Liara knew that the rat-faced human in the gray suit was trouble the moment she set eyes on him. And then, after her initial sighting, he kept showing up. He'd been conspicuously present in several public areas during the last week. She had not yet caught him looking at her, but he was always in a position where he could keep an eye on her. The next time she saw him, she was planning to confront him.

But then he showed up at her office. Nyxeris was a little hesitant as she told Liara the news. "I know he doesn't have an appointment, but he's very insistent. He gave me this."

The adjutant handed a small pin to Liara. The pin bore a hexagonal, orange-and-black logo which the broker recognized immediately.

Liara sighed. "Send him in, please." She rose from her desk as Nyxeris ushered in the rat-faced man who'd been shadowing her. She kept her expression neutral as she shook hands.

"Dr. T'Soni? I'm Harper, pleased to meet you. Thank you for seeing me."

Liara nodded at Nyxeris, who closed the door. She gave a fake smile to the man. "I have to admit, I'm a little surprised to see you. Please, have a seat."

They sat. "Why are you surprised?" asked Harper.

"I made it clear to Cerberus that our transaction was a one-time-only affair."

Harper smiled. "Perhaps we simply wish to hire your services. You deal with a lot of different people. Why not us?"

She considered her words before replying. "As a broker, I have to appear neutral to all parties. Your organization has, shall we say, created quite a bit of antagonism. If I were to perform work for you, I would have to carefully judge the damage it might do to my reputation if news of it leaked."

The gray man chuckled. "Not to mention, we sometimes have a reputation for broken promises."

Liara shrugged. "I wasn't going be be so rude as to mention it, but yes. That is a concern as well."

Harper produced an OSD and slid it across Liara's desk towards her. "Watch that, and tell me if we break promises."

Liara felt her heart beat a little faster as she picked up the disc. If it was what she thought it was...

Harper smiled wider and gestured. "Please, go ahead. I'll wait."

The OSD contained a single vid. It showed a man in bulky gray armor standing in a holographic cage. She gripped the edge of the desk as she looked in the man's face. A fine array of scars crisscrossed the man's face, and she could make out the glow of cybernetic tissue around those scars.

The face itself was one she saw in her dreams. It was one of the few pleasant things in those dreams. A face with square and strong features, short brown hair, and blue-gray eyes that she knew could be warm or flint-hard.

Right now, those eyes were hard. "Let's make one thing clear," he said to whomever was connected to the cage. "I'm not working with you. I'm using your resources to solve the Collector threat. You can suggest how I perform my mission and feed me whatever intel you have, but I alone will dictate my actions. Is that clear?"

"Quite clear, Shepard," replied a whiskey-polished voice. "We have several dossiers of potential team members compiled for you ."

"You can keep your dossiers," snapped Shepard. "I already had a team."

"Most of them have moved on," replied the voice. "It has been two years, after all."

The hard look in Shepard's eyes faltered. "You don't have to remind me."

"And you are still recuperating," said the voice smoothly. "So just read over the dossiers. Get your feet under you, and get a feel for your ship." The voice chuckled. "I already know that you'll agree with my choice of pilot."

The cage faded, and another familiar voice sounded from offscreen. This one was higher-pitched and jovial. "Hey, Commander. You're looking pretty good for a zombie. Although if you start gnawing on my head, I'm gonna ask the Alliance for my old job back."

Shepard's face went slack with shock, and then he turned. The Commander's face lit up in the smile that Liara remembered so well. "Joker! You son of a bitch!"

The video ended.

Liara looked up impassively at Harper. "How long ago?"

"A little over six weeks ago," replied Harper. "He's already on the move. Even The Illusive Man is impressed with his speed, and he doesn't impress easy."

She tapped her fingers on the table. "As much as I appreciate the update, I assume you have an ulterior motive for showing me this. And for following me around this past week."

Harper gave a one-arm shrug. "We had, as you said, considered our interaction to be one time only. But we still kept tabs on you. As long as your work did not interfere with ours, we were content to simply observe."

"You said 'were'," said Liara. She felt a little tingle of unease in her gut. She was pretty sure where this was going.

The Cerberus man nodded. "You have been telling tales out of school, Dr. T'Soni. We know that you met with members of the Organization, and that you revealed your prior deal with us. Including the reason behind Project Lazarus."

