by Cole Price
As he stalked away down the corridor, I murmured to Ashley. “I’ve almost never seen him fight like that. I remember him being a lot more calculating. Deliberate.”
“Hmm. It was horrible, on Earth. Normandy had to extract him from Vancouver harbor, with Reapers and Reaper troops all around us. I think we all have some issues to work through.” She shook her head. “I’m just glad to see he’s willing to fight Cerberus.”
“Do you still believe he has some loyalty to them?”
“I don’t know.” She scowled at me. “Hey, you’re hardly in a position to give me any assurances. You gave him to them. I don’t remember you mentioning that, last time I saw you.”
“Yes. I gave him to Cerberus, to save his life when the Alliance would not or could not do it.” I turned away, following the signpost of Shepard’s rigid back, and my voice became very cold. “Ashley, he and I have fought too hard, sacrificed too much, to beat the Collectors and then to cut all of our ties to Cerberus. I will not be questioned by you.”
I heard her take a deep breath and then release it. “All right, I suppose I deserved that.”
“He has earned your trust. A thousand times over.”
“Maybe. Still, are you sure he’s really the same man who led us against Saren? What if Cerberus has changed him somehow?”
I swallowed a hot retort and forced myself to respond rationally. “To be honest, I had the same concern at first. When he arrived on Illium, I worried that Cerberus had managed to place him under their control. I soon saw I had no reason to worry. I know that man down to the marrow of his bones, Ashley. I could not possibly be mistaken in this.”
“All right. I still wish you had been up front with me in Mumbai. Finding out he was still alive through nothing but rumors, then seeing him on Horizon . . . it was a shock. I didn’t react very well. I think I’m still trying to get over it.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” I shook my head in self-recrimination. “I should have told you before. I suppose I didn’t want to get my own hopes up too soon. I don’t think I quite believed that Cerberus would truly bring him back. Then when I knew he was alive and fighting, we were already in the middle of the war against the Collectors, too late for us to have that conversation.”
Ashley stopped short. I turned to find Shepard giving us both a mild glare. “I suggest you two resolve your issues later,” he commanded. “Right now I need your eyes open and your minds alert.”
“Aye-aye,” said Ashley. I nodded in agreement.
We emerged into the pedway terminal, weapons and biotics at the ready, but we found no Cerberus waiting for us. I soon holstered my sidearm and led the others to the pedway control station, where Shepard and I worked with the controls while Ashley stood lookout.
“Damn,” I said at last. “The security system has been tampered with, and the pedway’s locked out.”
“Hey, did you see that? Who’s that woman on the vid?” Ashley asked suddenly.
I turned, and saw some of the security consoles play a piece of surveillance footage on a loop. Over and over, a female human came onto the screen, punched a few quick commands into a console, and then hurried out of view.
I recognized her. Then the whole cascade of memories came crashing into my mind.
“Oh Goddess. How could I have been so stupid?”
“Liara?”
I smashed my fists down on the desk, the only way I could let the frustration out without howling. “She arrived here about a week ago, just before I did. She gave her name as Dr. Alexander, but now I doubt that’s her real identity. I think she’s the same woman who was on Thessia, poking into the archives, while I worked there about six weeks ago. At the time, she used the name Dr. Eva Coré.”
“What’s so special about her?” asked Shepard.
“She’s almost certainly a Cerberus infiltrator, and I never made the connection until now. I knew Cerberus was following me from planet to planet, and it somehow escaped my mind that they might have come here as well. Everything that’s happened here, all these deaths, it’s my fault!”
“Liara!” Shepard loomed over me, turned me in the chair and took me by the shoulders, preventing me from spiraling out of control with his sheer presence. “It’s not your fault. Cerberus is to blame.”
“I could have prevented all of this. I even suspected there was something amiss. But I let it go, because I was tired and distracted, because I had a headache and my feet hurt and my stomach was rumbling. If I had said even a word to Dr. Harrison, he might have been able to do something.”
