26: The Confrontation
The drell's apartment was beginning to feel all the more crowded now. It was clear that Chas did not much appreciate the growing crowd that was taking up his home, and he sat in the chair at his desk with his arms folded over his chest and his smooth, scaly features narrowed in an annoyed frown.
'Okay, so why do I want to get involved with some Alliance Intelligence black op?'
Lyssa stood nearby, attention fixed upon him, whilst Sevarn had settled into an armchair nearby. Kanen was off in the bathroom, working maintenance on his environment suit. Booker was standing across the living area, a finger to his earpiece as he attempted to contact anyone else who may have survived the attack on the SOTIG building. So far, he had had no such luck, and his growing aggravation became apparent in his deepening scowl and increasingly volatile tone of voice. Chas offered the man with a scowl of his own, clearly uncomfortable with having the human authorities present in his home.
'Because the people behind everything that has happened want us all dead,' Lyssa told the drell. He shook his head as soon as she said this.
'No, they want you dead. You and your turian friend and these other strays you've picked up. I, on the other hand, have a level of deniability you don't. None of those Cerberus people or those turian black ops know I'm involved, because I've been here the whole time overseeing the messes you've made. I was on secure channels and secure systems. I know how to cover my tracks.'
'Can you be sure of that?' Lyssa asked him.
Chas' scowl softened somewhat, a level of doubt creeping in that had not been there previously. Behind him, he had the shutters down over the windows, keeping out the afternoon light as well as any potential prying eyes. As such, the lights within the apartment were switched on, despite it being only mid-afternoon.
The shuttle they had flown here had been landed in a junkyard some distance away, concealed amongst the hulks of stripped vehicles as best one might conceal a top-of-the-line Alliance-made shuttle. It would likely remain there for now, provided no one else stumbled upon it. And even if they did, it was locked up tight.
'You're a known associate of mine,' Lyssa told the drell. 'Sooner or later, they'll come after you if only to get to me.'
'You can't be sure of that,' Chas told her.
'No, but it's entirely possible.' She stifled a smirk when she saw the drell's dark eyes widen with realisation.
'But that means we can't stay here,' he said suddenly, and he swivelled around on his chair to return his attention to his computer. There, he switched it off, before he grabbed a duffel bag from under the desk and began to stuff hard drives and the like inside of it.
'Exactly right, Chas. We need to leave. We've got a shuttle with everything you need to make a mobile command post out of it.' She had nudged him in just the right direction she needed him to go. Sure, it was possible those people after her might come looking for him, but it was unlikely. She had made an effort to keep her involvement with the mercenary drell hacker out of any reports she made to Cerberus in the past; Chas did not need to know that, of course.
'Yeah, great. Just what I need.' Chas sighed, and he flicked a switch under his desk that set all the other computer monitors about the apartment flashing red. 'I was just getting settled in here, you know.' The red on the monitors, Lyssa surmised, was an indicator that some form of computer virus had been activated that would see every hard drive still connected wiped clean. Chas would not have set up shop anywhere without the means present to clear out quickly, leaving little to no trace of his work.
'What's the plan, then?' Sevarn asked. Lyssa turned to him, having thought this over during the flight here. Booker had since switched off his comms, and at that moment he dropped the earpiece to the floor whereupon he crushed it under one boot. No way one could trace a device that was no longer functional, after all.
'We go find Marelix. He's at Shaw's apartment, so we'll go there. At least, that's one of two things we need to do. The other is to find this decryption key, which is apparently at Kaless Station.' She looked to Booker then, whose formerly severe face had softened with something more akin to deep contemplation. 'Agent Booker?'
'Whatever's on the data Natasha pulled from the Cerberus mainframe, it's critical enough that a lot of people want it back. The turians probably want it to use against Cerberus and the Alliance, whereas Cerberus want it back because it's a clear risk to their operations. I'll go fetch the key from that locker, that is, if it's even still there.'
'You shouldn't go alone,' Lyssa told him. She glanced to Sevarn, who quirked one brow ridge slightly. 'You don't mind going with him, as backup?'
