Between the flight to Feros, the protracted mission, and the recovery time before the trip back, it had taken them a week to return to the Citadel. They hadn't been wasting time, Shepard had put a requisition order the length of her arm to get better gear for her crew, a Mako, medical supplies, the whole kaboodle. Specially for Wrex, the krogan really needed a new set of armor. Wrex was quite content to throw the broken suit away and get a new one, so he had made no effort to repair it. Shepard had done what she could with what was left of his armor, but she was no Williams. Field repairs? Fine. Forging non-standard parts with omni-gel and a programmable fabricator? Not so much.
She had also spent some time trading stories with Nihlus. She was doing just that at the moment, talking over a cup of coffee and one of apha, for her and Nihlus respectively. The turian sure was an interesting character. He had faced all kinds of trouble, as part of the Hierarchy and as a Spectre.
"A Justicar?" Shepard said. "Never heard of them."
"They're... a bit of a relic among the asari," Nihlus said, and chuckled at the look Shepard gave him. "I mean another relic. Think of them as Spectres with a Code."
She even heard the capital 'C' on Code. "What kind of... code?"
"Rules. They have a code of what's just and what's not, what requires punishment, and how. They swear to uphold it no matter what, and devote their lives to the enforcement of it. It's all very..."
"Medieval?" Shepard offered. "Sounds like a blue version of our Templars. With bigger bazonkas, I guess."
Nihlus eyed Shepard for a moment, looking as if he was trying to understand something that the translator had missed. Thus, Shepard just put her hands under her wonder twins and gave them a wiggle. The move was so unexpected that Nihlus almost fell off his chair laughing.
"Spirits," he muttered, trying to recover his breath. "What's with you humans and those things? You're worse than the asari. I don't get it."
"It's a mammalian thing," Shepard replied with a wink. "If that's not your thing, I have great bearing hips, too," she added.
The look on Nihlus' face was priceless, with his mandibles fluttering ever so slightly. Shepard managed not to crack up laughing, mostly because she had just figured she had gone a step too far with the teasing.
"So, the Justicar," Shepard offered.
"Oh, right. The Justicar. Samara."
"Samara?"
"Yeah. You'd like her, she had a substantial pair of those things," Nihlus said, gesturing with his chin at Shepard. "She thought I had shot an unarmed innocent, he was anything but. According to her code, a person in a position of authority who abused said authority and killed an unarmed innocent..." He trailed off when he saw the look on Shepard's face.
"That sounds really specific," she said.
"The code has five thousand sutras, supposedly covering all sorts of situations and eventualities. A surprising number of them end with the criminal dead, though."
Shepard chuckled. "I see. So, death?"
"Death."
"You look pretty healthy, you got better?"
Nihlus rumbled a low laugh. "Yeah. We were on the chase for two days before I could get away."
Shepard whistled in appreciation. "How did you get away?"
"Well," he muttered, his subvocals rumbling as he looked away. "I'm not proud of it, but..."
Before he could elaborate, the door to the medbay opened, and out came Liara. She was glowing blue, using her biotics to lighten her weight, and a pair of crutches to assist her legs. Her steps were slow and unsteady, dragging each one of her legs with a grimace of pain.
Shepard shot to her feet as soon as she saw the asari, but Liara stopped her with a shake of her head.
"It's all right, Shepard," she said. "The doctor said I need to move them."
It was painful to watch. Shepard's eyes were so intent on her that she missed the look Nihlus gave the two of them, and the sudden mix of realization and pain flashing across his face. It didn't last long. By the time Liara had gotten to the table to sit with them, he was back to his neutral Spectre self.
"How does it feel?" Shepard said.
"Better," Liara replied, and smiled when she saw the look Shepard was giving her. "I do not lie, Shepard. Feeling has returned to my legs. Doctor Chakwas recommended I try to walk so as to increase neural stimulation. It should help. I'm afraid I will not be able to join the ground team for a while."
"We'll miss you," Shepard replied, her best smile on her face, and her voice suitably low and purring. Liara blinked once before looking away, and Shepard had to hold back her grin. She was so damn cute.
"What is the doctor's opinion?" Nihlus said. "When will you be running?"
"Another week, maybe two. She is... going to consult with some colleagues of hers here in the Citadel. She suggested I could stay in a hospital to aid my recovery, but I would rather stay here. If... if you would approve," she said, looking at Shepard.
"Three hots and a cot, as long as you need 'em," Shepard replied.
That got Liara to stare at Shepard again, her expression confused, and shocked. Right before a blush went up her face.
"It just means you can stay," the voice of Chakwas interrupted. The doctor came to tap Liara in the shoulder and look at Shepard.
"Don't tell me that translates to... I don't know, something?" Shepard said.
"I got it fine," Nihlus replied.
"I don't believe it was the translator. More likely wishful thinking," Chakwas said, and went off to grab a coffee, leaving an embarrassed Liara behind.
Shepard giggled and shook her head, deciding to put the matter aside so as to spare her any further embarrassment.
"Commander?" Garrus called over the comms.
"Right here detective, whatcha got?"
"Trouble, you better get up here."
"…"
"Shepard?"
"On my way," she replied, nodding at Nihlus and standing up. The Spectre did the same, and took off after Shepard as they went for the stairs. "You know what my deepest fantasy is?"
"Uh..." Nihlus muttered.
"One day someone will call me, and when I ask them what's going on, they'll just say 'I have some icecream, I thought you'd want some!' One day? One day that'll happen," she added.
Nihlus laughed as they ran up.
Laugh it up, you oversized chicken. I need chocolate, dammit!
"Commander," Anderson greeted them.
"What's going on?"
Anderson gave her a confused look, but Garrus arrived right then, coming from the pilot's cabin. "Shepard, there's a situation at the Citadel."
"Situation?" she said.
"With Roy. Remember you asked for C-sec to keep an eye on him?"
She resisted the urge to facepalm. "Right. What's he done this time?"
"Him? Nothing. Someone just tried to take him."
"Take him?" Shepard said, emphasizing the phrase Garrus had used.
