MASS EFFECT: INTERCEPTOR 2

*Episode Thirteen*

For what felt like a long time, the only sounds in Hock's vault were the labours of the enormous overhead ventilation fans and the unsteady rattling of weapons held in shaking grips. The standoff broke the seconds down into a slow crawl as every man and woman looked at each other, then between their allies and their enemies, unsure of what to do. Everyone waited desperately for some sort of decision from their respective leader.

Arlen's eyes flickered from merc to merc down the barrel of his pistol. It was an old Elkoss Combine Edge model, its red paint peeling away along the sharper edges. Arlen wished he held the sturdy weight of his trusted Carnifex instead, knowingly full well the short work it would make of these mercenaries' shields but it was a childish wish. He was lucky to be armed at all, given that he still wasn't positive Zwei actually trusted him.

The gang leader's stolen Locust didn't stray from Hock's head as he held the smuggler hostage, though his eyes were wild with excitement.

'Your boys are lookin' nervous, Donnie,' he murmured into Hock's ear as he dug the Locust's barrel into his temple. 'I can't believe you were stupid enough to keep this baby loaded.'

Arlen was surprised to see Hock showed no fear, in spite of his circumstances. He peered at Zwei from the corner of his eye, his face twisted in unfathomable rage.

'What do you think is going to happen here, Jaeger?' he seethed. 'You're surrounded and this place is locked down. If you kill me, there's no way you'll make it out of here alive.'

Zwei snickered. 'Who said anything about killing ya? I just think we should take a stroll, get some fresh air, work out this tension between us. That's the problem, ya see, we don't get to spend any time together as a couple nowadays.'

Hock growled in pain as Zwei's hold on his neck tightened and he was dragged back towards the back of the vault, in the direction they'd just come. Arlen, along with the rest of the crew, was forced into a slow, shuffling walk backwards with their weapons still trained on the hostile mercs. The tension made every muscle twitch and every eye burn with intense, unshakeable concentration.

'Tuvio, the bomb,' Zwei ordered.

The turian's shotgun didn't leave the Eclipse soldiers as he crossed the room to grab the T-Seven case from the pedestal before rejoining them in front of the exit door.

Zwei barked another command. 'Mads, open this thing.'

The mercenaries were forming a line to block off all avenues of escape within the vault itself, a grim firing squad set against priceless antiquities and masterpieces. Madsen's omni-tool flourished on his arm as he went to work bypassing the door security.

Zwei leaned in to speak into Hock's ear. 'From the looks of it, I'm guessing you've got yourself a nice private army bunked up in here. How many between us and the landing pad?'

The mercs drew closer. Their spacing diminished as they became a dense row broken only by display cases and sculptures. Arlen's pistol snapped from one to the next, his breathing rapid with growing panic. There was no way out if they started shooting, and only the knowledge that Hock was in the line of fire stopped his mind from breaking. Mercs couldn't get paid if their employer was dead.

'Over a hundred of Eclipse's finest,' Hock finally replied. 'I've paid for the best, veterans of a hundred missions. They won't let you escape.'

'What're they gonna do, exactly? I hold all the cards here, Donnie, in case ya didn't notice.'

Hock's reply was too confident for Zwei not to take it seriously. 'For now, but with every passing moment my men are lining up their shots. All it will take is a moment's slip. There are a lot of places where they can ambush you on the way back to the loading dock. They have dazzler drones, flashbangs, any number of ways they can incapacitate you safely before tearing you and your people apart.'

Arlen listened intently to the mocking voice, seeing the truth of his words in the growing confidence of the mercs facing them.

'You thought you could just march in here and insult me with this petty action?' Hock continued. 'You thought you could play me for a fool in my own home? None of you will get out of here alive. Your biotics won't help you. I have legions of mercenaries, tanks, gunships, all paid handsomely to wipe lowlife scum like you off the face of the galaxy. You will die, and I will laugh over your burning corpses!'

The door indicator cycled, turning from orange to green and it started to open. To Arlen's astonishment, Zwei didn't haul Hock through it. Instead, he muttered harshly into his ear, 'You know, Donnie? You're absolutely right. You'll just slow me down.'

