"Well it's not like we can just say 'Screw you and your main source of income, and if you don't like it, tough.'" Veronica said sourly, causing Arcade to groan.
"But that is what we're saying," he retorted. "Why sugar-coat it?"
"You've never met Cachino," Layla said dryly. "We're going to have to dip it in agave and roll it in sugar bombs if we're ever going to get him to agree on something."
Arcade sighed, looking back at the notes he'd been scribbling. He, Layla and Veronica had spent the morning going over concerns for the coming NCR takeover of the Strip. Once the Courier and the three families agreed on a plan, they would have a strong united front the NCR couldn't refuse.
Cachino, as usual, was the problem. He hadn't been happy with any of the options Layla had offered, and seemed to be making things as difficult as possible. Even the Courier's seemingly endless reserve of patience and good humor were starting to wear down. Arcade looked her way to find her grimacing at her own notes. Looking up, she smiled as something caught her eye, and the doctor looked over to see what she'd focused on.
Boone was sitting further down the table, chewing on an iguana-on-a-stick. He'd been sitting with them all morning, eating or slowly cleaning each of his rifles. The doctor didn't know he had so many weapons, but just as he'd finish one, another would appear. He'd been there the whole time, except for the few moments Raul had called him away about some job he'd asked him to do.
Arcade knew why he was here, and it wasn't just to clear out the fridge or maintain his weapons; he was guarding Layla. The whole thing was ridiculous; they were in the Lucky 38, possibly the safest place in the Mojave. But he knew the sniper's inability to prevent Layla's latest kidnapping had upset him. Couple that with the condition she'd been in when she returned, and Boone was going to be glued to her for a while.
It was understandable, he supposed, that the sniper was upset. The only thing that had kept Arcade from declaring her dead at the satellite was the complete lack of ashes or remains of any kind. Matter didn't just disappear, so Layla's body had to be somewhere else. Arcade had been relieved when the girl had reappeared. He'd worried for most of the week that her luck had finally run out.
The Courier had recovered quickly from her time at Big Mountain. With the exception of a few healing scars and the slightly annoying inability talk about what happened, she hadn't seemed too upset about the ordeal. She'd been working out ways around the conditioning, with varying results. Any of the items that came back with her she could talk about, to a point. Arcade knew she should understand the science behind that ridiculous glowing axe of hers, but she simply referred to it as her 'robot smasher.'
There was a trill of beeping, and Layla distractedly reached up to pat ED-E. Arcade gave the eyebot a dirty look. It also hadn't left Layla's side since she'd come home. Arcade was starting to worry about Layla however; she'd started to talk like she understood the beeping now.
"Mmm hm, I won't go see him alone," she murmured to the robot. Arcade saw Veronica give both the Courier and ED-E an odd look. Like she had all the other times Layla had spoken to the robot. Only this time, Layla noticed.
"What?" the Courier said.
"You don't seriously expect us to believe you understand ED-E, right?" Veronica responded.
"What? I can." Layla retorted, looking up at the eyebot. "Go on, test me."
Arcade saw Veronica looking his way. He shrugged, then scrawled a sentence on a piece of paper. He showed it to the robot, who beeped in response.
The Courier looked to ED-E, who chirped at her.
"'E Pluribus Unum.' What does that mean, anyway?" Layla asked, turning to Arcade. "It's on all the old-world money."
"Out of many, one," Arcade answered automatically. "It was the nation's motto."
"Ahhh, gotcha," she said, then got up for the fridge. "Too bad they didn't follow it very well."
"Wait, so she really understands him?" Veronica asked, perplexed. Arcade shrugged.
"I guess so."
"But how do you understand him?" the scribe asked. Layla sat back down at her spot, bottle of water in hand. Her face creased with a frown. Judging by how she closed her eyes in concentration, Arcade had to assume she was trying to talk about the Big Empty. Direct questions rarely got answers, but it hadn't stopped her from trying. A moment later, she opened her eyes and started speaking carefully.
