Kasumi had walked out of the office and came face to face with Corin himself. Corin didn't take long to pull a remote from his pocket and pushed a button. Alarms began blaring all across the warehouse. The alarms snapped Kasumi out of her trance. Once she saw that Corin was in front of him, she instinctively threw a right hook across his face. Corin fell to the floor unconscious. Shepard was now in the hallway with them. Keeping his gun trained on Corin, he bent down to confirm that Corin was still breathing. Once he felt a pulse, he rose up and checked both ends of the hall for any other hostiles.
"Don't worry about the alarm," he said to Kasumi, "we already have the information we need. The alarms do mean we're going to need to change our extraction plan."
"Yeah," Ashley said, "with the guards on alert I don't think we can go out the way we came in."
Shepard touched his ear and activated his comm., "Cortez we've been compromised. We need an emergency extraction."
"Copy that Captain," Cortez said over the comm., "head on up to the roof and I will pick you up there with the Kodiak, ETA ten minutes."
"Copy that. Williams, grab Corin. We should bring him with us. Cortez is going to meet us on the roof. Most of the guards will be on the lower levels. If we hurry we can get to the roof and set up a defensive position before the guards catch up to us."
"Aye-aye skipper," Ashley said as she began to pick up Corin into a fireman's carry.
The trio raced for the stairway to the roof. Shepard barely got the door open when suddenly a voice came from down the hall.
"Hold it right there!"
Shepard turned to see two guards come around a corner at the end of the hallway. He quickly waved Ashley and Kasumi through the door. Once they were through, Shepard raised his rifle and began giving cover fire. The guards retreated back around the corner. After Ashley and Kasumi had gone up the first two flights of stairs, Shepard entered the stairwell and closed the door behind him. He raced after Ashley and Kasumi while trying to put as much distance as possible between him and the guards.
The night sky greeted Shepard when he went through the door at the top of the stairs. According to the time in his head, Cortez was still five minutes out. Five minutes was more than enough time for the guards to reach the roof and attack. Shepard and Ashley were going to have to work together to hold them back. Kasumi was a good shot as well but Shepard was not sure how much she could help. Something was off with her and it made Shepard uneasy. If they got out of their current predicament alive, he was going to have a talk with her about it.
The ladies were hiding behind a ventilation shaft that ran along the roof. Ashley had set Corin down beside her. Kasumi was sitting down still looking out of it. Shepard joined them behind the shaft. Ashley turned to face Kasumi and then back to Shepard. She looked concerned as well.
"What's going on skipper?" she asked, "Kasumi looks like she's in another world."
Shepard nodded, "I know I noticed it too. I've got an idea what it might be but we can't worry about that right now. Those guards will be on us any second and Cortez is still a few minutes out. You and I will have to hold them off by ourselves until he gets here."
Immediately after Shepard finished his statement, guards burst through the stairway door and opened fire. Shepard and Ashley ducked behind the shaft. Bullets flew over their heads just after they hit the floor. The guards had them pinned down and were no doubt moving to flank them. With the guard's constant firing, Shepard and Ashley couldn't get up to fire back. Something needed to get the guards to stop firing but what?
Suddenly Shepard remembered that among Kasumi's equipment were a couple of flash grenades. It wouldn't kill the guards but it might disorient them long enough for Shepard and Ashley to fight back. Shepard reached towards Kasumi's belt and fished in the pouches for the grenades. This was enough to snap Kasumi out of her trance.
"What are you doing Shep?" she asked.
"Sorry Kasumi," Shepard replied, "but I need some of your flash bangs."
Shepard pulled his hand out of the pouch and found it held two flash grenades. He handed one to Ashley and held up his hand to give her a countdown.
Five…Four…Three…Two…One.
Once the countdown reached zero, Shepard threw his grenade. The guards retreated thinking it was a frag grenade. They didn't notice that Ashley was now throwing her grenade. It landed right in front of the guards as they ran away. The grenades went off shortly after. The flash that followed blinded every guard on the roof. Shepard and Ashley stood up with their weapons raised and began firing. One by one the guards fell.
As the last of the guards fell, Kasumi looked over the shaft and saw more guards were coming up the stairs. Shepard and Ashley were focused on the guards already on the roof and didn't see the others coming. Kasumi knew she had to do something. Still slightly shaking, she pulled out her Kassa Locust sub-machine gun. Before the first guard could exit the stairwell, Kasumi had her gun aimed at them and fired.