No one could hide their surprise as Zwei released Hock and kicked him in the backside, making him stumble forward. In the same instant, just as the Eclipse mercs were preparing to fire, Zwei's hair blazed like blue flame and he unleashed a heavy wave of biotic power into Hock, propelling him into his own men. They had all allowed themselves to press too closely together, and rifles popped as triggers were pulled in error, and almost to a man they tumbled or dragged one another to the ground in a tangled heap.

'Mads, get on it!' Zwei yelled.

Madsen was already moving to lock the door. Arlen barely made it through as it slammed shut, the others way ahead of him, not needing to be told what their boss was thinking before they acted. As they jogged forward in a loose line, Arlen marvelled at their coordination and initiative. He saw now just why Zwei's crew was so feared. What he'd witnessed in Purgatory was not just a fluke. They moved as one, as fluid and co-ordinated a fighting unit as he'd ever seen.

The tunnel echoed with alarms, the complex now on full alert. Arlen jumped as Zwei called out to him. 'Look lively, Ricky! Back to the landing pad before the whole bloody lot show up!'

Arlen broke into a run, keeping his pistol at the ready as he brought up the rear. He now saw Zwei's thinking - they needed to move fast and break out before the Eclipse could bring all their people to bear on the gang and trap them in those narrow spaces.

Hock should've kept his arrogant mouth shut, Arlen thought to himself as he ran. All he needed to do was buy time instead of spouting off.

He frowned as up ahead, a blast door rumbled closed and he heard Zwei shout, 'Get that damn thing open, Mads. The rest of you, get ready for a scrap!'

Already Arlen could hear shouts from various small side corridors, along with the clatter of armoured boots. The mercs were converging and he joined the others in picking out cover behind stone support columns, cargo crates, anything they could that had been left out in the tunnel.