Liara kept her face very still, but inside she wanted to smash the man into the ground with a biotic field. She continually swept her office for listening devices, but Cerberus must have gotten a few in here despite her caution.

When she did not reply, Harper smiled gently. "We're not angry, Dr. T'Soni. As you said, you are a neutral party. And you didn't reveal anything damaging. Shepard's return is now public knowledge, after all. Since you have a contract with the Organization, go ahead and fulfill it." He leaned forward, and suddenly he was no longer smiling. "But make no mistake. We are watching both you and them. And if you try to warn them of our surveillance, we will know. And in that case we will become...less friendly."

Liara still didn't reply. He raised an eyebrow. "Are we clear?" he asked.

Liara nodded.

Harper smiled. "I'll show myself out. Have a good day, Dr. T'Soni. And keep that OSD. Consider it a reminder of what we've done for you."

She leaned back in her chair after he'd left. Her initial rage was fading, to be replaced by the cold analytical part of herself that she'd come to rely on during her years as an information broker.

The one cardinal sin of spycraft was to reveal to an opponent that you had an inside source of information. It invariably led to that opponent altering their methods. Codes were changed, employees were scrutinized more carefully, and bug sweeps became more stringent. Revealing inside info was a good way to lose the very channel used to get that info.

And yet this 'Harper' had done just that. Liara's initial instinct had been to surreptitiously warn Persephone that Cerberus was watching them. Off the top of her head she knew of at least three different ways that she could send a warning without tipping off Cerberus. Her past with Persephone made it easy.

So perhaps warning them was what Cerberus wanted her to do. If she warned Persephone, then 'Hadlock's' team would go into high alert. And then what? Then they'd stick together to watch each other and...ah, she saw now what Cerberus had planned.

Liara stood and walked out into the reception area. "Did we hear back from Number Nine?" she asked.

Nyxeris nodded. "They've made contact. We're now able to communicate with this 'Ghost' person."

"Good. Come into my office. We have some messages to write and send."

----------------------------------------

Even though the Helen was planetside, they still needed to keep a watch. Right now it was Mackie's turn. He slouched in the first officer's seat in the cockpit as he flicked with bored eyes through the various external views. So far it didn't seem like anybody was massing an army to attack their ship. Actually, it seemed like everybody was somewhere else. He couldn't see anybody around.

Then he finally saw somebody walking up the causeway. It was an asari - no big surprise, since Illium was an asari colony - and she was wearing some kind of green uniform and had a satchel over one shoulder. As she began walking up the gangway to the ship, Mackie got on the general intercom.

"We've got a visitor, folks. One asari, looks like a courier."

"Got it," replied John. "Take your places, everyone."

----------------------------------------

John and Persephone were the ones to go up into the airlock and talk to the courier. After the 'all clear' was sent, everyone gathered in the mess. John held a large envelope

"An actual physical message?" asked Mackie. "That seems overly cautious."

Nathan shrugged. "It may be a condition set by our 'Ghost' friend."

John slit open the envelope in the meantime and read through the note inside. He nodded and set it on the table. "It's on," he said. "We have a meeting place and time as well as names to exchange with each other. Whoever does the meet needs to be alone, although the 'Ghost' will accept us having one other person nearby for security."

Bast leaned over and read the note. "Revassly Plaza? I guess it shouldn't be surprising that it's a public area."

Nathan turned to the terminal and called up images of the plaza. Mackie and Bast leaned over his shoulders to look as well.

"I don't like the number of buildings around," said Bast. "This is going to be a nightmare to keep secure."

"It's got a lot of exit points as well," said Nathan. "That must be why our 'Ghost' insisted on it."

John held up a hand. "Remember, we're not trying to capture her. Ideally we get the information we need and get out of here. If only one person is to meet her...Nathan, I think we need you to do the face-to-face."

The analyst nodded. "And we will need to proceed cautiously. Right now, I'm assuming this person is a professional rival of Okuda's. But what if she can put us in touch with him directly? Should we take the opportunity?"

