-Somewhere in the outer rings.-

-And off the radar.-

The figure looked over his displays and ground his teeth at what he saw. This was not good.

Only one man was able to rival his information network. One man, who knew as many secrets as he did. The lights in the cabin were darkened. There was no need to use valuable electricity on lighting when his displays glowed so nicely.

He pushed a button, and spoke into the radio, "Delta team, report."

"Sir," came the response, "The enemy knew we were coming. They resisted. We lost two of our men."

He grunted in frustration. "We anticipated complications. Was the data retrieved?"

A pause. The answer would be negative. As if only to confirm this, the agent responded hesitantly, "No, sir. A turian, he… he's the one that killed the two of us. He was skilled. He drove us off and-"

"How did you let one man drive the dozen of you away?" He interrupted, "Choose your words carefully."

"We couldn't find him. He had some kind of jacked-up sniper rifle. He headshotted our two, and we had to retreat when we couldn't get a bead on him."

"Then how do you know it was a turian?"

"Because one of us got a glimpse of him. Then the turian shot him in the head!"

He growled quietly to himself. "Return to base for debriefing. We will discuss your failure when you arrive."

"Sir." The signal blinked out. He leaned back in his seat and licked his lips. He had been trying to distract himself from the datapad on his desk.

He lifted the device, looking over its contents. He had an idea as to what it held, but he needed to confirm the rumors. What he saw gave him all the confirmation he needed. He set the PDA on the desk again, and leaned back once more. This was not good. He could worry about the turian sniper later.

"So," he muttered to himself, "my rival managed to keep the quarian girl and her information from my grasp, and his little pawn that stole it from me has managed to recover from his injuries. Well played, human, well played. You may have won the battle, but you have not won the war."

He turned back to his displays. There would be time for speculation later. Now, he had much that he needed to tend to. This was a war of information, and he would win.

He was, after all, the Shadow Broker.

A/N: Volume Two: Knight to Remember out now!