Kayo took a steadying breath as she studied the building in front of her, and the surrounding area. This was it, she had finally tracked down how The Hood had found Tracy Island all those months ago.

The Shadow Broker.

This was something Kayo had feared, and she had gone to great pains to limit the possibility - and amount - of data about International Rescue, the Thunderbirds and her family - real and adopted - that could or should be able to make its way into the hands of the Shadow Broker. Her latest intel, however, suggested that her efforts had all been for nought.

She sighed. Once she had discovered that she had two options - excluding the third do nothing and let everything become public knowledge option. The first was to explain the situation to Scott, and the Tracys knew nothing of the Shadow Broker to boot, and hope he would give her permission to do her job. The second was to do her job and square it with Scott when she got home.

She had decided on a middle ground, she simply explained to Scott that they had a data breach as she walked to her chair in the lounge and that she was going to deal with it, as was her job. By the time he'd opened his mouth to ask for further details she was halfway down the launch tube. Oh dear, how awful, she'd have to explain when she got back.

She often clashed with Scott about how she should do her job, and his reluctance to let her do... well anything. On the bad days she thought he didn't believe she was capable enough. Most days however, she knew it was because he believed in protecting others and had a strong chivalrous streak. Chivalry, Kayo scoffed, it was just sexism disguised as good manners.

That said, Kayo wasn't sure she should or wanted to be here. All of this relied on another intelligence broker, and Kayo was only here because Lady Penelope trusted this one - apparently Penny dealt with intelligence brokers in her non-IR related activities -, and Kayo trusted Penny. So here she was... attempting to mitigate the damage that would be caused if the location of Tracy Island - and by extension information about IR - became public knowledge.

She checked Thunderbird Shadow's instruments again, she had been sat here for half an hour just to monitor the unassuming office block in front of her, she liked to know as much as she could, other people's intel could be unreliable. She also hated surprises, as Gordon and Alan had once found out when trying to throw her a surprise birthday party, she'd knocked them both into the pool when they'd revealed themselves. No matt how much they laughed afterwards, none of the brothers had dared repeat that.

She sighed again, she couldn't put this off any longer, and she knew how to take care of herself. Unlatching Thunderbird Shadow's cockpit she climbed out and went to meet Lady Penelope's contact. Entering the building, forgoing the lift as it was only three flights of stairs and finding the office she'd been told about. Kayo nearly did a double take as she was greeted by a purple asari at a desk, instantly chastising herself on why she would assume only humans would be interested in the affairs of earth. "Yes?" The asari asked curtly.

For a second Kayo wasn't sure if the surprise had actually shown on her face. "I have an appointment." She offered instead.

Before the asari could reply the door behind her opened, revealing a blue asari. "I'll handle this, Nyxeris." She explained in a helpful, almost friendly voice.

Nyxeris turned back to Kayo and nodded at her to go on through before turning back to her desk. Kayo did as bidden, walking past the blue asari into her office and turning back to her as she shut the door softly. "Welcome, Ms Kyrano, my name is Liara T'Soni. I hear you're interested in relieving the Shadow Broker of some of his information." Liara greeted her as she turned back to face Kayo.

Kayo knew a power play when she heard one, Liara was showing her a taste of what she knew, subtly telling Kayo not to assume they were anything but equal, maybe even with the scales weighted in Liara's favour. "I was told you might be able - or willing - to help me." Kayo replied, neither a confirmation nor a denial, she had to hope Liara didn't take offence at the necessity to protect herself and her interests.

Liara smiled, Kayo wasn't sure if it was to disarm her or not. "Perhaps." She agreed, waving a hand towards a seat before sitting at her desk, Kayo accepted the offer. "One of my friends is missing, and I believe that the Shadow Broker may have information on what became of him." Liara explained cautiously. "This is my price, I will help you destroy your information if you help retrieve mine."

"You're an information broker, why do you need the Shadow Broker?" Kayo asked.

Liara almost smiled. "Few brokers know as much as they claim, and I would not be surprised if most relied on the Shadow Broker." Liara explained. "The level of resources and access required to be useful or good at this job is immense, and none have been doing it as long as the Shadow Broker, most of us are mere children compared to his operation."

"Are you admitting your own limitations?" Kayo asked.

"I am a... unique information broker." Liara admitted with a wry smile. "I am actually an archaeologist." She added. "I only changed professions when my friend - Feron - disappeared protecting me."

"Archaeologists need protection, do they?"

"I was on a sabbatical."

