Mass Effect™: Retribution
Page 28
“That was your lab originally, wasn’t it? You used me to get revenge on them.”
“I think we used each other. What about those files?”
“Why should I turn them over to you? Maybe I’ll just keep them for myself.”
“So keep the originals for yourself. Just send me a copy.”
“Were these experiments really what I think they were?” she asked.
“I don’t know what you think they were,” the Illusive Man replied evasively.
“What’s your offer?”
“Send me the files and I’ll give you three million. One up front, two on final delivery.”
“Three million, and I can keep the originals?”
“All I want is the data,” he assured her. “But I’ll know if you hold anything back. If you want to get paid, you send everything.”
“You really believe in this, don’t you,” she said. “The Reapers. Galactic extinction. You don’t think it’s some crazy story.”
“Let’s just say I’m not willing to take that chance.”
“I’ll send you the files,” Aria agreed. “You’ll have them by tomorrow.”
“I’ll put the down payment into your account tonight. Same as last time?”
“The same,” she said with a coy smile. “Unlike you, I don’t care if people know what I’m up to.”
Before he could reply, she disconnected the call. He laughed in spite of himself, amused at how important to her it was to get the last word.
He spun his chair to face the viewing port and pulled out a cigarette. He’d half-finished it when one of his assistants arrived to slip a glass into his hand before quickly removing herself from the room.
As he sipped his drink and smoked his cigarette, the Illusive Man’s gaze shifted from the glowing blue star to the cold black curtain behind it. One thought kept running through his head, over and over.
The Reapers are out there somewhere. And they’re coming.
Mass Effect: Retribution is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Del Rey Mass Market Original
Copyright © 2010 EA International (Studio & Publishing) Ltd. Mass Effect, Mass Effect logo, BioWare and BioWare logo are trademarks of EA International (Studio & Publishing) Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
eISBN: 978-0-345-52206-1
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