A/N: Managed to get this out sooner than a month later :). Thanks to all who have favorited and are still following this story, as well as a guest reviewer and Revolution Assassin for your reviews last chapter!
-8-
They made it to the apartment without any further incidents. No high-speed chases with mercs in more C-Sec shuttles, much to Grunt's disappointment. Joker left them to meet up or track down their other squadmates while the rest of them went up to Jane's apartment to re-group.
It was a little cozy with all six of them crammed into that elevator, especially when four of those people were either aliens with bigger body structures or wore heavy armor that took up just as much space.
"Well, this is nice and cozy," Garrus remarked while pressed between Wrex's armored shoulder and the wall.
"Reminds me of being stuffed in the back of the Mako." Wrex let out a little chuckle. "Good times."
"Least we had more room to breathe." Garrus took an exaggerated deep breath and cough. "Smell's about the same, though."
"What's the matter, Garrus?" He was pretty sure Wrex was leaning more into him on purpose now. "Too much krogan musk for you to handle?"
"I wouldn't call it musk exactly." More like when roasted meat spent hours stewing in varren dung, then was left out for a few days.
Garrus felt the elevator floor stop vibrating, come to a grinding halt. Not a minute too soon, before the smell got to be too much.
They were all able to file out once Jane punched in the entrance code (which she seemed to take her sweet time in doing).
"So somebody want to tell me what the bloody hell's going on here?" Zaeed questioned once they entered the safe confines of the apartment.
"I didn't recognize those mercs," Garrus added. "Heavily armed and using C-Sec shuttles."
"I don't know," Jane agreed, leading them to the common area by the fireplace, the one closest to the door. "I've never seen them before."
Brooks had stayed quiet the rest of the journey to the apartment, but now she couldn't contain herself, pacing back and forth with wild motions of her arms. "I can't believe you survived all that. They had guns! And grenades! And those drone things!"
Jane whipped out her omni-tool. "I'm going to call Commander Bailey, see what's going on with C-Sec."
"Ok, that sounds…" Brooks paused in realization. "Wait. Wouldn't that just make whoever you contact a target too?"
A valid point. Last thing they wanted was to make Bailey more of a target than he already was. "She's right, Jane. Until we figure this out, it's a big risk."
Jane cut off the beginnings of her call. "Ok. For now, we run this ourselves."
"Right. Ourselves. On our own. Outside the law. Ok… yeah," Brooks said, starting out confident then less so the further along the sentence she went.
"Brooks, it's ok. I know it's a lot to deal with," Jane assured. Was it Garrus's imagination, or did the concern always audible (least to his heightened hearing) when talking to those in physical or emotional pain sounded more forced than usual, like it was some type of effort?
"I got shot. I've got medi-gel, but still. I took a desk job explicitly not to get shot! And you killed a hundred guys, with a pistol!"
Jane's brow furrowed, looking at Brooks as if what she just listed off was no big deal. "Well, yes, that did happen."
"I mean, who does that? Well, you, I guess, besides you…" Brooks paused in her frantic pacing to face the rest of them. "They said the medi-gel might make me jumpy. Do I seem jumpy?"
Garrus glanced over at Wrex (who was closest to him), not sure whether to be brutally honest or lie through his teeth. He finally settled on a neutral shrug which Wrex mimicked. Grunt kept silent with a smirk on his face, but Garrus could spot Zaeed shaking his head out of the corner of his eye.
"So how'd you get mixed up in this?" Jane asked, sounding more sincere and interested this time, more like normal. Yep, probably just imagined it before. No reason to think otherwise when she had seemed fine when they met up.
"I…monitor data for Alliance intel to prevent fraud and hacking of officer id's. Like someone using an Admiral's pass to get into a nightclub on the Citadel when that officer is fighting on Tuchanka. I wrote a tracking program. It's really neat. I named it Mr. Biscuits, after my cat."
Garrus felt the conversation steer in the direction of a tangent, but Jane brought it back with a call of Brooks's name to break her out of it.
"Sorry, Commander. Anyway, Mr. Bis…my tracking program detected a breach in your classified files. Soon, everything we had on you was compromised. Personnel files, mission reports. Everything."
"Since when does hacking personnel records involved heavy weapon fire?" Wrex demanded.
"Think of what criminals could do if they had Shepard's military access codes. Or Spectre codes, even."
"Explains why they need you dead so damn badly, Shepard," Zaeed interjected. "Nothing to stop them until the damage is done."
