Sequel to Remember How We Forgot
Chapter 1: Help Me, Hurt Me
Four Months After Greentech Genetics
Nora once thought that crawling out of Vault 111 as the sole survivor of Vault-Tec's sadistic experiments was the greatest transformative factor in her life. Yet, as she ran along the marshy swampland of eastern Boston, Nora knew she was wrong. She now considered that the day the courser kidnapped her and brought her to the Institute as the day that finally killed Nora as she once existed. In her place - thanks to science - Nora was redefined; she was reborn.
Some of the upgrades she recieved in this figuratively new life were the very cybernetic implants that Kellogg had on his body when he died. Installing cybernetics into Nora was just one 'condition' that Ayo had stipulated when he described just how useful she could be for the SRB. Even though Father didn't approve at first, Ayo was nothing if not persistent and Nora was scheduled for the implantation two weeks after arriving at the Institute. The process was excruciatingly painful, but along with the cybernetics implanted into her skull, Ayo also implanted a courser chip so she could always be reached. The mental subjugation from being under his thumb was terrible, but the way he looked at Nora - with thinly veiled contempt and lust - was often worse than the splitting migraines and the violent mood swings that she had to content with. No, the door to Nora's gilded cage had swung open, but her gilded leash would only stretch so far.
As a result of the surgeries, her light brown hair was cropped short and her right side was shaved close to the scalp to make the cybernetic easier to access. Still, Nora insisted on keeping her left part longer; the hair hung straight at her chin. X6-88 once told her that he didn't understand why her hairstyle mattered so much. He told her that having hair long enough to grab was a tactical disadvantage, but Nora just told him to shut his god dammed mouth.
The synth courser, X6-88, accompanied Nora everywhere she went. This was the very same man who Nora assumed took ten year old Shaun from Kellogg and brought him to the Institute. She quickly learned the reality of everything - the shock of which she was still trying to process.
The fact that he followed her everywhere was stipulation number two coming directly from Father himself. He wanted to make sure that she could be trusted. That was just one deal among many that ensured that Nora would fall in line.
Stipulation number three was that she have no contact with any former friends, acquaintances, and Railroad agents. If any should approach her, Nora was instructed to open fire.
On her first day topside, Nora was working some reconnaissance down by the Mass Fusion Building. X6-88 was waiting for her inside the building, but as she was about to go in, she saw Hancock come out of Goodneighbor with Nick braced against him for support. She heard their loud voices down the alley and froze in panic.
"C'mon Nicky, you gotta walk. You gotta built up your endurance." The ghoul said.
"Dammit Hancock, Amari explained all of this quite clearly to me. But I'm not an invalid. I don't need your help!"
The ghoul chuckled at the synth's churlish attitude. He knew Nicky wouldn't admit it, he was too damn stubborn and prideful to admit that he couldn't physically walk farther than a city block without getting winded, but he needed Hancock at his side. The two had temporarily set aside their differences and posturing over Nora to focus on somehow getting their girl back from the Institute's clutches.
They came around the corner faster than Nora anticipated; she was caught and both men looked into her frightened eyes.
Nick's good arm was braced around Hancock's neck as he limped along slowly. Hancock's dark eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he saw Nora first.
"Nicky, I ain't hallucinating this am I?" He breathed out. Hancock looked at Nora in awe and exuberance. He looked like a man dying of thirst who had just found an oasis in the desert. Now he just needed to make sure that the oasis wasn't just a cruel mirage.
Nick, on the other hand, looked physically pained upon seeing Nora. A shudder tore from his throat carrying guilt and anger when he breathed out her name.
"Nora. Doll. Is that really you?" Nick felt sure he was dreaming or that his system was experiencing a glitch thanks to the extensive tinkering that Amari did to his internal servos and processors.
Nora wanted to run to both of them. She wanted to get swept up in their jubilation and happiness at her return. She imagined how Hancock would pick her up and hug her tightly and how Nick's yellow eyes would smolder beneath his fedora as she kissed him gently. They'd go back to Goodneighbor; Nick holding on to Nora and Hancock leading the way. They'd all celebrate down in the Third Rail; Charlie would grumble something incoherent and irritable as the ghoul Mayor would call for a round for the house. Nick would never let her leave his side and Hancock would get great satisfaction in the challenge of enticing Nick's girl out onto the dance floor. Nora wanted to live in that fantasy, but the cold reality of her situation and what she would be forced to do if they came too close washed over her like a caustic acid rain - full of bitterness and pain.
