Bioware's party, I'm crashing it.

Chapter 23

She Said

We stepped off the elevator on the next floor down. Neither of us could guess at the meaning of the acronyms pasted over the numbers of the floors. So, on the floor I jokingly named, "Elephants Over Atlanta," we exited the car and cautiously walked down the pristine white tiled hallway.

"So, have you and the Commander patched things up yet?"

I stumbled and glared over at her. Her voice was quiet, but sound seemed to echo especially loudly in this shiny, tiled hallway. "Is this really the time to discuss this?" I hissed in a stage whisper.

She shrugged, "Something to pass the time, Shepard. If it's none of my business, just tell me."

I smirked and we both quickly ducked our heads around the corners as the hallway came to a four way junction. My hallway was empty and seemed to have only one door way in it before it ended abruptly. I glanced at Miranda and she held up her hand, showing me two fingers. I motioned for her to follow me down my hallway. Maybe we'd get lucky and our gear would be in here. It was getting a little chilly in my bodysuit. I really hoped the door was unlocked considering neither of us had our 'Tools.

Finally, a break. It was.

We opened a door and surprised a Tech. He had just enough time to shout, "What the hell?" before both Miranda and I hit him with a Warp field and he screamed as his insides tried to become outsides. He collapsed across his console, dead. I closed the door and locked it behind us. I felt bad for hitting the guy like that and tried not to think about whether he had family.

Miranda pulled the corpse off the table and told me, her accented voice cold, "Try not to feel too bad, Shepard. It seems Cerberus hired the Blue Suns to capture us."

I walked over to get a good look at the uniform. The guy wasn't wearing armor, it was just a long blue leather jacket with the white sun emblazoned on it over a white shirt and blue pants. Clearly not one of their front-line fighters. I left the jacket, since the guy was twisted around it, but made a mental note to find one that wouldn't swallow me whole if I couldn't find my armor anywhere. I was beginning to shiver. My body temp as a biotic ran high anyway due to my hummingbird metabolism. Which meant I was currently shivering.

Miranda's fingers deftly flew over the virtual keyboard in front of the console as she hacked her way through their firewalls the old fashioned way. Absently, she told me, her blue eyes glued to the screen, "See if his 'Tool still works, Shepard? I might be able to use it."

I looked down at the twisted mess that was left of the technician and gingerly moved him around until I found his wrist. Fortunately, the 'Tool was still in one piece and seemed to have been unaffected by our Warp. I peeled it off and handed it to her. She slapped it on her wrist and made a face, "Great, the model is five years old. Don't these people ever upgrade?"

"We get out of this, I'll buy you a new one, state of the art," I told her, searching the remains for any weapon the tech might have had. I finally found a black lump of plassteel with a few flickering lights were the holographic readout had been. That was entirely not useful.

While she hacked the console, I searched the room for anything useful. Kicking open a footlocker snagged me two packs of Medigel. I wondered if we could use the stuff in this form any more or did we need my armor to use it? Miranda took a break to use her outdated Omni-Tool to hack the rather pitiful lock on another set of lockers and I rummaged through them. I finally found one of those long blue coats cut for a woman (or an asari, not that the Blue Suns hired them, but you never know). I shrugged into it and began to warm up immediately. I guess I should be grateful they left me my boots and socks. I put the Medigel in the capacious pockets. Miranda glanced at me, "You look ridiculous, Shepard."

I shrugged, "I'm warm, finally, so I don't really give a rat's ass."

"Not even if we finally run into Staff Commander Alenko?" She glanced at me sidelong, a grin playing about her full lips.

I threw up my hands, "What are you, twelve?"

She laughed, "The way Joker tells it, you two were making out in the mess."

I rolled my eyes as I searched the final object in the room, a dilapidated looking crate. "And you believe Joker?"

"That's why I'm asking you…. Shepard, come here," her change in tone was abrupt and alarming. I pulled out the ration bars I'd found in the crate and checked their expiration date. They were still good and as biotics, it was only a matter of time before we needed them. I did not question why all these varied supplies were in here. I just figured our former tech had been squirreling things away for a harsh winter. So to speak.

I walked to look over Miranda's shoulder. "Security feeds?"

"Aye." The screen was divided into four parts. The upper left showed a grizzled merc crouched behind crates and returning fire with a bunch of unknown assailants. From the looks of things, he was firing blindly. The bottom right screen showed Garrus, Kaidan and Jack pinned down by a hail of bullets. "I really hope those four morons aren't firing at each other." The other two screens were empty of people and just showed more blank hallways.

"You and me both. Does it say where they are?"

Miranda snorted, "Not that I've been able to find. This is the most disorganized piece of crap security system I've ever seen. Jacob would laugh himself silly."

"Has anyone noticed your hack-job yet?"

Miranda squinted at the screen and pushed a few keys, "Nope, doesn't look like it. Got any ideas?"

"Can you use that thing to ping any of them?"

The brunette biotic frowned and pushed a few more buttons. On the upper left screen the grizzled merc's 'Tool flared to life and I saw his scar-twisted mouth spout curses. A cockney-accented voice emanated from the console, "Who the fuck is this?"

I leaned over to speak into the mic Miranda pointed to, "Your former boss, asshole."

"Shepard? Whatin'ell you doin' 'ere?"

"Escaping. Wanna come?"

"Wotchya payin'?"

I rolled my eyes at Miranda, "I count at least twenty gunmen opposite you," Miranda choked on a laugh, and I continued, "They are definitely blocking your path."

"Then it'll be a fair figh'." The screen he was shown on flickered.

"And I'd say they're bringing in their techs to overload what shields you have left."

"Ain't nothin' ever easy."

