Chapter 59 – That's Mean

April 7th, 2211 2222 hours – Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega

Afterlife

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

I could hear and feel the rhythmic pounding of Afterlife's heavy, electronic dance music long before the place was even in sight. Outside the line of eager party-goers was as long as ever. A few gave us odd looks but none seemed too interested in the fact that we were quickly waved through by the bouncers at the front.

Inside, Aria's guards recognized us despite the stupid trench-coats that Cade had insisted we wear. We were escorted by a pair of heavily-armed turians back into the lavishly-decorated room where Aria T'Loak was already seated at the head of her massive, oak table.

We sat down and she waved the guards away. Aria cocked an eyebrow at our outfits but otherwise abstained from commenting.

T'loak set her elbows up onto the table and laced her fingers together. "So Spectres, what have you found?"

"A lead. Tenuous but its something. Does the name 'Risha D'miris' mean anything to you?" I replied.

Aria thought about it. "Yes. Nari mentioned her a few times. She's some asari street rat Nari met a couple of years back. Not a mercenary or a dancer at one of the higher-end bars. A nobody. Probably the offspring of some asari and a merc who had one too many drinks a couple of decades ago. You'll find many like her on Omega. None of them are worth anything," she said glibly.

My fist reflexively tightened. Thankfully both my hands were beneath the table on my lap. "Well she appeared to have been a close friend of your daughter. We think she might have gone looking for her."

"Did she? Is this 'Risha' missing as well then?"

"Looks like it. Any idea where she might have went?"

T'loak looked at me like I was stupid and shook her head. "Like I told you, she's a nobody. Dozens of people like her disappear every day on Omega. Some join the merc gangs while others are kidnapped and sold to slavers or worse. More are murdered and left to rot in some alley somewhere. A lucky few might manage to pay their way off station and begin a new life. This Risha could be anywhere."

The three of us all stifled a set of sighs. We had expected as much. Risha might have been a lead but as far as leads go she wasn't a great one. There were too many possibilities here, and we had nothing to follow up on. Her old place of employment had been a dead end and she'd left nothing on her terminal or in her apartment that suggested where she might go except a list of names.

Next I read out the list of names we had found at Risha's apartment to Aria. "Do these names mean anything to you?"

Aria asked for them again and so I repeated them. She thought about it for a few moments but then shook her head. "No. Maybe if you had some surnames as well I could give you something, but I can't tell you anything based off of just those names."

"I expected as much. It'd be a great help if you could circulate the list around your men and see if they know anything. Same with Risha's name. It's a long shot but perhaps one of them knows her."

"I will, but I can't promise you anything," Aria shrugged. "There are things happening on Omega that require my attention right now. I don't have a lot of resources to devote your search. That's why I'm making you do it."

"What things?" Percival asked.

She starred coolly at my friend. "None of your business."

"It might have something to do with her disappearance."

Aria gave an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. "There are new players trying to muscle in on my turf. It's nothing new and it's nothing I can't handle. But if they had my daughter I would know. They would tell me," she said crossly.

Blue sparks jumped between her fingers. The unconscious display of biotics made Aria frown. T'loak was on edge. Though she seemed like she didn't care too terribly about her daughter on the outside, inside I bet she was likely close to tearing her fringe out.

"Now is that all you have, Spectres?" she ground out that last word as if it were an insult.

I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair. "No. Tell me about your daughter."

Aria's eyes narrowed instantly at me and the sparks grew bigger. Touchy. Clearly she wasn't used to innocent or benign inquiries about her daughter. I couldn't blame her – not if I were the one with a kid in this den of snakes. For all of her centuries of life, Aria could still succumb to some of our most basic instincts. I let all of her reflexive anger wash over me without batting an eyelash.

To my surprise, Aria closed her eyes. The Pirate Queen let out a sigh.

"She… if you were to meet her you would swear up and down the streets that she wasn't my daughter," she began. "Nari has always been… different. Special."

Aria leaned back in her chair and her gaze drifted away from us. "I brought her here from Illium maybe a decade ago to keep her closer to me. My influence has grown over the past few decades, and so has my list of enemies. I thought that if I brought her here, I could protect her better."

She shook her head. "She hated Omega ever since she first came here – hated it with every fibre of her being. She'd always say that she'd rather go to the Citadel or to Thessia and join C-sec or be a cop. She can't stomach the harsh realities of this station, and she's begged me more times than I can count to leave it all behind."

Aria laughed ruefully. "As if I could ever. No. I have my own chains just like everyone else on this cursed station. I cannot leave. I cannot let go of my power without a thousand, different knives appearing behind me, aimed at my back. There is no peaceful relinquishing of power. Once I let go I let go of everything, and anyone who wishes to become the ruler of Omega after me knows that they have to do it over my dead body."

Aria rose and walked over to the large window that spanned one side of the room. She rested a forearm against the glass and looked out at the skyline and the skycars flying by. It always looked like it was dusk on Omega. The only lights around the station were either orange or red. It painted everything in a grisly, bloody hue.

"Nari knew that and still she begged," Aria said quietly. "Said she'd protect me. Can you believe it? Her protect me? Must be the turian in her."

Aria turned and leaned against the window. "Nari definitely went searching for her friend, and she probably had less to go off of than you three do. You should try an information broker. You'll find hundreds on Omega, but some are better than others. Ask around."

I nodded and got up. Cade and Percival followed suit. "Thank you. And don't worry. We'll find her."

The look that Aria gave me almost made me feel sorry for her. "Find her Spectres. Find her for me."