“So you made a mistake. So did everyone else who vetted her for access to the Archives. Cerberus is smart and tough, and you can’t expect to beat them every time.”
I dropped my face into my hands for a moment, fighting a sour flood of nausea and shame.
Shepard’s voice dropped to an intimate murmur. “Liara. I need you functioning right now. I need you to help me make Cerberus pay for what they did here.”
I took a deep breath and let my hands fall into my lap, where they balled into fists. “Right.”
He placed a feather-light kiss on my crest and stood back. “That’s better. So what’s our next step?”
“Well, if the pedway is locked down . . .” I turned back to the security console. “There’s a maintenance hatch across the room that leads to the roof. We can cut across to the next building and make our way through the labs to the tram station.”
“That’s more like it. Let’s get moving.”
* * *
I realized we were in serious trouble the moment we emerged onto the roof. The winds had picked up, goading even the thin Martian atmosphere into producing a low howl and pushing at us. In the distance I could see a dust storm, towering kilometers high, bearing down slowly on the Archives. Shepard couldn’t raise Normandy, could barely get through to James back at the shuttle.
We hurried, not wanting to be stranded on Mars for the duration of the storm.
We fought two squads of Cerberus troops, and had to work our way around a defense turret they had subverted to their own use. By the time we dealt with the last of them, my remorse had hardened into a bitterly cold fury. The Illusive Man had not come to Mars, to calmly argue for his position and claim the best of motives. We found only his soldiers, carrying out his will.
Butchers. Murderers. They had left not a single man or woman alive.
We found Faiza in the mess hall, dead of asphyxiation, her face horribly distorted, her fingers broken as if she had tried to claw her way into a pressurized compartment.
We found Cam in the lab where I abandoned him, nothing left but charcoal and bones after the decon fields had swept over him a hundred times.
We found dozens of others. Some of them had been forced to kneel before being shot in the back of the head.
Yet that was not the worst of it.
Once we reached the tram station, at first we could see no way to cross over to the Archives. Cerberus had called both cars to their side and locked down the controls. So Ashley conceived a plan of deception, using a Cerberus helmet communicator to trick the survivors into sending over a tram. She opened a dead trooper’s helmet – and recoiled in horror.
The dead trooper no longer appeared human. He had blue-glowing implants instead of eyes, his skin shone a sickly yellowish-gray, and tubes and implanted machinery violated his tissues.
“God!” Ashley spat in revulsion. “He looks like a husk.”
“Yeah, not quite . . .” Shepard bent close to examine the corpse. “They’ve certainly done something to him.”
“He looks like Paul Grayson did, just before he died,” I murmured.
“Cerberus is doing this to their own people?” Ashley demanded.
I nodded. “It fits. Improved capability, along with fanatic loyalty to the cause.”
“God. Shepard, what if they’ve done something like that to you? You’re full of Cerberus cybernetics.”
Shepard scowled. “How can you compare me
to that thing?”
“If they had changed you, would you even know?”
I stepped in. “Ashley, I think you’ve missed something. Look at the timing. We found Cerberus experimenting with husks and Reaper technology even while we fought Saren. It’s possible they used some of that technology to revive Shepard. But we never saw them use the technology to control their own people. That’s a new development.”
“What are you getting at, Liara?”
“It started after Shepard destroyed the Collector base. After he, Miranda Lawson, and I all broke away from Cerberus at the same time.”
Ashley cocked her head, thinking hard.
“That does make sense,” said Shepard. “Ash, you should have seen the Illusive Man while we fought the Collectors. He kept trying to persuade us to follow along, to see things his way. Even when I was pissed off at him, even when I told him I’d had enough of his manipulation, he kept at it. That’s not the behavior of someone who knew he had an override switch in my brain.”
I nodded in agreement. “Until the Collector base. I think it was a terrible shock to him, to have all three of us turn against him at once and get away with it. I spoke to him for a few moments after Miranda cut off his transmission. I’ve never seen him so bitterly angry.”
