MASS EFFECT: INTERCEPTOR 2

*Episode Twenty-Nine*

The further away from the Presidium Antus was taken, the more nervous he grew. Lorica had broken from the main traffic stream at first opportunity, guiding her shuttle into one of the main access tunnels for the Wards. The tunnel was little more than a brightly-lit, curved tube of the same white and grey walls as the Presidium, winding around the outer hull of the massive ring with only the occasional offshoot to the individual Ward arms denoted by large orange projections around their mouths.

After taking the exit for Tayseri Ward, the car was swallowed by shadow. Red navigation lamps lined the bulkheads outside at regular intervals, bright enough to make the creamy patterns on Antus' face pulse with foreboding crimson against his near-black skin.

He dared a glance at Lorica, who despite the fact that she was keeping her eyes on the airborne road, did not let the barrel of her pistol waver even a fraction. She was a picture of awareness, her clear blue eyes sharp as they swivelled to take in every small detail of her surroundings. She reminded him of the birds of prey he saw as a child in Palaven's zoos, always twitching, always completely prescient of everything going on around them.

'Where are you taking me?' he asked, the darkness of the traffic tunnel giving him a sense of protection he knew better than to trust.

'Away from the Presidium,' she replied before adding, 'You're not safe there. Neither is Ambassador Novari. I'll be going back for her soon enough.'

The mention of his lover's name made Antus' lips hang open for a moment. 'Ambassador Novari? What does she have to do with-'

'Save it,' Lorica said quickly. 'I know about you two. This would've been so much easier if you hadn't gone off to put yourself right in the middle of a murder scene.' She gave him a brief, annoyed look. 'What the hell were you thinking?'

Antus squeezed his mandibles into his jaw defensively. 'In fairness, I didn't know my boss had just been shot to death in his own home. Do you think I would've gone if I did?'

'Still, you must know that he doesn't trust you. What were you hoping to achieve by going there?'

The handcuffs around Antus' wrists scraped the seat as he thrashed against his restraints and raised his voice, 'I don't know, all right? I wanted to see what he knew, if he had any intention of speaking to C-Sec about Siya and I.'

'Looking at that weapon you've got on your hip, I assume that if he did have those intentions, you would've made sure he didn't act on them?'

'I don't know,' Antus said with a heavy sigh, for the first time examining his own actions and seeing just how foolish they'd been. 'I was desperate. I didn't know if the offer-' He clamped down on his tongue, lest it spill more than necessary and he threw Lorica a wary glance as a thought occurred to him. 'Wait, how do you know about me and Siya?'

'My codename is Huntress,' Lorica explained coolly. 'I'm a deep cover agent for the Asari Republics. I've been working undercover in C-Sec for the past decade as one of the embassy's principal liaisons, ferrying intel back and forth, ensuring information beneficial to my people finds its way on and off the Citadel.'

'You're Huntress?' Antus asked, returning a flat, blank stare to the tunnel ahead.

The irritation came back into Lorica's voice. 'Yeah. Now do you see what a pain in the ass you've been? I had to break my cover to deal with this mess you two have created, and your little trip to see Tessarius put me off-schedule and right in C-Sec's crosshairs.'

Antus struggled between indignation and embarrassment. 'If you've been fooling C-Sec for this long, why are you so worried now?'

She shot him a furious look. 'We're not talking about traffic cops here. I just made an enemy of the Joint Security Task Force, they have every resource you can imagine at their disposal to track and take down their targets. They can get into any system, any network, dig out security and satellite feeds from anywhere in Council space. Even knowing how they operate and doing what I can to delay them, it's only a matter of time before they find me.'

The honest fear in her tone was enough to make Antus' expression mirror it.

Lorica looked at him again. 'Maybe I should've given Ambassador Novari clearer instructions, but I didn't know she was going to be requesting two extractions off the Citadel instead of one.'

A welling of affection rose in Antus, pushing aside his panic. 'She...really did want me by her side all this time?'

'Of course she did. She's been angling for it for a long time now. It was always deemed too risky but with everything that's happened...'

Lorica trailed off and Antus was astonished to see that her cool facade was touched with a profound sadness. He wondered what about the situation had brought on such a reaction but thought better of asking.

It was some time before she continued, 'Look, I'm going to level with you here, Antus. Right now, you and Ambassador Novari are the targets of some very powerful people. I don't know who they are, nobody does. JSTF are only aware of them after digging so deep that it's made it impossible for me to continue working there.'

She gave Antus a glimpse of such utter seriousness that he held his breath waiting for her to go on. 'These people can strike at will, kill whoever they want, no matter how important or well protected their target. I'll do my best to protect both you and the ambassador, but to do that I need to bring you to an Asari Commando safehouse. It's secret, off the grid and just about the only place on the Citadel that'll keep you hidden.'