April 7th, 2232 2258 hours – Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega

Afterlife

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

I took a seat at the bar and waved at the bartender to pour me a drink. The three of us had decided to go our separate ways for a little bit. Percival decided he had to do a little shopping for some black-market, military surplus stuff and Cade wanted to go to the bar that Risha had worked at to double-check that the leads went nowhere.

I wasn't up for a trip to the other bar, so I figured I'd just grab a few drinks here and then head back to the ship so I could study up on large-scale, ship-to-ship combat.

The bartender plopped down a large mug of some sort of fluorescent-purple liquid in front of me and then went back to wiping down another mug. I immediately raised an eyebrow.

"Is this supposed to be beer? Growling Varren?" I asked the batarian.

"Never heard of it. Don't have beer," he replied tersely.

I would have liked to have been told they didn't have any Growling Varren before they brought something random out for me. It had a foam head at least. I inched the stein closer to my nose and took a sniff. It kind of smelled like beer, except fruity.

I gave the bartender a pointed look. "You're not trying to kill me, right?"

The bartender rolled all four eyes. "Yes, human!" he said, exasperated. "I am trying to kill you. With a poisoned drink. In front of all—," he gestured at the twenty or so patrons seated at the bar, "— these customers currently drinking. In the place that everyone knows I work at. Yes, by the Devils you figured it out!"

A few of the patrons were giving me some amused side-eye and I shrugged sheepishly. I brought the mug to my lips. "This better not be bathroom ryncol."

I took a sip and it was pleasantly surprised. It was really good. Not fruity like I expected, but still a bit sweet. It was smooth and hoppy and not too bitter.

I cleared out half the mug before setting it back down. "Damn, what is this? This is not bad."

The bartender shook his head and picked up another dirty mug to clean. "Homebrew. You humans complain too much."

Fair enough. If this was the batarian's own homebrew then he was a genius. I took another sip. "Got any food in this place?"

In reply the bartender set down another mug of the same liquid. Again, fair enough. I gave him enough credits to cover both drinks and a tip.

I had copious amounts of the purple drink in my mouth when I heard a small, familiar voice off to my right say to me "Nice coat."

I coughed in surprise and turned in my seat towards the voice, liquid rolling unflatteringly down my chin. It was the quarian waitress from before.

"Oh, hey!" I greeted her awkwardly. I quickly set down the mug and quickly tried to smooth out my clothes.

"Hi!" she laughed. "I said 'nice coat'. I think it's a big upgrade from the poncho."

I looked down at the black trenchcoat Cade had insisted I wear. The lapel now had purple stains of whatever had been in my mug. I cursed and reached for a napkin.

"Here, let me," she said. The quarian leaned over the bar and grabbed a clean cloth. She ran it under some water and began to wipe down the front of my coat.

I swallowed nervously as she moved closer. She grabbed the front of my jacket and then gently began to scrub the lapel with long, firm strokes. "I am guessing that you're not the one that picked this jacket out though. I saw you and your two friends all wearing similar coats walking in, but something tells me the matching outfits weren't a unanimous decision."

"No, they weren't," I said, relieved for the break in silence. "You think I'd ever willingly wear something like this? I look like a creep."

Somewhere out there I hope Cade was dying noisily in a back alley.

The quarian took the seat beside me and placed an elbow onto the bar. She rested her chin onto her fist and looked me up and down with those glowing, silver eyes. "I think its cool. It suits you," she said with a smile. Okay I hope Cade wasn't dying noisily.

I took another pull from the mug, making damned sure that I didn't spill any more. For some reason that made her she giggle. "You're kind of a dork, you know?" she said out of nowhere.

I had been called a lot of things in my life. 'Dork' had never been one of them. I didn't know what to say so I just finished chugging my drink. I was conscious of her eyes on me the entire time.

I set the mug down. "So, are you off work now?" I asked her.

"My shift ended about five minutes ago. How about you? You going to be busy again tonight?"

I sheepishly rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah, sorry about last night. I had to cover my boss at a networking event. It went on for quite a ways into the night."

I waved to the batarian bartender and looked at her. "Do you want anything? Let me buy you a drink."

"Sure," she grinned. The batarian bartender came over. "Evening Otis, I'll have a Denorian."

"You've got it, Kel. It's coming right up," Otis said respectfully.

It struck me then that I still didn't know her name, and so I finally did what I assumed a non-dork would have done within seconds of meeting her and asked her for it. Damn, this whole encounter was just not working out the way I wanted it to.

"I was wondering when you would get around to that. Kel'Raeynea vas Rannoch, but please, call me 'Kel'," she said with an extended hand.

"Steve Vallon," I replied. I took her hand and shook it, surprised by how warm it was compared to mine. Kel cocked an eyebrow and gave me a skeptical look. "You don't strike me as a 'Steve'."

The name kind of sounded wrong to me too, but I had no idea what the hell my mother named me. "What do I strike you as?"

Kel smacked her lips and thought about it for a moment. "Maybe a…. Keelah I actually don't know many male human names. I don't really have any male human friends, and the ones I do know... well you're not like them at all."

"Then I'm Steve."

"Hello there Steve, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise Kel'Raynea – Kel," I corrected myself.

We sat there and just looked at one another quietly as we waited for her drink. I hope she didn't find it creepy, I just didn't know what else to do. My heart was beating a bit faster than usual. That homebrew Otis had served me was probably more potent than I thought.

Otis finally arrived with a mug of Denorian. He had also brought me another mug of homebrew. I thanked him and paid him.

