Nearly a week luxuriating on man-made white sand beaches on the Citadel, and it wasn't nearly enough. Although, Ezmay had to admit that she'd gotten a nice tan from the ultraviolet lamps that beamed fake sunlight down onto the waves. The melanin in her skin loved her right now; she was tromping around the wards with…dare she say, a spring in her step? The salt water, the rest and relaxation, the copious amounts of sex…it had all done her good. Even her injuries were distant memories.
Thank you, Cerberus, for the advanced healing. You bastards.
Miranda met Ezmay and Garrus on the Presidium, eagerly passing off datapads once she spotted the two wandering in her direction. Idly, Ezmay wondered how Miranda had enjoyed her time as acting captain while they'd went on leave. Probably still smarting. She knew the loyalist had only grudgingly forgiven Garrus for moving up to second-in-command during the whole Auralia fiasco. At least Miranda had the grace not to make a stink over it. She'd even taken to helping Ezmay with her non-Cerberus related activities. Clever little chit. Ezmay knew that Miranda was double-tasking the administrative duties with gathering intelligence on the Alliance and the Council. If Ezmay wasn't carrying a grudge, she might have interceded and put a stop to the surveillance.
"You got here right in time." Miranda said. "Your meeting with Councillor Anderson's in twenty minutes. You're due to speak with Council as well."
"Work, work, work…" Ezmay glanced over the datapads and found an itinerary. Her attention drifted after that. Worry about the Reapers had begun to consume her mind after she and Garrus had checked out of Travertine. They were coming. She knew the defeat of the Collectors hadn't stopped them. Not one iota. She'd dealt with the devil, and let the Illusive Man have the Collector base, though she'd halfway suspected that it would end up a situation like the derelict Reaper, with husks to the gills and nothing to show for it. She had to face up to the fact, however, that there were very few organizations with the manpower and the resources to put what they'd found in the Collector base to good use. If the Council would just stop its endless bickering and squabbling and just focused, they could actually devote the resources of all the Council races, probably the non-Council races….but whatever. They wanted to play politics. She'd just take the Reapers down herself. Maybe. The Collector base had been by one Reaper. And Saren had been under the control of another. Again, just one Reaper. A fucking fleet of them…..the thought made Ezmay's stomach constrict with anxiety. If the races didn't pull together, they were all well and truly fucked.
Ezmay suddenly felt the aura of a migraine coming on. She gladly let Garrus take the datapads out of her hands.
The elevator trip up to Councillor Anderson's office was shorter than she remembered. Maybe they'd splurged and actually fixed the damn things. Soon enough, she found herself facing David Anderson. She wished, fervently, that she could have taken a picture of the look that went over his face when he saw the tattoos. And when he noticed the slender wedding band on her finger as they shook hands. Laying on a beach had put her in a mischievious mood. She laughed at him when he crooked his head at her.
"Since when did you get married? And to whom?"
He had to have been thinking Alenko. Ezmay turned and glanced to Garrus over her shoulder.
"I'm improving relations between the Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy." She grinned to Garrus, and turned to face Councillor Anderson once again. The look on his face was golden; he looked shocked and then some.
"You know…for being on the Council, you're ill-informed." She said.
"Well, congratulations." Anderson awkwardly extended a hand to Garrus, who came forward and shook it. The turian looked as ill-at-ease with the handshake as Anderson did with all the new information.
"Thank you. I expect Udina's going to piss himself when he finds out." Garrus said.
That got a smile out of Anderson.
"Anything to keep him on his toes is certainly welcome."
Just then, a beep from the console let them know they were due up to speak with the rest of the Council.
"Give me a hint. What are we facing here?"
"Honestly, I don't know. I can't imagine that you'd be in trouble for anything."
"Why do I get the feeling that I'm becoming the black sheep of our little family?" Ezmay crossed her arms.
"I've been talking with them, about investing resources into looking at the Reaper situation. They're still not ready to admit it's a threat." Anderson said, moving towards the console.
"They're going to have to get their heads out of their asses at some point." Garrus spoke from behind Ezmay. "Better if be before the entire Reaper armada's knocking on the front door."
