A/N: Time to get rolling with the LotSB plot. This should keep us busy for a few chapters. Hope you'll enjoy some of my subtle changes to it.
Also, I would be interested in feedback on how the Shepard/Miranda relationship is coming along. I'm trying to slowly and tentatively bridge the gap, so I'm wondering if that's coming across.
And now I'm off to play some MP games to bring my Galactic Readiness up. God knows I suck at teaching geth and quarians to love one another. :P
Chapter 20 - Chasing Shadows
"Commander, Operative Lawson would like to speak with you in her office," Shepard smiles as she hears the voice of Yeoman Chambers on the comms. This message has been expected for a while now.
"Thank you, Chambers," Morgan replies. "I'll go see her right away."
Miranda Lawson rises from her desk, putting her carefully penned reports away, as she sees Shepard entering her quarters. "Commander," the Cerberus operative greets her, urging her to sit down. "Doctor Chakwas assures me that you have made a full recovery from your injuries."
"Feeling good, Miranda, thanks for the concern," Morgan flashes a bright smile, lightly slapping herself on the knee. "I'm sure you'll tell my friend Tim not to worry."
Miranda nods, wincing slightly at her irreverent way of addressing The Illusive Man. "Commander, it occurs to me that I never thanked you properly for assistance with my sister's relocation," she speaks, the words slightly awkward as she is not used to thanking someone. "Please, allow me to take this opportunity to do so now. I will never forget what you did for me and my sister, Shepard."
She sounds very sincere, and Morgan cannot help but feeling a little touched. It is clear she loves her sister very much. Perhaps more than anything else in the world. Someone like that can't be completely rotten to the core. "I was happy to help, Miranda," she says. "No problems with the relocation of your sister's family, everything went smoothly?"
"Yes, I believe so. My sister is completely safe from my father in her new location," Miranda smiles. "She has a normal life again."
"I would feel much safer if Cerberus hadn't been involved in this operation at all," Morgan can't help but remark. "I hope nobody in the organization will flood this information to your father."
"I am saddened to hear you still feel this way about Cerberus," Miranda sighs, looking disappointed.
"Whether I do or don't, it's still a leash, Miranda," Shepard says. "Something to keep tabs on you with, if you ever happen to develop... doubts."
Miranda looks thoughtful for a moment, but then shakes her head, deciding against listening in Shepard's attempts of sowing doubts in her convictions. "Still, I will not forget that you helped me, Commander," she then says. "But... that was not the only reason I wanted to speak with you, Shepard."
"Oh?" Morgan raises an eyebrow, attempting to feign surprise.
Miranda retrieves an OSD and passes it over to her. "The Illusive Man went through a lot of trouble to get this for you, Shepard. Your friend Liara T'Soni might be particularly interested in this information. This piece of intel will help her track down the location of the Shadow Broker."
Morgan grins inwardly as she hears this, but despite what she had told Tali earlier, she just can't bring herself to call Miranda a hypocrite and throw the see-through scheme to get in her good graces back in Lawson's face. Damn it, I no longer hate her. I still hate Cerberus, but her... her, I'm starting to respect. "Why do this? The Illusive Man doesn't get along with the Shadow Broker or something?"
"Not since stealing your body back from the Shadow Broker," Miranda explains. "Not since the Shadow Broker starting to make deals with the Collectors. No, The Illusive Man believes that the Shadow Broker needs to be taken out."
"Why not give the intel directly to Liara?" Morgan asks. Of course, I know the answer already. They couldn't score bonus points with me then. Still, I'm interested to hear the answer.
"She is very distrustful of Cerberus, and the operation to recover your remains from the Shadow Broker helped little to smoothen our relations," Miranda admits reluctantly. "So, we believe that it would be best if she got this intel from you. Besides..." Lawson grows a little hesitant, uncomfortable. "Given your history... The Illusive Man believes that... any improvement in your relationship with Dr. T'Soni would be, ah, beneficial to the mission."
"So it's not entirely out of the goodness of his heart," Morgan smiles. Miranda blushes slightly. "In any case, I appreciate the gesture, I really do," she takes the OSD and rises from the chair. "Thank you, Miranda. I believe I will bring these to Liara immediately..."
Shepard quickly leaves the Normandy, this time not bringing anyone with her, Liara's office is close to the Nos Astra spaceport. She spends most of the way running, and once at her destination, takes a few moments to regain her breath. With some surprise she notes that Liara's assistant Nyxeris is not behind her desk and thus cannot announce her arrival. Slightly puzzled, Shepard decides to simply walk in... only to find Liara standing over the badly mangled corpse of her assistant, her hands still glowing blue from the biotic discharge.