Kel'Raynea took a sip of her drink and let out a happy sigh. "So, does Eldfell-Ashland at least pay you well for all that overtime?"

"No," I laughed. "I'm on a per-contract basis. I get paid the same no matter what happens, unless there's combat involved."

"Do they at least pay you well? Eldfell-Ashland is a big company. We get their representatives here from time to time. They always come in fancy suits and hovercars."

I thought about how the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance didn't actually pay me at all and almost laughed. Most of my income came from hacking into the accounts of the criminals we took down. "No, surprisingly. After expenses it's not a lot at all. Not enough to do much on other than just exist."

"I know what you mean," Kel said with a sad shake of her head. "I had to borrow a load of credits from a man named Patrick Seamus just to pay my rent. I'll be paying that back for months."

My fingers tightened involuntarily around my mug. Patrick Seamus. Could it be?

"Patrick Seamus? You know, that name sounds kind of familiar. I think I heard my boss mention him a few times. Who is he?"

"Patrick Seamus? He's a small-time loan shark operating down in the slums. Zeln district. In one of the old apartments near the dock. How does your boss know of him? I wouldn't have expected him to."

A loan shark. Shit, why didn't I think of that? I recalled the large number of unpaid bills in the apartment and the fact that Risha had been recently laid off. Seamus' name had been circled. The odds were good that Risha had met with Seamus at one point. Maybe Narala had recognized his name as well and had gone to meet with him. Either way, he was our next lead.

If Risha and Narala had both come into contact with this Seamus guy and both of them had disappeared, then Seamus was dangerous. There were any number of sick reasons a man like Seamus might want to disappear a pair of girls and none of them were good. And the chances of him stopping just at two?

I let go of the mug and grabbed her on her upper arm. Kel's eyes went wide and she let out a nervous breath. "Hey, listen to me," I urged her desperately. "I've heard my boss talk about this Seamus guy. Stay away from him, please. He's bad news."

The quarian's eyes grew as wide as saucers. I could feel her tremble a bit. "Okay. Fine. Keelah. What about my debt?"

Once I was satisfied that I had gotten my point across and that she wouldn't be seeing Seamus again I got up. I sent a quick message to Percival and Cade asking them to meet me and then made for the exit of Afterlife.

Kel turned her head, bewildered she was by the sudden change of events. "Steve? Where are you going? Steve!" she called out after me.

For some reason I found it harder to leave her than I would have thought, but I was quick to shake the feeling off. She was no longer in danger. She didn't need me. As long as she stayed away from Seamus, Kel'Raynea wouldn't get sucked into whatever maelstrom of messed-up crap that had consumed Risha and Nalara. No, she would be safe. It was time for me to do my job.

April 8th, 2211 0032 hours – Omega Nebula, Sahrabarik System, Omega

Zeln District

(Spectre Operative 04272182-Cloud)

The station grew dimmer and dimmer. More and more lights were being extinguished by those who were starting to call it a night. It never got completely dark here on Omega, but there were periods of increased darkness. The street I was on would have been pitch-black had it not been for the streetlights flickering above, casting their ominous, orange light. People were still traversing it but not many.

I turned off the motorbike that I had stolen outside of Afterlife and got off, glancing over my shoulder as I did so. For some reason I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. I'd felt it ever since we had left Afterlife the first day we were here, and that feeling had only gotten worse.

Paranoia is a symptom of the infection, isn't it?

Even though it was dark as hell, I pulled the stupid hat Cade had gotten me lower over my face when I spotted a couple of street urchins and a pair of beggars giving me sideways glances. I wondered if perhaps I'd been better-served by going back to the Excalibur to armor up, but my impulsiveness had already brought me this far. It would be a waste of time to double back.

The entrance to Zeln district was just down this road according to my omni-tool. I keyed open my channel back to the command team. "Shepard, did you find anything?"

"Miranda got a lead on the apartment. It's near an old docking bay, down at the end of the district. She's trying to find out more now."

"Got it. Keep me posted."

"Miranda is going to be running ops for you."

I furrowed my brow. "Why, something wrong?"

"It's the specialists," Shepard sighed. "Neither Rayla or Sophia have transmitted anything in the last half-hour, and I haven't heard from Garm or Galen in a while."

"Shit," I swore. "Shepard—"

"—I know. Focus on your mission, I've got this. Shepard out."

I cursed again, but decided to trust the Commander. I couldn't be in three places at once, but Shepard? God, I wouldn't have put it past her.

Zeln district was up ahead, just past a large, metal bridge that acted as an unofficial sort of starting point for the district. Beneath the bridge I spotted two familiar figures. One was a large human in a gray coat similar to mine and the second a smaller, lither turian in a ratty old mustard-yellow coat. Both had brimmed hats similar to mine pulled low over their faces.

Some kind of grey vapor billowed up from a nearby grate where it was carried by the station's fans over to where my friends were standing, partially obscuring them. It looked really cool, but I couldn't help but wonder why the hell Cade and Percival would just stand there letting themselves get covered in what could have been potentially-poisonous fumes.

"Got your message. What's down here?" Percival asked.

I stepped through the archway and into the district. The streets beyond looked a lot more narrow, as if they were made for pedestrian use only and not for any bikes or cars. There wasn't any open space above us, just ventilation shafts and conduits, so there no hovercrafts down here either. It was easy to jump someone in a district like this.

My friends followed behind me. "Seamus. He's a loan shark," I told them. "At least, that's who I think he is. Risha probably met with him, either to ask him for money or to ask him how she might get some. Maybe Narala picked up her trail."

