Parallax

By Celtican

Five: The Game's Afoot!

"...when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains – however improbable – must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes

[Kaidan]

For a boozed-out dive of a place tucked in a back alley of Zakera Ward, Chora's Den was adequately busy. The music was some rehashed remix of a rehashed remix of a vaguely popular asari song, and predictably loud enough to make his heart throb with the music (whether he wanted it to or not.) Kaidan saw the first fuzzy-edged auras appearing around tables, chairs, and the nimble asari dancer shaking her ass above the bar; he knew he'd be punching a ticket to migraine-ville later, and groaned.

"What's wrong, LT?" Chief Williams asked. "Too many boobs, not enough eyeballs?" She grinned playfully when he rolled his eyes.

"I wish that was my problem, Chief," Kaidan replied, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Hang in there, Alenko," Shepard said, an arched eyebrow the only sign she found Williams' statement humorous. "We'll be out of here once we find Harkin...the music sucks here anyway."

Alenko chuckled, surprised at the candor from Shepard, of all people. During the flight from Eden Prime to the Citadel, Shepard introduced herself to each member of the crew, giving more time than the abrupt inspection when she'd first boarded the ship. He found it amazing how easily the commander found inroads into people; he was equally surprised to find his commanding officer attractive, intelligent, and a lot less frigid than he'd heard. She was shorter than he was, barely coming up to his chin. She had glossy black hair cropped close to her skull, but the look didn't take away from her femininity. Her brown eyes gave away what she was thinking, especially when she was angry; it didn't help that the scar across them flushed red with her temper. A part of him had wondered what it would be like to run his thumb across it, weirdly enough. In a moment of (stupid) boldness, he'd asked why she'd kept the scar. She'd tilted her head to the side, thought about it, then said, "It seemed like I should, some how. To prove that I'd been there. I survived when the others didn't, and..." she'd hesitated, then been interrupted by a crewman with some report or another. That's how he'd figured out that her eyes were her tell; she'd seen the interruption and taken it as a relief. Akuze still bothered the hell out of Shepard, but she hid it well.

In addition to digging up mysteries about Shepard, Kaidan had spent time in the cargo hold getting to know Ashley Williams. She was smart, funny, and good-looking too, but not the way that had fascinated him, like Shepard. For someone with her skills, she didn't belong on a backwater colony maintaining weapons that were only used in extraordinary circumstances...which is what had happened. She'd rallied her troops and survived...again, like Shepard. Clearly, Shepard knew this as well, for she'd made it a priority to keep the chief busy, leaving little time to dwell on her fallen friends.

Now, in the throbbing dark flesh circus of Chora's Den, Kaidan wondered how much of Shepard's intuition was her, and how much of it stemmed from her infiltration training at N7.

"There, at that back table, near the turian," Ashley said, indicating the table with a nod of her head and not pointing. Shepard and Kaidan looked, seeing an aging human with brown hair tucking a credit chit into a waitress' g-string. He saw the small patch of scar over Shepard's nose wrinkle, in annoyance or disgust he couldn't tell

"Good eye, chief. I think the turian's on my list of 'people to talk to or else I can't get anything done in this fucking place,' anyway. Let's talk to him first, then find out where our friendly neighborhood C-Sec agent is," Shepard said snarkily. Kaidan barked a short laugh, startled by the straight-up jarhead language coming from his CO. He felt himself lose a little more grip on the voice inside him that said fraternization regs were stupid. He tightened his mental grip a bit more, focusing on the budding migraine to bring him back to reality.

The turian, a lovesick general half in the bag over the Consort, was definitely on Shepard's list. After a real barn-raiser of a speech to the effect of "suck it up, you're a turian general," Oraka seemed restored and coughed up the information about the elcor diplomat they'd met before. Kaidan, through the hurricane edges of his migraine, marveled again at how easily Shepard figured out exactly what to say to someone to unlock their doors.

