Chapter Twelve

The rest of the night passed and most of the day. Khalisah had been exhausted so Jacana had put her in her bedroom where she had been asleep since dawn. Jacana herself hadn't slept but had instead spent most of the day pacing around the apartment.

She had everything she needed. All she had to do was send Daniyah's location to the Shadow Broker, the assignment would be completed and she would take her pay and move on to the next. Yet every time she passed that picture of the smiling girl on her console, a lump caught in her throat.

Was she really going to stoop so low? Had her decades of service to the Broker robbed her of all self-respect? She was no young, inexperienced agent desperate to gain his approval. Going against his orders was never a good idea, even with her long history of loyalty she knew she wasn't indispensable, but handing a child over to the Bekenstein high society? It seemed like a step too far.

On the other hand, what was the alternative? It was only a matter of time before the numerous mercenaries that were roaming the Citadel managed to track Khalisah to this apartment. She knew she couldn't protect her without the Broker's help and persuading him to give it was going to require some serious smooth talking.

She had spent the whole day working out what she was going to say and had finally plucked up the courage to reactivate her comm only to find that the Broker's feed was down. This was unusual but not unheard of and so she leaned back against the console and waited. As she did, she spotted something at her shoulder; a loop of hair trapped beneath the neck of her top, left there from when she had pulled Khalisah close to her.

She pulled the dark strand free, holding it taut between her fingers and twisting it so it glinted in the dim light as she gazed at it thoughtfully. The vague beginnings of an idea were half formed in her mind when the comm suddenly flickered into life and the distorted voice of the Shadow Broker began broadcasting to all agents across the whole galaxy.

"This is the Shadow Broker. The situation is under control. We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware, it disrupted communications momentarily. However, we are now back online. Resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day. Shadow Broker out."

Jacana looked at the comm as the transmission ended and chewed on her lip thoughtfully. That gave her a day. A lot could happen in a day. She made her decision, grabbed her jacket and headed for the door.

Quetzal's day job was about the most mundane cover that had ever been invented for one of the Broker's agents. As Jacana walked into the accounting office, the salarian spotted her and almost fell off his chair. After looking around quickly at his five other colleagues, most of whom were spending their last hour of work skiving and surfing the extranet, Quet jumped to his feet and rushed over to her.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded in an urgent whisper, "Are you trying to break my cover."

"Oh stop being such a drama queen," she muttered, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him into a nearby stationary cupboard, slamming the door shut to give a modicum of privacy. Squashed together in the tight space and silhouetted in darkness, Quet opened and closed his mouth several times as he stammered through several protests.

"Are you insane? My co-workers are out there! How am I going to explain why a random asari walked in and locked me in a cupboard with her?"

Jacana blinked, "Tell them I'm your mistress. You'll have bragging rights for months," he opened his mouth again but she cut him off with a swift gesture, "listen to me. Donovan Hock's finances, do you have access to them?"

He glared at her incredulously through the din, "Of course not. They're encrypted!"

"I know that you idiot!" she hissed, "I mean, can you get into where the files are stored?"

"Yes, of course I can," he folded his arms, with some difficulty in the cramped space, and looked at her indignantly, as though offended she had to ask.

"So, can you decrypt them yourself? Create your own encryption key?"

"Don't be ridiculous Jacana, if I could do that the Broker wouldn't need to give you this assignment, would he?"

"Don't get smart with me, Quet," she moved her face closer to his so that he could see the glint in her peppermint eyes, "I know you are ten times the hacker you make yourself out to be. I also know that if the Shadow Broker ever found out just how talented you are he might start giving you the more dangerous assignments. More likely to end in your death."

"All right. All right. There's no need to get all threatening on me," he glanced towards the crack in the door where the light from the office was bleeding through and then lowered his voice even further, "look, do you think I haven't tried to crack it? Those accounts are better encrypted than STG personnel files."

"What if I told you that the files are encrypted with the DNA of a human girl?"

"DNA encryption huh?" he paused thoughtfully, "That narrows down some of my options I suppose… do you have a sample of the DNA?"

"No. But I have her mother's," she pulled a sealed plastic bag from her pocket where she had placed the hair she had found on her shoulder.

Quetzal took the bag, held it up to the crack of light and grimaced, "You expect me to hash together a genetic code capable of fooling Donovan Hock's computers with a single strand of hair not even containing the actual DNA I need?"

"Can you do it or not?"

Annoyance gleamed in his salarian eyes as he looked at her, but it was mixed with the anticipation of a challenge. In the end he finally sighed and conceded, "Maybe. With a few weeks of work and some extra resources-

"You've got twenty-four hours and the Broker can't know."

"You're going behind his back?"

"I'll make sure you're well compensated."

He hesitated, trying to read her face through the dark, she was sure to keep it perfectly straight and deadly serious, "Mm. On second thoughts, twenty-four hours is plenty of time. Particularly if I don't sleep. Or eat. Or take toilet breaks."

"I knew I could count on you," Jacana smiled and opened the cupboard door, skilfully sliding out from between him and the shelves of stationary supplies. Quet followed her and stood for a moment, looking at his curious colleagues, all of whom were pretending not to watch and whisper.

"You know," he began slowly, "if we're going to make this mistress thing convincing, I should really get a kiss."

She eyed him briefly and smiled, "Don't push your luck."