"Zaeed, you are not going to make this easy on me, are you?"

"Why'ould I go an' do that, Shepard?"

I named a figure, deliberately low. My private account would cover it, but it would put a dent in the Normandy's repair budget. "Now that's just insultin'," he told me.

"Plus, salvage on the missions, Massani," I sighed.

He countered with another figure and ducked down to renew his shields. I offered a lower number than my first offer. "Dammit, Shepard, that's no' bargainin' works!"

"Who said I was bargaining? Oops, looks like they're through your shields," I warned him. Miranda was doubled over gasping with the effort to not laugh out loud.

"Ya go' me by the shor' and curlies, Shepard. Fine!"

"Pleasure doing business with you, Massani. Reinforcements are on their way."

"Fine, just as long as it's not that damned turian."

"I'm sorry, you're breaking up… what was that last?" And Miranda cut the transmission as she gasped for air.

"I can't believe you just did that," she told me when she got her breath back.

I grinned, "Just wait, it'll get better. Ping Garrus."

"Oh, no." But she complied and a startled turian voice came from the tinny speakers. They'd apparently gotten out of their firefight and were traveling cautiously down yet another white tiled hallway, weapons at the ready, Garrus out front. The other two stopped and turned to watch the corridor as he answered our comm.

"Shepard?"

"In the flesh. So to speak. Zaeed is, we think, one level above you and under heavy fire. Do be a dear and rescue his Cockney ass, would you?"

A flanged groan answered me, as well as Jack's fluent vulgarity, "Only if I get to shoot him, Shepard."

Both Miranda and I laughed at that one, "Nope, sorry."

"Fine, where are you? We'll find you."

I met Miranda's eyes, she shook her head. "How about we find you? No desire to be caught till I get my guns, if you catch my drift."

I saw the turian glance at Kaidan for a translation and the biotic shook his head, I couldn't tell if he was laughing or not. Garrus' voice was confused as he replied, "Affirmative, Vakarian out."

She turned off the mic and shut down the console. I looked at her, waiting for her to tell me what was going on in that designer brain of hers. "They may have been able to listen in. You never said anything that could give any of our locations away."

I nodded, "Right, and we should probably get the hell out of here in case they found the hole you punched in their security."

"Good idea."

We headed across the hall to the next two rooms, also unlocked, or at least they responded to Miranda's 'Tool. Both were empty but for some random crates and storage lockers. We found more Medigel packs and a handful of ration bars. Miranda struck gold and pocketed a pistol. She'd offered it to me, but I shook my head and tapped my temple, "I have a few more tricks up here than you do."

She nodded, "Not that this will do either of us any good without more heatsinks."

I shrugged, "How's your poker face?"

"Passable. Beat Donnelly at Scyllian Five last week."

"Not that hard to do. He really is an abysmal player." She chuckled and we both walked back out to the main hallway.

As we walked, she went back to her original question, "So, you going to answer me, Shepard?"

"Depends, what's going on with you and Mr. Taylor?"

"Touche, Shepard." We walked along in silence for a while until we found a large door breaking up the monotony of the pristine white walls.

"Do you think it's unlocked?" I asked, taking up position on the far side.

Her stolen Omni-Tool flared to life, "Looks like it. There are also four people in there."

"Shit. Any info more specific than that?"

She grimaced at the 'Tool, and tapped a few of the holographic keys, "Looks like mostly techs again. I guess all the heavy hitters have been attracted by our team or by Zaeed."

"Or they went for our cells."

"Or all of the above."

I readied the mnemonic for a Singularity and told her, "Hope our luck holds."

"You and me both, Shepard. On three?" She waited for my nod before saying, "Three!" and hitting the door open control.

Four startled techs looked up from their consoles and went for their pistols. I launched my Singularity, feeling the pull as it sucked them all off their feet. I felt Miranda flare with the telltale buzz across the back of my teeth as she threw a Warp at the lone tech that didn't get pulled into the shearing forces of the compressed air that made up a Singularity. The screams as the three techs were launched into the walls made me wince, however. The sickening crack as they impacted and slumped to the floor was no better.

When the techs were subdued, Miranda made short work of the access codes and firewalls. I searched the bodies for heatsinks and weapons. "Well, now isn't this interesting?" I heard her ask while I was retrieving a pistol and a few spare heatsinks.

"What?"

"I found a map of this place. All I need is a 'You Are Here,' dot and we're good to go."

I laughed, "Anything else?" I unhooked a passcard from one of the tech's belts. I figured it would come in handy.

A short bark of laughter met my question, "There's a price on our heads. Also, they're offering money for Jacob, Joker and Chakwas."

"But not the rest of the crew?" I straightened up.

"Nope, doesn't look like it. They're not even mentioned. Joker's bounty is almost as high as yours though. Must be his bone upgrades."

"They want their money back," I snorted.

"Maybe. You're the only one they want alive, though." She looked up at me, her expression bleak. "I never thought…" she swallowed, "I'd feel betrayed by them."

I went to my friend and put an arm around her. It was the only thing I could think to do. "I don't know what to tell you, Miranda."

She leaned her head on my shoulder, "Thanks for not telling me, 'I told you so.'"

I laughed and squeezed her shoulder and let her go. She wiped her eyes and straightened up, but a sudden thought occurred to her, "Oriana!"

"You, me and Garrus are the only ones who know where she is, Miranda. And I'd like to see them try to get that information out of one of us."

She nodded and stepped away from me. She took a deep breath and went back to hacking. "Thank you, Shepard."

"You're welcome. Anything else shocking in there, or can I go back to looting corpses?"

She chuckled, "I'll let you know what I find."