Drew Karpyshyn - Retribution

The display flickered, and then the face of the Illusive Man came into focus.

“Is it over?” he asked.

“Grayson is dead,” Kai Leng assured him. “But I couldn’t recover the body.”

“It’s still on Omega?” the Illusive Man wanted to know.

“No. The Grissom Academy.”

The Illusive Man’s face showed no reaction to the unexpected news.

“What about Sanders and Anderson?”

“Also at the Academy. Both still alive.”

“I think you’d better come deliver your mission report in person,” he said.

Just as Kai Leng was wondering if he would leave that meeting alive, the Illusive Man said, “I knew I could count on you to complete this mission.

“You’re a valuable asset to the organization,” he added, almost as if he had read Kai Leng’s thoughts.

“Cerberus is lucky to have you.”

“It’s my honor to serve the cause,” Kai Leng replied.

“The station has been moved,” the Illusive Man told him. “I’m sending the coordinates.”

The comm channel beeped to confirm the receipt of the incoming data. Then the view screen went dark as the Illusive Man killed the connection.

Kai Leng leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding.

He had the autopilot plot a course for the station and fired up the drive core, sending the ship into FTL. Glancing at the flight plan, he saw he had close to an hour before he’d have to manually coordinate the first mass relay jump of the trip.

“Lights off,” he said, closing his eyes as the shuttle’s illumination dimmed. “Wake in forty minutes.”

For the first time since this whole thing had begun, his body was able to truly relax, slipping easily into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Three days had passed since Kai Leng had escaped the station. Anderson’s injuries had been tended to; his ribs were still a little tender and it would be another week or so before the ligaments in his knee were completely mended. Still, he was well enough to return to the Citadel. But first he needed to speak to Kahlee.

He found her where he’d expected: sitting beside Nick’s hospital bed to keep him company as he recovered from his wounds. Over the past three days her time had been split between this room, Anderson’s room, and twice-daily physio sessions to help her regain full use of her fingers.

“How you doing, champ?” Anderson asked as he entered the room.

“Fine” was all Nick said.

He didn’t talk much when Anderson was in the room. That was to be expected. It was obvious he had a crush on Kahlee. When it was just the two of them, all her attention was focused on the boy.

“You’re looking well,” Kahlee said, flashing Anderson a warm smile.

From the corner of his eye he caught a momentary scowl cross Nick’s face, and he had to fight to keep from laughing at the young man’s reaction.

Get over it, kid , he thought. Go find someone your own age.

“How are the digits?” Anderson asked.

“Good as new,” Kahlee said, holding her fingers up and twiddling them in the air. “I can start taking piano lessons tomorrow, if I want.”

“I’ve got another proposal you might want to consider.”

She raised a curious eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

“Can we talk in private?”

“Back in a minute, Nick,” Kahlee said, patting the young man’s hand as she got up.

“Whatever,” he grumbled, though she didn’t seem to notice his suddenly surly attitude.

Anderson led her out into the hall, then into a nearby patient room that was currently empty.

“Shut the door,” he said once Kahlee was inside.

“Sounds serious,” she said, complying.

“I checked with some old friends inside Alliance Intel,” he told her. “No sign of Kai Leng or Cerberus.”

“Like cockroaches when the lights come on,” Kahlee noted. “You think they’ll come after us?”

“I doubt it. There’s nothing for them to gain. Besides, we’re too high-profile. Cockroaches like to stay in the dark corners.”

“So what are your plans now?” she asked.

“I’m heading back to the Citadel in a few hours,” he told her. “I need to take Grayson’s body with me.”

“Do you think this will finally convince the Council the Reapers are real?”

“You saw the research. You tell me.”

“Doubtful,” she admitted. “The technology inside him may have been based on Reaper designs, but it’s got Cerberus’s fingerprints all over it. And there’s no way to know who or what was controlling him. Not anymore. They’ll probably just put all the blame on the Illusive Man.”

“I may not be able to get the Council to listen to me, but there are people I can turn to … both in and outside the Alliance. We can’t ignore this anymore; something has to be done to try and stop the Reapers.”

“You want my permission to study him,” she said softly as the realization of what he was asking dawned on her. “You want to conduct autopsies. Take him apart and see what you can learn about their technology.”

“This isn’t the same as what Cerberus was doing,” he insisted. “I don’t condone what they did to him in any way. But they were right about one thing: the Reapers are coming, and we have to find a way to fight them.

“I promise he’ll be treated with respect and dignity,” he assured her. “But there are things we have to know.”

“I understand,” she said softly.

“There’s more,” Anderson continued. “I want you to come with me. You’re the most brilliant scientist in Alliance space. If we have any hope of figuring this out, we need you.”

He paused to give weight to his words before continuing. “I need you.”

“You’re asking me to leave the Ascension Project?”

“I know you love these kids. And you’re doing good work here. But nothing is more important than this.”

She mulled it over in silence for a few moments, then nodded her acceptance.

“It’s what Grayson would have wanted.”

“It has to be what you want, too,” Anderson insisted. “Don’t do this out of guilt.”

“It’s not guilt,” she said. “I spoke to them through Grayson. The Reapers, I mean. They kept talking about a cycle. They said our extinction was inevitable. I’m not going to sit on the sidelines and let that happen.”

“I’m glad,” he said, reaching out to take her wrist, then pulling her close. “I didn’t want to lose you again.”

He held her head in his hands, then leaned in and gave her a long, deep kiss on the lips.

“Better not let Nick catch you doing that,” Kahlee said with a soft laugh when he was done. “He’ll bounce you off every wall in the station.”

The Illusive Man sat in his chair, staring out the window at the brilliant blue sun the station was orbiting.

It was a suitably stunning, and perfectly nondescript, background for the call he was expecting.

Occasionally he would take a sip from the whiskey rocks in his right hand, or pull a long, slow drag on the cigarette in his left. He was thinking about everything Kai Leng had told him, and what the implications were both for humanity and for Cerberus.

He knew enough about Admiral David Anderson to know he wasn’t going to ignore this. Finally someone other than Cerberus was going to start doing something about the Reapers. That didn’t mean the Illusive Man was simply going to step aside, however.

Working with Anderson probably wasn’t an option. Not in the immediate future, anyway, though he wasn’t willing to rule it out entirely. But for the time being he needed to make sure his own work continued, even as he tried to rebuild his fallen empire.