Mass Effect: The Complete Novels 4-Book Bundle (49 page)

“Everyone else evacuate the loading bays,” the captain ordered, then turned to Hendel. “Let’s go.”

It took them less than thirty seconds to reach the
Cyniad
’s airlock. The bodies of Isli, Seeto, and Ugho lay just beyond it. The airlock itself had been sealed.

“Wait,” Mal said, grabbing Hendel by the arm. “What if it’s a trap?”

The security chief had been thinking the same thing. “That’s a chance we have to take.”

They opened the airlock and raced up into the quarian shuttle. The cargo hold was filled with enough explosives to blow apart a small asteroid. At least fifty drums of liquid rocket fuel, each as high as Hendel’s shoulder, were clustered in the center of the floor, held together by a mess of wires. From somewhere in the middle of the canisters, completely inaccessible, he heard the rhythmic
beep-beep-beep
of a timer counting down.

“Find the overrides!” Hendel shouted, and the two of them split up, one going clockwise around the ring of explosives, the other counterclockwise.

Hendel tried to sync the high-pitched beeps with the imaginary clock ticking down in his head. He figured they had maybe thirty seconds to spare when he finally found what he was looking for: a small keypad attached to the side of one of the drums. Two wires ran from the base into the cords woven around the explosives. Hendel had no doubt that detaching either of the wires would set the whole mess off.

“I’ve got mine!” Mal shouted from the far side of the canisters.

“Me too,” Hendel called back. “Enter the code on three? Ready? One … two … three!”

He punched in the numbers, knowing there was a lag of only a couple seconds for Mal to do the same. If they weren’t in sync, if either one of them hesitated or made a mistake, they’d both be instantly vaporized.

The steady beep of the timer suddenly changed to a single long, shrill whistle. Hendel instinctively closed his eyes as he braced himself for the boom …

And nothing happened.

The shrill whistle slowly faded away, and Hendel reached up to wipe the sweat from his brow, only to have his gloved hand bump against the mask of his enviro-suit.

“Hell of an all-clear signal,” he muttered to himself. And then he began to laugh.

TWENTY-FIVE

In the aftermath of the battle, the quarians had taken Grayson into custody. For nearly a week his fate hung in the balance as the Admiralty, the Conclave, and the civilian Council of the
Idenna
weighed in on what was to be done.

He had saved dozens, possibly even hundreds, of lives by warning them about the explosives. But Kahlee, along with everyone else, knew that the only reason their lives were ever in danger was because of what he had done. And there was still plenty of blood on his hands to be accounted for. Over twenty of the
Idenna
’s crew had been killed in the attack, along with eleven Cerberus soldiers and Golo, the quarian traitor. The cost was high, but it was far less than it could have been.

Mal understood all this, and he took it into account while passing the final judgment on Grayson, as was his right as captain. Kahlee had feared there could be consequences for her and Hendel, as well; none of this would have happened had the quarians not taken them in when they first arrived. However, she had underestimated the value quarian culture placed on community and crew. They had been accepted as guests on his ship, Mal had explained to her. They were part of the
Idenna
family. He wasn’t about to cast them out now, and he wasn’t going to hold them accountable for the actions of Cerberus.

In the end, the captain even agreed to allow Kahlee to take Grayson back to the Alliance as her prisoner, giving them Grayson’s own shuttle for transportation. Lemm agreed to accompany her as the pilot, and to help her keep an eye on their captive.

Hendel and Gillian, however, would not be going with them.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked Hendel as they stood in the landing bay, saying their good-byes.

“Gillian needs this,” he said. “You saw how far she’s come since we’ve been here. I don’t know if it’s the ship, the enviro-suits, the lack of drugs … all I know is that she’s happy here on the
Idenna.

“And soon she’ll be beyond the reach of even Cerberus,” he added after a moment.

Kahlee nodded, accepting the fact that she couldn’t change his mind.

The news of an enemy force infiltrating the Migrant Fleet had shaken the quarian society to its very core. Faced with the shocking realization that they were vulnerable even within the flotilla, many of the ship captains had changed their views on the idea of sending exploratory vessels out into the depths of space on extended missions.

The Conclave had fiercely debated the matter, but in the end those who favored the exploratory missions, like Mal, were the majority. The Admiralty could have overturned the Conclave’s ruling, but they, too, seemed to have had a change of heart. They acquiesced to the decision, though they did impose strict rules and restrictions on how many vessels could go, and when they could leave.

