The First and the Last
Five: Finders, Keepers
The Plain Dealer was cramped – Feron hadn't lied. It was a small shuttle with a single, narrow corridor that ran the length of the cabin. The cockpit was located at the front, with a single pilot's chair looking out onto a sea of stars that was now obscured by a holographic instrument panel. Aft of the cockpit, the corridor contained an empty weapons-rack, a small closet filled with clothing and armour, and a small number of cooking implements opposite the entry airlock. To the rear of the shuttle, Liara and Jondum quickly settled in what Feron had generously termed his 'quarters.' A small, low table sat in the centre, with a small bed slung down from the ceiling on the starboard side of the room. Below it sat a small desk covered in stacks of paper and holos. On the right, a plush office chair sat in front of a wall of data terminals.
Liara looked at the terminals curiously – all eight were off, but they seemed ready to glow with energy at the slightest touch of a button. She ran her hand against one of the terminals, glancing back up the corridor at Feron as the Drell prepared the ship for launch.
"What are-,"
"Information feeds," the Drell cut her off. "The lifeblood of an information broker."
"Impressive," Jondum observed as his eyes pored over the screens. "These are linked into the private feeds of the Shadow Broker's network," he paused as he did the math in his head. "There is easily two hundred zettabytes of information and data in those servers."
"Like I said, the Shadow Broker believing that I'm on-side confers certain advantages," Feron called back from the cockpit. The Drell brought the holo-terminals to life, covering the glass dome in a wall of light. Liara felt the ship's engines hum to life beneath her. The entire vessel shook as the Plain Dealer lifted off, throwing Liara against the wall of Feron's cramped living area.
"Roomy!" Jondum shot forward Feron adjusted the engine thrust to jet them away from the Endline dockyards.
"I'm a solo act here – at least, I usually am. The Plain Dealer has made me a wealthy man."
"Indeed," Jondum walked forward to the cockpit, pausing to glance around the bubble as Feron plotted their course to the cluster of Mass Relays at the heart of the system. "Just not enough to afford a second chair."
"Some deals go well, some don't," Feron said simply as he pulled up a starmap on the holo-display in front of him. "If your tracker works, this will be one of the former."
"It will." Jondum opened his omnitool, transferring several program files to the ship's VI. The starmap narrowed to the Sahrabarik system, coming to rest on the outer edge of the third planet's orbit as the program triangulated the position of Tazzik's shuttle. "Once he makes the relay jump, the tracker will determine which of the relays his shuttle passed through."
Liara watched as the dot on the screen indicating Tazzik's shuttle approached the cluster of relays. It moved closer and closer, then disappeared altogether. She shifted uncomfortably where she stood as the program failed to produce a reading.
"Give it time," Jondum cautioned her as she began to fidget. "It's an extraordinarily complex piece of hardware, but it will deliver the result you need. There," he pointed at the projection, where one of the seven relays in the Sahrabarik system flashed blue. "We've got our relay."
The starmap shot outward, the points of light crystalizing into the form of the galaxy. Clusters of data spun through the light, pings of white changing to red as the trace eliminated systems. The trace quickly eliminated the systems that made up Citadel Space as the blue line of light charted its way from relay to relay. Liara watched as their map followed the course of Tazzik's shuttle across Terminus space. The trace plotted a course from the Omega Nebula to Sigurd's Cradle, then across the arms of the Terminus Systems to the Valhallan Threshold.
"Alingon," Feron exclaimed suddenly. "He's going to Alingon."
"How can you be sure?" Jondum asked as he studied the map. "From the Threshold, Tazzik could go practically anywhere."
"It's the only logical explanation. The Broker's operatives only have five facilities in the Terminus Systems that they use for operations this big. Getting to the other four would all require routing through the Crescent Nebula or back through Omega."
"And he won't do that, for the same reason he isn't taking the more direct relay route," understanding dawned on Jondum. "He's too cautious."
Liara studied the map as the trace continued to move. The profile of Alingon was strange: located in the Faryar System of the Hourglass Nebula, the planet possessed one of the strongest magnetic fields in the galaxy and a thin atmosphere of CO2 and xenon. In theory, the magnetic field was strong enough to cut off all extraplanetary communication.
The perfect location for a transaction that could not risk being disturbed.
Liara was full of questions. "How does the Broker maintain a facility on a planet like that?"
"The Broker has technology that can cut through the magnetic interference, but its range is limited to equipment that the Shadow Broker alone possesses." Feron deactivated the map and swung his chair to face the vastness of space. "Means we have to go there if his business needs us to."
"How big is the facility?"
"No more than forty."
"So manageable," Jondum remarked as he walked back towards the ship's cabin. "How long until we get there, and how much do we beat Tazzik by?"
"It'll take us about three hours. If my calculations are correct, that gives us an hour before Tazzik gets there with the stasis pod."
Liara nodded as Feron focused on piloting the Plain Dealer. Sighing with exhaustion, she retreated to join Jondum in the rear cabin. The Salarian was busily disassembling his pistol, checking its components to make sure that they were functioning. He was methodical and focused, carrying out his work in absolute silence. It looked to be a routine he had repeated a hundred times. Liara watched him with a mix of curiosity and bemusement, noting every time a component was removed and replaced in the weapon. When he had finished, Jondum scanned the gun visually and with his omnitool. Satisfied with his work, he holstered it and turned to stare back at Liara.
"Do you find me an oddity, Doctor T'Soni?"
She tilted her head to the side as Jondum shifted to sit on the chair that now faced away from the desk. "Only insofar as I don't understand you." Her gaze narrowed to rest on the Spectre. "What's your story?"
He looked bemused. "My what?"
"You weren't always a Spectre."
