The SR2 made it to Elysium several crew members shy. Samara had left at Omega. Ezmay had to admit that she was sorry to see the serene justicar leave. There was something about the asari that calmed her and lent a zen-like atmosphere to the observation deck. But at least she knew that Samara would be back. Grunt had mentioned wanting to make good on his breeding requests and Zaeed had not wanted to get involved in anything that had to do with the Shadow Broker. It was just as well, Ezmay thought. The crew wasn't permanently gone. Samara and Zaeed had made sure she knew that their help was hers once the Reapers reappeared. Grunt had every intention of returning after siring a child or two. For now, it was simply less people for her to have to worry about on Elysium.
Garrus was conspicuously silent as they left the Normandy. His eyes flicked this way and that. This part of Elysium was still sparsely populated farmland. The airspace was free enough that they could land a ship of the Normandy's size without having to worry about atmospheric conditions. Plus, her grandparents owned the airfield, which helped. Was he staring because it was so much green, almost too much of the colour in one place? She dipped down into that well of feeling inside her gut, the one that had magically appeared after her time in the hospital in Nos Astra. Ezmay didn't think she'd ever understand how it was that she could actually sense what he was feeling. It was like something from a cheesy teen novel; but damned it wasn't handy as all get-out. Less mixup in communications. Less guesswork. He was feeling trepidation. Garrus Vakarian was nervous again. Imagine that.
She hooked a finger in the ammo pouch on his thigh plate and he turned those blue eyes on her. Yeah. She could see it in the set of his mandibles now. The tension contained and barely suppressed.
"Hey. You alright?" She asked.
"Are we going to have any trouble here?"
Ezmay shook her head, brushing the shiny, dark strands out of her face.
"Shouldn't. There's usually so many ships coming and going. They're not going to notice the Normandy. Besides…this strip is family-owned. No one else has any reason to be here."
Garrus turned his head away once more, surveying the tree line. She could see him finding sniper pits and vantage points, could imagine him finding all sorts of places for unseen enemies to hide. Ezmay sighed, and gestured to the huge house with a nod of her head. Miranda came up beside her. The loyalist had been quiet and contrite ever since their discussion in the comm room. Now she had a little bit of her old swagger back. She paused and propped a hand on her hip.
"This is the old digs, Commander?"
"Yes. Let the crew know that they're welcome to stay in whatever rooms they like while we're here. Tell them not to stray too far off the grounds. I don't want anyone hassling them in town. Anything they need can be found here." Ezmay glanced down at her omni-tool. "I've got provisions on the way up."
Miranda moved off to where the crew was off-loading supplies. The wind lifted her hair out of the way as she stepped close to Jacob and Councilor Anderson appeared walking out of the cargo bay.
"Just a moment." Ezmay's eyes narrowed and she strode away from Garrus.
"How long am I to be your hostage?" The Councilor asked Ezmay as she approached him.
"You're free to go whenever you want. If you want to go, I'll have someone take you to the nearest spaceport in the shuttle." She folded her arms and looked at him.
For a moment, the pose and look on Anderson's face was so similar to Garrus's that she had to glance over her shoulder at Garrus to verify the likeness. For a moment she got lost. The turian was staring at her. Standing there, with the green as a backdrop to his black and blue armour, he looked so godamn dangerous. He was alert and vigilant. She saw his eyes take in the line of her body. Felt the curl of lust in her belly that signaled his desire for her. The wind whipped black strands around her cheeks and eyes. Anderson's voice yanked her back to the present. She turned her face back, picking the hair out of her face with her fingertips.
"What if I wanted to stay?"
Ezmay stared at him. He couldn't be serious. What was the bunk he had fed her before, when she'd first come to the Citadel after her death? That he was too old and that the young kids should be the one doing the fighting?
"I don't think that would be a good idea." She didn't smile at him. If he thought that she was going to forget about him hiding Council stuff from her, he was dead wrong. "It would be a logistical nightmare, trying to protect a member of the Council during the kind of work we're about to be doing."
"Just let me stay until you find out what the Shadow Broker wants. Then you can 'release' me."
Ezmay clucked her tongue, making a disgusted sound underneath her breath. As she turned towards the house, Anderson moved with her. He spoke as they walked.
"Look, I just want to make sure that things….are fixed.."
"You want it all to go back to the way it was." She said flatly.
"I made a mistake."
