As soon as we came back to my apartment, I ripped off my dress shoes. Where the hell were my combat boots?

"Do, ah, people usually end up dead at parties you attend?" Brooks asked walking into the living room with me.

"For Shepard? Party quite normal." Mordin unhelpfully told her.

"Thanks, Mordin." I mumbled to him then my voice went back to authoritive. "It wasn't a total loss. Brooks, work with EDI to see if there's anything useful on those drives."

"Here's hoping! I'll let you know what we find, Commander." Brooks hurried off with EDI.

"Shepard?"

"Yes?"

"Have you got a minute to talk?"

I stared at him. I could see the hint of a smile. "Some other time. I'm working on flesh eating bacteria. Full concentration require."

He grinned.

"You're just full of surprises. That's the second time you've made a joke."

His face went serious. "In all serious. Khan. Assassin, able to break in before us. How?"

"I don't know. Honestly, I don't want to think about it. That assassin had to be in the casino with us somewhere. If that's the case…."

"Why not you?" Mordin finished.

I nodded. "It doesn't make any sense. It's clear someone wants me dead. There were plenty of chances to kill me when I was distracted by Brooks or when I was trying to by-pass security. They wouldn't even have to make a scene. They could cloak themselves. Kasumi does it all the time."

We stood in silence listening to the others talking in the background.

"Perhaps." Mordin tapped his lips. "Death must be kept hidden."

"How do you figure? They tried to kill me at the restaurant. They chased me through the streets." I paused. "But there was no one to see it but the mercs hired to kill me and those lose ends could easily be tied up."

Mordin nodded. "Exactly."

That was sobering. Somebody wanted me dead but wanted nobody to know I was dead. Just another Tuesday in the life of Commander Shepard. Or was today Wednesday?

"I think we've got something, Commander." Brooks shouted from the back of the apartment.

I called everyone to what had been dubbed 'The War Table'.

"Commander, EDI and I have been analyzing those drives. I think we found something." Brooks said once everyone was gathered.

"Let's hear it."

"Though the data's root structure was erased, the logic integrity remains visible." EDI explained.

"EDI has an incredible talent for this stuff." Brooks gushed. "I know she's an AI, but even still. We found an encrypted communication from a few days ago. Just need another minute to crack it."

"A whole minute?" Joker asked in mock surprise. "EDI here could shave that down to five seconds."

"I thought it best to allow Staff Analyst Brooks a change to improve her decryption skills."

"And now you've lost your chance to show off."

"Like she needs it." Brooks and I both said.

"You're the crew of the Normandy. You're legends to the rest of the Alliance." At least Brooks wasn't fangirling at me.

"Legends can be good or bad." I leaned on the table. "Which are we?"

"You're the kind that people look up to. The kind they owe their lives to."

"Then how come everyone's always shooting at us?" Wrex grumbled loudly.

"I think it's mostly you, Wrex. The bigger the target, the bigger the…uh." Tali struggled. "Target."

"You're saying I've gained weight?"

"Too many meals of roasted varren." Mordin reminded him.

"It just means there's more of the legend to love." Liara added.

Wrex didn't seem any happier about that.

"And the camaraderie, the friendship? I think that's your secret weapon." I was waiting for Brooks to start asking for autographs.

"It's all just part of the job." I said. I couldn't help but wonder if anyone else noticed Brooks was acting different. She wasn't so excited about us before the casino. Perhaps I was just being overly paranoid. Again.

"Wait…'job'? You mean the rest of you are getting paid for this?" Garrus looked at everyone.

"What's wrong, Archangel? I thought you did this for fun." I teased giving him a gentle punch to the arm.

"Here we go." Brooks finished cracking the encryption. "Wow. Those mercs who were after you? They bought a lot of weapons. Like, big ones."

The table before us came to life with diagrams of several different deadly weapons and was that a…

"Mechs?" Mordin peered closer. "Such firepower. Possible human militia? No. Indoctored humans? Could be sent by Reapers to eliminate Shepard. Why all the secrecy? Pointless at this point. No. Rogue Cerberus members? Probable theory. Why attack Shepard? Too much of an alien sympathizer?"

"Mordin." My stern voice stopped him. "We'll figure this out. No need to stand around guessing."

Glyph flew in between us.

"It appears this drone is preparing to rebel." I saw Javik place a hand on his gun and Liara pull his hand away. I was waiting for her to bop him on the nose and call him a 'bad boy'.

"I have just monitored the commander's Spectre access code in use at the Citadel Archives."

"Punch it up."

The image on the table changed.

"The archives are going into emergency lockdown. Whoever's hacking your records is there right now!" Brooks exclaimed.

"What do we know about the place?" I asked Garrus. He was the ex-C-Sec guy.

"Council keeps sensitive historical information there. Real hush-hush." Garrus explained. "Even my old C-Sec clearance never got me in."

"Then we'll find our own way in." I turned to leave. "Gear up and lets." I stopped when I saw the volus holding a pizza box in front of me.

"What's with the volus?" I turned back to my team.

"Oh. Pizza delivery guy. I go the munchies." Vega admitted.

Cortez, who was standing beside him, just shook his head.

"Double." Breath. "Pepperoni."

Okay, that sounded kind of good. "Should have ordered a dozen. I'm starved too."

"These archives are huge." Brooks raised her voice to return our attention. "You'll have a lot of ground to cover. Shame you can't bring everyone."

"Who says we can't?" I smirked. "All hands on deck for this one."

"Hell, yeah." Vega was pumped. "But, uh, who gets to take point with you?"

Almost in sink, everyone stood more erect.

"Mordin and Wrex." They'd done good so far, why mess with perfection? And well, I was kind of nostalgic for the old days.

"Ahem." Breath. "Who's going." Breath. "To pay the bill?" The volus asked.