"Get higher up!" I yelled into our communicators as I punched something that was reaching for my woman; Pia returning the favor by overcharging her shotgun and releasing a giant molten slug that annihilated everything on the stairs.

"Go! Go! Go!"

We start making our way up to the third floor; I can hear Det and Narg trading comments to each other as they also start moving upwards. I catch a quick glance of them through a window on the third floor, Det waving at me as Narg fires into the stairwell.

"We can get up to the room from here." Det notes as he searches the room. "What about you two!?"

I turn and see another stairway, Pia already heading towards it. "We've got roof access!" Pia yells as she tackles the door open, nearly knocking it off its' hinges as she bursts out into the open air. I immediately hear gunfire and run up after her, bullets colliding against my kinetic barriers as soon as I set outside; looks like one of the trailers is still flying around, two barefaced bastards still firing out the back like the fucking rubes they no doubt are. I shoot them in the face.

"Pia," I yell as I shut the door behind me, "Seal off the door!" By my calculations we've got about ten seconds before the monsters make it up the stairs, notice no one is on the third floor and notice the stairs up here and…

Well, I am bad at math.

Turns out the monsters were already at the door. My powered armor keeps me on my feet as the door suddenly lurches forward, meaty claws pounding against it. Pia makes her way to my side as her omni-tool flares up with warning signs as the blow torch application boots up. "Hold it!" she yells as her helmet polarizes behind the eye-searing glare of the torch.

"I am holding it!" I curse back as I struggle to keep the door closed while Pia welds it shut. I manage to peek over Pia's shoulder and see Narg and Det having less luck than we are; Narg actually did rip the door of its' hinges and now the big lizard has to use the entire thing like a riot shield as he holds off the swarming beasts.

"Done!" Pia yells, both of us stepping back. We hear the beasts smashing against the door and wince every single time. "It'll hold." Pia whispers next to me. More banging. "Well, for a while at least."

"Alright, let's make it count," I add before dashing over to the edge of the building to survey the area. I confirmed that the ground was monsters. Shit. Alright. I run to another edge and take a look over, bullets landing around me as another group of turians see me. Double shit. We'd live if we jumped. At least, we'd live long enough to realize we broke both our legs before getting swarmed by those cancer vermin. Triple shit.

I turned and saw Pia looking at me. "Sorry Boss, no tongue for you tomorrow," she joked as she stuck out her tongue at me, her visor fogging up as she did so. She formed up next to me, her gun trained on the increasingly beat up door. "I'm disappointed I won't get to see you squirm when I try to kiss you afterwards."

"You two make me gag."

"Yeah well, you're just jealou-"

"Fuck!" Pia snapped beside me as the door starts giving way; half of it is twisted open, claws, hooves, pincers and teeth trying to squeeze through the opening before we put bullets in them and hear squeals of pain as they disappear behind the door, new appendages taking their place. The door won't last long now. "Boss, look!" I see Pia pointing up at a flying disc off in the distance, some sort of Gaian vehicle; whatever it is, it's coming in fast. As it gets closer I can see it's sleek and white, blaring sirens and flashing lights. It's the motherfucking police! Looks like Klein's reinforcements finally made it. I can only hope that the Gaian police is as over-militarized as our police forces are because fuck do we need some more firepower.

"Hey!" I wave and yell, "Hey!" I raise my hand up, omni-tool flashing my badge and identification at it. I can't fucking tell if they can see me in there or even hear me over the gunfire and monster screams. If there is anyone in there they must be asleep at the wheel because it does absolutely nothing. "Templar!" I yell and point over the building at the swarming mob below. "Templar Klein!"

That seems to do the trick.

A loud violent hum starts emanating from the flying disk before a golden beam lances out and blasts the entire doorway to pieces; I grab hold of Pia and cover her with my body as the blast hits us, wincing as I feel shards of debris bouncing off of my shields before they start pelting my armor itself. Over Pia's yell I overhear Det and Narg cheering; out of the corner of my eye I can see another beam reaching out and roasting monsters on Det and Narg's building and a third beam blasting the creatures below us. I drag Pia behind some rooftop machinery when I hear the sounds of gunfire.