Shepard and Ashley were now aware of the other guards and focused their aim towards the stairwell. The trio started alternating between who was firing. While one fired, the others put in new thermal clips so that they would not have a break in their fire thus giving the guards no chance to come onto the roof.
The cycle continued for a few minutes when Cortez's voice came over Shepard's comm. informing him that he was coming in for extraction. Shepard turned to see the Kodiak setting down onto the roof a short distance behind them. Shepard tapped Kasumi on the shoulder to tell her that when she was done firing to head for the shuttle. Ashley bent down to pick up Corin. Once Kasumi reached the shuttle, she started firing again to cover Ashley and Corin's approach to the shuttle. As soon as they were on the shuttle, Ashley set Corin down and fired her weapon to cover Shepard. With all three of them now on board, Shepard closed the hatch and ordered Cortez to take off. The shuttle lifted off the roof and flew away. The guards continued firing at the shuttle but it was no use. The shuttle was gone.
Kasumi was sitting in her seat on the shuttle looking down at the floor. She could feel Shepard standing over her. He was leaning near the door to the cockpit and his arms were crossed. He didn't say anything but just started at Kasumi. Ashley was sitting across from Kasumi staring at her as well. Finally the silence was too much for Kasumi.
"Go ahead and say it," she said, "I screwed up. The great master thief Kasumi Goto finally got caught. You both could have died because of me. You know if you don't want me to come to your wedding anymore I'll understand. Just drop me off in the city and you will never have to see me again. Maybe I can at least make myself hidden from you."
Shepard just bowed his head, "Kasumi we got the data we need and we got Corin. It might not have been a smooth run but we covered our mistakes and we accomplished our mission. I'm not worried about that. I'm more worried about you. Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm still shaken up about the mission going south but it's nothing I won't get over."
"That's not the real reason you're shaken up though is it?"
Kasumi didn't answer. Part of her knew that she had to tell Shepard what was going on but what could she say? Even she didn't know what was going on. Shepard would probably just think that she was going crazy. Crazy? Was she going crazy?
"Kasumi," Shepard finally said, "I heard you calling out for Keiji just before you walked out of the office."
"That's impossible," Kasumi said a little flustered, "Keiji is dead."
"Then why did you call out to him?"
"I didn't."
"You did," Ashley said, "I heard you say it as well."
Kasumi got up from her seat. She took a few steps as she thought about what to say. Tears were forming in her eyes. There was no choice now. Both Shepard and Ashley have noticed her acting strange. She had to tell them the truth. She prayed that they wouldn't think she was crazy.
"I saw him," she said sobbing, "I heard him calling my name and I looked up and there he was standing in the doorway. He wanted me to follow him. I told myself it was impossible. He was dead so he couldn't be there. But then I realized my graybox display wasn't on. I was seeing him with my own eyes. So I followed him. I barely get out the door and there was Corin instead of Keiji."
"Did you see him in the hotel room too?" Shepard asked.
"Yes. What's happening to me Shep?"
"Kasumi how often do you use the graybox.""
"What's that got to do with this?"
"How often do you use it?"
"At least twice a day, Keiji is the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see before I go to bed."
"You said 'at least' twice a day. Do you sometimes use it more than that?"
"Any chance I can."
Shepard sighed. He was afraid she would say that. He walked over to Kasumi and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Kasumi," he said, "you can't keep this up. You've used the graybox so many times that you can't tell what's real and what isn't. I think you have to destroy the graybox."
"I….can't," Kasumi sobbed, "it's all I have left of Keiji."
"You don't need a graybox to remember all the times you've spent with Keiji. They will always be in your heart. He told you in his last message to destroy the graybox. At first I thought it was just to protect the information he had on it from falling into the wrong hands but now I think it was because he was afraid that this would happen to you if you kept it. I'm sorry Kasumi but destroying the graybox seems to be the only way for you to get better."
"No," Kasumi said as she turned away from Shepard.
Shepard was about to put his hand back on her shoulder but thought against it. He needed to give her some space.
"We still have a mission to do," he said, "think about what I said and we'll talk once the mission is complete."
Shepard took a seat next to Ashley who reached over and grabbed his hand. Shepard could tell that Ashley was worried too. Unfortunately there was nothing they could do to help Kasumi just yet. Balak was still out there and needed to be stopped. Once they were back on the Normandy, they would question Corin about the info they found on his terminal. Hopefully he would be able to lead them to Balak.