'No, that's not a problem.' Sevarn rose to his feet then, stretching his arms as he did so. He turned to Booker, who appeared a little less confident when faced with this turian. 'Don't worry, Agent Booker. I'm a trained professional, and a biotic. I'll have your back, every step of the way.'
Booker gave him a nod, but otherwise said little in response. Instead, he reached a hand into a pouch on his vest and retrieved an OSD. He held it out to Lyssa, and it was obvious to her then that this was the data he had been referring to.
'Best we keep the key and the data separate,' he told her. 'Hang onto that. Don't lose it.'
'Of course.' Lyssa took the proffered optical drive, little more than a small circular blue disc barely larger than her thumbnail. She dropped it into a pocket on her jacket, still dressed as she was in her otherwise plain civvies. She had little else to wear, and she hardly felt it proper to get back into her Cerberus uniform.
She turned to Chas then, who was just about done packing his bag.
'Chas, you're going to set up in the shuttle and provide overwatch. That goes for Booker and Sevarn when they get to Kaless Station. I'll take the quarian with me to Shaw's apartment. We'll see if we can't snag Marelix.'
'He could have cleared off by now,' Booker said.
'Maybe, but I doubt it. He'd be waiting for Shaw to report back in.'
'Shaw's dead, so he's going to be waiting a while.' Booker's bluntness was simply a result of his growing weariness, not only physically but towards the situation in general. He had lost a lot of good people, and now he intended to get the ones responsible. If that meant assisting a bunch of fugitives who happened to be looking for the same people he was, then by all means he would do just that.
The bathroom door slid open at that moment, and Kanen strolled in. He looked about the group, evidently curious if the movement of his gleaming eyes behind his mask was any indicator.
'Did I miss anything?' He asked.
'Just discussing our next move,' Lyssa replied. 'You're coming with me to find Marelix. Sev and Booker are going to find this decryption key. Once we've got that data decrypted, we might be able to determine why so many people are trying to kill us.'
Kanen nodded his head slowly, although it was evident in his demeanour that he held some doubts. He likely did not feel entirely comfortable travelling with Lyssa, but as it stood he did not have much of a choice. None of them did, really; Kanen had a bounty on his head, Sevarn and Lyssa were being hunted by Cerberus as well as turian black ops and Chas was implicated by association. Booker was the one person here who had the opportunity to leave, but he was hardly the kind of man to run from a fight. Their enemies were out there, and they were overdue for some vengeance. With that in mind, Lyssa pondered as to just who it was who was behind everything. Director Rickard was certainly part of it, but that did not explain the turian black ops. That may have been Marelix's doing, but even that seemed unlikely for a lowly Captain. There was much more going on here, this much was clear.
The apartment complex that had been home to the late Rachel Shaw was located in a more affluent part of the city, unlike that of Chas' own place which had been in a distinctly less-advantaged neighbourhood. As for the drell, he had taken refuge in the shuttle, running things from that makeshift command centre.
The afternoon light had dimmed somewhat with the arrival of the overcast sky that now lay above them. The streets of New Thebes, even in this more uptown area, were strangely quiet and the passersby they did encounter seemed oddly subdued somehow. The chaos that had occurred at the central government district had cast the entire city under the shadow of an increased trooper presence on the streets. Though there was no marked increase in this affluent neighbourhood, there were definitely more CED troopers patrolling the streets in other sections of the city. Here on Anhur, the authorities did not mess around, which could often prove a problem to some as the corruption was known to run deep. Lyssa did not wish to fall into the clutches of some corrupt CED officer, and so with this in mind she and Kanen stuck to the alleyways and kept to the shadows.
Lyssa felt some small relief when they arrived at the complex unmolested. The lobby was quiet, a small, carpeted affair that had a desk but no receptionist or doorman attending it. Rachel Shaw's apartment was on the third floor, and so Lyssa made her way for the cluster of elevators at the other end of the lobby. Kanen followed, and both he and Lyssa carried with them concealed pistols. They could hardly walk the streets armed to the teeth, but knowing where they were going and who they were likely to find there had necessitated carrying a gun.
