High stakes

With that I left the warehouse, emerging on a street less crowded now. "The day, or whatever they call it, is coming to an end as it seems, I'll be better off for my room then."
Heading back to the lodge using a different way than before, always keeping an eye on my surroundings I realized that I was being followed "At least one, but I'm pretty sure he is not alone. Maybe I should use my new toy to surprise him, sooner or later they will attack anyway, I'm better off keeping the initiative on my side."
I abandoned the main street using a small by-road which was badly lit and quickly hid behind a huge pile of rusted metal scrap about 15 metres away from the junction. The stench of this place almost made me gag, the distinctive smell of burned flesh mingled with the usual odour and presented itself as a mind-numbing perfume.
I fixed my attention to the entrance of the street through some gaps in the bulk and prepared my Phalanx; on point blank range the effect would be devastating if necessary. The hulky shadow of my pursuer – a batarian by the looks of his shape – appeared at the entrance to my hideout, suspiciously looking into the dull darkness of the by-road.
He slowly moved forward looking anxiously in every corner as if expecting an ambush. "My new toy comes in handy sooner as expected" I wondered when activating the device right before the batarian sneaked around the pile of metal I hid behind, his face wearing a look like he half expected to find me waiting behind it.
Casting a last look into my corner he moved forward, already concentrating on the next possible hideout. "Well, first field test successful, he couldn`t see me just one metre away because of the dull light. Now for the prize."
I surged behind him, re-emerging as the cloaking device needed to recharge. "Stay where you are, one movement and your brain will add up to the already delicate decorations of this place. Speak now, and be quick, why are you following me and who sent you" I commanded him while placing the muzzle of my pistol on the back of his head. He stopped moving instantly, issuing a surprised gasp.

"You are even better than your reputation, human. I'm impressed and I see now why my boss wants to speak with you." He finally managed to issue an answer.

"And why should I be interested to speak with your boss, the reason may be important for your healthiness, so think careful before answering" I urged him further while slightly changing my angle in order to keep an eye on the by-roads entrance.

"He wants to offer you a job, the reward would be substantial, I can assure you."

"What I call substantial is of my own business, but that doesn't answer why you are following me instead of approaching me directly" I retorted sharply.

"He wants me to give you my communication device, so he can explain everything to you, may I?" With that he slowly moved his hand to the side of his head, removing a small device and handing it over his back.

I plugged the device into my ear "The explanation is better to be a good one; else you just managed to make yourself a foe of the dangerous kind."

A gentle but distinctive voice answered my threat "Consider it as a test, which you passed with flying colours. I wanted to know if you are as good as your reputation, you outranged my expectations."

"Ok then, if the classes are over now, I`m all needles and pins to hear the reason for this." I retorted, still anger in my voice.

"Please, Mr Carlyle, I hope you understand that I cannot take the risk to talk over an unsecure communication device, you know that pretty well without me telling you this. I would like to meet you this evening in person, the poor wretch you still keeping in check will bring you to our meeting right now, if you decide to accept my invitation, of course." The distinctive voice said with a soothing undertone which had no real effect on me besides fuelling my anger even more."

"On the other hand, I`m partially here to look for a job, so why not taking the chance, I can refuse as always." Calming my anger I answered his invitation "Very well then, I accept your invitation, I`ll hand back the device to your messenger as you named him."

With that I gave the device back to the batarian, cutting off the answer. "Turn around slowly; you can take your hands down now. Here`s the device, you will go forward, I'm following you in some distance." I advised him, taking down my pistol.

He turned around slowly, plugged the communication device back in its place and nodded his agreement to my conditions "Follow me then, it`s only a 10 minutes walking distance from here"

I followed the batarian with some distance, carefully inspecting everything around me for possible dangers "Could be a trap, but what for? Seems I'm getting a little paranoid lately. No big surprise here as well. With madness on my heels closing in…you have to keep running…but it seems I'm loosing this one, slowly but certain."

Deep in gloomy thoughts I suddenly realized the batarian had stopped turning around and waiting for me.

"Here we are, please enter this pub and go to the far left corner, you will be expected." He advised me, with a curt nod he walked away seemingly relieved to get away from me.

"I scared this one quite a bit" chuckling at the thought, I turned around and entered the indicated pub. It was surprisingly clean, at least by the standards of Omega. The floor was made of square metal plates and recently had seen some kind of cleansing. The room itself had a quadratic layout, with the bar cutting the area in two, forming an U-shape. A quick sweep over the pub's guests informed me, that my host wasn't alone, I counted at least 4 guests which made me suspicious "At least this is not an intelligence service, these 'agents' are obviously not used to hide themselves in a crowd."

