The Crow's Nest

Once again, Garrus led the party of five through the vacant streets of Illium. He and Liara were taking point, with her navigating the many alleys and backstreets to avoid exposure as much as they could, while he ordered the others into formation. Samara and Miranda were close on his six, ready to draw their submachine guns at a second's notice. Kaidan brought up the rear, glancing back as they rounded corners to see if they were being followed. As far as he could tell, they weren't.

While they travelled, motion activated news vids blared at them, alerting anyone else who might have been in the area to their prescence. "Recent kidnappings in the downtown Arsacid District and surrounding areas have put residents on edge. While authorities are reluctant to call the suspect a "serial criminal," it is confirmed that there is a pattern in the physical appearance of the victims, leading them to believe there is a single suspect or group behind the kidnappings..." The broadcast was followed by an advertisement for home security systems. Marketing at its best, no doubt, Garrus thought cynically.

"Tell me, Dr. T'Soni," Miranda said, approaching Liara from behind and quickening her pace to catch up. "If you're the best information broker in the city, why are we getting intel from someone else?"

"Being a broker isn't about having all the information. It's about playing your cards to get the whole deck," Liara explained. "Besides, the person we're going to see isn't an information broker. He's more of a tech specialist, who has access to all kinds of surveillance cameras and classified patrol reports. I have no idea exactly how extensive his reach is, but whenever I need to know something, he has an answer."

They reached a corner. Garrus signaled them to stop, taking a moment to scan the street before giving the all clear to continue.

"I thought you said you couldn't trust any of your people for this. What if he tips off the Shadow Broker?" Miranda asked.

"He's not one of mine. As far as I know, he doesn't work for anyone, not really. He's sort of a freelancer."

"But he could still sell us out."

Liara had to consider the possibility. "He could. But even if they did provide him with acceptable payment... well, I'm sure they're already onto us. I don't think he'd be able to tell the Broker's agents anything they didn't know." Her answer satisfied Miranda, though she wasn't sure if it made her feel better or worse.

They soon left behind the shiny, sparkling district where Liara's office was and entered into the downtown area. Miranda noted an abundance of overturned trash cans and what smelled like sewage on nearly every neglected street. She wanted to get the current part of the mission over with, so she could get back to the ship and the decontamination chamber. And then a hot shower. And then she'd bleach the tub, possibly toss her jumpsuit out the airlock. Miranda expected such conditions of Omega, but it was a part of Illium that she'd never seen before. It was a well-kept secret, obviously with good reason. She walked on the tips of her toes and clasped her arms to her sides, as if minimizing her contact with the ground or air would lessen that awful smell...

A few minutes later, they arrived at an apartment building that appeared to be abandoned. Miranda's nose wrinkled at the sight of it. "What a dump." Many of the windows were boarded up, and there seemed to be no light coming from within.

"It's inconspicuous," Liara said defensively. "After all, discretion is an art." She cast a glowering look down at Miranda's high heels, which were prone to clacking loudly on the pavement. Miranda ignored her last statement.

They gathered on the front stoop of the building, masked by a shadow darker than the night, and Liara pounded an intercom button.

"It's Liara. Can I come up?" Garrus noticed she didn't reveal that she wasn't alone.

"Password?"

Liara took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. She leaned in towards the receiver and mumbled something unintelligible.

"Come again?" the voice at the other end responded.

Eyes still shut, Liara enunciated clearly, "Spike is the coolest guy I know and he's super handsome."

It took most of Garrus's willpower not to burst out laughing.

"Alright, Lili. Buzzing you in."

The door buzzed open. Liara glared at the other four. "Not a word from any of you."

Kaidan's face was turning red. He tried to disguise his chuckle by suddenly launching into a coughing fit, turning away slightly. Liara could hear him laughing, though. Miranda, too, made an attempt to hide her amusement by scratching her nose, but the full blown smirk on her lips was hard to miss.

They entered the building, climbing up a set of concrete stairs. A light at the top flickered on and off. Liara stopped them at the second floor, pausing in a dilapidated foyer. "All of you, be civil. And Garrus, for the sake of the Goddess, do not kill this one. Understood?"

"Loud and clear... Lili."