"Take him. He took down an asari commando, held off another, then a firefight erupted and he was gone. Ian tells me the asari had handcuffs, a damping hood, the works. They were there to take him."
"Wait, wait, he took down and asari commando?" Shepard said, the incredulity in her voice pitching it up a couple of octaves.
"So Ian tells me," Garrus replied. The way he said it, it sounded like if it hadn't come from his former C-sec partner, he'd have never believed it either.
"Who would send asari commandos after Morgan?" Anderson said.
"Benezia," Nihlus replied, and Shepard nodded. "They want him."
"Well, he knows a lot," Shepard said. "So, what did he say?"
"Say?" Garrus replied. "Shepard, he's on the run. C-sec can't find him, and they aren't the only ones looking. It's chaos down there."
For a moment, nobody said anything. Then, it all happened at once. Anderson turned to his console, Nihlus rushed towards the cockpit, and Shepard just grabbed Garrus.
"What the hell?" she said.
"Joker," Anderson called. "Get us docked to the Citadel right now."
"We're on the queue, captain," Joker said. "There's a volus cargo ship-"
"Spectre authority," Nihlus replied, his voice harsh through the comms. "Control, this is Spectre Nihlus Kryik. We need priority approach, authorization code in the subchannel."
"Garrus, I'm going to need you to coordinate with C-sec, find out where he might have gone. Check the sewers," Shepard said. "This is bad. If Saren gets his hands on Roy, we don't know what he'll learn that we rather he didn't."
"Not to mention what we know he knows," Anderson said.
"That's what they're doing, but there's a lot of sewers to cover," Garrus replied, nodding and heading for one of the comms terminals.
Shepard hit her omni-tool, dialling. After a few seconds, the call was interrupted, so she tried again. And again.
"Goddammit Roy," she muttered.
She fiddled with the omni-tool, launching a high frequency call tracer, and tried again. This time the call didn't cut, and she knew for a fact that the call on the other end wouldn't be cutting, and would, in addition, get progressively louder. A nasty little feature from their standard Bluewires, if one had the right access code. She didn't expect Roy would have patched that.
It took a long while before anything happened.
"Yes!" someone shouted in response to her call.
"Roy! Where the hell are you?"
"… commander?" Wait, that wasn't Roy's voice. "It's Dubyansky."
What the hell? Our req officer?
"What the hell are you doing with Roy's omni-tool?"
"The infernal thing was inside an armor case, what's going on?"
"You blithering idiot," Shepard muttered. "You didn't even transfer your personal data."
"Commander?" Dubyansky called.
"Nevermind. Keep that omni-tool handy," Shepard replied. She closed the call, and open the internal ship's comms. "Alenko, Grieco, suit up. We're going hunting."
It had all gone so wrong, so quickly, Miranda still wasn't sure what had happened. An asari commando, and Morgan had spotted her so fast he must have been expecting her. Then… Then she had no idea what had happened. It had almost felt like a biotic explosion, opposite dark forces interacting in a chaotic manner, but it hadn't been as strong as normal ones.
She was certain the asari had attempted a stasis field on Morgan. If she had wanted to kill him, she would not have bothered getting so close. As they were, sitting in an open area like that, a sniper shot to the head would have turned his brain into mush without as much as a blink from C-Sec, or anyone else.
Then again, that would have turned whatever information he still had in that brain of his into a very garish decoration on the wall.
"I am fine," she said, waving the doctor away.
"Other than the concussion, overloaded biotics, and two bullet holes?" he said.
"Yes," Miranda replied, her voice flat. "What about C-Sec?"
"They're running around like headless chickens, nobody noticed the switch."
At least one thing went right.
C-Sec had been all over her after the firefight at the restaurant. Two more commandos had appeared, and she had had her hands full with them. Morgan had disappeared the second she had gotten herself involved, which rose a few questions.
He could have simply been running for his life, but that seemed to go against what little information they had on him. He was far from qualified to be part of such an operation as the one Shepard had gotten him into, and yet he had insisted on joining. He was either foolish or brave enough that he wouldn't just run and abandon her to fight against such an opponent.
Unless, and that was the worrying part, he knew who she was. Her display of biotics couldn't have been enough for him to deduce she could handle the commando. For all the things he seemed to know but shouldn't, he seemed remarkably short in common sense.
More than ever, she wanted to get her hands on him. And she needed to have a conversation with the Illusive Man. As to whoever was after Morgan, it was probably Saren. Those had to be Benezia's agents. There was a possibility that they were working for the Shadow Broker as well, but it was more remote. He wouldn't bother with all that unless he had tried to reach to him first with no success.
She didn't have time to waste with medical treatments, medi-gel would do. She opened her omni-tool and started going through the assets she had available.
First order of business was to get information from C-Sec.
"Kay, this is Miranda," she called on her omni-tool.
"Hi!" a very chirp female voice replied. There was a lot of noise in the transmission, which didn't surprise Miranda. That was one of their operatives working deep in C-Sec. "Kind of busy at the moment?"
"That's why I'm calling. I need a report on everything C-Sec has. I need interference on their surveillance. And I need our ground assets deployed in the right place. We need to find this guy before C-Sec, and before everyone else who seems to be after him."
"Anything else? A bagel?" Kay said, her voice still chirp, but with a note of stress on it.
"No," Miranda replied dryly. "Where was he last seen?"
"Not a clue, he all but disappeared after the firefight."
Miranda stopped short at that. It wasn't the fact that things didn't go according to plan, it was the fact that it kept going off the rails so badly it was almost like playing checkers against someone playing chess.
"He is in the sewers," Miranda said, weary of having to state the obvious. He had spent a week working down there. Not long enough to know the ridiculously complex system, but long enough for-
"No he's not."
"Kay, he is. There is no other way to go dark like that."
"I'm telling you, he isn't. There's security cameras down there too, you know."
…
"So where the hell is he?" Miranda snapped, in a rare display of frustration.