'What about Siya?'

'I'll go for her as soon as I've finished wrapping up the business that your little visit to your boss interrupted.'

'If the threat's really that great,' Antus growled, 'then I want her picked up immediately.'

'Not an option.'

Antus lifted his chin defiantly. 'Then you know I can't just sit still knowing she's in danger.'

He winced as the pistol barrel needled into his side.

Lorica's face had become a cold mask once again. 'Don't play games here,' she told him. 'If I'm going to do my job then I need you to do exactly as you're told. I may be trying to secure you and Novari an extraction but make no mistake, my loyalty is to my people and both you and the ambassador are secondary to the security of the asari government. Is that clear?'

Antus grunted. 'So, what? You're going to kill me if I don't cooperate?'

'If need be, yes,' Lorica answered without a trace of a lie. 'The enemy wants you dead, which means you can hurt them somehow. That goes both ways. If they know I got to you first, they'll try to capture you and torture you to see what I, what C-Sec knows. I'm not going to let that happen, one way or another, so you might as well settle down and come to terms with the fact that I'm your only way out of this - whether you end up with Novari or not.'

Antus expelled a long breath. He understood the hopelessness of his situation, though his concern for Novari was a constant pressure at the back of his head. He tried to force it out, if only to think for a moment.

It helped somewhat that the shuttle chose that moment to break out of the tunnel and his vision was met with the sight of Tayseri Ward stretching out before him. The colossal arm swept upward, a twinking expanse of city lights while immediately in front of them, skyscrapers jutted from the superstructure in an unbroken forest of glass and metal.

The grand vista cleared his thoughts a little, enough for him to realise that if he was going to see his love again any time soon, he needed to try and cut Lorica's first order of business as short as possible.

'Okay,' he muttered, 'I understand the situation. If there's anything I can tell you that'll help, I'll gladly do so if it will get you to Siya any quicker.'

'That's more like it. I guess the most pressing question is how the hell did things get this screwed up?'

Antus shrugged helplessly. 'I wish I knew.'

'Humour me. I'm sure you're aware the ambassador's aide, Eris Saverra, was killed in a shuttle explosion early this morning. Whatever doubts there were that it was an accident disappeared the second I saw Tessarius' body. So what happened between all of you that could cause someone to start cleaning house like this?'

Raising his hands to scratch a sore spot on his lower back, Antus could only let out an impotent huff. 'I-I was feeding turian military secrets to your government, but I think you already know that. Still, I was good at it and had been doing it for years without Ciro's knowledge. Things only got complicated when I got complacent and tried to break into his office a few days ago. That Eris girl, she'd stopped by to deliver something and...I think she caught me.'

Lorica narrowed her eyes. 'All right, that's a start. So, you were worried that she was going to give you away?'

'Of course I was. The only thing that stopped Siya and I from reacting was the fact that Eris was also acting strangely. Her reasons for turning up to see Ciro didn't seem entirely legitimate, so Siya wanted to see for herself exactly what Eris delivered.'

'And what was it?'

'A small gold pin, the kind we turians wear with formal attire. Eris claimed that she found it in the asari embassy and thought Ciro must've dropped it, though I've never seen him wear it and Siya confirmed that nothing was reported lost to them. It was all very suspicious. Coupled with the fact that Ciro asked about the "package" the very next day, it was obvious those two were seeing each other, and not in any official capacity.'

The sky car banked hard as Lorica overtook several vehicles at once, and Antus almost gasped as he found himself moving parallel to the rooftops of Tayseri far below his passenger window. He slumped back into his seat as the shuttle levelled out, his shoulders now little more than twin knots of pain.

'That alone might've been enough to stop Eris telling anyone about what you did,' Lorica said thoughtfully. 'There aren't any rules about embassy staff dating one another, but it would've been seen as a security risk by both governments. One of them would have been forced to stand down, and neither would be trusted with high-level positions again.' She frowned. 'That still doesn't explain why they're dead, the only ones with any motive are you and Ambassador Novari. Unless...'

Antus' lips flexed slowly. 'Unless what?'

'Unless someone wanted you two to take the blame.'

Shifting his weight again, Antus leaned forward and shook his head. 'I don't understand. Who else could know about us?'

'Whoever they are, they have access to information and resources in both the asari and turian militaries. That's all we know so far. Either way, if I'm right and their scapegoats disappear, that might just force this third party to surface. Desperate people make mistakes.'

Antus stared gravely out of the windshield, the lights of passing buildings and cars sending stripes of pale blue and red across his face. He didn't move as Lorica's eyes snapped to him suddenly.

'That pin Eris gave you. Where is it now?'

