Anderson struggled for a few seconds, but he couldn’t get free. He felt Saren applying pressure to his arm, and he went still before the turian decided to break it. The rest of the people in the bar had jumped up from their seats when the action started, but once they saw that the human was effectively helpless, they simply sat back down and resumed drinking.
“This is what it means to be a Spectre,” Saren whispered, still atop him. He had leaned in so close that Anderson felt his hot breath in his ear and on the back of his neck. “Sacrificing one life for the sake of millions. Qian’s research is a threat to every species in Citadel space. I saw a chance to stop him at the cost of a few dozen lives. The math is simple, human… but few people are able to do it right.”
“I get it,” Anderson said, trying to keep his voice calm. “So let me up.”
“Try this again and I will kill you,” the Spectre warned before releasing him. Anderson had no doubt he meant it. Besides, fighting with Saren in this bar didn’t accomplish anything. If he really wanted to help Kahlee he had to be smart instead of impulsive.
He stood up and stared at the turian for a long moment. Despite being immobilized, the only thing hurting was his pride. So Anderson simply brushed himself off, then went and sat down at the table again. Realizing the human intended to hold his anger in check, the turian joined him.
“They didn’t find Kahlee’s body at the scene,” Anderson said, resuming the conversation where they had left off. He’d need to come up with a plan to help Kahlee, but he didn’t even know where she was being held. As much as it galled him, he needed to get the turian back on his side. “Were you there? Did you see what happened?”
“Your ground team was attacked by Skarr and the Blue Sun mercenaries,” Saren told him. “When all hope was lost your soldiers tried to surrender, but the Blue Suns gunned them down.”
“What about Kahlee? Is she still alive?”
“She was,” Saren admitted. “They took her inside the refinery. I assume they must need her for some purpose.”
“If they know we’re coming, they might still kill her,” Anderson said. “That means nothing to me.”
It took every ounce of military discipline the lieutenant had not to attempt to attack him again, but somehow he managed to stay in his seat.
“She means something to me,” he said, straining to keep his voice even. “I want to make you a deal.” The turian shrugged, a truly universal gesture of indifference. “What kind of deal?”
“You don’t want me here. You’re only doing this at the order of the Council. You take me to Edan’s hideout and give me a chance to rescue Kahlee, and I promise to stay out of your way for the rest of the
mission.”
“What do you mean by ‘a chance to rescue Kahlee’?” the turian asked suspiciously.
“If they know we’ve found them, they’ll probably kill her. So when we get to the refinery you let me go in first. Give me thirty minutes to find Kahlee before you go in after Qian and Edan.”
“What if somebody sees you?” the turian asked. “There’s security at the refinery. Not to mention Edan’s mercs. You set off the alarms, and they’ll all be on guard. That makes my job harder.”
“No,” Anderson argued. “It makes your job easier. I’ll be a distraction; I’ll draw them off. They’ll be so concerned with me they won’t even notice you sneaking in from the other side.”
“If you get into trouble, I won’t come to help you,” Saren warned. “I wouldn’t expect you to.”
Saren considered the offer for a full minute before nodding his head in agreement. “Thirty minutes. Not one second more.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Neither one of the men spoke during the long drive through the desert night. Saren was behind the wheel, staring straight ahead through the windshield of the rover while Anderson studied the blueprints of the refinery. He’d been hoping to see something that might give him some clue as to where Kahlee was being held, but there were simply too many places they could have converted into a makeshift prison for her. Instead, he focused on trying to memorize the general layout so he could find his way around quickly once he was inside.
After an hour they could see a dim glow in the distance; the refinery lights shining in the darkness. The facility ran two day shifts and two night shifts of nearly two hundred workers each; the eezo production continued around the clock. To accommodate such enormous labor requirements, the refineries offered free room and board to employees and their families in the surrounding work camps: prefab buildings assembled in an ever-widening circle around the chain-link fence protecting the refinery itself.
They were only a few hundred meters from the edges of the work camp when Saren stopped the rover. “We walk from here.”
Anderson made a mental note of where the vehicle was parked; he’d have to find his way back here through the dark after he found Kahlee. If he got lost, he doubted Saren would bother to come looking for him.
He grabbed his pistol, but hesitated before taking his assault rifle. The pistol had a silencer on it, but the assault rifle was loud — one burst from that and the whole place would know he was there. Plus, it was a lot easier to pick your targets carefully with a pistol than an automatic weapon.
“You’ll need that,” Saren advised him, noticing his indecision.
“Most of the people in that plant are just ordinary workers,” Anderson replied. “They won’t even be armed.”
“Edan’s working with the Blue Sun mercenaries. You’ll run into plenty of them in there, too.” “That’s not what I meant. I’m a little concerned about accidentally shooting innocent civilians.”
Saren gave a harsh, bitter laugh. “You still don’t get it, do you, human?
“Most of the workers in these camps own firearms. This refinery represents their livelihood. They aren’t soldiers, but once the alarms go off they will try to protect it.”
“We’re not here to destroy the plant,” Anderson objected. “All we have to do is grab Qian, Edan, and
Kahlee and get out.”
“They don’t know that. When they hear sirens and bullets, they’ll think the plant is under some kind of terrorist attack. You won’t be able to pick and choose your targets when half of them are running around in a blind panic and the other half are firing guns at you.
“If you want to make it through this mission alive,” Saren added, “you better be willing to shoot civilians if they get in your way. Because they’ll be more than willing to shoot at you.”
“Necessity is one thing. But how can you be so cold about killing innocent people?” he asked in disbelief.
“Practice. Lots of practice.”
Anderson shook his head and took the assault rifle, though he promised himself he wouldn’t use it
unless absolutely necessary. He folded it down and snapped it into the armor slot on his back, just above the belt. Then he slapped the pistol into the slot on his hip, where he could easily grab it if necessary.
“We’ll split up,” Saren told him. “I’ll head east, you go around the other way.”
“You promised me a thirty-minute head start before you go in,” Anderson reminded him in a hard voice. “You’ll have your thirty minutes, human. But if you’re not here at the rover when I get back, I’m
leaving you behind.”
Anderson quickly made his way through the darkness to the edges of the work camp. Although it was the middle of the night, the place was buzzing with activity. Because of the staggered shifts at the refinery, there were always people who were recently getting off work or just about to start. The camp was like a small city. Over a thousand families made their homes here — husbands, wives, and even children were milling about the streets, nodding greetings to one another and going about their daily lives.