The crew scattered loosely, each covering a different area of the tunnel with a professional eye for arcs of fire. Arlen barely had time to consider how well-trained they seemed, not to mention where they learned such skills, before the first of the Eclipse emerged and the crackling of weapons fire began.

~~~ME-I2~~~

Kimberley threw her hands up in frustration. 'God damn it! Who the hell planted Arlen's subdermals? We can't keep losing connection like this, if he dies then we'll have no way of knowing at this rate!'

The command centre had lost its nervous edge since Arlen's discovery of the T-Seven, and though the room was still abuzz with normal activity, Lorica's team were noticeably more active than the rest. All three were fastened to their terminal screens, their hands moving in a blur as they tried to keep on top of the situation on Bekenstein despite only having the barest shreds of information to go on.

'I can't boost the signal any more without risking biological interference,' Deveraux said with a shake of his head. 'If the frequency spikes too high it could affect, even impair brain functions.'

Kim's lips twisted irritably. 'I know, I know. All I'm seeing are increased heart rate and adrenaline levels, nothing on audio since they met with Hock and even then, there must've been some kind of countermeasures. I don't know where they are but it's jamming all our signals like crazy.'

Ket turned in his seat. 'If you think you can route an undetectable, untraceable signal through every comm buoy between here and the Terminus Systems and back again without any loss in fidelity, then do let me know.'

'Get off your high horse,' Kim snapped without looking at him. 'I'm just saying that something's going down over there, Arlen's in some kind of trouble.'

The salarian returned to his display with a shrug. 'What about local law enforcement, did you have any luck with them?'

'No. Just the mention of Donovan Hock made the police chief so nervous I could actually hear him sweating over the comm. I get the impression that working against the main players on Bekenstein is a strict no-no.'

'The "Human Illium" indeed,' Ket sighed. 'So, we've got an agent in jeopardy, we don't have the slightest clue of what's going on and there's no hope of backup.'

'Maybe you can use some of that charm of yours to sweet talk them into sending a gunship or two?'

Ket smirked. 'I suppose I could, though I'm more concerned with scrambling field agents to Bekenstein. Now that the T-Seven has been located, we can free up resources here on the Citadel for use elsewhere.'

Kim looked up expectantly at the sensation of pounding feet on the ground and her mood picked up as Lorica approached.

'Sorry to drag you all the way back up here,' said Kim. 'I thought you'd want eyes on this.'

Lorica shook her head. 'It's fine. I needed an excuse to get out of there, believe me.'

Kim pursed her brow on seeing her lover's perturbed expression. 'Are…are you all right?'

Lorica didn't know what to say. She leaned over to rest her hands on Kim's desk, staring blankly down. Whatever was going on in Arlen's op had given her a welcome break from Captain Ferrata's interrogation and Lina had been forced to break off her torment, at least for a short while. Lorica was as angry with their traitor as anyone but what she'd seen had disturbed her to her very core.

'I'll be okay,' she said softly, briefly touching Kim on the arm. Her misgivings would have to wait and her expression firmed as she became all business once more. She nodded to Kim's terminal and raised her voice. 'I can see we're not getting much from Arlen's side. Mike, what's the story with Donovan Hock, can you tell us anything?'

'Not much,' Deveraux replied. 'Arms dealer, smuggler, supplies heavy duty weapons and equipment to merc groups and private armies across the galaxy. Actually has legitimate distribution contracts with major manufacturers, believe it or not, and it's helped him become one of the richest guys on Bekenstein.'

Kim whistled softly. 'That's saying something.'

'If you're impressed now, then you should take a look at the surveillance images Patrol took when they tracked one of his smuggling ships a while back.'

Lorica joined Kim in glancing over at Deveraux's terminal. The young human wasn't kidding. Hock's mansion was a palatial hilltop manor, all sleek curves and glass walls, the kind of place one saw on galactic celebrity shows.

'Hock's probably got cutting edge scrambling tech lining in every wall,' the asari pointed out. 'No wonder we're not getting a feed from Arlen.'

Kim looked up at her. 'So, what do we do now?'

Lorica hefted her shoulders, her C-Sec fatigues outlining her musculature perfectly. 'All we can do is wait. In the meantime, did you turn up anything on Molach's turian contact?'

Kim grimaced angrily. 'Zip. Lost the guy halfway between the Silversun Strip and the Eight Hundred Blocks. I knew these blackout zones were bad, but damn it if they just became the best tool for every scumbag out there to shake his tail.'

'Just another thing that doesn't add up here,' Lorica mumbled. She let out a deep, tired breath. 'Zwei Jaeger hijacks the T-Seven handover, stashes it, lets himself get arrested and then manages to get it off the Citadel right under everyone's noses. The crazy part is, if we hadn't broken him out of Purgatory, we'd still be looking for the damn thing, none the wiser. Guess we have to thank Arlen for that, at least.'

'Jaeger couldn't have known we'd send him to Purgatory,' Kim offered. 'You heard the krogan, he got the call to steal back the T-Seven before Jaeger was arrested. He probably figured we'd hold him on the Citadel and he could cut an immunity deal for the T-Seven's location.'

Lorica looked doubtful as she gazed back over at the main screens behind the command dais. 'Arlen didn't think so. Maybe he was right, or maybe he wanted to kill two birds with one stone. Is that how the saying goes?'

'What do you mean?'

Her eyes cast downward, Lorica's features became painted with a look of forlorn concern. 'I'm just wondering if Arlen needed to catch Jaeger so badly that he came up with this crazy operation out of sheer desperation. He gets his man and the T-Seven goes right back into turian hands.'

'I…' Kim threw Lorica a puzzled glance. 'I don't understand. What are you getting at?'

Shaking her head, Lorica touched Kim's arm tenderly. 'Don't listen to me, I'm just exhausted. Crazy as it sounds, it feels like the bomb is the least of our worries while there's still so much we don't understand.'

'Well,' Kim said with a comforting grin, 'that's our job, right? To make sense of it all. Well, that and make sure the Citadel isn't destroyed in a ball of nuclear flame.'

Lorcia gave her arm a squeeze. 'I'd better get back down there. Thanks for the update, all of you. Keep me posted.'

As she departed, Ket watched her descend the central ramp. 'She's getting strung out,' he remarked. 'Something's not right here, it doesn't take both her and the commander to oversee Captain Ferrata's questioning, surely?'

'What would you know about it?' Kim bit back.

There was none of the usual sarcasm in the salarian's response. 'I know that our illustrious team lead doesn't trust the Interceptor, as if that wasn't obvious enough. I just wish I knew why. There is something more to all of this, she's right about that, but I wonder how much of it she's hiding herself.'

Kim snorted and focused back on her terminal. 'You're paranoid.'

'Really? After everything that's happened so far, you're happy to take everything at face value? It was only a year ago the old commander did something untoward enough to warrant being blackmailed for it. We're not all of us so gullible, mammal.'

Kim said nothing further. She frowned as she worked, continuing to try and refine the signal from Arlen's subdermals into something useful. It did no good as Ket's words, as well as those of her girlfriend, continued to stoke the embers of suspicion deep in her thoughts.

