As soon as we were in my apartment, Wrex asked. "Someone want to tell me what's going on here."

"Mercenaries. Heavily armed. Using C-Sec shuttles. Identity, unknown." Mordin added.

"I don't know." I shook my head. "I've never seen them before."

"I can't believe you survived all that." Brooks started to pace. "They had guns! And grenades! And those drone things!"

"It's all right. I'm calling Commander Bailey; see what's going on with C-Sec." I activated my omni-tool.

"Okay, that sounds…Wait!" Brooks' voice got loud. "Wouldn't that just make whoever you contact a target, too?"

Mordin nodded. "Correct. Too many unknowns. Dangerous. Less involved the better."

"Okay. For now, we run this ourselves."

"Right. Ourselves. On our own." Brooks waved her arm in a wide ark. "Outside the law. Okay. Yeah."

"Brooks, it's okay. I know this is a lot to deal with." And I'm reminded why I try not to deal with civilians.

"I got shot! I've got medi-gel, but still. I took a desk job explicitly to not get shot!"

"The salarian's a doctor." Wrex said. "And look at his face."

"Prefer 'scientist'." The face comment completely ignored.

"Have you seen Garrus'?" I added. "He gives you a run for your money, Wrex."

"And you killed a hundred guys." Brooks spoke loudly to get our attention back. "With a pistol!"

"Well, yes, that did happen…" And it was epic.

"I mean, who does that?" She started pacing again. "Well, you, I guess. But besides you?" Both Mordin and Wrex raised their hands.

"They said the medi-gel might make me jumpy. Do I seem jumpy?"

"If you were a salarian you'd fit right in." Wrex said.

Mordin just shrugged.

"How did you get mixed up in this?" I asked.

"I monitor data for Alliance intel to prevent fraud and hacking of officer IDs. Like someone using an admiral's pass to get into a nightclub on the Citadel when that admiral is fighting on Tuchanka?"

"What's he doing on Tuchanka?" Wrex asked with a bit of hostility.

"Hypothetical." Mordin told him. "Not really on Tuchanka."

"I know that." Wrex snapped at him. "But why Tuchanka?"

"Would the peanut gallery please shut up." I crossed my arms.

"Peanut gallery?" Mordin cocked his head. "I possess no peanuts."

"I could go for some peanuts." Wrex turned to Mordin. "That's the little Earth food in a shell right?"

Brooks continued talking as if she hadn't even heard them. Must have been the medi-gel. "I wrote a tracking program. It's really neat. I named it 'Mr. Biscuits' after my cat."

My life is one giant comedy routine and the worst part is, nobody was doing it on purpose.

"Anyway, Mr. Bis…my 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 involve heavy weapon fire?" Wrex asked what we were all thinking.

"Think of what criminals could do if they had Shepard's military access codes. Or Spectre codes, even."

"Explains why they need you dead, Shepard. Nothing to stop them until the damage is done." Wrex nodded as if he approved.

"Okay, let's figure out who they are and shut them down." I looked to each one of them. "Ideas?"

"Maybe." Mordin took on his thinking pose. "The pistol."

We all looked to the pistol I still carried. I kind of liked it. It wasn't my M-16, but it'd make a great backup.

"For such a tiny thing, it packs a punch." Wrex leaned in to get a better look and I swear he sniffed it. "Never seen anything like it before."

"Let me see it. I might be able to help." Liara joined our circle. "Glyph."

The blue ball of annoyance appeared. "I'll be collating relevant intel for review, Dr. T'soni."

"Liara." I greeted with a nodded.

"Shepard, I'm relieved to see you're in one piece. A shame about the sushi place, though. It was a favorite."

"How, how did you get in here?"

"The front door, obviously."

"I thought I locked that thing. What is it with my private quarters never locking? How did you even know this was my apartment? I just got it a few hours ago."

Liara cocked an eyebrow as if to say 'I'm the Shadow Broker. I know everything'.

"Well, you can try, but I should warn you. I haven't found anything yet, and I've been digging pretty deep."

I stared at Brooks. When did she have time to do any digging?

"I'm sure you have." There was a sly smirk on Liara's face. "Glyph." She walked away with Glyph by her side.

"All right, Liara's on point. What about the rest of the crew?"

"Yeah." Joker entered my apartment. "What about those slackers?"

"Joker. You've been busy." I walked up to him. "And you're the biggest slacker by the way."

"Oo, ouch Commander and here I found some folks who actually like being shot at for you."

The rest of my crew appeared like something out of a cheesy action film.

"Permission to come abored, Shepard." EDI put a hand on her hip and posed dramatically. I really needed to tell Joker to stop teaching her things.

Mordin was examining the glass divider, stepped back and nodded.

"What's wrong?" I asked standing beside him.

"Fish." He motioned to the wall. "Ideal place for large fish tank."

"You really liked the fish in my cabin, didn't you?"

"Fascinating creatures. Simple creatures."