"No, I wasn't," he replied. "I spent four years serving in STG – stints in espionage and counterintelligence. Some of it was mundane – identifying potential weaknesses in our personnel, tracing potential connections to mercenaries or terrorists in our ranks, figuring out who was likely to be turned – but a great deal of it was very serious. The Salarian Union's intelligence ethos earns it many enemies, and it was my job to find them and stop them."
"You were the first blow."
Jondum nodded. "In every war we've ever fought, be it against pirates or the Krogan Empire, we have struck first, and we have had the element of surprise. It was my job to make sure it remained that way."
"How does that lead to being an Arbiter?"
"Disrupt enough threats to Citadel Space, and powerful people start to take notice. I became a Spectre three years ago, an Arbiter a year later. I've been in the Terminus Systems ever since."
"Doing what?"
"What needs to be done. Find and eliminate the leader of a threat, sabotage enemy supplies, disrupt alliances between criminal organizations. I do what the Council requires of me."
That seemed oddly cold to Liara. If she was correctly reading what he left unsaid, then the carnage on Invictus was almost entirely his responsibility. "But not the people of the Terminus Systems?"
"I'm not here to save them. I'm here to stop them from destroying us."
"You're not like other Spectres."
He shifted his gaze to stare directly at her, the probing nature of his stare causing Liara to shift uncomfortably where she sat. "I am only the second Spectre you've ever met," Jondum replied. "How do you know that it wasn't Shepard who was different from us?"
His question caught Liara off-guard. "Do you think that Shepard is different from you?"
"I did at first." He leaned back in the chair, reclining until the headpiece touched the desk behind him. "He was military – special ops – before he was a Spectre. That's not unheard of; most of the Turian Spectres spent time in the Blackwatch before they began specialized training, but on-face his military record wasn't particularly remarkable, apart from having survived an attack that killed everyone else in his unit."
"Not every Spectre's military record is impeccable."
"I spent two years in counterintelligence. If the Union's enemies knew who I was, I wasn't doing my job right." he glanced at the floor, then back up to Liara. "When Nihlus Kryik recommended Shepard for Spectre candidacy, most of us assumed it was a political move – a way to placate Human ambitions."
"Did you?" Liara asked him coolly.
"For a time," Jondum replied, his eyes cutting into Liara. "And then our best and our brightest turned traitor and went on the run." He sighed from his feet. "You can't understand the effect that Saren's betrayal had on the Spectres. It caught us off-guard. He'd always made his anti-Human politics known, certainly, but he was the most effective operative I ever worked with – and fiercely loyal."
"Did you believe Shepard when the first accusations were made?"
Jondum was silent as he picked his words. "No," he said finally. "But only because it made no sense. An Arbiter allies with a race of synthetics, attacks the colony of a fellow Citadel race, before executing a fellow Spectre in cold blood?" He shook his head. "Salarians are creatures of logic, Liara T'Soni, and the logic didn't add up." Jondum furrowed his brow as he stared at the floor of the cabin. "But once the evidence came to light, I knew there had to be more to it than Saren's own ambition."
"So you believed in the Reapers?"
"Not everyone within the Spectres was as hesitant to connect the dots as the Council. A younger Councillor Valern – a Valern less ingrained in Citadel politics – might have seen the bigger picture. A better Council might have thrown every ship they had toward stopping Arterius from reaching Illos."
"But that would have started a war with the whole of the Terminus Systems. Millions would have died in the crossfire!"
"So be it," the Salarian said simply. "If the Prothean beacons you deciphered are right about the Reapers, then trillions die if the Citadel does nothing. I'm not ready to sow the ashes of an entire galaxy to sate my own short-sighted instincts."
"That's a merciless view of war."
"Look around you, Dr. T'Soni." Jondum moved to stand next to the small porthole that gazed out into the starry void. "What did you see on Omega? Did you see kindness, or compassion, or gentleness?" A knowing half-smirk played across his face as Liara shook her head. "Or on the Shadow of the Hegemon? Do you suppose those captains gave a damn about their live cargo – chained against their will into bondage that will last the rest of their lives?" Liara again shook her head. "This is the Terminus Systems, Doctor. The strong take from the weak, the cunning prey on the naïve. If I am merciless, it is because I have to be. If you are to survive in this part of the galaxy, then there is no room for mercy. You'll learn that soon enough."
She regarded him coolly. "Do you think my compassion is a weakness?"
"The impulse to help those who cannot fend for themselves is noble. This is ingrained in all of us from the time that we're young. I do not blame you for wanting to help those around you," his eyes narrowed as he looked back at her, "but you must know when to set those instincts aside. Consider Cerberus," he paused to tinker with his omnitool, bringing up a swarm of images pertaining to the Human supremacist organization. "When Miss Lawson told you who she worked for, what was your first reaction?"
Liara brought the moment back in her mind. "I told her that she worked for monsters, or at least with them."
"You're not wrong. And yet here you are."
Faryar System – One Hour Later
Liara was jolted back to reality by the sudden shift in the Plain Dealer's movement, the smooth journey through the stars punctuated by a burst of turbulence. Shaking off the last vestiges of her meditation, she left the rear cabin to join Jondum and Feron in the craft's bubble-shaped cockpit, who were speaking to each other in hushed, but aggressive, tones.
"-told me that we wouldn't encounter any resistance!"
"Oh yeah, because cosmic phenomena are now somehow part of the Broker's defense network."
"Are we close?" Liara asked as she entered the cockpit.
"Very," Feron replied. "Just passing through a meteor shower before we reach Alingon."
"Will the Broker have external defenses there?" Liara shuddered, memories returning of the heavy gun emplacements on Virmire.
"I doubt it. The only people who know the facility is here are those within the Broker's network – nobody else would know where to look."