Kayo nodded to herself as she thought on what Liara had told her, well aware that Liara was not telling her everything, but she was telling her the basics. Kayo couldn't fault her for that, she'd do the same. "I assume you wouldn't agree to meet with me if you didn't have some kind of plan?"

Liara nodded as she leant forward on her elbows. "I believe I have a way to locate one of his strongholds, run by one of his agents." She explained. "If we're really lucky, we'd get the location of his base of operations, but I'm not that naïve... anymore." Her hands parting slightly as if to concede an unspoken point. "Trust is difficult to come by in this line of work, but I have vetted you, and we share a goal. I would appreciate your aid in this matter."

Kayo decided she must either be desperate, or have lost her mind. "Okay, I'm in." She decided, and Liara returned her smile.

~-x-~

Kayo had not expected Liara's plan to involve a trip to visit a professor of archaeology at his university office. More than coincidentally it was an acquaintance the two shared. In retrospect, Kayo had to admit that this made sense. "Professor Blakely, how lovely to see you." Liara greeted as they let themselves into his office.

"Liara! Tanusha!" Blakely replied, clearly surprised at their unannounced appearance. "I wasn't expecting either of you, it's been a long time."

"Professor." Kayo greeted, helping herself to a seat and putting her feet up on his desk as he glared at her. She smirked inside her head, let him squirm. "We need a favour."

"Ah, I'm not sure what kind of favour you could possibly need my help for." He replied, almost stammering as Liara made her way around to his side of the desk as if she was curious about the items on his windowsill.

"Information." Liara explained simply, fingers delicately tracing a polished gemstone.

"I... I don't know what -"

"Honestly, Professor, I would have thought after our little trip to lake Anasta you'd have the respect not to lie to the people who saved your life..." Kayo shook her head in disappointment, almost tutting, and Blakely blanched.

"Dare I ask what you want me to do?" He asked.

Liara turned back to him, leaning close to his ear. "I want you to ring your contact, arrange a meeting, and then say exactly what we ask you to say." She stated, somehow both sweetly and deadly. Blakely looked at Kayo as if she would help him, but she only gave him an innocent look, as if asking why he was looking to her for help.

"And if I don't?" He checked.

"I'll make it simple. Either you help us, or I flay you alive. With my mind." Liara explained, pausing for a heartbeat. "After Tanusha is finished with you, of course." She added sweetly.

Blakely knew the women were deadly serious, emphasis on the deadly. How they knew he used intelligence brokers to get information about where to look for treasure, he would never know, but that was all irrelevant now.

He made the call.

~-x-~

Kayo had only been mildly surprised that Banino had turned out to be Blakely's contact, and that had only been of the 'small world' variety. When Kayo had explained her knowledge of Banino, Liara had confirmed she had her suspicions on his identity but she had refused to make assumptions.

Kayo had to admit she was starting to respect Liara as they continued to work together. Not only had Liara used Blakely's meeting with Banino to plant some kind of chip on the informant, but she had been whispering in Blakely's ear the whole time, using the tidbits of information she already had to get Blakely to extract additional information out Banino by way of a fake warning. It hadn't given them the information they wanted, but it had got Banino to confirm that they were looking for the right thing. Afterwards, they had returned to Liara's office, and Liara was currently using her terminal to hack into Banino's wrist controller via the chip Blakely had planted. Kayo could respect the way Liara knew how to play this game, but that didn't mean she trusted her yet.

"Got it!" Liara suddenly, and happily, stated causing Kayo to look up from where she had been reviewing data on her wrist-controller.

"The location of the compound?" Kayo checked, Liara nodded and downloaded the information both to her omni-tool and Kayo's wrist controller. "When are we going?"

"Why wait?" Liara challenged, and Kayo grinned her agreement.

They would have preferred to take Thunderbird Shadow to their destination, but whilst it would give Kayo an advantage with it's stealth capabilities, there was no room for Liara. So they had taken a taxi out - establishing comms between their devices en route allowing Kayo to affix her helmet - and snuck in on foot, casing the building as best they could from the ground before Liara waved her omni-tool over the lock, relieved that this one was quite rudimentary. Kayo was secretly relieved, she was good at picking locks, but she was worried the level of security in this place would require her to use her scanner, and she knew the more she used her tech the more likely it was that one of the boys was likely to interfere. What she didn't need right now was John's well meaning but badly timed voice making her jump or alerting anyone to their presence.