John considered what would follow. If they actually met with Okuda, then what? The thief certainly wasn't going to turn himself in. And the knowledge in Okuda's head was dangerous; even if he swore himself to silence there was no guarantee that the information would stay safe. No, if they crossed paths with Okuda they would have to kill him. It was the math he should have applied on Carcosa. One life in exchange for thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands. He wouldn't make that mistake again. "Yes, we should try for contact," he said aloud.

Persephone picked up the note. "So we're to ask if she's Little Wing, and she's supposed to ask if we're Terius Aberion." Her eyes became puzzled. "Little Wing?"

Camicia perked up at the last name. "Terius Aberion?"

John had joined the little gaggle of people around Nathan looking at plaza schematics, but now he turned around to fix both of them with a dark-eyed stare. "What is it?"

Persephone set the note back down "Little Wing is a name with personal meaning to Liara. It's an unusual choice."

The entire crew now knew that there was some sort of past between Persephone and Liara, but that was all they knew. Even John wasn't in the loop; the Joining he'd done with Persephone hadn't gone into her memories. John's eyes narrowed. If this was going to impact the mission, then he'd have to start digging. "Could it be a message to us?"

The asari nodded. "It has to be. She wouldn't use that name lightly. I can't imagine what it means. The only thing that comes to mind is that it was a name said to her just before her mot...before she was attacked and had to defend herself."

"All right, so Liara is warning us of a possible attack, perhaps by this 'Ghost'." John turned to Camicia. "What about the second name? You seemed to recognize it."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

The turian tapped a talon on her chin as she thought. "Yes, but only because it's from a famous turian drama. Terius is the villian of the story."

Mackie looked back at the turian. "So Liara is saying we're the bad guys? That makes no sense."

"Indeed not," said Nathan. "I think it might be more of a warning, as was the 'Little Wing' mention. What happened to Terius in the story?"

"He was killed in battle," said Camicia. "Terius housed himself in a fortification famed for its strength. The hero of the story is a clever turian named Postucus. He made it look like his army was massing outside of Terius' fort, at a location which would give Terius the advantage. Terius took the bait and rode out with his army to crush Postucus. But the supposed army was only a few small divisions. Postucus snuck the rest of his army into the fort behind Terius and captured it, then came back out and destroyed Terius' army."

John thumped a fist softly on the table. "Got it. There's going to be an attack on us when we meet the 'Ghost'. The people behind the attack want us to know about it, so that we'll send almost everyone there to protect Nathan at the plaza. And then they come and capture or destroy the Helen while there's only one or two people on board. Even if we evade the attack in the plaza, anybody left will be stuck on the planet with no easy way to get off. They could be picked off at leisure."

"If that's the plan, then who's 'they'?" asked Bast. "Oh. Of course. Cerberus."

Gabby snorted. "I guess it was too much to hope we'd seen the last of them."

"Fat chance," replied Mackie. "They're like cockroaches. So what's the next step, then? Do we call off the meeting?"

"This is our only lead to Okuda," said Nathan. "We have to go through with it." He looked again at the plaza schematic. "It's going to be difficult to manage, though. If we send too few people to the meeting, then any Cerberus attack at the plaza has a chance of success. And if Camica takes the Helen off-planet, it will be difficult to get a quick extraction if we need one."

"And if we try to change the meeting location, our 'Ghost' won't go for that," added Persephone.

"Can you get schematics of the plaza infrastructure?" asked John. "Things like storm drains and such?"

Mackie groaned. "Dude, do you have a thing for crawling through sewers?"

Camicia crossed her arms. "Just in case I have to drive any of you from the plaza, let's get one thing clear. I put up with that nonsense once. If you get all slimed up this time, you're walking."

"Duly noted," said John. "So, we need to have a productive meeting with the 'Ghost', repel a possible Cerberus attack on that meeting, and also keep them from destroying or capturing our ride." He checked the note again. "We have six hours before we need to head to the meeting. We also have some really clever and devious bastards around this table. Let's see what we can come up with in that time."

----------------------------------------

Nathan shrugged a little; the movement made the emergency shield generator dig into his back. It was strapped directly to his skin under his shirt, hooked to a radar system that should, in theory, activate if it detected an incoming bullet. The setup would probably stop a few sniper rounds, but that was all.

He walked into the plaza. It had multiple tiers, and was composed of white concrete with dark red tiles placed here and there in an abstract pattern. Around him rose several huge skyscrapers pointing into the blue sky. He really didn't like that last part. There were way too many places for snipers to hide.

