on?"
"Tali? It really is you?" the male quarian asked, his helmet turning toward Nihlus. "How did you get away from Saren?" He straightened, but stayed facing the Spectre.
"Geth were guarding my door, so I hacked the guards and escaped." She stepped between Nihlus and the quarian. "It's okay, Han, this is Spectre Kyrik and Captain Shepard. They saved me and are helping me . . . well, sort of. Our purposes have crossed." Tali turned to Shepard. "Nihlus, Shepard, this is Admiral Han'Gerrel, my father's oldest friend, and one of the Admiralty Board."
Nihlus moved toward the admiral. "We're looking for Rael'Zorah. Our information said we'd find something useful here."
Han'Gerrel sidled away from the wall, definitely still expecting to be attacked, but he relaxed a little when Shepard hung up her pistol and placed the muzzle of his rifle on the floor, leaning casually against it. He held out a hand, but she shook her head.
"You can have it back once we're all a little more certain bullets aren't in the forecast," she told him.
The quarian cocked a hip, giving her the most attitude she'd ever seen without facial expression or a middle finger being involved. It felt false though. Affected insolence to cover a very real arrogance. "Fine. Rael sent me a message three days ago saying that he was tracking Tali and the rest of the missing pilgrims." He snapped to parade rest, back cracking straight and rigid, his hands clasped behind him, mask jutted out at the chin.
Shepard pulled the inside of her bottom lip between her teeth to hide her smile as the real Admiral appeared.
"He told me to meet him in the room across the hall. When I got there, all I found was a heavily encrypted message telling me that he'd traced Tali to Eden Prime, and he would contact me when he found covert transport."
"Do you have any idea of why Saren and the matriarch are abducting your pilgrims? What they're doing working with geth?" Shepard asked. She lifted his rifle, cradling it in her crossed arms as she rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. All the running around just to get slapped in the face with another dead end had lost its novelty.
"All I know is that the Admiralty Board received a demand for all our star charts for five systems going back as far as we have records of those regions-hundreds of cycles. He's searching for something, and it's valuable enough to be worth the lives of our young people." His spine softened for a moment, his narrow shoulders bowing. Shepard's mind flashed to the image of ice cream melting, the cherry slumping from the top, but then the moment of weakness lifted. "He has not informed us as to the nature of his search, just that he will exchange the charts for our youth."
"Rael'Zorah was headed for Eden Prime?" Nihlus asked, the rumble that ran under his voice sounding enough like a growl that Shepard felt safe guessing he tired of the goose chase as quickly as she did.
"His message was dated two days ago. He could be anywhere between here and there." Han'Gerrel sighed, a short, sharp exhalation that stiffened his posture rather than easing it. "I must return to the flotilla. My people are under attack, and I do not have time to chase Rael across half the galaxy. The rest of the Board are seriously considering capitulating to Saren's demand."
Nihlus stepped forward, scalpel sharp. "You cannot give in, Admiral. We have no idea what Saren is doing, but by Tali'Zorah's own intel, it appears that he is trying to resurrect some ancient race that wiped out the entire prothean empire."
The admiral stepped into Nihlus, also sharp enough to draw blood at a touch. "And if he held hundreds of your children, Spectre Kryik?" The melting ice cream returned for another breath as the heavy accent cracked. "If the daughter you taught to walk, to whom you told just one more story, who learned to dance standing on your feet . . . the bright center of your galaxy . . . was his hostage? Would you be so sure then?" He cleared his throat and straightened, but without the same steel.
Nihlus backed up a half step, allowing the admiral the space to regain his composure.
Shepard held out the man's rifle. "Give us some time, please, Admiral. If Saren can bring these Reapers back, the bright center of everyone's galaxy will be at risk. I promise you that if there is a way to free your young people, we will do it." When he didn't reach for his weapon, she stepped forward and placed it in his hands. "Can you tell us what systems he wanted charts for?"
Gerrel nodded. "Of course, Captain Shepard." His omnitool flared to life. "I sent you everything I have. You managed to return one of our brightest to us, perhaps you can return the rest."
Shepard chuckled and stepped back to lay a hand on Tali's shoulder. "She returned herself, Admiral. We just gave her a ride over here."
Tali spun. "I'm coming with you!"
"Tali . . ." Shepard squeezed her shoulder. ". . . you should go home, help your people figure this out. When we round up your father, we'll send him right behind you."