Antus thought for a moment. 'In Siya's office, in the embassy, I think. That was the last place I saw it, in her desk.'

Lorica breathed out in relief. 'Good, that should make things easier. Look, we're almost at the safehouse. Just sit tight when we get there. I'll take off the cuffs when we arrive. I'll be back with the ambassador as soon as I'm done.'

Antus put two and two together. 'If the pin's location makes things easier for you, then I assume you're heading to the embassy? Won't C-Sec be there?'

'I didn't need to actually go in before, just get close enough to connect to the servers with my omni-tool. Your lady love was kind enough to grant me full access to the diplomatic network a few days ago.' She sighed. 'Now, though, I have at least one reason to get inside. If I know C-Sec, they'll be looking at mountains of red tape in the way of their searching the embassy. They'll still be waiting on permission from the asari government, and that won't come until I give the all-clear.'

'Didn't you say your cover's blown?' Antus asked. 'You'll still be arrested if you show up there.'

'We'll see. I've managed to buy some time. JSTF's got their own problems right now and they don't always play well with the other divisions. I'll just have to see when I get there.'

It wasn't an encouraging assessment, and Antus knew that if Lorica - Huntress - failed, then Novari was as good as dead. He tried to conceal the terrifying thought as their shuttle plunged down into a cluster of tightly-packed buildings, the shadows of the surrounding skyscrapers falling over his dour features. Even as the car swept smoothly into a private docking bay occupied by only one other inert vehicle, Antus' mind brimmed with ideas of what he could do to prevent that outcome; and not all required Lorica's cooperation.

~~~ME-I2~~~

The cigarette crackled softly, its end a pinprick of orange that flared briefly before easing into a dull red. Kim released a thin stream of pale grey smoke into the meeting room, the overhead ventilators snatching it up and bearing it away before it could spread. She gazed listlessly through its lingering threads as she waited for the door ahead to open, her elbows propped on the large table in the centre of the room.

When it finally did open, Commander T'Rana stopped at the threshold and frowned at the sight.

'You do realise this is a non-smoking area?' she said with acidic derision as she entered the room.

Kim knew but she didn't care. She took another drag. 'Didn't think it would matter, since you're planning on kicking me outta here anyway.'

She took a second to take the near-empty pack from her pocket and stubbed the cigarette out on the inside of the lid. T'Rana's violet scales glinted as she winced in disgust.

'Your file didn't mention you're a smoker.'

'Only just started again a couple days ago,' Kim replied with an easy shrug. 'This job'll do that to you.'

'So I hear. Nothing to do, then, with the fact that your girlfriend just absconded after waylaying your illegal system tap in the asari embassy?'

The words were delivered with an unctuous half-smile that made Kim wish she hadn't been so fast to put out her cigarette, if only she could blow smoke into T'Rana's smug face. She broke eye contact, unwilling to let the asari see her pain as she kept her voice even.

'Is that why you pulled me in here first? Well, I'm sorry but I don't have anything for you. I didn't know what Lorica was planning and I have no idea where she is now.'

T'Rana let out a snort. 'I'm not interested in her. Far as I'm concerned, Lieutenant Da'Nante is a dutiful and conscientious C-Sec officer who tried her best to curtail this department's worst excesses. She's not a suspect here.'

Kim's eyes whipped back to her. 'Are you serious? She lied to everyone, sabotaged a vital intel-gathering operation! We need to find-'

'She is the one who blew the whistle on this place to begin with,' T'Rana interjected dryly. 'In my books, that makes her a hero. We will question her, of course, in time. But for now, I'm far more interested in getting to the bottom of why you allowed Arlen Kryik access to Lina'Xen's cell. Or did you think those guards outside were just for show?'

Kim's voice remained frosty. 'He's an active agent who needed to debrief his mission liaison. Sorry for forging his permission slip, but Arlen's a busy guy. He couldn't afford to wait. Actually, scratch that,' she added. 'I'm not sorry.'

T'Rana narrowed her eyes. 'They certainly didn't seem to discuss his mission a great deal from what I heard over the security monitors. I'd almost call it a conjugal visit, if quarians were even capable of such things.'

'Lina's capable of more than you know,' Kim answered back immediately, her temper flaring.

'She certainly is. Executor Pallin found it hard enough to swallow the fact that she let Avrix Ferrata die in her custody. When he hears the particulars of what happened during that custody, he'll be very surprised at what that little suit rat is capable of.'

Kim knew she was being baited, that T'Rana had recording devices set up to extract evidence of Lina's crimes. She settled for giving T'Rana a long, cold stare. The asari would get nothing from her.

'I have no idea what you mean,' she said flatly. 'Captain Ferrata was murdered by an enemy infiltrator, that's all I know.'

A corner of T'Rana's mouth turned up as she grunted quietly. 'So there's no truth to what I'm hearing? That Lina'Xen used illegal methods to forcibly extract information from Ferrata under duress?'

'I've heard the rumours. As far as I know, that's all they are - rumours.'

The faint smile on T'Rana's lips died as the seconds passed and she realised Kim was not going to offer anything more. 'Okay,' she finally said, 'That's fine. We'll find out what happened, one way or another.'

'Then we're done here?'

'Oh, not by a long shot. But I have other people to see, and I'm sure they'll prove to be far more cooperative. Some of your colleagues actually have something left to lose. You're dismissed. For now.'

Kim was caught between worry and relief as she got up and made her way to the door. This was only the first of what was sure to be a lengthy series of sit-downs, and Kim was certain that would not be the only time she was called into the meeting room that afternoon. She could only be thankful that T'Rana's inquisition would at least keep her out of the command centre, allowing Kim and her team to continue their work.

As the door opened, Kim paused in surprise as she came face to face with Ket. The salarian was somewhat short for his species, bringing him eye-to-eye with her as they stared at one another uncomfortably, though Kim couldn't place the reason for her misgivings.

'Is the esteemed commander ready for me?' he asked.

Kim shook off her strange hesitation. 'Yeah, go ahead. Have fun.'

'Oh, I will,' Ket replied in a tone that made Kim unable to take her gaze from him as he passed, looking away only when the door slid shut behind him.