I was not having a good day. Cerberus was after me, but not as aggressively as whoever had sent those asari. I felt a little bad about leaving Miranda on her own, but she was supposed to be a badass, right? I mean, she liked to tell anyone who'd listen how cursed she was by her perfection, so whatever.
She had never been one of my favourite people, and now less than ever.
My biggest problem was that I had no idea what to do or where to go. Well, where was less of a problem, since "anywhere other than the Citadel" was good enough for me, but I had to get out, and that was a real problem. C-Sec had a jalapeno up their asses chasing after me, and the surveillance in the Citadel made 1984 look like the instruction manual. I had been trying to lose them using the sewers, and when that didn't work, I tried the keeper tunnels.
That didn't go as well as I had wanted. I knew the place was a mess of tunnels and mazes, but I realized there was more to it. There were a lot of dead ends and false starts, which explained why nobody had gone through them before. As far as I could see, on the surface, most of the tunnels were short, narrow, connecting two obvious points with no particular mystery to them, or just narrow cul-de-sacs with no apparent point to them.
What I needed was a map. I ducked into one of the tunnels, and brought my omni-tool up.
"Hello?" the familiar quarian voice called.
"Mika? It's Roy, can you talk?"
"Roy! Ohmygosh what's going on where are you C-Sec came here looking for you and I don't-"
"Mika, calm down!" I said, cutting her tirade. "I'm in a bit of trouble, any chance you can send me those maps you have of the tunnels?"
"Y-Yes! Of course! What kind of trouble? What can I- Hey! You can't be here, who- Kyaaa!"
"Mika? Mika!" I yelled at my omni-tool as the call cut. "MIKA!"
Shit, SHIT, SHIT!
I should have guessed. If someone was after me, they'd know where I worked. Cerberus – or, rather, Miranda – knew it but they hadn't done anything about it. The asari, well, maybe they wouldn't be so laid back.
Dammit, I was still a ways away from the workshop, but fuck if I was going to let anyone hurt her. I took off at a run, quite forgetting about C-Sec for the moment. I had set my shield low – the "creepy" setting got me even more attention than my regular ugly mug – and that meant C-sec probably-
"Hey! Stop there!"
See what I mean? I didn't even look back, I just kept running, but when the chase started I did have to look back. To my relief, no turians. I had enough distance to get where I was going, the recycling spot and the underground access there. It was the only one I knew would let me get to the workshop directly.
"Dammit stop!" another C-Sec shouted. "Fucking hell look at him run," he added.
I turned the corner and went straight for the entrance. I had to get there before they saw me. It was impossible to spot if you didn't know it was there, really, and I preferred to keep it that way. Not even if you stepped on it, the echo of hollow metal underneath being pretty much the same as every raised metal floor of the Citadel. I opened it, jumped in, and dragged the trapdoor down as I fell.
Rather ungraciously, I'll admit, but I managed not to break anything.
A few moments later I heard steps above, rushing past the entrance. I could hear them yelling to each other, but nobody seemed to have found the trap door.
That was all the waiting I allowed myelf. I left them to look for me in the rubbish pile, and legged it towards the workshop. I had to make it there. I had to. And reapers help whoever had attacked Mika, because I had a fucking shotgun.
"They lost him?" Shepard said.
"Shepard, you have any idea how big the Citadel is?" Garrus said.
"He was right in front of them!"
"Have you checked the sewers?" Nihlus said.
The five of them were cramped inside a C-Sec shuttle and heading for the academy. Shepard's first impulse had been to head straight towards the fight, but she couldn't fly in blind. She needed intel, and C-Sec were the ones to give it to her.
She still had no idea how Roy had been able to get away from several asari commandos like that. For what Garrus had told her, they had come at him to grab him, by surprise, and she couldn't imagine he'd have had much fight against biotics of that caliber.
"Of course we have," Garrus replied. "There was no entrance to the sewers there. He's just… gone."
We, Shepard thought. Garrus had fallen back into the C-Sec role with tremendous ease, and she knew why. They were working under Spectre authority now, he could bulldoze over any person or any rule that tried to stop him.
She was going to be keeping a close eye on him.
"What about the keeper tunnels? Anything down there?" Nihlus said.
"Not that we could see, but he couldn't have gotten far. They're all pretty damn small."
The shuttle landed and the five of them filed out for the C-Sec academy. Shepard had half expected the place to be in chaos, the center of command of the Citadel's security had to be a busy place, but it was… fairly normal, all things said. As Garrus had said, the Citadel was big, and they had a lot more to worry about than a single wayward human.
"Garrus!" a human called. Shepard saw he was a tall, corpulent man, short blonde hair combed in a somewhat spiky hairdo, and piercing blue eyes looking straight at them.
"Ian! What do you have?"
"Not a lot, man," he replied, exchanging a wrist-clasp with the turian. "We're keeping an eye on the security feed, and have people at the workshop entrance in the presidium." He pointed at the holoscreen, where a small dark haired woman was going through the security feeds. "Kay?"
"All quiet!" she replied, very chirp.
"There's more than one entrance to the sewers," Shepard said.
"Of course," the woman said. With a flick through the controls, she brought up a different set of screens. "We've got eyes on them. We even have cameras down there," she added, flicking through sets of nine feeds, dozens of them, one after another. "They don't cover the whole network, but we have all the important junctions."
"You should have teams down there," Shepard said.
"To do what? Why would he even be there?" Kay said.
"Where else could he be?" Shepard said.
"I'm just saying."
While Shepard and Kay argued, Garrus made his way back to his ex-partner.
"So what happened back at the restaurant?" he said. "He really took out an asari commando by himself?"
"It was the darnest thing. He was just sitting there, the asari rushed in, then he just exploded. Didn't think he was a biotic."
"He isn't."
"Huh," Ian said. "I could've sworn..."
"Shaw," a voice called over the radio, interrupting the discussion.
"Right here," Ian said.
"We've got some people going into the office."
"Asari?"
"A couple, and turians too. Well armed."
Ian looked at Kay. "What are you waiting for, put it on the screen!"
