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Chapter 3: Conspiracy

Citadel-Presidium

"I cannot believe we are doing this…" Kolyat said.

"Shh! Be quiet, I'm trying to work here" Baily said tinkering with the lock device. It was nighttime on the Citadel, Captain Bailey and Kolyat went to Executor Pallin's office to find the evidence of betrayal their leader. Because of how controversial the topic of Pallin's betrayal was, the investigation was between the Captain and the young recruit. Ever since Udina came with such charges, something was bothering Bailey, the Executor was always by the book…betrayal wasn't like the turian at all. A beep came from the device, and the door opens. "Okay, we're in…"

"I'm impressed, the Executor's office is supposed to be the toughest place to get into next to the Council" Kolyat said. "And you did it in the matter of minutes"

Bailey chuckled. "Some of our tools are not what you would call legal" Kolyat looked at him surprised, other than the rough treatment of criminals; he had always thought the human to follow the rules. "Don't give me that look, do you know how hard it is to do our jobs with the new rules these brain dead politicians come up with?"

Kolyat thought about it. "Good point…." The two men came in the office, this was the first time either of them seen the Executor's office. They were surprised how modest the accommodations were for the top cop on the Citadel, some desks, some high-end computers, but otherwise nothing special. "I'm kind of disappointed; I was expecting a lesser version of the Citadel Tower…"

Bailey shook his head. "Check for clues, kid…I'll check his messages" The young drell nodded and went on his way, while Bailey checked Pallin's laptop. He turned on the computer, where he was blocked by Pallin's security access. Bailey frowned. "Damn, a trigger type…I imput the wrong code and this will alert every C-sec officer within the area" he said. "Good thing I came prepared…" Bailey opened his omni-tool.

"Please enter password"

"Disappear…" The screen changes to green and loaded some options.

"Welcome Fade" A little gift he picked from Harkin, a black market grade encryption program, it could open any security program no matter how complex the system. It was how Harkin was able to obtain C-sec security codes for his Blue sun friends, but now he was putting it in good use for their side. Bailey scanned the laptop and the security was automatically unlocked, he sat down and looked at his messages, his browser history something that could give a clue. After a few minutes of searching, there was nothing….nothing out of the blue, mostly messages from the turian's family, upcoming meetings with several ambassadors, and a scheduled visit to Sha'ira the consort. Bailey frowned; he started to wonder if this was nothing more than political chest-thumping from Udina to impress his new colleagues.

"Uh Captain? You may want to see this…" Bailey got up and walked over to the drell, who had a disturbed look on his face. Bailey found out why: two dead C-sec agents, a turian and a asari, stuffed into a storage compartment. Both bodies had a hole in the head.

"That's not good…" Bailey looked down and saw a datapad on the floor with Executor Pallin's image on it. "Looks like we're not the only ones looking into this" From behind them, a gun clicked and charged. "Shit…" A rough voice spoke behind them.

"Turn around…slowly…." Bailey and Kolyat turned slowly and there was Executor Pallin with a pistol aimed at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Our jobs, Councilor Udina wanted us to investigate you, said you sold us out…" Bailey said. There was no need to dance around the issue, they were caught, and they would at least hear Pallin's side of the story. However the turian stood there not moving, not talking, Bailey and Kolyat looked at each other.

"The datapad…hand it over…" Bailey looked over to Kolyat, and nodded at him. The drell threw the datapad over to Pallin. He caught it and looked over the datapad and frowned. "Udina is a very clever human…a very dangerous human, someone who shouldn't be trusted"

Bailey frowned. "He said the same thing about you…" he said. He looked at the bodies in the storage compartment. "I'm starting to wonder if he's right"

"Lies! Fabrications. All of it." Pallin said angrily.

"We'll see who's lying when we get back to HQ" Pallin, enraged, opens fire on Bailey, hitting the shoulder of his armor, he falls back on the ground clutching his shoulder. Pallin turned to aim at Kolyat, but the young drell takes out his gun and fires, hitting Pallin in the chest.

"Captain, you alright?"