~~~ME-I2~~~

Kaion's heavy footfalls echoed in the tight quarters of the combat shuttle's passenger compartment. It was a large craft for its type, a heavy assault vessel capable of delivering two whole squads of turian infantry into the thickest of fighting. The shape of the compartment reflected that of the shuttle, resembling a tall, flat-bottomed diamond with harness-lined seats stretching along its length. Spotlights along the peak of the sloped bulkheads shone rays of dusky blue onto the six Blackwatch soldiers below, highlighting the tops of their grey-camo helmets as they listened obediently to the admiral.

'Your mission,' he began, loudly enough for all to hear over the pervasive rumbling of both the shuttle and the Kanderax's hangar outside, 'is twofold. Your first objective is to secure the Titus-Seven portable nuclear device. The second is to eliminate the agent carrying it.'

He stopped for a moment to fix a pointed stare directly ahead on Captain Callidus. She was the only one standing, holding herself steady with one hand on a support bar overhead while the other was wrapped around her helmet, holding it close to her side. She showed no emotion as she watched Kaion carefully, absorbing every detail despite the fact that all aspects of the mission were already known to her.

Satisfied, Kaion turned, the vertical lines of paint on his face glowing blue as he passed under the spotlights. 'You will be taken to the planet Korlus in the Terminus Systems, under the cover of a mercenary crew contracted to carry out operations on the planet.'

Mercenaries were ubiquitous in the Terminus Systems, a presence so accepted that the team would be practically invisible.

'A rendezvous with the rogue element will be arranged once you're groundside. The subject will be expecting a lone contact, so this will be a concealed ambush in an urban environment. There will be little time to scout the location, so you'll have to think on your feet.' Turian military doctrine espoused careful, methodical warfare, and Kaion was aware of the uneasy way in which some of the soldiers shuffled in their seats as he continued, 'Once the target is down, retrieve the T-Seven and proceed to extraction. Under no circumstances are you to allow yourselves to be waylaid or captured by Terminus authorities.'

He turned to look again at Callidus, his eyes hard as he said, 'You will return with the T-Seven, or not at all.'

He briefly entertained the idea of ordering them to simply eject the blasted thing into space, but dismissed it out of hand. The danger, no matter how remote, of some salvage team finding it - or worse, the batarians - was too great.

'Captain Callidus will answer any questions you have en route to Korlus,' Kaion concluded before looking each and every one of the soldiers square in the visor. 'Make no mistake, this mission will shape the future of the Turian Empire. Fail, and the destiny of our people - and that of the galaxy - will be irrevocably altered. Summon the spirit of your legion. Let it give you strength and you will succeed. For your commander, for your Primarch. For each other.'

Whatever uncertainties the team had vanished as Kaion's voice was snatched away by the sudden activation of the shuttle's drive core. Taking his cue, he walked back along the length of the compartment and down the exit ramp, into the vast space of the Kanderax's main hangar.

No sooner had his feet left the ramp than it began to rise and, gushing exhaust from several ports, the shuttle lifted off sluggishly. It was a massive ship from the outside, with a curved fuselage resembling a bird's beak and broad wings that lowered once well clear of the deck, a design typical of most turian fighter craft. Its engines whined as it pitched forward, and Kaion hurriedly cleared the area as it roared towards the shimmering blue mouth of the bay.

