MASS EFFECT WINTER EYES: CHAPTER 21

DIVISION

There was no status update from Dr. Archer on Shepard's condition so Liara kept herself busy in Grissom's communications lab to keep her mind from worrying too much. She just knew that Macha would need to pull through. Charon was becoming deadlier and even a greater foe to face than Cerberus ever was. The Illusive Man did go against them at the end, but he never targeted assassination of their lives. Whoever Erinyes was had a vendetta against them. Her identity evaded T'Soni' s mind. Just how far up the ranks was she in Cerberus? Were the Illusive Man's post-mortem wishes that malicious or was there another factor in play? Her mind swiped over to the current mission in which she deployed three of the Broker's best agents to. Raven relayed Charon's last known headquarters to Kaidan before going under. Liara felt hurt she wouldn't disclose this to her. The information could lead them to a surprise attack against Charon. Everyone agreed to wait until Macha recovered, but that would take an unknown amount of time since the procedure was experimental and time was of the essence. If Charon was cautious, they may quickly vacate their current whereabouts and be lost to them. The situation was dire and if she didn't act now then countless lives could be lost. More lives that she didn't want to give up.

With her time on Ilium, Liara improved her skills as an information broker and hacking capabilities. As the new Shadow Broker, she became exposed to endless caches of data at her disposal. Knowledge was valuable and could be deadly. Despite the security protocol on Kaidan's private terminal due to his status as a Spectre, Liara was able to decrypt all his logs and transfer copies to her own archives undetected. A brief mining program extracted the coordinates to Charon and with that, she turned the location over to her top field agents. There was no room for error. She could trust them, and their objective was to only confirm positive identity of Charon and gather whatever surveillance that they could. A complex infiltration task, but they were to avoid any firefights if possible. While everyone waited for Shepard's full recovery, she could gather more intel for them to use once they planned an attack. She could keep track of Charon easily; should they move from their location. Calculating their departure time, travel and any possible delays, Liara assumed that their report would be back to her several hours ago. There was no word yet. A lump hard as stone formed in the base of her stomach. She knew the repercussions should the mission being a total failure. However, failure was not a factor in her equation. All three agents had a one hundred percent success rate. "Glyph." She called out to her personal AI droid.

"Yes, Shadow Broker?" The spherical holo droid dutifully responded as he hovered over to her from his docking station. During her last mission with Shepard, she changed her name in Glyph's database for recognition as Dr. T'Soni or Liara. However, lately, she moved the droid back to the standard term as "Shadow Broker." The title resonated well with her.

"Any reports yet from the three agents?" Her mouth felt dry even asking the question.

"None yet, Shadow Broker. However, there is a report from Agent Ryaka. There has been more chatter with Aria's men on Omega Would you like to read this while you wait?"

"No, thanks." Liara's head spun as she tried to focus on the issue at hand. She was done with Omega as far as she was concerned and didn't want to deal with the pirate queen ever again. She bit her tongue to lash out at the droid for telling her something she didn't think was important right now. "I'll review that later." She paused as she continued to think things through. "Check their vital scans."

"Checking…" The droid systematically answered her request. "There has been an error with the scans, Shadow Broker."

"Error?" The news alarmed the asari. "A disruption in the connection?"

"No disruption of the service can be detected."

"A glitch in the program?" Liara chewed her lip. "Previous readings?"

"Scans show that vital scans did not terminate at the same time. Scans did detect an elevation in adrenaline, blood pressure and heart beat."

The stone in her stomach grew. She could taste bile in her mouth as the nightmare came true. "They were under attack…" She concluded sadly as she fought back further emotions.

"That is quite the possibility, Shadow Broker. Is there anything else you require?"

"No…thank you, Glyph." Liara held her body up as she leaned over the counter that housed most of her computer systems. Her entire body shook with despair. "Goddess…what have I done…."

"Hey, something wrong, Liara?" Kaidan asked gently as he entered the room, catching only the last sentence that she muttered.

Whirling around in surprise, she quickly wiped the tears from her eyes. "Kaidan…" Guilt consumed her like red sand. She felt unresponsive.

Seeing her in distress, the dark-haired man quickened his steps to cut the distance between them. His brown eyes sincerely watching her body language to try to pick up on cues for her disposition. "You want to talk about it?"

"No…. I-," She abruptly stopped herself to admit the truth for her deception. "I have had a lot on my mind."

"You have been in here for hours, Liara." Alenko gently pointed out. "You need to take a break. Is this all you do now without Shepard's missions?" He frowned. "That's not healthy."

"There is so much data coming in, Kaidan. So much that we could learn and use." She argued. "Knowledge is power."

"Yeah?" He shook his head. "Power corrupts too. I've seen it. You've seen it."

"Any updates on Shepard?" She quickly changed the subject.

"Not a word. Hopefully soon." He glanced around at her setup. "I'm ready to take the fight to Charon."

Guilt nagged at Liara. "Kaidan…," She hung her head in defeat. "That may never happen."

Snapping his head back to her direction, his voice peaked in alarm. "Why? What do you mean?"