Kayo carefully stuck her head through the door, instinctively ducking under the guard who swung for her head, ramming her elbow into his gut as she stepped one leg behind his and gripped his wrist to use his new momentum to twist him into the second - who's footsteps she'd heard - and they both toppled to the floor as Liara joined her and quickly encased both in a biotic stasis field. Kayo looked up sharply as she recognised the eerie glow, almost felt it buzzing as she got near enough to remove their weapons. "Nice work." Liara praised nonchalantly as she shut the door behind them.

"You're a biotic." Kayo felt like that wasn't new information, but she'd also never seen anyone use biotics in her vicinity.

"All asari are."

"Are you sure you needed me along for this?" Kayo asked suspiciously.

"Two heads are better than one, and you're clearly capable." Liara dismissed Kayo's unease as irrelevant, it was all too easy for non-biotics to doubt their usefulness when confronted with the power of biotics, but Liara knew that was not necessarily the case. Kayo said nothing further but tossed the guards weapons away and Liara took the opportunity to shoot them. Kayo turned to her sharply again as the stasis field dissipated. "Just stunned." Liara promised, before holding the pistol out to Kayo. "I know you oppose unnecessary killing."

For a long moment Kayo just looked between Liara and the offered pistol, before eventually accepting it and checking it over. They had decided against carrying weapons when working for International Rescue because that wasn't the kind of organisation they were, but Liara had a point by offering it to her, they might not have that luxury this time. "Thanks." She decided.

Kayo flicked her scanner open for a short burst to get an idea of how many people they would be up against as Liara raised her omni-tool to scan to get a general idea of layout. As Kayo relayed the rather large number of guards between them and their goal Liara explained that she believed she'd found a control room that should allow them to gain access to the data archives, so long as everything was networked. "What about back ups?"

"Until we find the Shadow Broker's base, we will never be able to control those." Liara admitted, and Kayo had to admit that there was nothing either of them could do about that. So both women readied their weapons as they crossed the small room to the door that would open into the stronghold. If Liara's scans were correct. then the compound was not that big, there were two small rooms at either end of a larger room containing the equipment needed to maintain and guard the facility, stairs leading to a walkway and another room above their floor. That room on the first floor looked like the most likely candidate for the control room, what they didn't like the look of was the number of guards and defence mechanisms on the ground floor with them.

Liara braced her feet as she raised her hands and focused her biotic powers as Kayo went to stand next to the door release, pistol raised and waiting for Liara to signal she was ready. Liara was practically glowing purple and blue by the time she raised her head and caught Kayo's eye as she nodded before turning back to the door as Kayo hit the switch, unleashing a powerful biotic throw that knocked everything in it's path flying. Kayo darted out of the doorway towards a low wall that partitioned some of the crates, firing as she went to provide Liara with some cover whilst the asari gathered her wits again after that display of biotic prowess.

Liara was quickly back in the game, experienced and able in firefights by now, and had taken Kayo's initial position against the wall and firing at the enemies who sought to come in from the side as she got a handle on any potential choke points. She had just formed a biotic singularity at one such place when she saw a mercenary suddenly appeared behind the wall Kayo was using for cover - clearly having crawled so as not to be seen - and Liara fired at him and missed by barely an inch. However, Kayo didn't even look surprised as she simply reached to grab his rifle, yank firmly down before finding a grip with her other hand and tossing him over both the wall and herself to land in a pile at her feet, before knocking him out with a foot and stealing his rifle, swiping over her helmet with a hand to bring up her HUD as she emerged above the wall to take some pot shots at the few mercenaries who had got through Liara's choke point - and one who was staggering to his feet after being flung across the room by it.

Kayo's proficiency with firearms was something even her adoptive brothers were unaware of. After all, a girl doesn't tell her big brothers everything, that's just common sense.

They were cutting through the mercenaries at a good rate, but the vast number made Liara worry. "If this goes on too long, they'll initialise a contingency plan!" Liara warned as she used her biotics to warp through the armour of a mercenary close to her disintegrating singularity, knocking him back just enough to detonate it.

Kayo ducked to reload and took a moment to look around their surroundings as she did. "Can you boost me to the walkway?" She asked, jumping back up to continue shooting, by now she had learnt to exploit the biotics Liara was using, inflicting maximum damage on disorientated targets rather than assuming their attention was best divided.

"Easily." Liara agreed. "When I give the signal, jump." She added, and Kayo nodded to herself as they worked to give themselves a moment. When they finally forced a break in their enemies Liara checked the distances again. "Now!" She shouted and Kayo launched herself as Liara added a biotic push so she completed her journey.