Kaion continued to watch as the thrusters became a flickering star against the nebula outside, reflective as his mind turned to what he would do once the Blackwatch team returned. He tried not to think of the old friend waiting for them, nor of how little a veteran like Prax deserved to die on a stinking pit of a world so far from home.

~~~ME-I2~~~

As Ket settled down at the meeting table, he scanned his surroundings carefully, his long head glistening and eyes flitting between T'Rana and the datapad sitting in front of her. He stopped moving as soon as he ascertained that nothing on the datapad could be read from where he was sitting, and T'Rana took it as a sign to finally begin.

She spoke without the scathing suspicion she'd shown Kim, keeping her voice low and gentle. 'Ashunta Ket. I remember you.'

'As I you,' Ket replied smoothly. He brought up a hand, smiling as he tapped his bulbous cranium with a finger. 'We salarians never forget a face. We never forget anything.'

T'Rana returned his grin, though it was stiff and awkward. 'One of the qualities that makes your species the most highly sought-after in Network. And even among your people, you were one of the best.'

'The best,' Ket boasted. 'I'm not keen on adding "one of" to the front of that accolade. It's inaccurate.'

T'Rana made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a disdainful grunt, though her expression didn't change. 'Of course. That fact considered, you can understand my bitter disappointment when you jumped ship to JSTF.'

Ket didn't answer immediately. His lips straightened and he clasped his chin between two fingers, puzzling out how best to excuse the decision. In the end, he responded without his usual, reedy sarcasm.

'The pay was good and the work challenging. If I'd have known about the task force's more...questionable aspects, my decision might've been different.'

Leaning forward slightly, T'Rana lowered her voice. 'And what aspects are those?'

Ket's thin digits twitched, enough for him to prop his elbows on the table and entwine his fingers, though his thumbs still made small movements back and forth, betraying his nerves. Around them, the shutters over the glass walls of the briefing room had been fully drawn, not only giving them privacy but also isolating Ket. No one could hear or see him, and he sighed softly as he answered.

'For one, the sheer lack of professional judgement. Everyone knows I'm the best analyst on the task force, yet I have to play second fiddle to just about every two-cred keyboard warrior in the department. I should be cracking the toughest firewalls in the galaxy, not playing operator to other divisions as I try to impose order on the chaos of organic stupidity. I should be breaking encryption that would confound the geth, not watching security feeds all day like a Wards mall cop. I sh-'

'All right, I get it,' T'Rana cut in, frustration creeping both into her tone and the lines of her face, 'your skills are going to waste. But I'm not talking about that kind of thing. I'm talking about actions that this team has taken, actions that skirt, if not break Council law. The laws that we are supposed to be upholding.'

Ket frowned. 'Oh please, if we were going to bring every department that bent the rules to a grinding halt, Zakera Ward would burn down in riots within a day. It's those humans, you know? Since they came to the Citadel, crime rates have soared, and don't get me started on who I have to work with. I have been nothing but hampered by those primates' inability to-'

Again, T'Rana interrupted, her voice rising a little in irritation. 'I get it. Off the record, I happen to agree, to a point. Humans are callow, reckless and far too willing to break with C-Sec regulations to fulfil any meaningful roles in our organisation.' She leaned back and folded her arms. 'I can see you're angry, Ket. And not without good reason. You were one of the most promising prospects in Network. Hell, I'd go so far as to say in all of C-Sec. If you'd stayed in my division you'd be well on your way to lieutenant already.'

Ket raised a thick, wet-looking brow. 'Do go on, Commander.'

Sensing his interest, T'Rana's smile came back, spreading her lips further than before. 'We both know there's every chance Pallin will shut this place down once the T-Seven is found. The Spectres can handle Crimson Fist, now the batarians have gotten the Council's attention. JSTF was an interesting experiment but I think we can all see there's too much risk of corruption. It's hard enough when Spectres go outside galactic law, we don't need our own people doing the same.'

She unfolded her arms and placed her hands in her lap. 'I'm not going to lie to you, Ket, careers will end when the task force is dismantled. Whether you end up directing traffic in Citadel Control or as a decorated and respected senior Network officer is up to you.'

'I'd prefer the second choice,' Ket answered smoothly. 'If it is up to me.'

'That's fine. I'd prefer to have you back in my division, I think I've already made it clear how much I value you. But it's a two way street. You give me evidence of JSTF's wrongdoing and I'll see to it you're well taken care of once this is over.' She leaned forward once again. 'You'll have rank, influence, all the respect you deserve. Most of all, those humans who are holding you back will be where they belong; beneath you.'

Ket returned to rubbing his chin in contemplation. 'Hmm. A generous proposal indeed. Though, of course, I expect some additional incentives before I agree.'

T'Rana's teeth flashed white as her triumph showed. 'I'm sure we can come to an agreement. What is it you want?'

'Well, I'll need my own office, to start. Something big, preferably with a view.'

'Done,' T'Rana agreed without hesitation. 'Anything else?'

'Yes, a personal assistant. Flesh and blood, not a VI. I feel that someone of my importance should be made to feel like a king.'

T'Rana's smile lessened as confusion swept over her features. 'I...suppose that can be arranged.'

'Of course,' Ket went on as his fingers drummed against his chin, 'a king is nothing without a throne. I must insist that a throne be delivered to my new office, gilt in the finest gold and laden with jewels from distant worlds. And a crown, wrought of palladium and filigreed with the blood of a hundred asari virgins.'

He snickered, gesturing to the now furious T'Rana. 'Oh, how silly of me, there is no such thing. I mean, look who I'm talking to, right?'

T'Rana's skin was flushed with rage, turning it an even darker shade of purple than before. 'You think this is all a joke?' she seethed. 'You're really going to throw away your career to protect that quarian? Protect those humans?'

Ket's expression became serious, his voice stern. 'Dear Commander, they may be a gaggle of monkeys playing at intelligence work, but make no mistake; they're my monkeys. I'd no sooner betray my comrades than go back to that dead end, soul-crushing slow death you call a job.'

He crossed his arms over his chest pointedly. 'You can dismiss me now. I have nothing more to say.'

T'Rana's tone was hotter than a star as she hissed, 'Get out of my sight.'

Ket was all too happy to oblige as he left T'Rana stewing, a new bounce lifting his stride as he left the briefing room and returned to his section.