Lyssa hit the button to call the elevator. She waited, feeling that small anxiety again, and she found herself looking to the left and then to the right-hand end of the corridor about her, repeatedly. Kanen hung back some distance, keeping watch on the entrance. The wait for the elevator seemed to drag on for hours, until finally there came the familiar ding that announced its arrival. The doors slid open, the space within empty, and both Lyssa and Kanen filed into it.
As soon as they were in, Lyssa closed the doors and turned to the quarian. It was awkward, having to rely on someone she hardly knew to watch her back. However, it had seemed best to send Sevarn to find the decryption key whilst she dealt with Marelix. At least that way, one person she actually trusted was on that other task at the same time she was here.
'For what it's worth, I'm sorry about Natasha.' Lyssa had always found the act of giving someone her condolences an awkward one, and every time she tried she ended up regretting her words or even the tone in which she spoke them. This time around felt no different.
The elevator started moving and a quiet, easy-going synth tune began to play from the speakers set into the ceiling above them. Kanen turned to her, his shining eyes narrowed with an uncertain gaze.
'It's not worth much, Raine,' he told her.
'I know that. But I wanted to say it.'
'Yeah, well, let's just get this shit over with, all right?' Kanen was certainly in no mood for conversation. Lyssa sighed, before she returned her attention towards the door in front of them. The display at the panel by the door blinked over, counting up from the first floor, then to the second, and then finally to the third. As it stopped, she pulled out the Paladin pistol she had been carrying under her jacket. Kanen took his concealed Carnifex pistol from where it had been tucked within a small compartment at his left thigh armour, and with a flick had allowed the weapon to extend to its primed position.
The doors slid open, revealing a plain, blue-toned corridor. Lyssa recalled the building layout Chas had pulled from the city's public records, and so stepped out of the elevator and headed right. She kept her gun low, although if anyone saw her with it out here it would not necessarily be an unusual sight. Tenants here might assume she was with the authorities, or some kind of mercenary.
Kanen trailed along several paces behind, keeping an eye on the other end of the corridor and at the handful of doors they passed by. Shaw's apartment was down the end, and here Lyssa slowed her steps, taking care to ensure each footfall was not so loud as to draw any alert ears her way. She paused by the side of the doorway, bringing her pistol up. Behind her, Kanen stopped a few feet from her back, his own gun held low but nonetheless at the ready.
Captain Lassius Marelix was a turian, and as such he would be difficult to miss in a place like this. He also had an unusual appearance for one of his kind, as Sevarn had informed her. He was deathly pale, practically white, and he was fitted with ocular implants to compensate for previously poor eyesight. The implants were likely advanced enough to offer him viewing modes that no organic eye could match, which would certainly give him an edge if this were the case. As such, they would have to approach this turian with extreme caution, all the more so seeing as he likely had an eight-year-old girl as a hostage.
Lyssa darted past the door and took position by its side. She looked across to Kanen, who had stopped by its other side. Neither stood within the doorway, as that was the most likely point from which any weapons fire would come. There was really only one way into the apartment, and they were in no position to go scaling the side of the building in an effort to find an alternate entrance through a window or some such. They would have to confront Marelix directly, and Lyssa felt a degree of uncertainty in such an approach.
The door was locked, unsurprisingly. The red light switched on at its panel made this clear. She frowned, before she looked to Kanen.
'Could you hack this?' She asked him. Kanen returned her gaze, frowning behind his faceplate, before he rolled his eyes and activated his omni-tool. The security within the computerised lock was better than most, as was to be expected from an upper-class apartment building, and as such it took Kanen about half a minute to work his quarian-made hacking routines through that security. Just when Lyssa felt that the wait was beginning to drag on a little too long, the light on the panel switched to a pleasant cool blue tone. Kanen stepped back, and Lyssa put a hand to the panel, preparing to activate it.
'You follow my lead, all right?' She told the quarian, her voice low.