~~~ME-I2~~~

The first rounds began to ping off the sturdy metal crate Arlen was using for cover, a torrent of stinging death from assault rifles he could tell had been overtuned far past legal limits. The slugs ricocheted off the crate to spatter the thick stone ceiling above, sending a rain of dust and masonry on his head, making him cough.

He peered over for a moment to loose a few of his own but the Eclipse mercs had strong shields and he caught only shimmers of blue as he ducked again, cursing that he didn't have his Carnifex to hand. The weapon he'd acquired from the Forgotten Legion base on Zorya had seemed grossly oversized and unwieldy at the time but right now Arlen would've given anything for its stopping power.

The firefight was vicious with the two sides only a couple dozen feet apart and Zwei's crew were outmatched. The mercs had heavy armour and superior numbers, and some even dared to stand in the open, so confident were they in their kinetic barriers.

Arlen could barely do more than squeeze off a few sporadic shots before retreating in the face of an answering salvo that would've shredded him to tatters in a heartbeat. He saw Zwei hunkered down a few metres away, spraying wildly with the Locust.

'Hurry up with that door, Mads!' he snarled through gritted teeth.

Madsen was barely faring any better as he squeezed himself into the side of the crate next to Zwei, frantically trying to work his omni-tool.

'I'd do a lot better if I wasn't getting shot to shit!' he shouted in response.

Arlen briefly thought about hooking Petra up to the local wireless network to see what she could do, but dismissed the idea for the time being. There was no telling whether he would be able to retrieve her again and the thought of a man like Donovan Hock holding one of the most unique AIs in the galaxy made Arlen's blood run cold.

He froze as a grenade rolled by only inches away and he instinctively reached out to snap it up before lofting it back at the mercs. It didn't even make it all the way before it exploded, a sobering indication if any was needed of how close Arlen had come to death. He ground his teeth and screwed his eyes shut as metal clattered and rang only a finger's width from his skull. His ears had started to ring but he could still pick out Naraya's voice above it all.

'We need to get moving, we're gonna fucking die here!'

To Arlen's amazement, Zwei's reply was as indifferent as it was possible to be. 'Yeah, yeah. Just be ready to help me give us some breathing room when the door opens.'

There was a break in the fire as heat sinks whined and Arlen took the opportunity to lean out.

It took only nanoseconds to assess the battlefield. Though the outlook was grim, with at least ten mercs in concealed positions all along the tunnel he picked out a target. A lone merc stood in the open, unloading on the turian twins to Arlen's far right. Both gang members were concentrating fire and Arlen joined his to theirs, overwhelming the merc's shields. There was a loud pop and flash of electrical discharge, but before the man could react his armour was shattered and he collapsed in a bloody pile.

The Eclipse barrage began again as thermal clips were popped out in unison, the glowing hot metal pieces ringing on the ground in a chorus of chimes. Arlen barely managed to get back behind cover as slugs skipped off the floor beside him, gouging a dark groove in the stone.

At last the door pitched and groaned, and with an aching shudder it began to move aside. Something was wrong, though, Arlen could see that right away. After only a few inches it struggled to a halt and Zwei swore loudly.

'God dammit! Piece of shit door! Get it moving again, now!'

'I can't!' Madsen yelled. 'They cut the power, it's not responding!'

As if to back up his words, the rows of strip lights along the tunnel's length went out, replaced instead by revolving orange emergency lights. Alarms blared, adding their own voice to the relentless clamour of gunfire and shouts from both sides.