Jane crossed her arms, rocking on the balls of her feet. "Guess we're back on the clock."
Despite the number of people they had as an audience, Garrus couldn't help but add to lighten the mood, "And when this is over, I'm sure we'll find something to do, off the clock." Preferably involving a practiced for weeks tango dance, followed by finding the flattest surface possible away from prying eyes and not moving for quite some time.
He waited for Jane's reaction, not expecting it to be as intimate or sexual as it would be when alone, but there was nothing. Not even a twitch on her face, a spark in her normally expressive dark blue eyes.
Ok, maybe he had heard that change in tone earlier right.
Something to file away for later.
"So any idea on where to start with these guys?" Jane asked the group, all business, as if Garrus hadn't said a word.
"Well, I was looking at that pistol you picked up," Garrus said, brushing off the lack of reaction, even if it was curious.
"Tiny, but it packs a punch. Never seen anything like it before. Even when running Aralakh," Grunt replied as Jane pulled it out for everyone to examine. Tiny, yes, but an impressive silencer barrel attached.
"Let me see it. I might be able to help," a new voice filled the room, its owner approaching the group with her info-drone in tow, which announced it would begin to collate relevant intel for review.
"Liara," Jane greeted.
"Jane. I'm relieved to see you in one piece. A shame about the sushi place, though. It was a favorite."
Jane rubbed her neck, taking a cue from one of Garrus's nervous ticks. Maybe he was starting to rub off on her. "So I hear."
"Alright, Liara's on point," Wrex said. "What about the rest of the crew?"
"Yeah, what about those slackers?"
"Joker," Jane greeted their newest arrival like a hostess greeting everyone who arrived to her fancy party. "You've been busy."
"Turns out I found some folks who actually like being shot at," Joker said, turning to the approaching figures streaming in through the door behind him, gesturing to them with a sweeping motion of his hand.
Being led in by someone whom Garrus hadn't expected to see again so soon, not after having parted two days before. Her flowing black hair and white with black accents and skin-tight outfit were unmistakable. As was the other human bringing up the rear, his black armor once proudly bearing the Cerberus insignia on its breast.
"Permission to come abroad, Shepard?"
Another happy family reunion.
Garrus got over the shock at seeing Miranda and Jacob with Tali, James, Ash, Javik, Cortez and EDI fairly quickly. At this point, more people on this loyal to Jane, the faster they could figure this out. To borrow a human expression, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, whatever a horse was.
Liara and Glyph went to run their analysis on the gun, Brooks choosing to go with them, watch them work. Jane expressed a desire to go upstairs for a moment, freshen up, take some painkillers, and check on the state of her cuts and bruises, make sure they weren't worse than they felt. Joker made sure not to leave Jane without a passing remark about not forgetting about being used as bait and how a major talk was coming her way after this was all settled.
Jane headed to the stairs that passed over the plants behind that shiny glass wall fixture Garrus admired while everyone else dispersed to where Zaeed, Grunt and Wrex were. Instead of going up the stairs, Jane curiously went past them to the bedroom on the ground floor. Definitely not where she put her things. Maybe she had placed a few things there before he came, but her bag hadn't looked disturbed or emptied in any way.
Garrus went over to her, quietly calling out to her. "Uh, Jane…your stuff's still upstairs with mine, in the bedroom with that huge tub," he said, pointing up.
Jane stopped in her tracks, turning around at his call. "Right. Thanks, big guy, just spaced for a second," she said, not making eye-contact while she hurriedly made her way to the stairs before Garrus could get another word in. Leaving him to wonder how she could possibly forget something like that when there was only one bedroom with a huge, bubbling, very inviting, Jacuzzi tub. Kind of a stand-out feature.
Apparently he wasn't the only one to think it odd, as Tali went over to him. She hadn't gone over to the couches yet and saw the whole exchange. "Strange. Jane usually doesn't forget things like that."
Garrus's thoughts exactly, but he wasn't going to voice anything to Tali about what he had noticed. Not yet. Not until he was sure it was something to be concerned about.
Weird thing was she had seemed fine (as fine as could be expected after a merc band tried to ambush her) when he met up with her. Except for trying to shoot that door open, but he was positive she just hadn't seen the volus. And her getting impatient when asking about her injuries, but that had been known to make her cranky from time to time.
