I left the hospital feeling brisk and full of energy. However, there was no time to wander around the Citadel. I had to attend to business, and the first order of business was processing documents. Part of the crew had decided to transfer back to the regular forces, and I needed to fill out a mountain of paperwork.
Kaidan Alenko and Ashley Williams received recommendations for promotion to a new rank, after which they were released to all four winds. Rebecca Lee and Chifuyu Orimura also received recommendations of this kind, but they preferred to stay on the SSV Normandy. Urdnot Wrex departed for Tuchanka. Garrus Vakarian asked for leave to meet his family... At least Greg Adams and Charles Pressly weren't going anywhere, and Jane... I gave them recommendations too, by the way, but surprisingly they were ignored.
Apparently, they thought I was giving out too many recommendations; however, for those of the crew whose rank promotions weren't approved, I paid out good bonuses, which were effectively equal to a year's salary.
And all of this required my attention, and besides that, I still had to help Oriana Lawson organize the meeting with Miranda Lawson...
In short, I had a lot to do.
But now business could be set aside, as Ori and I were sitting in an expensive restaurant, waiting for a guest. This restaurant was popular with those who conduct business because they rented out private rooms for negotiations, and right now we were in just such a room. But while Ori sat exactly opposite the entrance, I had gotten in here by a roundabout way and was sitting so that anyone entering couldn't notice me.
The door to the booth opened, and I heard a couple of steps.
"Miss Lawson."
Oriana Lawson smiled kindly at her sister, who froze upon hearing her voice.
"Miss... I'm afraid you're mistaken..."
"She's not mistaken..."
Before saying this, I pushed the door shut, and hearing my voice, Miranda Lawson immediately jumped aside and flared with biotic fire.
"Sister..."
Ori decided to take everything into her own hands, and that one word made Miranda Lawson falter. She lost control of the biotics, and it simply dissipated.
"I..."
"Just shut up. Honestly, I'm the youngest in our family, and in the end, I'm the one who has to restore family ties. Can you two at least become a little more serious, huh?!"
"Sorry, sis..."
I lowered my head.
"What the hell is going on here?!"
Miranda Lawson couldn't take it and raised her voice.
"What's going on is that I'm tired of one of you taking me for a fool who doesn't understand that people don't become heads of departments just like that... yet they took me and put me there, while giving me access to intelligence, and the other taking me for a weakling who can't stand up for herself."
"I don't..."
"You do."
Ori interrupted her sister.
"No, honestly, I might not be the strongest biotic, unlike our brother and you, but I can do a few things too! So either you sit down at the negotiating table, or I'll make you sit at it!"
Ori flared with biotic fire.
"I wouldn't resist if I were you..."
I shook my head.
"...especially since we really need to talk."
"Talk? About what? About how you want to use us along with Henry Lawson?"
"Henry Lawson has been dead for a long time."
"Liar!"
Miranda Lawson clenched her fists.
"Why would I do that?"
I looked at Miranda Lawson with slight bewilderment.
"So that we'd be under his influence again!"
It was a kind of doomed growl. A growl of hopelessness.
"You've already lured Oriana Lawson into your nets. Now it's my turn?"
"Alright..."
I sighed.
"...let's come at it from another angle. Let's assume, just assume, that Henry Lawson is still walking this earth. Tell me, why would he need to lure you into his nets NOW? He already has an heir. An heir under whose leadership the corporation is growing. We are conquering new markets..."
Miranda Lawson frowned.
"...I'll say more, with all due respect to Ori's talents, even she doesn't necessarily have to be in her place. Because finding a trusted person who will be even more competent than she is is not a big problem."
"What are you trying to say? That right now you just want to reunite with us? You don't know us!"
Miranda Lawson clearly had no desire to make contact; however, it was already an achievement that she hadn't fled from me as soon as she realized I was here. And she could have blasted me with biotics and tried to escape.
"Don't know you? Well, not personally, but I know quite a lot about both of you. Ori... I helped her with her studies, paid for tutors, ensured a decent standard of living... In short, I did everything so that she had a life, if not of a little princess, then of a sufficiently well-off girl. Though with you, I must admit, it was more difficult."
I spoke calmly enough, but Miranda Lawson's eyes narrowed dangerously at these words.
"Are you saying you participated in my life too?"
"Yes..."
Next, I listed a dozen specialists Miranda Lawson had studied under; these weren't all of them, of course, but some of the most expensive ones whose services Miranda Lawson had to pay for.
"...they all told you they were giving you a discount because you were very talented and teaching you was a pure pleasure, but the truth is that I simply found them earlier and paid the bulk of the fee."
"I don't believe it!"
"I can transfer the receipts to your Omni-tool."
"I..."
Miranda Lawson stared at me in shock.
"...transfer them!"
She refused to believe it, and I transferred the payment records to her, which she studied very quickly.
"No... I don't believe it..."