"Ah! Yes sorry!" she replied. She worked the controls for several seconds, and the screen flashed once before the security camera image popped up. It showed four turians, well armed, approaching an office building opposite to the sewers workshop, with an asari standing outside.
"We're moving in," the C-Sec officer called over the radio.
"Commander, shouldn't we be going too?" Alenko said.
"Yes, get- Wait," Shepard called.
"What?" Alenko said.
"That wasn't there a minute ago," she said, pointing at the corner of the screen. There was a group of workers by one of the terminals, with warning signs posted around, parts strewn, the whole kit.
"They probably just got there," Kay replied.
"I don't think so," Shepard said. Without even asking, she leaned over the terminal and started going over the controls.
"Hey!" Kay protested.
"Ian, where are your teams located?" Shepard said.
"I've got several, which one-"
"Tell them to get into view of the cameras, right now."
"Fine, let me-"Kay started to say, but Shepard slapped her hand away.
Ian did as Shepard said, and the commander started going through the cameras, flicking at full speed. After a few seconds, she turned back to look at the C-Sec officer.
"Well?"
"They've already moved," Ian replied.
"Cameras are compromised," Shepard said. "They're looping empty data."
"Bullshit, that's impossible. Kay, take… Kay?" He looked around. "Where the hell is she?"
"Shit," Shepard said. "We're moving in people. C-Sec, check with your people, whoever's after Roy has gotten into your system. Move!"
Shepard bolted out, and didn't even wait for a transport shuttle. It was a short run to the workshop, and she could already hear fighting between C-Sec and those turians through the comms.
"You did what?" Miranda said.
"I-I'm sorry!" Kay's voice came in an indignant squeal though the comms. "The commander caught on right away, she didn't even give me a chance to change the feeds!"
Miranda looked at the console in front of her. She was back inside one of the safehouses Cerberus had for her, and one of the nicer ones, too. Luxurious part of level thirty-seven, incredible view, and close to the shuttle bay at the top in case she ever needed to make a quick getaway.
It also had a full terminal with access to most of Cerberus' resources on the Citadel, where she was seeing her operation come to a grinding halt. There was no chance for her to move Morgan out of the Citadel without C-Sec noticing. She'd have to keep him in and get whatever he knew in there.
She filled one holographic screen with the access to the live feed from the security cameras. They had detected the interference, but so far they hadn't plugged the read-only hole in them. On a second screen, she brought up the blueprints of the sewer system. The thing was a rat's nest of rats' nests, with annotations layered on top of notes, clarifications, and manual corrections.
"Boss?" Kay called.
Miranda cut the comms without missing a step, and brought up the Cerberus channels. That girl was about as useful as a piece of chewing gum after traveling through a krogan's digestive system. She had to take control of the situation, and had to do it right now.
Luckily, she was the one to do it. Guide a dozen teams down the sewers while avoiding C-Sec patrols. Not a problem.
"This is Miranda," she said. In formal situations, most people used their last names. Not her. "Teams A through K, move into position and start sweeping the sewers. You will follow my directions. Teams L through P, I want you at the docks. If the target shows up, secure him."
There was no need to wait for confirmation. She looked at the map and took a deep breath. She didn't think her teams would find Morgan. And probably neither would C-Sec. But that's not what she wanted. She wanted to smoke him out, and then she could move on him. Personally.
"Ground teams, watch your omni-tools for navigation points," she said, starting her work. Markers appeared over the map. "Find the target, avoid C-Sec. Secondary target is the quarian. If you find her, try not to harm her, but she can be used as bait."
It was only a short run, but I was already covered with sweat. I wasn't exactly tired, I was just out of breath, a strange mix of adrenalin, fear, and yes, some fatigue. More mental than physical, I had been running for a bit, but the pressure of avoiding the surveillance was taking its toll. My brain felt exhausted.
Maybe I should have bought a pack of stims or two. I did have a pack of medi-gel in my brand new omni-tool, four capsules and the micro-fabricator to apply it. Very handy tech, I must say.
Of course, the wonders of modern technology were the last things on my mind. I rushed past my room, and got to the ladder. The trapdoor was closed above me, so I took a moment to load my shield to maximum, and check my shotgun. The HUD gave me the all clear for both. I was half tempted to go back to my room and pick up the pistol, but no time. With a deep breath, I clambered up the ladder, opening the trapdoor and taking a quick look. Nothing. I clambered up again and rushed towards the exit.
"Where is he!" I heard a flanged voice call, followed by a crash, and a very quarian yelp of pain.
Goddammit I wanted to kick the door down and rush in, but I had to settle for hitting the release button. I did with my elbow, shotgun to the shoulder. As soon as it opened, the occupants of the room sprang to action. Two turians. I made a quick decision and started shooting the one closest to me, while they returned fire.
I think they were quite surprised when I didn't even flinch or go down. Or maybe it was the freaky projection the shield was making. I heard Mika scream, but I had a target fixation, and that target was in front of me.
When I painted the wall behind him with blue blood, I finally turned to the other. He was holding Mika by the neck in front of himself, and pointing his gun at her head. And judging by the way he was holding both of them, he was probably having second thoughts about me.
My shield was below half, but he didn't need to know that.
"RELEASE HER!" I shouted,
Oh boy, I wish I was capable of describing their faces. Between the shield distortion, the voice modulator, and the hissing shotgun pointed at him, the turian was just frozen in place, his mandibles hanging so low I thought they were going to fall off. As of Mika, all I could see was a very, very big pair of eyes staring at me. I guessed she had a hard time deciding whether the turian with the gun pointed at her head was worse than the crazy thing in front of her.
"NOW!" I yelled, taking a menacing step forward. Or a risky one. I just had no fucking shot as long as he was holding Mika.
Which he wasn't for long. She pushed herself free with the turian looking like she had barely registered, and in the same swift motion she turned around and threw an overload the size of my head. It caught the turian right on the chest, and he started spazing as the smell of burned electronics filled the room.
I opened fire immediately, and the turian tried to return it, but it was two shots and it was all over. I plastered his brain all over the wall, and turned to look at Mika. She made a small squeal, crawling back on the ground and raising her omni-tool.