Liara's question died in her throat as Feron brought up a profile of Alingon. High concentrations of Manganese rendered any electromagnetic scan of its surface impossible. As the planet slowly loomed into their view, it became clear that the entire surface was covered in a thick haze of clouds that magnified the radio silence that endured across Alingon's surface. Liara glanced back at Feron, who was hurriedly entering coordinates into the ship's navigation system. Satisfied with his work, the Drell slowly guided the Plain Dealer through the layer of clouds covering the planet.
"I don't suppose this facility has a docking bay?"
"Not for us freelancers. There's a small platform for us – we'll have to get through the front door."
The clouds parted to a view of the Broker's facility. Perched on a cliff's edge, it stood out amidst the planet's barren wastes of rock, its steel prefab units arranged off a quadrangle of corridors. Liara spotted the landing pad behind a rocky plateau near the facility. "That's our spot," Feron nodded. "Initiating landing sequences." His shuttle took a second pass around the facility, and then nestled itself onto the landing pad, touching down gently in the light gravity of the planet.
Liara exited the Plain Dealer and acclimatized herself to her surroundings. The air on Alingon was extremely thin – she felt lightheaded almost immediately as her lungs struggled to absorb the necessary oxygen. The haze that had looked impenetrable from space was strangely translucent from the surface, giving Liara a relatively unobstructed view of the night sky above her. The surface was barren and dark, with a handful of plateaus and rock outcroppings pock-marking an otherwise flat, uninteresting, and thoroughly ordinary planetary surface. In the distance, Liara could discern the outline of the Shadow Broker's facility in the distance, its bulky exterior situated between two of the tallest plateau faces within view.
"Remote," Liara observed as she, Feron, and Jondum began their trek away from the ship. "I presume the Broker likes it that way."
"Indeed he does," Feron remarked back. "The Broker is meticulous – internal logs keep track of everyone who enters and exits the facility. Once we're inside, we'll need to disable communications and wipe the drives to make sure we aren't discovered."
"And then we wait for Tazzik to arrive."
"Precisely," Jondum replied from behind her. "If we're lucky, this facility is sparsely populated and retrieving the stasis pod is relatively straightforward. If we're not, then this gets considerably harder."
The uncertainty in Jondum's voice disconcerted Liara. "Will we know which before the gunfire starts?"
"Unclear." Not a response that filled Liara with optimism. "I'll run a thermal scan of the facility once we're closer, but depending on the level of encryption inside we may not know how many we're dealing with until they start pointing weapons at us."
They traversed the base of the rock outcropping between Feron's ship and the facility, carefully watching for signs of snipers or spotters on the roof of the complex. As they neared the entrance, Liara spotted a pair of guards – both Turian – standing on either side of the door that led into the facility.
"How are you planning on getting us in?" Liara asked as they moved to within plain view of the sentries.
"Give me your sidearm," the Drell ordered her, "and let me do the talking."
Liara glared back at Jondum, who remained perfectly still as the Asari gritted her teeth together. Fearing she was walking into a trap, she reluctantly gave her pistol to Feron. They walked towards the two guards, who glared suspiciously at Feron, Jondum, and Liara as they approached the entrance.
"Morning, gentlemen," Feron said far too cheerfully. "I've got a delivery. Someone the Shadow Broker wants to see."
"Good to see you, Thelion," the one on the left remarked, lowering his rifle as Feron neared. The guard's gaze went to Liara and Jondum. "Just one, or both of them?"
"The Asari," Feron replied. "She's a person of interest to the Broker – this facility was the closest secure connection when I found her."
"Then who is he?" the Turian on the right asked, jabbing his rifle in Jondum's direction.
"His enforcer," the Salarian replied. The menace in his voice made Liara's neck bristle, but it seemed to have a similar effect on the two guards.
"Say no mo-, wait a second." The Turian on the left scrunched his facial expression as he stared, seemingly perplexed, at his omnitool. "Thelion, you're not on our list for today."
The pit dropped out of Liara's stomach. Panicking, she turned to Jondum, who eyed her with a look that told her to remain calm.
"Obviously not. Since when the Broker tell you everything that's on their list?"
The Turian on the right looked confused. "Sure, but we're supposed to know everyone who's coming. The list-,"
"The list," Feron interrupted. "The list!" He took a step towards the guards, his voice rising as he planted his boots against the ground. "If your list was the Broker's list, then you'd be the Broker." He jabbed an inquisitive finger at the left Turian. "Are you the Broker, Delwian?"
"No, of course not," Delwian stuttered, "but-,"
"Didn't think so," Feron said sharply. "And what about you, Joppa? Are you the Broker?"
"No," the Turian on the right replied. "What business are you running today then?"
Feron nudged his shoulder into Delwian as he passed. "Well, it clearly involves shapely Asari escorts with dark and mysterious pasts." He gripped a hand to Liara's waist, "maybe I can find one for you on my next run?" With his other hand, he took Liara by the shoulder and led her and Jondum through the airlock and away from the guards. "Good to see you guys," he called after them as the door sealed behind them.
The interior of the facility was dark, the narrow corridors bathed in a soft orange light that cloaked the walls in shadows. The corridor seemed to lead to nowhere – only a handful of airlocks led to other parts of the facility. Cautiously, the three of them walked forward into the complex, incredibly mindful of the hostility of their surroundings.
"That was rather impressive," Liara noted as she retrieved her sidearm from Feron's grip. "You're an accomplished liar."
Feron shrugged his shoulders. "Perimeter security is really good at spotting people it doesn't recognize, but pretty loose about Broker operatives. Besides," he grinned, "Del and Joppa aren't particularly bright. I've smooth-talked my way around them before."
"The Broker agents I've encountered have been far better than that," Jondum remarked as his eyes darted from corner to corner. "They always slipped up eventually, but they were at least competent. This part of the Broker's network seems oddly easy to penetrate."