He had to stop over-analyzing every little thing about Jane's mood. He didn't expect Jane to be super-human and always mask when she was tired or in pain or frustrated. In fact, she sometimes had the opposite problem of trying to hide it from them. And she hadn't lashed out or done anything completely out of character. After everything that had happened during this war, so close to the final push, maybe finding out yet another group or person was out for her blood was causing her to feel out of sorts. A plausible theory if there ever was one.
Yet why wouldn't the little voice in his head leave it alone?
"Probably just still wired and sore, is all," Garrus said instead. "She hasn't really had a time to catch her breath lately."
Tali hummed in agreement. "You're probably right. I just hope she can get some rest for a few days without another major crisis popping up. I mean, once this is dealt with."
"Trust me, I'm gonna make sure of that." Keeping their commander happy and as stress-free as possible was one of his self-assigned duties, one he wasn't sure he was succeeding all that much at lately. But that would change with this shore leave.
They made their way over to where the others had gathered, Tali positioning herself behind the couch that had its back to the window, Garrus taking back his old spot beside Wrex. They had walked in on EDI asking Miranda how she and Jacob heard about Jane being in trouble.
"We had bumped into each other on the Presidium and decided to get some dinner at the sushi place on the strip, being something of a favorite for both of us. We started hearing word about it being closed near the strip, something about a disturbance."
Joker snorted. "Yeah, if you count bullets as just as a disturbance. More like a fully-armed raid."
"We didn't know about Shepard until we bumped into Joker on the way there. He filled us in, we met up with the rest of you guys and here we are," Jacob finished.
"Speaking of the restaurant attack, it has made the nightly newscast. Civilian casualties seem to have been restricted to…fish," EDI informed, the pause exposing her amazement.
"How could anyone even get to them? The fish are sealed in a glass tank," Miranda said.
"When the mercs fired on Shepard, the glass under her exploded and she fell right through," EDI explained.
Miranda shook her head, her strands bouncing with the movement. "Why am I not surprised? Executing marine life seems to have become some sort of hobby with her."
"You think we should have seen the writing on the wall when she ran over those pyjaks on Eletania?" Ash directed to the former SR-1 squadmates.
"Keelah, I remember that. Poor monkeys."
"Little bastards got what was coming to them. Always having to scavenge anything they can find," Wrex said, brushing off any sympathy for those four-limbed creatures. Not surprising since they were a constant headache on Tuchanka.
"Least she was really broken up about it," Garrus jumped to Jane's defense. "And she wouldn't have hit them if she hadn't jumped that rock."
Which was actually a constant statement associated with Jane's infamous driving.
"Wait, am I missing something?" James asked when he noticed the knowing or amused looks on some faces of all those unfortunate to experience being in a vehicle with Jane behind the wheel.
"Yeah, want to clue us in?"
Joker smacked his lips. "A history of Shepard's driving escapades is more than we have time for, guys. But let's just say, Cortez, you'd better not get sick or seriously injured. Ever."
Jane piloting a shuttle in or out of a hot LZ? Garrus would have willingly hopped into a Mako and agreed to catapult every mountain they came across than go through that experience.
"You know, it's actually really sad. Back during my pilgrimage, I used to walk around near that sushi place and watch the fish through the window," Tali said, directing the conversation back to the fate of the fish. "I knew they'd never let me inside. But I think to myself, "Someday, when I've proven my worth to the galaxy, I'll go there for dinner." And then, Jane broke their floor," Tali ended her dramatic monologue on a solemn note.
"Do they even have food you can eat there?" Garrus asked, the thought just occurring to him, not really recalling anything on the menu that was quarian friendly.
"Not the point, Garrus."
Garrus had to stop himself from rolling his eyes when Javik began on his "in my cycle" routine. He'd be a rich turian if he had a credit for every time Javik began and/or ended a sentence with that phrase.
"In my cycle, when we fled combat by falling down tanks containing aquatic animals, we usually…oh right, we never did," Javik said, letting out an uncharacteristic cackle. "The Commander is a trailblazer!"
On that, Garrus was sure everyone could agree.
"So what the hell are you supposed to be?" Grunt took in Javik for the first time. It suddenly occurred to Garrus that everyone in the group may have heard of each other, but not necessarily met or spent much time around each other. Anytime Grunt spent on the Normandy had been confined to the medbay, Jacob and the other ex-Cerberus scientists and their families hadn't stayed on the Normandy, nor had Miranda or her sister. And Jane had met up with Zaeed on the Citadel.