Not surprisingly, the
Idenna
was chosen to be the first of those vessels. In three weeks it would set off through a recently activated mass relay in an uninhabited system, heading into parts unknown. Even now it was being refitted with new technology to allow it to survive on its own for up to five years without any outside contact or resources. To make such a journey feasible, however, the crew would have to drop from its current population of nearly seven hundred to just over fifty, all handpicked by Mal himself.

The captain had already given Hendel and Gillian permission to go.

“Do you really think Cerberus will stop looking for her after five years?” Kahlee asked.

Hendel shrugged. “I don’t know. But at least it’ll give her a chance to grow up some before she has to deal with them again.”

He glanced over at the shuttle, where Gillian was inside saying a last, private good-bye to her father. Hendel had opposed the idea initially, but Kahlee had worn him down. Grayson deserved that much, at least.

“What do you think he’s telling her in there?” the security chief wondered.

“I don’t know.”

She couldn’t even imagine what Grayson was going through. Everything he had done in his adult life—every action, every decision he had made—had been in the service of Cerberus and their so-called great and glorious cause. But in the end he had finally chosen his daughter over these nebulous ideals. Unfortunately, that choice meant it was impossible for her to stay with him.

“What are you going to tell Gillian if she ever asks about him?” she asked Hendel.

“I’m going to tell her the truth,” he said. “Her father is a complicated man. He made some mistakes. But he loves her very much, and he only wants what’s best for her. And in the end he did the right thing.”

Kahlee nodded again, and pulled Hendel close for a hug. “You two be careful out there,” she whispered.

“We will.”

They broke the embrace when they heard the familiar clump of Lemm’s boots coming toward them.

“Are we ready to go?” he asked her.

Kahlee knew the young quarian was eager to take her and Grayson to the nearest Alliance colony so he could drop them off and get back in time to rejoin the
Idenna.
Like Hendel and Gillian, he had also been selected by Mal to be part of the long and dangerous journey.

She’d already said her good-byes to Gillian, and as much as she hated to take Grayson away from his daughter it was time for them to go.

“I’m ready,” she said.

They were only a few hours away from decelerating from light speed in the vicinity of Cuervo, the nearest Alliance colony. Lemm had already programmed their destination into the nav systems, and Kahlee had sent off a comm message: there would be a security patrol waiting when they landed to take Grayson into immediate custody.

Now the quarian was taking a quick nap in the bedroom, while Kahlee and Grayson sat in the passenger cabin, facing each other. Grayson’s hands were cuffed in front of him, resting in his lap. As a further precaution, Kahlee was armed with both a stunner and a pistol just in case he had a change of heart.

She could tell he was getting scared. His eyes kept darting around the cabin as if he was looking for an escape, and his fingers fidgeted nervously in his lap.

“You realize this is a death sentence for me,” Grayson told her.

“The Alliance will protect you,” Kahlee assured him. “You have valuable information on Cerberus. They’ll want to keep you around.”

“They can’t protect me,” Grayson answered, shaking his head. “It might take a month, or maybe even a year, but sooner or later one of their agents inside the Alliance will get to me.”

“What do you expect me to do?” Kahlee asked him. “I can’t let you go.”

“No,” he said softly. “No, I suppose you can’t.”

“You had to know this was going to happen,” she told him. “But you helped us anyway. I think you wanted to atone for your past.”

“I’d like to think I can atone without dying,” he said with a grim smirk.

“Remember why you’re doing this,” Kahlee said, hoping to improve his mood. “It’s for Gillian.”

The mention of his daughter brought a forlorn smile to the thin man’s lips.

“You were right,” he said. “What you told me before I killed Golo. Gillian’s happy now. I guess that’s all I can really hope for.”

Kahlee nodded. “You did the right—”

Her words were cut off as Grayson suddenly threw himself at her. He moved quick as a snake, throwing his head forward to strike at her unprotected nose. Kahlee ducked to the side at the last possible instant and he butted her in the shoulder.

His weight was bearing down on her, pinning her in her seat. His cuffed hands were trying to grab at her, until she jabbed her fingers, held flat and stiff, sharply into his windpipe.

Gasping and choking he fell away from the seat, then curled up in a ball on the floor. Kahlee leaped out of her chair and stood over him, her muscles coiled in case he lunged at her a second time.

“Try that again and I’ll shoot you,” she warned, but there was no real venom in her threat.

Her heart was pounding and her blood was racing with adrenaline, but he hadn’t actually hurt her. She’d been expecting something like this for some time now; he was getting desperate. If anyone was to blame it was her for not recognizing he was still dangerous.

“Come on,” she said in a softer voice, taking a step back from him. “I didn’t hurt you that bad. Get up.”

He rolled onto his side, and Kahlee realized he had something clenched between the fingers of his still-cuffed hands. It took her a second to realize it was a stunner—he must have torn it from her hip during the scuffle!

