Chapter Fifteen

Quetzal's windowless room beneath the turian takeaway restaurant was lit mostly with the glow of technology. The controls and interfaces of a dozen different consoles and computers formed a neon rainbow of colours, many of them flashing in time with the symphony of bleeps and buzzes that filled the room.

At a cluttered desk in the corner, Quet tapped his fingers gently as he watched the encryption key transfer to a portable data disc.

"Let's hope this works," he muttered quietly to himself.

DNA encryption. If he'd known that from the start he might have cracked this weeks ago and avoided this whole mess. Still, there was no helping it now. As the transfer finished he slid the disc out of the console and sighed before turning to activate his comm. He waited for a moment until a smooth voice answered him.

"Quetzal."

"Good evening, Mister al-Jilani."

There was an ominous pause, through which Quet was sure he could hear the pursing of lips, "I was just about to contact you. I've just had a very unsettling chat with your Shadow Broker."

Quet swallowed, "Oh?" what the hell had Jacana done this time?

He had been in two minds about telling her of his success with the key and had decided that having her waiting at her apartment for him would at least keep her out of the way for a while. He had hoped she would have waited until she actually had the key before contacting the Broker, however.

"He has just cancelled my contract with him, without an explanation."

"Ah. That's… too bad."

"For you, yes. The only reason I contacted him in the first place was because you suggested it after you failed to decrypt those finances. For weeks I have had my men following my daughter around, keeping the other families away from her while I waited for you to come through for me but word has been spreading quickly, more and more people are after that money, Quetzal, the situation is getting desperate. So, I am asking you, do you have anything for me?"

Quet looked down at the disc in his hand and felt a sudden sting of guilt. Jacana was the only reason he had managed to crack the encryption at all, betraying her now would be dishonest; betraying Khalisah's father would likely be fatal. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily, "Yes. I have the encryption key. Not the original but it should work all the same."

"Excellent," there was no praise in his voice, no hint of surprise or recognition, "you'll have to bring it to me I'm afraid, now that the contract has been cancelled I find myself with some unfinished business to take care of. You know where to find me."

Without warning, the link severed and Quet was left staring at the console. He reached a hand towards it, half tempted to call Jacana again to… what? Tell her? Warn her? Explain? He knew none of it would make a difference so he dropped his hand, stood and made for the door.

Khalisah awoke alone. This should have been something she was used to yet for some reason it felt strange. She blinked and frowned, the dim light lancing in from the wards was unfamiliar and filled the room with shadows, making it momentarily hard to work out where she was.

A heavy scent hung in the air, vaguely masculine, like men's deodorant, mixed with something floral. She could smell it on the pillow and the bedsheets, in her hair and on her skin. Jacana's scent, she realised as she breathed it in deeply. She turned over and frowned at the empty space beside her, running a hand gently across the pillow.

The memories of last night were like distant dreams floating out of her grasp as she tried to pin them down and the more she remembered, the harder it was to believe. She didn't pretend to understand all of what had happened but somehow she had felt her own skin beneath Jacana's hands, seen colours through Jacana's eyes, felt asari thoughts weaving with her own.

She had seen things. Places she had never visited yet they seemed so familiar; memories of things she knew had never happened to her. She closed her eyes as she tried to remember but found the images distant and disjointed; concentrating on them made her head spin and eventually she let them slip away.

She sighed heavily and began to trace patterns across the pillowcase. She had no idea how this had happened. How the hell had she gone from questioning Jacana's motives to falling into her bed? And why wasn't she more worried about it? Why wasn't she suspicious of the asari's intentions? Paranoid it might all be some elaborate trap? Why wasn't she panicking and bolting for the exit?

A sharp click drew her back into the room and she looked up to see Jacana peering around the half-open door. The asari smiled when she saw Khalisah was awake, creasing the rose petal markings around her eyes. The sight of her briefly broke Khalisah's line of thought, and then a dozen more questions and doubts flooded into her mind.

"Morning," she muttered quietly, "well, evening actually but, you know what I mean."

Khalisah sat up, being sure to keep the bedsheets tucked tightly under her arms. It was a very deliberate manoeuvre and she could see that Jacana noticed as much; a flicker of disappointment briefly flashed through her peppermint eyes but Khalisah didn't care, letting the asari see her naked had been different last night while hidden under the covers with her. Everything had been different last night.

"Are you hungry?" Jacana asked.