~~~ME-I2~~~

Vasir had arranged to meet Arlen in a part of the Presidium he'd never visited before, an elevated area high above one of the busiest commercial areas of the ring, a place known as the Commons. As he stepped from the elevator into a large U-shaped lobby with no ceiling to obstruct the artificial sky above, he noted how quiet it was. The hanar embassy lay to his left, with hardly anyone occupying the benches in the waiting area outside while to the right, a corridor branched off from the lobby to disappear further into the complex.

He was back in his familiar C-Sec armour, his Carnifex a welcome weight on his hip after retrieving his gear from JSTF's armoury. As he passed through the lobby, he noted the open-floored central area was surrounded by a waist high glass barrier, separating the hanar embassy from a relatively busy reception desk. Several lines of people of many species waited patiently to speak to C-Sec officers behind the desk, something that confused Arlen until he saw that his destination was located right next to the office of Enforcement's leader, Commander Actis. In spite of his own circumstances, Arlen didn't envy his fellow turian. Actis would probably be meeting these visitors well after his shift had ended.

Arlen climbed the stairs, walking past Commander's Actis' office and immediately spotting Tela Vasir waiting outside the next door along, a large Spectre emblem suspended above in flickering blue light. She smiled thinly and greeted him as he approached.

'Hey there. Find the place okay?'

'It's hardly a maze,' Arlen pointed out. He nodded to the door. 'I was just thinking how ironic it is that one of C-Sec's most senior commanders is right next door.'

Vasir shrugged. 'Happened before my time, so I can't say if it's a coincidence. I have a feeling C-Sec thinks they can keep an eye on us this way, even if nobody without Council clearance can get in.' She opened the door and inclined her head. 'Come on, time's a wastin'.'

Following her into a short corridor, Arlen was not surprised to see lines of bright cyan spring from the walls and ceiling to wrap themselves around them as they passed through.

'Spectre status recognised,' an automated voice droned. 'Be aware that due to the presence of non-Spectre personnel, some archives and communication functions will be restricted.'

'Nothing we need to worry about,' Vasir clarified before glancing at Arlen inquisitively. 'You okay? You seem different somehow. Seem to have a kinda...spring in your step.'

'I just realised something, that's all.' There was no way Arlen was about to recount the intimate moments he had shared with Lina but he knew they'd left a mark as visible as the smooth white patterns he'd reapplied to his crest, eyes and nose. 'You could say I found something worth fighting for.'

'Oh. What's that like?' Vasir joked.

Arlen grunted. 'It's hell.'

The answer seemed to amuse Vasir and she said nothing more as she led the way into a large room, made small by the sheer press of technology all around them. Monitors, comm devices and a massive interface terminal sat to Arlen's left while to his right, a bay of windows showed a firing range nearly identical to those he'd used a thousand times in C-Sec. For a moment the sight eased his nerves, numbing him to the fact that he was now standing in one of the most classified and restricted places in the galaxy.

