[Citadel Noir] Where The Dark Things Are

The duct was narrow and cold, squeezing around the three asari and the human who entered it, the light above them now and the darkness ahead, swallowing the last dregs of light. Their footsteps rang a little too loudly.

Officer Denarius switched on her omnitool light, bathing the area in sterile white light. There were scuff marks on the floor near the entrance, where someone might've laid in wait. Officer T'Jurali snapped a few photos on her omnitool, her free hand lingering near her holster.

That someone had been here was clear.

Celeste took her own pictures. Not because she didn't think officer T'Jurali couldn't do her job, obviously. It just paid to be thorough. Perspective was the name of the game - and volume. Celeste snapped a truly absurd amount of pics for something as simple as scuff-marks, but she did so in the utmost silence and seriousness.

"I'm on point," she stated simply, advancing a few paces down the duct and drawing her Suppressor. It was an instantly identifiable silhouette, practically a foot of handgun with the length of the sound-suppressor barrel taken into account. Not a weapon of law enforcement - a weapon of making sure that the thing you're pointing it at dies with a minimum of fuss. Harshly restricted in many areas, double-illegal in the Citadel, and yet Celeste drew in front of two C-Sec officers as if she had done this her whole life. A brief pause to fiddle with the attachment beneath the barrel, and a more focused beam of light spilled out into the narrow corridor of the duct.

Maiha lowered her hand to her waist, flicked open the safety strap across the back of her gun and drew it. Ahead of her, T'Jurali had already marked out the scuff marks with holo tape from her belt. The other officer, her normal irritating cheerfulness long gone, moved to take up position with Celeste.

Which left Maiha on rearguard. She flipped off the safety on her Paladin, lying her finger flat across the gun, turning her head to look at Michelle. Her face was grim and business-like, "Stay close to me."

She wasn't sure about this whole 'bringing a civilian into a potentially dangerous situation' thing but if they had to, she wasn't going to let her get shot.

"Do you have a shield generator or anything?" Probably too much to hope for, but Maiha had both a protective vest on and a clip on generator and she'd give up one of those things if it meant she didn't have a dead civvie on her hands.

Ok I'm the maintenance tunnels with a cop and some scary old lady. Right now they have a trail so I'll deactivate my omni-tool, but please have Blitzy on stand by in case we need her to guide us.
With a stroke Michelle sent that message to Shaart and Laykalar, and cut her omni tool to avoid it emitting light and sound at a bad time.
She nodded to Mahia and stayed close to her.
"No, sorry, no shield. The gangers that usually threaten me carry mostly melee weapons, so it wouldn't help much... I do have that", she added, showing her mace, without much conviction.

For a moment Maiha stared at the mace and then slowly shook her head, "That's not going to be much use." She took one hand off her sidearm and tugged off her clip on shield generator before handing it to Michelle, "Put this on. Just clip it to your clothes and flick the switch on the top. Easy."

T'Julani didn't look back but she did say, "That is so against regulations, Denalius."

"Yeah, well, so is bringing civilians, T'Julani."

"Whatever."

Celeste paused, lips sucked against her teeth, and turns her head to look back at the pair of officers. "No not whatever. Either of you."

She quickly turned her head back to watch the the duct, illuminated by the multitude of light sources the group possessed, but it wasn't hard to imagine that she was still glaring. "Bringing the civ was a terrible idea. What could she possibly tell us that she couldn't just tell us over a vid-link? And giving up your shield module? Really? You take a hit, doesn't matter if your vest saves you, you're down and suddenly it's up to us to protect both you and the civ and stabilize you."

Celeste exhaled sharply through her nose, calming herself and steadying her aim. "I really don't want to just send you both back like naughty maidens to actually protect her, but by Athame I am sorely tempted."