This could make for some interesting times.
"50,000 years older than you, tank-bred krogan." Course Javik would have put the pieces together and figured out who Grunt was. Garrus briefly wondered if he snuck a quick tap on the shoulder when Grunt wasn't looking or if it had just been good ole'fashioned deduction. Or maybe he was giving Javik too much credit and Joker had told the rest of the crew they had met up with Wrex, Grunt and Zaeed.
"Don't mind him. That's just our real, live, mind-reading, talking Prothean we found on Eden Prime. He goes by Prothy the Prothean. Or Buggy if you're James."
Javik was the furthest thing from amused, though he always had the same expression of contempt on his face. "Would you prefer to be thrown out of an airlock now or later, Joker-pilot?"
"Can there a third option where I don't get shoved out of an airlock? Kinda got a lot going for me right now."
"Sound like things got pretty hot out there," Cortez said, changing the subject before Javik actually attempted to space Joker off the Citadel.
"They came prepared, I'll give them that," Garrus said.
"Least you guys had two krogan come back you up. Nothing beats having a krogan bodyguard. Had a buddy like that once. No, not really a buddy, more like a prisoner who helped us." When many gave James questioning looks, he trailed off with an awkward laugh. "It's a long story, guys."
"But bet you never saw a shuttle get taken down like that, huh, Garrus? I still got it," Wrex said with well-earned smugness. Garrus couldn't say he had, even during their Saren days. Despite their firm exoskeletons, a turian trying that stunt still probably would have broken an arm, a leg, probably every bone in their body.
"Don't listen to this fossil. He wouldn't have come close to knocking it down without me," Grunt bragged.
"Careful, Baby Pyjak. Wouldn't want to end up in a C-Sec cell, would you?"
Garrus was probably going to regret asking this, but his curiosity had to be sated. "That reminds me. What exactly did you do, Grunt?"
"I don't know. I drank a bit, left the hospital, broke a few windows," Grunt said, still being coy with his shifting eyes.
"It matters if you are going to bring unwanted attention on us." Good to see Miranda asserting herself as the responsible (or severe the verdict of the SR-2 would have been during the suicide mission) second-in-command.
"Fine. A couple of squadmates broke me out of the hospital for my birthday, tried lowering me down the side of the building on a rope. It…didn't work out."
He knew it wasn't supposed to be funny, but he had to fight back the chuckle at the image of Grunt falling out a window, arms flailing around in a comical fashion.
"I was unaware birthdays were a major celebration with krogan. Otherwise I would have marked it down in the Normandy calendar," EDI stated.
"They're usually nothing fancy. No cake, no presents. Just lots of drinking, head-butting, the occasional fight to the death. And lots of things usually get broken," Wrex said, making it seem much more fun than it sounded.
"And it doesn't matter. I don't have one. I'm tank-bred, remember?" Not like anyone could forget that fact. "Anyway, we got some pictures on the krogan memorial in the Presidium. When C-Sec got there, they were mad." Grunt paused to scratch at the shell on his head. "Or maybe they were mad about their car being on fire. Can't remember."
"Wait a minute. Back up," Joker said, his hands mimicking that of motioning a car to back-up into a free space. "The C-Sec shuttle randomly caught fire?"
"I threw my bottle of ryncol at it. Pretty strong stuff," Grunt chuckled. "Went up like a bonfire."
Garrus could take a wild guess the C-Sec agents did not find it as amusing as Grunt did about their car being set on fire.
"So that's it, then? Nothing else happened?" Miranda asked.
"Nope. Gets better. They took the car on a little joyride," Wrex replied, sounding like a father boasting of his son's latest accomplishment.
"Yeah. We didn't get every far before they shot us down. Sprayed us down with riot foam. Didn't work so well on me."
"And why was that?" Garrus had to ask.
"Cause I was on fire, you know, from the car?" Grunt said as if it was the most routine thing in the galaxy to be set on fire and walk away without any scorch marks. "Come on, Garrus, keep up."
"And here comes the best part," Wrex said, barely containing his amusement.
"Why? How did they finally catch you?" Tali asked.
Grunt shrugged. "Got hungry. Bought some noodles."
Garrus had to admit. That was one of the greatest endings to a tale of drunken exploits he had heard in quite some time.
Zaeed agreed, slapping his knee in perfect timing with his low chortle. "You got a quad on you, junior, I'll give you that."