"You're not wrong," Feron responded. "The Broker is good – very good. But I have noticed a blind spot or two in his thinking. He relies too much on concealment and technical security – hence this facility. But, except for the upper echelons, he doesn't screen his people as closely as he should – hence this facility's personnel." Feron grimaced as they passed another airlock which seemed to mark the interrogation wing of the complex. "He has a reputation for brutality if you displease him, but first he has to notice that you haven't lived up to requirements. That gives individuals like me breathing space."
"Quiet!" Jondum grabbed Liara and Feron by the shoulders and wrestled them into the alcove next to the airlock. "I heard someone up ahead!"
Twenty metres ahead, the corridor came to a junction with another that ran perpendicular to theirs. Peering around the corner from their hiding spot, they spotted two figures cutting across the junction up ahead. The first was a helmeted human mercenary, broad-shouldered and cradling a submachine gun in his left hand.
"The agent has reported that the package will arrive on the north dock in a half-hour. I assure you, it is just as described."
Following close behind the gunman, the second figure was something out of Liara's nightmares: well over two metres tall, roughly bipedal with two sets of arms and a smaller, secondary row of limbs arrayed below them. The humanoid creature had ridges of chitinous armour running across its shoulders and back, giving it the appearance of an external carapace. When it spoke, it did so lacking any sort of recognizable mouth, but with a deep resonance that conveyed authority and menace even from where Liara was kneeling.
"The package must be as we specified," the humanoid said. "You know that we do not brook dishonesty or delay."
"Collector," Jondum muttered under his breath. "Here to exchange gods-know-what for Shepard's body." He waited until the two figures had disappeared from view down their own corridor, then drew his weapon and turned to face Liara and Feron. "Comms centre. Now."
They moved swiftly through the hallways of the Shadow Broker's facility, meeting no one as they headed towards the communications hub.
"You knew the Broker was working with those…things," Liara shuddered as she turned back towards Feron, "didn't you?"
The Drell nodded. "I did. But I didn't know why. I always trusted the Broker; he's a tough customer but he always seemed neutral – no agenda other than making money from trading information. But this," his eyes went to the floor as he shook his head, "this I don't understand."
Everything suddenly made sense to Liara, her mind whirring as she stared back at Feron. "That miss wasn't just bad aim, was it?"
Caught off guard, he blinked twice in surprise. "You're good. No, that wasn't an accident, although I wouldn't have done it if I thought it would doom our attempt to recover Shepard's body. Wherever Tazzik's ship went, he'd take a longer route to avoid detection – I knew that we'd have time."
"But why did we need time?" Liara could still sense that Feron was hiding something from her. She was about to pry further when Jondum cut them both off. They had reached the door to the comms room, and Liara could see the outline of server hubs through the airlock as it opened.
Jondum moved rapidly as they passed through the airlock, gunning down three guards in a single movement of his pistol across the breadth of the room. Liara was close behind, placing a shot squarely between the eyes of a fourth guard before biotically throwing a fifth into a cluster of servers. Drowning out the screams of the impaled soldier as he bled out, Liara quickly moved to seal off the remaining airlocks out of the room, buying them time to disable the communications and plot their retrieval of Shepard's body.
"Impressive," Feron noted as he began notching his way through the server on Liara's left. "Find the communications relay and disable it – it will cut all traffic in and out of the facility, meaning the Broker can't intervene."
"First things first," Liara spun on the balls of her feet to face Feron, her pistol pointing at his chest. "Tell me who you work for."
Feron looked at her with a mix of perplexity and fear in his eyes. "What?"
Liara raised the gun to point at his forehead. "Whose side are you on? Mine? The Broker's? Cerberus?"
"The last one," the Drell replied with remarkable calm. "My deal is directly with the Illusive Man."
"So, what, you're a triple agent? Playing me, the Broker, and Cerberus all against each other?"
"No, I'm just Feron." Beneath the stoic calm in the Drell's eyes, Liara could see his fear.
She lowered her weapon, but sent a surge of biotic energy through her left hand as she did so. "Start talking."
Feron clenched his jaw, glancing forlornly around the room. Resigned to his fate, he told the truth. "It wasn't always like this. I used to work freelance. Didn't pay all that well – information trading is an extremely insular business, and it can be hard to prosper without knowing the right people." His gaze went to the dormant communications panel along the far wall. "A few years ago, the Broker started hiring me for occasional work: he needed someone with my skillset, and I needed someone with that many zeroes on their account balance. Say what you want about the Broker, but he pays his people well."
"So why turn traitor?" Jondum asked as he busied himself with hacking one of the computers on the central bay of monitors.
"Cerberus tried to recruit me several times – always covertly. They wanted somebody inside the Broker's network, but I always turned them down. I don't cheat an employer, least of all the most powerful information broker in the galaxy. Besides," he glared accusingly at Liara, "you of all people know what Cerberus believe and what they're capable of."
The Drell's breathing accelerated, and Liara thought she detected a note of regret and sadness in his voice when he spoke. "But everything changed when the Broker started negotiating with the Collectors. I was ready to walk – resign my commission for the Broker and find my own way in the galaxy. But the deal for Shepard's corpse was beyond perverse; I felt it had to be stopped. Cerberus apparently felt the same way."
"So why involve us?" Liara asked as she paced around the room.
"The Broker got suspicious - started cutting me out of information on the transaction. I needed a way back into his good graces – you were my ticket. Besides," Feron smirked as his gaze went to the pistol in Liara's hands, "you've seen my shot. This was not a job that I could do alone."
The pieces were falling into place in Liara's mind, but there were still questions left unanswered. "So why delay from retrieving the body on Omega? Why wait to do so here?"
