Characters: John Shepard, Emily Wong.
Scene: The Citadel, the hotel "Solaris".

- It is rumored that you were not sitting idle. Congratulations on your victory over Fist.

The girl's voice brought Captain Shepard out of his thoughts - he jerked his head, chasing away gloomy thoughts, and then turned to the journalist standing by the information column. Emily Wong was a rising star of the local media, a person fairly well-known in close circles, but the Alliance officer was now not at all up to her. Only half an hour ago, the Normandy moored at the docks of the Citadel, and the captain had already been derailed two different people in turn. First, Admiral Mikhailovich, who seemed to enjoy sincere pleasures from altercations with those who were younger than him in rank, and then a reporter from Westerland News. Shepard did not remember her full name ... Larisa? Carissa? There was something Arab in him, but he could not remember the name of the whole Alliance soldier. In any case, she was no better than the ill-fated admiral - she knew how to dig down to the smallest nuances of the officer’s work even better, which caused Shepard to suppress the desire to cut her in a grinning face. Held back. Though with difficulty.

However, in connection with these meetings, the mood of the captain deteriorated markedly, and he resigned to the residential level of the Citadel leading to the markets, being immersed in rather gloomy thoughts. However, he was noticed, so he had to pull an impartial expression on his face again and turn to the journalist who had called him. Emily Wong was a pretty young Asian with a chiseled figure, professionally accentuated by a simple blue dress with a shallow neckline. As during their previous meeting, the girl exuded energy. Noticing that Shepard paid attention to her, she perked up noticeably:

- I was sure that he plays an important role in everything that is going on here. Did you find anything in his office that could help me?

To tell the truth, after that skirmish in a strip club owned by Fist, Captain Shepard actually copied the data from his digital media. It was only after this that everything began to turn at an incredible speed — and saving Tali-Zora's queen, who later joined the squadron, and becoming Spectrum, and buying new uniforms and receiving orders from the Council ... In short, Shepard completely forgot about that his uni-tool stores data from a computer of a large criminal authority. But Emily did not forget, because of what Shepard mentally praised her for a good memory, and again mentally sent for obsession. And yet he nodded, including his instrumentron.

“I will give you copies of data carriers that may contain the information you need,” said the captain, launching the file transfer protocol.

Emily almost screamed with delight. Obviously, she thought that Shepard had long spat on his promise to help her, but the captain was not one of those who make promises just like that.

- Do you have Fista data? I did not even hope for that! - the girl quickly looked through the information received on her information carriers, her eyes lit up happily. Then, however, the girl again put on herself a serious mask, more suitable for a journalist of her class, and started typing something quickly on her tablet.

“Here, take it, captain,” she said. - For your hard work.

Emily blushed a little embarrassed, apparently not knowing if there were enough loans transferred to the captain to pay for what he had done. The girl, undoubtedly, understood what a jump in her career she could make, having these data on her hands, just as she understood that she owes this, first of all, to the person in dark green armor with the mark “N7” that stands before her.In her restraint, she was pretty sweet, which made Shepard, not being a man at all, quickly greedy for feminine charm, involuntarily admired the reddish blush on her cheeks and long eyelashes from which Emily looked at the captain, full of gratitude. Immediately the idea came to the captain's head, and before he could think it over, the spectrum said:

- How do you assess our further cooperation? What if I agree to give you an interview?

- Exclusive ?! - the girl definitely could not believe her ears. - Tell me about what happened first?

Her eyes lit up with such happiness that Shepard even felt somewhat uncomfortable. Emily grabbed the captain by the arm, squeezed her tightly, yielding to some slave impulse of some kind, and said:

- It will not cost much, but I will gladly pay the required amount. Where can we meet?

Shepard was thoughtful, but Emily, agitated by the captain's offer, suggested the place herself:

“I am renting a room at the Solaris Hotel on Shalmar Plaza.” Do you know where it is?

“I’ll find,” the captain nodded, taking a deserved, slightly shy smile from the girl. Emily happily jumped on the spot, like a little girl who finally received a long-awaited gift.

- Meet me at the restaurant on the first floor at eight o'clock in the evening. I'll be waiting for you. If you, of course, are not busy ...

“I'm free tonight,” Shepard honestly admitted. The girl nodded and, smiling funny, once again held out her slim hand for a handshake.

- See you, Captain Shepard.

“See you later, Miss Wong,” the commander replied.

Later in the evening, Shepard took a shower, combed his hair, and even brought his beard into a decent look. In addition, he changed his military spacesuit to a regular civilian suit, so as not to look silly in a restaurant. In fact, John understood that all this looks somewhat strange. Is he going on a date? Some stupid, childish word. However, it seems to be so. Shepard may have admitted that too late to himself, but he really wanted to spend the evening in Emily’s company. It was not even a matter of the girl herself, but of simply wanting to rest after the skirmishes in the lower levels of the Citadel and the mission on Noveria. Shepard would never sacrifice an hour of his life while Saren was free, but the Normandy needed refueling and a bit of repairs. It was supposed to last just until the morning, so that all members of the team had a free evening. Ashley singled him out for a teleconference with one of the sisters, Kaidan went on some of his biotic affairs to the CBC Academy, Rex just disappeared, promising, however, to return in the morning, and Garrus and Tali were repairing Mako, who, after meeting the geth on Noveriya also got pretty. So even though Shepard felt somewhat uncomfortable, standing in front of a mirror in an expensive, perfectly fitting costume on his body, while Saren was cutting through his dreadnought somewhere in the galaxy, the captain couldn’t do anything at the moment.

Shepard drove up to the hotel at five to eight. A small, beautiful building stood right in the center of the Plaza, leaning forward a bit so that the occupants of the upper rooms could enjoy a beautiful view of Lake Presidium. A pretty asari at the reception desk met the captain with a polished white-toothed smile, however, when he said that he had come to the meeting with Miss Wong, she only slammed her eyes.

“Miss Wong left you a message, Mr. Shepard.” I beg.

The note was the most real - written in a neat handwriting on pink, with something pleasantly smelling paper:

“Captain, did not have time to book a table. I hope you will not mind interviewing me in this issue. Wine I guarantee. Waiting for you in room 69 ".

Shepard's lips were spreading themselves into a roguish smile. Everything was too good to be true. Of course, John understood what he wanted from this meeting, and the fact that the prelude in the restaurant would have to be missed did not upset him at all.On the sixth floor, where the rooms were located, starting with the number six, Shepard took the high-speed elevator in just a couple of seconds. Out of the opened automatic doors, crossed