Vasir logged into the large terminal and spoke over her shoulder. 'Now that Prax has officially been declared rogue, the Council has transferred every one of his files to me. I'd be surprised if there's anything useful. Unless his decision to go into business for himself was spur of the moment, he'll probably have deleted just about everything that could give him away. Luckily, there are some things the system backs up and stores in a secure location, just in case of something like this.'

'Such as?' Arlen asked, drawing closer to get a clear look at the terminal screen.

'Such as lists of known safehouses, aliases, contacts and bank accounts. Isn't always up to date. If a future rogue agent's planning ahead, they can even seed the database with false info to throw off any investigation. I'm not sure Prax falls into that category, though. He was clearly after the T-Seven and that only went missing a few weeks ago. I doubt anything he's done was premeditated.'

Arlen looked around, awed once again by the reality of where he was and whom he was now up against. 'Seems like an awful lot to give up. Even if he's supposedly acting on behalf of the Hierarchy, they wouldn't protect him if he's wanted by the Council. Every turian knows that once you're caught, you're caught. It's not in our nature to hide the truth, not after it catches up to us.'

Vasir initiated a download, bringing out her omni-tool as she muttered over a chorus of beeps and chimes. 'Cultural values are all well and good, but they don't account for individuals. And in my experience, everyone's an aberration waiting to happen. All they need is the right motivation.'

She hesitated for a moment, enough for Arlen to throw her a questioning glance.

'Are you all right?' he asked.

'Yeah,' she replied, clearly lying. 'Yeah, I just...remembered the favour I owe you.' She frowned uneasily as she keyed several commands into the terminal, then gestured to the keypad. 'Here. Just keep all this in mind before you go spouting off about turian honesty.'

She stepped aside, allowing Arlen room to move in front of the terminal. It was a different interface to anything Arlen had ever used before, but not difficult to make sense of. Highlighted in crisp blue by the terminal screen, his plates and mandibles shifted subtly as he looked over file names that gave no illusions as to their contents. Even the name of the folder struck him like a rifle butt to the chin.

EVIDENCE ARCHIVE 322-02-17 — SAREN ARTERIUS (MURDER, ILLEGAL AFFILIATION WITH OUTLAW ELEMENTS, CONSPIRACY TO OTHERTHROW COUNCIL)

It was all there. Suddenly, Arlen's head swam, so much that he had to place his hands on the terminal frame to steady himself. He was looking at everything the Spectres had gathered on Saren Arterius, the turian who'd led the geth against the Citadel six months ago. Even as his stunned gaze washed over the multitude of vids, audio recordings, transcripts and intelligence reports, he knew that there wasn't nearly enough time to look at it all. He had to use the little available to discover what was most important to him.

He saw a file clearly labelled as the transcript of Saren's trial, his Council hearing in the wake of the attack on Eden Prime - the human colony that served as the flashpoint for the whole affair. His brow plates kneaded together in confusion as he saw most of the evidence was dated after the trial. Only a single report existed beforehand, an investigation by C-Sec into Saren's activities. The name of the investigating officer made Arlen's mouth part in shock.

'Garrus?'

Vasir looked up from her omni-tool. 'Hm?'

Arlen shook his head. He wasn't going to get into it. 'Never mind.'

It all began to make sense. Few in C-Sec knew what had happened to Garrus Vakarian, only that he'd resigned to join the bizarre crew of some human Spectre, the first of their kind. It was all too wild and extraordinary for anyone, let alone Arlen, to really believe but here it was. Garrus had been the one to investigate Saren and if Arlen knew anything of the fellow agent who'd helped him take down Yanus, it was that Garrus would not have given up at the walls his investigation threw up. If anything, it would only have motivated him more and sure enough, Garrus chased the rogue Spectre to the ends of the galaxy.

The thought of his one-time partner and training officer made Arlen smile. He wished Garrus was there now, if only to tell him that he finally understood, finally appreciated the lessons he'd been taught.

Again, Arlen gave a firm shake of his head to clear the idle musings from his thoughts. He couldn't afford to hang around and reminisce.

At last he found what he was looking for, and what Vasir had undoubtedly wanted him to see. It was a file marked, "CRIME SCENE RECONSTRUCTION - MURDER OF KRYIK, N BY ARTERIUS, S"

The sheer lack of physical evidence that accompanied the file was damning, Arlen noticed as he opened the file. Information filled his vision - forensic reports, witness statements from Eden Prime, sensor and probe data - but it was all threadbare. The Council hadn't bought into Saren's guilt from what little Garrus had been able to scrape together. Even the eyewitness testimony that had identified Saren by name was dismissed; the presence of someone with a possible grudge against him, an Alliance officer named Anderson, was enough for the Council to suspect he'd planted Saren's name in the witness' mouth.