Instead, she bolted. Nora blindly tore down an alley and heard the mens' cries of protest. Nora knew that Nick was in no shape to pursue her, but she could hear Hancock's heavy footsteps a ways behind her. She turned a corner and bolted up and over an overturned semi that was buried in some rubble and cut west towards the fallen overpass.
"Nora, wait!" Hancock called out. He saw her as she rounded the corner ahead but she had a sizable lead and his hopes of catching her were dashed.
Nora ducked beneath the crumbling exit ramp that led to the overpass and squeezed herself as far into the corner as she could. She felt like a trapped animal burrowing in its den, and like one, she would be forced to lash out if cornered. Nora unholstered her laser pistol and prayed that she wouldn't have to use it.
A small hole through the concrete and rebar was Nora's only visual aid and she saw Hancock running down the alleyway towards her. The ghoul's hat was askew and he was without his trademark jacket for once. A white loose dress shirt was tucked into his dark trousers. The sleeves on his shirt were rolled up to the elbows which exposed his sinewy forearms to the late autumn breeze.
"Nora. Please, we can help you." He rasped loudly, his dark eyes looked flitted around as he tried to find any small hints as to where Nora had gone.
Nora didn't move. She barely breathed. Her body felt cold and she felt nauseous from the stress and anxiety crackling through her body. She knew that Ayo and his team would be getting readings of her stress via the courser chip that was implanted in her head. Perhaps Ayo would cut her down with a snide remark about the undesirables that she use to fraternize with and how Nora should've cut Hancock down where he stood. After all, cybernetics would've made her unstoppable, even against a seasoned fighter like Hancock.
Thankfully it didn't come down to that. Hancock sighed and looked around once more before he turned around and walked back down the alleyway. Still, Nora remained in her hiding spot for a good fifteen minutes more before she slunk out and crept along the alleys back to the Mass Fusion Building. When she finally entered into the darkened reception area, X6 appraised her suspiciously.
"You were suppose to report here twenty-seven minutes ago, Mother." He said disapprovingly. His voice was cold and unemotional.
Nora knew she couldn't lie. The Institute had eyes and ears everywhere and she couldn't risk breaking Father's trust after she worked so hard to gain it. Going topside was what gave her hope in the hopeless, sterile place. If they took that away from her, Nora knew she would wilt away and die. She had already planned for it.
"I encountered two people. They recognized me and one of them pursued me. I didn't want to compromise our operation here so I led him down the alleyway and managed to evade him." Nora's voice felt just as hollow and emotionless as X6's.
X6 narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "Why not just open fire? You can surely overpower one wastelander. Your cybernetics enhance any physical and mental faculties far beyond that of a human's normal capacities."
"I didn't open fire because the wastelander is a prominent member of Goodneighbor. Killing him would incite a war that the Institute wouldn't want." Nora replied quickly and cooly, mimicking the synth's detached countenance.
"Hmph. Very well." X6 replied. "It seems Dr. Ayo was wrong about you, Mother. You've fallen in line. Father will be pleased to read about this in my report."
"Ma'am, how would you like to engage the enemy hostiles?" X6 asked seemingly bored with their excursion already. "Keep in mind that we cannot kill the synth called Gabriel."
X6's question had drawn Nora out of her daydream. Nora peered through small binoculars and saw at least a dozen raiders milling about on the floating platforms and half-sunk barges. The cybernetics were telling her that Gabriel was in the bow of an upturned, partially sunken ship that had been repurposed into a hideout. He was also surrounded by three bodyguards.
"We need to divide and conquer." Nora commanded. "You take the platforms on the left and I'll take the right. Over in that small tugboat there should be a terminal to turn off the turrets and spotlights. Doing that should give us enough cover in the dark to ambush Gabriel in the ship."
X6 nodded and unholstered his Institute pistol. Nora pulled out her own matching gun in turn. The 10mm that old Nora use to carry was long gone, yet she couldn't deny that she missed its weight in her hands.
"Let's move out." She ordered coldly.