Liara's nostrils flared, but she didn't retaliate. She just turned on her heel and knocked twice on the door.

It opened almost immediately. "Y'know, I was just thinking about you, Liara. Just thinking it was about time we hang out. And... hey. You gonna introduce me to your lovely lady friends?"

"Hi, Spike. Can we come in?" Liara asked, glancing about the stairwell nervously. As secure as the building was, it was still possible for the Shadow Broker's agents to follow them in if they knew where to look.

"Sure thing. I just got my hands on some elassa from twenty one sixty-two." Probably a tribute from another one of his customers. "We'll make a party of it. Whaddya drink, human? I think I have some cranberry juice around here somewhere..."

"Actually, we're here on business," Liara said, breezing into the apartment. The door opened a bit wider, and Garrus was surprised to see a young turian standing in the doorway. This kid can't be more than eighteen years old. He was wearing a fancy suit, with the shirt untucked and the sleeves pushed up. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar...

"Oh." His face fell. When he caught sight of Garrus and Kaidan, and their assault rifles, he backed up a few steps into the apartment. "Whoa. C'mon, Lili, you know I don't like bodyguards."

Before Garrus could tell him otherwise, Liara intervened. "They're friends. We're looking for someone, and we need your help."

He no longer seemed troubled by the fact that there were several well-armed strangers in his home. If it can be called that. The place looked like some kind of lounge-museum hybrid. There was a neon drink bar in the corner, flanked by sleek black leather couches. Strewn all over the room were priceless artifacts, some on display, others laying around like worthless trinkets. An intricate silk tapestry was being used as a table cloth in the main area, sitting beneath ancient, colorful pottery that smelled like clay and alcohol. Looks like business is good. Either that, or the price was a lot steeper than they'd initially guessed.

"Okay. I'm not liking the way your entourage is eyeing my pad, but you know I'll always help you out, Liara." He strode over to a work area, the likes of which Garrus had only seen in professional espionage divisions of the turian military. He rubbed his hands together and sat down. "So. What do you have for me today?"

Garrus produced the duffel bag, setting it on top of the desk. "It's Prothean," Liara explained.

Without opening the bag, the kid whined, "This better not be another one of your ugly gray statues. I've got like a billion of those."

Garrus noticed Liara's spine stiffen. The woman liked her ugly gray statues, and she took his insult personally. "Just look at it."

At her urging, he did. While he was handling it, Garrus inspected the wall behind his desk. There were several posters of bands on Illium, some rare art, and also, unexpectedly, a worn clan emblem from Palaven. Then, he remembered where he recognized the kid from.

"You're Daryn Forsythe," he blurted out. The kid, Daryn, let the Prothean orb slip from his fingers, rolling off towards the center of the room.

"Hey, man. I go by Spike these days," Daryn replied, glaring at Garrus from the corner of his eye.

"You know him?" Liara asked, curiosity overcoming her.

"Yeah. Well, no, not personally," Garrus explained, "but ever since he deserted a few years ago, the junior military instructors have been ridiculing him as the perfect example of a failed turian. He's actually rather infamous back home."

"Gee, thanks," Daryn replied sarcastically. "Anyway, I wouldn't call it deserting. I left a few months before my fifteenth birthday. Bet they leave that part out of the stories."

"Regardless, you were shirking your duties to your nation. That's generally frowned upon," Garrus said, a scolding tone creeping into his voice. Behind him, Samara, Kaidan, and Miranda were investigating the relics inside the apartment, wondering how they could be kept in such disarray.

"Yeah, well, not everyone stays in the military, Archangel."

"For your information, I served my – wait. How did you know I was -"

"Oh, please. That's the whole reason you came to me, isn't it? I know lots of stuff about a lot of people. I know your team came here a while ago to recruit an assassin and a justicar. And that the skinny Cerberus chick has a sister on-world. She's cute. And, oh yeah, I know who attacked the commander and your boy Alenko over there last night. Which is why you're here, isn't it?" Daryn said, leaning back in his chair and tucking his feet underneath him.