Shepard turned her attention to the table where Harkin sat. "Can't wait to hear what this guy has to say," she muttered, more to herself than anyone else, and ambled over, all business.

Harkin looked up at them, blinking through a palpable haze of booze (Ashley would remark later that she'd felt like she was swimming in vodka-breath near the guy). He barely registered Kaidan's presence, looked Ashley over like someone would a steak at a market, then completely molested Shepard with his eyes. "Well hello there, princess," Harkin oozed, patting his lap. "You came to the right place...why don't you sit that pretty soldier body on Pop Harkin's lap and we'll talk about what a good-looking gal you are?"

Kaidan, and from the corner of his eye Ashley, stiffened. As their hands dropped to their sidearms, Shepard put a hand up. Wait a minute, the hand said, I've got this. Ashley relaxed instantly. Kaidan kept his hand on his pistol.

To his shock, Shepard's body language changed from soldier to slinky bar fly seamlessly. "Now that's just about the nicest thing anyone's said to me all day," she said, purring the words out. Harkin chuckled, leering. She giggled throatily (holy shit I'd pay to hear that in my ear keep the flag lowered Alenko, think of biotic frequencies and not the frequency of her voice he thought frantically), and sauntered, sex in combat boots, around to Harkin's left. She trailed a gloved hand over his arm, up his shoulder, stopping at the back of his neck. "But you know what, Harkin?"

Harkin raised an eyebrow. "What?" He said.

In an eye blink, Shepard shoved the drunk's head down to the table, knocking over his drink. Harkin howled in pain as small fragments of his shattered glass dug themselves into his forehead. Shepard leaned down, lips barely an inch from the struggling man's head. "You will tell me where Garrus Vakarian is. Now." She said, the words flaming and covered in acid, but soft enough that Kaidan had to lean in to hear them.

"Fuck!" Harkin gasped, growling. "H-He's on patrol, b-by the clinic, some doctor he uses as an informant, should be there shortly before 1700, I swear it!" His words bubbled over one another. Kaidan was completely dumbfounded by the scene in front of him. Did he have authority to end this? Was this even legal? This was one of the rare occasions he didn't know what to do...so he decided to keep quiet. Ashley had prudently turned her back, eyeing the equally prudent patrons to see if Harkin had friends coming to his rescue.

"Thank you." Shepard released Harkin, backed away, and gestured for them to leave. "We're done here."

They made the walk to the clinic in silence. Just before they turned the corner, Shepard stopped them. "My apologies for losing my temper back there," she said. "I am not normally one who roughs up witnesses as an interrogation technique, but Harkin is the type of guy who doesn't listen to a) women, b) women in uniform that aren't strippers, and c) anyone more sober than he is. So, I needed to get through and speak his real language. If that startled or offended you, please feel free to make not of it in any reports you file. I own that action completely."

Ashley snorted. "Shit, skipper, I didn't see anything more than a douchebag being put in his place. I have your back." She stretched, looking out at the view of the arms of the Citadel. "Ma'am," she added.

Shepard's liquid brown eyes fell on Kaidan. "Lieutenant?" she asked. Kaidan looked back, searching for words as his brain threatened to climb out of his skull. "I uh...I guess I have nothing to say at present, ma'am," he said lamely. He saw her eyes sparkle with relief, though her face never changed. She genuinely was afraid she'd scared me off, he thought, surprised.

"Noted. Well then," Shepard said, symbolically dusting her hands of the matter, "Shall we find Officer Vakarian? The game's afoot, my friends." She started off again towards the clinic. He and Ashley followed.

"This is gonna be a hell of a cruise," Ashley muttered to him.

He nodded, the little voice in his mind about fraternization gaining a small following from his hormones. "That it is, Chief. That it is."

A/N: I really felt like the renegade action was still too passive for this dialogue in the play through. Sabrina wouldn't let me let him get away with treating her like a doll...so he gets the star treatment. :D