Finding a suitable hideout once the Old North Church had been compromised was nigh impossible. Desdemona, Tom, and Carrington fought off as many Gen-1 synths as they could, but with Deacon, Glory, and Drummer Boy at Greentech, they were severely outmanned. Eventually, they were forced to retreat with PAM and then split up. Tom brought PAM to Goodneighbor and left her in KL-E-O's company and then went on his way down to the Mercer Safehouse to see if he could be of any assistance with the synth relocation efforts.
Desdemona and Carrington made haste to Greentech when Drummer Boy's distress beacon came up on one of Tom's several radios. Nick's frantic voice cut out over the airwaves, "Nora's been taken. We've got a man down and - argh, fuck," his voice panted, "you may have another on his way. One gunshot wound to the chest and another to the stomach. Send help. Save Nora."
Carrington arrived on the scene first and found that Nick was trying to tend to Deacon's wound before he fell unconscious. Empty stimpacks and Med-X syringes were scattered at their feet, but the spy was barely breathing. The synthetic weave was burned into the wound. Although incredibly painful and impossible to operate on in a field setting, the melted synthetic weave stopped Deacon from bleeding out completely.
Desdemona and another Railroad agent lifted Deacon onto a makeshift stretcher and carried him out into the lobby. They enshrouded his body with a white sheet to keep up appearances that the Institute had successfully killed one of their own and carried him out into the night.
Meanwhile Carrington turned his attention to Nick. His wound was more tricky to manage because stimpacks and painkillers had no effect on his mechanical pain receptors. He couldn't shut down one part of his body without doing a full shutdown on his entire system. Nick had to either be awake and conscious during Carrington's entire operation, or put himself into a system diagnostic scan and hope that he came out of it okay. The thought of never waking up - of never seeing Nora again - scared him too much. He gritted his teeth and dealt with the searing pain as Carrington wrapped a tourniquet around Nick's severed tubing.
When Nick regained consciousness, he saw that Deacon's body was gone and assumed the worst. That was the message that he brought with him to Goodneighbor, and that was Nick's truth. Deacon, the insufferable but devoted spy, had fallen to a courser's bullet. Nick witnessed a lot of death and devastation in his long life as a synth, but Deacon's death reminded him too much of the good men that Pre-War Nick had served with on the force. He felt that Deacon's memory should be honored in some small way, but when he brought this up to Desdemona nearly a month later, she rejected the sentiment citing that it would draw too much attention to them.
What Des really meant was that Deacon's survival was the Railroad's last closely guarded secret. Only Desdemona and Carrington knew that he had survived, and they were the only two who knew where he was now hiding out. After another bout of facial reconstruction surgery courtesy of Dr. Sun in Diamond City, Deacon the spy was masquerading as Miguel the caravaner. He traveled the same routes as the rest of the caravans and sold produce, seeds, farming supplies, and some small weapons to the area's farmers. Unlike Lucas and Cricket who sold high-need, expensive items, Deacon didn't draw attention to himself. Instead, he preferred to listen in on other peoples' conversations, and relay the intel back to Des via their dead drop system.
Hancock paced in front of the large map of Boston that was tacked up in his office. Nick sat on the chaise lounge smoking a cigarette and cleaning his pistol. After their first encounter with Nora outside of the Mass Fusion building, they both had only heard rumors and whispers of rumors about her elsewhere in the Commonwealth.
One informant told Hancock that they saw her out near Greygardens accosting a man who went by the name of Wallace while another said that they saw a woman steal a suit of Power Armor from a dead Brotherhood Knight and open fire on nearly a dozen Super Mutants who had taken up residence in an abandoned housing development.
No matter the rumors, Hancock and Nick knew that Nora had changed. In addition to the concerning physical changes - the bags under her eyes, the evidence of a concerning technological augmentations that marred her face, and the way she spooked at the slightest opportunity - their Nora was now hardened by the wasteland. Their Nora hid behind cold eyes, a hulking laser rife, and a volatile attitude.
Rumors of Nora's possible mental instability spread quickly, but unlike the rumors about her locations and alleged deeds, Hancock believed in these stories without a doubt. He believed in them because Nora was acting just like he did when he slung Vic's bloody and mutilated body over the balcony on a hangman's noose. She was conflating justice with murder. Nora was pissed off and rightfully so.