"Let me explain something to you." Ezmay's boots crunched on the gravel as she stopped and faced him. "You see that turian over there? I care about him. I love him. And Velarn wants to treat me like I'm some sexual deviant preying on impressionable young turians. You let him. Which shocked the shit out of me, since you're one of the few people that I'd consider taking a bullet for. That hurt, Councilor."
"I'm sorry, Shepard." Anderson bent his head. "Really, I am."
Ezmay considered him for a moment. She honestly didn't know how she wanted things to end with him. She wanted to forgive the old man; he'd been like a father, like a big brother. More of a father than her biological dad was. There was the crux of it. She was still too mad about being thrown at the mercy of Velarn and the rest of the Council. Maybe she was more mad about that.
She shook her head.
"Listen, just give me some space, ok? You can stay until we find out what the Shadow Broker wants from us."
The old black man sagged. A smile ghosted over his mouth.
"Go on." She said. Forced some gentleness into her tone. "Go get settled in the house."
Ezmay got lost in thought as she watched Anderson walk off. Too many things on her mind right now. A breath shuddered into her lungs as she switched her focus to the house in the foreground. It rose imposing against the blinding blue sky of Elysium. Really, the damn thing was too grandiose. She should have persuaded her grandmother to sell the place long ago. Her grandparents spent most of their time on Earth, and god knows she didn't need the house when she spent so much time in space. For now, it would serve her purpose.
About the only thing that Garrus liked about the house was the fact that the ceilings were high enough that he didn't have to worry about bumping his head on doorways and such. Elysium was one of the older human colonies. The houses were older and he could tell this home was one of the first built. It was sprawling and entirely too open for his tastes. There were too damn many windows. He squinted, peering out the viewing window in the dining area. The world was dark outside. Night had settled in; he couldn't see the tree line. It made him nervous. This was a sniper's paradise, all open and well-lit and affording so many valuable angles. His talons curled at his thigh.
Garrus turned his thoughts to Ezmay and felt her waves of nostalgia. She was somewhere in the house, somewhere touching base with something that was bringing back memories. He took a breath in through his nose and smelled roses and nutmeg. That peculiar scent of Ezmay's was all around this massive house. It both disturbed him and relaxed him and left him in weird place where he was keyed up and not all at the same time.
When he'd entered the house, he'd set off to explore, to possibly find Ezmay while he did so. There was a lot he could learn about her in this house. Much he could use to understand some of her more bizarre traits. Here he was bonded to her and mated for life, yet there were still things he didn't understand about her. Also, he didn't like how open the house was. If there was one thing that could settle him down right now, it would be making sure they had a safe exit. Knowing exactly where the major weak points were.
Garrus went from room to room. The architecture was different from most modern houses. Newer conveniences like door panels that opened to the touch and voice-activated controls for lights and kitchen implements had been added post-construction. He could see where clumsy electricians had made installations and patched the plaster once more. He saw that the kitchen was made for an army of servants to serve up sumptuous banquets in the gaudy dining room. The library was crammed with actual paper books; that had been a new one for him. Paper was very rare on Palaven. Most everything for the turians had been digitized since before humans were even testing their ability to fly in space. He couldn't resist taking down a few books and turning the pages gently. The smell of paper and dust was ancient. He couldn't read the writing. Sure, one could work around another species or culture for so long and catch the basics. But he was by no means fluent. Garrus shook his head and put the book back on the shelf. In the hallway, he'd found a ledger on display that showed Ezmay's lineage all the way back over five generations. At least he knew where her swarthy colouring and her fierce temper came from now. Her family came from somewhere around Earth's equatorial belt…some place called Brazil. He tried to roll the syllables over his tongue. Couldn't make the 'B' sound.
Then he'd claimed a room for himself and her. Made himself comfortable on a veranda that gave him an excellent vantage point of the grounds surrounding the house. Somewhere off in the distance, waves crashed against a beach. Garrus could smell water and salt on the air. They weren't far from the coast. For a second, he berated himself for not noticing that as they'd flew in and landed. He'd been too absorbed studying the ring of vegetation that separated the house and grounds from the rest of the village. There he sat, hidden in shadows, observing the general ebb and flow of that little patch of Elysium.