Garrus couldn't help but marvel at his intelligence. Everyone knew Daryn Forsythe as a traitor. He had been expecting some cowardly kid, hiding under a rock and avoiding contact with the outside world... actually, that was pretty close to the life "Spike" was living. But Garrus had imagined him a lot dumber, not some rich hacker selling intel to the best information brokers on Illium and amassing an impressive collection of artifacts in the process. Though he wasn't sure Daryn was using his talents for the most altruistic of causes, Garrus had to admire what the kid had accomplished for himself.

"Uhh... yeah."

Daryn rolled his chair forward, cracking his neck and stretching his arms, as if preparing himself for physical exercise. He stuck two curled fingers into his mouth and whistled sharply. Then, "Lights!"

A high-pitched trilling sound came from the back of the room, like some kind of animal, before the overhead lights clicked off and a few dim floor lamps flickered on. Garrus turned around, startled. "Sorry," Daryn apologized. "I have to turn off the lights to get enough power for the terminals."

"I... what the hell?" Garrus said, jumping to his feet and grabbing for his pistol. "Get down! There's a -"

"Whoa, easy there, cowboy. Put that gun away. Nobody points a gun at Momo, you dig?" Right on cue, the creature, an inky blue pyjak, scuttled into view, climbing onto a curtain before swinging down to perch on Daryn's shoulder. Its beady black eyes blinked at Garrus, who felt mildly disgusted.

"They're vermin, not pets. You should get rid of it before it gives you a disease."

"First of all, Momo's a she, not an it. Second of all, you really sound like my dad or something."

Garrus was about to deny the claim, but realized it would get him nowhere. The kid needed to do his job so they could get the info and leave, and besides, Daryn was barely listening, already immersed in his the screens. He sorted through the data at an incredible pace, quickly gaining access to footage from when Shepard and Kaidan were attacked.

"Here we are." He swiveled the screen around, giving Liara, Garrus, Samara, Miranda, and Kaidan a good view. Garrus didn't really want to watch, but once the security camera footage began to roll, he knew that saying something about it would make him look weak.

So he sat through it, grinding his teeth the whole time. It felt surreal, like he was watching a movie instead of something that happened only hours before. As the agents dragged Shepard away and the vid came to an end, Garrus felt more determined than ever to find her.

"There," Liara said. She got to her feet and circled around the desk, taking the position right behind Daryn so she could get a good look at what he was doing. "That asari. She's the one in charge."

"She have a name?"

"Kamala Nasar. We were told she's an Ardat-Yakshi."

His fingers flew at the keyboard, his face a mask of concentration. The pyjak on his shoulder tittered, placing its dirty little hand on Daryn's fringe. Liara leaned away from it as far as she could. Garrus relinquished the seat in front of Daryn's desk to Miranda and Samara, joining Kaidan in standing behind them.

"What a nasty lot, them hoes," Daryn muttered as he manipulated the data. He pulled up a few files on the main screen. "Okay. Let's see. That vid there is about ten years old." The six of them watched the hacked camera footage, trying to gather as much information from them as possible about the Ardat-Yakshi.

"That uniform," Samara spoke up. "She was with the Eclipse sisters." Apparently, the Eclipse mercenaries were Ardat-Yakshi sympathizers. Samara made a mental note. If she lived long enough, her quest to eradicate all remaining Ardat-Yakshi outside of solitude would begin with Eclipse.

"Yeah," Daryn said. "For a while, at least. Here, look at this clip. It's from three years ago."

Their target, the lilac asari with pink freckles, was making her way through Eternity, a popular place for not entirely legal "business" transactions. She was wearing all black. They watched as she ordered two drinks from the bar, discreetly pouring a white powder in one of them and swirling it around before serving it to someone across the room.

"Looks like she's with the Shadow Broker there," Kaidan said, noting the change of attire. Besides, Eclipse didn't deal much with espionage. Whatever Kamala was doing, she was probably sent by the Broker.

"Three year old footage from a bar isn't going to help us find her. Don't you have anything more recent?" Garrus pressed.

By way of answering, Daryn entered a few commands into his console, eye ridges furrowing as he leaned forward. "I have some stuff from the past week or so..."

"Not good enough," Miranda shot out. "We need updates as recent as the last two hours."

"Don't get your thong in a knot, Cerberus. Just watch the clips."

