Chapter Text
Art by nescienx
Some people chose the most cliché places to meet. Calling it a café was being nice – it was more like a shack set up by the docks with some tables and chairs set up inside and on the sidewalk – but, at least it was mostly clean, and the aroma coming from inside suggested that the food seemed edible, so Shepard couldn’t complain. Of course, that left the colorful commentary to the tall, olive-skinned man with spiked brown hair beside him.
“So, are we about to pick up a real job or are we about to pick up a kilo of coke again? Because, really Shepard, this is giving me bad flashbacks to that one time in Panama.” Garrus mused, gazing at the structure with his steel blue eyes as they walked closer.
“This isn’t Panama, this is Greece. Things should be okay.” Shepard reassured his friend. “Anyways, just to be on the safe side, I did a background check. She seems completely legit.” He said, unfolding some papers that were in his pocket and handing them to Garrus.
“Good to know you finally learned how to do that.” Garrus said as he took the page and looked it over it and read aloud the highlights. “Dr. Liara T’Soni, 42? Doesn’t look it. Archeologist and Assistant Director of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU, specializes in Lost Civilizations, written over 20 papers and three books on the subject and blah, blah, blah-blah, blah, blah….” He turned his head too look at Shepard, his eyebrow arched. “And you don’t find it the least bit suspicious that some obviously respectable doctor got a hold of you for a job?”
“Give me a little credit, Garrus...” Shepard said, amused by the lack of faith the other man had in him, yet he still pulled open the front of his leather jacket just enough so Garrus could see the .9mm hidden underneath. “Of course, I don’t think she’ll do anything. Just doesn’t seem the type to try to double-cross people, so I doubt I’ll have to use it, but… it doesn’t hurt to have it, just in case.”
“Great minds think alike.” Garrus grinned as he casually rubbed the small of his back to let the hint of the gun handle show against his blue shirt. He let a sigh escaped his mouth. “Let’s hope you’re right, though. I would hate for you to end up in a Greek jail, because that’ll mean I’ll have to bust your ass out of it.”
Shepard just laughed in response as they reached the sidewalk outside of the café.
After giving a quick glance around, and not finding Dr. T’Soni at one of the tables outside (looked like someone had at least took the smart parts in the movies), Shepard and Garrus made their way inside. He quickly scratched out the previous thought in his head how it seemed Dr. T’Soni was playing it smart the second he saw her. Not only did she stand out like a sore thumb in the café, wearing a white dress, wide-brimmed hat, and sunglasses that made her pale, freckled skin and bright red hair stick out even more than it would in Athens, she seemed to be in a heated argument with a well-built man with slicked-back black hair, who was wearing glasses, a blue dress shirt and a grey vest. The closer Shepard and Garrus got, the clearer their words became.
“There are other ways, Liara.” The unexpected man’s voice was low, rough and husky, but also full of anger. “We could petition the government again… see if they can’t push the paperwork through to get approval sooner.”
“Like I’ve been telling you again and again, Kaidan, the fastest the Greeks will approve it is three weeks, and then it’ll be too late.” Her words were apologetic, almost desperate. “This is the only way.”
The man slammed his fist onto the table; not too loudly to draw attention, but hard enough to get his frustration across. “Goddamn it, Liara!” His words went above his previous hushed tone, but still not all that loud. “You’re going off of some rumors you heard from a few museum curators! We don’t know who this guy is, and we’ve both spent too long on this to just trust some random stranger who’s wanted in 15 countries!”
Dr. T’Soni sighed and shook her head. “Please, Kaidan, don’t start bringing up Rahna again…”
“Who’s Rahna?” Shepard just ever-so-casually butted in as he and Garrus stood over the two’s table, catching the two off-guard.
An enraged look came over the face of Dr. T’Soni’s companion. “Who the hell are you?” There were daggers filling his words, but he did not raise his voice.
“She… Mr. Shepard?” the woman was unsure.
As he casually pulled the chair nearest to her, Shepard gave the woman a slight nod. “Just ‘Shepard’, Dr. T’Soni.” He then turned his gaze towards the man she was with. “Who’s Mr. Grouchy-pants here?”
The man shot Shepard another nasty look, yet Liara was the one to reply. “This is Professor Kaidan Alenko. He’s an Assistant Professor as well as a colleague of mine at NYU, as well as my assistant on the project I’m currently working on… the same one I need your help recovering an artifact for.”
A sly grin crossed Shepard’s face. “Well, I guessed that much - the procurement of artifacts sort of is my occupation.”
“Who’s your friend?” Professor Alenko’s sharp words cut in, again, while he pointed at the man who had occupied the last chair at the table.
“My associate,” Shepard replied casually.
“Your ‘associate’ have a name?”