The mind tends to wander when one is in such a peaceful environment. For whatever reason, his thoughts kept going to Palaven and his father. It was eating at him. Eventually, he was going to have to stop in and see his father. Introduce his mate. Take some heat for bonding with a human. Unnatural, it would be called. Sick. Wrong. Garrus bent his forehead to his sniper rifle. It was one thing to work alongside a capable human commander. It was quite another to take one to your bed. During his military training, they'd discussed the Relay 314 Incident. The classes had been sandwiched between classes on enemy anatomy and culture. Humans were squishy, impulsive, reckless. Yet they had military promise after what the turians had encountered on Shanxi, so they were to be shaped and guided as they made their way in the universe. Perhaps one day humanity could become a client race. Of course, they'd discussed xenophilia. Another cadet had likened Shanxi turians, as they were called, to lovers of bestiality. One might as well lie with vorcha or varren. He'd laughed along with the rest of them.
Hours passed. Garrus began to doze, his head dipping back to rest against the exterior of the house. His fringe brushed against the cowl of his armor. It felt so nice to nap and let himself slip into dreamland with the cool air dancing over his plates. Palaven was hot; this was refreshing. Still…there was nothing like a warm Palaven night. One of these days, he wanted to take her to the southern regions of Palaven and cover her in the tropical flowers that grew there. The thought made his chin and mandibles shiver with delight.
Then the click of the door snapped him back into wakefulness. Movement came from the room. He craned his neck to peer inside the illuminated window. Ezmay stood undoing her shirt. The rumpled tunic was discarded on top of a datapad that she'd carelessly tossed on the bed. Even from where Garrus sat, he could see the line of stress that ran through her. It was mirrored in his own body. The days of their honeymoon were very far away. Even though it had only been a couple weeks since they'd lain luxuriating in the sand and surf, it had still been too long. How in the world had he gotten this woman to bond herself to him? Moonlight glinted off of the metal on his talon. He tapped the ring against the butt of his sniper rifle. Forgotten it was there…it was a part of him. It was a curious thing to find yourself so enamoured with a person that you never wished to leave their side. Horny teenagers and breathless girls could imagine being carried away to happily-ever-after, but to find that one person….to find your teammate, your partner. Garrus shook his head. Almost laughed at himself. To find his mate outside of his own species…. Huh. Maybe Shanxi's sexual deviants had been on to something after all.
His rifle went abandoned, leaned against the exterior. Garrus crept to the doorway of the balcony. He waited there in the darkness until Ezmay was bending to undo the pressure clasps on her boots. For a split second, he was concerned that her instincts were so rusty. That she put her back to a door and didn't bother to check it. Then he pounced.
She shrieked when the talons clenched around her hips and lifted. There was just enough time to register the look of amusement flaring opening Garrus's mandibles before she faceplanted on the bed.
She'd often told him that life was a cotillion, that one had to roll the dice, to gamble, to waltz with whatever partner Fate put on your dance card. Garrus loved that she knew the difference between foreplay and an invitation to spar. He'd been about to launch himself at her when she rolled off the bed and dropped to her feet beside the mattress. Sometimes, sex just didn't cut it for stress relief. Sometimes, one needed to throw stuff around and get violent. From the glint in Ezmay's eyes and the flash of white teeth, Garrus suspected that she needed to beat the hell out of something almost as badly as he did.
He lunged at her and managed only to end up with a handful of black hair. Though he could yank on her hair and jerk her head this way and that, he had no real option here because the only logical move was to yank until her neck cracked. So he let her drop to her back, tugging him along, and bracing her feet on his chest. Garrus went flying end over end and thudded against the wall. Quick as a cat, Ezmay was perched on him. She pressed her forearm down over his throat.
A purr started low in his throat. Talons slid up over her legs, and squeezed Ezmay's rear through the rough fabric of her trousers. Maybe….maybe traditional tension release would do it after all… He began to rethink the sparring.
"No way." She kicked her feet, neatly pinning his wrists to the floor. "You started this.."
It left her vulnerable, all her weight off-balance like that. It was simple enough to flip her over, flip her onto her back. Her breath went out in a great puff. Now he had the advantage. He weighed more and was longer limbed. Their sparring session was brief. Garrus couldn't resist snapping the elastic strap of her bra that went up over her shoulder. Ezmay's lips twisted into a grin.
"Why're you so feisty all of a sudden?"
"There's something dirty about doing this here in your family home." He leaned close, letting her see the sharp teeth and the voracious gleam in his eye. Goosebumps raised on her skin.
"Thought you wanted to fight."
"I still do." He squeezed at her waist, scratched her with his claws. "Definitely."
He had the weight advantage and the long limbs, but she had the strong legs, heavily muscled from years of conditioning and running. A short human calf twisted around and caught him just in the groin. Ezmay's teeth flashed at him once more, and she rammed her shinbone as hard as she could into that armoured codpiece that protected his more…sensitive regions. It was times like this that made him very, very glad that he was not a human. Nor a krogan, no. No outer genitalia that was delicate and fragile and exposed to threat. She caught his armour, bruised her shin, and Garrus smiled at her.