"Boss!" Pia yells as we both spot a wicked looking piece of metal sticking out of my leg, "We have to-"

"I know," I hiss through my teeth. "Lower left coat pocket," I mutter as I hold my leg, Pia quickly taking my medical kit out of my coat. It's nothing as fancy as Det's professional grade medical supplies, but it'll do. Man. If only Det were here, he'd know how to do this painlessly and quickly. Instead we'll have to do it my way. "Alright, alright you ready?"

"Yes," Pia nods beside me. I glance down at her hands to make sure she's got everything we need. "You ready?"

Alright. Time to do this.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Ok not the time to do this.

Pia puts an arm around my shoulder and bumps her helmet against mine. "Listen to me baby, listen to me. You need to pull this thing out ok? I'm right here, I've got your medicine. Come on, you can do this." I really can't say no to that face. She gives me a weak smile, one that turns genuine and beautiful as her face lights up. "I'll never ask you to pull out after this."

Why does everything have to be about sex with you Pia? Fine. If you want your crazy kinks fulfilled I am your man. Fuck! Shit. This is exactly why I love you. You say exactly what I want to hear. You always make it seem like it's my idea. Thankfully she was on top of things and started dressing my wound immediately after I pulled the vorcha-fucking metal shard out of my leg; the stupendous pain being dulled to a tremendous pain as she injected me with a medical concoction of happy juice before plugging my wound with that awful super coagulant and armor sealant. "There, you can stop whining now you big baby," she play mocked me.

"I don't hear any more gunshots," I switch the topic, not trusting myself not to bring up the time she cried for hours after stubbing her toe. The memory eases my pain a little.

Pia glances around before tentatively peeking her head over the air condition unit we'd hid behind. "That cop vehicle is mopping up. Do you believe it? That's a laser beam on a vehicle no bigger than a C-sec gunship, firing non-stop for several minutes!"

"So?" I asked, the pain and cocktail mix in my leg making it hard for me to think.

Pia is ever the nerdette, she starts blabbering on and on about energy generation, probable radiator designs and a whole bunch of other things that make no sense to me but make her glasses ride up on her adorable face as she goes on and on. The distraction helps me and I think it helps her too, let's us wind down from several near-death experiences. I hold up a hand asking her to stop, grabbing my rifle and testing my leg out as I try to right myself up. Hurts a lot, but I think the drugs are working their magic. "Det, Narg, you copy?"

"Yeah, we're here!" Det cheers from their rooftop, I can see Narg standing at the edge of the building and peering down at the death beams vaporizing swathes of monsters down below. I bet he must be drooling over the firepower displayed. "We made it out ok. No injuries, what about you two?"

"Boss got some shrapnel in his leg," Pia answered beside me, leveling her rifle and firing at any monsters that were missed by the beams, "But I took care of it but I'd appreciate it if you looked him over Det."

"Of course, of course," Det agreed, "What about our buddy the Templar?"

We all looked down at the masses below us, trying to find our guy. There! He was standing in the middle of a giant pool of blood and guts, his gun smoking in his hand. We couldn't reach him over the communicators but he caught sight of us once we started waving and yelling. He pointed at his ear.

"Headset must be busted," Pia sighed as she sank down at my feet. "I am done," she pulled on my coat, dragging me down with her. Overhead the saucer stopped firing.

"This is Officer Ibanez of the Lluvia Police Department," the saucer booms, "Responding to Templar Klein's request."

The battle didn't last long after that. Most of the turian gunmen were caught off-guard by the appearance of the police saucer and killed almost instantly. The monsters, dumb beasts that they were, didn't know to take cover or hide and ended up charging out into the open. So here I was, soaking in the smell of roasted monster flesh and trying to find somewhere to sit down or lean against that wasn't covered in blood and guts. We must have killed hundreds of them. Det was looking over the patchwork wound dressing that Pia administered and concluded that it was "passable", something he only dared to say on a private channel so Pia wouldn't hear him.

"You know," Klein said as he stood next to me, "Recent studies suggest that aliens take well to Anima recovery spells." I pointed at my sore leg, "I could take a look at that."

I looked over at something that looked like a turian with teeth growing around an eye.

"Yeah I'll pass on that, thanks."