Shepard looked over at Garrus. “Hey, you got a name?”
Garrus just grinned slyly as he shrugged. “I don’t know, do I, Shepard?”
A grin formed on Shepard’s face as well as he looked back at Professor Alenko. “Yeah… It’s Garrus.”
The professor just rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he leaned back into his seat, very, very irritated.
Dr. T’Soni let out a sigh, obviously bothered by the conversation getting off-track. “Mr. … I mean, Shepard... how familiar are you with ancient Greek culture?”
“About as much as they taught me in high school.” He replied with a shrug.
The woman shook her head. “Well, it doesn’t really matter how much you know. What I need you to recover is a medallion. Very ancient Greek and one-of-a-kind.” She pulled out an old journal that had several pieces of paper stuck inside. She pulled one of the whitest ones out, and handed it to Shepard. It was a photocopy of a sketch of the medallion. “It is supposedly is on a group of islands, which are off-limits without proper permits, I might add, about 35 miles off the coast from here. We’ve been petitioning the Greek government for nearly 3 months now to get access, but we’ve been stonewalled at every turn.”
“How do you know it’s still there, then?” Garrus butted in suddenly.
“Something like this…” Dr. T’Soni took in a deep breath, as if she was suddenly overcome with so many emotions. “…something like this would have shown up somewhere in history if it would have ever been removed from that temple. Even a private collector would have flaunted this find off to someone. But, no… nearly 2000 years of nothing… it has to be there.”
Shepard knew that Garrus would keep pressing on with his questions until he was satisfied, and wasn’t disappointed.
“Maybe the Greeks are keeping it under lock-and-key in a museum somewhere, like some big government secret?” Garrus shot loose another question.
She shook her head again. “No. Only one attempted expedition was made into the temple in the early 1930’s. They reached the third sub-level before they were unable to travel further in, due to a chasm approximately 60 meters wide and 150 meters deep. They had planned a second one a few years later, which would have brought the proper equipment to cross it , but World War 2 happened. Every attempt by the government or a third party thereafter has never come to light due tofinancial issues, bureaucratic red-tape, bad weather, and so many other, smaller things. Something just has always gotten in the way to fully explore the ruins. Of course, the main reason the island is protected by the government is that a research facilitywas built on a sister island in the 1950s. If it wasn’t for that, I would have already acquired what I needed months ago.”
Apparently, Garrus still wasn’t satisfied. “And you can’t just sneak onto the island why?”
“Mr. Garrus, I lack the skills and abilities to reach the island, cross 2 kilometers to reach the temple, then descend to its deepest level to retrieve the medallion before backtracking the way I came to sneak back off before sunrise – I would need at least a month and a team of 20 people.”
When Garrus was silent after her response, Shepard took that as his friend being satisfied by the answers, and got back to business. “And this will be the part where you say ‘this is where you come, Shepard’.” A hinting cough from Garrus made Shepard amend his statement. “…where you two come in, Shepard and Mr. Garrus.”
“Correct.” Dr. T’Soni gave another nod. “The island is patrolled by the Greek military along the shore and a bit into the interior, but it’s a token force, really and there should be none within the actual temple itself, since not only is it in a secluded spot on the island, but historical preservation laws forbid it. Someone with your … reputation… though should have no problem with that, though.” She pulled out a few more pages from the journal, yet held onto them. “I have maps to the island, as well as of the explored areas of the temple to give you… if you agree to do this, of course.”
“Well… let’s talk money first.” Shepard said as he leaned forward and holding himself in a serious manner now. “You do know my fees, right?”
“Yes… I’ve heard some things…” She then reached down underneath the table and pulled up a very large brown bag.
Alarmed at the very obvious thing she was about to do, Shepard suddenly stood up and reached out to make Dr. T’Soni put the very large bag full of money back out of sight. The distinctive click from a gun being cocked made him stop. Shepard’s bright blue eyes looked over in the direction of Professor Alenko and saw the table cloth near him poking up in very distinctly barrel-shaped point.
“I knew these guys couldn’t be trusted, Liara.” Professor Alenko growled. “He was just about to try to steal the money.”
“Don’t tell me you…” Liara’s eyes were wide open - her expression completely shocked - staring right at Kaidan as she stumbled on her words “…you… you didn’t bring a gun, did you?!”
There was another click before a wince crossed the face of the Professor when something obviously jabbed into his side. “Oh… the good Professor here isn’t the only one carrying, Doctor.” Garrus had a cold look on his face, as his steely eyes were locked on the other man with his gun drawn. “…of course, we do so because of occupational hazards like this – I don’t like people pulling guns on my friends, mister.”
“I’ll shoot him.” Alenko’s voice was cold and intense.
