Chapter 7
- No! I said no murdering!-
So here I am, sitting in another interrogation room. After Saylem and I were arrested I was brought to a medical facility and my stab wounds were taken care of, my nose was reset too. The whole ordeal only took about an hour. The only reason it even took that long was because of the hole in my stomach, the bastard twisted the knife so that took a bit to patch up. After that they rushed me here, didn't even hose me off. I've been trying to get the blood off me for over an hour and yeah, I've been sitting in this room for over an hour.
I noticed something about this room almost immediately, how different it was from the other room I was in. The first room was, well, just a room, nothing special about it. This room however is something else.
First there's a vent in the room and its pumping in heat, it's noticeably warmer in here than the rest of the Citadel and there is a clicking noise coming from the vents which is at random intervals.
Second is my chair has one slightly shorter leg so it rocks back and forth whenever I shift my weight.
And third is I've been in here alone for just over an hour.
Put this all together and you start to go a little crazy, it's all so subtle, clever really. Your average Joe would be bothered, make mistakes. Good thing I watch too many cop shows or that would get to me. What is getting to me is the fact that my Medi-gel is wearing off and I'm starting to hurt. I've been in pain before but stab wounds are new territory, so I'd rather not go without meds.
The worst thing is that my fucking jacket is ruined, one hole in the stomach and the other went right through the zipper. I loved this jacket and now it's fucked, I wonder if I can get it repaired somewhere.
I'll have to do that after Haynes, I need to deal with him within the week. And I know just how to do it, I just need to talk to the crew to get it sorted. Unfortunately Haynes has no family, no friends, so I have to take the one thing he has. The one thing he put all of his time and money into.
Haynes Shipping.
I'm going to take everything he has to make up for everything he took. Only then can I start to help everyone and pay my bills, and if Wrex is here then I only have two months at most to turn this shit around.
After a few more minutes I get bored and start to roll a throw around in my hands, after that it takes seconds for me to start flinging the chair around the room until a familiar face walks in.
"Didn't we talk about playing with furniture?" Garrus says as he walks in the room. I can't help but smile at the turian as he leans on the table. "Tell me what happened today."
"Well, I was walking with my friend, Saylem, and when we got to his place I heard some voice from inside the apartment ask Saylem if he had company. Next thing I know I was attacked by a turian who was hiding in the apartment. One stab to the stomach and once in the chest." I shake my head and lower my gaze as I remember what happened next.
"I had to get him off me, so I… I set off a biotic detonation on his head. Then I pulled out the knife, got him off of me and went inside to help Saylem. When I got in there, there was another guy, human, he tried to shoot Saylem, so I stopped him."
Garrus doesn't say anything, instead he makes a few keystrokes on his Omni-tool and the table lights up in a huge display. Garrus sits back and points at the screen so I watch, it looks like security cam footage.
I watch the footage and I see Saylem and myself come into frame, of course it looks like I'm saying a few things and Saylem isn't talking back to me. I narrow my eyes as I watch the door open and I step in the apartment. I subconsciously grab at my stomach as I watch myself stagger out of the apartment, grabbing at the knife that's jammed in me. Then the turian emerges and knees my face before he grabs Saylem and tosses him in the building. I flinch as I watch him twist the blade out of me and stab it into my chest as he leans in close.
I watch as my glowing hands clap against his head making it vanish in a small biotic detonation. Streams of blue arch into the air and a mist sprays the whole area. I feel my stomach flip as his body flops to the side and the gore rains down on me, I turn my head but Garrus taps the table angrily and I force myself to watch. I can't believe how much blood is on me as I watch myself rip out the knife and apply Medi-gel. The tape fast forwards about five minutes before I get up and stagger back into the apartment, I'm surprised that it took me so long to get up, I could've sworn it was only a few seconds.
The video feed cuts out and is replaced with a handful of crime scene photos, photos of the human inside the apartment. They cycle and I see how messed up his back is, x-rays fly by and his spine looks like he was bent in half. Other words fly by, organ ruptures, broken ribs, bruised liver, and other nasty sounding injuries. Finally it cuts out and I look up at Garrus.
"Normally we would let you go." Garrus tells me. "But a couple things stand in our way though, don't they?" he asks accusingly.
What is he talking about? The Good Samaritan Act should make this just go away, it did last time.
"We've had people try this before." He paces around me, he leans closer and gets right in my ear. "Do you think I was born yesterday?"
"What are yo-"
"How long did you think you could keep this up?" he interupts. "And killing so close together, not very smart of you, is it?"