They digested the news. "It makes sense given the facts," Cade nodded thoughtfully. "What's your source? Not even Aria knew who Seamus was."

"Some waitress at Afterlife. He's a low-level loan shark—probably too beneath Aria's level to even notice. A source of small loans for the locals."

"Was it the quarian? Kel'Raynea?"

It irked me that Cade had known her name before I had. "Yes," I said tersely. Cade wisely had no follow-up.

"Can't be that low-level if he's disappearing girls," Percival scoffed. "We got a pinpoint or are we going to just walk around in circles?"

"Miranda is working on that right now. By the way, Shepard's lost contact with our specialists. Told us not to worry though."

"Damn, alright," my friend nodded. I was walking past them to take the lead when Percival tapped me on the arm. "Hey, you look tired. You been having trouble sleeping or something?"

He must have seen my raccoon-eyes even in the dark. "I'm fine."

The roads all seemed to slope downwards. There were people down here as well but not as many. Not as many as there were in Omega proper – that is to say, the sprawl that took up the centre of the hollowed-out asteroid. We were now near the start of the stem, where Omega's unofficial industrial sector began. Things here were a bit more quiet, but to call it peace would be deceptive.

As Seamus was going to soon find out.

"Spectres, this is Lawson," Miranda came onto the channel. "I've got an address. 34 Penumbra. I've reviewed the schematics and looked up the location. It is an old apartment district in Zeln. It isn't too large and it doesn't look very hard to infiltrate. I can't tell you how many people might be there, if there are any guards, or if this Seamus is even there right now. You'll have to figure all that out yourselves."

She sent us the coordinates. Fire escape, main entrance, and two smaller side entrances. Staircase or elevators for vertical travel. "No worries Miranda. We can do that part ourselves no problem," I replied.

"At this hour, the odds are good that he'll be in," Cade added.

"Kasumi is going to be there as well. She'll cut power, security, anything you need."

"Got it."

We followed the nav on our omni-tools until we hit the end of the district. It looked like it came right up to the side of the station itself. This area was a lot more open than the part of Zeln we had just passed through. There were a row of squat, apartment buildings. A couple-dozen meters away were some old, dilapidated loading docks. Even further away at the far end of the district were a series of rusted, old hangar doors covered in the graffiti of a dozen different alien languages. Ships must have used to come through those doors to unload their cargo right on those very docks in ages past. The raw materials would probably then be shipped right to the 'stem' or the industrial sector. It didn't look like any ship had come through those hangar doors in a long, long time. No wonder the people here needed small-time sharks like Seamus.

The three of us stopped at the mouth of an alley just a dozen meters from the front of the apartment complex Seamus was supposed to be at. It was really no more than a long, rectangle prefab, older than I probably was and about eight stories high. I bet that there couldn't have been more than two-dozen modestly-sized units on each floor.

I wouldn't have believed that this could have housed anything more than a small-time, local gang or syndicate if it weren't for the armed guards stationed around it.

"It's this one then?" Percival asked quietly.

"Has to be," I said. I gave the guards a look. "None of them are packing anything heavier than a rifle. They look tired, we can take them easily."

"Boys, I am not touching that fire escape," Cade pointed at a set of extremely rusted stairs and ladders that looked as if it had been all chewed up.

We ignored Cade as he silently complained about Seamus' choice of hideout. "There's overwatch too," Percival nodded at another quartet of guards up on the roof. I let out a low whistle. Eight guards and if I had to guess there were at least a two-dozen more inside, working in shifts. How much money was Seamus pulling in here? If this was the kind of entourage a small-time loan shark needed then I would have hated to see what the bigger players had.

There could be civilians too so we'd have to watch our fire, but otherwise I didn't mind these odds. These guys didn't look too bad. Some of them weren't holding their weapons right and nearly all of them looked like they would rather be sleeping than playing at guard duty. I produced my Predator pistol and powered it on. Cade did the same thing with one of his Carnifex pistols.

"Wait," Percival said. The two of us turned to him.

"What?"

"I don't think we should use lethal force here."

I was momentarily taken back. Cade had to do a double-take to ensure that he had heard correctly. "What? Why?"

Percival pointed at the guards. "Look at them. Those weapons look like they haven't been maintained, much less fired, since the Reaper war. Their armor is varren-shit and they stand watch like a bunch of untrained rookies who've never been yelled at. These aren't real mercenaries. They're probably not pirates, and if they're a gang then they're extremely small-time. My hunch is that this is a local militia cobbled together from Zeln residents that Seamus paid off to make himself look tougher than he actually is."

Cade and I exchanged a look. We then both reassessed the guards. After a closer inspection it appeared that Cade might actually be correct. Beneath the weapons and armor they looked and acted exactly like civilians. They weren't even acting like gangsters. Maybe Percival was right, and ,aybe Seamus was just playing at appearances.

Well, our own personal rules of engagement were pretty clear. No civilian deaths, even if they were dumb and playing at being PMCs. Percival could tell from the looks on our faces that we had come to the same conclusion that he had. Cade set his Carnifex to stun and I did the same with my Predator. "Percival's right. I don't think it's clear that we can use lethal force here."

Then a thought occurred to Cade. "If Seamus is some low-level shark then how the hell can he afford to pay all of these guys?"

"He's probably got his grubby little fingers in something a bit more profitable," I replied. That meant that we could probably take the gloves off for Seamus. Silver linings – you just had to learn to look for them.

