The browsing history lists a few sports sites, as well as some news sites. It would appear that his mailbox was emptied a short while before his disappearance, as only four threads remain. The last received message was on February 12th.
#FreedomFalls – February 17, 2014
Renala shakes her head. "Not yet," she says. "Seems the guy deleted his mail before disappearing." She checks the subject and sender on the last received message.
The four message threads are as follows: Subject: Visit - Vanessa Perkins ... Subject: Giants - Quinn Williams ... Subject: Job - Robbie Phillips ... Subject: I'm Sorry - Tori Walker.
Mendez sighs and stands back up. "So it's just a dead end..." he says as he retakes his position against the wall.
Renala frowns. "Yeah," she says with a sigh as she opens the fourth message. "It seems so. Do you think the agency would lose their contract if we don't find the guy?"
Mendez shakes his head, "I don't know, princess. I hope not... But there's not much else we can do." he says, looking a bit dejected.
Renala sighs. "I hate doing this," she says, "reading people's messages, I mean. Seems he had some gambling problems, though... that's not good out here in the Terminus."
Mendez glances around the apartment. "I guess that makes sense. I was guessing drugs." he says with a shrug, "His credits had to be going somewhere, and it certainly wasn't in this dump."
Mendez moves across the room and stands beside the bed, glancing up at the large Giants banner on the wall. "You think it's related to his sudden disappearance?" he asks.
Renala nods. "I'll look at the other message threads, as well," she says, going back and opening the one labeled Giants. "I'll check the one labeled with the team. I admit it would be kinda hilarious to just find out the guy snuck off to watch a game of... football off-world."
The previous thread disappears as Renala returns to the mail screen. The new thread opens as soon as she selects it (https://aiterp.net/story/S2wdijdyrydjif10)
Renala shakes her head after reading through this thread. "He owed someone forty thousand credits," she says. "I think the guy offered him another mining job on the side to pay him back. Can't say I like the sound of that." She leaves the thread and opens the one labeled 'Job'.
Mendez nods to himself a few times and drops to one knee to take a look beneath the bed. "Yeah... That's bad news. The last thing you want out here in the Terminus is to owe the wrong person credits." he says as he begins pulling out a few articles of dirty clothes that were just tossed under the bed.
Renala nods. "We might have to pay a place called Litae's Grace a visit," she adds. "That's where he met with the guy he owed. I think he's got a krogan working for him, too, so we might need to bring guns." She starts reading the Job-thread.
Mendez stands back up once he's satisfied that nothing is tucked away under the bed. "At least it's a lead." he says, returning to Renala's side, "We'll see how Jason wants to handle this." he adds, leaning down to watch over Renala's shoulder once again.
Renala frowns. "His friend said this Quinn was shady, advising him to stay away from him," she says. "My guess is that he sold him off to slavers to get the forty thousand back." She goes out of the thread and opens the last one, even if she's satisfied with what they have learned.
Mendez sighs loudly, sounding quite frustrated, "Great..." he says sarcastically, "That means he could be anywhere by now." The large man shakes his head and straightens up, "This isn't going to end well..."
Renala enables her omni-tool before transferring all the messages to it as text files. "Seems he got a kid, too," she comments, "but the mother didn't want him anywhere near her. That's just cruel." She steps back. "We'll deliver the info to Jason, but Litae's Grace seems to be our best lead."
Mendez doesn't comment on the man's personal information as he pulls up his omni-tool and begins poking at the interface. "Shuttle is on its way, princess." he says, "I don't know about you, but I'm ready to get the fuck out of here." He sniffs loudly and makes a disgusted face.
Renala nods. "That makes two of us," she says, shutting off the terminal. "I don't think we really need to cover our tracks, though." She takes a step towards the door out.
Mendez shakes his head. "Huh uh." he disagrees, "I'm not stepping one foot back onto that elevator." he says, walking into the kitchen. He stops near the kitchen window and begins struggling to open it. After a little straining, the window pops open. "Fire escape. Much safer." he grunts. The large man puts one leg through the open window and straddles the window sill for a moment before slowly lifting his other leg through.
