Miranda opened her eyes, slowly – the light from the artificial sun of the Presidium had slowly peaked through the silk sheets that covered the window, and onto her face. She raised a hand slowly to block it, blinking her eyes a couple of times to get rid of the grogginess. She eventually turned her head away and found herself staring at the still sleeping face of her lover.
Shepard was still fast asleep, and a smile crept onto Miranda's blushing face as she recalled the time they shared last night. Her fingers gently traced the outlines of the muscle on his arms – and she let out a quiet laugh as a smile crept onto his dreaming face. She leaned in closer, kissed him on the forehead, and turned to get out of bed.
She let out a yawn and stretched as she stood up, wondering what she should do to surprise Shepard when he woke up. Running a hand through her hair, she turned and looked at the small table in front of the couch, smiling at the still half filled glasses of wine and the abundance of uneaten strawberries.
'Breakfast!' The thought popped into her mind. They didn't get the chance to drink or eat much last night, she thought, being too busy attending to… other things.
'He's bound to be hungry when he wakes up,' she looked back to him. Giving a quick nod, she picked up her dress from last night, quickly put it on – and walked to the door.
"Hmm, where are you going?" A voice behind her asked.
She turned, and looked at Shepard, who had propped himself up and was staring at her groggily, "I'll be back, Shepard," she said, winking as she turned and exited.
He smiled– and fell back into his sleep.
Judging by the position of the sun in the skyline, it was roughly noon when Miranda stepped out into the calm streets of the Presidium, slightly embarrassed by her appearance – but not caring when she thought once again of the reason why her hair was a mess and her makeup gone.
As she began walking in the direction that Shepard and she had walked last night, she noticed two turians on a bench near the water in the midst of a very heated discussion. A few other people were also watching them as they passed, she observed. One salarian in particular stood out from the rest of the crowd, and immediately Miranda felt uneasy. He was leaning against the wall, his gaze in the opposite direction of the turians. She followed the direction of his concentrated stare, but there was absolutely nothing to see.
"That's strange," she whispered to herself, perking a brow in curiosity.
'No, it's not," she scolded herself almost immediately. 'Not everyone is out to get you, Miranda.'
Putting her thoughts on Shepard once more, she left her paranoia where she stood and continued on her search to find a market, hoping to find a terminal that would give her directions to the nearest store. She didn't know of one specifically on the Presidium, but she was optimistic that she would find one with the things she was looking for without having to resort to going down to the Wards.
The walkways were crowded with people at this hour and the further Miranda walked, the worse it got. Ambassadors and Emissaries of every race were rushing to their meetings and diplomatic conferences – each of them vying to get their own position on the Council. It was a dense crowd, and at one point, a man even ran into her, turning her around. A sharp pain ran down her arm, and as she looked, down she realized the man had scratched her and blood started to trickle from a tiny pin-prick looking hole. Fuming, Miranda had to quell the urge to put her biotics to good use, but the man never even gave her a second glance. Using her dress to wipe the wound, she watched him disappear into the crowd for a second before turning – and then froze. She turned back quickly, absolutely sure she had seen the same sketchy salarian from earlier, but he was nowhere to be seen.
'Pull yourself together, for god's sake," she reprimanded herself. Taking a few deep breaths, Miranda proceeded in her search for a market.
She let out a small sigh of relief when she came across a small market in the northern section of the Presidium. It wasn't much, she realized as she got closer, but it would do. She stepped inside and started searching for the items she needed. From the corner of her eye, Miranda saw him once more – the salarian that had been following her – staring at her from the building next door. Finally sure that she wasn't just being paranoid, she turned and started to approach him. For one brief second, his eyes met hers - and then he disappeared into the alley between the two businesses. Quickening her pace, she gave chase, determined to find out why he was following her.
As she rounded the corner, she saw him standing there, just a few feet off, looking directly at her – almost as if he was waiting for her.
"Good afternoon, Miss Lawson," he said.
She paused, casting a glare at the salarian, "What do you want? Why have you been following me?"
"Well," he shifted his weight slightly, "That's quite a rude way to say hello to someone."
"You've been following me for the past 20 minutes – I'd say that would kill any pleasantries that would be exchanged."
"Maybe I was admiring your beauty?"
"So you're a stalker? Doubt it."
He smirked, bringing his right hand up to scratch his scalp, "Well then. I see you are one who likes to get straight to the bottom of things, so I'll be pretty blunt; I want to hire you."
The offer caught her off guard, "Excuse me?"
"You heard me. My employer and I are in need of someone with your… expertise."
"And how, exactly, do you know what my expertise is?"
"My business is information, Miss Lawson – and I make it a habit to know as much as I can about high ranking Cerberus officers."
"Ex-Cerberus," she corrected, "Who is your employer?"
"Someone who is not on friendly terms with your old employer - He'd like to bring you on for a highly classified research mission."
"Who - is your employer?" She reiterated, her tone more demanding.
The salarian paused, placing his hands inside his pockets, "I am an Agent for the Shadow Bro-"
"Not interested," she interrupted, turning to walk away.
"Oh, but I think you will be."
Miranda stopped, his sudden confidence causing her alarm. She turned and faced the Agent, "And why is that?"
"Because if you don't do what I ask, then I'm going to have to kill you," he took his left hand out of his pocket, a small silver cylinder in his hand.
Miranda began to glow with biotics, grinning, "I'd like to see you try."
The salarian laughed, "Oh, I won't even break a sweat. In fact," he toyed with the small cylinder, "The only muscles I'll be moving are the ones in my finger."
Her brow raised in curiosity, "What is that?" she asked, nodding towards the cylinder.
"It's a remote, Miss Lawson - the remote that controls the micro-virus coursing through your veins right now."
"Excuse me?"
"That man who bumped into you earlier injected you with it. Had you not been distracted by your paranoia, you would've noticed the pin prick wound. The Shadow Broker knew you'd play hard to get – so he decided to make this easy. It's a simple thing to follow – do what he wants, you live. Don't… well…"
A devilish grin appeared on his face, "You will die… but first, we'll kill Commander Shepard."