Arlen found himself reaching for his omni-tool, not out of choice but sheer survival instinct. His heart was a hammering pain in his chest and his head throbbed, every sense he had pushing him to unleash Petra no matter the risk.

He stopped as he caught sight of the krogan, Grond, rising to his feet from his position near the twins.

'I've got it!' he roared.

Zwei nodded. 'All right, you lot, give the man some room to work!'

Arlen joined the rest in throwing caution to the wind, peeking up to fire round after round to try and suppress the enemy. Accuracy was an afterthought, all that mattered was getting enough slugs down range to make the Eclipse think twice about firing back. Zwei and Naraya supplemented the fusillade with biotic attacks, the searing blue projectiles slamming against man, metal and stone to pound the mercs just as effectively as heavy artillery.

Despite the gang's inferior numbers, it was working. It wouldn't last long, however, and Grond took advantage of the break in enemy fire to lumber over to the door. He gripped the open edges and let out a guttural, throaty shout as he pulled.

Dust fell from above to coat his hump but the krogan was single-minded. He brought up a large foot to brace against the frame and slowly, with a metallic howl of protest, the door began to shift.

Seeing Grond's efforts were paying off, the gang prepared to move. They shuffled to the door, firing as they moved, and one by one slipped through the gap Grond had created. Arlen was the last one through and he automatically gave the krogan a tap on the shoulder, indicating the fact. Grond barely managed to squeeze past the door before the mercs gathered themselves and the answering fire intensified once again.

Arlen was the only one to stop and cover Grond, firing blindly through the gap as the krogan hefted the door shut again with a ragged growl.

Light beckoned at the end of the tunnel. Grond smiled at Arlen and gave him an appreciative slap on the arm as they joined the others in sprinting for the exit. They could hear the Eclipse banging and yelling on the other side of the door but it had taken a krogan all of his strength to move it. Without power, no one would be following them along that route.

The setting sun had never seemed so welcome to Arlen as he emerged into its waning glow. The docking bay was quiet for now, but it wouldn't stay that way for long. The smuggling vessel they'd arrived in was long gone but an old shuttle was perched on the raised landing pad ahead. It wasn't a model Arlen recognised, being larger than a sky car but smaller and far less robust-looking than the sturdy Kodiak that had borne them out of Purgatory.

They had little option, however. Zwei led the way, leaping up the landing pad ramp in two short bounds. Madsen was already opening his omni-tool to hack the shuttle's systems as his boss called out.

'Look lively! Now boarding final passengers, destination; anywhere but here!'

He hacked out a laugh and Arlen cursed all the spirits for this man's existence.

The shuttle doors hissed open not a moment too soon. Sirens sounded below and red warning lights flared around several of the cargo hatches ringing the bay. The hatches rattled aside and elevators rose, bringing with them more Eclipse mercs.

Everyone thundered aboard the shuttle as gunfire rattled the fuselage. Zwei remained at the open door, grinning insanely at the unfolding carnage. Arlen stopped beside him, though had the good sense to wedge himself behind the door combing to present less of a target. Grond was the last to board and the shuttle's thrusters blazed before it began to lift from the ground.

Arlen set his jaw against the merciless vibrations of slug impacts and the mass effect field running through the shuttle's frame, and almost bit through his tongue as a colossal bang shook the entire craft.

Zwei stumbled, almost falling out, and snapped over his shoulder, 'What the bloody hell was that?'

'Drive core's been hit!' Madsen yelled from the cockpit. 'We're losing our mass effect envelope. I'm trying to hold her steady!'

Zwei leaned out to peer at the shuttle's side but even from his position, Arlen could see the sickly black pall of smoke pouring from the rear. The shuttle was still rising but it sputtered and ebbed, and his fear was reflected in the faces of the rest of the gang.

'Get us out of here!' Zwei shouted savagely.

They were drifting higher and further from the landing pad with every moment but far too slowly. The shuttle was a sitting duck and everyone knew it. The mercs below didn't even need to pick their shots. Their fire shook the shuttle and it was only a matter of time before they were sent crashing back to earth in a ball of flame.