"I… I couldn't before," she said, then bit her lip. "There was a… I figured out…" She stopped. Arcade frowned. It was hard watching her struggle. Glancing at the others, he saw Veronica giving her a mildly worried look. Boone's angry expression only softened when the Courier looked his way, replaced with encouragement.
"I can't tell you," Layla said eventually, sighing. She looked embarrassed , and Veronica reached out to squeeze her hand.
"It's okay," Arcade said. "Nothing to get upset about."
The girl gave him a half smile, which turned into a full one when ED-E bumped into her shoulder affectionately. She patted the robot again, then looked back at her notes.
"Anyway, what are we going to do with Cachino?" she said. "He wants more out of this deal, but I can't give him what he wants. The NCR is not going to allow illegal chems, no matter how much he whines…"
"So offer him more money," Boone said as he stood, moving to the fridge. He pulled a Nuka-cola out and wandered back to his spot at the table, in front of his currently dissembled anti-materiel gun. The group at the table all looked at each other.
"What am I paying you?" Layla asked, grinning.
"Nothing," Boone answered, working the cap off the Nuke with his machete.
"Double it," Layla said, scribbling on the sheet of paper she'd been jotting notes on.
"We can't give the Omertas more than the other families…" Veronica said.
"No, we'll give them all more money, but Cachino doesn't need to know about the others," Layla said, smiling as she pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and started scrawling equations.
"Will the NCR go for that?" Arcade asked, looking at his own notes.
"They'll go for it. They're getting a huge monetary boost. A little off the top for won't hurt," the Courier replied. "I'm asking them for a percentage toward a 'goodwill fund' anyway."
"What's that mean?"
"Five percent of yearly profit will go to a fund for helping the surrounding area," Layla said, then leveled a warning look at Arcade. "You're not allowed to tell Julie, but I'm going to put her and the Followers in charge of it."
The doctor stared at her. "I don't think the NCR is going to like that at all."
"It's worth a shot." She shrugged. "We're going to have to come up with a few extra unnecessary things we can 'give up' during bargaining, though."
"Sneaky," Veronica said. "What will those be?"
"I'm not sure yet," Layla answered. "I'm thinking a commission for all my hard work."
"Oh yeah?" Arcade looked up. "How much?" The girl tapped her chin.
"Hmm… I'm thinking something reasonable sounding, but ridiculous to the trained eye. Like .05 percent of yearly profit. The real bargaining chip is the money the Strip's pulling in right now. It's not going anywhere, so we'll have a huge bonus to offer them. It should make everything go over nice and-"
"I have a message for: 'Layla Granville'!" a securitron's voice boomed in the hallway. Layla jumped like she'd been shocked.
"Your last name is Granville?" Veronica asked, getting a sour look from the other girl.
"Yes, Veronica, that's my name. How long have we lived together and you don't know that?"
"What? It's not like you know all our names," the scribe said defensively.
"Veronica Renata Santangelo, Arcade Israel Gannon, Craig Boone, Eyebot Duraframe Subject E," Layla said, pointing to each of them in turn. She then shuffled her papers together and stood.
"Ha ha ha, you're middle name is 'Israel?'" Veronica said in Arcade's direction.
The doctor gave her a dirty look as Layla stepped out to speak with the securitron. A moment later, she returned with a grin on her face.
"Looks like Cachino has to wait. I'm so terribly sad," she said flatly, then brightened. "Who wants to go to Hoover Dam?"
"No thanks," Arcade and Veronica said at the same time. Boone was already cleaning up his scattered gun parts and discarded food wrappers. Layla stuck her head out into the hallway.
"Hey, Rose of Sharon Cassidy! You wanna go try to pick up some soldiers!" she bellowed. Layla looked back at Veronica, who shrugged innocently.
"Fuck yeah!" came the nearly immediate reply.
*.*.*
"Hello, Lieutenant Colonel Martha Luanne Gregory," Layla said cheerfully to the woman sorting through a desk covered with papers in the Hoover Dam offices. She gave the Courier a strange look at the use of her full name and rank.
"Don't mind her," Cass said, elbowing the shorter girl.
