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Chapter 35

"You're dead."

I was face down, cold against the metal paneling of Omega's walkways, unidentifiable grease seeping into my pores. She shifted her weight, the sturdy heel of her designer boot digging into the tender flesh of my cheek. I decided to wait as struggling would only increase my discomfort. I attempted to meet her disapproving gaze and saw Aria smile ever so slightly. She did seem to enjoy my show of brazenness.

"Do you know why you're dead?"

She pressed down on my cheek briefly before releasing me, striding further into the alley and away from the curious eyes of passers-by. I sat up and wiped my face off on my sleeve, scrubbing the grime from my cheek as I watched her study me. She seemed to be waiting for my answer whilst formulating a response of her own. I paused in thought and replayed the past few minutes in my mind. I found no errors in my judgment, no fault in my logic, and once more met her eyes.

"No." I stated curtly. "But I assume you're going to tell me?"

Another crooked smile lit her face with only a hint of annoyance. Aria preferred both her underlings and enemies to be intelligent - she quite enjoyed a challenge - and I was smart enough to know she would tolerate only so much belligerence before she sickened of it. She did, however, enjoy teaching her lessons and delivered them with such ruthless efficiency as to be considered punishment by those lucky enough to receive it. It was a dichotomy I had grown rather fond of – her attention and her authoritarian delivery. I considered myself lucky, as the unlucky had a tendency to end up dead.

She paced, sleek as a cat in a cage. "They saw you coming, had you targeted the moment you entered the marketplace. You really don't know why?"

I shook my head again and looked at her expectantly.

"You've become too practiced, Jin. Turian guards that well armed and armored expect to garner attention – they expect to earn looks of curiosity, to be stared at openly." She gestured widely around her, cutting a swath through the air with a graceful palm. "They are on display, for shock and awe. Someone like you – a simple girl who doesn't act afraid, doesn't act curious – doesn't fit in with the unwashed masses surrounding them."

I dropped my eyes from hers as the realization sunk in. Aria was correct in her assessment, unsurprisingly. I had not thought to study the reactions of the crowd, merely the flow of traffic and the shadows they created in their wake. I had failed in my mission, and in doing so, failed Aria.

She crouched down next to me, her sweet scent filling the space between us. I could feel her hot gaze upon me and I had to force myself to meet her eyes. She studied me again and I could have easily withered under her scrutiny were it not for a shameless sense of impudence. I recognized a flicker of amusement before she suddenly stood, disappearing down the alley as quickly as she had arrived.

I sighed in resignation. I still had so much to learn.

"Are you alive over there? Jin?"

The stale scent of piss and shit struck me with as much potency as it had the last time I woke up in the container, and I rolled over carefully on my stack of crates toward Vale, a slightly irritated scowl on his face. Having no words for him and not wanting to waste my energy on formulating a coherent response, I grumbled something unintelligible and showed him my back. It was a mistake.

I let out a howl of annoyance as a wet metal container bounced off my back and splattered its contents across my jacket. I sprang into a defensive crouch, knife in hand and fury on my face. As was his nature, Vale burst out in an annoyingly inappropriate cackle at my discomfiture. I was fast growing tired of his juvenile antics.

"Funny." I sneered, ignoring the temptation to lodge my knife in his neck. It wasn't properly balanced for throwing and I was not skilled enough to attempt the feat. I would miss and Vale would be in no mood to return my prized possession.

"So you're alive after all?" He shifted on his stack of canned goods across from me and propped his legs up on another stack. "I was beginning to wonder."

I harrumphed a response while attempting to wipe the liquid from my clothes. It was sweet and sticky and smelled rather familiar. "What is this," I asked turning the dripping can in my hands. "Fruit cocktail? They still make this stuff?"

Vale nodded as he opened up another can, the loud pop echoing in the enclosed confines of our shipping container. "Indeed they do – found a whole box of the stuff over yonder."

"I see you've wasted no time indulging in your new find."

Vale nodded as he finished off another can, this time tossing it to the side of our tiny makeshift encampment. "I use what's handy to get by."

"So I've noticed," I grumbled thoughtlessly. I gave up on my attempts to clean my jacket and took it off instead. The sticky fruit juice would remain so, but I'd no intent to wear it. It wasn't until I returned to a more relaxing pose that I realized Vale had fallen silent.

He wore a slight frown on his face, which looked to be more thoughtful than usual. "Is that all you think of me?"

I responded without thought, well versed in the usual tone of our banter. "I think many things of you."

I put my knife to use cleaning the grime from beneath my fingernails, but from Vale there was only more silence.

