Mass Effect by Drew Karpyshyn

Author:Drew Karpyshyn
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780345544339
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-10-30T05:00:00+00:00

ONE

Paul Grayson knew the Illusive Man was still looking for him. It had been almost three years since he had betrayed Cerberus for the sake of his daughter, but even if thirty years had passed he knew they wouldn’t give up the hunt.

He had changed his name, of course: Paul Grayson was gone; he went by Paul Johnson now. But creating a new identity for himself was only the first line of defense; it wouldn’t hold up should any of the Illusive Man’s agents come across his credentials. And his agents were everywhere.

Since its inception, Cerberus had seeded operatives throughout nearly every branch of the Alliance government. There was almost no place in Council space he could run where they wouldn’t eventually track him down. So he had fled to Omega.

The Illusive Man had never managed to secure a foothold on the enormous space station that served as the de facto capital of the Terminus Systems. Cerberus was well known for its radical pro-human agenda, making its agents extremely unpopular among the various alien warlords, gang leaders, and despots who held sway on Omega. Even if they suspected that Grayson was hiding here, it wouldn’t be easy for them to get to him.

It was something of an irony to Grayson that the skills he had learned while working for Cerberus—espionage and assassination—were proving so useful in carving out a new life for himself as a mercenary on Omega. He had been trained to kill aliens; now he was working for one.

“We’re wasting time,” Sanak grumbled, setting his sniper rifle to the side. He tugged at his combat suit as he shifted to find a more comfortable position behind the stacked crates that were concealing Grayson and him from view.

Grayson kept his own weapon trained on the ship on the far side of the loading bay. He was acutely aware of how careful his batarian partner was to not make any physical contact with him as he rummaged around.

“We wait for Liselle’s report,” he said flatly.

The batarian had turned his head to glare with all four eyes at the man crouched beside him. He blinked the uppermost pair, but the lower set remained still as stone.

“You always want to wait, human,” Sanak snarled. “It’s a sign of weakness.”

“It’s a sign of intelligence,” Grayson snapped back. “That’s why I’m in charge.”

Sanak knew only one way to deal with problems: charge into them headfirst. It made working with him difficult at times. His general dislike of humans—and Grayson’s deeply ingrained mistrust of batarians—didn’t help matters.

The two species had a checkered history. Humanity had expanded quickly after bursting onto the galactic scene, pushing the batarians out of the Skyllian Verge. The batarians had retaliated with violence, triggering a war between the two cultures—a war the batarians had lost. Now they were outcasts and pariahs in the civilized worlds of Council space—hardly ever seen, regarded with suspicion and mistrust.

On the streets of Omega, however, they seemed to be on every other corner. Since leaving Cerberus,

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