'I can't!' Madsen replied manically. 'Mass effect field is failing, we're too heavy for the thrusters to handle, we can't pick up speed. We need to lose weight!'

All the noise, all the smoke and fire fell away from Arlen as Zwei's eyes turned in his direction, then slid over to the krogan beside him. His grin took on that wide, bladelike look that made him seem less than human.

'Can you fly, Grond?'

Grond's face slackened in realistation. He could do nothing but cry out as a biotic impact propelled him out of the open shuttle door.

Arlen looked on, horrified as Grond fell screaming hundreds of feet, past the docking bay and into the rocky mountainside beyond. The Interceptor closed his eyes, unwilling to watch the krogan's body hit the ground.

Pouring with sweat, Zwei laughed as the shuttle's engines rose in pitch. Their burden relieved, the craft soared away from Hock's mansion, quickly becoming a shimmering speck in the dusk sky.

~~~ME-I2~~~

Captain Avrix Ferrata's skin had become bloated and slightly discoloured in the time Lina had worked him over. What were once faded white mandibles and jaw had taken on a purplish hue as his blood cells began to break down, a clear sign that the interrogation had reached its natural conclusion, at least in its current form. If it was the beginning of jaundice, or whatever passed for the turian equivalent, he would need to be handed over to JSTF's resident doctor for recovery.

Ferrata was quiet but panted heavily, his eyes closed and mouth hanging open as Lina observed him from the other side of the two-way mirror. The interrogation fluid pumps had long ceased and in Lorica's absence, the commander had no choice but to give Ferrata a reprieve as she kept a close eye on his vital signs. They had spiked worryingly at several points during the interview but were stable now, despite his wretched appearance.

The worst part was that he'd taken it all without giving up a single scrap of intel. As instrumentation beeped and intoned softly around her in that small dark room, as she stared distantly at the broken man in front of her, Lina was tormented by the fear that Ferrata would make a mockery of them all by walking free.

The door beside her opened and Lorica entered. She stopped next to Lina and joined her in observing Ferrata's broken form.

'Still nothing?' she asked.

'Nothing.' Lina let out a shuddering sigh. 'We can't keep him here forever and he knows that, no matter what I told him. He also knows this interrogation was illegal. We can clean him up in the clinic all we want but at some point, we're going to have to release him. We sure as hell can't send him to a C-Sec cell without raising too many questions and his absence is going to be missed by someone before long. I suppose our only saving grace is that he's more likely to make a run for it than report to Pallin.'

'Maybe we should just let him go, put a team on him,' Lorica offered. 'Plant a transmitter, see where he runs to.'

'He knows all our tricks,' Lina replied with a shake of her helmet, 'and he knows C-Sec has blind spots in its surveillance a mile wide right now. Whatever escape plan he had would've involved circumventing the bioscanners at customs. He'll disappear somewhere in the Wards, slip off-station and that'll be the last we see of him. I can't risk it.'

'He's in a bad way, that much is clear. He won't be able to take much more of what you're doing to him.'

'No,' Lina agreed. 'No, he won't. I wonder…I wonder if he knows it himself.'

Lorica gave her a curious look. 'What are you thinking?'

Lina didn't answer. She made for the door next to the mirror and slowed her pace on the other side, stalking around Ferrata like a scavenger eyeing a fresh carcass.

To say Ferrata was in a "bad way" was putting it lightly. The turian looked wrong, his plates distorted with swelling and the breath wheezing rapidly from a swollen throat. The damage wasn't permanent but a part of Lina recoiled in horror at the physical changes she'd wrought, at the harm she'd caused with her own two hands.

She steeled herself, taking a deep breath.

'Are you ready to begin again?' she asked aloud, her tone clinical.

'Please…' Ferrata gurgled weakly. 'I…don't know anything.'

'What don't you know exactly? You don't know why you had Chellick plant phoney evidence in Molach's apartment? Or you don't know why your department's number one fugitive hijacked Molach's weapon deal?'

'I didn't…ask why…' he croaked.

Lina halted in her tracks. She narrowed her eyes at him. 'Ask who?'

'I don't know. Don't know…their names. Only…contacts…'

She wheeled to Ferrata's front, leaning close enough to smell the cruel chemicals swirling in his blood. 'Was it Crimson Fist? Who are their contacts?'

Ferrata blinked wildly. 'No…I can't…'

Anger welled up inside Lina once more and she strode to the table, and the chem fluid pumps still sat upon it. 'Then I'm afraid we're going to have to keep going until you remember.'

Her words brought a sudden spasm of pained movement from Ferrata as he tore against his restraints with what remained of his strength.

'Wasn't…Crimson Fist!' he rasped. 'Didn't deal with…batarians!'

Lina's hand paused over the pump console, hovering over the haptic panel as her head turned to face him. 'What did you say?'

Ferrata slumped, defeated. 'Turian military…' he murmured in a quiet, exhausted voice. 'Someone high up…needs Crimson Fist…don't know why. Zwei Jaeger stole…the bomb. Not…part of their plans.'

'So why you?' Lina pressed, moving closer to hear him. 'Why not go through Chellick himself if they know what he did a year ago? Why did they-'

'Kryik.'

'Arlen? What about him?' Ferrata hesitated and Lina gripped him by the collar of his undersuit, making him gasp in pain. 'What about Arlen?'

'They wanted me to…keep an eye on the Kryik boy. They're watching him. They think he…he…' Ferrata cringed in agony but managed to press out a few more haggard words. 'His blood…is…suspect…'

