"Liara's dead and Ashley's missing."
That was how Shepard answered Tali's question. He was lucky that he was already on the ground when he said it because Garrus and Tali probably would have dropped him while they were helping him down after Traynor's message made his legs give way. Initially Garrus and Tali didn't know how to react. They shook their heads in denial but when they saw the sadness in Shepard's face they couldn't deny it anymore. As they started to cry as well, Shepard patched Traynor into Garrus and Tali's comm. so that she could give them the details.
According to Traynor, Specialist Hawkins on the Shanghai tried to call Ashley when it was discovered that one of the hostages at the trade center was not who they claimed to be. A report had come to the Shanghai from Shanxi law enforcement reporting that Ms. Rebecca Morrison, the CEO of the Morrison Company had been found murdered in her apartment. From the marks on her neck, it was determined she had been strangled to death. The coroner estimated that she had been killed at least two days prior. Yet the trade center records indicated that she had shown up alive and well for the conference and that she was one of the hostages still inside. Realizing that the woman claiming to be Morrison was an imposter, Hawkins tried to warn Ashley and Liara. Before he could however, a gunshot was heard over the comm. and then there was nothing. Later the Alliance forces that were manning the perimeter around the trade center entered the building and found the bodies of Luciana and Liara in the shuttle parking garage. Both had been killed by a single shot to the head. Unfortunately there was no sign of Ashley or the Morrison imposter.
After Traynor had finished and signed off, Tali's small tears had now become practically waterfalls as she buried her face in Garrus' chest. Garrus was doing his best to comfort her but this was proving difficult as he was trying to wrap his head around what he had heard. One of their closest friends was dead and another one disappeared along with a woman who claimed to be the deceased CEO of a major company. There was one other thing in particular that was proving to be the most difficult to understand.
"So do we think the woman was another one of the backer's agents?" he asked.
Shepard was about to agree when a thought crossed his mind. Throughout his investigation into the mystery backer, there was one thing that he never really took the time to consider: the backer's gender. The usual assumption when dealing with an unknown enemy is that they are a male but Shepard had never ruled out the possibility that the backer might be a woman. If that was the case, then it was possible that….
"I think she was the backer," Shepard said.
"What?" Tali asked as she separated from Garrus.
"The backer said that it wasn't going to be long before she revealed herself. Can you think of a better way for her to do that than by putting herself right under our noses and striking when we least expected it. She knew that we would never suspect one of the hostages and especially not a woman. She was one step ahead of us again."
Suddenly Shepard slammed his fist on the ground causing Garrus and Tali to jump, "she has always been one step ahead of us and we just can't seem to catch up. Now our lagging behind has cost Liara her life and allowed my wife to end up in the hands of madwoman whose sole mission has been to make me suffer by killing the people closest to me. God only knows what she's doing to Ashley right now."
When Shepard's rant was over, Tali knelt down next to Shepard in an attempt to comfort him while Garrus seemed hesitant about something. He was sad that Liara was dead too but his immediate concern was for Ashley…and for Shepard. Shepard was someone who could always handle anything that was thrown at him and continue to command. This time however his own wife was in danger and it was making it hard for him to think. Still something needed to be done. So while it pained him to do it, Garrus gave Shepard what could almost be considered an order.
"On your feet Shepard," he said, "we need to get to Shanxi."
Shepard looked up at Garrus slightly confused, "what?"
"I'm sorry about what happened to Liara but we can't mourn for her right now. We need to focus on helping Ashley and we can't do that here. Let's get back to the Normandy and we can be at Shanxi in a few hours."
Garrus then held out his hand to help Shepard up. Initially Shepard didn't know how to respond but he quickly realized that Garrus was right. He nodded to acknowledge Garrus' plan and let Garrus and Tali help him up. At that point, the quarian in charge of Tali's security detail approached and told Tali that they had to begin their return to the embassy on the Citadel. Shepard and Garrus started to say goodbye but to everyone's surprise, Tali didn't make an effort to leave. When the detail leader tried again to get her to come with him, she shook her head.
"I'm not going back Lieutenant," she said, "I'm going with Captain Shepard and my fiancé."