Still, in the days and weeks after the revocation of Saren's Spectre status, more and more details had emerged. The most surprising was the rare recovery of a geth memory core, the failsafes for which had ironically failed, allowing scraps of its most recent memories to be recovered. Arlen accessed the data, and he started slightly as a holographic display burst to life beside him in a flare of jagged red shapes.

He saw two turians, both small, as if being viewed from a great distance. The geth had evidently been observing them from afar. One he recognised instantly as his brother Nihlus. The other was a strange-looking turian with a silver carapace and no facial markings to speak of. His cheek spines were unusually long and his brow plates seemed fused into his crest, giving him a sinister, expressionless aspect.

Arlen watched, his stomach hollow as his brother lowered his assault rifle.

'This isn't your mission, Saren. What are you doing here?'

Saren stalked forward to place a hand on Nihlus' shoulder. 'The Council thought you could use some help on this one.'

That seemed enough for Nihlus, who stared into the distance with palpable fear. 'I wasn't expecting to find the geth here. The situation's bad.'

'Don't worry. I've got it all under control.'

The gunshot that followed made Arlen squeeze his eyes shut. He stabbed at the terminal controls without looking, until the playback fizzled out like a snuffed candle.

He remained silent for a time, until Vasir took her position back at his side. 'I'm not sure if this'll help,' she said softly, 'but Saren got what was coming to him.'

Arlen's voice was raw and husky. 'I know. I just wish I could've gotten my hands on him myself.'

'Yeah, I guess I can't blame you.' Vasir looked at him, her eyes shining with concern. 'This isn't going to be a problem, is it?'

'No,' Arlen answered firmly, composing himself. 'No, it isn't. It's good to know exactly what happened, and that my brother was avenged. I guess my only real regret is that Commander Shepard isn't around anymore. I'd have liked to thank the one who killed that barefaced son of a bitch in person.'

'Well, you'll have to settle for helping me track down Prax. Come on, I've got the details of his Citadel home down in the Wards, as well as all his known safehouses. Let's see what we can dig up.'

Nodding, Arlen wasted no time in following Vasir as together, they departed the Spectre offices and began their journey. Where it would lead, Arlen had no idea but at the very least, he knew that Prax lay at the end. Seeing his brother's fate firsthand only stiffened his resolve as he promised his brother's spirit that he would not allow another Saren to walk free.

~~~ME-I2~~~

Any fears that Lorica had about returning to the asari embassy vanished on seeing the place empty. The Presidium day was coming to an end and the pathways were thick with commuters, but the embassy was still closed and - more to the point - bereft of any C-Sec presence. Lorica reasoned that Eris' body must have been found at that point, but it was still unusual for everything to have been wrapped up so quickly.

Unless they still think it was just an accident, she reminded herself as she stepped from the crowds, her C-Sec uniform affording her plenty of space to approach.

She had gone to a great deal of effort to get there, using the secondary shuttle from her safehouse to travel unnoticed back to the Presidium, then parking the sleek white sky car a fair distance away. It was a clean shuttle with a forged registration, enough to move around without attracting the notice of JSTF, who would still be looking for her primary vehicle. It would be a temporary window of opportunity at best however, and Lorica didn't waste time as she entered the embassy proper.

It was an eerie place without the staff to enliven its rooms and corridors. The pale architecture seemed almost ghostly in the waning light and the shadows appeared to reach out, trying to grasp at Lorica as she made her way through.

Novari's office was at the far end of the corridor and a brief pass of Lorica's omni-tool over the door opened it without a pause, her asari government credentials giving her the full run of the complex. She didn't bother sitting down to access the ambassador's terminal, simply powering it on before deftly navigating the various menus and options arrayed across her forearm in neat yellow and orange lines.

It took only a few minutes to undo the false virus she'd uploaded earlier, and she spent the time rifling through the various compartments in Novari's desk. It didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for, and she narrowed her eyes in curiosity at a small golden pin matching the description Antus gave. Immediately, her suspicions were aroused by how light it was, but her attention was snatched away by a soft chime from her omni-tool.

The fake virus was now gone without a trace, and the real program began its work seconds later. With clearance to the diplomatic servers already granted, there was no need to wait for the virus to break its way in. The results began to compile almost instantly, and Lorica frowned at what she saw as she stuffed the gold pin into a pocket.

The embassy network was indeed used to infiltrate the asari military net, and Lorica bit her lip as the terminal used to download the Destiny Ascension schematics flashed up on her omni-tool. It was as plain as day, but it brought no comfort or sense of resolution to her as she stared at the simple line of text.

User ID 233-A201#444 - User Name: Eris Saverra