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[Cainhurst Crow]

"Trust me, I know about a rebellious phase. I'm just glad that we got your daughter here safe and, what the-!?" Menos exclaimed as one of the c-sec officers ran past, followed by their resident turian.

"Early Bird, the heck are you goin!?" Menos called out before he cursed, "Wait for me." He said as he gave chase himself.

[Kel Riever]

The turian C-Sec officer was so focused he didn't realized he was being followed.  As he rounded a wall to approach one of the transit stations, where a patrol car waited, along with another C-sec officer, a human.  Both Kurik and Menos were able to pull back to the wall in time so as not to be noticed, and yet overheard the conversation.  It was clear the human officer was trying to get the turian to calm down.

"Too late, no need to jump now.  They got away and the sight is going to be a forensics nightmare.  Might as well get a bite to eat along the way, it's going to be a long night."

"That fast?  I thought the transport was supposed to be under escort."

"You know how it's been since the attack on the Citadel.  We're stretched out thin.  Why do you even think they put the call into us way out here?  Ariake was supposed to hire a private firm to assist with the delivery but I guess they couldn't find one in the end.  They're pretty steamed."

The turian officer looked surprised.  "Wait, are you talking about the Ariake Technologies.  I thought this was supposed to be..."

"The name of the company is Cobalt, and they're the original equipment manufacturer for the prototype...which was going to be sold through Airiake.  So someone is going to get roasted over this."

"But how?"

"Attacked the transport mid-flight, would you believe?..."

[TheMajonese]

"Hey, wait for me!", Naomi shouted after Kurik and Menos before she followed them.

 

For a second Chris thought about chasing her to make sure she was safe but then decided to stay with Darya and Cadi. If Naomi was about to do something stupid he wouldn't be able to stop her anyway. Besides there was something he wanted to talk about to Cadi and it was better if Naomi wasn't around.

 

"Cadi, you have a second?", he asked the blue haired woman. "Correct me if I'm wrong but while we were at the suite you did nothing more than just waiting at the door, didn't you? And when that biker showed up you didn't even move or draw your weapon." There was no anger in his voice but Chris was a bit confused about Arcadia. During this whole mission there had been something awkward about her behavior and it had taken him quite some time to figure out that it had been her passiveness. "You seemed quite relaxed back there while watching us!"

 

 

 

In the meantime Naomi and the others heard the conversation between the two C-sec officers. It took her a bit to put two and two together. "Wait a second...", she said, "weren't we hired to escort some high-tech transport here on the Citadel? Maybe that's the one they are talking about!"

[Kel Riever]

As if to confirm Naomi's suspicions, the three who were eavesdropping on the conversation between the two officers heard mention of a jet bike being used in the heist, with a rather familiary turian skull marking on its tailfin...

Arcadia gave one of her knowing glances over to Chris, in the meantime, when he asked his question.  The business with Bel Nu was concluded and payment had been made, though the Secretary stuck around for a few more questions if there were any, or perhaps he was stalling before having to deal with his daughter.  Cadi stepped aside with Chris, under one of the cherry blossoms decorates with lights for the night cycle of the Presidium.  They were conveniently out of earshot of anyone but themselves and a nearby Darya.

"Don't you feel that the doorway needed watching as well, should something unexpected happen?"  It was obvious that Cadi's first response was half serious.  She then went on to whisper.  "I did not draw my weapon but I was ready to.  Maybe it was because I wanted to see how everyone responded."  Looking directly into Chris' eyes, Cadi seemed to gently nod as she spoke.  "Maybe because there's more coming that will be far harder for us, so it was useful to see how people reacted, and who took the initiative.  This wasn't a throw away job, and there are always risks with watching instead of acting, but I believe it was important to see how events unfolded in a real situation.  I was as surprised as anyone with what happened, but it was a good opportunity to make an assessment.  I would have acted if things had become worse.

"I don't know how that comes across to you, Chriss, but I needed to know how you all would act."  Cadi leaned closer to Chris.  "Do you understand?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Darya walked over to Cadi. "Well, after all of this, I'm hungry. What do you say we get something to eat and talk about our next job, yes?"

[TheMajonese]

With a shrug of his shoulders Chris replied: "Sure! Now that you say it, it makes totally sense to assess us since you still don't know anything about us. I was just curious about that." 

 

He gave a nod over to Darya. "And I agree with getting something to eat, I'm starving. Let's just pick up the others first, I bet my sister is hungry as well."

[Cainhurst Crow]

"And look, a jetbike with a skull on it. Sound familiar?" Menos whispered to Naomi as he looked down to her, "Either it's the same one we tango'd with, or there's one hell of a coincidence going on here." He commented with a frown. So two jobs they took, might have involved them going at it with someone riding a jetbike, if not the same asari who attacked them. And the odds of more then one person running around with a turian skull slapped on a jetbike didn't sound coincidental to him.