He leaned down and nipped at her collar bone. Relished the sight of her chest heaving, of her ribcage fluttering in and out of view beneath her flesh as she breathed.
In the early days, turians had been taught that a delicate point on the human body was just at the top of the abdomen. Two well-placed and forceful claws could rip through the sternum and diaphragm and shred a human heart. Though he would never dream of hurting her, he placed his claws there now. Laid the sharp, dark nails against the flesh that was just exposed by the cross-piece of her bra and caressed the skin with his thumbpad. Ezmay's entire body was so fragile. Bones were broken easier, flesh rended, tissue damaged. She didn't have the natural protection that he did.
Garrus brought his nose up under her earlobe and inhaled. Mmm…warm…spicy.
She shuddered underneath him; he could see her nipples pebbling under the thin fabric of her bra.
"Are we fighting or fucking?" She asked him.
"Take your pick."
Her arms were up, on the cowl of his armour, soft tanned flesh pressed against the hardened blue ceramic. The contrast between fragility and invulnerability made Garrus's plates shift away.
"Take me to bed." Ezmay whispered.
Now he was the one to shudder.
Honestly, he'd slept for shit. It wasn't because of the sex. Plunging himself into Ezmay over and over again left him feeling wiped out, but content. And God knows there was something driving the two of them last night. They'd clung to each other and done all sorts of things that surely made Ezmay's ancestors blush here in this big, empty house. Pervert that he was, he couldn't stop touching her. And the little tease that she was, no sooner had he fallen exhausted in the sheets, then her hands were searching and exploring and stirring up another wave of desire. They'd sparred briefly, but it hadn't been the fighting that had managed to drive the stress out of them.
But holy hell, how hard it was to sleep when one couldn't simply turn off the lights and be enclosed in the total darkness of space. Usually the only light was from Ezmay's fish tank and whatever stars passed overhead. He wasn't used to the grey pre-dawn light filtering in the windows and the brilliant flowering of sunlight warming the surface of Elysium. For a second, as he'd groggily blinked through a haze of sleep and dreams, he'd thought he was back in his old barracks on Palaven. Been confused why there had been no general call to wake before dawn. Then Ezmay had shifted in her sleep and her arms had curled over his waist. He'd groaned at the brush of intense pleasure, found himself snapped back into his body with a wave of remembrance, and lost all interest in the morning.
Now here he was, rubbing his eyes and wondering if she'd be pissed if he left her to the call with the Shadow Broker and went to sleep for a couple more hours.
"…very happy to let you know that the Broker has an assignment that requires just your level of expertise and creativity."
Creativity, huh? The odd word choice woke him up a little.
"There's quite a delicate package changing hands in the Andromeda sector. We'll forward you the coordinates. Use of deadly force.." The agent demurred, smiled coyly. Garrus wanted to smack him. "..well, that's entirely up to you. Just be careful. You're moving something large, and extremely fragile."
"What the fuck? We're movers now? I thought the Broker only traded in information." Ezmay was belligerent, but that only seemed to amuse the agent.
"Nothing's ever what it seems, is it? Suffice it to say that we don't deal with some of the nastier things that Zael Hollinth did, but the truth of the matter is that people are willing to pay for things they want. It would just be poor business to turn customers away if one can provide."
"Fine, anyway.. Where are we dropping this package off?" Garrus interrupted.
"We'll come meet you. Just find a location that you feel affords us a degree of privacy, and contact me at this code. I'll arrange a pick up."
"Anything else we should know?" Ezmay asked.
"There might be some batarians involved in this." The agent said helpfully. "I'd take care if I were you."
The connection was cut. Ezmay stared at the screen, chewing her lip. At length she turned to Garrus.
"My god, he's a smarmy asshole, isn't he?"
"Always a pleasure to work with." Garrus agreed. "At least he forwarded over specs on the ship we're going to board."
Ezmay looked at the layout, turning the schematic this way and that to familiarize herself with the ins and outs of the ship.
"You realize this makes us pirates, don't you?" She said softly.
"We don't have to be the kind of pirates you're thinking of. Besides, this is Council-sanctioned piracy."
"Didn't think it'd be like this when I got to this age."
"We never end up where we think we should." Garrus patted Ezmay's ass. She swiped at him playfully and then her eyes turned sad.
"I don't want to have to kill anyone who doesn't need killing."