"Err... is this a bad time?" Morgan asks, blinking in surprise and shock.
"Shepard! This is not what it looks like!" Liara exclaims in panic. Then she catches herself, the biotic glow diminishes and disappears. "Okay, this is exactly what it looks like. I unmasked Nyxeris as the Observer, Shadow Broker's top agent on Ilium. Then... I killed her."
"Right. Seems like you're doing a pretty good job in getting close to the Shadow Broker," Shepard notes, pulling out the OSD. "Maybe you don't even need this?"
"What is it, Shepard?" Liara is immediately curious.
"Oh, just something I got Cerberus to hand over," Morgan says proudly. "They claim the intel on this disk will help us catch the Shadow Broker."
"Help us? You... you're really serious about this, aren't you?" Liara takes the OSD with trembling fingers. She loads the data onto her omni-tool, starting to quickly browse through the information. "Looks like leaked transmissions between Shadow Broker operatives, and hints to a location," she says, and Morgan notices images of shady looking salarians, star charts with coordinates, and finally, an image of a young drell. Liara's eyes immediately widen in recognition. "It's about Feron!" she exclaims. "He's alive, as I hoped!"
"He's that friend who helped recover my body, right?" Shepard asks. Liara nods in reply. "So, what now?"
Liara momentarily looks confused. "I... I don't know, I need to... go through the data one more time, make sure nothing has escaped me. I only have this one chance to succeed in this rescue... I cannot make any mistakes." She looks at Shepard, grateful, overwhelmed. "I think I should go home and spend some time analyzing the data. Then I can decide on the best course of action."
"Let me come with you," Morgan says, trying not to sound too pleading. "Don't push me away now, Liara. Let me help."
"I will, Shepard. I will, I promise. But right now..." Liara hesitates a little. "You would be a... distraction. Why don't you stop by this address in... say, two hours?" she quickly uploads the relevant data into Shepard's omni-tool.
"Two hours, alright," Shepard nods. "Should I come alone? I can bring someone we both trust, Garrus, Tali..."
"Their aid would be welcome too," Liara says, grabbing the OSD and holding to it tightly. "I will see you soon, Shepard."
"Wait! What about the body?" she points at Nyxeris' still shape at her feet.
"Oh... well, you don't need to bring her along," Liara shrugs, hurrying away and leaving Shepard standing over the corpse, pressing a palm against her forehead.
Innocently whistling, Morgan drags Nyxeris back out in the foyer and drops the dead asari in a seat behind the secretary's desk, walking away nonchalantly as is she hadn't seen or heard a thing. Casually, she heads for the Eternity Lounge for another chat with her favorite asari bartender, this time making sure not to drink as much as the previous time. She also radios the Normandy to get in touch with Tali and Garrus, and they promptly show up at the Eternity Lounge too, eager to aid with anything she and Liara might need help with.
In conversation, time at least passes quickly and the appointed hour comes. They take a cab to Liara's apartment... and when they get there, Shepard's heart almost jumps right into her mouth from seeing the glowing 'Do Not Cross' lines drawn around the entrance to Liara's apartment, work of the local law enforcement officers.
As Shepard wrestles with the Ilium cops, trying to find out what has happened, another asari approaches them, this one looking very battle-hardened, confident, and above all, heavily armed. "Someone tried to kill your friend, Commander. However, they failed, and Dr. T'Soni gave them a slip," she says, letting Shepard breathe out a huge sigh of relief.
"And you would be..." Morgan turns to the newcomer, but she just shakes her head.
"Before I introduce myself, let's make sure to have a little more privacy," the dangerous looking asari says. "Lieutenant, your people are dismissed." The cops protest at first, but seeing that the asari won't budge, they quickly leave the premises.
"Who are you to have the power to get rid of the local law enforcement?" Shepard wonders.
"Tela Vasir. Special Tactics and Recon," the asari finally introduces herself.
"Another Spectre..." Morgan realizes. "Well, that explains things." Then she peers at Vasir, a little suspicious. "Why is a Spectre interested in this case?"
"Your friend is someone with a high enough profile to demand... certain attention," Vasir says enigmatically. "Seems like she has made herself a rather powerful and dangerous enemy."
"We are after the Shadow Broker," Shepard says, then wondering whether it was wise to disclose this information.