Ferrata's head fell back and hit the chair as the last threads of consciousness fled him.

Lina's mind was blank as she gazed at him, his last statement repeating in her ears. Were his words the desperate babblings of a man who wanted nothing more than for the pain to stop? No, they were too specific. Ferrata didn't know exactly who he'd been dealing with, Lina was sure of that, but his admission about Arlen contradicted his claims of ignorance at the beginning.

Exhaling deeply, she stepped away from the battered turian. He was out for the count, his chest moving rapidly as he took short, sipping breaths. Lina didn't look at him again as she joined Lorica again in the observation room.

'You heard?' she asked.

The asari nodded slowly. 'A few terrorist bombings, a stolen nuke, a casino heist gone bad, now it looks like the turian military has a hand in at least two of those. Rough week.'

'Do you think he was the turian who handed Molach the T-Seven?'

'No, Mike already checked into that, Ferrata was debriefing Arlen after he'd stopped an assassination earlier that day. But if the Hierarchy are involved, then it could be anybody, a member of Blackwatch, maybe?'

'Assuming it's gone through official channels,' Lina pointed out. 'We could be dealing with a rogue element. Keelah, we've had enough of those this past year.'

Lorica grunted. 'Sure. Paramilitary extremists, rogue Spectres; our honourable and duty-bound comrades are sure turning out a lot of crazies lately.'

Again, Lina sighed heavily. 'And then there's Arlen himself. They're keeping tabs on him, probably have been for some time now. Why?'

'He mentioned Arlen's blood. His family, maybe?'

Lina considered this. A few facts filtered through the chaos of her thoughts, distant recollections of secondhand knowledge and rumour. 'He came from a military family. Hell, they all do. But there was something about…damn it, I'm not sure. We need to warn him.'

'Are you sure?' Lorica moved in front of Lina, meeting her eyes worriedly. 'Lina, I know you don't want to hear this but if Arlen's involved in this whole thing, or his family is, then is it really a good idea to give him reason to disappear? We need to get all the facts first before we make a decision.'

Lina regarded her friend with more suspicion than she intended. 'You can't be suggesting Arlen is to blame for this, for any of this! He's not a suspect here!'

She stopped short of revealing the terrible state she'd found her friend in. Her guilt over letting him suffer in the aftermath of Detective Keller's death was still an open wound, one that was bleeding all the more profusely now.

'You know I'm right,' Lorica told her firmly. 'You have to set aside your personal feelings and look at this objectively. Just…just get him back here first, as soon as you can. He'll listen to you. We'll ask him some questions and get the truth. If you really trust him, then you can rely on him to do that at least, can't you?'

Lina bobbed her head reluctantly. She turned to the door. 'Come on. I need to get out of this place.'

Lorica followed her out. They ignored the turian guard as he saluted them automatically, and Lina drank in the quiet calm of the corridors.

'I'm sorry,' she said as she walked. 'Things are…is "crazy" strong enough a word for this?'

'Not in the slightest,' Lorica joked. 'Crazy was twenty-four hours ago. I believe the humans would call this "bat-shit".'

Lina chuckled, some of the grim tension leaving her on hearing Lorica's earthy humour. 'Yeah, that sums it up. The Forgotten Legion crisis was…at least it was clear, you know? I mean, yes, between your shenanigans, Chellick's double dealings and Milo-'

She hesitated. The young man who had pitted the two women against each other, only to try and kill Lina hadn't come up in a conversation since those dark days. It had been an unspoken compromise that Lorica's heartbreak and Lina's gunshot wound made them even, but it still felt wrong to mention him.

'...despite all that,' she went on, 'our enemy was always clear in our minds. We knew exactly what to do, it was just a question of how.'

'I know. That's still the case, we just need to sort out what we've just learned. The answers are out there, Lina. We just need to keep going until we find them.'

'You're right. And you were right about Arlen. Keelah, I just want to get him back here, for his own sake and for ours.'

Lorica tried to smile. 'Now he's found the T-Seven, that could be sooner than you think. Chin up, girl.'

Lina knew Lorica could sense her grateful grin, obscured as it was behind the quarian's helmet. The expression was interrupted as she brought a hand to her forehead, tapping it against the glass of her visor.

'Damn, I left my datapad. Go tell Kim and the others what we found, I'll be with you in a minute.'

They parted ways and Lina retraced her steps to the interrogation room, shaking her head at her forgetfulness the entire way. Quiet mutterings made her mouth lamp flash as she cursed how absent-minded she was getting, and she almost missed the fact that the guard was no longer posted outside the room.

Halting outside, she looked about. The officer was nowhere to be seen.

Unease gripped her as she entered the observation room, slowly. The small space was dark and the guard wasn't in there either. Lina wondered where she'd last set her datapad down and naturally, her gaze moved to the table next to Ferrata. As it did, she froze in shock.

Ferrata was still. The line of dark blue that had been drawn across his throat was clear to see through the mirror. His tongue lolled out of his open mouth, his eyes staring at her glassily.

Lina's reaction was instant, brutally forcing aside her horror as she brought up her omni-tool.

'This is Commander Lina'Xen! We have a security breach, repeat we have a security breach! Lock down the command centre, now!'