"Ambassador," said the lieutenant, "you are needed back at the embassy."
"Lieutenant I have just been told that one of my best friends has been murdered and another friend who happens to be my matron of honor is in danger. I can't just go back to the embassy and sit behind my desk while my fiancé and the man who is going to give me away at my wedding are out there risking their lives to try and save her. I'm going with them and I am going to help them find my friend. If anyone at the embassy has a problem with that then they can go to hell."
The look on the lieutenant's face indicated that he did feel for Tali and wanted to let her go but his professionalism wouldn't let him back down, "ma'am you're an ambassador, I can't let you take chances with your life like this."
"She's not just an ambassador Lieutenant," said Shepard, "she's a skilled engineer and one of the best combatants I know. She played a big part in helping Garrus and I fight the Reapers."
"I understand sir but…"
"Lieutenant," Tali said as she put both her hands on the lieutenant's shoulders, "I appreciate you doing your job but this is something I have to do. If it will help, Captain Shepard is a Spectre. He can order you to let me go with him and you will be obliged to obey him. No one will hold you responsible for this."
She then turned to Shepard who looked at her somewhat surprised. What Tali said was true but Shepard also knew what might happen if Councilor Koris found out he ordered his ambassador into a life threatening situation. Then he saw the pleading in Tali's eyes and decided that Koris would understand if he explained the situation to him. Besides Shepard was going to need all the help he could get to save Ashley and Tali was near the top of the list of people he would turn to for it. He turned to the lieutenant and gave the order.
"Ambassador Zorah's assistance is needed for an urgent Spectre mission. You are hereby ordered to release her into my charge. She will be brought back to the embassy as soon as the mission is completed."
The lieutenant smiled, "yes sir, thank you sir. I hope you find your friend Ambassador, fly safe."
Tali thanked the lieutenant and dismissed him and his men. Once they had left, Garrus held out his arm, which Tali happily accepted. They then followed Shepard while he called Cortez to arrange for the shuttle to pick them up.
"You'll be happy to know that I packed your shotgun when I left the Citadel," Garrus said to Tali.
"You did?" Tali gasped. "Why?"
"I just thought it was best to be prepared. You always ended up joining Shepard's crew at some point in the past. I figured this time wouldn't be any different."
Tali smiled but it quickly vanished as a thought entered her head.
"Liara," she said as she laid her head on Garrus' arm, "I just can't believe she's gone. You realize she could have lived for another nine hundred years. By asari standards she was practically a child."
"In that way yes but she was far from a child Tali," said Garrus, "she was the galaxy's leading expert on the Protheans and the Shadow Broker. No child could have accomplished that."
"Do you think Shepard's going to be okay?"
"I don't know. I do know that I don't envy him right now."
"Why's that?"
"He's going to have to make the notification call to Feron."
Shepard did exactly that when he got back onto the Normandy. The call was over now and Shepard was just sitting behind his desk in his office on the crew deck. He sighed and leaned back in his chair as he processed the conversation he just had. There were many things about his job that were difficult but notifying the loved ones of his fallen comrades was easily near the top.
The call went about as rough as Shepard expected. As he explained to Feron everything that happened, the number of tears in Feron's eyes increased. Feron was quiet at first but then he suddenly started rambling vivid details about some of the times he had with Liara. Shepard remembered when his former squadmate Thane Krios would do a similar thing when talking about his family and his previous assassinations. It was a trait of the drell species to be able to recall memories down to the smallest details and they would randomly slip mentally into those memories as if they were back in the time or place they were thinking about. As Feron recalled each happy moment he had with Liara during their time together, the sadness Shepard felt grew. He had always thought that it was only a matter of time before Liara and Feron were married and having kids. Now that wasn't going to happen.