We stood side by side in silence. We listened to the sound of the low conversations of the others.

"Not that I don't appreciate your help." I finally said. "But what are you doing on the Citadel? I thought you were helping with the Crucible."

"Was." Mordin nodded. "Made lots of progress. Received message from Eve. Asked to keep an eye on Wrex."

I stared at him. "Eve thinks you can keep Wrex in check?"

"Doubtful. Keep Wrex out of too much trouble."

"And yet Wrex took down a shuttle and helped us shoot a bunch of mercs."

"Assisting you took precedence."

I felt myself flush. He didn't mean it in the way I wanted, but still. It made me happy. "Thanks."

"Happy to help. Felt like old days."

"If you'd stayed with me, you wouldn't be calling it 'old days'."

Mordin just shook his head.

I almost reached out to touch him, but clutched my pant leg instead.

"Shepard!" Liara's voice called out. "I have something."

All of us gathered around the large table in the back.

"We have a lead." Liara told us. "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 into the Citadel. Immediately after the attempt on Shepard's life, Khan made an interesting call."

Khan-I'm cutting you off. I'm returning your down payment now.

? Person-What's the problem?

Khan-Turn on a vidscreen! When I sell a gun, I don't want it showing up on the nightly news!

? Person-You won't be linked to me.

Khan-Save it. Our association is terminated. And if you even think of coming after me, I've got info on you ready for prime time, so you ponder that. Khan out.

I crossed my arms. "So, that's out identity thief."

"Looks like he's got an ID disguiser." Garrus shook his head. "Those things are a pain in the ass to get around."

"Did you get anything on the mercenaries who attacked us?" I asked.

Liara nodded. "They're a private military corporation called CAT6. As most of you know, CAT6 is an Alliance nicknamed for dishonorable discharges. Many have criminal records, histories of steroid abuse, and other charming features."

"Essentially Vega then."

"Very funny Commander."

"No doubt hired by the thief, not by Khan." Liara ignored our banter.

"That phone call was pretty damning stuff. How'd you get it?" I was impressed.

"It involved the weapon's biometric data, salarian intelligence, and a hanar prostitute with camera implants."

"Seriously?" I want to see a hanar prostitute.

"No, but the truth is boring."

And now I'm disappointed.

"Khan didn't sound friendly to whoever that voice was." I pointed out. "Maybe he'd pass on that info to us."

Mordin spoke up. "Require lots of tack. Silver tongue. Khan sees you, conclude you're vengeful."

"I don't look like the revenge type, do I?" I asked the group.

Everyone nodded in sync.

"Anyway, the casino has a panic room. Chances are he'll have gone to something there." Liara gestured to EDI. "EDI can give us programs to hack the door, but the cameras and guards complicate things."

"Yeah. Khan could disappear or worse. If his guards ever open fire, normal people could get hit." Brooks touched her shoulder. "Like I did."

You get someone shot once and you never hear the end of it.

Though I did have to agree. "She's right. We can't risk spooking him. We go in quiet, small team. No gunplay." It broke my heart to say that last part.

Glyph popped back up. "Dr. T'soni, this evening the casino will be hosting a charity even to assist war refugees."

And there was our way in.

"Purchase some tickets, Glyph, then call up a layout of the building."

"Score. So how close can you get?" Joker looked to excited for someone that wasn't going to do any of the fun stuff. "You don't usually put a back door in a panic room."

"This air shaft bypasses the security gate and ends up in storage." EDI pointed as she spoke. "From there, the panic room's door camera can be disabled."

"A casino." Mordin tapped his cheek. "Alarms bound to be in shaft."

"I believe I have some countermeasures that may help." Liara moved her hand and the building blueprint rotated. "I'll know more once we're inside."

"Who will go in the shaft?" Javik asked. "They need to be small in size."

"Yeah, that's not me." Wrex patted his belly. "Too many snacks of roast varren leg."

"I suspect my suit's built in tech would be picked up by security sensors." Tali looked herself over.

"My presence in the casino would arouse suspicion. Mechs are not allowed since they can have cheating software." If EDI could look offended, I'm sure she would be.

Mordin was small enough and could easily do the tech stuff, but I wasn't going to point that out.

"What you need is somebody trained in zero-mission tech." Brooks added. "No electronics, no metal. Just undetectable polymers. We had a course back at Op-Int, disabling a bomb with these little tweezers. See, the bomb was filled with shaving cream…"

I cut her off before she could go off. "All right. You're in."

"What?" Brooks took a step back. "No. What?"

"You said it yourself. We've all got too much tech."

"But…I managed to get shot just coming to talk to you!" And she brought it up again. "Now I'm supposed to hack my way into a safe room?"

"We'll be backing you up." I assured her. "The second you hit something you can't handle, we'll cover you."

"If that's settled, it looks like there's one last hurdle to get us inside." Liara waved her hand and the blueprint vanished.

"Which is?" I asked cocking an eyebrow.

"Black tie required."