I finally manage to find someplace to sit down as Pia and Narg announce that they've found the doctor and the two lab techs who scattered and hid during the battle. How lucky they are to have not been torn apart by all the monsters running around. Det, finding a chance to flex his medical muscle, watches as Klein regenerates a lost finger and heals some cuts and wounds. Det will always be a mystery to me; he's a certified medical responder and certified with TEC, by all rights he's a very eligible bachelor. But no women.

"Wow, look at those jugs."

Oh yes. That's why he's single.

Wow, look at those jugs. Officer Ibanez' police uniform is doing a terribly wonderful job of smuggling some heavy weapons. Now that I get a better look at her I realize that Officer Ibanez could give Mrs. Bayora a run for her money. I'd pay to see that. However unlike Blue Jugs, Ibanez Jugs isn't just runway model beautiful; she's got curves and wonderful feminine charms all stacked on top of a body that looks like she hits the gym harder than I do. Dangerously gorgeous.

And if Mrs. Bayora taught me anything it's that dangerously thick women are absolutely nothing but trouble.

"Officer Jessica Ibanez," she smiles at us before saluting, pilot helmet under her arm.

Templar Klein returns the salute after a split second; if I didn't know any better I'd say that he was also staring. Can't say I blame him. If two turians noticed her beauty, I can only imagine what crazy hormones are pumping through his human mind. If she notices our noticing she doesn't show it; I bet women like her are used to the stares.

"Usually it's the Templars that are coming to the rescue," she grins wonderfully before admiring the work of her ship's beam weapon. "I'm glad I get to subvert the cliché."

Det is about to open his mouth before I tap him on the shoulder and gesture him to shut it; this is Klein's show so he gets to flirt with the girl at the end. Also, it's a matter of practicality; Klein and Ibanez are both humans. Klein and Ibanez make some small talk while Det pouts and Narg and Pia emerge from the mine tunnel, the asari and salarian siblings in tow. I can already see the looks on their faces as their eyes take in all the seared stench and blood soaked mud.

"Dr. Iessara and Mr. and Ms. Furan." Ibanez noted as she followed my gaze.

"Yeah." I said dumbly, my mind suddenly going over the implications of t heir rescue. "Me and my team," I paused, realizing I hadn't introduced myself. I flashed my electronic badge, "Detective Casvius by the way, pleased to meet you," I shook her hand. Even though Pia was still a good ways away I could feel her gaze locked on our entwined hands. "As I was saying, me and my team was commissioned to discover the whereabouts of Dr. Bayora-"

"The missing salarian medical expert," Ibanez added, nodding. "I was assigned to his case for a while."

"Yeaaaah?" I was thrown of track by that. If the Gaian police forces were structured like Citadel ones then why would Ibanez be put on an investigation? Why send pilots to do grunt work? Evidently, she caught on to my confusion.

"We're stretched on manpower," she admitted. "I'm the only pilot on the force right now and it's hard for the Chief to justify keeping me around if I'm not earning my keep. I've been so backlogged with cases that I don't even know who I'm looking for most of the time," she sighed.

Huh? Well now I understand why Klein's superiors were frustrated with Lluvia's lack of progress. The planet was supposed to be a small mining colony that exploded in population after we made first contact with the Gaians, saving them from blundering into geth space. Plus Samhain and Krampusnacht probably tied up most of the other cops. Bayora's case was not particularly difficult to solve but if they sent a pilot to do a detective's work...

"Shit!"

I turned and saw Pia a bit of a ways away sobbing over the death of our car. I heard Det curse beside me, his omni-tool activating as he pulled up his car alarm, a horrible dead whining noise turning my head over to a shot up pile of scrap.

"My car!" he cried, running over to the only thing he had that impressed the ladies. Without a car he's truly hopeless.

I glanced over at the flying saucer. Klein turned on his most charming smile and turned to pretty Ibanez. "If I'm not mistaken, the VZ-9 Volantor gunship has a troop capacity of fifteen…"

Ibanez smirked, an action that no doubt would have made my heart skip if it wasn't already completely dedicated to my own nerdette and therefore caused no reaction within me. "Of course, climb aboard. We'll have the department clean up the area and tow your vehicles."

The asari and salarians immediately climbed up the ramp and into the shiny interior of the saucer. They are probably just as done with this mining camp as we are; can't imagine how long they'd been stuck down in that dark mine under armed guard.