The conversation then turned to the fate of Liara's Shadow Broker operation. Shepard made the suggestion that Feron could probably take over. After all he was the one Liara left in charge while she was helping Shepard. Feron thanked Shepard for his confidence but ultimately he thought it was best if the Shadow Broker died with Liara. When Shepard asked why, Feron explained that business hadn't been doing well since the Reaper War ended. Part of the reason the previous Shadow Broker was successful was because the only thing he cared about was credits and it didn't matter how he used the secrets he learned to get it. Liara had a stricter moral standard and would never use the secrets she learned in immoral ways. The Reaper War gave her ways to use her resources to help people. Without the war, her only steady business was the occasional requests from Shepard. Feron feared that if anyone else tried to be the Shadow Broker, they would be tempted to do something morally wrong. With that logic, Shepard felt that Feron was right and that the operation should be shut down. Feron said that he would get right on it as soon as he signed off.
Before Feron could sign off, Shepard asked if Feron would do one final favor with the Shadow Broker resources before he shut it down. He asked Feron to send him any information regarding the Morrison Company and Morrison herself. When Feron asked why, Shepard explained that it was because he was curious about why the backer had chosen Morrison to impersonate at the trade center. Feron said he would have the information for Shepard shortly and signed off after wishing Shepard luck in tracking down Liara's killer.
With nothing to do until they reached Shanxi, Shepard thought back on the times he had known Liara. It wasn't just because he needed to mourn her but because he needed to do whatever he could to keep himself from going nuts worrying about what was happening to Ashley. He thought back to when he first met Liara at the Prothean dig site on Therum during his hunt for Saren. Back then she was just a shy archeologist. If Shepard had been told back then that she would go on to become the Shadow Broker and a skilled combatant who would help defeat an advanced race of artificial intelligence, he wondered if he would have believed it. He then thought about the somewhat awkward moment when Liara revealed that she had romantic feelings for him. He managed to break the news that he wasn't interested in her in that way gently and they went on to become close friends. He sighed. It was hard for him to accept that Liara was gone. She had survived a lot during the war only to end up killed by a woman she thought was a hostage. He managed to laugh after he thought about how lucky he was that he handled the situation with Liara's feelings for him when he did. If Ashley had found out then how Liara felt about him, there probably would have been a confrontation and possibly a catfight.
Unfortunately the brief thought of Ashley was enough for Shepard to take his mind off of Liara and the nerves he was trying to suppress started to emerge. He looked at the picture he had on his desk of him and Ashley on their wedding day. Several questions went through his mind as he looked at it. Why didn't he make Ashley see Dr. Chakwas? Maybe Ashley would have been kept out of the field for medical reasons and she never would have been kidnapped. Maybe Liara could have been saved if she was with a squad of marines from the Shanghai instead of going with just Ashley. How could he have let the backer get the better of him again?
"You had no way to know what was going to happen down there Shepard."
Shepard looked up from the picture to see Garrus and Tali standing in front of his desk. That was one thing Shepard liked about them, they always knew when he needed a friend to talk to. They also always seemed to know what he was thinking and what to say about it. He knew that Garrus was right but what he said next wasn't showing it.
"No I should have known Garrus," he said as he got up from his chair and stood by the nearby window, "the backer had already gone after most of my other friends. It was only a matter of time before she finally went after the person who is the most important to me."
"We'll get her back Shepard," Tali said as she put a hand on Shepard's shoulder.
A tear appeared in Shepard's eye, "I want to believe that Tali but I just don't know anymore."
Tali looked to Garrus with a concerned look. Garrus was feeling the same way. They both thought that Shepard was just worried about Ashley but now it seemed that there was something else going on in Shepard's mind. Even though Shepard had every right to be concerned for Ashley's wellbeing, he should have been rational enough to know that he could help her if he concentrated on coming up with a plan for when they got to Shanxi. Yet Shepard seemed so anxious that he couldn't do it. Garrus joined Shepard and Tali by the window.
"What's really bothering you Shepard?" he asked.
At this point Shepard's face was covered with tears and he was starting to sniffle, "I just don't know how much more of this I can take. It's been more than two years since we beat the Reapers, two years since I thought that I was done putting friends' names on the Memorial Wall. But since then I have lost Zaeed, Grunt, Vega, Kelly, Miranda and now Liara. Don't you see? My friends are still dying and I'm powerless to stop it. I can save the galaxy from nearly unstoppable dreadnoughts but I can't save my friends from one crazy woman. With all the death that has happened in my life I probably should have lost it long ago. The only reason I've been able to keep it together was because I had Ashley. Now the backer has her and there's no telling what she is doing to her right now. If I lose her…I…."
