MASS EFFECT: WINTER EYES

CHAPTER 16: MASSANI

"Everyone that was with Cerberus at the end of the war is a total bust." Jacob Taylor explained to the group inside the comm room on their ship. His physical appearance didn't change since Miranda last saw him a few years back. "Brie reached out to everyone she knew, and I filtered out my contacts."

"Well, that's just discouraging," Miranda gave a sigh as she rubbed a hand through her hair in frustration. She sent a query out to her former teammate as they dug deeper into the investigation of Charon and the re-appearance of Shepard. Once they had Macha back, Miranda could help find a way to fix what Charon did to her. However, the actual research and analysis would take time and skills from someone in that area of expertise. She suspected the change had to be neurological. A dangerous area to just dabble in with guesswork. One wrong move could result in serious permanent brain defects. As she feared, most of the Cerberus staff were killed by Alliance raids or suicide. She reached out to Jacob to follow up while they were grounded. They needed to know where to go once they left Omega.

"There's one potential who left Cerberus before the war sparked," Brie came into the video. She was five months pregnant, but still managed to hold her well-shaped body. "I'm not sure if we should really trust him…his previous work is very concerning. I do have his last known location."

"Anything is worth a shot," Kaidan's voice perked up hearing the slight optimistic change of the news. "Where is he?"

"Grissom Academy."

Jacob took to the center again to get the full attention back on him. "I would be careful. I know what the Commander went through dealing with this guy the first time."

Miranda furrowed her brow as she picked up on who Jacob was referring to without the name disclosure. It was a risk and she wasn't sure if they should really trust him or not. "Thanks, Jacob. We'll talk to you soon."

"Anytime, Miranda. Good seeing you guys."

"A pleasure," Brie gave a small wave to the camera.

"Take care of your children," Kaidan grinned. "What is it? Three now, Jacob?"

"Yeah," the dark-skinned man chuckled. "Two girls…hoping this one is a boy. Brie won't tell me."

Brie pouted her lips playfully. "Where's the fun in teasing you, Jacob?" With that, the call disconnected.

For a moment, it felt like old times with everyone coming together for a common goal. Kaidan missed those days. He longed to be on the SR-1 once again with Captain Anderson at the helm, joining up with Shepard on Eden Prime. The mission that started their dark and winding journey. He seemed to get lost in his memories as he stood still. "Everything okay, Alenko?" Miranda picked up on his disconnection.

"Hmm? Yeah. I never worked much with you and Jacob. I missed out while I was stationed on Horizon. You seem like a good bunch."

"We were." Lawson pointedly corrected him.

"I wonder if Garrus and Liara had any luck. Hopefully, they met up with Tali. I don't want to be stuck here too much longer."

"Thought you were a Spectre."

"I am. I really don't want to chance a war with the Terminus. I must be careful. If I push too much, Aria won't mind threatening the Council."

"Shepard wouldn't stay around. That's what I liked about her. Defiant," The dark-haired woman chuckled at her private memory.

"You can say that again."

Amaranthine: Slaver's Bay

Zaeed Massani wiped the beer from his lips with the back of his hand as he moved to the back of Slaver's Bay to the designated restrooms. When he walked in, a gruesome discovery fell upon him. On the cold metal floor were two dead male turians: One with a severed head. Their midnight blue blood covering the flooring. Groaning loudly in disgust, Zaeed took a few steps away. "This place is such a pisshole."

Stepping around the corpses to avoid getting any of their blood on his boots, Zaeed moved to a urinal to relieve himself, before heading back to the bar. "You got two dead turians in there, Brachia." He grumbled to the three-eyed female batarian. "I thought you were going to clean this shitty place up."

"When did dead bodies bother you, Massani?" Brachia barked. "You fought along with that Spectre and now you want golden urinal to piss in? That it?"

"Just pour me another." Zaeed snapped as he held his right hand out to accept a fresh cup of ale. "When you going to fix your crappy face, Brachia? Can't believe you let those sons of bitches ambush you on Camala like that."

"When you going to stop making your face look so fucking ugly, Massani?" Pas'fador spat back as she poured him a glass.

Zaeed chuckled at her comeback as he took another swig. "I missed this place."

Brachia smirked at him. "At least with you here, I have someone to argue with. That female merc last night brought me some amusement."

"Those fuckers been in there since last night? Ugh…. what girl?"

The batarian shrugged. "I don't keep up with names. She came in looking for work. Probably killed those two in the bathroom if they were the same ones that were bothering her at the bar."

"Damn shame. When you going to have that mess cleaned up?"

"You want to do it?"

"No."

Avery sat a table nearby. She was dressed in a non-allegiant merc uniform with her almond color hair twisted in a braid. She arrived at Amaranthine a few hours ago and hit up the bar. She knew that she already lost Shepard, but someone must have seen what happened to her. Picking up on Zaeed, she recognized him to be one of her squadmates from the intelligence reports she reviewed prior to travel. Seeing him freely conversing with the bartender made her interested. With the atmospheric noise, it was hard to make out every possible word they were saying. Even with her audio recorder. She needed to get closer. Noticing their eye movement, she picked up on that part of the topic was about the two deceased turians in the bathroom. Avery also heard about this when she first entered the bar an hour ago. She didn't have to examine the bodies to realize that most likely their killer was Raven. Their descriptions in Slaver's Bay made her rule out a random act of violence. Their ends were met with a sharp object, like an omni blade. Picking her drink off the table, she moved to slide into the bar seat that was to the right of the old merc. "Hey, you going to clean up that mess?" Avery chimed in with a voice filled with authority. "I saw a salarian shit his pants. The smell is putrid."

