Mass Effect: The Complete Novels 4-Book Bundle (108 page)

So T’Loak read, and read, until she was couldn’t read anymore. Then she took a nap on the couch that took up most of one wall. Two hours later she got up and read again. Meals came and were removed. Messages went unanswered. All so T’Loak could accomplish one thing—and that was to identify Liselle’s killer.

Finally, after more than twenty hours of unrelenting work T’Loak found what she’d been looking for. Having compared Shella’s description of the man who slit Liselle’s throat with actual surveillance footage of the assassin who killed Grayson, and a snapshot taken from the murdered man’s files, she had a name: Kai Leng. A Cerberus operative just as Shella had said. The knowledge gave T’Loak a deep sense of satisfaction and fed her ever-growing desire for revenge. Leng was going to die.

But where was the killer? On Omega? Or somewhere else? There was only one way to find out and that was to ask the Beggar King. A request went to Hobar, who replied a scant ten minutes later. Not only had the volus seen the person in question, the
man was a client, and currently searching for a human female. The
same
female dozens of groups and bounty hunters were looking for—the biotic who had gone on a rampage inside the Afterlife.

T’Loak felt her heart start to beat a little bit faster. Things were starting to come together. The offer she sent to Hobar was extremely generous and it wasn’t long before every beggar on Omega was looking for Kai Leng. And one hour and sixteen minutes later they found him.

After the meeting with Von and the rest of the biotics Gillian had been shown to her quarters, which consisted of a cavelike room on the second level. The furnishings included a bed, a footlocker, a chair, and a very small table. But it was the terminal that sat on top of it that captured her attention.

Gillian sat down, hurried to free the green jewel from its chain, and dropped it into the universal port located on top of the machine. Then, like a specter from the past, Paul Grayson appeared. He looked ill but managed a smile. “Hello, Gigi. So now you know … The jewel was more than a pretty bauble to hang around your neck. There’s no way to be sure when you’ll see this. But I’m likely to be dead by then. And at some point you’ll wonder what happened to me and why. It’s all here. Every bit of it. All taken from Cerberus. But I warn you that some of the footage is difficult to look at. I love you, Gigi … And I’m sorry I wasn’t a better father.”

That was when the image of her father disappeared and the rest of it began. There were hundreds of pages of reports, thousands of sensor readouts, and one extremely
disturbing holo. As Gillian watched the footage sobs came from somewhere deep inside her. And by the time the segment was over she felt sick to her stomach.
You will pay for what you did
, Gillian thought to herself,
and the price will be very, very high
.

Having been returned to Omega’s surface Leng had elected to visit one of his favorite restaurants rather than return to the safe house. He was tired, but hungry as well, and there was very little food in the apartment.

The restaurant was called the Blue Marble and specialized in Earth cuisine. Leng was partial to Mexican food so he ordered an enchilada, some tacos, and a shot of Honzo. The Marble was packed and that was one of the reasons why he liked the place. Leng spent a great deal of time by himself. And it was depressing to eat alone. So with drink in hand he settled in to watch the crowd. And that’s what he was doing when it began to dwindle.

Leng wasn’t alarmed at first, and why should he be? Groups of people entered and departed the restaurant all the time. But then he noticed something strange. At first it looked like the proprietor was simply making the rounds, slapping backs, and schmoozing his regulars.

Then Leng realized that shortly after speaking to the owner the Blue Marble’s patrons got up and left. Even if they hadn’t finished their food or paid for it. And that was when an alarm began to sound in the back of his mind. The man in the greasy apron was systematically emptying his own restaurant.
Why?
Because the rotten bastard knows something I don’t
, Leng concluded.
Something bad is about to happen and he wants his customers to survive
.

There was a back door. Through the steamy kitchen. Leng knew that because he never ate in a place that lacked one. But if he was correct, and something bad was about to happen, then it would be covered.