"Look, I don't know what you're talki-"
"Enough!" he yells as he slams his hands on the desk. "Stop playing games! We know you tortured this man!" Garrus yells as he points to the human from the apartment. "What did he have that you wanted?"
I pause and take a breath, trying not to be angry at the turian shouting in my face. "Why don't you ask him?" I say quietly.
"Because he's dead!" Garrus shouts. "Did you think he would make it through this?"
I recoil as more pictures flash across the table, pictures of the humans back, large pointed lumps of broken spine pushing against the skin. Fuck, I killed another person. That's three now, all because of my biotics, if I didn't have them though I'd probably be dead.
"What's wrong?" Garrus sneers. "Can't admire your own work?"
"I was trying to help Sa-"
"You were trying to get your fix!" he shouts. "You're a killer! What more would you have done if we didn't show up?" Garrus enlarges the pictures of the disfigured body and I look away. "Tell me what you were after! Why the torture?"
"I wanted to find out who sent them!"
"And then what?"
"Fuck you!" I yell, like hell I'm telling him shit! Garrus is a fucking asshole, how could he possibly think that I'm a murderer. "What I did, who I hurt, that was to help people! I only killed when I had to! They didn't give me a fucking choice!"
"You're lying!" Garrus shouts as he slams his hands on the desk again and brings his face to mine.
"Garrus!" a British voice calls out. I see a hand pull back his shoulder and quietly lead him to the door. "Relax mate."
Garrus glares at me as the other detective leads him out of the room. The detective turns around and I get a good look at him, he's visibly short, skinny and has blonde hair like me. He seems… familiar. He quietly walks up and sits down across from me, letting out a sigh and drumming the desk before leaning forward and looking at me. He seems much nicer then the renegade Garrus that just verbally assaulted me.
"I apologize for my partner, he can get a tad, excited." Yeah this guy's way nicer. "He'll calm down in a few minutes. So let's talk, my name is Detective Sh-"
"Medi-gel." I say as I raise my hand. "Could I have some Medi-gel please."
"Of course." The detective says and he quickly applies a dose of Medi-gel. I feel the soothing sensation worm its way into the depths of my wounds and ease my pain.
"Thank you, now, how can I help you?"
"Just tell me what happened." He says calmly as he takes a seat.
"I've told you already." I shake my head. "There is nothing more to say." I pause for a moment as the detective shifts in his seat. "Do I get a phone call?"
"Yes." He sighs. "Look, your case isn't that strong. I do understand you were trying to help someone, I really do." He sympathizes. "But I can't help you if you don't help me."
"There is nothing more to say, I told your friend everything." I shake my head. "What about the Good Samaritan Act? It helped me last time."
The detective scoots his chair up and folds his arms on the table. "The Good Samaritan Act helps people who have killed somebody in order to defend another. However when it's used so frequently, almost at the same time in your case, there is almost always foul play." He explains.
"But it's not always foul play, right?"
"No, but the video evidence is damning, not to mention the torture." He trails off. "The only thing that'll keep you from being prosecuted is your word."
"And that's not going to be enough, is it?"
"No." he states blankly. "You can make a call from that terminal over there." He points to a terminal in the corner of the room as he gets up from his chair.
"Thanks, when can I go?"
"You're being detained until further notice." He says over his shoulder before the door closes behind him, leaving me alone in the interrogation room.
I slowly stand up and activate the terminal and start keying in the name Greg Broadway. There is a slight pause and the Broadways smiling face pops up. I can see he isn't in Chora's Den anymore and he seems to be over the little outburst he had earlier.
"James! How's it going buddy?" he asks before his face screws slightly. "What are you covered in? Paint?"
"Close." I nod. "Turian blood, not important really. Saylem and I are detained at the C-Sec academy, I don't know how Saylem is but I'm being charged with murder for saving Saylem. Wanna help a guy out?"
Broadway doesn't move for a few seconds and I tap the screen to see if it froze. He finally shakes his head and looks at me. "You said you're detained?"
"Yeah."
"I'll have you out in an hour." He sighs.
"Broadway, I'm probably being charged for murder man." I tell him. "I was hoping you could represent me in the trail or something."
"Over use of the Good Samaritan Act?" he asks, though I'm sure he already knows.
"Yeah." I sigh. "They think I'm some sort of killer."
"Then I can help with the trial and I can definitely get you released." He says as he smirks at me before the feed cuts out.