His claw hooked her belt and he pulled her close.
"We won't. Only necessary killing. I'll make sure to tell Jack that too."
Her face turned grim. Grunt and Zaeed were the obvious first choices for boarding a ship. Grunt was impressive and scary, and Zaeed had been in the galaxy long enough to have seen every trick in the book. But Jack came in as a sharp contender, since the tattooed biotic had done hostile boardings before. Garrus watched Ezmay's face and could have told anyone standing nearby what she was thinking.
How did I fall so low? This was not what either of them had in mind for a career path. Going covert ops was fine and dandy. But this had the stink of something off all over it.
"Okay…" She breathed. "Let's do this. Get a boarding party together. No unnecessary bloodshed."
Miranda and Mordin had been left in charge of the Normandy with a skeleton crew. With the absence of the Samara, Grunt, and Zaeed, and Thane spending an increasing amount of time in meditation and bedrest, they were a few people short. Each person had their own boarding party of five people. Ezmay looked around at her squads as Jack spoke. She figured it was best to let the experience pirate give the tips around here. Besides, Jack was in fine form, lecturing with a glitter in her eye, her hands gesturing wildly and waving the shotgun around, as well as the periodic biotic flare when her adrenaline got up. She even had a black bandanna tied over her bald head that had the old traditional Jolly Roger on it. Ezmay had to restrain the grin; hell…when one goes to the prom, one dresses up, right?
"Alright, fuckers, here's the deal. No one knows a ship better than the people who live on it every day. Except maybe the designers or the engineers and I don't see them here. What I see is a bunch of assholes who've never gotten up close and personal with people who're pretty godamn sure they're about to die." Jack was pacing, and when Ezmay looked over at Garrus, there was an smile on his face. He was just as amused by this as Ezmay was. "Captain says no unnecessary killing. You military types may think that's bullshit."
Out of the corner of her eye, Ezmay saw Jacob exchange a glance with one of the security crew.
"Actually, it may be one of the smartest godamn things you've ever heard come out of her mouth. People are more likely to surrender, and make this whole job easier, if they think that surrendering's going to keep them from getting killed. People who have nothing to lose fight like there's nothing to lose. Now since our Captain here…" Jack gestured to Ezmay. "..Has not established her reputation as a blood-drinking, puppy-kicking she-bitch of a pirate, we're probably going to meet some resistance. There will be booby-traps, there will be people dropping out of the ceiling or popping up out of the floor. There will be situations where you think you've got hostages and then one of them decides he's a hero."
Ezmay cut in. This was probably a good thing because Jack showed no sign of stopping her tirade.
"Try to keep it to wounding and maiming." Her voice was less frantic than Jack's. "Restraints, unconsciousness, that sort of thing. We're not a bunch of scumbags here. Let's not act like it."
From here they waited. They'd fired a few times; disabled the ship's drives. When Joker got them within range, they'd drop their environmental masks and the temporary bulkhead would be shunted over to create a fragile, airtight, air-filled tunnel between the two cargo bays. From there, they'd take the main cargo bay. Jack had happily volunteered to make her way all the way up to the other ship's CIC and take charge of the vessel. While she did this, the other crews would sweep out and take the remaining decks. While they planned, Ezmay had caught herself thanking whatever Gods were around to hear that the prize ship only had a couple of decks. They were stretched thin as it was.
There was a shriek of metal as EDI calculated and extended the temporary bulkhead. Jack racked a round into her shotgun. She looked over at Ezmay, who looked calmly back at the biotic. An evil grin spread across the convict's face.
"We haven't discussed shares yet, Captain."
Ezmay was almost positive that Jack was just baiting her. The girl had hooted with delight when she'd heard about the mission and had insisted on calling Ezmay captain rather than commander.
"This isn't piracy, Jack. There are no shares."
"Call it what you want. We're boarding a ship and taking cargo. Far as I know, you don't have a letter of marque. That's piracy."
"One boarding does not a pirate make." She had to fight from bristling even as Jack started laughing.
"You know, if you're going to establish a reputation, you need a name." Jack's eyes darted towards the cargo bay door. The noises on the other side….well…if Ezmay had ever wondered what robots having sex sounded like, now she had a good idea. "You know, like the Spaniard, or Calico Shepard, or something."
"Her family's from Brazil." Garrus's voice whipped Ezmay's head around. She leveled a glare at him.
"Garrus, don't encourage her!"
"There was a pirate named Roche Braziliano way back in ancient times." Jack nodded, smiling in satisfaction. "Yeah. That's nice. I'm calling you The Braziliana from now on."
