It was a perfect setup.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a perfect setup for them.
The installation's central corridor was about fifty meters long, but barely wide enough for three people to stand shoulder-to-shoulder. In defiance of all good-sense spacecraft engineering, there were no pressure bulkheads, service hatches, or other structures along its length. Nothing to use for cover. Which meant that two of the three men at the other end had a completely unobstructed field of fire for their high-end sniper rifles. Allen, in the center, had another figure kneeling in front of him, one hand clamped on her shoulder and the other holding a heavy pistol to the back of her head. Garrus drew in a breath.
"Mom! Dad!" Ashley's voice was raw as she looked up. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, this is all my fault." She was pale, hair stringy and eyes red, her wrists chafed where they were locked together in front of her by a pair of magcuffs.
"Yes, yes." That voice, still perfectly smug. "Don't worry dear. You'll have plenty of time to contemplate that soon enough. But for now, Commander Shepard, Mister Vakarian, your shields off, please. And you can drop your weapons carriers." Garrus gritted his teeth, but punched up his omnitool and stabbed at a couple buttons. His kinetic barriers flared and died, and the four-point weapons carrier on his back, normally an integral part of the armor, dropped down to the deckplates. "Very good. Here's how this works. I will give the go signal. When that happens, young Miss Ashley will walk towards your end, and Commander Shepard will walk towards mine. They will not stop, slow, pause, or hesitate. After the exchange is complete, you turn and walk away, and our business will be complete." Garrus felt a knot twist in his stomach. Tough setup. He and Jane would have their pistols, but they'd be starting without shields at a range extreme for pistols but ridiculously short for high-end rifles. He knew they were better than anyone over there. They could probably take them. But not before the thugs gunned down probably one of them, maybe both, and definitely Ashley.
"Understood." Jane's voice was as cold as rain on pounded sheet metal. Garrus felt the knot inside him twist and fold into rage. He stabbed a finger at Allen.
"You son of a bitch. Do you think you can get away with this? Do you think I won't catch you?"
Allen laughed. "Oh, Mister Vakarian. Based on your performance here, I have a very good idea of exactly when you will catch me. And if I play my cards right, I will manage to make your wife suffer for every minute of that time, just so you can watch the light go out of her eyes when you kick that last door down. You see, I don't care if I die, as long as this time I win."
Garrus' mouthparts splayed full-open, an unconscious turian threat display that was the equivalent of a scream of pure rage. "You sick bastard! If that's your deal, then maybe you can just-"
"Hey." Garrus turned his head, and saw Jane with a funny little half-smile. The same one she'd had when he first told her that he loved her. The same one she'd had just before she proposed on the Citadel. The same one she'd had, watching Ashley in a cradle in the orphanage nursery while the paperwork cleared. "Garrus. Don't blow this."
"Dammit, Shepard, weren't you listening? He's going to torture you to death. Hell, he'll probably kill us once he's got his hands on you."
Jane shook her head. "Nah. I know the type. It's no good for him unless there's a survivor to suffer afterwards. He'll let you two go." Her smile flickered just a bit, took on just a hint of an edge, one Garrus had last seen when she told the Hammer forces that once they broke through the Reapers would be finished. "And then you stay on his tail, and extract me."
"Spirits! That's not an extraction plan, Shepard, that's self-immolation. You know he'll probably have you wired to some kind of deadman switch. Which means-"
"What?" She leaned forward. "Which means what? I die, Ash lives?" Garrus felt a flash of decades-old guilt at that. Last time, on Virmire, Ash died and Shepard lived, and he knew part of her had never been able to forgive that. "Worse case, yeah. Unless you'd prefer it the other way round. That the way you want me, Garrus?"
Garrus' fringe drooped. He looked down at the floor, seeing the harsh light on it blur. "No." He could barely say it. But it was the truth.
"Okay. Then I have to go get our little girl back." A finger under his chin, and he was made to look down at her. "No matter what, I love you. Don't forget."
"If you two are quite finished?" Allen's voice cut through the moment like a buzzsaw. "I don't mean to rush you, but my trigger finger's a bit tired and it just might slip." Shepard scowled and tilted her head towards him.
"Allright, you bastard!" Looked back to Garrus. Smiled. Touched two fingers to her lips and pressed them to his mouthparts. Then turned away.
"Ashley." Her voice was loud without being a yell, perfectly calm. "When he says walk, walk." Ash opened her mouth, and Shepard held up a hand. "Don't argue. Just keep walking and don't look back, no matter what you see or hear. I love you." Ash was crying softly, but she managed to nod.
"Go." At Allen's word he pitched Ashley forward, and Shepard took his first step. Garrus didn't know where to put his eyes. At his Ashley, sunken-cheeked and sallow but coming back towards him…or at Jane, the only woman in the galaxy brave and smart and crazy enough to love him, walking away. Both of them walked towards the center, straight ahead. Ash's hands were squeezed tightly into fists as she drew within five steps of her mother.
No. Wait. They were moving.
Ashley kept her eyes locked straight ahead, her shoulders straight. She didn't let herself look at Dad, watching her come closer with entire body clenched fist-tight, or at Mom, marching forward with eyes fixed on her daughter's face. All her attention was in her fingertips as she plucked at the sleeve of her shirt, mapping the folds of it by touch and silently working out the motions she would have to take. There would be just one chance.
A half-step ahead of her she saw Mom's eyes flick away from her and towards Allen's men. Which meant they'd gotten her attention. Which meant that right now, they were all watching the Spectre, and not the hostage.
Ash jammed one hand forward, pushing as hard as she could. For a frozen, terrifying moment she was afraid she'd missed, lost her chance. Then the metal screw she'd grabbed on her first trip to see Allen slid home into the hole she'd laboriously made in her magcuffs, working the plates apart in the dark hour after hour. There was a small spark and the screw suddenly jumped out of her hands, burning the skin- but it shorted out the cuffs and left Ashley's hands free. Before they hit the deck she stopped, spun around, and grabbed the pistol off Mom's hip, snapping it up and praying she'd judged her moment right.
And then she knew she had. Allen's men had their muzzles covering Mom. She focused on the one on the right. Older man. Balding. Eyes wide as he took in the unexpected movement, muzzle of his rifle shifting to cover Ashley. Target. All she had time to think was that he was a target, just paper like at the range when she'd learned to shoot. Just paper, just paper, and then she felt the gun go off. Kept her eyes on the target as she pulled the trigger over and over, even when the first phasic round from Mom's hand cannon punched through his shields and burst his head open with a sickening splat.
A heavy weight punched into Ashley's back, and she hit the deck hard, air going out of her lungs. The force jerked her finger on the pistol's trigger again, round going high and spranging off the ceiling. She saw the other man's rifle come down to finish her, then saw it topple backwards as Dad's rifle spoke behind her. Then the weight came off her all at once, and a black streak slammed into Allen as he stood, gaping and still trying to process what was going on. He hit the ground, hard, and Ashley dared to look up at where Mom had him pinned to the ground.
Somewhere, far away, she heard a soft ping as the screw finally hit the deck plates.