 

"We gotta tell the others. Find out who the hell this rider is." He said with a forwn. He didn't much like the thought of someone crossing their path that many times. He'd rather nip it in the bud, then see it become a pattern.

[TheMajonese]

Naomi nodded over at Menos. "Agreed, maybe there's more to it we should know and I bet the others are also interested in hearing...and here they are." She spotted her brother and the two women and approached them. 

 

While she told them about the conversation between the two officers Naomi could hardly hide her excitement. "I think it's worth looking into!", she said with a glint in her eyes. "We can find out who that biker is and maybe even get some payback for our skycar!"

 

Chris raised an eyebrow at Naomi's words. "We should just tell C-sec what we know, maybe they didn't figure it out by themselves yet. But I think C-sec is able to handle this. Besides we just finished our mission! Why not keep it quiet for now?"

 

Naomi crossed her arms. "Hey, if that biker that attacked the high-tech transporter is the same we saw at the hotel, and I bet my ass that it is, then we shouldn't let her get away! She seems to be causing trouble everywhere..."

 

"Just let it go! C-sec will look into this, it's not our concern now!" Chris knew exactly why his sister was so focused on chasing that biker. "We will tell C-sec about that biker, that should be enough! What do you think?" He gave the others a questioning look.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Perhaps we could cash in on this. Besides I have a score to settle," Darya said.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"I wouldn't rely on C-sec getting this solved." Menos said as he crossed his arms, "I used to be a C-sec officer. This kind of mission is usually the type we let the private corps handle, since they got the funds and muscle to make it happen. That was years back when I was on the beat. Now? Sounds like things are even more stretched." He said, relying the information he'd overheard the officers talking about.

 

"Not to mention, if we do this, we may get on C-sec's good side. Which, trust me, is going to be good for us in the long run." He said, giving an incentive to why they should.

[Cknarf]

"I suggest interrogating the salarian." Kurik finally spoke up. "She was willing to leave with the biker earlier. She knows something."

[Kel Riever]

Arcadia finished transferring fund payment to each member of the team.  "There, that should make everyone feel better.  The money from the mission is in each of your accounts now.  On this topic of the heist, I believe we can talk about it.  Knowing who is involved, I have little doubt there will be a substantial reward for the return of the item.  Or, who knows, perhaps there is a larger story behind this?  Regardless, over a late dinner sounds like a good idea, and since you mentioned it first, Darya, perhaps you can make a recommendation where we all may eat together."

[Cainhurst Crow]

"We don't have time to eat with a mystery on our hands." Menos said as he crossed his arms, a second before a low grumble could be heard from his midsection. The salarian remembered then, that he hadn't really eaten much of anything that day. "On second thought, maybe a nice discussion over a meal would do us all some good."

[Kel Riever]

"Well, let's get going and talk along the way.   If the heist is linked, how can we find out who this pilot is?  Nadi Nu isn't likely ready to talk.  Any clues?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"I know a place nearby, Raul's. It's not too loud, and they have good food. Also, there are Turian friendly items on the menu," Darya suggested. "So no one will starve. Food is a bit on the spicy side, so I hope none of you mind.

 

"But that biker was apparently picking up Nadi. We really don't know if it was the same biker or if she was part of a gang. I think the latter."

[TheMajonese]

"Spicy?", Naomi asked with excitement in her voice. "Sounds perfect for me!" 

 

On the way to the restaurant Chris fell back behind the others and signaled his sister with looks to stay close to him. When the rest of the team was out of earshot Chris turned to Naomi. "I know why you want to chase that biker."

 

"She attacked us and that transporter as well..." She avoided looking at her brother.

 

"That's not it, Naomi, I know it! It's because of the skycar. You still think that you did a mistake when the biker managed to destroy it!" Chris let out a sigh. "If you and the others really want to solve the mystery with that biker gang, fine! I'm certainly not going to let you do this without me but you have to stop!"

 

"What?"

 

Chris gave his sister a serious look. "Taking responsibility for everything! That asari surprised us, all of us! There was nothing you could have done to stop her. And on Omega..."

 

"What about Omega?", Naomi interrupted him. "You want to tell me I didn't screw up there? That it wasn't my fault...?"

 

"Because it wasn't..."

 

"Yes it was!", Naomi shouted furiously and then realised that everyone could hear her. Trying to keep her voice low she continued. "Our job was to find that salarian scientist and bring him back. Alive! That part was important. But I gave the VIP my pistol so he could defend himself and he tried to shoot the vorcha that was about to attack him. You know, that vorcha had a high explosive tank on his back and our VIP managed to blow up that canister and get killed in the blast! If I hadn't give him a weapon..."