I switched over to comms and told Det and Pia to get back here; my woman's face lighting up as she prepped herself to ride in a flying saucer machine. I could tell she was excited, her crazy smart nerdette brain no doubt conjuring up all sorts of questions to ask Ibanez about the thing like "What's the power output on this thing" or "Flight ceiling?" or "Stop talking to my man". Ok the last one isn't a question, but I can just tell that's rolling around somewhere in there. I had questions of my own. Like-

"Never would have imagined I'd be gunning down Institute scum in my own backyard."

-I wonder where the saucer shoots the beams from. I don't see anything that-wait what? I turned to look at Klein and Ibanez admiring the handiwork of her saucer's death beams. Klein caught my look.

"The Institute is turning out to be a persistent infection," Klein agreed. "You've encountered them before?"

"No," Ibanez answered.

"I never mentioned the Institute," Klein stated.

Ibanez went silent, her jaw clenched. "I read his report," she lied, "Before I was dispatched."

"How'd you recognize the hostages?" I asked, Klein's hand slowly inching towards his gun.

"The report," Ibanez stated. I couldn't see any guns on her but that didn't mean she wasn't dangerous. "Like I said, I read it in the report. What is this? I expected the Templars, not the Inquisition."

"You don't read the reports," I drawled. "You said it yourself, you're so backlogged with cases you don't even know who you're investigating."

Her eyes shifted from me to Klein.

I really wish she'd surrender quietly.

Instead she suddenly threw a glowing green punch at Klein, staggering him as jaw snapped in two, the sound of bone shattering making me cringe. I brought up my rifle and fired, most of my bullets somehow veering away from her. Most, but not all. One of them caught her in the leg, tripping her up and dropping her at Klein's feet; the man's face was snapping back into place as he readied his revolver; despite the point-blank range Klein's gun didn't manage to hit her at all, gold rounds impacting uselessly around Ibanez. This must be the work of an enemy spell! How else do you explain this shit? Ibanez suddenly glowed green and I could swear that she was suddenly in several different places at once before appearing right beside me. I was quick on my feet and managed to duck another green punch but not quick enough to dodge the kick to my injured leg. That bitch! I cursed in pain as I was dropped to the bloody mud beneath me. My dry-cleaning bill is going to be obscene.

My team finally noticed the sexy saucer pilot wasn't on our side and joined the fight, though whatever crazy shit was making everyone's aim equivalent to that of a drunk hanar was still in full force, bullets seemed to barely miss Ibanez' amazing body. A few bullets smashed against my shields before Ibanez reached down for my rifle and earned herself a powered armor punch to the face in return, she drew back in pain before a bullet grazed her throat, ripping out the entire front part of her neck.

An instant later and she was fine again.

I got a leg to the gut for my efforts, the blow sending me sliding across the bloody mud and knocking the wind out of me. Some people pay good money to be abused by beautiful women. Not me though.

"Narg, Det," I wheezed, "Block her access to the ship, if she gets on it and lifts off we're fucked."

"Got it!" Det responded, I could see the two of them scrambling to the front of the saucer, Det feeling around the ramp for any sort of button that might close the damn thing. I pulled myself to my feet as I heard Klein's revolver rain thunder down on Ibanez as he charged forward. Ibanez began running towards him, dancing around Klein's bullets as she met his charge with her own.

Then they collided.

It was amazing seeing them fight; Ibanez was a blur, glowing fists and legs tracing her attacks as she whirled around, mud and blood kicked up by her movements, I could hear the strength in her attacks as they displaced the around her. I could hear Klein's bones break whenever she connected a hit; ribs, legs, arms, knees, elbows, jaws, neck. They all snapped in two wherever she touched. Didn't seem to be slowing Klein down; his bones would snap back into place and I can imagine that he was regenerating his teeth each time Ibanez socked him in the mouth. His own punches equally vicious and more than once I saw Ibanez somehow reset herself after one of his punches snapped her leg in half. He wasn't all fists; his revolver blurred in his hands as he tried to line up shots, his gun occasionally firing. I honestly couldn't tell who was winning, neither of them seemed to be doing any permanent damage to each other.

Everyone's attention was drawn to Det, who cheered as he somehow managed to retract the ramp up to the saucer, the police vehicle completely sealed off.