Michelle was anxious to avoid interacting with the asari, but this show needed to get on the road. She cleared her throat and started talking in a conciliatory tone.
"The thing is that I'm in communication with a kid who used to live here, and witnessed another murder, very likely from the same source. The crime scene is hard to access without guidance, and she'll talk only to me. Having two intermediaries seemed impractical, so here I am.
But I promise I won't play hero or be a load to you guys. Just tell me when you want to investigate there."

"Yes Matriarch," T'Julani sounded deflated.

Maiha stared at the back of Celeste's head. She had a point. It was against regs for a reason. Protect the civvie by doing her job and all that. But...

Well, her vest could take a couple of bullets and leave her with bruises at best, blunt trauma at worst. A single bullet could kill Michelle right now. And T'Julani had decent reflexes. So Michelle was going to keep the damn shield generator and Maiha would deal with the consequences later.

"We can discuss it later, if you'd like, Lady Matriarch," Maiha said, her voice somehow between respectful and firm, "I'd rather not waste more time on arguing."

The vents branched left and right. A decision had to be made.

"Of course we ca-"

Celeste stopped dead in the middle of the Y-junction. Then, slowly and deliberately, she lowered her sidearm and rounded on the little group behind her. Her jaw was clenched hard, her lips tight against her teeth, and a hard breath escaped her nose.

"Let me see if I have this correct," she said evenly. "We were already escorting a civilian into a potentially hostile environment, with officer Denalius' shield module no less, on the possibility that she would turn up useful information. Now, Miss whatever-your-name-is... you're telling me that we're doing all of this on information that is not even your own? Do you have any idea how much danger you're putting all of us in? On second- or third-hand information no less! All you had to do was set up a simple, low-bandwidth, free vidchat. Your source to you. You to us. We have beacons, woman. How could guiding us with those be any less impractical than you physically being here!? Think."

Celeste dragged her free palm down her face once, groaning. "Hurry up and pick a direction. You've already wasted enough police time."

Michelle gave a strained laugh while reestablishing her connection to Blitzy.

"Ok listen grumpie, I just volunteered information. If you gals want to fall back and set up a relay system it's fine by me, I just think the officers wanted to react fast, something you're obviously not interested in doing. All I can tell is that I'm happy to help however you people need, unless you keep badgering me, in which case I'll climb back up that ladder and disappear with a lead I think you really could use so fast that it'll make your head spin...
Hey, look at that, we're in business."
Michelle held up the omni-tool and filmed around to give the kid on the other end a look of their surroundings.
"If you want to go see the crime scene it's on the right on this junction."

Officer Denalius stopped dead and slowly turned to stare at the human woman, her blue eyes icy. For someone who was normally so cheerful, the change in demeanor was startling. Very slowly, drawing each word out, she said, "Are you trying to blackmail us, Miss Rondor?"

Michelle was baffled.
"Blackmail you? Into what? No I'm not blackmailing you. This was not double speak, I'm not asking you to scratch my back if that's what you mean. I really am volunteering information!"

A soft, disbelieving chuckle escaped Celeste as she shut her eyes and shook her head.

"Bitch you literally just decided to sass me and threaten to run away with information on an unsolved murder case, with C-Sec property I'll add, because you didn't like what I was saying," Celeste said in an even yet forced tone. "If you do not unfuck yourself within the next fifteen seconds I will personally run you in for obstruction of justice. See how you like two days in the tank with the kind of guys that throw each other through plate glass windows over bar tabs while you wait for a representative. Do not. Fucking. Test me."

"Alright, I give up. You just strong-armed me into giving up information I was willingly offering. That's... Whatever, it's still on the right over there. I'm ready where you are."

Celeste just shook her head in quiet disgust and took the right-hand fork of the Y-junction. Her omni's automapper was engaged, so there'd be little issue getting back out of the ducts in case of trouble. Like, say, a hostile and generally uncooperative witness who had already threatened blackmail throwing another tantrum and refusing to guide them back.

"Keep an eye on our friend. Wouldn't want her wandering off," Celeste told Denalius. "... and put your damn shield module back on."