Cade wrapped his arms around Percival's shoulders and planted a big kiss on his cheek. "You're a good boy! Who's my good boy?" he cooed silently. Outraged, Percival drew his own pistol and set it to lethal, waving it in Cade's face and whispering some furious, choice words at him. Cade cackled quietly and then let him go.

"Boys, it's Kasumi. Anything I can help you with?"

"Hey Kasumi, it's Cloud. Could you cut the alarms and deal with the guards on the roof? Non-lethally?"

"Yes of course," she replied. Kasumi always sounded like she was amused with something. "Non-lethal, huh?"

"Yeah. We don't think it's warranted here."

"Refreshing. Consider it done."

All four guards dropped a few seconds later. Damn, she was good. I made my way out of the alley towards the four guards milling around at the entrance. All of them looked at me as if I wasn't a threat and they were used to random strangers walking up to them in the middle of the night. Not one of them raised their weapons.

A human finally got up when I was about six feet away but went down just as quick from a stun round fired by either Cade or Percival. The other three met the same fate. I reached the door without even breaking my stride and began to hack it open. Cade disabled the weapons of the fallen guards while Percival quickly moved their bodies off to the side.

The door opened and inside sat another pair of guards at a makeshift security desk. One was a human snoring away while the other was a salarian busy watching some kind of old vid on his omni-tool, a steaming cup of liquid in one hand. Of course he'd be awake.

Cade stunned the human for good measure. The salarian's eyes grew wide with shock as he saw the three of us enter. Before he could do anything I hit him with a Stasis. Sitting there made him an easy target. He became instantly-enveloped by a light-blue field, frozen in place.

I placed my hands on the desk. His eyes stared fearfully into mine.

"Patrick Seamus," I growled. "Is he here?"

Cade came up beside me and shoved a Carnifex into the salarian guard's face for added effect. The salarian let out what sounded like a muffled squeal.

"When the field drops, you're going to tell me where to find him," I said with deathly finality. The salarian understood that there were not going to be any threats from me. Just pain if I didn't get what I want. I wasn't about to disabuse him of the notion.

The biotic Stasis field ended. The cup he was holding immediately began to shake, spilling droplets of green liquid everywhere on the table.

I gently took the cup out of his hand and set it down. "Where's Patrick Seamus?" I asked him.

Instead of answering my question the salarian pointed a trembling finger at Cade and Percival. "I know you two," he said fearfully. "I used to be a janitor at Afterlife. The mercenaries used to tell stories about the both of you – stories that I could hardly believe!"

The three of us stopped dead in our tracks. Cade's mandibles flapped open in surprise and he thumbed a talon at Percival and himself. "The two of us?"

"Yes!" the salarian nodded emphatically. "You're Cade Kitiarian, the Azure Flash! Former Blackwatch!" he pointed at Cade. "And you're Commander Lancelot Percival, of the N7! The mercenaries call you the Red Reaper! They say your tech armor is red because of all the blood you've gotten on it. You guys are the bane of the Terminus Systems! The bounties on your heads are in the millions! I can't believe that the two of you are here!"

Cade and Percival dropped the tough-guy act and instead both gave each other smug, self-congratulating looks. "Wait," I interrupted. "Just the two of them? What about me? You sure you don't recognize me? Come on."

The salarian gave me a closer look. He squinted his eyes and pursed his brow and thought silently to himself for a few moments.

"Nope. Never heard of you. I could call you the trench coat intruder if you want."

My vision darkened and I could hear my heart pound in my chest. I flipped the switch on my Predator from stun to lethal and pointed it right between the salarian's beady, black eyes but before I could pull the trigger Cade and Percival both jumped on me.

"So sorry for our friend here," Cade said between stifled fits of laughter. Both of his arms were wrapped around one of my arms. "Please tell us where Seamus is and we'll be on our way. We're not looking for any trouble."

"Believe me, that makes me really happy to hear that Azure Flash. I'm not even a real mercenary! I live down the street! Seamus just pays my friends and I to make this place seem more intimidating to his customers. It's a great way to pick up a couple of extra credits a few nights a week. He's upstairs. Take the lift and his apartment is the one at the far end of the hall."

Percival had one hand around my mouth, stifling my screams of rage. His other hand was locked around the wrist of my gun arm, forcing the barrel of my pistol away from the salarian's face. "You have a nice night okay? Feel free to tell those mercenaries that you fought the Azure Flash and the Red Reaper and lived!"

"Oh I will!" the salarian grinned. He seemed to have overcome his initial horror. "I'll tell them all about the Azure Flash and the Red Reaper! There won't be a single person left on Omega who hasn't heard of you two!"

Percival and Cade began to drag me towards a lift behind the desk. All the while I was trying to get a bead on the salarian. "You guys are a lot nicer than the stories, too!" he called out to us. "Also, when I tell this story to everyone what do you want me to call your friend?"

Percival slammed a palm against the lift controls, calling it down. "Trench coat intruder works," he said with a grin.

"Flasher. Trench coat flasher. He uses a lot of flashbang grenades," Cade added. I began to drag the barrel of my pistol towards my friend's head instead.

We took the lift up to the top floor. Once the salarian was safely out of range they let go of me.

I got up from the floor of the lift and brushed the dirt off my coat. "I hate the two of you. I hate you both so much," I said, pouting. I just couldn't understand it. How could I not have gotten a nickname too after all these years? Cade, Percival and I had been a team for almost five and a half years now. I had literally been on every single mission that they had been on.

"Azure Flash… Red Reaper... This is Kasumi. Just wanted to give you boys a heads-up. I think you woke some in-house guards or associates of this Seamus guy or something. Seamus himself may also be awake now. Going to check it out."