Blood was dripping out of his armor; he was going to need a lot of medi-gel to patch this up. "Just a flesh wound…" He lied. Bailey saw that Pallin was clutching his chest, a dead on hit to the chest was enough to drop a person to the ground, but the turian was only on his knees. He then could see a slight shimmering around him, he had a shield generator on him, he was prepared for a confrontation. But he could also see blue blood covering his hand; Kolyat got him that was for sure.

"I've done nothing wrong, you won't get away with this…."

"It's not up to us…"

"You're wrong…" Suddenly Pallin dives for Bailey, but falls just short of his feet when Kolyat shoots him in the head, killing him. Bailey looked at Kolyat, he was breathing heavily with the pistol shaking in his hand aim at the air, it was the young drell's first kill and he was shaken to his core. Bailey lowered Kolyat's arm. "At ease son…at ease…" Bailey got off the floor, and retrieves the datapad and frowned, Pallin was sloppy…uncharacteristically so tonight he could have killed them when they were off-guard, but chose not to. Things just did not add up….

The next day, Bailey went to Udina's office for some answers. The Captain snorted, Udina certainly didn't waste any time moving out Anderson's stuff and replacing it with his own. Udina was talking to talking to his aides before he noticed Bailey; he dismissed the aides and went over to the captain.

"Good job, on Pallin Bailey you've done the Citadel and Humanity proud" Udina said.

"It's not a victory sir, I couldn't take him alive…"

Udina went back to his desk and took a sip of coffee. "The fact he would take it this far only proves his guilt" He then looked at Bailey. "Unless you're not convinced…"

Bailey sighed. "It's just that when I confronted him on the charges, he seemed as surprised about it as I was"

Udina snorted. "Please he was only shocked he got caught…"

"I don't know sir…I've been on the beat for twenty years now, you learn to read people" Bailey said. "My gut is telling me that Pallin may have been innocent…"

"Captain, you're tired, it was long night why don't you get some rest and let the investigators handle this"

Bailey sighed. "Of course sir, maybe a vacation will do me good, I hear Earth is nice this time of year…" He was about to walk away, before Udina spoke up.

"You may not be able to do that, Captain"

Bailey looked back. "Excuse me, sir?"

"The other Councilors were impressed by how you handled the case, and have agreed to promote you to Commander" For once Bailey was speechless, he was only doing his job, he didn't expect a promotion. He wasn't sure if wanted the extra responsibility, but from the look on Udina's face it looked like he didn't have a choice. "The council will expect a full report of your findings"

Bailey sighed and saluted. "Yes sir…" Bailey walked out of the office where he met with Kolyat. He was surprised to see the young drell before him; Baily had allowed him to take some time off for possible trauma from killing Pallin. "Kid? What are you doing here?"

"Reporting for duty, sir" Bailey was about to say something. "I'm okay, running away from last night is not going solve anything, besides I'm a drell I have perfect memory…it's going to stay with me forever, might as well live with it" Bailey chuckled, he underestimated the drell, he had grown up from that rash young man months ago. If his father, Thane, was here he would be proud of his growth.

"Well, in that case, I hope you like to work hard, because we have a report to the council to do" Bailey said.

"Uh…isn't that the Commander's job…?"

Bailey groaned and rubbed his head. "You're looking at him….

Omega-Roan District

Paul was lying in a pool of his own blood, he had put up a good fight against the unknown sweeper, but the weapons and training he had outclassed his. The Cerberus operative looked over him, his sword coated with his blood, this was it…he was going to die…

"You put up a good fight, relic…if you didn't betray Cerberus things would have been much easier for you and the girl" he said.

"Bullshit, Cerberus is no longer the organization I believed in" Paul said weakly. "Experimenting on kids, turning them into killing machines, that is not how humanity's protector is supposed to act!"

"Naïve little fool, a storm is coming soon and humanity must be ready" he said. "And when the dust settles we will be on top…"

"And how much of your soul are you willing to sell for such power?"

The operative gave a cruel grin. "A weapon has no use for something as useless as a soul…"

"Then I pity you…" Those were the last words Paul ever spoke before the operative plunged his sword into the man's heart silencing him forever. The operative wiped his sword clean and sheath it as he walked away to start his hunt for Liselle and Gillian.