I awaited his response, but when none came I looked back up to meet green eyes filled with an emotion I could not quite place. "What?"

His frown deepened ever so slightly, brows furrowing. "I told you once, Jin, that you know nothing. Despite what you may think, I don't always like being right."

I schooled my expression to neutrality, easily done as I was not exactly sure what I should have felt in that moment. Confusion was familiar enough, but I had learned long ago to hide that particular emotion and was well practiced in it. Anger, frustration - common enough, and even more so since my escapist adventures with Vale, but neither feeling felt correct. Pity had no home in my heart, fear even less. And so I was at a loss and allowed my training to guide me.

I set down my knife and gave him my full attention, voiced lowered, sure. Inviting. "What is it that you want me to say, Vale?"

He shook his head and turned away from me, propping his feet up once more, his gaze suddenly finding the far wall incredibly interesting. "Don't do that, Jin. Not with me."

My frowned echoed his earlier one. "Don't do what?"

"Don't play with me. I'm not some client – some target of yours that you can manipulate. That's not who you are."

I snorted. "And you know me so well."

"I didn't get this far by working off a whim." He crossed his legs, but kept his eyes on the wall.

"Is that so?" I studied him, awaiting his response. To the casual observer his pose spoke of relaxed ease, but to me it screamed tension. Vale was hiding something, something he desperately wanted to share. My blood pumped wildly as I realized that this was likely knowledge I had been working toward. I needed to get him to reveal his secrets.

"Yes, that's so."

"Really." I played along, a hint of defiant disbelief in my tone and laced with genuine curiosity. "So did you hack into my files or were they provided to you?"

He waved a dismissive hand and leaned his head back against the stack of boxes behind him. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it, Jin. That's old news."

"Fine." I shrugged nonchalantly and went back to cleaning my nails. I could play this game. "You can pretend all you like, Vale, but I think you're even more transparent than I am."

He mumbled something I couldn't quite catch and closed his eyes as if to nap. I continued cleaning my nails, letting the silence stretch between us. I would not be the first one to break. I'd had more than enough experience learning patience, enough training and practice to recognize the needs of men. Vale would come around soon enough. All I had to do was wait.

He held out longer than I expected and, oddly enough, I was pleasantly surprised. More than two hours of uninterrupted quiet went by before he spoke up. I recognized his poor attempt at feigning sleep. He did not snore and his posture was stiff and still screamed of tension.

"There were no files on you, Jin. You were a ghost." His voice was so quiet and the break in silence so sudden that I almost didn't hear him.

I shifted, turning toward him once more in an obvious display of my attention. I said nothing, choosing instead to wait patiently for him to continue as I knew he would.

"I watched you, studied you long before you ever knew I was there." He opened his eyes and his green gaze seemed to flicker with memory. "I had thought you were nothing more than just a bartender at first, and I resented you. I resented that I'd been sent to stalk a bartender."

I cocked an eyebrow at his wording, but held my tongue. Vale's words felt like more of a confession. I had not expected this.

"I ordered a drink once, when you were working the main bar." He crossed his legs again, frowning once more in thought. "You smiled as you poured my drink, but I remember thinking that it didn't seem to fit. It felt forced to me. And so I followed you when you left that night, and many nights after. You always took a different route."

Those days seemed so long ago, but yet the alleyways of Omega still were crystal clear in my memory. I could still taste the stale air, feel the rumble of the industrial complexes beneath my feet, hear the vendors hawking their shady wares. I ignored the irrational longing building within and focused on his words. I was sure he had something important to say.

"I never did learn where you lived." A half-smile creased his lips. "I realized one night when you bought a basket of those salarian noodles – the same dish you bought for me – that you were nothing I had expected." He eyes met mine and his smile disappeared. "I realized you weren't scared."

I huffed in annoyance and turned away from him. "I wasn't scared? That's your big revelation?"

"You'd be smart to be – especially on Omega." His eyes didn't leave me and I could almost feel the power of his gaze. It was uncomfortable. "That's the night I knew you were something more than just a bartender. That's when I knew I was right to take the assignment."

My head whipped around in furious surprise. "Right to take which assignment?"

Vale opened his mouth to speak, but the container's sudden lurch stopped him. I struggled to maintain my balance on the stack of crates as the container shifted around us, the roar of the atmospheric pressure filling the sudden silence of the hold. We had arrived at our destination and I silently cursed the freighter for its horrible timing.

Vale recognized my frustration and smiled even as he fought to maintain his own balance. "Another time, Jin. Another time."

Broken Heart - Ludovico Einaudi