"Kasumi this is Red Reaper. Thanks for the heads-up. We'll deal with them," Percival replied.

"Tough break, buddy," Cade said sympathetically. I elbowed him in the diaphragm.

We stepped out of the lift. The master thief was right. Doors began to open and guards began to peak out their heads.

I shot and stunned maybe twelve guards in half as many seconds. My friends just stood by and watched me work with amused looks on their faces. In my rage I almost hit a human kid who had woken up to check out what all the commotion was about, but thankfully Percival had been there to nudge astray my aim.

I finished with the last of the guards and approached the door at the end of the hall. "Kasumi, where's Seamus?"

Seamus is… you won't believe this boys. He's on the other side of the door, trying to hold the handle shut.

My left leg flared with biotic light. I tucked my knee towards my chest and then lashed out with my boot in a full-strength biotic kick. The flimsy metal crumpled with a bang and I heard someone on the other side squeal in pain and surprise. I used my biotics to tear the rest of it away just in time to see a red-haired lump of a man leap to his feet and dash towards a window on the other side of the apartment.

I hit Seamus with another Stasis field, freezing him mid-stride. I then looked around the apartment. It was a decently-sized suite. Old and worn but with nice furniture. Notably there was a wall filled with what looked like collectible figurines put into various poses and outfits. I squinted at them. Very lewd collectible figurines. Very lewd poses and outfits.

As I went to grab a chair from the kitchen unit Cade walked over to Seamus and pulled down his pants so that they were wrapped around his ankles, letting out a childish little chortle as he did so. When my Stasis field wore off, Seamus ended up tripping on his pants and falling face first to the ground. "Get away from me!" he screamed. Seamus tried to crawl away but I pushed him to the ground with my foot and then put my knee down onto his upper back. He began to threaten me but I could only discern maybe a third of what he said because of his thick accent. He shut up when I tapped the heavy barrel of my pistol against his face.

I grabbed the man by his shoulder and sat him down into the chair. Percival cuffed his hands to the back of it. Seamus was a small guy. He couldn't have come up to more than my chest. He was also very pale and a bit overweight. Clearly he had been doing well for himself on Omega, and if he was doing well for himself on Omega then it meant that the gloves could come off a bit.

Kasumi appeared suddenly in a corner of the apartment. She sat down on a comfortable-looking lounge seat and took a bite out of an apple. "Don't mind me boys. Just hear for the show," she waved cheerfully.

Percival pulled up Seamus' pants to give the man some decency and then pulled the three of us aside. He turned to me. "How do you want to play this? It's been a while since we had to do a bona fide interrogation."

"Let the boy have his fun," Cade grinned wickedly, jerking his mandibles over in my direction. "He's got a lot of stuff to work through after what he just went through."

Seamus' upper lip quivered but to his credit he remained quiet. In that moment I was actually more tempted to shoot Cade than Seamus.

I shot Cade a cross glare and then turned to Seamus. My Predator went back into my holster and out came one of my Talon knives. For good measure I let out a bit of my biotics. The curved, eight-inch-long turian standard-issue knife gleamed wickedly beneath that blue light. Percival took up position behind Seamus out of his line of sight in a textbook attempt to keep him uncertain.

"Seamus my friend," I began quietly. "I like to usually kick this sort of thing off with a little introduction. All I need tonight is some information. How I get it and how much pain I cause you is entirely up to you."

He was afraid but not afraid enough. I pressed in close until my face was mere inches from his. "Now rumor is that you've been up to no good. That means that I'm not going to mind if I have to get my hands a little dirty tonight."

Next I put the flat of my blade across his cheek and then I began to drag it across his face. "Now I won't kill you – no. I'll flay you… I'll cut you… I'll take little bits and pieces from you until you end up looking like another slab of meat hanging in a butcher shop. Fingers… toes… even arms and legs. I have a lot of medigel and stims, Seamus. I can really take my time, and by the time I'm done no one will be able to tell that you were once human. Then I'll leave you out on the street. Then I'll let Omega have what's left of you."

I moved my knife from his face to his groin area. Some might call the move clichéd but they could kiss my ass. It had been a while since I'd done this. "So let's begin. Risha D'Miris and Narala T'Loak," I began. "When did you last see them?"

Seamus didn't reply. He just sat there staring at me.

I cleared my throat and tried again. I moved my knife a little closer. "Seamus come on. Don't make this any harder than it has to be. Risha D'MIris and Narala T'Loak," I repeated. "I know you know them. What did they say to you? What did you tell them?"

Instead of answering Seamus leered at me and gave a rough laugh. "You don't have the balls. Oi, this your first time on Omega, lad? Must be. You look like a baby-faced little turd. I drop a bigger shite than you in me' loo every morning."

I was instantly taken back. I fought to control my expression and tried to buy myself some time by just starring him dead in the eye. I heard Cade sidle up behind me. "Need some help?" he whispered.

Seamus looked a lot more pliable than he actually was. "Was' the matter, pretty boy? Cat got your tongue? You going to kneel there all night just scratching my pecker with your wee little pigsticker there or are we going to play?"

I heard both my friends and Kasumi let out laughs. That really did not help the situation. Emboldened, Seamus spat on my face. "Nice jacket. Who are you supposed to be? Doctor-fucking-Who? Inspector-fucking-Gadget? What year is it lad?"