She tried to shout out a warning to Lemm, but Grayson fired and everything went black.

When she woke Lemm was standing over her, looking concerned. She realized she was in the shuttle’s bed, but the effects of the stunner had left her feeling disoriented and confused.

“Where are we?” she asked, struggling to sit up.

“Daleon,” Lemm answered. “A small volus colony.”

“I thought we were supposed to land on Cuervo,” she said, her foggy mind still putting the pieces together.

Lemm shrugged. “All I know is that somebody knocked me out with a stunner. When I came to we were sitting here at the Daleon spaceport.”

“Where’s Grayson? What happened to Grayson?”

“Gone,” Lemm replied. “We could search for him, if you want. It’s possible he might still be here on Daleon.”

Kahlee shook her head, realizing what had happened. “He’s long gone by now. We’ll never find him.”

“So what now?” the quarian asked.

“Take the shuttle and head back to the
Idenna,
” she told him. “You’ve got a lot of preparations to make for your journey.”

“What about you?”

“Just drop me off at the Grissom Academy,” she said. “There are a lot of kids in the Ascension Program who still need my help.”

With a smile, she added, “I’m pretty sure I can convince the board to take me back.”

EPILOGUE

The vid screen beeped to indicate an incoming message. The Illusive Man looked up from the report he was studying at his desk and noted the call was coming over a secure line.

“Answer,” he said, and an image of Paul Grayson flickered into view.

The Illusive Man blinked in mild surprise. He had assumed the mission to infiltrate the quarian flotilla was a failure, simply because two weeks had passed and he hadn’t heard anything. With most Cerberus assignments he could get general updates by watching the news vids, but with no media coverage of what went on in the confines of the Migrant Fleet, it had rendered him as clueless and ignorant as any ordinary, average citizen.

“Paul,” he said with a slight tilt of his head. “Has the asset been recovered?”

“Her name is Gillian,” the man answered. The hostility in his tone was unmistakable.

“Gillian, then,” the Illusive Man conceded, his voice cold. “What happened on the mission?”

“The team’s dead. All of them. Golo. Everyone.”

“Except you.”

“I’m as good as dead,” Grayson replied. “I’m a ghost now. You’ll never find me.”

“What about your daughter?” the Illusive Man asked. “How long will she be able to survive as a fugitive? A life on the run is no life for her. Bring her in, Paul, and we can talk about what’s best for Gillian.”

Grayson laughed. “She’s not even with me. She’s on a quarian deep-space exploration vessel out in the middle of some uncharted system beyond the edge of the galaxy. You’ll never find her.”

The Illusive Man’s jaw clenched ever so slightly as he realized the girl was beyond his reach. The fact that Grayson was willing to taunt him with the information was clear evidence of how impossible it would be to track her down. He relied on a network of Cerberus informants throughout Council Space and the Terminus Systems to supply him with a constant flow of information. Out beyond that network he was literally blind.

“I thought you were loyal to the cause, Paul.”

“I was,” Grayson answered. “Then I saw the kind of people who share your vision, and I had a change of heart.”

The Illusive Man sneered at the screen. “I’m in the business of saving lives, Paul. Human lives. You used to understand that. Now it seems you’re suddenly trying to save your soul.”

“I think my soul is too far gone to save.”

“Then why are you calling?” the Illusive Man demanded, the smallest hint of frustration creeping into his voice.

“I’m giving you a warning,” the man on the other end of the vid screen answered. “Stay away from Kahlee Sanders. If you come after her, I go to the Alliance with everything I know.”

The Illusive Man studied the image on the vid screen carefully. He noticed the familiar signs of Grayson’s red sand use—the bloodshot pupils, the faintly luminous sheen on his teeth—were missing. And he realized the man wasn’t bluffing.

“Why is she worth so much to you?”

“Does it matter?” Grayson countered. “She’s hardly worth anything to you. Not compared to all the dirty little secrets I have. I figure my silence in exchange for her safety is a bargain.”

“We will find you, Paul,” the Illusive Man promised in a menacing whisper.

“Maybe,” Grayson admitted. “But that’s not why I called. Kahlee Sanders—do we have a deal?”

After taking a moment to weigh the offer, the Illusive Man nodded his acceptance. Gillian’s loss would set their biotic research back a full decade, but Cerberus had too many other projects on the go to risk them all for this. On the screen Grayson smiled. An instant later the image went blank as the call was disconnected.

He didn’t bother trying to trace the call—Grayson was too smart to slip up on something that simple. Instead, the Illusive Man just stared at the blank screen for a long, long time, slowly clenching and unclenching his jaw.