“So you think he changed his strategy?” Ashley asked, her voice slow and reflective. “Started using the Reaper tech so no one could ever betray him like that again?”
“It fits his psychological profile.”
“I’m not even going to ask how you laid hands on the Illusive Man’s psych profile.”
I glanced at Shepard. His eyes flickered, a micro-expression I could read as clearly as if he had spoken aloud. Ash doesn’t know you’re the Shadow Broker.
I nodded slightly. “We can discuss that later. In the meantime, Ash, would you please set aside your mistrust so we can focus on the mission?”
“You’re right,” she sighed. “I have to stop letting my own issues get in the way. Will you both accept my apology?”
Shepard nodded, solemnly shaking Ashley’s hand. “You bet.”
I nodded in relieved agreement.
* * *
After one last fierce fight in the Archives security checkpoint, we finally reached the Archives themselves. Shepard and Ashley stopped for a moment, not lowering their weapons, staring about the vast space in wonder. The sound of the approaching storm echoed in the still air.
Shepard recovered first. “Ash, take over-watch. Be careful. We haven’t found that Dr. Coré yet, or whatever her name is.”
Ashley nodded, and moved to a secure vantage point. Shepard and I hurried to the interface consoles. I immediately began to call up the directory where Faiza and I had stored the reconstructed Crucible data.
Unfortunately we were interrupted almost at once.
“Shepard.”
I whirled, my sidearm already leveled, sensing Shepard following suit at my side.
A status hologram for the Prothean devices had faded away, replaced by an image of a male human wearing an expensive business suit. He smoked a cigarette and watched both of us with calm appraisal.
“Illusive Man,” I said coldly.
“Fascinating race, the Protheans. They left all of this for us to discover, but we’ve squandered it. The Alliance has known about the Archives for over thirty years, and what have they done with it?”
“What do you want?” Shepard demanded.
The lllusive Man glanced past us at the Archives themselves. Almost against his will, Shepard turned to look in that direction as well.
“What I’ve always wanted,” the Illusive Man said at last. “The data in these artifacts holds the key to solving the Reaper threat.”
Shepard shook his head in disgust. “I’ve seen your solution. You turn your own people into murdering monsters.”
“Hardly. They’re being improved.”
“Improved?”
“That’s what separates us, Shepard. Where you see only a means to destroy, I see a way to control, to dominate and harness the Reapers’ power. Imagine how strong humanity could be, if we controlled them.”
“Earth is under siege, and you’re hatching a scheme to control the Reapers?”
The Illusive Man took on the air of a wise elder, patiently correcting his students. “You’ve always been short-sighted. Hasty. Your destruction of the Collector base proved that.”
“That base was an abomination. Hundreds of thousands of humans were murdered there!”
“And so you threw away any chance we had to make those sacrifices worthwhile.” The Illusive Man took another drag on his cigarette. When his face emerged from behind its veil of smoke, it had become hard and determined. “This isn’t your fight any more, Shepard. You can’t defeat the Reapers, even with the Prothean data.”
“Work with us, then. Bring your resources into the fight, and we’ll destroy the Reapers together.”
“You and Dr. T’Soni would do better than most, but the odds aren’t in your favor. More importantly, I don’t want the Reapers destroyed. We can dominate them. Use their power. Harness their very essence to bring humanity to the apex of evolution.”
“You’ve gone too far.” Shepard stepped close to the hologram, using his voice and presence to persuade. “The Reapers will kill us all if we don’t stop fighting each other.”
“I don’t expect you to understand, Shepard. And I’m certainly not looking for your approval.”
I frowned. Something in the Illusive Man’s voice at that point . . .
“You were nothing but a tool. An agent with a singular purpose. Despite our differences, you were relatively successful. But like the rest of the relics in that place, your time is over.”