Miranda did not find it as funny as Zaeed, her plumpish lips pursing into a disapproving frown. "C-Sec isn't going to come after us because of this, are they?"
Wrex chose to intervene on behalf of his fellow krogan. "Relax. I got them off his back, said he was on an important mission for Clan Urdnot."
"And they believed you, Wrex?" Garrus asked.
"They weren't given much of a choice. I also threw in taking it up with Shepard if they had a problem."
The frown on Miranda's face grew. "That's the last thing she's going to want to deal with."
"Might still want to tell her. Least it would give her something to laugh about. You know, if she's still not too stressed to enjoy it," Joker commented.
"So we have any idea on who these guys are?" Jacob asked, sitting down on the armrest of one of the chairs.
Garrus shook his head. "No clue. That's why we have our information broker on the case."
"And if anyone can shift through a mountain of boring stuff to find that one critical clue, it's Liara," Ash agreed.
"We're sure it wasn't Cerberus?"
"Thought the same myself, but if they were, the Illusive Man's decided to take up armor design in his spare time," Zaeed replied, deciding to stretch his legs out and put his feet up on the coffee table.
"The logo and armor design are the originals. They haven't changed much overtime and I doubt he's focused on much else than trying to control the Reapers," Miranda replied, unable to hide her disappointment at the Illusive Man's actions. Garrus had to imagine it had been hard for her, after believing in Cerberus and the Illusive Man for so long, to finally see the truth and get away. "By the way, I thought you were still under contract with them."
Zaeed promptly lowered his feet back down to the floor at her words. "Things change," he replied, sounding just as resistant to admitting what the mission was as he had been to Garrus.
It was then Glyph floated over to them, informing that Liara was close to finding what she needed and would be calling the team together soon. Miranda decided to go over and ask Liara for specifics. Always had to have her finger on the pulse of everything.
Garrus was then fully reminded of the weight still on his back and the gun still holstered at his side. He broke away from the group, ready to get the extra weight off and give Jane her pistol back, when he spotted James trailing him to the stairs
"Hey, Scars, sorry your evening's ruined. Was really looking forward to seeing you nail those moves," James said as quietly as he could so as not to be overheard. With how high the ceilings were, sound probably could carry throughout the first floor. Not it mattered. Half the people there knew anyway, apparently.
So was Garrus, but he was more concerned with stopping this newest threat against Jane. "There are other evenings," he replied as they climbed.
"Suppose so. Still got a few days before we take it to the Illusive Man. Anyway, just let me know when you wanna do it and I'll be there."
Garrus entered into the bedroom, not seeing Jane anywhere, not even in the bathroom. She must have already gone downstairs to check on progress from the other side, coming down the same time he was going up. He didn't see her civvies anywhere, probably chose to stay in them.
He laid his weapons down on the bench, knowing they would probably need them again soon, and put Jane's pistol back in her bag. James stayed by the doorway, following Garrus back down the same way they came up. James drifted towards the kitchen once back on the first floor, his eyes lighting up with interest at the shy, tall, dark-haired and skinned woman who was standing next to Miranda, across from Jane, Liara and Glyph.
"Brooks, she's kinda cute. Think she's on the market?"
"Positive you have that good of a chance, Vega?"
James flexed one of his arms, lifting an invisible weight with it. "These guns have made women swoon to the floor in a heap, amigo."
"Talk to me after you try that on Ash or Miranda."
"Who says I haven't?" The joking smile then slipped from his face. "But seriously, I try not to fraternize with military women. The two don't seem to go well together. And I'd rather not end up getting my ass kicked, biotically or otherwise. And you didn't answer my question."
"One woman kind of turian, James."
"I know, I know, and Lola's one of a kind. Doesn't mean you can't appreciate the scenery every now and then."
He spared Brooks a glimpse, not wanting to see stalkerish by analyzing her for too long. He tried to see what James saw now, but nothing was clicking. When he had started his relationship with Jane, he had made it clear that he didn't have a fetish for humans. That stayed true whenever he spotted human females or asari that human males practically tripped over themselves for. Especially when part of the bumps on their chests were showing. He never had the same reaction, understood the attraction.
But Jane, as he focused on those enticing curves of hers those civvies showed off (seriously how could he not have noticed before?). Oh, he definitely had a fetish for her and there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't thank whatever higher power existed that she felt the same.
He answered James he was quite content with looking at the view directly in front of him.
"I think we finally have something," Liara called out, motioning everyone to join the four of them at the table, breaking up their conversation.