Renala stops by the door, tapping on the interface to lock it again. "Oh, didn't think of that," she says as she makes her way over to the window.
The fire escape is a simple metallic landing with a staircase leading down to the second floor, and up to the fourth. It creaks and lurches from the combined weight of Mendez and Renala.
Mendez nods to Renala and helps her onto the fire escape, but quickly grabs onto the railing at the slightest movement. "Maybe... Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." he says. He moves towards the stairs and slowly makes his way down them. Each step deliberate and soft as he holds onto the railing for dear life. "Fuck... This place should be condemned."
Renala nods, staying rouglhy three feet behind as she follows with soft steps with a hand on a railing at any time. "I'm surpised people live here," she says, "I'd rather sleep in an alley somewhere if I were them..."
The second floor of the fire escape has a ladder. It's lifted off the ground and locked in place to prevent anyone from easily climbing it and gaining access to the apartments through the windows. Some movement can be seen through the second floor window, but it's mostly concealed by the blinds over the window.
Mendez reaches the bottom of the stairs and gives a glance towards the window, but quickly moves to the ladder and releases the lock, causing it to clang loudly as it lowers to the ground. "You and me both." he agrees as he begins to descend the ladder at a snails pace, "Feel like I need to take a shower from just being in there." he calls up.
Renala stops in her tracks as he releases the ladder, almost expecting this whole thing to go down as well. Deeming it somewhat safe, she makes her way to the top of the ladder, waiting for him to descend while staying near the wall. "Ugh, yeah," she says.
A shuttle can be seen waiting just across the street. The door is open and the driver is standing beside it. It's the same driver that dropped them off. He gives the pair a puzzled look as he catches sight of them descending the fire escape.
Mendez hops off the ladder when he's near the bottom rung and steps aside as he waits for the asari. "You did good in there, princess." he says, "I know we got off on the wrong foot. And for that, I'm sorry." he adds plainly.
Renala starts descending the ladder as he's down, stepping carefully on each rung. "Thank you," she says. "I'm counting on you to... convince the Litae's Grace people to give us some pointers, though."
Mendez nearly smiles as he nods to the asari. "I'll see what I can do." he says as he begins marching towards the shuttle. Once across the street, he tells the driver their destination and hops inside, causing the shuttle to once again rock to the side momentarily.
Renala follows after him, crossing the distance towards the shuttle. She waits for it to stabilize before taking a seat in it. She didn't hear which destination he ordered the driver to, though.
The driver enters the shuttle and, after a moment, the passenger door closes and the shuttle begins to move.
Mendez leans back in his seat and glances towards Renala. "So?" he asks, "What do you think about all this? Any chance we'll find him?"
Renala sighs. "It's unlikely," she says, "and I doubt finding him will be the end of it. If we're dealing with slavers, that is."
Mendez nods, "It's a longshot..." he agrees, "But all we can do is try. Maybe if we pursue this far enough to at least let Hnipinn know what happened, they'll renew their contract."
Renala | "Hopefully," she says. "I've broken out of a mine before... along with others, of course. It's not something I'd like to do again, to put it mildly."
Mendez raises an eyebrow, "Broke out of a mine before?" he asks curiously, "How'd you manage to get into a situation where you had to break out of a mine?"
Renala frowns. "Someone got the jump on my team on a job," she says. "It was before I joined up with the agency." She pauses. "We were kept in holding cells in a mine, probably expected to work there after a while."
While Renala is speaking, the shuttle comes to a stop. As the passenger door opens, Redrock Agency comes into view.
Mendez shakes his head as he stands from his seat and pays the driver. "Sounds like a pretty dicey situation." he says returning his attention to Renala's story as he hops out of the shuttle, "How long were you held there?"
Renala | "A few hours, I think, since we were out cold for some of it," she says, also leaving the shuttle on her side, making her way around to meet up with him. "We managed to fool one of the guards, but they put up a fight. There was some in-fighting among them that gave us a chance to escape without too bad odds."