'Yeah, sure.' Kanen sighed, but otherwise appeared to relent. 'You know, until recently I was my own operator—'
He did not get to finish his sentence. The thump of some form of heavy rifle sounded from within the apartment, and part of the wall behind Kanen exploded in a shower of dust and shards of metal. The quarian fell forwards, a gaping and bloody hole shot through his upper back. Lyssa watched him for a few seconds, stunned, as the quarian simply crumpled into a heap on the floor. His gun fell from his grasp and a low groan escaped his throat before his body went limp altogether, the exit wound at his front all the more ragged and bloody. Lyssa was no expert on quarian physiology, but their hearts were roughly where a human heart would be. In Kanen's case, most of his had been blasted to shreds.
Lyssa threw herself to the floor as more weapons fire sounded from within the apartment. Thump-thump-thump, the noise only slightly muffled by the walls between her and the shooter. The heavy rounds punched through the wall above her, showering her with dust, and as she scrambled along the floor and clear of the apartment entrance she realised that the shooter was tracking her through that wall. It was Marelix, it had to be, and it seemed his ocular implants offered him a means of tracking his foes through certain solid materials.
With this in mind, Lyssa rolled onto her side and started shooting through the wall ahead of her, doing so rapidly and at a somewhat random cone of fire. She thought of Shaw's daughter in there, realising her mistake after she had fired about a half dozen times. Any one of those errant shots could have hit the girl as likely as they could have hit Marelix. Yet, the shooting had ceased for the moment, and Lyssa scrambled upon her feet before she turned her attention to the apartment door and the multiple holes that had been shot through it.
She glanced through those holes, weapon raised. She did not see any turian standing within the living room on the other side, nor any little girl for that matter. The door, hanging somewhat loosely within its housing, slid aside easily at the light pull she gave it. The living room beyond was spacious yet dark, the shutters drawn over the windows with only one or two lamps about the place switched on. She stepped into the gloom with her pistol raised, and somewhere ahead she sighted movement against an opening that led into a corridor.
She ducked as the turian's rifle thundered again. Returning fire, she sent about three shots downrange, watching as the turian's kinetic barrier flared up and then failed. He turned and ran down the corridor, and Lyssa rose to her feet and gave chase. It was obviously Marelix, and he was dressed in blue-black armour adorned with a simple camouflage pattern. He had retreated into a back room, and amongst the gunfire and the pounding of her beating heart she thought she could hear a child crying somewhere within the apartment.
'Marelix!' She shouted, charging into the room ahead. There was a light on in here, and she found herself in what she assumed was the daughter's bedroom judging from the small single bed and the posters and stuffed animals scattered about the place. Marelix was there, squatting low, rifle on the floor by his side with one hand clenched about a pistol. A girl, no older than eight, was stood in front of him dressed in what Lyssa assumed were her pyjamas. The girl was crying, and understandably so, whilst the pale turian practically spoke by her ear. His glowing blue eyes seemed to flare as he regarded Lyssa, his flat nose wrinkling with noticeable disdain.
'Any closer and I'll kill the girl,' he said, finger on the trigger and his other arm tight about the girl. 'You, Lyssa Raine, may be a dangerous woman but even you could not live with the death of a child on your conscience.'
'That's your assumption,' Lyssa stated, even if she knew her voice did not hold quite the level of conviction that she had wanted it to. She lined up her pistol, contemplating her shot. One wrong move and the girl would die, and that would be at Lyssa's own hands. Could she live with that? Was it worth taking down Marelix?
'You're the one making assumptions.' The turian's voice was smug, containing the haughty tone that she had come to expect from so many of his species. 'You think I won't kill this girl? I certainly won't weep for the death of a human.'
'Shaw was just a job for you, then?'
'A job?' Marelix smiled, baring his pointed teeth. 'A pleasant job, certainly, but a job nonetheless. I needed a way into SOTIG, and she was the weakest link there. As for you, well, you were not anticipated. But it is the wildcards such as yourself that make this line of work so much fun, wouldn't you agree?'
Lyssa did not reply. Instead, she shifted her aim slightly and fired, the noise of the shot within the small bedroom enough to send her ears ringing. The pistol that Marelix had in his hand went flying from his grasp, as did one of his fingers, blown off below the knuckle with a thin stream of dark blue blood spurting after it. He let out a pained cry and the girl he held before him let out a scream. Marelix stumbled enough for Lyssa to get a better line on him, and she sent another bullet across the room that struck him in the chest. He fell backwards, pulling the girl down with him. All the while, the pain that had only just previously wracked his features had dissipated, replaced with something else, something much more determined.