I look at my Omni-tool and watch the clock tick, which is about the only thing I can do seeing at its being scrambled by C-Sec. I guess it makes sense, you don't really want people to have access to incinerate or overload during an interrogation. Oh man, or an Omni-blade? In this tiny room? That'd be devastating! All of this considered though, it's still irritating.
The clock hits one hour and two minutes just as the door slides open and Broadway casually leans in the doorframe, Saylem in tow.
"Broadway how did you…" I start before he cuts me off.
"Because I'm the best." He responds with a smirk.
I'm glance at Saylem as he speaks up behind Broadway. "With the charges it should have been impossible…" he mutters to himself.
"I. Am. The best!" Broadway announces in a cocky voice as he shines his nails on his jacket. I laugh as Saylem continues thinking.
"That you are Broadway!" I laugh as I exit the room, god it feels great to be out of there!
The three of us begin to walk through the academy, Broadway advising us not to talk about what happened until we were in private. I don't think we have to be worried about Saylem running his mouth in public though. As we walk towards the door I notice Garrus and the other detective leaning on a wall, Garrus looks furious that we are walking out of here but the other detective appears quite calm.
As we pass them I shoot Garrus a smug wink as I snap my finger into a gun, I cocky shit eating grin plastered on my face. The second I do this Garrus pushes himself of the wall and starts to make his way over to me but the human detective mutters something and he stops. I look over to see Broadway rolling his eyes.
"Why do you have to agitate people?" he sighs.
"It's fun." I shrug. "Besides, he was an asshole."
"Yeah well, your fun is going to make my job harder." He complains.
"I thought you were the best?" I smirk at him.
"Oh, I am." He assures me with a smile. "But why would I want to make my job harder?"
"The challenge?" I guess at the rhetorical question, causing Broadway to sigh again.
We make our way onto the street and Broadway taps at Saylems shoulder.
"Hey Saylem, go call a cab. I've got to talk to James." He says as he waves at a rapid transit terminal. As Saylem walks off Broadway turns to me and his face becomes sincere. "About what happened at Chora's…"
"Hey man, don't worry about it." I tell him as I watch Saylem poke at the terminal. "We're going to get back at Haynes, I promise you man. In fact, call Pac up to Aila's. I've got a plan."
"James…" he shakes his head in exhaustion, clearly not believing that any plan could possibly work.
"Call me Maverick, and I know. You all tried to get out of contracts and you couldn't do it…" I look at him and a smile creeps across my lips. "…alone. But together, we'll beat Haynes."
"If you say so." He shrugs as he brings up his Omni-tool. "One thing though, I got you released but you aren't allowed to leave the Citadel. I would also avoid murdering people."
I look at Broadway and open my mouth to speak but I falter as I search for the right words. Broadway notices that I don't say yes and he turns to fully face me and grips my shoulder.
"I said, don't murder people." He reiterates slowly.
"I… ahh… hmm…" I stammer as Broadways concerned look grows more prominent. "No." I say slowly as we get into the skycar.
The three of us walk into Aila's apartment to see her and Pac sitting in the living room. We all walk towards them and take a seat on the couch.
"What's going on?" Aila asks as she tucks her feet under her as she leans on the armrest of the couch.
"We're going to get rid of Haynes." I announce quietly. Everyone in the room seemingly freezes as they stare at me.
"We tried." Pac shakes his head. "The contracts can't be gotten out of."
"I know, Broadway what does it say about releasing a contract?" I ask as I turn to him. Broadway doesn't even need to check, he just starts reciting his contract word for word. After a minute he says the words I've been waiting for.
"…And the employee is forbidden to terminate contract without the express written consent of the CEO's and owner of Haynes Shipping." He finishes. "It's airtight, even if we could force Haynes to break the contract we need the signatures of his five CEO's who are anonymous."
"We don't need Haynes to break the contract." I tell him. "Aila will release us from it after we sign our names on the CEO line."
The rest of the crew don't really understand what I'm getting at except for Broadway, he seems to be deeply pondering what I said.
"No, he'd talk to the CEO's. They'd invoke a retraction. None of them would agree to Haynes being replaced with Aila." He mutters.
"What if we were the CEO's? Besides, Haynes isn't giving the company to Aila." I say as I look to Pac. "He's leaving the company to Aila."
Pac's mandibles spread in a turian smile as Broadway immediately starts to shake his head. "No! I said no murdering!" he shouts.