"No." The quarian shook her head and planted herself, arms crossed. "You're not sending me home, Captain. I set out to find my people, and I'm going to see it through. You can either take me with you to make sure I don't get myself into trouble, or I can do it on my own."
A wide smile spread across Shepard's face. The kid had guts. She didn't miss Nihlus's gesture to refuse, but she believed Tali. The quarian would just set out on her own, and end up captured again. At least if she was on the Normandy, Shepard could keep an eye on her.
"Okay. You can come with the Normandy, but you obey orders. No matter what. If I or Nihlus give an order, your only answer is yes, ma'am. Understood?"
The young quarian bounced a little on the spot. "Yes, ma'am."
"This is a mistake," Nihlus grumbled. He loomed over Han'Gerrel. "Do you have anything helpful to offer, Admiral?"
Shepard shrugged and grumbled, feeling the truth behind his words in her gut. "Won't be my first."
"Just what I've told you. We have a wide net cast searching for any intel, but whatever Saren is up to, either he is keeping it to himself, or he has a hold over everyone who knows, and it's so strong that he is generating absolutely no chatter. Even Eden Prime is silent. The only thing that has leaked is that the colony came under attack by unknown forces."
Shepard frowned at that. Surely something should have leaked out. The largest dreadnought she'd even seen landed on the planet, geth poured out, and the colony was nearly destroyed. Damn, it looked like they were going back to Eden Prime.
She sent Han'Gerrel the information he needed to contact her or Anderson. "Please, sir, if that net brings in anything, let us know. We'll try to get ahead of Rael'Zorah, but our priority has to be Saren."
"Understood, Captain. Thank you." The admiral took Tali by the shoulders. "May the ancestors watch over you and bring you home, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Keelah se'lai."
"Keelah se'lai." Tali hurried to stand next to Shepard. "Ready when you are, Captain."
Shepard looked to Nihlus, who nodded and spun, stalking toward the door. Tali chased after him as if afraid of being left behind.
"Thank you again, Admiral Gerrel," Shepard said. "Safe journey back to the flotilla." She turned to follow Nihlus, but didn't have time to take three steps before gunfire shattered the air. The first rounds threw her forward, her shields going down with a buzzing whine as she reached for her pistol. Rounds impacted like fists, hitting her in the backs of her thighs and right calf when she dove for the bathroom door. One slammed into her shoulder, throwing off her roll and sending her sliding across the tile floor in a fat streak of blood. Adrenaline masked the pain for the moment, but set off her fury like a grenade thrown into an explosives factory.
"You're such a stupid, god-damned, fucking moron, Shepard!" she yelled, as she flipped over, trying to focus through the blood pouring over her eyes from a graze across her brow. She heard Gerrel's approaching footsteps like a countdown and brought up her pistol. "You deserve to get your stupid ass shot off. Never turn your back. Goddamn it!"
She wriggled to the side of the vanity, but other than wedging herself behind the toilet the bathroom offered no cover. The admiral stepped into the door, his assault rifle lifting from low-ready. She squeezed her trigger, her eyes morbidly fixed on his digit performing the same action. "Fucking rookie, stupid-ass, bullshit, goddamned move." The rounds left her pistol too slowly as his assault rifle roared to life.
"God-fucking-dammit. Sweet baby Jesus, I'm going to die on a fucking bathroom floor, after handing my murderer his goddamned gun."
Bullets slammed into her right calf and thigh. One to her lower stomach knocked the wind out of her, halting her diatribe of self-abuse as he corrected his aim, but then she heard the brittle chatter of an assault rifle and the harsh cough of a shotgun from behind her, and the barrage of bullets sinking into her flesh stopped. Her finger stopped convulsing on the trigger as the barrel of Garrel's rifle sank toward the floor. He staggered once, lifting it, then another cough from the shotgun threw him in the door and face down on the floor.
Shepard screamed more from rage at her own stupidity than pain. As the seconds ticked past, her lower legs started on fire, the pain roaring up through her body like dry kindling. Still, she managed to kick Gerrel's gun away from his hand.
"Shepard!" Nihlus gripped the door jam, swinging around it, hitting the tile on his knees. "Spirits, Shepard."
"Yeah, I'm fucked up." She leaned back against the vanity, suddenly as tired as she had been angry before. "Take his body back for Chakwas to look over. Secure his omnitool too. I don't want C-Sec . . .." She frowned as her thought just vanished.
"Turn the lights back on," she muttered, her voice slurring. Darkness crept in around the edges of her vision. "I can't believe that I gave him the fucking gun."