"Shepard's recovery may take longer than we know. If Erinyes finds out, we will lose Charon." She began.

Catching on to where she was going with this, Kaidan's jaw clenched with anger. "What are you not telling me, Liara?"

"I sent three of my best agents to gather intel on Charon's known location. Hoping to monitor them closely so we would have the upper hand. They haven't reported in and their vitals show they were under attack. All three are presumed to be dead."

Alenko scoffed at the news as he shook his head again and took a step backwards away from her. "We all agreed that…" He stopped, and anger consumed him more. "How did you learn their location?" He hissed.

"From your terminal," Liara admitted.

"You hacked me? Behind my back?" Kaidan glared at her. "I can't believe this shit…you are going rogue on us and then you went into Spectre property? Do you know that's a serious offense?" His voice rose.

"I believed I could outsmart Erinyes, Kaidan." Liara defended her actions, but remorse made it hard to be too angry at him. She knew she was wrong. "I am the Shadow Broker after all."

"Yeah? So, what?" Alenko shot back. "Does that make you better than the rest of us? I'm a goddamn Spectre and I still held back like everyone agreed upon. I thought we were all on the same team, Liara."

"I am!"

"Really? Because you don't act like it. You have changed, Liara. I didn't see it on Ilium because I wasn't with Shepard and I guess seeing you on the Normandy made me believe it would be like old times, but it's not. You have jeopardized Shepard's life and our lives by doing this."

"I know." Liara sighed hard, admitting the truth. "Goddess, I just thought I was right…"

"Like I said. Power corrupts." Kaidan answered matter-of-factly. "Now we are all going to be paying for this. Will Erinyes connect them to you?"

"To the Shadow Broker, maybe. If you know what to look for. My agents would not disclose anything if they were taken for interrogation before their deaths."

"Are you sure? Torture can break many hardened individuals." Kaidan sighed when there was no answer. "We need to move. Instead of Charon fleeing, it will be us." He pivoted on his heel to head back to the room's door to inform the group.

"Wait." She called to him as she quickened her steps to reach him. "I'll tell them."

Avery shifted a bit in her seat as she felt her bottom becoming numb from sitting too long in her booth. She entered Slaver's Bay two hours ago and her query was a no show. She pretended to be on a holo chat with an unknown person to avoid any unwanted contact with the bar's patrons. A few skeptical looks glanced her way every now and then. She would meet their gaze to break off their rude intrusion. Posing a front was everything in this place. The bar contained mercs, dock workers and slavers. The clientele was just as bad as Omega. It mostly contained batarians, humans, and a few turians. "I'm not liking this…where the hell is he?" Avery huffed under her breath, ready to scrub her objective for the day. The mixture of pheromones and sweat was overwhelming to her and she just felt so dirty. Packing up her equipment, she reached into her sack to make room, and paused when she heard a few voices perk up towards the front of the bar. Looking up, she saw Zaeed Massani walk in with a gruff facial appearance. He swiped a credit chit at the bar and stopped briefly to greet the female bartender once more. Avery couldn't pick up what they said, but Zaeed nodded his head to the batarian before moving towards the back area of the bar where rooms were available to be rented. Taking a breath, Avery waited for him to walk by, avoiding eye contact with him, before slipping on her pack to follow him. No one really took notice of her movement.

Avery was surprised at his detection when he stopped right outside his room's door and turned quickly on her. His one good eye glaring suspiciously at her. "I'm not into this right now. Go away, girlie." He moved back to his designated room.

The undercover Charon agent waited for him to open the door to grant her access before taking further action. Staying close to him to avoid being closed out, she pursued him with a friendly smile on her face. "Into what?" She asked flirtatiously.

Zaeed continued into his room, allowing her to stay with him before he sat down on the run-down olive-green couch. "I know what you are." He grunted. "You're wasting your time."

Avery waited to hear the satisfying sound of the room's door closing behind her before smirking at him devilishly. She slowly stepped to him menacingly. "I don't think you know for sure, Zaeed Massani."

Hearing her state his name made the old merc scrunch up his scarred face and he looked up at her as she now stood a few inches from where he was sitting. "You know my name? Heh. Did Brachia pay you?"

"She didn't."

Zaeed swore under his breath. "Don't be coy with me. Who sent you, then?"

Without answering, Avery quickly retrieved her pistol fitted with a silencer and aimed for the center of his forehead. Her mark was met with precision and the impact killed the merc instantly as the bullet drilled into the front bony structure of his skull. Blood and brain mattered splattered onto the couch and onto Avery's clothes. The impact forced the merc's head to violently snap back before the lifeless body collapsed onto the couch in an awkward position. Looking down at her garments, Avery moved to the room's door once more, activating the locking mechanism. Moving back to the dead merc, Avery holstered her pistol and retrieved a serrated combat knife. Her eyes fell upon his glossy eye prosthesis and a twisted smile spread across her lips.

"You did what?" Garrus was the first to break the room's silence after hearing Liara's confession. Betrayal and anger filled the turian's voice. His mandibles twitched as he processed the news.