"Shoot the bitch!" I ordered through our comms. Ibanez snapped her head over in my direction as she saw me bring up my rifle. Most of my bullets missed, my gun jerking unnaturally in my hand. Ibanez sneered at me before grappling Klein and dragging him into the line of fire; she expected me to hesitate. I didn't though. I kept shooting. See, I know Klein could survive being shot up.

Luckily my casual disregard for Klein's safety was enough of a distraction for Ibanez, who suddenly sound herself manhandled by Klein. He managed to get out of her grip and switch places with her before putting his revolver against her head.

Click.

No fucking way.

Ibanez screamed as a few bullets from Pia caught her in the side before she managed to flip Klein over her shoulder and slam him into the ground, she kept her hold on him and literally flung him towards Pia. I took my eyes off Ibanez for a second to trace Klein's flight, Pia dove out of the way as Klein punched a hole through an old shipping container. I turned back just in time to see Ibanez tackled by Narg's biotic charge. Very loud sickening crunch. This time I kept my eyes on the bitch as she was hurled through the air, she flickered and was suddenly on her feet again. It was as if she hadn't just been tackled by a heavily armored krogan moving at car chase speeds.

I did notice something in that quick moment before she started charging at Narg. I could see bruises forming along her face and her pilot's jumpsuit was torn in some areas, bloody wounds barely visible beneath them. Where she'd been shot in the throat I now saw a wound consistent with a bullet grazing her neck. I had a theory to test. My research tools; my gun and her shoulder. She yelled as her shoulder exploded before she flickered, her charge uninterrupted as she continued towards Narg. Her shoulder was fine, but now I could see a tear along her suit.

Theory proved! I'm so smart.

She wasn't actually avoiding injuries when she flickered and reset herself, she was just somehow making them less life threatening.

I have another theory!

"Det, Pia," I hissed into my helmet mic, "I think she can only deflect bullets if she knows where the attack is coming from, so-" Fuck, Narg was in trouble. I couldn't risk firing at Ibanez for fear of hitting Narg, so instead I did something stupid and charged. I'm not really sure what I was planning since Ibanez threw me over her shoulder like I was a baby. As I did my third flip through the air I did catch Narg landing a nasty headbutt against her and followed up with a few punches before knocking her back with a biotic push straight to her gut.

"Narg put a black hole on her ass!" I bellowed.

Narg roared as he went through the mnemonic motions, his hands raised before them as he slowly brought them together; Ibanez yelled as she suddenly found herself smack in the middle of massive gravitational forces, blood and mud and guts flying off of the ground and swirling around her as they were drawn into the titanic gravity well forming right in front of her face. I drew my gun and fired straight at her, Det running up alongside Narg with his own gun spitting bullets. Ibanez was shit out of luck now; where before she could deflect bullets away from her now the bullets were being drawn in towards her. She yelled, flickering and flashing green and resetting as more and more bullets found their mark. Didn't work this time, she was trapped by Narg's biotics and I could see the wounds adding up. Eventually she seemed to exhaust her magic, her green energies sputtering and dying out. Then I spied Pia setting up from a nearby second story window and fired.

Second theory proved.

Ibanez's body was shredded, an arm and a leg being blown off as her back was blown open. Then she flickered and reset. Except she still had several holes punched into her back, her hand was missing and her leg was hanging on by a few tendons and muscles.

Narg was finally exhausted as she was unceremoniously dropped to the ground, a shower of mud and gore raining own around her. She was still alive and breathing heavy but we knew it was over.

I noticed something behind her and saw Klein dragging himself along the mud, his body slowly knitting itself back together. He slowly got up on his feet before leveling his revolver at her. "Why go through all this trouble?" he asked.

Ibanez was damn defiant for someone on death's door. Or she was so near death that she was simply gathering up the strength to talk again. She slowly pointed towards me, Narg and Det. "Because of them. The aliens… so easy…" she trailed off and it quickly became apparent that she wasn't going to talk anytime soon.

So Klein put a bullet through her skull.

Then he looked up at us, an eye hanging by some nerves being drawn back into its socket. "This job's not done yet," he whispered, gesturing at the saucer before walking towards it and past us.

