Glen sighed as her phone touched her ear. "Hello?"
"Hey, Glen, it's Kasumi. You left a message?"
"I did. Yesterday."
"Sorry, I was on a job. This rich elcor hired me to grab Picasso's Starry Night. Hardly the most difficult heist I've ever pulled, but-"
"Don't take this personally, Kasumi, but now really isn't a good time."
"Yeah, Liara said you were up to something."
"You're at John and Tali's place?"
"I've been meaning to stop by and make sure John's taking care of our sweet little sister. Quite a place you built for them. Tell me, was it intentional for it to be so big, or are you so bored that you just keep adding on to the place?"
"Hey, I'm a Builder. I build. You wouldn't believe how fulfilling it is to be putting things together again, as opposed to blasting them to pieces."
"Well, it's a fantastic home. I couldn't help but notice you even included a room for little old me."
"Gotta provide for my little sisters, right?"
Kasumi chuckled. "Softie. Enough about me, though; what are you up to?"
"Oh, I'd say about twenty feet."
"What?"
Glen sighed and looked up at the floor of the Central Core, her body suspended in mid-air close enough to the rings surrounding the Galruga Facility's core to feel a slight breeze as they spun past her.
"I may have gotten myself into a bit of a pickle." Glen, said, glaring down at the hologram of CIC Janus.
"That's a bit of an understatement." Janus replied, simulated eyebrow raised. "Though I must confess, I didn't expect a human to have the gall to steal from me." Janus crossed her arms. "Twice."
"Worth a try." Glen muttered. "Besides, I just wanted a few vials of transversion cells."
"Just a few vials of transversion cells." Janus repeated, pacing slowly beneath the suspended Dreamer. She picked up one of the five vials formerly in Glen's possession and tapped it thoughtfully against her other hand. "Do you know how many cells a single vial contains?"
"Uh, at least fifty?" Glen guessed.
"One hundred?" asked Kasumi's voice from the phone.
"Fifteen-thousand, six hundred and twenty seven." Janus said sharply. "And how many would it take to infect a humanoid?"
"Infect? Glen, what does he mean 'infect'?"
"There were some transversion cells corrupted by an outside source that caused some trouble on Vinta." Glen said. "It was … bad."
"How many?" Janus repeated.
Sighing, Glen said, "One."
"One?!" Kasumi said.
"One." Janus set the vial beside the others and resumed her pacing. "All that stands between the Universe and another Corruption is one errant cell in the wrong hands, so you can understand why I might have a problem with the thief who made off with a constructor pod, one of the only pieces of technology capable of reprogramming them, coming back for a large supply of transverion cells."
"Look, I admit I should've asked about the constructor, but in my defense …"
Janus put her hands on her hips. "Well?"
Glen did her best to shrug. "Nah, I got nothing. I really needed it, though."
"Really? For what?"
"Strawberries."
Janus stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter. Glen chuckled uncertainly along with her for a few moments before asking, "So, uh, could you let me go?"
"No," Janus gestured at Glen. Whatever was keeping her up stopped doing so, causing her to plummet to the floor. She put her hands up in the vain hope of catching herself, only to freeze again inches from the floor.
CIC Janus waved her hand again, making Glen spin about until she was right-side up again. She approached her slowly, pausing only to catch her phone as it fell. "It seems your friend has broken contact. A smart move; tracking the transmission to the source would've been a simple matter."
"Doesn't really matter." Glen said glumly. "She's probably on another planet anyway."
"You truly expect me to believe you came here alone?"
"No," Glen admitted, "But as much as I hate to admit it, it's the truth. I was hoping to get in and out before you noticed."
"And you put yourself at risk for strawberries."
"Yes." Glen paused, before adding, "It's a kind of fruit: red, tart, a bit sweet-"
"I know what a strawberry is." Janus snapped. "Do you seriously expect me to believe you broke through my security for the sake of a f-few s-strawb-b-b-b-"
The CIC's eyes widened as she continued to stutter. She looked accusingly at Glen, her mouth still stuck in the middle of saying 'strawberry' as the field restraining Glen fell away, dropping her to the floor.
She was still staring at the frozen CIC in shock when small hands grabbed her shoulders and hauled her to her feet. Glen was spun about to see a smiling human face mostly obscured by a large hood.
"Kasumi?" Glen said in disbelief. "You're here!"
"Of course I am here. I would've been here sooner, but I'm not as fluent with the Glyche language as you." Kasumi hesitated a moment, a disappointed look falling over her face. "Shame on you, Glenda!"
"Don't call me that." Glen said automatically.
Apparently ignoring her, Kasumi continued, "Planning a heist without letting me in on it! I thought we agreed that I do sneaking and you do the smashing people in the face."
"Yeah, well-"
"B-b-b-er-r-" Janus stuttered, drawing our attention.
"Yeah, maybe we should save this conversation for later." Kasumi said, ducking around the projection and grabbing the vials. "Say," she asked as she helped Glen slip the vials into a padded container. "Are these things as dangerous as he said?"
"In the wrong hands, yes. We're making strawberries." Glen zipped up the container. "All right; let's get out of here before whatever you did wears off.
"Sounds like a plan."