"That's the beauty of it, I'm not killing Haynes, he's going to commit suicide. And nobody has to die." I explain as I sink further into my chair. I glance around and notice nobody is following me. "Ok I'll make it simple, we each have a task. Saylem, I need you to remotely access Haynes's terminal and rewrite his will and leave the company and anything else he owns to Aila. No electronic trail either, nobody can know you were in there. See if you can find the CEO's info too."
"I can do that." Saylem nods.
"Broadway and Aila, you two need to prepare to oust the CEO's and prepare for the fallout of Haynes's death." I say as they nod along.
"Pac, I need you to organize a transport to Omega. One way, nonstop and make the container big enough to hold a human."
"Easy enough." He shrugs. "What will you do?"
"I'm going to get us a body." I smirk. "A clone of Haynes. It's going to have an unfortunate skycar accident, that's what you two need to prepare for." I point to Broadway and Aila. Broadway raises a finger to get my attention.
"So let me get this straight." He says. "You're going to clone Haynes, have that clone commit suicide, ship Haynes away to Omega after his will is changed to leave everything to Aila, and then have her replace the CEO's with us and then we sign off each other's contracts?"
"Yup."
"You know if we get caught then we could face charges of murder, kidnapping, theft, illegal cloning, identity theft, tempering of private documents and embezzlement?" he lists off. "And you're already being charged for murder." He points out.
"But if it goes off without a hitch, the only thing they have on us is a motive." I smile at him. "And that's not enough is it?"
"No." he says slowly.
"So." I exclaim as I clap my hands. "We all have our jobs, tomorrow I will get a clone and then we will play off of that schedule."
We all sit there in silence as everyone thinks of what they have to do and after a while they all come around and agree to the plan. We then all sit around and talk, except for Saylem, and Aila cooks up some food while Broadway makes drinks. Pac orders some dextro food causing me to be left alone with Saylem.
"So Saylem, you never told me your story." I smile at him. His eyes dart around before falling on me.
"I suppose I can trust you." He concludes. "I was in STG on Sur'Kesh."
…
"I'm sorry." I say as I shake my head. "I thought you said STG."
"I did, I studied multiple biology's as well as assisting with multiple experimental technologies projects." He says, almost shrugging off the fact he work in STmotherfuckingG!
"So are they hunting you or…"
"No, I was discharged."
"Oh, so that's cool." I say, unsure what to make of my ex-STG friend. "So uhh, how old are you? Salarians live for forty years right?"
"I'm fourteen."
"Jesus Saylem, anything else I don't know about you?" I ask as I lean forward. Saylem ponders this question for a moment before answering.
"Yes."
I sit there for a moment waiting for Saylem to continue but he never does so I give him a bit of a push. "Are you going to tell me?"
"No." he replies instantly.
"Ok Saylem." I sigh as we both get up to go eat.
We all sit around the table and I mentally chuckle when I see she made calamari, remembering Mess Sargent Gardner's cannibalism theories. Pac pulls out his food and it looks like spinach and sweet potato all mashed up into one big mess. Broadway walks up and starts passing out drinks, something called a Watson Bomb, hell if I know what's in it but it tastes good.
We delve into conversations about life before Haynes, all of the happy times that were had and the happy times that are on the way. Saylem managed to condense his whole time in STG into a sixteen word story and Aila talked about the "fun" of micromanaging. Pac apparently was in the turian military and was a great strategist. Well, not in turian standards, Pac tended to think outside the box. He actually mentioned Adrien Victus by name, even called him a role model.
"So Mav." Broadway says as he finishes his Watson Bomb. "What do you have planned for this company when the mutiny settles?"
I chuckle and swallow a bite of food before wagging my finger at Aila. "Nono, it's what Aila has planned, but if I were her, the first thing I would do is change the name!"
"I can't do that without the help of my CEO's!" she says as she raises her glass. "I also need to figure out what to do with all the contraband Haynes has moving through that building, I'm not sure if we should stop or do more, maybe even start something in the terminus."
"Aila the smuggler." Pac smirks as he finishes his green-orange dextro sludge. "Catchy."
Contraband? What the hell are they talking about?
"Uhh." I say slowly as I lower my drink. "Contraband? What contraband?"
"What, you didn't think those "Family Businesses" were legitimate did you?" Pac asks. "You didn't wonder why they were always in such concentrated bunches and moved on slow days so they could be in and out faster?"
"Shit." I mutter. "How much was he moving?"
"A lot." Aila says. "If the numbers are right he is the number one smuggler on the Citadel, thanks to me he doesn't get caught. It helps knowing how to keep certain things off the books." She winks.
