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Wolf whistles echoed across the CIC when Kate stepped from the elevator. Infiltrating Donovan Hock's mansion included having to attend his society party, so Kasumi had gone shopping before they'd left the Citadel. Kate's usual t-shirt, cargo pants and combat boots had been replaced with a very-low-cut black cocktail dress and black FMPs.

"Alright boys, pick your jaws up off the floor and get back to work," she said as she walked towards the cockpit where Kasumi waited with a slack-jawed Zaeed and Joker. She couldn't help but laugh when the thief reached out and gently nudged their mouths closed.

"Bloody hell. Are you trying to kill me, Kate?" Zaeed growled, impatiently swatting Kasumi's hand away. He was accompanying them to the party, posing as Kate's bodyguard, so he was going to have to spend the entire evening keeping his hands to himself, watching her flirt with Hock and anyone else she needed to in order to gain access to Hock's vault.

She smirked. "If you don't want to come, I can always take Jacob. But Hock's guaranteed to have better booze than we've got on this ship. Might be your last chance for awhile to get a proper liver-pickling drink."

He shook his head as he tugged on the collar of his dress shirt. "Taylor watching your back? Not bloody likely. But you owe me for this."

"Don't worry, it'll be fun," Kate said with a grin.

"Darling, would you happen to know anything about this?" Donovan Hock murmured in Kate's ear as he came up behind her and brushed his hands over her shoulders to steer her towards his security monitors.

She tore her eyes from the painting she'd been admiring and cringed inwardly. A change of plans had a pissed-off Zaeed accompanying Kasumi into the vault while Kate kept Hock distracted. The pair had made it to the prize. But picking up Keji's greybox had triggered a secondary alarm they hadn't known about and the cameras had come back on.

She looked at Hock with what she hoped was an unreadable expression on her face. "No, Donovan, I have no idea what's going on."

Hocked narrowed his eyes. "I find that hard to believe. A woman like you wouldn't hire a man to be your bodyguard unless you knew him very well."

"Obviously, I don't know him as well as I thought I did," Kate said innocently.

"Next I suppose you're going to tell me you don't know Miss Goto either," Hock said viciously. He slid his hands down her arms and grabbed her wrists as she started inching away. "Not so fast. You're not going anywhere. You're going to sit here and watch your friends die in my vault. And then I'm going to kill you as well."

He flipped a switch and spoke to the head of his security. A minute later, a squad of guards filed into the vault. Kate could only watch as Zaeed and Kasumi fought them off.

Hock growled in frustration when Chief Roe fell and Zaeed and Kasumi were able to escape. He called in his own bodyguard and shoved Kate towards him. "I'm going downstairs to deal with the intruders myself. I'll be back to deal with this one later. Do not let her out of your sight."

The guard nodded as he reached out to grab Kate. But she quickly reached under her dress and pulled the pistol from her thigh holster and shot at both men, not stopping to see if she hit either one.

"Kate Shepard, you are going to be the death of me, I swear it," Dr. Chakwas lamented two hours later as she pulled shrapnel from the Commander's arm, leg and back. Kate used her free hand to apply medi-gel to scrapes on her face and neck.

Zaeed sat on another bed, swearing at Mordin as the salarian fixed his dislocated shoulder. Kasumi, having made it out relatively unscathed, was updating Miranda and the Illusive Man on their progress.

"Uh-huh. So I was just supposed to let Kasumi take the full blast of the explosion?" Kate shot back.

"No one will ever dissuade you from jumping into the line of fire for your friends, and I commend you for that. But dammit woman, you were supposed to be wearing armor, not this... I can't even believe you'd call this a dress."

"How was I supposed to know Hock was going to have a fucking rocket launcher?"

"He was a weapons dealer, Kate," Zaeed said, rolling his eyes. "Of course he had a rocket launcher and a gunship. You never did explain exactly how you ended up on the landing pad without your armor, your sidearm or your shoes."

Kate hissed as the doctor began applying medi-gel to the rest of her wounds. "When Hock found out you and Kasumi broke into his vault, he got suspicious of me as well, didn't think I wouldn't know the plans of my own bodyguard. So I had to make a run for it. Didn't have time to get my guns and armor."

"Where were you?" Zaeed asked quietly.

Kate ignored the question and continued. "When I ran out of bullets, I... threw my gun. Then I had to throw my shoes. Pretty sure I killed a guard with one of them. Those heels were fucking spikes."

"Bloody hell. You were in his bedroom! He was trying to seduce you, wasn't he?"

Kate looked straight into his eyes. "Trying, yes and way too hard. Succeeding, not in the least. There's a high probability Donovan Hock would have died tonight even if the heist had gone off without a hitch."

From: Cmdr. K. Shepard
To: Councilor D. E. Anderson
Subject: Gone
Next time you see the Normandy docked on the Citadel, I'll be finished with Cerberus.
Happy?
Shepard

From: David E. Anderson
To: Kate Shepard
Subject: I'm Sorry
I'll assume you talked to your father then. That message wasn't from me, I promise you. It was Sparatus; you know he's always had a stick up his ass when it comes to you and being a Spectre.
And I am sorry for what I said to you when you first came in to see me. I don't trust Cerberus, but I do trust you.
Just please be careful.
Anderson