The note said to walk to the center of the plaza and remove his jacket. It was now midday, and the plaza was about half-full of pedestrian traffic. Nathan made his way through the semi-throng and reached the center. He carefully shrugged out of his jacket and stashed it under his arm.

It couldn't have been more than two minutes, but it seemed like an eternity before he heard a quiet contralto voice at his elbow.

"Are you Terius Aberion?"

Nathan turned, and saw nobody. He looked around with a little befuddled air. "Um, hello?"

"Yes or no?" The voice was now at his other elbow. Nathan knew without looking that it came from thin air.

"Yes," he said. "Are you Little Wing?"

"I am. You should turn on your omni-tool and appear to be taking a call, otherwise you're going to look like a fool talking to thin air."

Nathan did so. "I now understand how you got your name."

"You mean 'Ghost'? I'm not the one who started that." The voice's location shifted in space as the invisible woman moved around him. "Is there anyone else with you?"

"Just one, as you requested. A man with a black beard and black suit near the plaza entrance. He's just here to make sure I'm safe."

"Yes, I thought he might be with you. Before you ask, I'm here by myself." The low but feminine voice took on a slightly bitter tone. "I tend to work better alone. What do you want?"

"Before I get to that, I need to warn you. We suspect there may be an attack on us in the next few minutes."

"You suspect?"

"It might be nothing. A naming coincidence. But just in case that happens, is there a way to contact you directly?" This was the moment where Nathan half expected his mysterious questioner to simply leave.

"Perhaps," she replied. "That depends on what you want."

"I'm looking for Keiji Okuda. Do you know him?"

There was a very long pause. "I do. Why do you need to find him?"

"I just need to meet him," replied Nathan. "It's safer if you don't know why."

The voice was now behind him. "And what will you do if you meet him? Do you have a job?"

Nathan decided a little honesty would help. "No. He has information that I need."

"Information that he stole, you mean."

"Yes."

"From you?"

"I can't say."

The invisible thief gave a snort. "You don't need to. I knew you smelled of the Alliance."

"I'm not Alliance. Not exactly."

"What does that mean?" The voice was now on edge. She was clearly ready to simply vanish.

Nathan felt a little bead of sweat run down his forehead as he thought very fast. Something was off about this. This 'Ghost' character knew that Nathan was seeking Alliance secrets. But Okuda's dual identity as 'Rumoi' was something that the thief had kept very private. There was no way that this person would know about it. Unless...

"I think I understand now," he said. "You and Okuda are friends."

"Something like that."

They were probably lovers, then. Nathan chose his next words very carefully. "I'm not with the Alliance anymore. I have something to prove it, but it means that I need to reach into my shirt pocket. Is that all right?"

"Just so you know, I can drop you before you can blink," said the voice.

"I believe you." Nathan very carefully reached into the front pocket of his shirt and retrieved a gold coin. He held it in front of him. "This is for you."

He felt the coin being plucked from his fingers as it vanished.

The invisible woman sounded a little mollified, but still suspicious. "I see. What is their interest in this matter? They wouldn't work for the Alliance."

"Their management is human, though. One particular bit of information that Okuda has could be very damaging to humanity. They want to make sure it doesn't get out."

"And how would you accomplish that?"

Nathan felt more sweat appear. He'd expected her to be happy to take out a rival thief, or at worst be neutral about killing Okuda. This was going to take some very fancy talking. "There's the obvious way but let's take that right off the table, shall we?. We're open to suggestions. Perhaps we can arrange a meeting with all three of us and hash out a solution. Keiji is a reasonable man."

There was another long pause. Nathan was sure she'd simply vanished, but then she spoke again.

"There will be no meeting. Keiji is dead."

Nathan sagged. It was a strange that he felt regret, given that he'd been chasing after Okuda for so long. "I'm honestly sorry to hear that." He took another deep breath. "Forgive me for being uncouth, but I have to ask...is his graybox secure?" Nathan knew the device was encoded, so it wouldn't be possible to simply 'read' the information off of it. But given enough time, someone might be able to crack it.

"No, it's very much unsecure," she replied. "If you want to protect the information on it that badly, then perhaps I can use you."