If Haynes has been smuggling stuff throughout the Citadel he probably has tons of contacts throughout Citadel space and even way out in the Terminus systems. With that setup we could grow in the terminus systems like a fucking plague, gathering weapons and strength to fight the reapers! Did I just think of an awesome plan?
You bet your fuckin' ass I did!
"Who are the contacts?" I ask Aila, trying not to sound eager. "Bigger ones only." She thinks for a while and then turns to me.
"We have dealings with the Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Blood Pack." she lists off. "The only reason we have those contracts is because they are unable to gain a foothold on the Citadel, so they go through us. We also have hundreds of contacts throughout Citadel Space and just under twenty in the Terminus."
"Perfect!" I exclaim. "We have all we need to start a major crime syndicate!" I cheer in a singsong manner.
"I'm not becoming a criminal." Broadway shakes his head. "This is almost too much for me, this whole Haynes business."
"No of course not." I say as I lean forward. "But I said I would get back everything that was taken from you guys. Aila, I'm getting you a huge company to run. Saylem, we will have tons of money for you to experiment and research whatever you can dream of! Pac, we are going to need a military force to guard our assets and take new ones! And Broadway, I will find something for you man, I promise. With this we can all remake what we had, and make it better!"
Everyone thinks about my words and start to smile as they come around. We all start to talk about the possibilities of the new company, hell even Saylem got talkative about all the ideas he has for inventions and projects. But I'm still bothered by the fact that I couldn't get anything for Broadway, if anyone deserves something from this it's him…
"So how are you going to get a clone of Haynes?" Broadway himself asks. "Your whole plan hinges on that, does it not?"
"I unfortunately know somebody who can help, Aila can you write up a fake investment offer?" I ask as I stand up.
"Yes, what's the company name?"
"I'll send it to you when I find out." I shrug as everyone starts to clean up.
"You don't know the name?"
"Nope, by the way Saylem I need you to break into Haynes office before he gets to work tomorrow and get me a DNA sample, scan it and send me the map of Haynes DNA. I'm going to need a blueprint for our friend." I say as everyone makes their way to the door.
"I can do that." Saylem says as he walks off without saying goodbye. I shake Pac and broadways hands as they head out and am left alone with Aila.
"So who is your friend?" she asks as she grabs her pajamas and heads off into the bathroom to change.
I take of my shirt and lay on the couch, pulling a blanket up over my bandages and around my shoulders. I sigh and shout through the door.
"Doctor Saleon."
R/R
masterdude94: Thanks man! Yeah, C-Sec+Maverick=Friction. Thanks for reading!
Spiritstrike: Yeah, pretty brutal. Is it weird that I enjoyed writing that? Yeah I thought Wrex would act as a good timestamp, plus he is one of the most badass Mass Effect characters to ever exist! I've actually never romanced Garrus, only Liara, Tali, Miranda, Ashley and Kaiden once on a femshep run. You seem to get pretty excited about it so I might give it a shot, I'm always looking to find new ways to play the series but I never really touched the romances. I was actually thinking of giving his work another read through, just to hold me off until MtM4 is updated, which hopefully will be soon. I'll be waiting for the next chapter, and don't worry, I'm dreading writing the Normandy crew lines to! It's different when it's an OC, but with those guys you have to get it right or the readers will get sucked out of the story. I'm honestly honored that you would class me as being even closely addictive as Masses to Masses! So much feels! Thanks for reading!
general-joseph-dickson: Thank you! And yeah I know, don't hesitate to throw ideas out like that though. You never know what might stick!
DelVarO: Haha! Thank you man! Of course you got another cameo, you were part of my inspiration to write this fic! And you think so huh? After only seeing me say that quote, you think you'd have a better name? ;) And who doesn't love blowing up heads? It's crazy to think that you're becoming a fan of me! If you said that a few months ago when I read your stories I would've thought you were crazy! Thanks for reading Dev!
CrimsonKnight117: Yeah, it's always good not to be on Wrex's shit list! Yeah, always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Haynes is a douche, I tried to keep that in mind when writing about him, I think it worked out nicely. I hope you find it interesting, and once again, thanks for reading and reviewing!
cmitts93: Well I'm glad you like it! And I don't know, you tell me! ;)
ForgottenPrince: Thanks man! And you're a prince eh? I can't say I remember you, Prince… Get it? Cuz of the penname…
XRaiderV1: Ha! Thanks man, I'm glad you liked it!
Atsirk Enoh: No, porbably not, even less so now! Thanks for reading!
KrystylSky: Thanks!