"No," she replied quickly, not because she wasn't, she just didn't want Jacana to leave just yet, there was too much she was still trying to work out.

The asari seemed to understand and as her smile broadened, she stepped into the room. She was wearing a thin satin dressing gown which floated gently with her movements as she wandered to the bed and sat, curling her legs up beneath herself. The way she then arched her back and rested lightly on one elbow gave her an oddly feline quality, like a panther lounging in a tree.

She was still smiling, the expression so subtle and constant it was almost unsettling as she blinked and held Khalisah's gaze, clearly allowing her the chance to speak first. All Khalisah could do was stare at her, however, studying the details of her face as though seeing them for the first time and as she did, she felt a shiver run though her. Jacana suddenly looked very alien.

The trouble with the asari was that they were so nearly human in appearance that it made the small differences far more noticeable than the obvious ones. Pale green eyes open just slightly too wide, turquoise lips curled just a little too far into their smile, head tilted at the exact angle no human's would ever settle at. The more Khalisah stared at this bizarre creature the more she struggled to believe that Jacana was actually real; that any of this was real.

A sudden pang of doubt made her shudder and turn away, half laughing at herself as she rested her head in her hands, Dear God, Khalisah. What the hell are you doing here?

"Are you alright?"

Jacana's voice was enough to ground her back in reality and she looked up to see the smile was gone, replaced a concerned frown that Khalisah found far more reassuring, she was definitely real.

"Yes. I'm fine. I'm… worried about Daniyah, about everything."

"I know," Jacana reached a hand up to Khalisah's bare back and as she felt the smooth touch of asari skin, a memory surfaced from the night before.

Jacana had been surprised to discover just how much of the human body was covered in fine, soft hairs, some barely visible until you touched them. She couldn't run her hand up Khalisah's arm without displacing hundreds of tiny follicles. When she had linked their senses, she had felt it the way Khalisah did and it had proved to be a sensation so alien to her that she had gasped with delight. This was something Khalisah had found utterly amusing and had eventually resulted in a fit of hysterical giggles from the pair of them that had lasted for at least ten minutes. It had somewhat ruined the sensual atmosphere Jacana had been building, of course, but it had certainly broken the ice.

The memory made her chuckle and drew a curious look from the asari as she continued to run her fingertips along Khalisah's shoulder blades, "What is it?"

"That tickles."

The smile returned and this time it was in no way unsettling, "I remember."

Khalisah laughed, why was she laughing? She had a dozen or more mercenary bands searching for her, nowhere to go, no escape plan and here she was naked in someone else's bed. This was not something to laugh about!

And yet she couldn't stop herself, just like she couldn't make herself be suspicious of Jacana anymore. Something had changed within her, she could feel it. Whatever it was the asari had done, it had left her with a lingering sense of calm that she had never known before; a reassurance that everything would be alright. But she knew it couldn't last.

She let her face fall slightly as she held Jacana's gaze and smiled sadly, "I should go."

The impact was immediate, Jacana's expression dropped instantly from amusement to confusion as she frowned sharply, "Go? Go where?"

"I don't know. But I can't stay here; they'll track me down eventually and I won't drag you any further into this."

"You're not dragging me anywhere Khalisah, I want to help."

"No!" she heard the snap in her voice, the tone she used to cut through babbling politicians when they were evading her questions and was momentarily annoyed with herself for speaking to Jacana like that, but she wouldn't be swayed, "People are already dead because of me, I won't add your name to the list."

She saw the asari sigh, her alien eyes shimmering with… something, "It's not that simple. I've… committed myself to this now."

"Why? Because of last night? I'm not your responsibility Jacana, you don't owe me anything."

"It's not just that. I'm… involved, I have been from the start."

Khalisah frowned, "I don't understand."

She hesitated for a moment, seeming to steel herself before she shifted and crawled forwards across the bed, shuffling onto her knees so that they were face-to-face. Her musky scent filled Khalisah's nostrils and she felt momentarily giddy as Jacana's hands slipped beneath the covers and around her waist. She was self-consciously aware of the bedsheets falling away to reveal her body but Jacana wasn't looking anywhere but her eyes.

"Khalisah," she began as a hard frown settled on her forehead, "there's something I need to tell you."

The door to the apartment was kicked open, breaking the quiet with a chorus of shouts as a dozen armed men swarmed inside.

"Find her!"

"Where is she?"

"In here!"

The bedroom door crashed open and before either of them had a chance to tear their eyes from each other, a single shot was fired.