He had his arm tight around the girl's neck now. Lyssa stepped forwards, eyes widening when she saw that the bastard was trying to strangle the life from her. She swore, and she levelled her pistol at Marelix again, looking over him whilst the girl squirmed and kicked within his powerful grasp.
'Stop,' Lyssa ordered, but unsurprisingly, Marelix did not stop. He kept squeezing, tighter and tighter about the girl's throat. Her face was turning red, her struggle becoming feebler, her breaths short and laboured. Lyssa had wanted Marelix alive; now, it seemed she would have to take a chance and stop him here by any means she could.
She fired again, putting this round through his right shoulder. That had been the arm he had tight about the girl's neck, and as the round blew a hole through him there the limb's grasp about the girl slackened. Lyssa reached down and pulled the child off of the turian, dragging her in close. The girl, choking and sobbing in fear and in pain buried her face against the side of her rescuer.
Marelix's right arm hung limp by his side. His breathing was heavy and laboured, and dark blue blood stained the armour at his chest. Lyssa glared down at him, unable to quite believe that the bastard still had that smug, self-assured look about him. What did he know that she did not?
'You didn't organize the attack on the convoy?' She asked him, her voice laced with contempt. She wanted nothing more than to see this man dead. Yet, she needed information, and so far, he was her only lead.
Marelix did not reply. Instead, he coughed, blood and spittle spraying forth.
'What about Salak Vok? Did you hire him?'
Again, no reply. Marelix looked into her eyes, and she saw a malevolent glee in those gleaming blue orbs of his that sent a renewed anger surging through her. So many dead, and for what?
'Who do you work for?' She asked him, and her voice hardened, rising in volume somewhat. She gently nudged the crying child from where she cowered against her, coaxing her to get behind her. As soon as she was there, Lyssa stepped forwards and knelt by Marelix's side. She pressed the barrel of her gun against his left kneecap, the threat in the gesture clear.
'You don't know what you're getting into,' Marelix stated. 'This is bigger than you, even me.' His voice was strained, and as he spoke more blood seeped from his mouth. Lyssa could stabilise him with medi-gel, but she would do so only as a last resort. The last thing she wanted was to keep this turian alive for any longer than necessary.
'What am I getting into, then?'
Marelix did not reply, not immediately. His right arm, rendered near useless by the bloody hole blasted through the shoulder blade there, was of no threat. His left, however, had gone lower to his waist. Lyssa saw this, and she saw the knife he attempted to pull from a sheath there. She lifted her gun and, instead of aiming for a leg, she instead put a bullet through his upper left arm.
Marelix howled in agony at this latest wound, blood spattering across the floorboards. The little girl standing some ways behind Lyssa let out a startled shriek. Lyssa wondered how the girl might cope after everything that had happened here, figuring she was likely to be traumatised. With this in mind, she turned to the girl.
'Get out of here,' she told the girl. 'Wait for me in the living room.'
The girl looked confused for a moment, but a sharp wave from Lyssa was enough to send her running. As soon as she was gone, Lyssa looked down at Marelix again, her features contorting into a scowl.
'You tell me who's behind all of this and I'll get you to a hospital,' Lyssa told him. 'And maybe then, you might get full use back of your arms.'
No reply came right away. Rather, Marelix let out an angered, if pained growl. Lyssa leaned over him, pressing the barrel of her gun against his crotch. The implication was clear, and Marelix's belligerence seemed to fade immediately.
'Come closer,' the turian told her, his voice barely above a whisper. He was fading fast, with a pool of his own blood having since formed about him on the floor. Lyssa leaned in as close as she was comfortable in doing so, half-expecting him to try and bite her neck open or something else equally ferocious. Instead, he whispered a name into her ear that confused her, if only because she did not immediately believe it. And yet, there was no reason for this monster to lie in this case.