My cheeks turned red, and it didn't help that I was so damn pale. Damn, things were easier when I knew the bad guys were definitely bad guys and I could just kill them, but Seamus was just a low-level loan shark. My friends weren't helping at all. I couldn't see what Cade was doing but Percival was covering his face with both his hands. It looked like Kasumi was recording on her omni-tool.

He was getting to me and he knew it. Seamus believed he had won my friends over and began to laugh as well. "You're just a little wee little shite who's out of his depth aren't ye? Some little kid from a piss-filled pond who discovered he had biotic powers and now he thinks he can swim in the ocean."

"I'm actually a Spectre —," I stammered.

"—Oh! A Spectre now, are ya? Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, eh? Your 'Special Tactics' involve spending a lot of time on your knees in front of an Irishman, lad? Come closer, I got a spot where you can do a little recon—,"

A heavy fist covered in red tech armor crashed into the side of Seamus' head, cutting him off mid-sentence. Seamus groaned and spat out three molars. "Don' start with the head. Makes everything all fuzzy."

"Percival!" I yelled.

My friend knelt down behind Seamus. "What're you doing?" Seamus mumbled. Seamus' arms shook. I heard a series of cracks and the loan shark began to scream in pain.

Percival came around the chair and plucked my knife out of my hand. He sunk it expertly into Seamus' inner thigh, right through the adductor but well away from the femoral, pinning his leg to the chair with minimal bleeding. Seamus howled in pain.

The N7 turned to me. "Buddy, it's over," he said kindly with a sympathetic look on his face. He placed a hand gently on my shoulder. "He's got your number. Let us handle it."

My ego smarted but I knew my friend was right. I'd lost the upper hand and I didn't have the stomach to do what I needed to get it back. I was a bit touched that my friend would step in to get his hands dirty though on my behalf. Percival hated torture. Hated it.

"You're still too soft for this kind of work my friend," Cade added. The turian pulled out his Carnifex and shot one of the lewd figurines on the shelves. This time, Seamus' eyes bugged out of his head. "What the fuck do you think you're doing!? You split-lipped freak!?"

Cade shot another one, causing Seamus to howl even louder than when Percival stabbed him in the thigh. "Risha D'Miris and Narala T'Loak, Seamus! We won't ask again!" Cade ordered sternly, taking his flanging to the next level. Seamus howled. Cade turned to me and let out a sly grin. "I was curious so I looked these little statues up. Turns out they're old collectibles based on an old earth cartoon. Worth a pretty credit."

I crossed my arms. "Figured you'd be interested in shit like that." I glanced over at the nearest statue. It was a girl with short orange hair in a very skimpy outfit. It was cartoon-like so she had big eyes, long, out-of-proportion limbs, and feminine features that had been… exaggerated. I didn't recognize the cartoon she was from.

"It's an 'anime' actually. Not cartoon," Percival clarified.

Seamus still didn't answer. Instead he just sat there hurling heavily-accented obscenities at Cade. The turian just hummed to himself and shot another. The stream of insults were interrupted by another thick crack. This time Percival dislocated Seamus' shoulder. Seamus began to scream again.

While this was all going down Kasumi was walking around the apartment, waving her omni-tool around. She stopped in front of a bookcase, smiled and said "of course" to herself. She pushed it aside to reveal a large, metal safe.

Seamus caught sight of her and turned. "What the fuck!? Don't you fuckin' touch that, you hear!"

Kasumi knelt down and fiddled around with her omni-tool. The door of the safe swung open in seconds. Inside was a small mountain of credit chits. She began to pool them into a large bag she produced seemingly out of nowhere. "Don't worry boys. I'll do a generous 60-40 split. I know how much you guys make after all."

Cade finished shooting every figuring off the first row of shelves and then turned back to Seamus. The Irishman's cursing and threats had morphed into catatonic panting. With a few heatsinks and a good hacking program Cade and Kasumi had cost Seamus probably about several hundred thousand credits in maybe two minutes.

"Well Seamus, I see three more rows of figurines so I can keep going if you want," Cade taunted him. "I also sent a message to my friend. One button and everyone on Omega is going to hear about how you're a C-Sec mole."

Seamus looked dead into Cade's eyes, mortified. That struck a chord with the low-level shark. "You wouldn't dare. Do you know what they'll do to me here?"

Cade just shrugged. "I don't know and to be honest, I don't care. In fact, I kind of think you actually don't know anything about Risha or Narala after all. Unfortunately for you my bar for the naughty list is a lot lower than my friend's here, so I might just kill you off out of spite."

"Wait…" Seamus mumbled. "Wait…"

Success. Cade holstered his Carnifex and Percival put down a set of pliers he'd found somewhere. Cade dropped to a knee in front of Seamus and put a hand real friendly-like on his shoulder. Except it was the dislocated one. Seamus gave a whimpering shout.

"Let's hear it then, Seamus. And remember – what happens to you next really depends on how happy you make me in the next thirty seconds. No pressure. Not a lot of people can make me happy in just thirty seconds. Two really – my girlfriend and the guy standing behind you."

"Hi," Percival waved.

Seamus spat out a wad of blood onto the ground. "Risha D'Meris… Name rings a bell. Lass came to me a few weeks ago looking for a loan. Gave me the same old sob' story you hear from every poor soul here on Omega - Said she'd lost her job, didn't have a credit to her name, and was about to be evicted…" he trailed off.

"And?" Cade pressed him. When Seamus hesitated Cade pulled his Carnifex back out and aimed it blindly behind his back. He fired a shot that came within inches of hitting another statue.

"I sent her to someone else for help, I swear!"

"Who?"