The most recent deed attributed to Nora and her synth bodyguard was the massacre of a small, seemingly peaceful, settlement just south east of Lexington. The place was called Covenant and although it had a reputation for being 'don't-drink-the-kool aid' cheerful, the people there never caused problems with others. That is until word got out through the grapevine that one of Stockton's caravans from Bunker Hill went missing and his daughter was kidnapped by ruffians. A week after the rumor had reached Hancock, another rumor followed on its tails but this one was substantiated with evidence.
According to eyewitness accounts, Covenant was raised to the ground. The entire community was slaughtered and their pristine Pre-War houses were burned to ash. Nobody knows whether Stockton's daughter was ever recovered, but a dark haired woman dressed in black leather was seen leaving the smoldering town in a flash of blue light.
It had taken Hancock several years and nearly a truckload of chems to justify his actions about the takeover of Goodneighbor to himself, but he knew that Nora would be far more affected even if she somehow repressed or compartmentalized those feelings. One day the dam would break and Nora would need someone to walk her through the guilt and pain.
"Mister Valentine. Mayor Hancock!" Drummer Boy huffed as he sprinted into the room wide-eyed and excited. "One of our informants said that they saw a person matching Nora's description. She and that courser were heading towards the raider base outside of The Libertalia."
"Libertalia's not too far away, but there's nothing except Raiders out there." Nick commented, "I wonder why the Institute would send her there."
Drummer Boy shifted uneasily in front of the men. "She may be after Gabriel. We had Amari wipe his memories a year or so back and then brought him to Kendall Hospital. We lost contact after that, but rumors surfaced six months ago that he's taken up with some Raiders out where Nora's been spotted."
"Well let's get going then," Hancock replied, grabbing his gun and his jacket from the table. "I just hope we ain't too late."
Drummer Boy and Nick followed the ghoul out and left Goodneighbor at a run. Thankfully, they made it to the place in question in record time, but feared that they were too late. Raider's bodies floated face down in the water as they picked their way across the sodden planks and waterlogged decks. They realized that they were just in time when then they heard the terrified screams of a man come from inside the upturned ship.
The three men crept across the wooden platform and stopped just shy of the main deck. A door flew open above them and a raider backed up against the railing.
"You can't take me back there!" He pleaded. His long hair was matted and tangled, and his fingers gripped around the wooden railing as though he was trying to fuse himself into the wood.
"B5-92, you killed people. Many innocent lives died because you left the safety and protection of the Institute." Nora's voice was quiet and authoritative. Nick and Hancock watched in awe and fear as their mild and once uncertain Nora administered swift justice.
"No! NO! I didn't know. My memories were wiped. I wasn't myself. You have to believe me."
Hancock slipped into the ship's underbelly while Nick watched the scene unfold. He didn't even see the ghoul leave until it was too late to stop him.
"Your decision to search out those terrorists known as The Railroad is now something you must atone for. You not only betrayed Father, but you also hurt innocent lives. You will pay."
Nora pointed the Institute rifle at the raider and in a cool, detached voice said "B5-92 authorize factory reset. Authorization gamma, seven, one, epsilon."
The raider's chin dropped to his chest and X6 grabbed the man by the arm before he fell over.
"Nice work, Mother. He's subdued. I'll relay ahead and give my report to the SRB. Please follow close behind. I do not want to come back to retrieve you."
Nora nodded. "Once I download the data from his terminal, I'll be right behind you."
The courser and the deactivated synth disappeared in a flash of blue light. Beneath the moon's bright light, Hancock saw just how tired Nora looked. Her fatigue wasn't just physical exhaustion but of mental exhaustion that came from sleepless nights full of worry and pain.
"Sunshine..." Hancock said carefully as he walked out from behind the corner.
Nora turned abruptly and faced the ghoul. Her eyes went cold and she pointed her rifle at Hancock's chest.
"Stay away from me you freak." She growled.
Hancock let the insult roll off his back and raised his hands up in surrender. He had faith that it wasn't really Nora talking. The cold metal that stretched across her temple like a technological leech glinted threateningly in the moonlight. He assumed that she was speaking under duress or that someone had ahold of her mind and was speaking for her.