"What are you? The cleaning inspector?" Brachia hissed at her.

"Go easy on Brachia. Her and I go back." Zaeed acknowledged Avery's presence, but didn't seem to really look at her.

"Further than I want to." Brachia offered to fill Avery's glass, who in turn, accepted it.

"Who did it?"

The bartender shrugged. "Some female merc. I was just telling Zaeed. Amusing. She left with two Suns shortly after she arrived."

"Where were they heading?"

"Contract?" Zaeed finally looked at her with his one good eye. His scarred face made his appearance even more appalling to Avery. She concluded that the only reason why he and Brachia got along so well was that they were both horrible to look upon directly. The old merc's breath reeked of ale.

Avery suppressed the urge to twist her face as she could smell his breath and body odor. As if the alien pheromones were not enough on her. "Yeah. My client has authorized me to give anyone five thousand creds to help track down her location," She raised her voice just enough to pick up on any prying ears. Competition could make these two in front of her talk faster than the long drawn out interrogation.

Massani was not impressed and grunted. "You keep talkin' like that and you will be robbed before you walk out of this place."

Avery grinned inwardly. She was trained in multiple styles of the martial arts. A fellow student of Kai Leng just like Erinyes. She just couldn't master them before his untimely death and Erinyes had a few more years on her. She never gathered the courage to ask to pickup her training from her new leader. The previous Cerberus and current Charon dossier on Zaeed Massani were very interesting and she wondered just how hard it would be to bring the old leader of the Blue Suns down. His reputation made him notorious to despise the batarian race and yet here he was sharing stories and drinks with a batarian bartender. She wondered if he was growing soft after working with Shepard like Miranda and Jacob or if he was becoming senile in his old age. "I'll take my chances."

Brachia finally broke her silence. "She left here with two batarian Blue suns. Most likely headed to the docks. After that, hard to say. I'm sure someone there can show you the way."

Avery considered this and nodded. She leaned over to swipe her credit chit to pay for the information. "Thanks for your cooperation." Lifting out of her seat, she smirked back at the pair. "My drinks are on him."

Zaeed's jaw dropped and Brachia snickered. "I like her. Pay up, Zaeed."

"Son of a bitch," The old merc swore under his breath.

Avery finally allowed herself to exhale after leaving the bar. The mixture of body odor, sweat, pheromones and what other bodily fluids infiltrated the bar's air were becoming overpowering. She quickened her pace to the docks. The quicker she got off the station the better. Eying a female turian dock worker ahead, she made a beeline to her general location. "You got a minute?"

"Not really," The turian stopped momentarily to see who was wanting her attention. Her facial appearance showed a brown face with white paint that striped her face and fringe. Facial markings were essential in houses and family names for the turians, but their meaning was of no more importance to the Charon operative. With her hinged legs, the turian continued her path with a datapad in her right hand.

Avery followed her. "I need to see if a woman came by here in the past twenty-four hours. She would have been accompanied by two Blue Suns mercs."

"Sorry. Can't help you there. I don't keep tabs on who leaves. I just watch shipments." The worker avoided eye contact as she acted as if she was checking crate numbers. Avery wasn't too sure if she was working on her daily required tasks or if she was trying her to best to appear busy in hopes that Avery would go on. Her stature was rigid and tense.

Deciding to let her credits do the talking, Avery pulled out her chit. "Do two thousand creds refresh any memories for you? I need to know exactly where they went."

This time, the turian paused in her work and turned to face her, her bony mandible twitching slightly. Her golden avian eyes staring right at Avery, contemplating the offer. Avery tried not to smile. She had her hooked! "They were here. Three thousand and I'll check the logs to see where the ship was heading."

Avery obliged with a swipe. The turian checked her omni to make sure the funds were transferred before searching her datapad. "Omega."

The operative frowned at the news. Not the place she was hoping, but then again, where else would the Blue Suns go anymore? Erinyes was not going to be happy. It was difficult to place agents on Omega. Aria T'Loak was fooled before by Cerberus and by Charon, she was not going to let it happen again. Erinyes was determined not to scrub her prized project yet. Chewing her lip, Avery debated if she should seek transport there herself or just head back to base. Deciding against the former, she moved back to her stationed ship to await her orders. It was completely suicide to her go to Omega solo.

Fifteen minutes later, she sat down behind the controls of her small craft and relaxed in the plush seat. Warming up the engines with a few finger swipes, she reached out to contact Charon. She couldn't wait until take-off. There were a few minutes of delay before finally the holo outline of Erinyes' face appeared on the console. Its form swayed slightly due to the interference. "Did you find her?"

"She left with two Blue Suns mercs to Omega."

"I see." Erinyes appeared rather calm given the news. Avery wondered if she already anticipated this or was she that cool-headed? "Thank you, Avery. Return here. We will have to move forward cautiously."

"Mam, if we leave her on Omega…"

"I'm well aware of losing her." Erinyes interrupted her. "An assessment that is always a risk. Sending operatives to Omega is unwise. We will have to find another way to get Shepard back."

"Understood."