"He certainly fits the bill of a dangerous enemy to have," Vasir admits.
"What have you managed to find so far?" Garrus buts into the conversation, scanning the room with his C-Sec trained eye.
"About twenty five minutes ago, someone took a shot at T'Soni," Tela Vasir explains, pointing at bullet holes in the window of the apartment. "Whoever it was, did not count on her having her kinetic barriers up while in safety of her own place. How paranoid can a girl get?"
"Paranoid, but clever," Tali remarks, also looking around curiously.
"Yeah. She stuck around for four more minutes before leaving the building," Vasir says.
Shepard snaps her fingers in realization. "She was leaving a message for me! She knew I was coming... oh, I love you Liara, you clever little devil."
"Well, maybe then you'll have better luck finding it," Vasir grumbles. "I'm done sifting through her crap."
"I'll look around, maybe I can spot something," Shepard offers, starting to walk around the flat. The apartment is beautiful, very classy and well furnished, but it also has a little bit of impersonal, cold feel to it, as if Liara hasn't been spending too much time there. With her dedication, she probably only returned here to sleep and then got right back to work, Morgan arrives at the bitter realization.
She stops at a beautiful painting right at the entrance to the apartment. "I've no idea what planet that is," Vasir comments, seeing what has caught her interest.
"It's Ilos," Tali says grimly, standing next to Shepard, momentarily overtaken by the memories of that forgotten Prothean world, the epicenter of their confrontation with Saren.
"Looks like Liara hasn't been able to forget it, either," Garrus adds thoughtfully.
Shepard moves away from the painting and with heavy steps walks upstairs to Liara's bedroom. She opens one drawer after another, but there are only clothes in them... except for one drawer. There is a small case inside, and when she quickly opens it, Morgan feels her heart breaking from the overflow of emotion. "Star of Terra," Garrus says quietly, having approached her from behind with silent footsteps. "Your Star of Terra."
"She... she went back to Alchera. That's why I couldn't find it," Shepard desperately tries to avoid breaking out in sobs. "Oh, Liara..."
"And a picture of Normandy, too," Tali says, picking up the small framed image from the nightstand next to Liara's bed. "She truly missed her time with you, Shepard."
"Yeah, it would appear so," Morgan recovers, quickly pocketing the Star of Terra away safely. Liara would want me to have it back, anyway. For luck. I'll tell her later. She takes the picture from Tali, and in her hands, the image immediately changes to the Prothean digsite on Eden Prime. "What the... oh, I see, it's keyed to my ID," Shepard realizes.
"Prothean digsite..." Tali muses. "Hey, maybe the message is hidden in one of the Prothean artifacts? She has a lot of them in the apartment."
"Let's check each and every one of them out," Garrus nods, and they hastily proceed to examine every ominous looking piece of Prothean relics that Liara finds so unexplainably compelling.
"Wow, she was certainly into ugly," Vasir comments, as together they go over all the Prothean relics in the apartment. "No offense," the other Spectre adds quickly when Shepard turns around to glare at her.
Soon enough, they come across a backup data disk, hidden in the base of one of the artifacts. It contains a recording of a holocall that Liara made from her apartment not long before the assassin attempted to shoot her. She has arranged a meeting with a salarian named Sekat in the Baria Frontiers offices, located in the Dracon Trade Center.
"My skycar is outside, let's grab it and hurry," Vasir suggests quickly. Shepard and the others swiftly follow her, jumping into the car and then holding on tightly as Vasir navigates the heavy traffic with daring and dangerous maneuvers that make Morgan feel a little bit queasy.
Finally they reach their destination, the tower of Dracon Trade Center, stretching at least thirty floors high. Everything seems normal and reasonably quiet, and Shepard allows herself to relax a little bit. "No sign of cops anywhere," Vasir comments. "Looks like we're early for the party-..."
And then it happens, a huge blast that shakes the building to its very foundation, roaring smoke and flames wipe out what looks to be the entire third floor, sending a shower of shattered glass, debris, and scorched body parts of anyone unfortunate enough to have found themselves at the Baria Frontiers offices.
"Liara!" Morgan screams, falling on her knees, ignoring the agonizing cries of the injured civilians all around her. Another explosion goes off, just as powerful as the first one, then another and one more, four in total. As Morgan Shepard finally dares to look at the tower of Dracon Trade Center again, she sees the tall spire still standing, but at least three or four floors have been wiped out completely. There is only one thought, one horrible, dreadful thought on her mind. "Liara... Liara was in there..."