"Because the deal with the Illusive Man was always about information," Jondum observed as he stepped back from his work. "Cerberus wants access to the Broker's feeds – data, contacts, safehouse locations, passwords, encryption. That's the price the Illusive Man is demanding in exchange for his future protection, am I right?"
Feron nodded. "I'm finished as an information broker after this. The Broker will make sure nobody trusts me again, and there'll be multi-million credit bounties on our heads. I'm certainly not going to sign on permanently with Cerberus, but they've at least guaranteed me protection once the job is done." The Drell looked at Liara sincerely, "now do you trust me?"
"There's more," Jondum cautioned Liara as he took a step towards Feron. "The deal doesn't just concern information about the Broker's network. It also concerns the corpse." He took another step forward. "Cerberus wants Shepard's body for their own purposes. Feron is supposed to deliver it to them."
Liara wheeled to face Feron. It made sense. Had she honestly thought that the Illusive Man was helping her out of some altruistic urge to help her? No, she was part of a business transaction – nothing more. She should have seen it, and she cursed herself for not realizing it sooner. But she had to know for certain. "Is this true?" she demanded, her voice rising.
The Drell nodded. "The Illusive Man wants Shepard's body. He never said explicitly, but I suspect they want to attempt to resurrect him."
"Is that even possible?"
Feron shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? There's a chance it might. You may think that's some kind of betrayal, Liara. But what were you planning to do when you recovered Shepard's body?"
"Lay him to rest," she replied simply. That had been her intention from the start; getting Shepard back was impossible, but it mattered to her that his body not be an obscene Collector experiment. Was what Feron was talking about even possible? There were medical miracle stories of people being brought back to life after minutes of clinical death – once even an hour – but not after weeks spent in the vacuum of space. But if it was possible…
That changed things. But Liara didn't know how. Was that what she wanted? Yes, and yet…it felt wrong – an abomination, even – to resurrect a corpse.
"You are wavering, Dr. T'Soni," Jondum observed her thoughts as she stood in silence. "The idea of bringing Shepard back intrigues and excites you, yet fills you with confusion. You don't know whether it's possible, whether it's the right thing to do, if it's what Shepard would want, or if it's even what you would want. If Feron failed in his mission, would you complete it for him?" His ability to discern her turbulent emotions startled and frightened her yet provided clarity to the swirling chaos at play in her head and her heart.
"There's no guarantee, but it's certainly a possibility," the Salarian noted as he raised his pistol to point directly at Feron's skull, "which is why it's not something I can allow either of you to do."
Liara looked up in surprise to find Jondum pointing a second pistol at her. "Bau, what the hell is going on?"
"Dr. T'Soni, if you honestly think that a Council Spectre is going to let a rogue information broker hand Shepard's body to a pro-Human terrorist group, then you're not as smart as I thought." His gaze darted between her and Feron, daring either of them to make a move. "Shepard's body is no safer in the hands of Cerberus than those of the Collectors. The only solution that is acceptable," he hardened his stare at Feron, "is for Shepard's remains to be destroyed."
Liara pointed her own sidearm back at Jondum, her voice smouldering with disbelief and anger. "What gives you the right to determine what happens to his remains?"
"I am a Spectre, Dr. T'Soni. I defend the Citadel – by whatever means necessary."
"Everyone calm down," Feron said slowly as he planted his feet firmly to face the Salarian. "We still need to recove-,"
The thought died in Feron's mouth as the holographic stage to Feron's right hummed to life. Liara and Jondum lowered their weapons as a distorted, shadowy figure materialized in the projector.
"Reporting in for work, Feron?" the projection asked, its voice deep, mechanical –clearly concealed by electronic distortion. "People only come to see the Shadow Broker when called." The figure paused for a moment. "I didn't call."
This was it – the source of Liara's anguish. Materialized in front of her was the visage of Shepard's abductor – the one who would have sold his remains to the Collectors. Yet the Broker cloaked itself in misdirection. The encryption on the call was sophisticated beyond anything Liara had ever seen – her omnitool couldn't even begin to penetrate the multiple layers of obfuscation around the data.
"I'm waiting for an answer, Feron," demanded the voice. "Since when do you believe you can come here uninvited?"
Liara and Feron locked eyes for a moment, the Drell's gaze saying everything it needed to: buy him time – enough to uncloak the secrets of this place's data caches. Nodding silently, Liara shifted to pace around the room, drawing herself into the vision of the hologram.
"I don't need an invitation," she noted loudly, her voice rising as she walked towards the stage. "If you're working with the Collectors, if you're planning to sell Shepard's remains to them, then I'm going to stop you."
"Your objections are futile, Dr. T'Soni," the figure noted, pausing to let the gravity of the statement sink into Liara's conscience. "Yes, I know who you are and what you want – don't be so surprised. I also know that the Salarian Arbiter is in the room with you. He has been a thorn in my side for years, but a predictable one who can be controlled and misdirected." Liara turned to see Jondum bristle at the Broker's remark. "I have nothing personal against Shepard or any of his friends. The Collectors offered more than sufficient compensation for the task. It was simply good business."
Liara took another step towards the hologram, flaring her biotics to life as she did so. "You don't know what you're dealing with. Shepard died looking for evidence of the Reapers. They were behind the attack on the Citadel. They are threatening to return to the galaxy and eradicate us all." She pointed an accusing finger at the Broker's distorted projection. "Did you ever consider that the Collectors' interest in his body might be related? That they might be pawns of the Reapers themselves? What could possibly be worth the risk of allying yourself with them?"
The visage shifted, the distorted face giving way to a condensed ball of electricity that hovered in the middle of the stage. "You make too much of this. It is a corpse; what could they possibly gain from it?"
"You don't know, do you?" She stepped close enough to see the projector rings at the base of the hologram stage. She could feel her grief and anger and exhaustion melding into a white-hot rage that boiled in her gut. "It doesn't strike you as irresponsible to give the Collectors what they want when you don't even know why?"
