Nihlus chuckled. This is his special handwriting. Head-on. The Batarians got it right between the eyes. And someone told me about "I'm a good shot"...

The three of us were already laughing, and Garrus was smiling shyly.

"At least you should take off your visor." Nihlus chuckled. "It's a very noticeable thing."

Vakarian put out his hand in mock horror.

"Over my dead body!"

Nihlus waved it away.

"Oh, varen you, it's really useless!

Half of the Lower Town knows your face. Even those for whom we are on the same chitinous face.

Garrus grinned.

I take a VERY responsible approach to my work. You've fucked up the local crime scene so much that you're being raided with the regularity of maintenance on the Path of Destiny. Did you tell me how an ambush with three grenade launchers and combat drones was set up in front of your house a month ago? A crowd of twenty snouts with heavy weapons? The Spectre watched the confused kinsman with interest.

"Krayk!" Garrus growled indignantly, but withered under the malicious gaze of the green eyes.

"Just tell me it's a common thing." I grinned, but when I saw the guilty expression on Garrus' face, I choked. "Really?"

Nihlus laughed merrily as he braked at the taxi. Oh, yes! Explosions and gunfire are common near his house. For periods, he had to live at work when his apartment was once again blown up, burned down, looted, vandalized, or simply booby-trapped." Kraik, seeing his kinsman's embarrassed and somewhat guilty face, laughed more loudly. "That's how we first met when I asked Venari why his employee was sleeping on a bunk. Right in the armor and armed to the crest with captured weapons."

"There are no sofas in the C-Sec office." Garrus spread his hands. "So I spent the night in jail."

"For the amusement of the local contingent." added a Spectr.

"And why in armor?" And so that they don't get stabbed there either.

"Have you tried?" Liara gasped in surprise.

Garrus shrugged and nodded.

"And then I had to write huge piles of reports and explanatory notes." The former officer muttered sourly, lazily watching which address the Spectr was dialing. ""Cora's Lair"? Are you kidding?"

"It was bought by the Broker man." Nihlus shrugged his shoulders.

"Is this the one I shot before my appointment?" I was curious. Nihlus started, looked at me in surprise, at the grinning Garrus.

"Did you bang a Fist?"

"Yes." shrugging her shoulders, she confessed.

"Irene promised Dr. Michelle that Fist WOULDN'T BOTHER her anymore. Well... he won't bother... anymore. He worked for Saren and sold Tali to the mercenaries. And we needed her. very.

"And did he say where to find her?" Naylus blinked in surprise.

"He began to sing..." Garrus broke off, glancing at Liara, who was warming her ears. "Rir was VERY convincing."

Nihlus lifted the plates on his forehead in surprise.

"Tell me later." Garrus and I nodded in unison.

"And about how they got drunk to the point of losing their sanity."

"What's there to tell?" I shrugged my shoulders. "They celebrated my appointment and treated my nerves. Tali was almost shot, and we successfully completed the investigation. What's not a reason? Stress relief.

"Dextro alcohol?" The Turian asked skeptically.

"I don't care." I shrugged my shoulders. "Your drinks are quite tasty and the moonshine doesn't carry as much, even if the quality is shoddy."

A taxi stopped in front of us and lifted the canopy invitingly. Garrus was given the steering wheel, and Nihlus and I got into the back seat.

I didn't really care where we went: I trusted Garrus, Nihlus, and Liara completely. I was resting mentally. From the annoying faces of the crew, whom I treated with the same coolness as Shepard herself, from Pressley, who was constantly unhappy with the presence of strangers on board, from Udine, he would not be remembered by night, from the Geth, may the virus strike them... and from Normandy, with its rumors flying at the speed of light! Not a warship, but a haven for old gossips with a sick imagination, honestly!

That day, I got to know the Citadel from a completely different angle. Liara showed gardens and greenhouses in residential areas, cultural monuments of other races, and took them to huge shopping malls and cultural centers full of all kinds of entertainment from libraries and a banal zoo to a virtual equivalent of a movie theater, gambling dens, and other benefits of the entertainment industry. Nihlus, using his status, took us to restricted areas and showed us shipyards, repair docks, station defense systems, military factories and huge warehouses. And then we left respectable neighborhoods and plunged into the depths of the anarchy of the Lower City and its dubious charms. Bars, markets, gun ranges, questionable quality canteens and shelters. The Turians showed us the inside of the Citadel with some special passion, enthusiastically describing the dens and the adventures associated with them, telling stories from the past. Funnily enough, Garrus was recognized almost instantly, but most conflicts were solved with a simple phrase: "And I quit!" and three powerful pistols looking into the displeased faces of the reasonable. True, I had to shoot, but in contrast, even a banal shootout with local scumbags brought rare pleasure, and the instinct of self-preservation was completely destroyed.

The day ended well after midnight, according to our usual ship time, when the Turians decided that we had had enough and it was time to get out of the suddenly inhospitable bars of the Lower City. A taxi took us to the residential area where Nihlus lived. While we were getting to a low-rise house, an C-Sec patrol became interested in us: three reasonable men armed with powerful pistols, obviously not civilian models, and even slightly tipsy and a pretty Azari looked somewhat respectable for a respectable neighborhood... It's unusual. The Turians quickly talked to their relatives and let us go. I don't know what the two of them had done, but the patrol gave us very expressive looks. In general, the day off was a success.

My last thought, when I was already passing out, was, "We need to repeat it when we get back from the Noveria!"

Предыдущая глава

↓ Содержание ↓