Garrus and James were one of the first ones at the table, coming in just as Jane was asking Brooks whether she had been with Liara the whole time she was upstairs.
"I wanted to watch Dr. T'Soni work. It's…inspiring."
Garrus caught Miranda sending Brooks an inquisitive look, finally looking away with a shake of her head. What the hell was that about?
Liara granted Brooks a bashful smile, a faint blush rising on her cheeks. "I just like to be thorough," she dismissed the compliment with sincere modesty. Even after becoming a hardened information broker, good to see traces of the old Liara still existed.
Liara waited until everyone was settled around the table (which Garrus had just noticed had an exact replica of the Normandy on top of it) to show off her findings.
"We have a lead. I called in some favors to run a trace on the gun. It led me to a casino owner named Elijah Khan. He's been suspected of using his profits to smuggle weapons onto the Citadel. Immediately after the attempt on Shepard's life, Khan made an interesting call." Liara launched her omni-tool, pulling up a visual frequency of the call. Garrus kept his eyes on the visual aid, even though there was no video feed.
"I'm cutting you off. I'm returning your down-payment now," an agitated voice growled to the person at the other end, most likely Khan.
"What's the problem?" The other voice was distorted, completely unrecognizable, like it was going through a synthetic filter.
"Turn on a vid-screen. When I sell a gun, I don't want it showing up on the nightly news."
"You won't be linked to me."
"Save it. Our association is terminated. And if you even think of coming after me, I got info on you ready for primetime, so you ponder that. Khan out."
"That must be the identity thief," Miranda stated the obvious to the group.
"Sounds like he's got an id disguiser," Garrus added. "Those things are a pain in the ass to get around."
Jane went on to ask Liara about the mercs who attacked them. Liara revealed they were the private military group called CAT-6, which also happened to be a nickname for Alliance marines with dishonorable discharges. Needlessly to say, most if not all had criminal records.
Ash asked Liara how she was able to get the intel. Liara listed off her sources from weapons biometic data, salarian intelligence, then not even batting an eye when she stated the hanar prostitute with camera implants.
"Seriously?" Ash asked, unable to hide her skepticism.
"No. But the truth is boring."
"Khan didn't sound friendly to whomever that voice was," Jane pointed out. "Maybe he'd pass on that info to us."
"That'll take some extremely smooth talking," Liara said. "If he sees you, he'll probably assume you're looking for revenge. The casino has a panic room. Chances are he'll have gone to ground there. EDI can give us a program to hack the door, but the cameras and guards complicate things."
"Yeah. Khan could disappear," Brooks replied. "Or worse, if his guards ever opened fire, normal people could get hit. Like I did," she finished, the tenor of those last words making her seem smaller than she was.
"She's right," Jane agreed. "We can't risk spooking him. We go in quiet, small team, no gun play."
Glpyh then materialized in front of Liara, informing her of a charity gala conveniently being held that evening at the casino for war refugees.
"Purchase some tickets, Glyph, then call up a lay-out of the building."
"Score," Joker said, pounding his fist into his palm as the holo-image of the casino appeared in the center of the table over the Normandy statue. "So how close can you get? You usually don't put a backdoor in a panic room."
EDI informed them that the airshaft (Garrus swore he could hear Tali groan at the mention of an airshaft) could bypass the security gate and end up in storage. From there, it was just a simple matter of disabling the panic room's camera.
"Too convenient," Jacob said, pointing at the glowing point in the holo-image. "There's going to be alarms all over that shaft."
"I believe I have some counter measures that may help," Liara said. "I'll know more once we're inside."
"So who is going into the shaft? They would have to be small in size," Javik asking the question on everyone's mind.
"Not me. Too many snacks of roast varren leg," Wrex replied, though no one (Wrex probably included) actually thought him a legitimate volunteer.
"Neither Jacob nor I can go," Miranda said. "We can't have anyone recognizing us as former Cerberus operatives and draw negative attention."
"And I don't know I'd be able to shut the alarms down fast enough. You need someone who's specialized in tech," Ash put in.
Many eyes naturally shifted over to Tali, who argued that her suit's built in-tech would be picked up by security sensors. "And I am in no hurry to get inside another air vent. Ever again."
"You made it out in one piece."
Garrus could feel the heat of Tali's glare through her helmet as she leveled it at him. "I almost got set on fire."
"What about EDI? Couldn't she go?" Joker suggested.