"That's none of your concern, Doctor. The deal is done," the figure said simply. "Tazzik is about to make the exchange. Right now, the only people who aren't where they need to be are the three of you. As soon as I give the word, my staff on Alingon will come – and there are many of them. You may resist," the figure noted, "but you will ultimately fail. If you're working for someone else, they will extract it from you. It's not my preferred method for gathering information, but it is highly effective."
The rage boiled over, and Liara snapped. Screaming from the depth of her being, she summoned all the biotic power she could muster, smashing the projectors into powder with a single blow. Turning to face Jondum and Feron, she lashed out across the room, crushing consoles, databanks, comms hubs – anything her biotics could touch. Finally, when her power peaked, she scattered her biotics to the four corners of the room, destroying anything that wasn't bolted to the floor or encased in armour.
Letting the rage subside, Liara's blurred vision returned to focus. Once neat and orderly, the room was destroyed, the air thick with smoke and the sound of sparks. Feron and Bau stood in the middle of the room – both shaken, but very much unscathed by the blast – staring at Liara both dumbfounded and impressed
"That felt really good," she observed.
"It would look that way," Jondum observed as he glanced around the room. "It would also appear to have cut communications."
"It has," Feron nodded. "I've got everything I needed about the Broker's dealings. Let's go retrieve Shepard's body."
Shadow Broker Facility, Alingon – twenty minutes later
The handover took place on the top floor of the Broker's facility, in a large room overlooking the cliff with a handful of windows providing a view of the outside. Three airlocks led in and out of the chamber: one to the atrium in which Liara, Feron, and Jondum now stood, one to the facility's docking bays, and another into the labyrinthine web of the base's interior corridors. From their vantage point, they had a clear view of the transaction that was about to take place.
Tazzik had arrived five minutes earlier, with a significant company of mercenaries in tow. The enormous Salarian now stood on the left side of the room, surrounded by six bodyguards in full armour. Several more had come and gone from the room, depositing weapons and equipment before returning to stand guard at the entrances to the room. The stasis pod was not yet in the room, but was doubtless contained in the cargo-hold of Tazzik's shuttle. Completing the monstrous transaction was an actual monster: the Collector that Liara had spotted earlier stood menacingly with its back to the windows, a Volus representative and four bodyguards next to it as it waited for the delivery to be complete.
"At least a dozen on the inside," Feron noted as they surveyed the room. "I don't like our odds."
"I would if Tazzik wasn't in the room," Jondum concurred to Liara's left, "but he complicates things. We won't be able to just shoot our way through this. Weapons stay holstered until we have no other choice."
"Quiet!" Liara urged as the Collector and its Volus spokesman walked forward towards Tazzik.
When the creature spoke, it did so with a disembodied, otherworldly voice that seemed to come from across the voids of spacetime. The deep menace in its tone caused Liara to shiver as they watched. "The product is exactly as requested. The Shadow Broker has done well."
Tazzik nodded in satisfaction. "It's hard to recognize, but it's all there – can't even tell for sure if it's a man or a woman, the condition it's in. But it's yours as soon as the Broker receives his payment."
Feron knelt down behind the wall, motioning for Jondum and Liara to do the same. "I have a plan."
"Any good?" Jondum asked skeptically.
"It will work. Just let me do the talking and we'll be fine."
"And what if we're not fine?" Liara asked, her hand instinctively going to the pistol at her side.
The Drell handed her the OSD containing the data-cache. "Get the body and the data out of here, no matter what else happens. The latter must get to Cerberus – there's a program on the drive that will contact them when you're out of here."
"And what about you?"
The Drell smiled forlornly, casting a glance back into the room. "I've got one last play left in me – we'll see what happens from there." Moving calmly, Feron forced Liara's hands behind her back, gripping her wrists as they walked through the airlock and into the room.
Tazzik appeared befuddled as Feron and Liara entered the room. "What are you doing here?"
"The Broker has been trying to contact you – comms have been down for the last two hours so he sent me here directly."
Tazzik eyed Feron skeptically. "What could possibly be important enough to send you in person?"
"Good news and bad news. The good news?" he nudged Liara forward towards Tazzik. "This is the one that's been causing so much trouble to the operation."
The massive Salarian peered down at Liara. Now that she was standing in front of him, it became apparent just how physically intimidating the Shadow Broker's enforcer was. "And the bad news?"
"There's a problem with the payment. The Broker's not happy with the arrangement."
The Collector bristled with something that resembled anger in the corner. "There is no problem with the arrangement. Half now, half when we have confirmed Shepard's identity for ourselves. This was the agreement when we contracted you to retrieve the body."
As he glanced back to Jondum and Liara, she noticed a slight playfulness in the Drell's expression. "The Broker doesn't have time to wait while you play coroner," he shouted into the Collector's face. "He wants all the money now – pay up immediately, or no Shepard."
"The Broker hasn't said anything about this," Tazzik growled as he glanced back and forth between Feron and the Collector. "What's going on?"
Feron feigned outrage. "What's going on? Nothing's going on! Communications are down, so the Broker sent me with this order in person. Shepard stays in your hold until the payment is sorted out." When the Broker's enforcer still hesitated, Feron pointed dramatically to the security camera above him. "You wouldn't want to disappoint the Broker, would you? We may not be able to communicate with him right now, but he's always watching."
"This is unacceptable!" the Collector shouted. It seemed about to go on, but froze mid-thought, going entirely still as its body tensed up. Liara watched with a mix of fascination and horror as its limbs twisted where it stood, its neck craning back as a sound like metal cleaving metal rang out through the room. When the creature stood back to its full height, Liara noticed that its eyes were glowing. When it had spoken before, its voice had been guttural, almost pitchless; yet its voice was now deep, resonant, as if the creature spoke for some higher, malevolent power.