"You probably don't want to mention that to them, though." Anderson grinned at Garrus again. The Councilor was beginning to really like the turian. He was starting to see what had drawn Shepard and Garrus together. He pushed the button, and the three holograms sprang to life. All three councilors turned to face Ezmay in unison, and she felt the familiar feeling of irritation and sheepishness that she'd always felt when dealing with the Council. Bureaucracy. It fucking aggravated her.
"Commander Shepard. Or should we call you Commander Vakarian now?"
"Shepard's fine. I added a name; I didn't get rid of one."
"It would have been nice to have seen this update in your last report." The turian councilor's tone was disapproving. There was a shock. Suddenly, Ezmay wondered if the prejudice Garrus had spoken about before, about turians and humans mating, was present and at work here. This guy had always been on her ass. Now he sounded downright nasty. No one was ever going to forget Shanxi.
"My paperwork was submitted to you before the legal change was made. It was technically correct at the time." She said.
"Just so, Commander. Congratulations to you." The asari councilor said.
"Thank you."
"Do you think it was wise to make such a decision without consulting the Council?" The turian asked. Ezmay could feel Garrus bristling. The air in the room went charged with tension, and she could feel his irritation bubbling in the pit of her belly.
"I didn't know my personal life was subject to Council approval." She replied. Her voice was calm and cool. She wasn't going to let him ruffle her feathers.
"There are political implications when a Spectre ties herself to an ex-Spectre candidate and a political dissident."
"Excuse me?!" Ezmay was stammering out, just as Garrus burst forth with "Dissident?!"
"Neither Shepard's marriage nor her choice in partner matters here!" Anderson said.
The asari and salarian councilor fixed the turian with a stare, but he continued on.
"Your actions reflect on the Council. Frankly, it's disturbing that you chose not to remove the tattoos when you had the chance. This is a practice common to the Terminus systems. What does that say about you, and us that we choose you to represent us?"
"Better to be marked than to be bare-faced, isn't it?" Ezmay said hotly.
That shut him up. The ignorant human, speaking about turian culture. The turian glared at her.
"I'm reporting for assignment." She persisted. "If you don't have anything for me, I'm sure I can find something else."
"With Cerberus?" The turian shot back.
Ezmay gritted her teeth. Fought the words back. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that Cerberus at least saw the threat of the Reapers and was moving to fight it. She just couldn't stomach another round of air quotes and the sarcastic tone. Her face didn't betray any emotion. Instead, she stared at the Council holograms in silence.
"As a matter of fact, we do have something for you, Shepard." The salarian spoke up.
"I'm all ears." Her voice could have been acid.
"The death of Zael Hollinth was a boon to the galaxy. She had her hands in some nasty dealings." The asari said. Was there bad blood there? The asari councilor seemed detached as usual. "It occurs to us that it could be just as advantageous to have the Shadow Broker out of commission as well."
"Jesus Christ. You want me to take down the Shadow Broker? What, was there some massive red sand binge in the Council chambers before this meeting?" Ezmay goggled.
"We're not sending you into the unknown unprepared, Shepard. We'll have a full mission outline for you, as well as contacts and recommended methods of insertion."
Insertion. So she was going deep cover? She'd never been special ops before, but there was usually one way these things went down.
"Let me guess. I'm publicly denounced as a traitor and cut loose. The Shadow Broker jumps on me. Commence betrayal."
The turian councilor smirked at her, if that odd flaring of mandibles could be construed as a smirk. Ezmay felt anger from Garrus once again.
"Something like that, yes."
Smug bastard. Bet he'd been waiting to drum her out of the Spectres ever since her induction. She clenched her fists at her side.
"How are you so sure that the Shadow Broker'd even want me in his organization?"
"Talents such as yours aren't bound to go unnoticed. You're already working for Cerberus."
"That was a one-time thing." She reminded the turian councilor. And it was only because you were too busy playing grab-ass to focus on the threat.
"We happen to have procured a piece of information that we know for a fact that the Shadow Broker doesn't have yet. It will make you more valuable to his organization."
"Again, I'm wondering how you're sure that he doesn't have surveillance equipment in this room. For all you know, he's already on to you."
"Have faith in us, Shepard. We're not completely helpless. And we had faith in you when we gave you carte blanche to pursue Saren."
Carte blanche, or plausible deniability for them? Ezmay hadn't decided yet. Instead, she bit her tongue. It was a possible in; a good plan. Enough of a job to work on while she was waiting for the Illusive Man to finish his analysis of the Collector base.
