Chapter Two

The administrators office was a simple place. The most impressive thing there was the view overlooking the market floor, mostly dominated by the giant illuminated trade feed for the NAE. A simple desk stood in the middle of the simple room filled with private terminals that were far from simple. There was no personal touch here, the rest of the room looked like a warehouse container, very dry, very metallic. Reminded me of my room back home, or rather my old room back on my old home. When I return to the fleet, I will have to find a new one. The only other furnishings in the room were an assortment of metal crates, two basic plastic chairs on this side of the desk for visitors, grey and uninteresting and one large comfortable looking leather chair on the other, currently occupied by one Salvador Crux.

The man himself was much smaller than I expected. His skin was tanned, his eyes were dark and beady and his black hair was short and greasy looking. He wore a white designer business suit that looked more expensive than the entire contents of this office, including those terminals. He had a smile that made me think of a Varren sizing up a potential meal.

"Mr. Reegar, pleasure to meet you." he said, the pleasure was evidently not his. "Please, take a seat and then lets discuss the Geth".

I sat down on one of the basic plastic chairs. It wasn't particular comfortable, but then I'm used to that. "I was informed that you're willing to trade some Geth technology for a favour of some sort. I wasn't given any details, but I should warn you, I'm neither an assassin nor a hired thug, so if that is what you are after you can forget it right now." I said, although the truth was I had already been doing some morally questionable work, so I would have still considered it, but it doesn't hurt to at least start on some moral high ground.

Crux laughed. "That's cute Mr Reegar, but I think you'll find that someone as well connected as the Shadowbroker would not need to resort to hiring a Quarian for muscle." I caught a slight sneer as he said the word Quarian. He probably didn't think I noticed. I started to notice the number of ways I knew to kill him with my bare hands. I figured on about twelve that would be quiet enough not to alert anyone. If I hadn't been disarmed on arrival here, there would have been considerably more.

"So what do you want from me?" I asked. Crux paused for a moment to check something on one of his monitors, whatever it was it made him frown.

"Have you ever seen a Geth, Mr. Reegar?" It sounded like a stupid question, but he said it in all seriousness, like I made a habit of making friends with them.

"Not in person. Geth don't come beyond the Veil. They certainly don't pop around the migrant fleet for drinks." I had my doubts that the Geth never went beyond the Veil, but I kept those to myself. If the Broker managed to get hold of Geth technology then chances are Geth have been beyond the veil as the odds are even worse for someone salvaging Geth technology from the inside.

"But as a member of the species that created them, you are familiar with their technology at least?"

I figured the question was rhetorical, so I didn't answer it. "Enough messing around. Why am I here?"

"There are several reasons we asked you to assist us Mr. Reegar. First of all as a Quarian you have technical skills and are not entirely unfamiliar with Geth technology. Secondly as one on his pilgrimage, no one will expect you to be working for us. Finally we know all about the quality of your military training. Head of Admiral Gerrels class I believe. While we hope you will have no need of it on this task, we feel more comfortable having someone with it than without." I wasn't liking where this was going. Geth are the things of nightmares for every Quarian. They are the 300 year old boogeyman that is never seen, but always feared. Bringing Geth technology to the fleet could guarantee me a place on virtually any ship in the fleet. But I wasn't planing on a mission into the Perseus to get it. The only ship that will get me a place on is the one that sails to destination oblivion.

Crux continued: "I can understand your hesitation. But rest assured the task does not involve the Geth themselves. At least not any active ones." He flashed that Varren smile again at that last bit. He knew he had me with that. "What we need you to do, is track down a missing agent of ours, an Asari by the name of Monata T'Mar. On her last communication to us, she reported the acquisition of a dormant Geth platform. That was several days ago and she has failed to report in since. Her last known location was the Batarian planet Lorek."

That didn't sit right with me at all. "None of that makes a lot of sense to me. How did an Asari get hold of a dormant Geth, why send me after her instead of some of your Broker pawns and most importantly what exactly am I getting out of it? A Geth foot you're going to hack off as a thank you?"

"The Shadowbroker wishes to avoid direct involvement in this mater. The fact that a covert agent of ours appears to have been compromised is bad enough already. If we're lucky her ties to us have not been discovered, but we don't want to push that matter further. However, as I said before, you're a Quarian on your pilgrimage, you've had no dealings with us before and no one will question your interest in Geth technology." Salvador Crux rose from his desk and casually strolled to the observation window. He spent what seemed like several minutes staring out of it, like I was no longer in the room. I said nothing. Eventually he continued: "The platform itself is of no consequence to us and you're welcome to whatever is left of it as your reward, we will however require it's memory core to be extracted first."

I knew he'd sidestepped my first question, but I expect that. I gave him another question to avoid answering: "Why? What's so important about this memory core?"

"That is none of your concern." He snapped, "You are under no condition to attempt to examine the core yourself. Just bring back the platform and we will extract what we need from it and return it to you."

"And the Asari?"

"If she's alive and it doesn't compromise your mission, bring her back too."

"You're all heart Crux. So how am I getting to this planet? I don't own my own ship."

"We have made arrangements for that too. I believe you're already acquainted with Captain Hermean." I wasn't surprised to hear that name. I wasn't especially happy either. Prior to my arrival at Illium I had been serving on a ship called The Naglear as a bodyguard for it's Turian captain, a smuggler by the name of Barbarus Hermean. The job mostly involved standing around and trying to look intimidating. I signed up because it seemed like the perfect deal, dextro food, easy credits and free travel around the Terminus systems. Unfortunately as far as my pilgrimage was concerned I may as well have been working as a cook in a Turian prison. The ship was grim and the company was worse. Hermean himself was not the best example of a Turian you could come across. He was scheming, corrupt and greedy, but like any dirty Turian he found ways to convince himself it was somehow for the greater good.

Crux returned to his desk and sat down. He leaned forward, flashed his smile again and said: "So Kal'Reegar, do we have an agreement?"

We did.