"I also have a message from the Broker," the creature said simply. It took a step towards Feron, then pointed an accusing finger at the Drell. "Feron is a traitor."
Tazzik spun on the balls of his feet, drawing his pistol and pointing it directly at Feron. "Well, Thelion?"
Feron stole a quick glance at Liara, then to the atrium where Jondum had remained, then back to Tazzik. "Come on. How could the Shadow Broker have communicated with that thing? Who are you going to believe?"
The massive Salarian was unamused. "Then how does it know your name, Feron?"
Feron froze, his eyes going to Liara. When she looked back, she saw a multitude of emotions in their depths – panic, shock, but above all fear. The fear in his eyes was palpable, his expression conveying more terror than words ever would. His shoulders sank as his entire figure drooped – seemingly resigned to its fate. All around them, Tazzik's soldiers were drawing their weapons – some were pointing at Feron, others at Liara.
In the back of her focus, she heard a single voice on her comms unit – urgent, yet supremely confident in what it was asking her to do.
"Go to plan B!"
Jondum watched from the alcove as Liara and Feron entered the room, as the Drell information broker convinced Tazzik to leave the stasis pod on his shuttle. He'd watched as the Collector vented its fury, as Feron had played the part perfectly in response. Rather than spiraling out of control, this plan seemed to be going well.
He knew something was wrong when the Collector began to writhe uncontrollably where it stood, its muscles contorting as some unseen power seized control of it. He had seen the yellow eyes before; even if he didn't fully understand the force behind it, he knew what it signified: they were not alone. He felt the Collector's voice as much as he heard it, its malevolence and menace shaking him to his core. Tazzik knows, he thought immediately. There's no way that Feron can sweet-talk his way out of this – Tazzik's too smart and the evidence too damning. His mind began to race, a thousand plans and counter-plans forming in his head. Bolt for the shuttle? Too many guards in the way. Incinerate the room? Too close to the blast. There was only one option – the only one that Feron had mentioned to Liara. But will she follow through? She knows the danger as well as I do – of the Collectors, of Cerberus, of Shepard. But sentiment and attachment weigh her down – she won't have the stomach for it. He would have to trust her, and hope that Liara made the right call.
Drawing his Paladin as he gazed through the one-way window into the room, he tapped into his comms unit to open a single channel to Liara.
"Go to plan B!"
Calmly, Jondum strode into the room, his gaze darting between the half-dozen armed opponents facing him. Six shots per clip, no more than a half-dozen clips left. Have to space them right. His first two shots were aimed at the pair of guards nearest Liara, dropping both with ease before they had time to react to his presence. The third and fourth shots cut down the two mercenaries standing by the door to the shuttle landing pad. Pausing for a moment, he spun to face the two guards standing at the far door into the facility. Liara, however, had reacted quicker, crushing one against the wall with her biotics and placing a shot from her sidearm between the eyes of the other.
He was peripherally aware of Feron struggling bodily with Tazzik as the airlock from the rest of the facility opened to deposit four armed mercenaries in front of him. Reloading his pistol, he emptied his thermal clip at them, cutting down three of them and knocking out the shields of the fourth. Another clip emptied, he ducked behind cover to buy himself time to reload. Liara fired two shots that narrowly missed the last merc before also opting for the safety of cover. As Jondum reloaded, three more lined the sides of the airlock, lining up shots that grazed the sides of the crate Jondum was knelt behind. He glanced to Liara, who hit one of them in the chest, causing the merc to stagger to floor. Momentarily leaning out from cover, Bau confirmed the kill with a shot to the head, ducking back moments before a flurry of gunfire shot past him. In the far corner of the room, the Drell continued to struggle with Tazzik, who rapidly appeared to be gaining the upper hand.
"Liara, get to the shuttle! I'll buy you time!"
Liara reacted without hesitation, sprinting across the room and deploying her barrier to absorb the force of the incoming gunfire. She cleared the distance to the external airlock quickly, throwing her barrier outwards as she reached the door and momentarily stunning the soldiers that were now streaming into the room. As the door sealed behind her, she threw a final glance at Jondum and Feron. She caught the latter's gaze for a moment and she knew, staring into the Drell's fear-filled eyes, that it was probably the last she would ever see of him. Jondum merely nodded, before turning to empty another clip at the oncoming mercenaries.
Liara bolted up the ramp towards Tazzik's waiting shuttle, its sleek frame shining magnificently in the dim starlight that reflected down onto the planet. Two more mercs stood guard at the entrance to the landing pad, and Liara swatted them aside easily with her biotics as she passed; one was thrown bodily against the bulkhead opposite, while the second was thrown into the air, sailing limply into the distance. Liara glanced at the cargo-pod on the underside of the shuttle, breathing a sigh of grim satisfaction as she saw the stasis pod tucked underneath it. The gangway into the shuttle's exterior was loaded, and Liara sprinted up the ramp towards her target, keying her omnitool to begin hacking the shuttle's navigation codes as she did so.
She suddenly felt a clawed hand grip her left ankle, dragging her leg out from under her and sending her tumbling to the floor. The grasp was vicelike, refusing to break as she struggled against it. She turned to see the hideous visage of the Collector staring back at her, its yellow eyes fixed on her with a flaming malice that seemed to burn into her soul.