I once made a job for such an organization, if I have a choice in it, it would stay the first and the last time. Moving through the guests I got a glimpse of my host, a dark-haired human male sitting with his back to me. I sat down opposite to him with my back to the wall. He was about 50 – at least he looked like it by the old standards – his dark hair cut shortly, with a little grey at his temples, his well-shaped face wearing a calm expression. All-in-all he made the impression of a neat and decisive man whom you can trust. If they start to clone politicians, he`s surely a candidate to be reckoned with."

"Well, here I am" I said bluntly.

Ignoring my harsh opening, he gave me smile which didn`t reach his eyes "Welcome Mr Carlyle, I am glad you followed my invitation. I am sure you have a lot of business to address, so I will make it as short as possible."

I recognized the distinctive voice from the communication device, so it was seemingly the same person who addressed me now. "This is appreciated, thank you. I was told you have a job offer with a substantial reward, whatever that means. Before you go on, I want to say that this conversation is subject to a condition: Everything you tell me is confidential. I am saying this because I may have a reputation in my profession, but I am also known for denying a job if it does not fit into my concept of morality. This may sound like double standards considering the way I am earning my money, but it is not up for discussion. If I say no, I simply don`t want to have something to do with it. I`m pretty aware that there are others whose conscience is determined by the prize, and if I don`t accept a job others will. But this doesn`t mean I am going to interfere unless I am forced to take sides. If you accept this, you can go on."

"Kind of a speech, you prepared there." He replied with another smile "I am aware of your reputation, so this was to be expected and is accepted likewise." He moved on "First of all, are you aware of the balance of power on this station?"

I pondered upon this question and it`s possible meaning. "Yes and no. I know that Aria T`Lok is the unofficial leader, but besides I don`t have much of a clue, it simply never interested me on my short visits."

"Then let me say that there are a lot of different groups or associations which struggle to climb up the ladder of power. Like a never-ending war without a winner, the only one unchanged is Aria. She controls all of them by playing this game better than all the others. And because they are occupied with each other nobody dares to challenge her position." He made a short pause, in expectation of a question or a comment from my side. As I remained silent he moved on. "Well, my client wants to change this balance to his favour, and you could be the one who tips the scales." Again he made a pause, waiting for me to address a question or a comment.

This time I met his expectation. "I can see where this ends, and I will have to think about it, but please proceed."

He nodded and moved on. "Well, as you may have already imagined my client wants to hire you to assassinate Aria T`Lok, this will give him the opportunity to assimilate her organization and control the station. Such an undertaking will be very dangerous as you can imagine, but you can rely on the support of his organization and state-of-the-art equipment at your disposal. The reward is 900k in credits, in addition to this you can keep the equipment, medical treatment – if necessary – is covered likewise. As I see it, this is your chance to ascend to another level in your profession." He concluded with his version of a winning smile.

I waited a few seconds before my reply. "I must admit, this is a substantial reward, but I have to ask anyway, why me?"

He kept up the winning smile while answering my question "As mentioned earlier, we`ve made our homework. Your reputation as an assassin is outstanding, furthermore you are reliable und fully committed to a job once you accepted it, to sum it up, you simply do the necessary.

"Thanks for all the flowers, you`re offer is rather tempting, but I have to think about it before making a decision, and the position it will possibly move me into. I`ll give you an answer tomorrow morning if this fits into your schedule, how can I contact you?"

A longer silence followed my request, finally he spoke again "I would prefer an immediate answer, but I also understand you need some time to make a decision. You can contact me by calling this number." He handed me a plain card with his contact details. "I trust in you to keep this conversation confidential." With that he rose from his seat, offering me a handshake.

I stood up likewise, returning his gesture. "You can trust in that, as you said, my reputation speaks for me. Tomorrow morning you will have your answer."

I walked out of the pub, my thoughts racing. "This is certainly not what I expected, but I already know the answer, it is no. Aria holds a more or less stable government over this station; by means she keeps all the other organizations in check. She is doing this since far over 100 years, so she has quite some practice in it. If I would remove her from the throne, a succession war between the other clans would be the result. I`d rather accept that it is bad enough with Aria, instead of replacing her with an unknown being and outcome. To tell him my decision would have put me into immediate danger, for all the good words about my reputation they won`t take the risk of a loose end in such an undertaking. The conclusion is, I have to leave immediately tomorrow." I was sure they would follow me and already knew my lodge and room. For this reason I decided to head for the lodge immediately instead of visiting the docking areas for ships scheduled to leave tomorrow.