"I do some work for this guy on the side!" Seamus explained. "Nothin' sketch – just a referral service! He's a loan shark too, 'cept he's a bigger fish with deeper pockets! Specializes in extending credits to higher-risk cases!"

"And you sent D'Meris to him?"

"Yes! Guy gave me a list of criteria and she fit the bill, and it wasn't nothing strange neither – just the usual shit we loan sharks consider," Seamus nodded enthusiastically. "Listen, I didn't do nothing to her! I'm just… I'm just a small fry. I loan to small businesses and individuals with assets, I don't take no risky folk on! He pays me to refer him to clientele that I can't handle."

"And why should I believe you?" Cade countered.

Seamus jerked his head at the safe. "I keep a ledger in there. Physical. I record all my transactions in there – I'm old-school like that. Go to…" he wracked his brain. "Uh… go to March 20th…. No, blast – the 21st! Yeah! March 21st! I recorded her name and the referral fee, which I mark with a red stamp."

Cade jerked his head at Kasumi. The thief knelt back down and reached inside. She pulled out a heavy, leather book. "Oh wow, this is fine craftsmanship!" she said, impressed.

"Is he telling the truth or not?"

Kasumi flipped through the book for a moment, then nodded. "Yep, I see her name and the mark. I don't see Narala's though."

Cade turned back to Seamus. "Alright Seamus, you're doing good so far. Now let's see if you can bring it home. Narala T'Loak – did she come to you too? Where is she?"

Seamus let out an angry huff. "That blue bitch? Yeah she did. Came in here all biotic'd up and lookin' chock-full of piss and vinegar. 'Cept I could tell she was just actin' like her mother. She came lookin' for her friend."

"And what'd you do to her? You lie to her?"

Seamus looked at Cade incredulously. "Lie? To a T'loak? You think I'm daft, you bloody scale-muncher? No – I told her where I sent her friend. Told her who I sent her to as well."

"That's awfully charitable of you, Seamus."

Seamus let out a chuckle. "Any one with 'alf a brain on Omega knows they want to be on the good side of the T'Loaks. No – I was as bloody cooperative as a babe."

Cade smiled at Seamus. "And when did this all happen?"

"I dunno – maybe… I think maybe two weeks after I sent D'Meris off. I forget the exact day – I didn't write that down."

Cade exchanged a glance with Percival and I. I could tell that none of us thought that Seamus was lying. The ledger had substantiated what he'd told us about D'Meris, and what he was telling us about Narala made sense motive-wise. There was just no way he'd try to fuck her over. If word of that got out to Arya she would have paid it back ten-thousand fold.

"Okay Seamus," Cade continued. "You're doing great! Just a few more steps!"

"Sure," Seamus shrugged. "He operates out of the Fado District. Name's Smoke – 'course that's just a pseudonym. Address is written near the front of my ledger."

Kasumi flipped to the spot that Seamus had indicated. "It's here," she confirmed. "I'll send it to your omni-tools."

"Excellent. Anything else want to tell me, Seamus?"

The loan shark shook his head. "No, that's all. Swear on me mum's grave, and I swear I didn't do nothing untoward the two lasses. Just sent them along is all."

"And I trust you won't give this Smoke a heads-up that we're coming for him?

Seamus shook his head vehemently. "No. I don't want anything to do with whatever you guys are up to. Don't want to involve myself whatsoever any further. Just want to keep m'head down."

Cade nodded, satisfied. He jerked his head at Percival and my friend knelt down to uncuff the man.

Seamus rubbed his left hand with his right. I could see that half the fingers looked to be bent out of shape, courtesy of Percival.

The N7 slammed a heavy gauntlet down onto Seamus' good shoulder, his red tech armor gauntlet humming as it made contact against the shark's shirt. Funny, I didn't even know he had tech armor gauntlets or could even manifest individual tech armor pieces. Usually they were just… bracer-looking. Those gauntlets looked different. More detailed and they provided more coverage.

"Sorry about all that nasty business. I'm sure that won't be too hard to fix," he nodded at the broken fingers.

"Don't mention it," Seamus said bitterly.

"Oops! Before I forget," Percival added. My friend bent over the shark and yanked his combat knife out of the chair. Seamus howled in agony.

"Relax!" Percival chided. He took out a tube of medigel and squirted it haphazardly all over the wound. "That won't be hard to fix either. I don't think I hit anything important."

Seamus panted and wheezed. He looked up at Percival all bug-eyed and furious and likely chomping at the bit to let loose a new stream of profanities, but seemed to think better of it at the sight of my heavily-armored friend and the red and white stripe running down his arm. Instead, all managed was a strained 'Sure, of course.'

Our omni-tools all suddenly chimed. Cade read the message and smiled. "Well, looks like both Garm and Revak managed to get the Suns and the Bloods on board."

"That was fast. Just leaves Rayla's team them," Percival nodded approvingly. "Seamus, pretend you didn't hear any of that."

"Hear what?" Seamus hissed.

My friends began to pack up and head for the door. The last I saw of Seamus he was kneeling over the fragments of the figurines that Cade had shot.

Percival and Cade waved at the salarian guard one last time as we left the complex, who returned the wave enthusiastically.

Cade held the door of the apartment complex open for me. "Hey champ, tough time tonight huh?"

I looked at my friend, and then down at my boots. "Yeah…" I admitted.

My friend ruffled my hair mockingly. "Don't worry, you'll always be Percival and I's best bud, no matter what the mercenaries call you. You're our little big man."

"Cade I swear to god I will—,"