Chapter 28

One by one they assembled. Kaidan followed the crowd into a HQ conference room just off the landing pad. The shuttle peeked through the slots of the window blinds as everyone found a seat. Shepard moved to the front of the room.

"Okay," Shepard said.

James stopped mid-story with Garrus. Heads turned to her.

"This is how it's going down. Kaidan has James and Miranda. You'll infiltrate the Summit meeting posing as Terra Firma members. Kaidan has ID cards, and you'll be in street clothes. The meeting will be big, and they're planning a backroom sit-down somewhere between the cell leaders. From the audio we've pulled, Terra Firma's head leaders will be sending a representative to go over the Scorpion's orders. Listen in, we should discover the target locations for the attack. If we can, we'll track the representative from the meeting. We need to find the men pulling the strings. Maybe we'll find the Scorpion. Kaidan has the known cell leaders' bios. Key in on them at the general meeting. They'll lead us to the backroom meeting. That's Kaidan's team."

Shepard nodded in Kaidan's direction where he stood against the wall. She looked back at the seated faces.

"Garrus, Liara, Tali - you're with me. We have three missing warheads. One's nuclear, big enough to destroy the entire city all the way down past Bellevue. Kill millions. The other two are incendiary, still capable of a lot of damage."

Garrus cleared his throat. "Why have all of them? If the nuke will take out the entire city …"

Shepard shook her head with a sigh. "I don't know. I've thought the same thing. We only know Terra Firma's bringing them in and plans to use them. The warheads will be somewhere around the theater. Spectre intel says the warheads should be arriving anytime. After the meeting, the warheads will be moved out to the attack sites. But we'll have found and disarm them first. Inert, the time can tick down, but nothing's going to happen. Get in, get out, and be quiet about it, if we can. If we can't …" Shepard turned to Kaidan. He tossed her a Turien Shield's pin.

She held it up pinched between her fingers. "If we can't be quiet, we're leaving a few of these. Obviously, we don't look turien if we're seen, and the Shields aren't usually dumb enough to drop their membership pins. But there are rumors of the Shield trying to recover the warheads. That's on our side, and Terra Firma will be down to hours before their attack to work this stuff out. Let's just not leave any witnesses behind to refute the Shields being behind any commotion we may cause. We don't want to alarm them and have any plans change. When the Scorpion exposes himself on stage tomorrow, we'll shut down the whole attack. We'll take the Scorpion, the leaders, the moles, the whole cast and crew in one swoop."

James frowned and sat forward in his chair. "You got an army or something for taking down these attack sites in the city?"

"We knock this out of the park - prove the bombs are here and this attack is going down – we'll approach Council. We're getting our little army, even if it's only C-Sec and some Spectres."

"Can't we just take 'em out tonight?" Joker asked. "One and done."

"We cause a ruckus at this gathering, the attack may get altered or postponed. The Scorpion won't expose himself on stage if the attack isn't still planned."

"Either way," Shepard said. "My team will find the bombs, diffuse them, and sneak out. Kaidan's team follows the leaders to the meeting, gets the information, and we use a tracer bug with audio/visual to follow the representative back to the real leaders. They attack tomorrow. We stop the Scropion on stage. Whatever the council can spare will be at the target attack points to mop up the Terra Firma agents huddled around the inert bombs."

"What's the geography?" Tali asked.

"Joker's dropping us off deep in the condemned part of Vancouver. We'll make our way to the theater from that direction. The theater area is roughly two city blocks and has some electrical availability. Power seemed to be coming up in the restored buildings around the theater. The Vancouver Transportation Department's old tower is close by and looked occupied. The underground mass effect transit line had people coming in and out from the station near the theater."

"The transit line?" Tali said. "The city's ME trains are back up. We're not going down there, right? Those rails …"

"We don't know if the rails are live in this section of the city," Shepard said. "Terra Firma may be using the underground terminal for something else or walking the dead rails to covertly access the transport tower at the end of the line."

"Hope so," James said. "You know, those rails and even the underside of the train vaporizes people. No body. Just gone."

"We all know that." Shepard sighed. "If the rail's live, no one's getting near it. Obviously. Also, if you're needing told, don't stare into your gun barrel or play with the ring on a grenade. If you find scissors, don't run with them. We're covered now? Kaidan?"

She looked expectantly at him. Kaidan held up the ID cards.

"Terra Firma members carry IDs with different clearances. We all have the passphrases. Tali, Garrus, Liara – you can try passing yourselves off as mers if it really comes to it. Though, for you, Tali …"

She shrugged. "It's fine."

"Not many turien mercs around either," Garrus said. "But I'll only be seeing Terra Firma through the crosshairs anyway."

Kaidan walked up beside Shepard and continued. They only had a few hours before dusk. Plan could never cover everything. Maybe that was part of the thrill though.

XXX

Joker set the shuttle down on the street surrounded by dark, crumbling skyscrapers. Shepard leaped out. Her boots crunched onto the broken asphalt. She darted to cover behind a fallen-in wall of twisted steel and cement. Garrus scuttled up behind her. He grinned at her and tapped the sniper rifle strapped on his back.

"If I don't get the chance to fire this at least once, Shepard, I'm going to be very disappointed."

"Really hoping it doesn't come to that, Garrus."

"With you, Shepard, it always does. That's why I packed my spare clips."

Liara and Tali hunched on her other side. Kaidan stood next to the shuttle. A holographic map glowed on his Omni-Tool as he whispered to Miranda and James.

"Kaidan." Shepard waved him over.

Miranda and James flanked him as he approached.

"Commander?"

"Everyone's comm is working?" Shepard asked.

Kaidan glanced at Miranda and James who nodded.

"Good," Shepard said. "I'm going to check out the surrounding buildings, see if we can get a lead on where they're storing stuff. Head to the theater. Seems unlikely they'd be keeping the explosives in the theater. Still, if you see any signs ..."

"I'll let you know," Kaidan said and turned to Miranda and James. "Let's go."

Miranda and James darted to the cement wall leading down to the main street. Shepard stood up as Kaidan rushed after them.

"Hey, Kaidan." She kept her voice low.

He paused next to the wall and turned. Shepard came over.

"Hey," Shepard whispered. "Something goes wrong in there - you get tagged - comm me. You don't have armor, rifles, and there's less of you. That party's gonna be big. So, you comm me. Understood?"

"Understood. If it can't be contained, I'll comm you."

"No, don't wait for it to break containment. By that point, it's too late."

Kaidan held her eyes then nodded. "You're lead on this. I'll do what you say, but you have to trust my judgement. Let me gauge the situation. I'll know when to call you, Commander."

"All right." Shepard agreed. "But any big decisions come up, we need to be on the same page."

"I will comm you."

"Good luck, Kaidan." Shepard nodded.

"Stay safe, Commander."

He gave a sharp nod and darted back along the wall. He passed Miranda and James, and they fell in behind him. Shepard watched their shadows dwindle down the road before backing up. She turned to her team.

"Let's move out."