"You won't," said Tali, "and you won't lose us either. When we get to Shanxi, we're going to end this once and for all."
"But we can't do it without you," Garrus said, "the backer can't outrun us forever. If anyone can figure out a way to stop her, it's you."
Before Shepard could think more about what Garrus was saying, his terminal beeped indicating he had received a new message. With his luck it was probably the backer calling to mock him again. He reluctantly clicked on the message and was relieved to see that it was actually from Feron. The subject line read: One Final Favor from the Shadow Broker. As Shepard read the contents of the message, his face changed from sadness to contemplating. It was the same expression he had when he made his last breakthrough on the case. Something in the message was trying to fit with some miscellaneous puzzle pieces he had in his head. Suddenly they clicked together. With his eyes now full of determination and a renewed focus on the mission, Shepard headed for the door.
"Meet me in the War Room in ten minutes," he said to Garrus and Tali as they watched him leave, "I think I might have a way for us to finally identify the backer."
Garrus and Tali entered the War Room at the appointed time to see Shepard standing on the other side of the circular table with his hands behind his back. Projected above the table was a file photo of Ms. Morrison. Garrus and Tali asked Shepard what he found but Shepard's focus was solely on the photo.
"Why did the backer kill Morrison?" he asked.
The question confused Garrus and Tali as they wondered if Shepard was really looking for an answer or if the question was rhetorical. Fortunately for them, Shepard continued talking.
"Luciana said that the backer's plans were designed using the best of care to ensure that no innocent civilians were lost. The only people the backer and her people have killed were our friends, the criminals they funded and the three ex-Cerberus personnel they killed for Toombs. Aside from our friends, none of the people they killed would be considered innocent. Now I'm not saying they deserved to die because that is not my call to make. My point is that they were criminals. Yet Morrison's file doesn't show any signs of criminal activity. She was clean. So why did the backer have her killed?"
"Because the backer was going to pose as Morrison at the conference," Garrus replied.
"She wouldn't have needed to kill Morrison for that. She could have sent some of her people to abduct her and hide her away until the crisis was over. Morrison would never have seen the backer's face so there would be no risk in keeping her alive. Something about Morrison forced the backer to break her rule about killing innocents. Tell me, what are the usual reasons for why a person would kill someone?"
Tali answered first, "revenge is one reason but I don't see how that would be the case here. The only one the backer has been obsessed with getting revenge against is you."
Garrus joined in, "I also can't see how it can be about greed because the backer would need to be rich already to pull off the stuff she's done."
"You're both right," said Shepard, "I think we can also safely assume Morrison's death is not a crime of passion. The only possibility left is that this is about covering something up. What if Morrison had something that could compromise the backer? She would've had no choice but to kill Morrison. Take a look at this."
Shepard pushed a button on a keyboard on the table and the image of Ms. Morrison vanished. In its place, a table listing the Morrison Company's profits over the past several financial quarters appeared. Shepard then asked Garrus and Tali what was wrong with the data. At first glance they didn't see anything too weird. As the quarters went on, the credit values continued to increase at a steady pace. It looked like what you would want to see happening with a major company's money. Sensing that they needed a hint, Shepard continued.
"As we all know the Morrison Company specializes in making appliances that make the home life easier. They make everything from cooking supplies to vacuum cleaners. If you're a human living in Alliance space, odds are you own some kind of appliance that was made by this company. There's always a demand for household appliances so this company should never lose a lot of credits from year to year. Yet take a closer look at their records from each quarter during the last two years."
Sure enough when Garrus and Tali looked at the records Shepard mentioned, they noticed three periods where the profits were significantly lower than the previous one. Even if the company wasn't having a particularly good quarter their profits wouldn't have dropped as low as the numbers they were seeing. Then they noticed the dates of the quarters in question. They looked up at Shepard with surprised looks and Shepard nodded confirming their suspicions.
"They were losing credits around the same time Balak, the Dalatrass and Finch's plans were happening," said Garrus, "you think the backer was funding them by stealing money from the company?"
