Today was the day. They had to hit the Shadow Broker and move. Cerberus still had the Normandy's frequency to send them a message, which meant they could find the ship and Shepard if they really wanted to. They were being helpful, despite the dissolution of their partnership, but that didn't mean she trusted them to not chase after her. The encrypted message provided information on the location of the Shadow Broker. Why Cerberus didn't go after the monster themselves she didn't know. This worried her. If TIM was unwilling to go after the Shadow Broker himself, there was something that wasn't right about the situation. Garrus met her at the forward docking hatch in full armor and weapon accompaniments, just in case. Thane wore nothing more than his usual leathers and guns of choice. Shyra smirked to herself at his confidence. There was so much to love and admire about him. He must have noticed the glint in her eye that he knew so well because he shifted in a way that she knew meant he'd discovered something that was meant to be hidden. It made her cheeks flush that he knew her so completely. It seemed foolish, after all they had shared much more than a hidden smirk in their marriage. In a way the little things like that kept them both interested, not that they needed the help. Shepard brushed a stray hair from her cooling cheeks and put on the mask of Commander for the mission.
"Okay, men. Let's go." She ordered.
The two followed her down the ramp and through the familiar hall and across the trading floor. The salarian secretary still manned the desk. He didn't look up this time, averting his eyes from Thane's direction and opened the doors to T'Soni's office without a word. As the trio entered her office, however, he did allow himself a peek at the drell's back before the doors closed behind them. He was rewarded with a glimpse of the small patch of exposed green scales in the upper center of Thane's back. The corners of his lips turned up in a secret smile, the he returned his attentions to the console. He typed a little faster than he had been.
Liara greeted the Commander with a cool professionalism. She did not rise or even look up from her console. Shepard took the single chair that sat opposite the Information Broker.
"Shepard, it's good to see you again. So, what can I do for you?"
Shepard looked at the asari as a near stranger. She wondered just how far she could trust this new Liara T'Soni, the infamous Information Broker.
"Cerberus passed along some information about the Shadow Broker. Interested?"
This got Liara's attention as if Shepard had suddenly burst into flames. She looked up with wide eyes, but her voice remained calm and smooth as ever.
"Absolutely. I had no idea! Let me see what you've got."
Shepard handed over the data pad containing the attached information from Cerberus. The Illusive Man was not concerned with helping Liara. He only wanted revenge for the Shadow Broker's involvement with helping the Collectors to destroy humanity. Liara activated the data pad. The images were reversed on the other side of the transparent screen. Shepard could see a salarian, then star charts as Liara scanned through the information.
"It looks like a linked transmission between Shadow Broker operatives, some hints to the location and..."
Liara's voice trailed off and here eyes narrowed and softened when the image of a drell appeared on the data pad. She felt as thought her heart might stop beating.
"It's about Feron. He's still alive!" She said.
"Your friend?" Shepard inferred, "The one who helped recover my body from the Shadow Broker?"
"The same. He sacrificed himself to save me. I never found anything suggesting he was alive. After two years I... hadn't even dreamed..."
Liara set the data pad on her desk. Her eyes lingered on the image of Feron. Shepard wondered just how good of friends the two had become.
"It sounds like you were close." She said.
"It's funny..." Liara replied, her eyes looking into a dark corner of the office. "He betrayed me more than once. He was double dealing for Cerberus, for the Shadow Broker, but in the end he sacrificed himself for me. I owe him."
"Any friend of yours is a friend of mine." Shepard told her without a moment of hesitation or reserve. "What's the next step?"
"Ha," Liara scoffed. "I don't know. I need to prepare. To think."
She grabbed a picture off her desk and kept the image to her thigh.
"I'm going home. Use my terminal if you need any local intel."
Shepard watched her old friend round the desk. She looked shaken, as much as Liara had ever looked shaken by anything since her rescue from the Prothean containment field.
"Are you okay?" Shepard asked.
Liara didn't look up or even pause in her steps. "I've spent two years plotting revenge. Now I have the chance to make it a rescue."
With the last of her words she stopped to look back at the Commander.
"You're not alone. I am here to help. Me and the boys will come by your apartment?" Shepard offered nodding to Garrus and Thane. Liara kept her eyes on Shepard.
"Okay. Hopefully I'll have a plan by then." A small smirk pulled at her pink lips, "Thank you, Shepard."
Liara T'Soni gracefully, but decidedly left her office with Shepard, Garrus and Thane inside. Shepard turned to face her team after glancing down at the console on Liara's desk. She met Thane's eyes first, then Garrus'. Both could have had steel for blood. She activated her omni-tool com.
"Tali, get up here and dig through these files. I need anything Liara may have missed."
"Aye, aye." Tali replied promptly.
The omni-tool deactivated as Shepard lowered her arm.
"This is the first step. We have to get access to the Shadow Broker's files. Everything he has on The Illusive Man must be recovered."
Neither alien responded. They didn't need to. She knew them as well as they knew her. The conviction in her eyes could have provided confidence enough for an army of warriors. The Illusive Man would not live to see many more old stars die before his own light was snuffed out.