"Mika, stop! It's me! It's Roy!"
She stopped with her arm up, pointing that omni-tool at me. Slowly, I reached for the modulator under my T-shirt, and lowered the setting. After a couple of seconds, the shield finally complied.
"Roy? W-What's going on! Why- Kyaaa!"
She shot her overload past me towards the entrance, and I followed her lead by turning and shooting twice at the rapidly retreating asari.
"Run! Inside, hurry!" I said, shooting again.
The asari peeked through the door and shot blindly with an assault rifle, but dug in again when I shot at her. I turned tail and ran deeper, chasing after Mika down the tunnels.
"Down, down!" I called, right as she was about to rush past the trapdoor.
She skidded to a stop and looked at me, her eyes widening. Freaking shield.
"Watch out!" she shouted. I turned around to get a faceful of lead, angrily pinging my shields and taking small but quick bites off the gauge on my HUD. I returned fire, almost blindly as I could hardly see. One, two, three, four, I kept shooting while taking steps back, and dove out into the corner when I reached it. My shield was low, and the freaking asari had bloody good aim.
"Mika?" I called.
"Down here!"
"Watch out!" I shouted, and jumped down. I landed at a crouch, and stepped backwards facing the trapdoor, shotgun up. "Get to my room, now!"
I didn't look, but I heard the hurried steps of Mika rushing back. I didn't hide or anything, I just stepped back until there wasn't a direct shot from the trapdoor, and put the shotgun to my shoulder. It was a bit of a risk – or rather, it was probably a lot of a risk, but I didn't know any better – but it was an asari, and I was pretty sure it was going to work. The trapdoor was basically at the top of a very small cul-de-sac, so if she came down, we'd be very close. And when we were close…
A blur of blue landed in front of me, and in the blink of an eye she threw a biotic attack at me.
She hadn't gotten the memo.
The ensuing biotic explosion pounded everything around me, including the asari, who was thrown straight at the wall with such force that I could only deduce she was a really powerful biotic. She fell like a broken ragdoll, but I wasn't taking any chances. I stepped up to her, put my shotgun under her chin, and pressed the trigger. She jerked once, like I had pulled the last string of the marionette, just as the inside of her helmet became a splatter of blue blood and lumps.
The fact that my shot hadn't blown past her helmet helped. That close, I'd have gotten covered in gore for sure.
"W-What happened?" I heard Mika behind me.
I took a moment to get up the now bent ladder and check the corridor. I could hear distant steps, but nobody I could see. I closed the hatch and jumped down, careful to avoid stepping on the dead asari. Blood had been dripping out of the hole under her chin, and pooling under the body.
"We should go," I said. I got the looks from Mika again, so I lowered my barrier. "I have to get off the Citadel, any ideas?"
"N-No," she replied. She was looking at the scene while crouching on the ground, using the corner as a hiding spot.
I shook my head and started picking up the guns the asari was carrying.
"What are you doing?" Mika said.
"What does it look like?" I replied. I spun the pistol in my hand and offered it to Mika. "Here, or you prefer something else?"
She looked at me, eyes still wide, and only reached for the gun when I gave it a little shake, offering it to her. When she finally did, her hands were trembling so badly I expected her to fire by accident.
I took the other weapons under my arm. I wasn't going to bring them with me, but sue me, I'm a kleptomaniac.
"Come on," I said, gesturing with my head, since I was carrying an armful of weapons. "I have an idea. Stay behind me, I have better shields than you do."
"I don't have any shields," Mika said.
"What? Why the hell not?"
"The generator burned out," she replied. "I… I didn't think I'd need it, so…"
Fuck's sake.
"Mika, there's an asari in full armor right there, go grab any parts you need from her hardsuit."
"What?! I-I can't do that!"
"She just tried to kill us!" I snapped, and she recoiled at the harshness of my voice. "So yeah, grab whatever you want. Hell, grab her omni-tool, I'd love to know who the hell sent these people after me."
She looked at me, at the asari, again at me, and while she didn't nod, she just went and, with obvious repugnance, started looking at the hardsuit.
I took that time to get to my room and drop the guns. It was no longer an empty space with nothing inside in the way of comfort. Mika and I had gotten an awful lot of refuse from the recycling pile, and her plan to leave things for the keepers had worked like a charm. We put together a crappy set of shelves, a chest of drawers, a bed… Even a restroom. Just prop up some crap, and the keepers do the rest. Well, most of the time. Mika had set up what she claimed was a broken terminal that'd be an extranet access point once the keepers fixed it but, after they had done so, I had only ended up with a device that hummed very loudly and very ominously anytime I walked close. So I didn't.
In the meantime, what I had to do while Mika worked on her suit was find a way out. And I thought I had one. I opened my omni-tool, and dialed for the temp agency.
"Starstruck Employment Agency," Maleina's voice greeted me.
"Hi, this is Roy Morgan."
"Ah yes, mister Morgan. What can I do for you?"
"Well, remember that off-Citadel mining job?" I said. "I may need that, like, right now. Weren't they leaving today?"
"Yes, in… two hours. If you come by, I could probably get you in, but you'll cut it close."
"Ah," I replied. "That… might be a problem. Any chance we can do it on the phone? Um, so to speak."
"I see. Would you like me to keep your name out as well?" she said without missing a beat. She probably heard my hesitation, because she chuckled. "It's not an uncommon request for this kind of job. I will, however, ask for triple my usual commission, in advance."
"You got it," I said. "Just tell me where to go."
"Dock 27, first arm. Look for the Far Mist. I'll have everything ready for you. Enjoy your trip, mister Morgan."
I closed the comms and breathed in relief. That went better than I expected. I brought up Mika's map as I walked out, trying to figure out how to get where I needed to go.
"Mika? Are you ready?"
She wasn't. I came around the corner to find her crouching by the dead asari, and her hands trying and failing to grab the armor. They were trembling so hard she was getting nowhere.