So rather than try for it Leng chose what he considered to be a better alternative. And that was to shoot the restaurant owner in the head. Partly as an act of revenge, but mostly to trigger a stampede, which he did. The report sounded unnaturally loud in the enclosed space, blood and brains splattered one of the customers, and she screamed.

That brought the rest of them to their feet as all but one of the patrons sent chairs and tables flying as they sought to exit through the front door. The single exception was a long lean piece of work who believed that he could kill the problem and finish his dinner. His pistol had barely cleared its holster when Leng shot him in the throat. Blood flew sideways, he back-pedaled into a wall, and was dead by the time his butt hit the floor.

At that point Leng joined the stampede. He was just about to exit through the front door when the shooting began. Leng concluded that a turf war was under way, or the attackers were trying to kill a particular customer, and didn’t care how many innocent people were gunned down in the process.

But what would have worked on one of the more civilized planets wasn’t so easy on Omega where
everybody
went armed. And that included the armor-clad Blue Sun mercenary who was directly in front of Leng
and already returning fire. He was a big man and that worked to Leng’s advantage as he took shelter behind the soldier and looked for a way out.

The attackers were all around, firing from cover, and riddling the front of the Blue Marble with hundreds of rounds. Half a dozen hapless customers had already been cut down and Leng knew the Blue Sun wouldn’t be able to remain upright forever. So he did a pirouette as if he’d been hit and went down. Then, by elbowing his way between a couple of bodies he was able to gain the cover of a badly overflowing dumpster. It was made of steel and Leng could hear a steady
ping, ping, ping
as he took refuge behind it. Projectiles were passing through the container but were too high to hit him.

Finally Leng had the seconds necessary to retrieve the rifle that was slung across his back and put it to work. It was dark but by firing at muzzle flashes he was able to score three hits in less than a minute. That had the effect of reducing the amount of incoming fire and intimidating however many survivors were left. Could they summon reinforcements? Leng figured they could and took advantage of the interlude to slip away.

Then, having moved shadow to shadow, he cleared the area where the Blue Marble was located and pursued a zigzag course toward the safe house. He was hungry, but not enough to start over with another restaurant, so whatever was available at the apartment would have to do. Halfway home he started to limp. It had, all things considered, been a bad day.

What light there was came from the cracks between projectile-proof shutters, store signs, and the slightly-out-of-focus ads that slip-slid across vertical walls. Visibility was poor so Kai Leng checked his back trail twice on the way home, even going so far as to stand in the canyon of blackness between two buildings for a full five minutes before following the narrow street to the safe house where he was staying. Guards were positioned in doorways and on roofs, but none of them cared what Leng did, so long as he didn’t cause trouble for their upper-class clients.

A new set of guards were stationed in front of the Cerberus safe house. But that wasn’t unusual because the company the mercs worked for had to rotate their personnel three times per day. One member of the two-person team was salarian and the other was a turian. Both viewed Leng suspiciously as he paused in front of the scanner on the gate but turned their backs as the barrier began to open.

A second scan was required before Leng could enter the building. Then he took the elevator up to
the third floor where it was necessary to enter a four-digit code to enter the apartment. As the door began to open Leng was looking forward to a snack and eight hours of sleep. But as he stepped people with strong hands grabbed him from both sides. Within a matter of seconds both his rifle and pistol were taken from him. Then a person he hadn’t seen in a long time stepped into view.

Cory Kim smiled. “You know the drill, Kai … Lock your hands behind your neck. And don’t try anything. We’ll slam you against the wall if you do.”

Leng had no choice but to obey. He could hear the comm set chiming as Kim circled around behind him. Leng felt her pat him down, take the knife from his right boot, and withdraw. He grinned. “Everything is just the way you left it.”

“Which is to say limp,” Kim retorted, as she completed her task and circled back in front of him. “So, Gillian,” Kim added, “have you seen him before?”

