Chapter Six.

Rizok opened the entrance door with ease and slipped his large figure into the public house. The place was a complete dive and these sorts of surroundings made him feel much more comfortable in comparison to such a pristine, sterile environment such as the Citadel. Inside he was greeted almost immediately by the rising sour smell of alcohol and glancing across the venue he could see that the tobacco smoke hung close to the ceiling like a heavy, gray storm cloud. Squinting through the smoke he was able to make out the bar and just as he expected, the hanar manager was floating around the back of it as usual, serving a broad range of customers from humans to volus. He nodded to the hanar as he acknowledged it's presence and the hanar courteously waved a tentacle in his direction by way of greeting.

"This one welcomes you with warm hospitality, please take a seat!" the hanar chimed with an over-eager manner. He was serving five customers at once, pumping the alcohol from their taps with two tentacles whilst handing glasses to their rightful owners with three others. Rizok snorted in amusement, this was the main reason why the hanar's patrons called his bar the best in town.

The krogan shook his head dismissively, "Not yet Tournon, I'm looking for a friend of mine."

"Ahh, I see. This one suspects that you mean that one over there in the lounge." Tournon bought himself around to the side of the bar then clapped two of his front tentacles together. Seconds later a human waitress came over to him to see what it was to be needed and Rizok observed how drawn and haggard she looked. He supposed it was through serving rowdy customers all day; but just from looking at her he could see that she was still very fluid and graceful with her motions and just before he had time to finish that thought the waitress was approaching him quite swiftly but not without some caution in her step.

She warily eyed the eight-foot krogan and kept a fair distance away from his hulking body. "Sir, please…" She began meekly "…over this way."

The krogan followed closely behind the waitress, carefully avoiding stepping on the back of her heels. As they neared the lounge area, an ochre-coloured salarian rose from his seat by the furthest table and reached out both his hands as if a long lost family member had just interrupted him and surprised him. Rizok refused to return the embarrassing gesture and simply stood before the salarian with his arms crossed.

"Yes yes, Rizok is it?" The salarian seemed ruffled by the krogan's lack of manners. "I've been waiting in this dreadful place for a whole five minutes. You're late."

The waitress turned and bowed her head to both patrons to excuse herself but not before Rizok caught the eye rolling she meant for the salarian as she walked away. Rizok smirked slightly in response before turning his attention back to the salarian. He was quite extravagantly dressed for someone who did most of his dealings on Omega and he suspected that his dealings paid well in order for him to dress so smartly and act so uppity in a dump like this.

"I was delayed and five minutes is hardly something to be pissed about." The krogan casually quipped, shifting from one foot to the other with his arms still folded against his chest.

"I don't like your tone." The salarian retorted in disgust "I'm a very busy man Rizok, I don't have time to dwell in such…" He paused, grimacing in distaste as he quickly scanned his eyes over the lounge. "…Surroundings."

"Then lets get down to business." Rizok huffed and pulled out a stool from beneath the table, anyone else looking at the sight of the giant krogan sitting on a small seat would've had to resist the urge to stare.

"Yes… well" The salarian took his cue to be seated and pressed down his gowns behind him before sitting delicately down on his stool. "The matter of this data you required out in the traverse… of what value is it to me?"

The krogan shrugged with genuine honesty, "I don't know, I haven't read the data yet as I haven't had the time to decrypt it." He popped open the underbelly of his omni-tool and pulled out an OSD before placing it down in front of himself on the table. "I did find some logs on the ship's computer though, there seemed to be some obvious distress amongst the crew. Something about not being able to navigate through dense patches of space, no stars, no light except for inside of the vessel and from the sounds of it, they were terrified..."

Keene's eyes grew wider as Rizok explained his findings but they never shifted from the OSD disc that was sat beyond his grasp. Rizok frowned and placed his hand over the disc and the salarian quickly raised his gaze back onto the krogan's face.

"So… you're obviously not interested in what happened to the crew." The krogan began in a restless tone "but you're interested in what's on this disc?" He shifted around uncomfortably in his seat as he waited for an answer. He didn't know what it was about Keene that gave him the chills. "How much are you gonna give me for it?"

Keene began stammering a little as if he was rudely interrupted from deep thought. "I… I... must have this." The rattling motions that his eyes were making in their sockets were beginning to make Rizok feel on edge "10,000 credits! Right away… for that disc."

Rizok began to rise from his seat and the salarian panicked, rising up with him. "15,000! I meant 15,000 of course!" He stumbled as he rose to his feet and Rizok noticed Keene was trembling fiercely.

The krogan tossed the disc onto the table and Keene fumbled at it, panting as he fell on his knees to the floor while clawing at the disc on the table until it was in his hands.

"You mustn't… mustn't tell anyone about this." The salarian looked up at the monstrous bulk before him with wild, desperate eyes. His hands still clutching around the disc as if he were a beggar caught with a stale piece of bread. "You mustn't!"

The krogan had already turned his back on Keene whilst walking away towards the front of the bar. He raised a hand up above his head nonchalantly as the salarian followed him out of the bar with his feral eyes, the knuckles on his hands growing whiter until they looked like bone.

"Mustn't."

Once outside, Rizok attempted to shake out the images of the creepy salarian from his head and leant himself up against the wall of the bar's side alleyway. He had met a few odd characters in his time but he never met one that acted so calm and collected one moment to acting so wild and desperate the next - especially without good reason.

Coming into the possession of that OSD was no easy task either. A crewmember on one of the Alliance freighters just beyond Terra Nova salvaged some of the debris that floated towards one of the small beacons that he was on duty to repair. Rizok was old friends with the engineer and between them they decided to split the credits if they were even able to sell the thing. A few days ago, the engineer made the drop off with the Blue Savannah, smuggling in arms as well as the OSD. Both men had to be quick though; anything out of the ordinary was promptly reported back to Alliance headquarters and in turn would attract the attention of the council. Rizok was prepared to sell it to a contact in the Attican Beta who was working for the Shadow Broker but they had only offered him 7,000 for it. The krogan was surprised at how much he got for it from Keene but the salarian had taken a much eager interest in his findings than the Shadow Broker did, he didn't think anything was strange about Keene to begin with, until now.

And then there were the snipers on Amaranthine that he crossed after he made his pick up. He initially thought it was a double cross by the Blue Savannah; it would make sense that they wouldn't want the Alliance shutting them down for arms dealing if one of their suppliers decided to spill their guts. But he felt uneasy; there was also the off chance that he was already being tracked down by a Spectre.

Sounds of gunfire began to echo throughout the area and he glanced around the corner with one squinted crimson eye before gruffly peeling himself away from the wall. He coughed once and spat on the ground, groaning at the sight of the blood still congealed within the mucus. It could be weeks before his lungs began to heal, he strode away towards the residential area of the city, too lost in his own thoughts to even notice the panic on the streets.

Within moments, Rizok was lost amongst the sea of the crowd that was rushing away to either escape the gunfire or rushing to get away from each other.