Then I blow this popsicle stand. She thought. Garrus was right; this place is a fucking mess.
"Alright, then. How's this going down?"
"You will be publicly stripped off your Spectre status. Meanwhile, Council files, which are eyes-only, will list your status as deep-cover. Covert ops. You will be taken into custody pending investigation. We recommend you make a daring escape from the Citadel, at which time you will receive a data packet aboard the Normandy with the information you are to present to the Shadow Broker as a good faith payment. Once you're working for him, do whatever you need to do, work as long as you need to in order to find out who exactly the Shadow Broker is. When you've found out, contact Councilor Anderson." The salarian said.
"This is a long-term project." Garrus said from behind her. "Not to be crass, but how exactly are we paying the bills?"
"However you need to. I'm sorry, Shepard, but we can lend no Council resources to you, besides a last paycheck before we strip you of Spectre status. The fewer loose ends, the better." The asari said.
"Fine. What am I being charged with?"
"Conduct unbecoming." Again, the turian piped up. He truly seemed to relish telling her this. Honestly, she couldn't ever remember him being truly this nasty. "Your working with Cerberus, a fabricated history of insubordination to the Council, and your sudden decision to mate with a vigilante."
Now her mouth dropped open; Garrus shoved past her, shouting words in a harsh, guttural language that the translator wasn't catching. Councilor Anderson was starting forward too.
"That's outrageous! Shepard's personal life is not subject to Council whim!"
She could have scarcely believed this was happening if she'd not been there to see it with her own eyes. The three alien councilors were arguing, arguing, amongst themselves. It had always been plain that the asari and the salarian had kept the turian in check, but now he was speaking fiercely with a hatred that couldn't be contained. He must have always had it out for Ezmay; for the life of her, she couldn't understand why. Though she did understand why his hatred had recently become so brittle in days past. There it was…the racism and the disgust that Garrus had warned her about. It was like being on Earth.
Ezmay lifted her chin. She'd been on the receiving end of nasty glances and foul words before. She wasn't lily-skinned, and she was a female who'd gone through boot camp and physical training just like every other Alliance soldier. Hell, even Alenko'd run into his share of racism during his days with Vyrnnus in the biotic training camp.
Hell with this. She thought, and cut through where Garrus and Anderson were exchanging words with the Council. Didn't even hear what they were saying.
"All right, then. You want to toss me out for mating with a turian, so be it." Her voice cut through the argument like a hot knife through butter. Silence surrounded her, and she fixed her gaze on the turian councilor. "I'm not an idiot. I know you loathe me, and loathe mixing species. Whatever. I'm not letting my personal dislike for you get in the way of doing my job. I'm at least that professional."
The asari councilor stepped forward in her own physical space; the hologram shifted, appearing larger.
"My apologies for that outburst, Shepard. I suggest you and Officer Vakarian make yourself comfortable for the evening. In the morning, we'll send C-Sec for you, so be prepared.
Ezmay nodded stiffly. She fixed Anderson with glance. The expression on the old councilor's face was mournful. Bastard had known and he hadn't prepared her. The silence on their end carried over past the hologram's vanishing, and she stared at him. Just when Garrus had started to shift from foot to foot and speak, she cut him off.
"I see you're taking lessons from Udina."
"That's not fair, Shepard." Anderson looked like he'd aged a decade within minutes. She flicked her eyes over him, reading his posture. He looked ashamed, sullen.
"My ass it's not. Why'd you let them blindside me?"
"I couldn't bear it. I didn't have the stomach."
"You could have prepared me." She clenched her fist, feeling the wedding band bite into her palm. It suddenly occurred to her that she ought to just let the Reapers come back. Should just let the whole of it all fall, and take the Normandy off somewhere in the furthest reaches of space. Live out her life in peace, free of back-stabbing and betrayal.
"We should go, Ezmay." Garrus lay a hand on her shoulder. "If this is the last time we're going to be able to move freely on the Citadel for a long time, I want to enjoy it."
"Okay. Fine. We should probably tell the crew first." She made the point, watching her words land like daggers in Anderson's mind.
She turned, then, with Garrus and Miranda trailing behind her. Neither of them spoke further; they knew when Ezmay needed to be left alone to stew on her thoughts.