"You will not meddle in our plans!" The creature began to drag her bodily down the ramp of the shuttle, refusing to budge against Liara's best efforts to lash out at the creature. It parried her biotic attacks easily, pinning her to the ground as it moved for the kill. Panicking, Liara reached for her lower back to retrieve her submachine gun. The Collector continued to fight her, its clawed feet dragging her mercilessly back towards the facility's entrance. She felt her submachine unclip from the holster on her back and withdrew it to its battle-ready configuration. Focusing the entirety of her being, she screamed as she held down on the trigger, firing every shot in the thermal clip into the Collector's chest and head. The flaming eyes stared back at her in fury and rage, the expression turning to one of pain as shot after shot pierced its chitinous carapace. The Collector's grip in Liara's ankle tightened, then went limp as the creature collapsed to the floor. Its eyes dimming, the horrifying instrument of whatever unseen force the Collectors served died in a pool of black blood at Liara's feet.
Liara tentatively put weight down on her foot again, sensing a slight pain when she shifted her balance to it. As quickly as she could manage, she made it to the ship's main airlock, sealing the door behind her as she staggered to the cockpit. Setting her omnitool to hack the shuttle's internal protocols, she collapsed in the pilot's chair and, her vision blurring from the pain in her ankle, surveyed the destruction below. Feron had disappeared from view – dead? Or taken by the Shadow Broker's thugs to some worse fate? She discerned Jondum amidst the mayhem, his weapons firing as he continued to add to the fallen mercenaries strewn across the room. She briefly locked eyes with the Salarian from the cockpit, seeing only defiance in his gaze as he spun to down another adversary.
The shuttle's controls flared to life on the panel in front of Liara, and she quickly acclimatized herself to the cockpit's layout. It was remarkably similar to many of the shuttles that she had used when on archaeological digs, and she wasted no time activating the ship's drive core. If the VI could sense that someone other than Tazzik was at the controls, it paid no notice as Liara entered the coordinates for Omega into the navigation systems. Almost at once, the shuttle's engines roared to life, pushing Liara back in her seat as the craft lifted off from the landing pad. The shuttle's autopilot hovered over Shadow Broker's facility briefly, as if to survey the scenes of carnage below, before racing away from the facility as fast as its engines would carry it. Liara watched as the base disappeared over the horizon, her breathing on edge as she waited to be pursued. She had to hope that Jondum and Feron's diversion would be worth it.
Jondum ducked behind the remnants of a table as he loaded another clip into his Paladin. Feron was nowhere to be seen, presumably either dragged away by the Shadow Broker's mercenaries or collapsed underneath the steadily-growing array of corpses strewn across the room. Thirteen lay bleeding out on the floor, while another seven continued to fire on his position. His supply of ammunition was rapidly dwindling, and his omnitool's thermal scans suggested that even more were converging on his position. Holstering his pistol, he drew his Locust submachine gun and rose to face his attackers. He quickly downed two mercs entering through the door on the far side of the room before snapping out a burst at another. His shields were draining fast; he could see even more of the Broker's thugs approaching from the corridors leading from the facility. Loading the last of his thermal clips into his weapon, he emptied the magazine at the oncoming tide of mercenaries, downing four or five of them before his Locust overheated.
So this is how it ends then. Surrounded by foes on a planet that doesn't even show up on the maps. He holstered his Locust and drew the sheath of his omni-knife from his left boot. So be it.
Screaming the war-cry of Sur'kesh, Jondum threw himself at the first oncoming mercenary, lodging the blade firmly in the Turian's shoulder and slashing across the collarbone. He spun to dodge the blow of a Batarian, cutting the merc's neck in one smooth motion as he did so. The third – a Human – proved harder, their wiry agility proving more difficult for Jondum to overcome. The merc eventually managed to get a firm grip on Jondum's shoulder, landing a series of blows on the Salarian's midsection as he was driven back towards the panel of windows that overlooked the high bluff that the facility was perched on. Jondum finally managed to block a punch aimed at his jaw, and responded in-kind by driving his own fist into the solar plexus of the Human. He spotted an opening at the last moment, twisting his enemy's wrist and bringing his own forearm to the merc's throat. The two soldiers lining up shots at Jondum were caught off-guard, and their aim only succeeded in littering the Human merc's body with bullets. He reacted immediately, un-holstering the merc's own sidearm and emptying the magazine into the other two.
The roar of the engines of Tazzik's shuttle deafened the room. He smiled to himself as it disappeared from view; Liara had done it. The Shadow Broker's plan was – for now – in tatters. But what would Liara end up doing with the body? Would she destroy it – as he had urged her to, or would it end up in the hands of Cerberus?
His thoughts were interrupted by another onrushing, armoured opponent – this one almost certainly a Batarian. He caught the merc off-guard with an uppercut to the jaw, before plunging his omni-knife into the Batarian's chest. He was about to withdraw it when he felt another enemy grab him from behind and attempt to throw him to the ground. He struggled mightily against an opponent that he could sense – almost certainly a Turian – but not quite see, the two locked in a thrashing melee in the centre of the room. He heard a sidearm activate, and he swung a fist upward into the Turian's jaw, connecting with bone and throwing his adversary off-balance. He took advantage of the lapse to grab the dominant wrist, swinging the pistol away from their bodies and outward. The merc fired anyways, shattering the glass window that overlooked the precipice below as Jondum lodged the knife into the Turian's kneecap. Spinning away from his attacker, Jondum retrieved the knife and slashed across the merc's throat, knocking him backwards through the shattered window as he did.
The moment that Jondum paused to reorient himself within the room proved critical, and he felt himself flung violently towards the cliff's edge as one of the mercs jumped him from behind, grabbing his waist and pulling them both through the few remaining shards of glass. He struggled against the weight of his attacker, thrusting his omni-knife into their arms and desperately trying to break free. Yet he felt their balance shift, felt gravity and physics begin to work their course as they tumbled over the edge together. Spinning as they began to fall, he came face to face with his adversary – a helmet-less Batarian. Grinning, the Batarian spat in his face, all four eyes gleaming menacingly as they hurtled towards the ground at an uncomfortably high speed.
It was a long way down, and Jondum hated falling.