"Hey, hey," I said, coming to grab her shoulder, which made her jump on the spot. She looked at me, and averted her sight before even blinking. Dammit, I shouldn't have just told her… Nevermind. "Sorry, I shouldn't have... Look, come with me." I grabbed her arm and gently guided her to my room. I led her to my chair, and started taking my shirt.
"W-What are you doing?!" she said, and covered her facemask with her hands when I got to taking the T-shirt off.
I noticed she still had her fingers spread enough that she could see between them.
"Relax," I said. "This is the shield generator I was using," I added, taking the harness off and gesturing for her to raise her arms. I clamped it over her suit, bringing it to life. "You should be able to get the HUD, but it'll complain about lack of life signs because you aren't wearing it over your skin."
She looked down at herself, quite forgetting the half naked man in front of her.
"Adjust here, if you put it like this it'll be low, and dial it up to get the scary look."
"Really?" she said, her voice high and curious. She fiddled with the control, and she quickly turned into the weird apparition I had been passing for. "This is strange."
"Yeah," I said, and an idea crossed through my head. "Hey, can you say assuming control?"
"What?" she replied. I just shrugged, so she went for it. "Okay. Assuming Control."
I shouldn't have laughed as hard as I did, but I couldn't help myself. I never thought Harbinger could sound so adorable. My laughter was short lived though. I heard the noise of running steps above us, running through the sewers. I got dressed again as fast as I could.
"We better go. I've got to get out of here, you should get yourself to C-Sec."
"What? No! I- ach," she fiddled with the shield, bringing the setting down. "There. I'm going to help you!"
"Mika, it's too dangerous, I'm-"
"Leaving," she interrupted, "And I'll help you! Where are you going?"
With some hesitation I brought my omni-tool up, showing the destination. "I have to be there in two hours."
"Two hours! We have to change arms! Come on, we have to go!"
Shepard put her assault rifle to her shoulder and led the way into the workshop. Their arrival had been somewhat eventful. She had expected a firefight between C-Sec and whoever was attacking the main office, but instead they arrived just in time to see two turians literally flying out of the window, wreathed in biotic dark energy. They fell with a literal crunch, making a rather noticeable splatter. A few seconds later an asari walked out of the office, one Shala T'Sall. Roy's boss. She looked pissed.
"Bloody hell," Shepard muttered. The place had been shot to hell, there were two dead turians on the ground, and the entrance to the sewers had been absolutely shredded by heavy fire.
"This was your guy?" Ian said, coming up behind Garrus. "You sure know how to pick 'em, Garrus."
"He's obviously been here," Shepard said, "but hasn't come out. Nihlus, you there?"
"Right here," the Spectre responded. "What does it look like?"
"Like the time Roy lost his cool on Therum," Shepard said. "Whoever's after him is throwing a lot of people at it. We're going in."
"Right behind you," Nihlus called.
"Wait, wait, wait," Ian said. "You seriously want to go in there? You have any idea how bad that smells?"
For an answer, Shepard closed the faceplate of her helmet and smirked. "I sure do. Harden up, Shaw, we have work to do."
Shepard led the way, rifle to shoulder and walking at a good but controlled pace. Behind her, she heard the second team walking in, led by Nihlus. The grunts and gagging sounds from them made her smile slightly under her helmet, glad for her biohazard level filters. A disgusting smell was still managing to waft to her nostrils, so she could only imagine what the others were feeling.
She flicked her omni-tool and brought the map up. What a mess it was. She had done operations in labyrinths before, but this one was both complicated and enormous.
"Ian, get me the location of the C-Sec teams," Shepard said. After a few seconds, her omni-tool pinged and several blue dots appeared on the map. "Garrus, eyes on the radar."
"Shepard, there's a fork ahead," Nihlus called.
"I take the right," Shepard replied.
Their steps echoed loudly through the empty tunnels, only punctuated by the odd pipe clanking, or valve hissing. The corridors were narrow and oppressive, and she had to constantly duck under ceiling beams, leg over kinks on the pipes, and twist through narrow passages. The lights were too sparse to really illuminate the corridors, there were a million places where something could hide. It was a nightmare. Or-
"Wait, what was that?" Shepard called.
"I didn't hear anything," Garrus said.
Shepard raised a hand demanding silence, and tuned the audio receptors of her hemlet up. The apparent silence was drowned with amplified metallic echoes and sounds, until she heard what she thought she had. Steps. She checked her map and radar – no C-Sec or friendlies were near enough for her to pick up their steps. And whoever it was, he wasn't running. Couldn't be Roy, then. Or an interested party.
"Heads up, we may have bogeys inside," Shepard called over the comms. "Move!"
She took off at a run, or as close as she could get without crashing on the ground, chased by the rest of her team. The second team moved into position too, taking off through a parallel corridor. The steps got close enough that she could hear them clearly now, and they were running too. Three turns later she caught a glimpse of boots as they disappeared past a corner, but was too late to catch them with her rifle.
"Stop!" Shepard shouted. "Human boots," she called to the radio, "Garrus, Nihlus, go get them."
She got acknowledgments over the radio, and felt Garrus rushing past her. Turians were even more adept runners than humans, evolved on a planet where heat was unbearable, and running was the key way to evolutionary survival. She was fast, too, but in the short distances, turians were hard to match, specially two fit and trained ones like Garrus and Nihlus.
"Ian, with me! Alenko, Grieco, double back, close their escape on junction… 396."
"Aye aye commander," Alenko called over the radio.
The sound of the chase was getting closer. Shepard was running at her top speed, only marginally surprised that Ian was keeping up with her. She rushed past another junction, and skidded to a stop when she caught a glimpse of runners out of the corner of her eye.
"Nihlus! You still on them?" she called, taking off after the new target.
"Yes, almost- You! Stop!" She heard the sound of gunfire, but no targets were called.
She had her own chase now, and it was two of them. Two humans, too. She opened fire with her rifle, hitting wall and a pipe full of disgusting stuff, but only managed to clip one of them on the leg. It was enough to slow him down, which allowed Ian to jump over her and tackle the human.