~~~ME-I2~~~

Prax Cingetos was calm as a host of C-Sec officers swarmed past him. The Spectre wore their uniform and that was enough to avert their eyes for now, but that would quickly change.

An alarm began to shriek down the exit corridor, blending with the shouts and rhythm of armoured boots on the ground. There was confusion, maybe even a little panic. That all suited Prax nicely. He'd been amazed at how simple it had been to carry out his task. The Joint Security Task Force had a reputation among its peers for secrecy and subterfuge, but just like every other department of C-Sec, its internal security was appallingly lacking.

The turian held back a smirk as he continued to stride towards the exit airlock. It was the only way in and out of the complex, and sure enough it was a sturdy checkpoint, but there had been nothing to stop him once he was inside. It was just a matter of locating his target and waiting for the right opportunity.

A bunch of amateurs, just like all of C-Sec, he privately mocked. The admiral was right.

He frowned slightly as the final airlock ahead began to cycle closed. He picked up the pace in response, though he was pleased to see the pair of guards at the door were too focused on a nearby console to see him slip through the narrowing gap without a sound.

Outside, there was nothing to suggest anything out of the ordinary. The JSTF command centre was a self-enclosed compound, part of C-Sec headquarters and yet separate, like a sealed bunker complex. Prax marvelled at the smiles and casual discussions between officers all around him, completely unaware of the situation developing only metres away.

Now, he allowed himself a smug grin. He made his way out of the busy C-Sec lobby area as people wandered and the glass elevators flashed with fleeting dark shapes, everyone's regular routines playing ignorantly out as Prax made his escape.