"Did you really think a young girl could hide from the corporation's intelligence service? I don't deny that if you only had to hide from me, you could have done it easily, but from a refined corporate mechanism..."
I shook my head.
"Especially since your appearance and capabilities were known to me; in short, there was no chance from the start. Another thing was that I understood that by sending someone after you, I'd have to..."
I grimaced.
"...lose people, as you wouldn't give up without a fight, and they wouldn't have the right to seriously harm you. So we watched and..."
I shrugged.
"...helped from the shadows."
"Ha! You slipped up! So Father is alive after all!"
"By 'we,' I meant myself and Aria T'Loak, to whom I gave a large block of shares so she'd be interested in the corporation's prosperity. She helped me a lot... taught me things Henry Lawson kept quiet about; in short, she became a sort of adoptive mother."
"I... still don't believe it."
"Then don't..."
I waved my hand.
"Knowing you, I can say with certainty that after this conversation ends, you'll start checking and double-checking the data. You'll dig into the earth to try and disprove my words. When you find nothing, you'll think I just hid everything very well and decide to play a game with me..."
I saw Miranda Lawson freeze. Her eyes bored into me; one more second and she'd stop breathing from the tension.
"...and you'll start acting like a slowly thawing sister who has finally believed her brother. Actually, I'm here..."
I tapped my finger on the table.
"...only to voice a few points, after which I'll leave you and Oriana Lawson to talk and negotiate."
"And what do you want to voice?"
"First: Don't trust The Illusive Man."
A smirk appeared on Miranda Lawson's lips. She seemed to be saying: "Go ahead, tell me he's a terrorist. Do you think I don't understand that? I just didn't have another chance to survive because of you." Or something like that.
"You can check the data later; The Illusive Man actively collaborated with Henry Lawson, so if our father were still alive, you'd be under a very tight thumb."
The girl's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
"And yes, he is a terrorist, so sooner or later they'll come for him. And I'd very much like my sister to be as far away from him as possible at that moment."
"Is that all?"
"No..."
I shook my head.
"Also this."
I placed a small chip on the table.
"Do you think I don't have enough money?"
She raised an eyebrow in such a way that I felt like a nonentity. Damn, she's incredibly good-looking. A pity she's my sister.
"I think you should understand that your main accounts are tracked by The Illusive Man. And if it happens that you have to leave him, then..."
I nodded at the chip.
"...this will be a very, very convenient means of escaping his attention."
"I have enough funds in all sorts of offshores..."
She was in no hurry to take the chip.
"I don't doubt that. However, I ask you to take the chip anyway. Consider it a manifestation of brotherly and sisterly..."
I nodded at Ori, who, noticing Miranda Lawson's gaze, nodded resolutely, confirming my words.
"...care."
"Tsk."
"Next, this..."
I put another chip on the table.
"And what is this?"
"Let's just say I took advantage of my official position, and this is a sleeper agent identification mark for the Corps. Don't worry, they don't hire idiots in the Corps, so no one but you will be able to confirm your identity with this chip. Also, it will only work once, as it's intended to prove to law enforcement that you shouldn't be touched and must be evacuated far from the operation site."
"And why? Although wait... in case they come for The Illusive Man?"
"Exactly. You're my sister after all, so I'm obliged to take care of you. And finally, perhaps the last thing: war is very close..."
This time she nodded in agreement.
"I don't think we can delay it for more than ten to fifteen years, likely even significantly less time. And you personally will always be welcome on any of my colonies."
"Yeah..."
She nodded.
"Now, since I don't want to be a third wheel, I'll..."
"John..."
Ori called out to me, and there was a plea to stay in her voice.
"Ori, you and I will still sit in a restaurant, but right now, if I stay, Miranda Lawson won't be able to relax. And I don't want..."
"Oh, shut up... you've brainwashed Ori, and now you're acting all nice?"
She shook her head.
"Just stay, because if you leave, Ori will be mad at me. I'll tolerate you somehow. Just don't do anything suspicious."
"As you say."
I stayed in the booth, after which food and drinks were ordered, and we talked—at first quite distrustfully, though that applied mostly to Miranda Lawson, but with every minute more and more openly. No, by the end of our gathering, Miranda Lawson didn't start calling me 'big brother' or sit on my lap, but we were able to bridge some of the distance that separated us.
We were also able to agree on the delivery of materials that would be more than useful for the colonies where construction was in full swing.
However, I couldn't stay with the girls until the end, as I received a call on a secure channel. I had to get to the Corps premises and... what for, I didn't know at the time, so I had to say goodbye to the girls and head to work.
As it turned out, nothing truly serious awaited me at the Corps, only new reports and interviews about what had happened. I had already managed to submit a written report, of course, as well as forward the recording from my armor's camera, but that couldn't cancel the interview.
And after that, I headed to the SSV Normandy, where I simply lay down on the bed and finally managed to relax.
***
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