The other human turned, and opened fire on both of them, completely uncaring that his companion was in the way. Shepard cursed loudly, standing up and spraying bullets over the heads of the struggling pair. She wasn't risking a hit on the C-Sec officer, so she aimed instead at the overhead pipes. All sorts of liquids sprayed out of them, spraying the human with their disgusting contents.
That stopped the struggle between Ian and his own opponent, both of them gagging in disgust. Over the radio she could hear the sound of mode firefights breaking. Dammit, her teams were split, and not with enough distance to cover each other.
And then, as suddenly as the fights had started, they stopped, with all the humans running away at full speed.
"What the hell?" Shepard said.
"Target's on the run, we're moving to intercept," Alenko called.
"Negative!" Shepard called. "This is all wrong, someone's trying to distract us, and whoever it is, he's good. We have to find Roy."
"We have hostiles down here," Nihlus said.
"We knew that. We're going to need C-Sec help, cut off the exits while we run a grid. Nobody leaves the sewers without our knowledge. Ian?"
The C-Sec detective gestured for Shepard to wait, while he pulled the facemask of his helmet to throw up.
"Oh god why did I take that off," he muttered, retching again.
Ewwwww.
The trip to the docks was… uneventful. It sounds like a strange thing to complain about, but the constant tension was quite grating on the nerves. Worse still, we had heard several firefights breaking out in the sewers, and every time the corridors ran close to them, we heard people running through. Whoever was after me had a lot of people. Would Cerberus really fill the sewers just to find me? Or… the asari and turians? Saren?
The tunnels were not as nice and wide as they had been back under the workshop, most of the time they were narrow, uncomfortable, and closed off unexpectedly. Mika had kept updating her map, quite unconcerned about the false starts and stops.
"This happens all the time," she said. "The tunnels change a lot, but the big ones are usually okay."
"Right," I said, and pushed her up through the trapdoor.
I waited until her head poked down through the entrance. "All clear," she said.
With a pull, I got myself up, and Mika grabbed onto my belt to help me up as well. I was starting to get tired, but I couldn't stop. We had come up for air underneath one of the ward levels, simply because there was no connection between the corridors and the last run towards the docks. Hopefully we'd stay out of view.
Mika was panting heavily, so I checked the clock, realized we had enough time, and gestured for her to sit down. People and aliens were walking over our heads, quite unconcerned about our presence, going on about their daily lives.
It was a good place to rest. Mika sat down on the floor, while I crouched down, using the chance to stretch my legs in a different way. After standing up for so long, walking and running, it felt really good.
"We have a few minutes," I said. Mika nodded, and fiddled with her suit to open an internal pocket of her suit. Water. I could use some water. "How are you doing?"
"I'm okay," Mika replied. "Better now."
"Uh-huh."
A dense silence settled, with Mika looking at me, and glancing away when our eyes met. I had to think of something to fill in the gap.
"Mika, you should get to C-Sec, they'll take care of you. I can make it from here."
"What? No! I…"
"You want to come with me instead?"
She gulped visibly, and looked away. "I can't. If I ran now…"
Dammit.
"What happened?" She looked at me. "I mean, eight million credits? What did you break?"
She actually made a small giggle at that, but it was short lived. With a deep breath, she looked at me. "I… I was on my pilgrimage, looking for something I could bring back to the fleet. I had heard Illum was a good place for it, lots of opportunities."
"That's… one way of putting it," I said.
"You've been there?"
"No, but I've heard of it."
"Right," she said, fidgeting and looking away again. "So I found some friends, and they had a plan. Some volus trader had done some illegal stuff, and they wanted to get the money back."
Uh-oh.
"What kind of stuff?"
"Trading, they showed me the laws he had broken and everything. It was perfect! We'd get the money back, give it to the people they cheated, and we'd get a cut! We were even planning on making it a business!" She sounded so enthusiastic, it was almost painful to hear, because it was pretty clear what had happened. "Turned out the stuff he had done was legal on Illum. My friends all ran away, but…"
"But they left you holding the bag."
"Holding… the bag?"
"They left you to get the blame."
"Yes…" She looked at me. "I didn't know! I swear! I wouldn't have- I'm not a thief! I-"
"Hey, hey, I know," I said, waving her down. Her voice had risen, and she looked about to bolt. "I know."
She huffed and settled down again. "I had to pay all the money back if I didn't want to go to jail. I got into the contract, but… I forgot to ask for it to keep me on Illum. I ended up in a mining operation on a toxic planet. It… wasn't pleasant."
"And that's where Shala found you," I said.
"Yeah. She treats me a lot better."
"That's… Mika, look, you can still leave, you don't have to-"
"I have to! I can't go back to the flotilla as a thief! Do you know what that means for a quarian? I can't!" She stopped and took a deep breath. "It's okay. I just have to wait a few years, then I can go back to my pilgrimage. Captain Mal'Saleh vas Iaera has promised he'll have a spot for me when I go back. It's okay."
Dammit, it all sucked, but really, I couldn't really force her to leave. I couldn't leave her alone there, either. I knew what was going to happen to the Citadel, and she was…
Well, she had a gun and the best personal shield in the galaxy. Nonetheless, I had made up my mind. The day the geth came to the Citadel, I was planning on being right there with her. Shepard could worry about Saren and whatever else she had to fix. Not me, I just had to worry about her.
But for now, the Citadel wasn't safe. Later, maybe, but not today. I had to get out, probably get myself some good guns and supplies, and get back in without anyone knowing it. So, find someone to smuggle me into the Citadel again. I had a good hidey hole down there.
My omni-tool beeped at me. Ten minutes.
"Okay Mika, I should go."
"Let's go," she said, standing up.
"No, I can make it on my own from here, it's just there."
"But-"
"You've done enough," I said, and gave her the best smile I could muster. "More than enough. Thank you, I wouldn't have made it without you."
She looked away, fidgeting uncomfortably. I was starting to think she wasn't used to positive feedback at all. "It was nothing…"
"Here's what I want you to do," I said, taking her by the shoulders and looking at her straight in the eye. "I want you to go back to C-Sec."