Kayo rolled into her landing, enabling her to get back to her feet so she could shoot in one direction whilst knocking a crate over in the other and darted into the corner she'd seen her target. A junction box. She loosely kept shooting with one hand as she quickly worked with the other. As head of security she was well versed in all the ways of potentially breaking into a stronghold, and she had been well aware of the advantages of cutting the power trick long before Virgil, Grandma, Penny and Parker were regaling them with tales of the Hood exploiting a group of London luddites.

As the lights went out a strange silence fell over the compound as the mercenaries fell into cover in confusion. Liara broke the silence. "By the goddess! Get out of my way!" She shouted as she formed another biotic singularity before using a biotic throw to launch everyone backwards towards it and detonate it. Kayo was vaguely aware of the dull thuds of rag-doll bodies hitting the walls, crates and racks as she darted out from her own cover, stealthy and swift before placing the minimum required number of perfectly timed strikes to render the mercenaries on the walkway with her unconscious. As with all the other Thunderbirds, the name Thunderbird Shadow applied to more than just the craft.

They made quick work of the rest of the mercenaries, they had the advantages of Kayo's stealth ability and Liara's biotics allowing her to feel movement without seeing it. Once Liara joined Kayo on the walkway, Kayo returned to the junction box to restore the power as Liara went to open the door to what they hoped was a control room. Or that was her intent before she kicked the door with a frustrated yell. "Problem?" Kayo asked.

"They've got security against omni-gel attacks." Liara muttered. "Not unexpected, it just makes things more difficult."

"I got this." Kayo explained, placing a hand on Liara's shoulder and the asari stepped aside and Kayo went to work.

Moments later the door slid open and Liara stepped inside and quickly shot the two guards left on duty - they must have been told to stay put regardless, or else - and ran towards a computer terminal. Kayo half grinned as she turned to watch the door, unable to shake the feeling of it being too easy, as Liara was back in her element now she was hacking rather than lock picking. "I've managed to upload a couple of subroutines into the Shadow Broker's network. One will isolate and destroy your data, the other is currently seeking out information about Feron."

"Very good, T'soni." A voice behind them startled them both as they turned to it's source, seeing a drell uncloaking next to a large storage locker, batting the rifle out of Kayo's hands with her biotics as she lifted it. "Too bad it won't help you."

A flash of omni-tool followed as the drell reached out an arm towards the terminal, and as Liara saw the sparks she dived out of the way of the explosion, landing near Kayo's feet. "One of the Broker's agents?" Kayo asked.

The drell turned to them and smiled. "I am unimportant, I failed to keep this compound secure so my life is likely forfeit, and I'm not stupid enough to stick around to find out."

"Then why destroy the terminal?" Liara asked now she was back on her feet.

"This way I might have the time to get off world. Hell, maybe out of the galaxy, heard some crazy rumours about a sleeper project." The drell shrugged, then raised her arms, a familiar blue glow forming around them. "Now, why shouldn't I kill you?"

Liara and Kayo didn't even need to share a look, neither had any plans on dying today. As Liara reached to tear apart the drell's barrier with a biotic warp, Kayo snapped the pistol Liara had gifted her into her hand and landed a perfect shot in the drell's shoulder, blood oozing out of the singed hole in her armour. The drell glared at them. "Maybe that is the question we should be asking you?" Liara asked calmly.

It was obvious to the drell that she was outnumbered, and so she turned to rip a hole in the wall behind her so that she could make her escape before either Kayo or Liara changed their minds, and this way made it look like she'd had little choice in her manner of escape unlike if she chose to slink out of the front door.

Kayo watched the drell leave as Liara turned back to the terminal, finally satisfied the drell was not about to turn back, Kayo faced Liara. "Well?"

Liara had returned to the now charred terminal and had been busy tapping on her omni-tool, but deactivated it again with a sigh, the connection was gone. "Nothing, even if my code is still running, I have no way of accessing it anymore." Liara admitted, then turned from the terminal and back to Kayo. "There is a chance that any data relating to your... employer is still being deleted, it was a sophisticated program." She admitted. "And even though I have lost my chance at finding about about my friend, I must thank you for aiding me to get this far. You have more than lived up to your end of our deal."

Kayo gave Liara a friendly nod as if to acknowledge her graciousness, before allowing a smirk to grace her features as she glanced back to the main hold they'd fought their way through. "I mean, if you want my help in the future, I wouldn't necessarily reject the idea."

Liara grinned too. "It was fun, wasn't it?"