“No… you’ll shoot at him. You could miss, though.” Garrus’ words were colder. “Of course, when I shoot you, I won’t miss and you’ll be very dead.”
“Listen, I wasn’t trying to steal the money, I was just trying to stop her from flashing it around in a very public place because I don’t want some jackass coming after me, or if this deal goes south, after you, later. And Garrus… he’s just trying to protect his own interests.So, put the guns away, both of you.” Shepard was as calm as ever, despite the tense situation.
“Sit back down first.” Alenko’s voice was still cold, but had eased up a bit on the intensity.
When Shepard did so, and after a few more tense moments, there was the click of the release of the hammer as the bump in the table cloth near the professor disappeared, followed by Garrus easing back into his chair after he uncocked his gun as well. Dr. T’Soni was still horrified, though.
Shepard looked at her. “I’m sorry if that all startled you, Doctor…” He reached out and took one of her hands, holding it reassuringly. “…now, normally, I would say this would be the end of the business transaction and tell you good luck in finding someone else, but, I can tell you’re really new at this ‘breaking about 20-or-so international laws’ thing here, so I’ll give you a free pass this time. Of course, that’ll be an extra $10,000, but, from the way you seem to be so passionate this medallion, I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”
“What?!” Alenko’s voice finally got loud for the first time. “You’re trying to extort us now?!
“Well, you did just threaten to shoot me.” Shepard replied as he let go of Liara’s hand and leaned back. “Actions do have consequences. We could just walk away right now, if Dr. T’Soni isn’t willing to pay.
The woman looked at her colleague. “Kaidan,we’ve put too much into this already.We can’t stop now.” She turned to look at Shepard. “$10,000 more is no problem, but I won’t be able to give you the additional fee until I give you the other half once the job is done.”
Shepard smiled, not only for the fact he was getting more money, but also that this doctor wasn’t as naïve as she could have been. “Alright, that works perfectly fine.” He held out his hand for her to shake.
She took her hand in her own, and the tension that had been building in her slowly flowed out. “I’m glad we were able to come to this agreement. Now,how soon can you be ready?”
When Shepard took his hand back, he began to scratch his chin and think. “Hmm… I think we can be ready by tomorrow night.” He looked at Garrus. “That sounds good to you?”
Garrus just gave a nod of approval.
“Alright, then.We’ll be ready tomorrow night. So,now would probably be the best time to give us things like maps, notes about the island and the temple, or anything else that will help us, so we can know what we’ll need to get.” He pointed at the journal. “That right there should be great.”
Dr. T’Soni suddenly snatched it off the table, and held it to her chest like a 3 year old clutching a precious toy. “No!” She actually sounded alarmed for a moment before talking a deep breath and regaining her composure. “I mean… there are things in here that are too valuable to let just anyone see.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “I have the maps now. What if I make copies of certain things I think will be most helpful to you while exploring the temple and just bring them to you tomorrow night?”
Letting the client know his launch location in the past had bitten Shepard in the ass a few times before, but he was willing to trust Dr. T’Soni, mostly because she just seemed too damn nice and innocent; the kind of nice and innocence you couldn’t fake; to be suspicious of getting double-crossed. Of course, Garrus was part of this and Shepard looked his way for his input. The olive-skinned man just gave a shrug.
“Okay… I guess that can work.” Shepard replied as he looked back at her.
Dr. T’Soni pulled out a few more pages from the journal,jotting her hotel name and number on one of the pages, and handed them and the bag of money to Shepard.
He let her know what time he would call her the next evening to tell her the meeting location, and then Shepard and Garrus proceeded to leave the café to head off to gather supplies.
Garrus was going through the pages that Dr. T’Soni had given them, and, as soon as they were a good distance away, he looked at Shepard as he held up the picture of the medallion. “This is not Greek.”
Shepard nodded. “I know. Why else did you think that I really increased the fee for?”
“Why take the job when you know they’re lying to us?”
Shepard just gave a shrug. “Because, it seems like it’ll be exciting to see what the hell that thing really is.”
“And…?” Garrus wasn’t entirely buying it.
The biggest grin just broke out across Shepard’s face. “’And…’ nothing. I’m during this purely for the adventure.”
“I’ve seen better poker faces at a frat party where everyone is drunk and stoned.” Garrus shot back. “What else has got you so excited?”
“Garrus Vakarian, I have not the slightest clue of what you’re talking about…” Shepard grinned devilishly as he picked up his pace.
All that Garrus could do was let out a groan as he slapped his face. “You know, one of these days, you are going to be the death of me,like how it almost was in Panama last year.”
Shepard let out an irritated groan. “Do you always have to keep bringing up every little thing that’s happened to us in Panama over the years?”
“How else am I supposed to keep you in-check?” Now Garrus was the one with the grin on his face.