"Veronica didn't know my name," Layla groused.
"I don't think anyone cares," Cass replied.
"The colonel is waiting for you," Martha said, smiling at Layla. The smile faded. "Word of advice: she's not in a good mood."
"Well, that's certainly a change of pace," Layla said, making the lieutenant colonel laugh. Martha was in charge of paperwork at the dam, which meant she also kept Moore's appointments in line. Cass liked the woman; she wasn't quite the shrill harpy most of the female officers serving the NCR army she'd met were.
Cass noticed Layla square her shoulders before she strode into Moore's office. The woman was thumbing through her folders and took a moment to notice they'd arrived.
"Where the hell have you been?" the colonel asked the moment she laid eyes on the Courier. Cass glanced at the girl to find her biting her lip.
"I… was busy," she answered. "Personal situation came up. Anyway, I'm here now, so what can we do for you?"
Moore looked like she was going to demand more information out of Layla, then shook her head and picked up another folder. She glanced through it for a moment, then looked back up.
"Well, we had been worrying about the Omerta plot we'd gotten word of on the Strip… but that's not a problem now," Moore flicked to another paper. "And we had a problem with Mr. House. Luckily that's also been dealt with." Layla had been smiling, but frowned when House was mentioned. Moore continued, looking back up at Layla.
"So we're looking pretty good. Well, a lot better than before. And because of the recent improvement in our situation out here, especially with the Fiends and Khans disbanded, the green light has been given for the president to make an appearance at the Dam."
"The president is coming here?" Layla gaped. "Why?"
"Morale," Moore answered dryly. "He's going to give a speech, bolster spirits before we move on the Legion."
Layla bit her lip and shook her head. It sounded like an idiot idea to Cass too; Kimball would be lucky if his dumb ass didn't get blown to hell.
"The rangers are asking for your help when he does come, but the date hasn't been set. For now, I have something else for you to do."
"Go on," Layla said.
"Six years ago we were able to wrest the Helios One facility from the Brotherhood of Steel. Since that time, we haven't heard or seen from them… Some think they retreated back to California, but I think they holed up somewhere close and never left. Recently, we've had a scout go missing in the area west of the facility."
"What exactly is it you'd like me to do?" Layla asked, sounding carefully neutral.
"I want you to find where they're hiding and wipe them out to the last man."
Well, there it was. Last time someone asked that of Layla, she killed him. Glancing over to the Courier, Cass found her gaping at the colonel.
"What!" she cried. Moore gave her a perplexed look.
"Is there a problem?"
"Yeah there's a problem, I'm not doing it."
Now the colonel looked like she was getting angry, "Excuse me?"
"I'm not killing a whole group of people. You'd better find a peaceful way to do this."
"Don't be ridiculous," Moore said , "We're still at war. They're the type to hold a grudge and we can't ignore them."
"They have the grudge, or you do?" Layla retorted. Moore's face stilled, and she stood. Moving around her desk, she started for the Courier. For a very surreal moment, Cass was sure the colonel was going to clobber the smaller woman. She merely stopped in front of her, glaring lasers.
"Listen, girl," Moore growled. "While you were running around delivering love notes, I was watching my men get fried by Brotherhood energy weapons. You think you can fix this desert by making everyone kiss and make up? You're just going to end up dead."
"I didn't know you cared," Layla retorted, apparently not worried by the woman's vague threats.
"I don't care about you, it's the NCR I'm worried about. If you wind up fucking this up for us-"
"Me?" Layla interrupted. "This entire campaign was already a gigantic clusterfuck by the time I showed up. How many people were you people planning on sending to die at Forlorn Hope? Have you seen Searchlight?"
Moore glared at the Courier, and Cass could see her hands clenching into fists. She looked to Boone, and he gave her the closest thing to a nervous look she'd ever seen on him. Just as Cass was deciding she need to say something before the two women in front of her got violent, the colonel spoke again.
"Get out of here, and don't come back until you've dealt with the Brotherhood."
Layla merely glared at her, then turned and started for the exit. Cass and Boone quickly followed.