“Enough talk.” Shepard turned his back on the hologram, dismissing it from his thoughts. “Liara?”
I turned to the console, began to open the files once more . . . and failed.
“Don’t interfere with my plans, Shepard,” said the Illusive Man. “I won’t warn you again.”
“Duly noted.”
“Shepard!” I shouted in panic. “The data, they’re not here. They’re being erased.”
“Goodbye, Shepard,” said the Illusive Man, fading into nonexistence.
“Erased how?” Shepard demanded.
“I don’t know. It’s all being uploaded somewhere . . .”
Then we heard Ashley’s shout, as she went down under a sudden flurry of blows.
I whirled, my sidearm out once more, and saw a flash of white shining in the dim light on the outer perimeter of the chamber. “There! It’s the Cerberus infiltrator. She must have the data!”
Shepard took off in a dead sprint.
I followed, pausing for only a moment to help Ashley to her feet.
Goddess, the infiltrator was fast. I think I knew even then that she wasn’t really human. She ran through the security checkpoint, dropping an incendiary charge behind her to slow us, and then clambered up an access ladder to the roof.
The three of us pursued, although only Shepard had much chance to keep up with her. Ashley was in superb condition and had the full battery of Alliance genemods, but she had no Cerberus cybernetics to improve her physical performance. I was in good condition too, but I wasn’t a soldier at all. Within moments Shepard vanished far ahead of me, and Ashley began to pull away as well.
I put my head down, took deep breaths, and forced my body to respond.
Up a ladder, a shaved second to put on a respirator mask, and then I emerged onto the roof. The wind howled, carrying grit and fines that scraped at my exposed skin. I could scarcely see. The heart of the storm was almost upon us.
I stumbled along, one hand raised to shield my face. Then it occurred to me to put up a biotic barrier, keeping the dust at bay. That helped. I could run once more, vault over a low barrier, speed up while moving through a momentary shelter, climb another ladder. I could barely see a dark shape in the dust-laden air up ahead, Ashley doing her best to k
eep up without abandoning me.
Suddenly I heard Shepard’s voice over the comms. “Damn it, she’s getting away! James? Normandy? Anybody?”
I finally caught up with Ashley, perched on a ledge, bringing her assault rifle to bear on a Cerberus shuttle as it began to rise away from us. Shepard stood just ahead, staring impotently upward.
The respirator mask seemed to suffocate me. I couldn’t get enough air. I tried to call up my biotics, but nothing responded.
A wash of static, and then James’s voice: “. . . Commander. I’ve got this.”
Another shuttle, this one painted in Alliance blue, swept down out of the storm like a hammer. It rammed the Cerberus shuttle at high speed, forcing it back down.
Right on top of us.
I shouted and dove to the side, feeling a sharp pain as I twisted an ankle, and then thirty tons of metal slammed into the roof bare meters away. I only had time to be terrified after the fact, realizing almost at once that the Cerberus shuttle had missed crushing the life out of me.
Silence, except for the howling and thunder of the storm.
I pushed myself to a seated position, decided not to put weight on that ankle just yet. Then Ashley appeared, slinging her rifle on her back so she could use both arms to help me.
“The data,” I groaned. “We need the data.”
Crash. Crash.
“What the . . .”
The wrecked Cerberus shuttle rocked as its door panel suddenly flew off. Out of the flames a female figure emerged, its skin and clothing burned away to expose a surface, silver-white where it wasn’t covered with ash and soot. Its eyes shone white, covered with a blue holographic visor. It no longer looked even remotely human.
Ashley shouted and ducked out from under my arm, drawing her rifle once more. I staggered back, shouting in pain as my weight came down on the injured ankle, but I also tried to draw my own sidearm.
The thing dodged Ashley’s one burst of gunfire, hammered her weapon away with a ruthless cross-check, and then seized Ashley by the front of her helmet. It seemed horribly strong, holding her dangling above the roof with one hand.