Leng felt a sudden shock of recognition as he realized that the girl he’d been sent to kill was standing right in front of him! She was wearing a hood, which she threw back. She saw the look on his face and nodded grimly. “Yes, I think so … Just glimpses. But he looks familiar.”

Leng’s mind was racing. How much did the girl know? All he could do was keep his composure and wait for some sort of opportunity. His eyes were locked with Gillian’s. “So you’re part of the Biotic Underground.”

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Gillian confirmed. “It turns out that we have certain goals in common.”

“Such as?”

Kim spoke before Gillian could reply. “There will be plenty of time to talk later. Sweet dreams, Kai.”

Leng frowned. “Sweet …” He never got to finish the question. The dart gun produced a soft
phut
and he felt a sharp pain in his neck. That was followed by a brief moment of dizziness. Then, as his knees gave out on him, everything went black.

“Nice shot,” Kim said, as Leng hit the floor and Ocosta Lem holstered his weapon. He’d been sent along to hack the Cerberus security system and provide backup.

As Kim spoke into a lip mike Gillian knew she was communicating with the guards out front. “Bring the car as close to the front door as you can. Citizen Leng is a big boy. No point in carrying him any farther than we have to. And keep our eyes peeled. Odds are that the guards on the surrounding buildings will sit this one out. But if they start to get interested let me know.”

Gillian knew that the
real
guards, the ones employed by Cerberus, had been neutralized earlier because she’d played a role in taking them out. It felt good to be treated as an equal for once. “Come on,” Kim said, “let’s get to work.”

Kim was right. Leng weighed at least eighty kilos, and it took all three of them to drag the Cerberus operative into the elevator and move him down to the main floor. That’s where two additional biotics were waiting with a cart. Such conveyances were common on Omega and used for a wide range of purposes. So once Leng was loaded and covered with a tarp, the biotics would be able to move him to the waiting car.

* * *

Of course that didn’t mean there weren’t any witnesses. There were. At least a dozen guards and neighbors were watching as the scene played out in front of them. People who, on a civilized planet, would have reported the abduction to the police, but couldn’t since there weren’t any. Plus, to interfere would be to violate the credo “mind your own business” and run the risk of making what could be a powerful enemy. So with the exception of Mara Mott none of the onlookers were going to take action.

But she was, and for good reason, because it was Mott’s job to keep Cerberus informed of Kai Leng’s activities. And Mott was good at what she did, which consisted of watching, following, and taking care of certain tasks. Not wet work, because that wasn’t her specialty. No, her job and the jobs of other people who did similar work, was to ensure that operatives like Leng remained loyal and had all of the things required to carry out their various assignments. That included making arrangements for safe houses, delivering special weapons, and bailing them out of trouble.

Having lost track of Leng during the battle at the Blue Marble, Mott had returned to the safe house in time to see him arrive. And being in charge of the guards she knew the ones posted out front were fake. So she called Leng’s apartment in hopes of catching him as he entered, but he hadn’t picked up. Now she knew why. The people who were loading Leng into the car had been waiting for him. And they wanted the operative alive—because why haul a dead body through the streets?

Well, no matter
, Mott thought to herself, as she eased out through the front door of the apartment building across from the safe house.
I’ll follow them and call for reinforcements
. The lighting was dim, but she could see the car and the people gathered around it. And as Mott watched the group did something strange. They formed a circle around the car and faced out. Then they raised their hands as if to signal peace, and one of them said, “Now!”

The three-hundred-sixty-degree shockwave surged in every direction, struck all of the witnesses who were located at ground level, and threw them backward. Mott’s body slammed into a wall, the back of her head made contact with solid concrete, and she went down hard.

The Illusive Man was asleep. And wanted to stay that way. But the chime wouldn’t allow him to do so. It was a pleasant sound, intentionally so, but he had come to hate it. Because none of his staff were allowed to disturb him unless there was some sort of emergency. And emergencies were all too common. Other than for some indicator lights it was pitch-black inside his sleeping cabin. He rolled over to slap a button. “Yes?”