I am not in the mood for any more surprises. I motioned Pia to come follow us before trudging after Klein, gun at the ready while Det and Narg plodded over to the sides of the ramp. We waited a few seconds for Pia to form up before I ordered Det to open the saucer. Some shots rang out and he took a few hits to the shield before Pia managed to shot Dr. Iessara in the leg. The asari screamed and dropped to the floor as she clutched her leg. The male salarian, Zenall, fired off a few rounds at Narg before being punched in the gut. Asoln, the sister salarian with bandages around her eyes, didn't seem to know what was going on and started shrieking at the sounds of gunfire.

"Clear," Narg called from inside the saucer. Klein immediately went up the ramp and entered the saucer with Narg, presumably to restrain the hostages again while me and Pia proceeded to check the kid for injuries.

"You alright there?" Pia asked.

Det tried to play it suave and cool, an act that was immediately ruined when he yelped in pain as I examined the bullet wound along his side. "I'm fine boss lady. I think the bullet just grazed me. At worst it only pierced the fat on my side."

Credit where it's due; the kid knew his own body well. He was exactly right about the bullet piercing his side. Not a serious injury really, at best a few days of recovery and he'd be fine. I finished treating his wound before throwing my arm over Pia, leaning on her for support as my leg started throbbing in pain again. "Come on, let's see why the hostages we rescued just tried killing us."

I could tell that we were just about all done.

We were inside the saucer's passenger hold. The asari and salarians were tied up to their chairs on one side of the hold, everyone else was on the other. It was surprisingly comfortable and roomy in here; the cool air conditioning inside feeling amazing against my skin after hours inside my sweaty helmet. I felt bad for whoever the police department got to clean this thing out after we were done with it, all the crap we dragged in with us would be a bitch to get out. Klein had gone up to the pilot's seat and called ahead to the police department. Turns out that Officer Ibanez had immediately responded to Klein's request for retrieval and managed to convince a few of the other officers that any other backup wasn't needed. It sounded like an awkward conversation when Klein explained that he had killed her for being an Institute mole. Pretty soon the police chief got on the line and chewed Klein out. I overheard a lot of creative insults in those few seconds before he vowed to launch an investigation into the entire matter and send a complaint to Templar HQ.

Klein sighed as he climbed down the steps from the cockpit before laying his Codex on the central table before all of us.

"The Codex is recording, as is the saucer itself." He leveled a glare at the group across from us. "Talk now and we will show leniency in your sentencing."

I could feel Pia tense up beside me at the Templar's words.

None of them said a word. So we just played the waiting game; we'll let them crack. We didn't have to wait long. The salarians started talking.

Not to Klein though, to us.

"The Gaians have immortality technology!" he stated, eyes wild as Dr. Iessara demanded he shut up. "The Institute promised research data on the artificial Anima wells in return for our cooperation." He started at each of us in turn, the asari beside him scowling as he kept talking. "Don't you see? The Gaians can make us live forever but the Protectorate is keeping this a secret from all of us! We deserve that technology, we deserve longer lives! Not just salarians, but turians!" He locked eyes with me. "The galaxy deserves access to that technology."

I looked away.

I mean. I didn't disagree. If one part of the galaxy has technology that might extend people's lives or even make them immortal... Well, there was a moral argument to be made that it should be shared among everyone.

For his part Klein didn't seem inclined to humor Zenall's argument. "So the Institute promises access to Anima Wells in return for what?"

"Bodies," the female salarian whispers. "They wanted us to contact our government and cut a deal for bodies."

"Why?" I ask. "That makes no sense, the Citadel knows it's illegal to stea-"

"Ha!" the asari laughs. "Illegal. You're talking to two salarians, Detective. Remember that their species is famous for the genophage and espionage. I wouldn't be surprised if they haven't already contacted the Union and got them to agree!"

We turn and look back at the two salarians. They are dead silent.

"Oh fuck me," Det whispers.

"Is the Union crazy?" Pia demands.

"Don't be naïve," Dr. Iessara continues. "The Union isn't crazy. No investigation will ever reveal a link between these two cowards and any government official. I'm sure the turians you all killed outside will all conveniently happen to be random mercenaries with no government connections whatsoever."

Narg shifted in his seat. "What do the Republics have to gain here?"