"Me?"

"Well, not you specifically. I need the Organization and their considerable resources. Where that graybox is, I'm going to need every-"

There was a spark in the air, right in front of Nathan's face. It was followed by the crack of a rifle. Nathan was already running by the time the crack was heard. He saw more rounds smack into the concrete on either side of him as he tried to run in an unpredictable zigzag. His heart pounded as he saw armored figures run towards him, clearly trying to cut him off from John and the others.

----------------------------------------

"Movement," said Camicia. The turian was jammed into the not-quite-big-enough area below the main console in the cockpit of the Helen. She had her omni-tool open while she flicked through the various exterior cameras. "Five men only. On foot, no sign of backup."

"It sounds like they're trying to capture the ship, not destroy it," said Bast's voice. "Plan B, then?"

Camicia groaned. "I guess so." She hated Plan B. The turian unfolded herself from under the console, seated herself in the chair, and tried to look busy. "Gabby, are you sure you'll be all right?"

"I'll be fine, don't worry," replied the engineer's voice.

"And I'll be fine too, thanks for asking," added Bast. But her tone was cheerful...no, it was excited. Camicia shook her head a little. Some people thrived in dangerous situations, but the turian was not one of them. She'd done her time in the military and that was excitement enough for one life, thank you very much.

And yet here she was, getting ready to have a gun pointed at her. Again.

The men were pretty stealthy, she had to give them that. Even with a turian's senses, she could barely hear them pick the electronic lock on the Helen's outer door. And they were pretty good at coming down a ladder without making too much racket. Considering they were probably wearing armor, she was impressed. Sort of.

"Freeze," said a soft voice behind her. "Hands up, no sudden movement or yelling. Stand up and turn around."

Camicia did as instructed. Two men stared back at her. They wore armor with the sunburst 'E' of Eclipse. Behind them she could see three more men outside the cockpit door. The two in front had pistols trained on her. She noted that they were just outside of easy grabbing distance, which was a pity.

"How many others on board?" asked one of the men in front.

Camicia didn't reply.

"We're not here to kill you," continued the man. "We're just grabbing the boat. But if you don't cooperate I will put a bullet in your eye."

"There's one other on board," said Camicia.

"Where?" When she didn't reply, he raised the pistol and sighted on her eye.

"Engineering," she said.

The man nodded. "Good girl." He pointed to the one of the side stations. "Sit there. Keep the chair facing me, and keep your hands on your head."

Camicia moved slowly as she complied. The man made a few hand gestures, and the four others moved aft while the leader kept his gun pointed at her.

----------------------------------------

Gabby was in the middle of putting some tools away when she felt the cold touch of what could only be a gun muzzle on the back of her head. "Don't move, sister."

"Are we related?" she asked.

There was a low chuckle from behind her. "Figure of speech. Now, I'm going to back up a bit and you're going to turn around very slowly."

The cold touch went away, and she slowly turned to regard the four armored men in front of her.

"Is there anyone else on board?" asked the one in front. He had a pretty amazing scar across one cheek. Some men look better with scars. This man was not one of them.

"And why should I tell you?" asked Gabby.

"Because if you don't, then I'll shoot out your knee. If you keep being stubborn, I'll shoot out the other one. But we're not here to hurt you. We just want the ship."

Gabby knew that was a complete lie. Cerberus had probably paid this group to grab the ship and fly it to a Cerberus facility. Once there, she'd probably be tortured for information or just used as raw material in one of their twisted experiments.

Aloud, she said, "Just the pilot."

The man pointed at two of the other men and jerked his thumb aft. The chosen pair moved carefully out of Engineering while the scarred man pointed at the floor. "Have a seat."

She sat cross-legged.

The scarred man smiled. It was not a friendly smile. "We should get cozy, I guess. It'll be a while."

The other man smirked and kept a pistol trained on Gabby while the scarred man holstered his weapon and took off his gauntlets.

Gabby was pretty sure 'cozy' was another word for 'rape'. Thugs were always thugs, no matter how fancy the armor.

"I thought Eclipse were supposed to be professionals," she said.

The scarred man leered at her. He began to undo his greaves while leaving his breastplate on. "We are. In lots of things, not just fighting. I'm gonna show you such a good time. And this is gonna happen whether you want it or not, so you might as well enjoy it. You're a sweet little thing, and I'd hate to damage such a pretty face."