"I suspect my presence at the casino would arouse suspicion. Mechs are not allowed, since they can have cheating software."
"What you need is someone trained in zero-emissions tech," Brooks offered. "No electronics, no metal, just undetectable polymers. We had this course in Op-int, disabling a bomb with these tiny tweezers. See the bomb was filled with shaving cream…"
"Ok. You're in," Jane said, in that tone of hers whenever she had her mind set on something.
"No…what?" Brooks was shaking her head. "No!"
"You said it yourself. We all got too much tech."
Brooks's head spun around, seemingly searching for someone who would agree sending her was a bad idea, but she wasn't having any luck. Jane was right. Brooks was really the only one who could do this.
"But…but I managed to get shot just coming to talk to you. Now I'm supposed to hack my way into a saferoom?"
"We'll be backing you up. As soon as you hit something you can't handle, we'll cover you."
Liara tapped at her omni-tool, the holo-image of the casino dispersing in a blur. "Well, if that's settled, there's one last hurtle to get us inside."
Jane turned to face Liara. "Which is?"
"Black tie required."
Things were not going in their favor.
It took every ounce of self-control to keep herself from unleashing a torrent of anger at hearing that call played back. When Khan had called her on the way to the skycar lot, she knew he would have to dealt with for his threat, but not this soon. Now Khan's conscience-driven call had put this entire plan into jeopardy. If they got to him at the casino, saw Brooks with them, their ruse would be uncovered. Brooks played along well, immediately understood the need for her to go. It wasn't surprising. They were cut from the same cloth. She knew he had to be eliminated. Now. Before anyone was the wiser.
Or Lawson or Taylor figured out who Brooks was. Damn that pilot for stumbling upon them! Though from what she heard, Brooks only dealt with Lawson a few times, only once in person, and never with Taylor. At least they were fortunate she hadn't automatically recognized Brooks.
Again, the other members of Shepard's team came to help her, willingly, without being asked, threatened or cajoled to. She still couldn't understand it. How was Shepard able to maintain that level of loyalty, cause someone to willingly put their own lives at risk and become the targets of an unknown merc gang just to save one woman? Was Shepard truly that special, that worth saving?
She was starting to think she would never find the answers she was seeking. Nothing was clearer, still just as blurry as when she met up with the pilot at the sushi place.
But a matter for later. Now came the other decision. Who was going with her and Brooks to the casino?
She could sense Vakarian already starting to ask questions to himself. Her going to the wrong bedroom, her attempt to sound just as sickeningly reassuring to others as she imagined Shepard to be, her lack of reaction as his poor attempts at humor. She couldn't risk anymore exposure to him than necessary (or the rest of Shepard's team, for that matter; she still was not off the hook with the pilot for using him as bait), but if she was going to blend in, pretend everything was still fine, she'd have to take him, pretend they were just an ordinary couple out for a night on the town.
The thought sickened her to her core. Shepard was supposed to be a symbol for humanity, not in bed with a species theirs had been at war with not even half a century ago. Any of these poor excuses for soldiers would have been better if she needed someone to release tension with.
She informed everyone she'd take the turian while everyone else stayed there and waited for their next plan of attack. The group dispersed and she headed back upstairs to check whether Shepard had brought a dress with her. The quarian tried to follow, ask her if she was doing alright, but she left her with nothing more than a few encouraging words that she was fine, doing better now that things had calmed down. Now she had to be on her guard with her too.
Surprisingly, the turian did not follow her up yet, though she knew he wouldn't be far behind. She strolled up the stairs with purpose, bending down to search through Shepard's bag, not feeling as much discomfort. The painkillers she had with her were beginning to work their magic.
A Widow and Predator (she could barely contain the sneer at Shepard using such a primitive pistol), a datapad, an N7 hoodie and black pants, changes in underwear, shirts and pants, a toiletry bag, and a nightgown that was clearly meant to show off assets for the turian's enjoyment were the only things there.
No dress or even dress shoes to be found. And Brooks didn't have anything either.
The others would insist purchasing them via the extranet and having it delivered or having someone else go out to make the purchases, not wanting to risk Shepard being attacked again before they got the casino. That meant more time of forced interaction, more time in this apartment with Shepard's supposed friends and lover.
This was not turning out like she thought it would. Not she'd ever admit to Brooks. A good leader never shows weakness.
But just for this, she'd order Brooks to shoot Khan two-times over.