 

"That's bullshit!" Now Chris' voice became louder. "If our client had told us that the VIP is being persecuted by vorchas we could have been more prepared!"

 

"But we arrived just in time to save that salarian! We had almost killed all of the vorcha but then I screwed up. The salarian could be still alive and we could have finished our job..."

 

Chris grabbed Naomi's shoulder and looked directly into her eyes. "If the salarian had survived the blast of the vorcha's canister I would have shot him!" The look on Chris' face was surprisingly cold and his voice dark. "I would have shot him without caring about our mission. That idiot almost got you killed! He deserved what he got."

 

His sister stared at him and didn't know what to say. "I...I could...it wasn't that bad..."

 

"It was! You almost lost your arm, look at the burns on it! And you almost lost consciousness, the remaining vorchas could have killed you. No, I would have shot that scientist, no matter what. And the same goes for them", Chris added with a nod over to Menos, Cadi, Darya and Kurik. "If it was necessary to save you I would kill them, all of them without hesitation...!"

 

Naomi was surprised at the unsually hard look on her brother's face. She nodded slowly to show him that she had understood what his words meant. "Thanks...", said almost whispering with a shaky voice.

 

With a smile Chris padded her on the shoulder. "Let's catch up with the others", he said and sounded as usual though there was still that disconcerting look in his eyes. "Just stop thinking about that biker. If we look further into this we will sooner or later find out who she is. And again; you did everything you could, noone is blaming you for the skycar!"

 

He began to move while Naomi stayed where she was. She knew that her brother wasn't just talking about the skycar. With every move she did with her arm she felt a nasty pain on the remains of the skin. Staring at Chris' back she let out a sigh. He is probably right... Naomi thought and followed him. Even though the thought of getting something to eat at Raul's offered some distraction she couldn't stop thinking about what Chris had said to her and she soon realised that she would do the same if it was about her brother's life.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"We do know both of them had turian skulls on their bikes, so that at least means their connected." Menos said as he looked deep in thought, "It's not exactly a common thing to have, especially on the citadel of all places. I mean, not unless they were in some kind of punk rock band or something trying to be 'edgy'." He said as he gave the finger quotes in the air.

[TheMajonese]

Catching up with the others Naomi heard Menos' words. "I'm pretty sure I saw that skull before!", she said. "If I'm not mistaken there was a group called The Wastelands and they had exactly the same symbol. But as far as I know they disbanded many years ago, didn't they?" She gave her brother a questioning look.

 

Chris just shrugged his shoulders and seemed a bit lost. "Don't ask me, I have no idea of punk rock..."

 

"Hm..." Naomi thought hard trying to recall what she knew about The Wastelands but she wasn't sure. "As far as I know that group had a large influence on the punk music scene...but how exactly does it help us?" She suddenly turned to Darya. "By the way, how far is this restaurant? I'm starving..."

 

Since Chris was walking a few steps ahead of Naomi she couldn't see her brother rolling his eyes.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"The restaurant is not far. About 5 minutes by skycar." Darya said. "We should be going."

[Kel Riever]

"We are going," Cadi said as she opened the door on one of the skycars Stormhammer came in on.  She held it for others to get in. 

As the group loaded up into either one of the two X3Ms now needed to transport them and took off, Arcadia continued on the open channel.  "I am not up on current music, but I do know at least that it has come as a sort of resurgence in popularity.  They say no self-respecting punk rocker would ever admit to being a part of something popular.  It only strikes me as interesting because our third client...."

Cadi stopped as a though struck her.  Chris and Naomi were in her car.  She stared over her shoulder at the two of them, particularly at Naomi for a moment as a realization landed home.  "I find it rather coincidental," Cadi interrupted her own last train of thought, "That the performance being given at the Dilinaga Concert Hall is for Seirenes, a punk band, I think."

Working quickly, Arcadia used the X3Ms own computer interface to perform a search on the band.  "There," she said with some sense of victory in her voice.  Cadi pulled open the page with image she'd found, and put it on the displays of both skycars for everyone to see.  It was an informational page on the band Seirenes, with a picture of the cover for their newest music content release:  A black square field with a hazy turian skull, as if it was spray painted through a stencil held at a slight distance.  "Look familiar?"

Another quick search from Cadi caused her eyebrows to raise.  "The concert has been going on for a while and will be over within the hour."

[Cainhurst Crow]

"I'll be damned..." Menos said as he looked at the picture of the turian skull, smirking as he did so, "Either we're looking for a fan of thiers, or someones been dumb enough to do these crimes waving a proverbial flag around."