They sat in silence, eyes glued to the screen. Each clip played basically the same scene over and over again: Kamala and a small strike team would enter a room, grab an unsuspecting woman, knock her out with what Garrus suspected was Somnex Four, and bring the woman back, each to the same place every time.

"What are they doing?" Kaidan asked. Once the women were taken inside the building, none of them ever came out.

"Victims," Samara said. "It is possible that Kamala was storing victims. Every time an Ardat-Yakshi claims a life, she grows stronger. Perhaps she was preparing herself to face Shepard."

"Wait.. look at the clips. All of them victims are similar in appearance. Why would Kamala need to kidnap women who look alike?" Liara asked.

"Ardat-Yakshi sometimes take preference over certain features in their victims. They have "types," if you will. As Morinth was attracted to artists and introverts, Kamala might be drawn in by these physical traits," Samara explained.

Her theory seemed sound, but Garrus was having a hard time swallowing it. Miranda shared his thoughts. "There's something here that we're not seeing," she said. They replayed the clips, and suddenly, it came to Garrus.

"They all look like Shepard."

A moment passed, and Kaidan said, "You're right. Fair-skinned, tall, dark hair..."

As Kaidan was describing Shepard, and the victims, Miranda felt her heart drop into her stomach. Garrus noticed that she'd gone silent. He realized that Kaidan had almost perfectly described Oriana, Miranda's sister. The usually fiery Cerberus agent grew pale.

"Daryn," Garrus said. "You said you knew Miranda's sister."

"Knew of her, yeah."

"Can you get us a visual?"

Daryn nodded his head, his pet pyjak bobbing in unison. Miranda started to give him the address, but he was already at work locating her. After a few seconds, he'd gotten a link into what appeared to be a home security camera feed. It was a feed that Miranda herself often hacked into.

"Cycle to input six," she ordered him, willing her voice to remain even. He did as he was told.

Oriana's bedroom. Empty.

A small sound escaped Miranda, one that Garrus would have never guessed that she was capable of making.

"She could be at a friend's house," Kaidan said, trying to offer her some sliver of hope. Miranda abruptly shot to her feet, joining Liara behind the desk and paying no attention at all to Momo the pyjak despite her dislike of all things dirty and alien.

"Scan the district," she barked. "I want live video from every private residence, STAT -"

"Miranda," Garrus said. "That won't get us any closer."

"Do it!"

"Lawson..."

"That's my sister!" she yelled. Everything went quiet for a moment. She buried her face in her hand for two seconds, then fluffed out her hair. The light of the terminals reflected in her glistening eyes.

"Can you check the origins of the abduction clips? See if one of their signatures matches with the cameras from Oriana's house." If none of them match, it might mean that she's safe...

"I don't think it would do much good. I only have a few of the kidnappings on tape. There's been reports of maybe – I don't know – a dozen disappearances like this. Even if none of these are from Oriana's house, she could still be -"

"We have to go. NOW." The sudden increase in volume startled Momo, causing him to squawk and tumble from his perch.

"We should investigate the building where the girls were taken," Samara concurred. "In discovering the Ardat-Yakshi's intentions for them, we may be able to discover more information regarding the nature of Shepard's imprisonment."

Garrus agreed. There was a glimmer of hope inside him that maybe, just maybe, they would find Shepard among the others who had been abducted. Only one way to find out.

"Do you have an address for the building?"

"Already transferred the coordinates to your omni-tool, biatch."

As they stood to leave, Liara gave Daryn a parting hug. "Thank you for your help. We appreciate the information."

"Aww, shucks, Lili. You know I always come through for you."

Miranda was already at the door. She nudged aside Momo, who had bounded in front of her, with the toe of her boot. "Shoo," she said.

They were about to leave when Daryn called after them. "Hey, Liara's posse?" Garrus, Samara, Kaidan, and Miranda turned around. "Look, the Shadow Broker's not one to screw around. If they have your commander, she may... people are gonna die. Things will end badly."

Garrus glanced up from his omni-tool, where he was already plotting the most direct course to the prisoners' location. The image of Liara's secretary with a bullet in her skull flashed through his mind. He imagined the Ardat-Yakshi in her place, lifeless amethyst eyes staring blindly at eternity, lilac skin splattered with a substance slightly darker than her pink freckles... "Things are already going to end badly."