"A thousand-year lifespan might seem like forever to turians or salarians, but you and I both know it isn't," the asari answered.

"Bayora?" I asked.

The salarian and the asari looked at each other. They must have figured there was no point in hiding anything. "He was interested in the Institute up until he discovered their plans. 'This is illegal' he said and threatened to go to the authorities."

So Bayora died trying to do the right thing? If only we could all be so lucky.

"Who was in charge of all this?"

They glanced at each other, their postures turning uncertain.

"We don't know," the salarian sister said. "That's the truth. I don't even think the people we met knew who was in charge."

We turned to look at Zenall and Iessara, who both repeated that answer. Klein seemed satisfied with that, he mentioned that most of the Institute operatives they've caught repeat a similar story. Their cells are kept in the dark about other operations and sometimes even work against each other without knowing who their allies are. He went on and questioned them a bit more before we all realized that they had nothing else.

Then Klein executed them in their seats.

Mrs. Bayora paid us in full. She also slipped me the keycode to the hotel room she was currently staying in when Pia wasn't looking. Of course, I didn't go. I love Pia. And even if I didn't I wouldn't have gone. That woman is rotten. She was happy her husband was dead, pleased that she'd finally be able to lay claim to his life's work and all the fortunes that entailed. Nothing good could come out of a woman like that. I'm sure that my dick would come out withered and dead if I went in there, corroded away by her acid blood. I didn't even give her keycode to Det; that kid didn't need to be involved with women like that.

I would have felt bad about keeping him from getting laid, but I didn't. If anything, I think he was enjoying the attention Florilea was paying him as she nursed him back to health. I know for a fact that the kid only needed a few days rest before he'd be back on his feet and it's been a week now.

Narg… Well, Narg wasn't exactly happy. We'd won a great battle, sure. But we hadn't rescued any innocent hostages; there hadn't been any innocent hostages. He was pretty upset for a few days before I reminded him that the god he worships would probably still be pleased with the huge body count we racked up. What god doesn't love it when his followers smite unholy abominations?

Pia made good on all her promises.

Klein paid us in full too. He disappeared shortly after the entire investigation was closed. I was pissed at him for ending the case the way he did. Pia was especially furious. I mean, I understood why he killed them; if they went to trial and talked… well, the Protectorate wasn't in any position to allege that the Republics, Union and the Hierarchy had made deals with a known terrorist organization to smuggle Protectorate technology. The Citadel groups couldn't afford the allegations either. Iessara was right, STG or SPECTREs could cover up the entire thing if they needed to, but that didn't matter. What mattered was the argument. If enough people heard about the Anima Wells and heard an impassioned plea that it was a moral obligation to share that technology with everyone… Well, more loons would try cutting a deal with the Institute. More soldiers for their nightmare army.

It was a tempting argument.

I was almost convinced myself if I hadn't seen the horrors with my own two eyes.

No, if the Protectorate was going to share their Anima Wells it'd be on their own time. Galactic civilization has gone on happily enough without magical immortality technology, and it will continue to do so.

So yeah, I know why Klein killed them.

Didn't meant I liked it.

Pia happily collapsed on top of me, sweaty and exhausted. I pulled at the covers as we both settled in for the night. She was cooing in my ear before she trailed kisses on my neck.

We laid in bed for an hour after that, talking about this or that. We were both terrible at post-sex cuddle talk; usually she's start mentioning upgrades to the Detective Maiden or our equipment or her crazy-expensive personal computer or I'd start mentioning potential jobs we've got lined up. Sometimes we talked about the future. Our future.

We had the money now to retire. We could just live the rest of our lives aboard this ship or settle down somewhere. Start a family.

"That'd be nice…" Pia giggled. "Getting knocked up by my own boss. What will the neighbors think?" We laughed a bit, imagining that conversation with hypothetical future neighbors. "But…"

"But?" I continued. "But what?"

"We're all junkies," Pia whispered as she repositioned herself on top of me. "We're all addicted to this life. The cases. The danger. You want to end our careers with such a terrible case?"

"No," I admitted.

Pia smiled and my heart fluttered.

"Come on Boss, take your girl for another ride."

I've always been a sucker for beautiful women. They always ask me to do something dangerous and stupid. How could I resist?

Answer.

I don't.