'You're going need to do some real fast explaining,' she told him. Marelix just laughed at her then, a slow, raspy chuckle that was underlaid with something wet, phlegmatic even. He spat in her face, delivering more blood than spittle. Wiping the muck away with one sleeve, she struck the turian hard across the jaw with the hilt of her pistol. This was enough to snap his head back and knock out a few of his pointed teeth, with more of his dark blue blood spilling forth.
Lyssa stood up then, looking down at the turian Captain with a mix of disgust and anger creasing her face. He looked as if he was about to say something, yet whatever it was to be would remain unheard. Instead, a gunshot rang out from somewhere behind her, and Marelix jerked somewhat where he lay as another bloody hole was shot through his torso.
Lyssa spun around, gun raised. She lowered it almost immediately, for it was Shaw's daughter who stood just inside the doorway now, a small compact pistol in hand. Presumably, it was one her mother had had stashed away, and the girl had been smart enough to know where to find it and just when to use it.
Marelix let out a low, drawn-out groan as the last vestiges of life left him. He fell limp where he lay, eyes wide open, yet as they remained open the glow within them started to fade. Lyssa looked to the shocked, tearful eyes of the eight-year-old girl with a gun in her hands and found herself dumbfounded for the first time in a long while.
'It's okay,' she told the girl, and she slid her own gun back into place at her hip. Holding up her hands as to show the girl she was unarmed, she took a few steps towards her. 'He won't hurt you again.'
'He didn't hurt me,' the girl said. She still had the gun raised, yet it was shaking in her grasp. Further tears trickled from her eyes. 'He hurt my mommy.'
Lyssa did not have the heart to tell the little girl that her mother was dead, and that Marelix was not responsible for that latest eventuality.
A network of both above ground and underground magnetic rail lines weaved their way throughout the city of New Thebes and to areas beyond. After the Rebellions, the monorail had been among the first thing rebuilt, as it was simply too critical a means of transportation for so many citizens to be left in a state of disrepair. Given the size of New Thebes, the public transit system was a necessity, and millions of people travelled upon it every day.
As such it was hardly surprising that Kaless Station was a hub of activity. It was the earliest built station of its kind, a large and stylised rectangular structure upon which had been constructed an ornate dome taking into its design certain elements of batarian architecture, with weaving patterns carved into the stonework throughout. The station itself was situated some ways north of the city's central government district, and after the events that had transpired there earlier much of that district had been cordoned off. Armed troopers secured checkpoints at the many roads that went into that area, with careful examination performed on any vehicle and its occupants attempting to gain entry. The local government was not taking any chances, and Sevarn did not envy anyone who had to pass through these checkpoints and endure the suspicion and delay they brought with them. Thankfully, Kaless Station was some distance outside of this immediate cordon, its squat and ornate form standing out amongst the drab tenements and office buildings that surrounded it.
At the base of the steps that went up to the station's main entrance, there was erected a bronze statue of two soldiers in armour. Specifically, carved onto their figures was the emblem of the Eclipse mercenary organization, and the statue itself was footed with a plaque upon which words commemorating the Eclipse involvement in the war were etched: To the peacekeepers and the fighters, to those who fell in the fight for freedom for all and the abolition of slavery: We shall never forget you.
A cold breeze wafted through the street. Sevarn followed Booker by a few paces, and the pair passed on by the statue and made their way up the steps and through the station entrance. There was a security checkpoint just inside the main doors, before which the lobby opened up onto a vast, open chamber brimming with people hurrying about from platform-to-platform. A row of partitioned counters was off to the left, with queues forming before more than a few. After that, waist high gates watched by cameras and the occasional bored guard kept track of those who passed on through or exited, ensuring that travellers carried with them the tickets necessary.
Booker paused just inside the doorway when he saw the security checkpoint and the scanning booths next to it. Sevarn sidled up alongside him, exchanging glances with the grim-faced operative. To better blend in with the civilian setting, Booker had discarded his combat vest and cleaned himself up a bit, although the sleeves of his jacket were still flecked with telltale dark red stains. Blood, but not his own.