"But-"
"Once you get there," I interrupted her, "ask for Garrus Vakarian. Don't talk to anyone until you talk with him. He's a turian, grey plates, blue facepaint across his face, and he always wears an eyepiece on his left eye."
"Why?"
"You can trust him. As far as they know, you're just a worker down at the sewers. Crazy people started showing up and you ran away. That's all you know, and that's all anyone needs to know, okay?"
"...okay."
"Great. I'll see you when I can get back. You take care of yourself until then, okay?"
She nodded and, without another word, jumped right at me, putting her hands around me in a tight hug. I raised my arms by instinct, and was so shocked that I didn't even react.
WHAT THE HELL?
I really hadn't seen it coming. With one last squeeze, she let go and looked up at me. I knew she was short, but now that she was right in front of me, she looked even more so.
"Take care Roy," she said, and without another word, she ran away towards the tunnels.
She left me completely dumbfounded, and it took me a minute to get back on track. I slapped my own face, and took off towards the docks. There was a keeper tunnel that would lead me right where I had to go completely undetected, and even better, I was cutting it close. Which meant if I made it to the shuttle I'd be gold. If Shala's promise of keeping me out of the paperwork was true, that is.
"I never thought I'd welcome a chemical shower," Shepard said, coming out of the workshop with her armor smelling like a chemical toilet, which was an improvement over smelling like a plain old toilet.
They had spent a whole two hours down there. Two. Hours. They had combed the tunnel together with C-Sec, captured two people who were down there, and missed a lot more. Whoever had been coordinating all those people was damn good. She knew there had been a lot more than those two, but they hadn't caught them.
More importantly, there were no turians or asari. Garrus had been working with C-Sec, and believed they had not gotten all of them. Three commandos, four turians, they had come in a transport registered to a volus shell company they had linked to Matriarch Benezia. They were missing one asari, and she hadn't moved back to the shuttle it seemed. Shala, who was Roy's boss, had made an absolute mess of the poor bastards who had tried to assault her office.
"I know what you mean," Garrus said. "Ian's taking the rest of the day off."
Shepard snorted at that, which was all she managed trying to suppress her laughter. The poor guy.
"So, anything?" Shepard said.
"Nothing. We've gone over the security cameras, and recovered most of the faked footage too. He was down there, but we have no idea where he went. Not a clue. It's like the Citadel has swallowed him."
"Have you checked the protein vats?" Shepard said, her voice low.
"Yes," Garrus replied, matching her tone. "Not that we have seen, no."
"So where the fuck is he?!"
Garrus didn't seem to have a ready answer, but whatever he was about to say was cut by a call from C-Sec.
"Garrus?"
"Yeah," he said, bring his omni-tool up.
"It's Jodum. I have something for you. You know a quarian called Mika'Talae and… something other?"
Garrus and Shepard looked at each other. "No," he replied. "Why?"
"Well, she seems to know you."
Miranda closed her terminal and sighed, stretching back on her chair and pressing on her eyes and the bridge of her nose. Complete disaster. She had had to sacrifice two people to let the rest of the teams out, and the assets at the docks still reported no sign of Morgan.
Her C-Sec feed was telling her that the other group going after Morgan had been almost neutralized, with only one asari unaccounted for. Matriarch Benezia's people. She should have seen it coming, her mistake had been trusting that her C-Sec resources would have been able to alert her on time. She had a general warning out there to look for the last asari commando, but she knew it'd be almost impossible to find her.
No, after all that, the real issue was that Morgan had made her right away. That hadn't happened to her in a long time, and worse still, even now she couldn't figure out how it had happened.
The question was, where in the nine hells had Morgan gotten to?
"So this is your first time?"
I looked at the man sitting next to me. He was the size of a freaking bus, and looked like he had come from a primitive society with no understanding of what a comb or a razor were. The ship was called the Far Mist, a kowloon class freighter that was taking us to our destination. Dirty, old, loaded to the rafters with equipment. I had had to buy my own gear, and had found to my infinite lack of surprise that all the food they packed aboard were nutrient paste and hard bar rations.
Yay.
The job was simple. We were a mining prospect team, so all we had to do was follow leads from planetary probes and look for useful mining spots. Once we established them - charting the lodes, loading samples, it varied depending on what the potential lode was - the actual mining would start, we'd pass it to the actual mining corporation, and we'd move on. Simple, pay was crap, but the real payoff was on the mining. If we were the first to find a useful lode in a hundred mile radius around a probe, we got a cut from the proceeds.
It was a gambler's job, really. Find a good lode, and you could be set. Most of the time you didn't, so you made enough to get by and try again.
For me, it was a perfect way to go off the grid. For now. Hop around a bit, then get back to the Citadel before the geth attacked, then weather it off with Mika.
"Yeah, never done this before."
"Well, you better keep up. We lose a lode because of you and we'll take it off your skin."
I really meet the best people in the galaxy.
Author's Notes: Well, so it finally happened. Turning the Citadel inside out, and finding nothing in there. And Roy makes a clean getaway… for now.
The bad news is that Miranda isn't happy. That's never good news, amirite? She's going to turn me into a pretzel biotically once she gets her hands on me.
I hope the chapter lived up to the expectations. There wasn't as much direct fighting as one could have expected, but I liked the idea of three factions trying to turn the Citadel and getting nothing. And now we know what Mika's been up to, too.
And very positive feedback on the previous chapter as well, thanks everyone! Seems like going off the rails is fun for everyone.
Uemei: You picked on lots of details with the last chapter, well done! And Mika got to hug Roy, which hasn't happened a lot in the fic :D
Mizuki00: Well, that's that! Big mess and a clean getaway, hope it was exciting enough!
Toothless, Exterminatus: Still working on the pairings. Shep/Liara has the best numbers so far but we'll see! :)
And that's it for this chapter! Next time, Shepard does a bit of housekeeping, Nihlus ticks a few boxes, and I land on an alien planet again. Oh, and some borderline crackfic stuff will start creeping in. Until then, thanks for reading, following, reviewing, and all the good stuff!