"Not only that," Shepard replied, "I think the backer worked for the company. If the backer was an outsider, the missing credits would have been noticed sooner. The backer is probably a high level employee who has access to the company's finances. With her access, she could secretly divert credits from the company's accounts to fund the different schemes. By all accounts it should have gone unnoticed but what if Morrison began to notice credits were disappearing. What if she started poking around trying find out where they were going? She could have been on the verge of finding out what the backer was up to."
"So the backer had to have Morrison killed to keep her from alerting the authorities," said Tali, "it makes sense. That means all we have to do now is figure out which employee was diverting credits."
"I doubt we can do that," Garrus said, "the backer has always been good at covering her tracks. No doubt she took steps to ensure we couldn't follow the credit trail."
Shepard pushed another button that replaced the Morrison Company financial report with a list of Morrison Company employees, "true Garrus but we don't need to follow credits. The fact that we now know the backer is a woman who works for the Morrison Company is the first big clue we've had in trying to identify her. What we need to do before we get to Shanxi is look through this list of employees and the personnel files that Feron provided us and find her. It's a long list so we'll have to divide it up between the three of us."
"Is there anything else that will help us narrow it down?" asked Tali.
"This whole thing has been about someone special that the backer lost supposedly because of me. Aside from looking for female employees who had access to company finances, look for someone who had lost a loved one recently due to unnatural causes. Whether it was a spouse, sibling, parent, or even a close friend make a note of it and we'll take a closer look at them. Let's get to work."
Garrus and Tali nodded and began downloading their sections of the list to their omni-tools. When they were done, everyone in the room took a seat around the War Room to go through their individual list. While they worked, Shepard started thinking about something else. With all the chaos of the last few hours he didn't think about something that had bothered him since Traynor first mentioned the Morrison Company back on Rannoch. There was something familiar about the company. True he had always known the company existed but for some reason he felt like this wasn't the first time the company had come up during one of his assignments. All he could do was hope that he would figure it out quickly since it might help him narrow down the list.
After a few minutes the trio had marked every name on their list that matched their search parameters. The marked names were then projected on the center table for everyone to go over. There were a total of nine names for them to go through. Shepard presented his list first. Unfortunately while the two names he found fit the profile, it was discovered that the each names loved ones who died of unnatural causes had passed away after the backer first came to Shepard's attention.
Garrus' list was next. He was able to find four names but they too were shot down. One name had only a limited amount of access to company finances meaning she couldn't have stolen the funds needed for their schemes. Two names were eliminated because they had alibis during the trade center hostage crisis meaning they couldn't have been there posing as Morrison. The last name was dropped because the circumstances surrounding her loved one's unnatural death were due to a freak accident meaning there would be no reason for Shepard to be blamed for it.
Tali's list was the only one left. Three names were displayed with their respected photos. Tali was about to go through each one individually but was stopped when she noticed Shepard was deep in thought.
"Is something wrong Shepard?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," Shepard replied as he clicked on one of photos.
The photo was of a woman with long, brown hair and brown eyes. Her face could easily be considered attractive but that wasn't what drew Shepard's attention to it. He couldn't put his finger on it but there was something familiar about the woman's face. The name next to the photo identified the woman as Dana Thompson, the company's CFO. She was definitely in a position that would give her access to company finances. Shepard then looked at Thompson's personnel file. Both of her parents had died ten years ago in a skycar crash while she was in college. Her only other family was an older sister who was also dead. When Shepard read how the sister had died, his eyes widened.
"Oh no," he said.
"What is it Shepard?" Garrus asked.
"It's her. She's the backer."
"What makes you say that?"
"She had a sister who was killed six years ago. I was the one who killed her."
"But Shepard you would never murder anyone," said Tali.
"You're right Tali," Shepard replied, "I didn't murder her sister but that doesn't mean I didn't kill her."
The confused looks on Garrus and Tali's faces told Shepard he needed to explain, "her sister's name was Julia and she was a crewmember on the Morrison Company's vessel the MSV Worthington. It was operating in the Gemini Sigma cluster when it mysteriously dropped out of contact. No one knew what had happened to it…until we found it floating adrift in the Ming system.