They had expected there to be security measures in place, and so neither had come armed. As uncomfortable as this made Sevarn, it was best to get in without drawing unwanted attention. He still had his biotics, which was more than he could say for Booker. Even so, the human resumed his path ahead with purpose, unfazed with the prospect of going into a potentially hostile location without a weapon.
The guard at the desk by the scanners barely looked up as Booker and Sevarn strode through the scanners. No alarms sounded, and their entrance was quickly followed by several others, citizens of Anhur of both the human and batarian persuasion. The mismatched pair, human and turian, started on for the main hall, which spread out before them. The dome from outside was above them now, its interior forming a sizeable portion of the roof overhead. Within its rounded walls were erected stylised stone carvings of batarian make, representations of old pagan deities and the like.
'The lockers are this way,' Booker told Sevarn. 'You keep your distance while I go find the one we need.'
Sevarn nodded in understanding. Booker moved on ahead, weaving his way through the crowd. Ahead, large arch-shaped windows allowed the afternoon light to spill in. A PA system sounded, and an automated female voice announced the latest arrivals and departures. This was followed by another automated voice, that of a gruff-sounding male that spoke in the common batarian tongue for the benefit of anyone of that species not wearing a translator, repeating the previous announcement in that language.
Sevarn kept Booker in his view as he followed after the man by several metres. Past the ticket sales booths, some manned and others automated, there was a wall that served to break up part of the hall. Behind that were the lockers, rows and rows of them, each one about half as long as Sevarn was tall and little more than half a metre in width. Sevarn kept an eye on Booker as he went about his search, running his eyes over the rows of lockers in an effort to find the one that the dying Natasha had designated.
Sevarn loitered by a stone column some distance away. He felt oddly alone, despite the dozens of people milling about. He looked to be one of the few turians here, not the only one but certainly part of a very small minority. He sighted one across the large hall, emerging from a door marked 'Staff Only'. A maintenance worker of some sort, his facial plates were a dull grey and lacking in lustre, suggesting he was close to middle-aged. Likely a former mercenary from the Rebellions who had settled, as this was about the only likely possibility Sevarn could come up with that would explain why one of his own would want to live on this planet. Sevarn had not been on Anhur long, but to say he hated the place would be an understatement.
'Lieutenant?' A voice sounded from behind him. Sevarn frowned, unsure if he had heard it right, if only because he thought he recognized such a tone. Nonetheless, he turned around, partly out of curiosity and partly because there were few people within this place who would know of his status as an officer within the Hierarchy's military.
He froze when he saw who was standing behind him. Sevarn stared for a moment, unable to help but look utterly dumbfounded. The man who stood only a few feet from him now was supposed to be dead.
'Colonel?'
'You look surprised, Lieutenant.' Calen Venarus looked well, too well in fact. After all, Sevarn had seen him get shot dead only days before. As it stood, the Colonel was outfitted in a set of padded black civvies, as best to protect him from the chill of the Anhur winter. He looked calm, as if his "death" had been the least unusual thing to happen to him recently. As for Sevarn, the younger turian was simply stunned.
'What's going on, Colonel?' Sevarn asked him. Venarus looked about the hall they stood in, at the dozens of people milling about, at the batarian-made décor and to the large windows behind them that allowed the winter sunshine to stream on in. And then, he locked a more serious gaze upon Sevarn.
'We need to talk,' he told him. 'You probably have a great many questions.'
'That would be an understatement, sir.'
'Are you here alone?'
'No, sir. I have an associate with me.' That seemed like the most apt descriptor, if only because he would not classify Booker as a "friend". 'He's on our side.'
'I would hope so, Lieutenant. One can never be short of allies.' Venarus looked past him, and his eyes seemed to gaze in the general direction of Booker. The human operative was behind the distant partition wall, attempting to locate the locker as specified by Natasha.
Venarus returned his attention to Sevarn again, and he offered the young turian a warm smile, the kind of smile one might expect to see from a kindly uncle.
'We should sit down, Lieutenant,' Venarus stated, and he motioned for Sevarn to follow. 'Just over here. You and I, we need to talk. I have a proposition for you.'