"Don't you dare." Ezmay said. Outside the cargo door, the latches sealed. They all heard the heavy rush and hiss of the tunnel airing up.
"Like you can stop me." Jack grinned, and turned, hefting the shotgun. "Archangel and The Braziliana. Got a ring to it."
The evo masks went on, and people began to move out. Ezmay glanced at Garrus through the shade of her Death Mask.
"Nice. Way to get her started." She tried to make her voice sound accusatory. Didn't really work.
One could nearly hear adrenaline dumping into veins and arteries as Jacob came forward to open the airlock of the prize ship. Ice had built up over the handle and keypanel from months in space. Garrus focused on the little silver chips as they floated through zero-g over their heads. Thank gods for magnetic boots.
"Positions, people." Ezmay said. She was in Commander mode now. Even Jack nodded and fell to the side. They all hugged the walls, trying to make smaller targets of themselves. EDI told them that most of the other ship's lifesigns were in the cargo bay. "Let's get ready for the welcome party."
Tali finished fiddling with the keypanel, and nodded at Jacob, who hefted and twisted the manual lock. Air popped and rushed when the door swung open. The airlock was silent. Ezmay jerked her head at Jack.
"Concussion grenades out." The biotic and three other crewmen tossed, nearly in unison. Two seconds, a short cry from inside the cargo bay, and the explosions made both ships shudder.
Ezmay's people flooded in.
It was a brief, violent struggle to take the cargo hold. It wasn't entirely bloodless, but no one died that she could tell. Within twenty or thirty minutes, they had everyone rounded up and bound with two of the crewmen at guard.
Privately, Garrus had told Ezmay that the captain traditionally takes the CIC with her own party, but she'd insisted on remaining in the cargo bay so they could search for the Shadow Broker's package. If it was really as precious as the Broker made it out to be, she wanted to personally oversee it. So Ezmay looked at Jack, and waved the biotic on. Anyhow, if Jack failed to take the ship, they might be able to make off with the Broker's package before the prize ship was able to reclaim the cargo bay.
Jack was all business as she moved off. Ezmay could swear, though, that she heard a shriek of 'For the Braziliana!' before the doors shut behind her.
"Holy hell." Ezmay swore.
The prisoners were batarians all. They knelt with their hands laced behind their hands. She noted grimly that they were all dirty, and had the sallow olive colour of having not eaten in a while. They flinched away as she swung her glance over them. Might have been the Death Mask, might have been all the guns.
Armoured footsteps were the only sound, aside from whimpering and grunt of pain. It was a tense half-hour while they waited for Jack to take the ship. There was enough time for Tali to notice and complain about an odor. It was heavy. Musky. When Tali mentioned it, suddenly it became the only thing they could smell. Now that the smell of the concussion grenades was dying, it was all around them. Off in the darkness of the cargo bay, there was a grind of a metal container being opened.
"What the fuck is that stench?" Ezmay said more to herself than anyone. Godamn, was it the batarian crew? It was coming in through her breather since she wasn't running off of her suit. It was almost unbearable.
"Uh…Ezmay..?" Garrus called out.
He said her first name, where he would have usually called her commander, which was her first clue that something was wrong. Her shotgun flipped up and rested on her shoulder as she moved off in the direction of his voice. It wasn't lost on her that several of the batarians began eyeing one another.
She found Garrus back in the far corner of the cargo bay. There was a slight breeze here and it was a little warmer than the rest of the bay. Ezmay found her turian staring blankly into the open container. His sniper rifle had sagged until the edge of the barrel was leaning on the floor. When he heard her round the corner, he looked at her and shook his head.
"What?" She asked. What could have possibly found that put him in such a blank, helpless state?
When she got to him, she swung around to peer into the container and felt herself come up short. There were literally no words she could summon to mind. Surprise. She felt as thrown off-balance as Garrus was acting. They simply stood there, staring into the crate, completely at a loss for words.
The horse stared back at them. Large brown eyes rimmed with obscenely long lashes blinked, glanced around nervously. It chuffed air out of its nostrils. At least they could narrow down the source of the odor that was sickening them all.
A horse. The Shadow Broker sent them to steal a fucking horse.
Ezmay turned, glancing to where the crew was pacing, and then her eyes strayed back to Garrus. He shrugged at her, a heavy wave of blue ceramic. His chest was heaving in short, sharp hitches. If he was laughing, she was going to kill him.
"Godammit." She said.