[TheMajonese]

"Hm...someone could have used that skull as a cover...", Naomi spoke out loud what she thought.

 

Chris laughed at his sister. "I doubt that they painted the skull on their bikes before the heist and removed it afterwards to lure C-sec on a false trail." Leaning forward he looked at Cadi. "What's our next step?"

 

"Getting something to eat!"

 

For second Chris wanted to turn to his sister and say something but instead he decided to just ignore her. "So what do we do now? We could check on that concert and see if we find something, maybe our asari friend is there as well."

[Kel Riever]

"We don't have time to eat now," Cadi said, rapidly redirecting the X3M's pilot. "Food later. Concert now. We have to see if we can find this person."

The X3Ms altered their course into a new traffic pattern heading to the Tayseri Wards, and if Cadi could have thrown the car manually into overdrive without fear of being pulled over by C-Sec she would have done so. The ride was ten minutes of just wanting to get there already.

Dilinaga Concert Hall wasn't one 'hall' per se, but more of a center. The main concert hall had a reputation for hosting high end, triple A headliners, but wasn't very large so also catered to what most considered elitists. The stadium portion, which could seat the largest number of people, was as often used by those who wanted to reach more people, and had a capacity of somewhere around 175,000 people. But where Seirenes was playing was a third, smaller hall, for those who neither attracted the people willing to pay the exorbitant prices of the Dilinaga Hall itself, nor the numbers for the stadium. Or, perhaps they simply didn't want to be associated with such mainstream things, and yet were popular enough to demand some sort of space in the best known concert center of the Citadel.

On approach, it certainly seemed as if the latter was the case. Colored lights and grand display screens flickered to the music that was loud enough to be heard by those outside. And probably to no surprise, because of this, the exterior of the third hall was packed with fans from the door, all the way out to the landing deck. Nor was it a tame scene. There were several C-Sec officers at the fringes, keeping an eye on what they could, but towards the center of the crowd, the mob ruled. Near where Shadowstorm's skycars were about to put down, a fire team looked like it had just extinguished the flames on some sort of wreckage, perhaps a vehicle set ablaze by the crowd. They weren't being bothered but a crowd had gathered nearby, just for them, to revel in the anarchy. Outside alone, easily hundreds had gathered, perhaps a thousand who could not, or did not attend the event inside.

"That's a hard scene," Arcadia commented. "I'm not sure we're going to get far packing armor and weapons, though they certainly make me feel safer. Let's circle once to see what we can.

A slow flyover in the X3Ms got some close up views of the crowd, young, post teen, clad in a variety of dark colors, some with haphazardly applied spray paint to their outfits. High boots and tight hide clothes seemed to be the style, or some sort of improperly worn military surplus clothing. Cadi sighed as the flyover got a closer view of the wreckage" A torched long, two-seater custom jetbike, mostly unrecognizable except for a large tailfin spared by the extinguishers - the tailfin with the turian skull.

"...And we're going to have to figure out where this person is in this hard scene, as well. If we can."

[J.Ezra]

The music thumped out of the large speaks which flanked either side of the stage, strobe lights flashing in time with the tune. Hordes of people danced in front of the raised platform, packed tight in the confined space.

 

Juric gazed out at the sea of faces from the wings of the stage, a slightly bored expression on his face as he continued to watch the crowd. This shows audience was particularly rowdy compared to the usual. While the band expected to attracted this sort of "edgy" gathering it seemed that each show had got increasingly worse in terms of order as the band got more popular. He didn't mind though since he'd been with the band as their bodyguard for some time now and had got use to the rather enthusiastic following they had.

 

"Taking it your enjoying the show then?" Juric glanced round to see an Asari who'd appeared behind him with a flustered but grinning face. "Hmm, not really my scene" he responded in a slightly tired tone as she insisted on asking this questions each concert, and he in turn always answered with the same statement. She leaned against him, using him as a convenient wall instead of the actual one only a few feat away. He didn't mind since she only came up to his shoulders, if that, and wasn't nearly heavy enough to set him of balance. "Where did you go again? Seeing that Salarian right?" Juric didn't notice her eyes flick up questioningly at him before she calmly said "Oh yeah, she turned out to be... a little uptight, you know?" "Can't say I can" She smirked at answer while looking out onto the open stage just as the band finished their song."Lets just hope they wrap this show up quick. For both are sakes."

[Cknarf]

Kurik shouldered his way through crowd, still armed, of course. As it turned out, a kind word and a gun got you a lot farther than one would expect. At least on the Citadel, anyways.

 

As he moved, he carefully scanned the mass of spectators. Finding a single asari would be nearly impossible, especially without a proper description.