"That was stupid." Miranda flatly stated. "I thought we all agreed to hold off."

"We did." Kaidan chimed in as he stood near the back with his arms crossed. "Liara acted on her own."

"What does this now mean?" Tali stood next to Garrus.

"It means that we're fucked. That's what." Jack huffed.

"Jack!" Kahlee cringed at the swear word. She sighed lightly. "Do I need to evacuate my students?" Evacuation was never easy. If students had to be transferred for whatever the reason may be, parents and guardians had to be notified. If time permitted it, parents and guardians had to be given a reasonable time to take their child themselves. In normal situations, the new transfer location would be disclosed upon the alerts, but given the abnormal circumstances, that was not a possibility.

"We're not sure, but that may be an issue, Ms. Sanders." Kaidan walked to the center of the group. "We have to assume the worst. Charon knows the Shadow Broker is after them."

"Can Charon track it back to us? To this location?" Tali wrung her hands nervously.

All eyes fell upon Liara for more answers. "Not even my agents are told of my location. I encrypted all messages and they are bounced off several networks. The location of the sent message is never directly from here. Even if Charon did a trace, a false location would be given."

"Charon outsmarted you so far." Garrus argued. "You think they can do it again?

Liara was always extra cautious about the Broker's identity and her whereabouts. She was wrong before about Erinyes and couldn't make the same fatal mistake again. "Maybe. It's too soon to tell."

"How is Shepard doing, Doctor?" Kaidan asked Dr. Archer who stood off to the side, remaining quiet in his thoughts. Worry and alarm did plaster his face.

"Progressing well in recovery. The medically induced coma should keep her calm so her body can adapt. I cannot say for sure how long she will stay unconscious or what her memory will be when she does wake up." Gavin explained as he held his fingers to his lips in deep pondering.

"Is she able to be moved? Just in case we do need to leave here before she comes to." Miranda inquired.

Dr. Archer quickly shook his head. "I'm not dealing in a medical hospital setup. She would require an extensive transfer with equipment that's not available at this school. They have the basics here. It's dangerous as it for her to be here now in her present state."

"I can contact the Council and get them to send a Citadel Medical transport." Kaidan suggested.

"You do that, and our location would be compromised." Liara argued.

"You should have thought of that before you attempted to go up against Charon by yourself, Liara," Garrus painfully slighted her. The asari hung her blue fringed head sadly in defeat.

"You're right, Garrus…" She sighed in despair. "I thought I had my chance."

"I can go out and meet up with a Serta Foundation medical transport to obtain more medical supplies." Miranda suggested. "That would at least give Shepard more of a chance if we have to move her." The idea of Shepard unconscious medically made her think back to her days on the Lazarus Project. There was always a possibility that the facility may be compromised, and she did prepare for the event that they had to extricate Shepard. However, they had the means to do so.

"Have you had a chance to analyze the chip that was planted in her brain, Dr. Archer?" Tali looked back over at the doctor for anymore updates about their friend's progress.

"Before I had a chance to analyze it, the device deactivated, and I cannot figure out how to make it come online. A fail safe most likely."

"Give the chip to me, Doctor. I can study it." Miranda advised.

"I'll help you, Miranda. I will do whatever I can," Tali chimed in.

"Then we hold off and see what comes about with this? See how Shepard fairs?" Kaidan offered to the team. All nodded their heads. He eyed Liara carefully with his brown eyes. "Let's keep up our guard; just in case."

Liara T'Soni found it hard to sleep that night and she lost track of time in her reports before discovering that it was now morning and she didn't get any sleep at all that she could recall. Just sitting there and doing nothing against Charon's backlash really seemed to bother her. She wanted to know their movements, but it was dangerous to dispatch more agents. Charon would be on their game now and she couldn't risk anymore lives or break off what little trust she had with her old teammates. Ever hour, she would run diagnostics and scans through all her servers to catch any unusual activity that would indicate a break-in. No indication yet. Hagalaz was in danger, but she had a program that would instantly blow up the ship should there be any penetration. The makeshift room that she created at Grissom would have to do. She basically took over their communications room and provided a few upgrades with Glyph's help. The spherical droid hovered in her direction from its docking station. "Shadow Broker, one of your queries has been flagged from extranet extractions for your viewing."

"Which query?" Liara froze at the news. Fear hit her. She thought back to all the queries she gave Glyph for extranet scans: The names of all her teammates, particularly ones that were not with them at the present moment.

"Zaeed Massani."

"Goddess…" Liara swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. "Details."

"Blue Suns Transmission 1.456790 captured at 0300. The body of Zaeed Massani was found dead on Amaranthine."

"Recording or article?"

"Recording."

"Play it."

Seconds later, an unknown male batarian voice came through Glyph's internal speakers. "Just left Slaver's Bay. You wouldn't believe what I heard. Old Brachia said that Zaeed Massani is dead. Shot in the fucking head and they took his fake eye. Glad he's dead. He never did like our kind. We should celebrate when I return."

"She started it back up…"