Gabby shook her head. "I won't let you touch me."

The scarred man laughed and tossed aside his greaves. His partner also gave a high honking laugh.

"You don't have much of a choice, sweet thing," he said. He hooked his thumbs in his pants, clearly getting ready to take them off. "There's two of us, we're bigger than you, and you don't even have a gun."

Gabby smiled. "I don't need a gun. I've got an Errol."

Her would-be rapist looked puzzled. "Errol?"

The engineer raised one hand and snapped her fingers.

A large gray-and-purple blur hit the scarred man's partner, smashing him to the deck as his pistol spun away. As the scarred man spun around in panic, Errol clamped his mouth around the partner's arm and gave a great heave of his massive shoulders.

The partner's armored form flew through the air and crashed into the scarred man. The two mercs went tumbling in a heap as Gabby rolled out of the way.

Errol was suddenly beside her, his goggle eyes peering at her with concern. "Wirfl?"

"I'm fine, buddy." She patted his scaly flank, then pointed at the two groaning mercs who were still trying to regain their feet. "Go have some fun."

Errol's fanged mouth gaped wide, mirroring Gabby's own evil grin. "Wirfl!"

She stood and strolled back out of blood-spatter range as Errol got to work. The scarred man managed to get his pistol free of his holster, only to lose that hand for his trouble. There was more crunching and screaming, mixed in with the guttural roars of a pissed-off varren.

Gabby hunted around and found the pistol that the partner had dropped. "Honestly, I don't know what you're yelling about," she said to the thrashing and screaming men while they tried to fight off Errol's fangs and claws. "He's just a big old softy."

----------------------------------------

As the faint roars reached the cockpit, the leader snapped his head around. He still had one eye on Camicia, however, and she made sure to keep still and seated.

"What the fuck?" he snarled, and touched his ear. "Everyone! Sound off!"

There was no response on his comm. The leader narrowed his eyes at Camicia and gripped his pistol tighter. "Stand up. We're heading aft. You stay in front." He called down towards the wardroom. "If anyone's hiding in there, I'll kill your pilot!"

He turned back and motioned her to get up. Camica made sure to move slowly as she got up. Too slowly for his liking, apparently, because he grabbed her shoulder in preparation for shoving her in front of him.

She smoothly flowed around the grab and shoved his gun-hand to one side. He barely had time to yell before she punched with her other hand at his throat. A sickening crunch sounded out very loud in the small cockpit, and the man's yell turned into a faint gagging noise. Camica stripped the pistol from his hand as he fell twitching to the deck. His face turned purple as he struggled to breathe through a crushed larynx.

The turian was glad she'd managed to not spill any blood. It was always such a pain in the nethers to clean up. She waited until the man stopped twitching, checked his pulse to make sure he was dead, then trotted aft to check on the others.

Bast and Gabby stood in Engineering, where Errol sat with a happy and gory smile on top of a pair of bodies who were really-very-completely-oh-spirits-is-that-a-spleen-dead. Whatever blood Camicia had managed to avoid spilling, Errol had made up for in spades.

The turian noted that one of the mercs had taken off their greaves. "Really?" Camicia said aloud. "They hadn't even finished sweeping the ship and one of 'em tried to rape you?"

Gabby shrugged. "Well, he was pretty ugly. He'd probably been without for a long time." The engineer crossed her arms and grinned at Errol. "Fortunately my backup had an excellent hiding spot. Good boy, Errol."

"Wirfl!"

Camica sighed as she looked over the carnage. "This is going to be such a hassle to clean." She looked over at Bast. "How about you?"

The operative smiled and stepped aside. There was a merc behind her with wide, fearful eyes. Only his eyes and nose were visible; the rest was bound in a gray cocoon of duct tape. "Broke one neck, got one alive. Thanks for the tape, Gabby."

"Don't mention it."

"I figure we can interview him later," said Bast. The merc's eyes got even wider as the operative gave him a very steady look.

Camicia's comm crackled. "Cammy?" asked John's voice.

"Here, boss. We got attacked, went to Plan B, no casualties for us."

"Good. Get the Helen moving. We've...we've had a casualty here."