"Nora, sunshine. I know you're in there somewhere." He pleaded and walked slowly towards her "Please, we can help you. Nicky's here with me. We can protect you. You don't have to do this anymore."
Hancock's rough hand gently grazed her bare arm and for a split second he saw fear, sorrow, and pain in Nora's eyes. Tears leaked from them and her arm trembled slightly beneath his touch. Then as quick as the emotion came it left again and Nora's eyes narrowed and hardened. She jerked her arm away from his touch and backed away from him in ernest.
"Touch me again and I'll remove your head from your shoulders." She hissed. As if to punctuate her point, the rifle was now aimed at Hancock's head.
He backed away carefully until Nora lowered the weapon slightly. Then acting purely on instinct, Hancock rushed forward to grab both of Nora's arms to immobilize her. As soon as his skin touched hers, Nora moved her head back in a deft jerking motion and managed to hit Hancock's face with the back of her head. He knew that if he had a nose, it would've been broken. Then Nora pulled one of her arms from his grasp and elbowed him in the mouth. The ghoul reeled backwards and fell onto his back with a bloodied lip. Nora's eyes bore into his and she put the plastic barrel sharply against Hancock's ruined forehead.
"This is Mother requesting relay transport. Our location has been compromised." She spoke cooly into her sleeve.
Nora looked hard at Hancock and then glanced up into Nick's frightened eyes. His pistol was drawn but he was aiming it at the floor. He had rushed up the stairs when he heard the commotion, and Drummer Boy wasn't far behind. If her eyes held disgust for the ghoul, then Nora's eyes held nothing but venomous contempt for the synth detective.
"Stop following me." She commanded. "Father doesn't give second chances."
A crackling blue light swirled around her body and momentarily blinded the trio until they were the only ones left standing in the wrecked wharf.
The SRB bustled like a city center at high noon when Nora arrived back at the Institute. Immediately a courser-in-training came to disarm her, pat her down, and check her pockets and messenger bag for additional weapons. Father allowed all coursers, except Nora, to carry weapons while on the premises. This limitation was just another one of his 'conditions' which allowed her to go topside while still holding the leash tight enough to feel his influence.
"You're good to go, Mother." The synth-in-training said. The door slid open automatically and Nora walked into the SRB main chamber. X6 and Gabriel were already long gone, but Justin Ayo caught Nora's eye and smirked.
"X6 has filled me in on your mission recovering the synth from Libertalia." Ayo replied. Sarcasm cloyed in his voice like a snake ready to strike, "He offers you his compliments on bringing the synth back successfully. For X6, that's quite high praise."
"Tell him that I thank him for his assistance topside. The mission wouldn't have gone as smoothly without his aid." Nora replied coldly.
"Indeed." Ayo sneered. "And I suppose the encounter with your ghoul friend and synth lover had no effect on your mission."
Nora glowered at the scientist. She knew that he'd be listening in via the cybernetic. Although it couldn't record her own thoughts (unless she spoke them aloud), any and all sounds were relayed back to the Institute and analyzed. Ever since Hancock had tasked people to kill Ayo's Watchers, the man suggested that Nora's cybernetic be modified to allow audio recording. His reasoning was that if Hancock and her friends wanted to be fully rid of the Institute's influence, they'd have to kill Nora too.
"My encounter with the ghoul and the synth had no influence on the operation." Nora bit out. "The rouge synth was still captured and the threats were subdued or eliminated."
"No!" Ayo yelled. "ALL of the threats should've been eliminated. Or did you forget your agreement with Father? You are to open fire on anyone who stands in your way. We can't have our coursers picking and choosing who they are going to spare. The wastelanders will take that as a sign of weakness. Coursers do not think. They do not want. They DO NOT FEEL."
Nora's heart raced from fear, anger, and anxiety. She wanted to run; she had found a construction sight deep below the Institute on accident and often went there when her room was feeling much too claustrophobic, but she forced herself to remain rooted to the spot and stare down Ayo.
"I did what was best for the Institute. Killing the ghoul would've upset Goodneighbor, and killing the synth would've started a riot with half of Diamond City. Do you really want two of the largest communities in the Commonwealth trying to break down the Institute's doors?" Nora snapped back.
"You've used this excuse before." Ayo replied dismissively. "Do you really think that your ghoul means that much to that slum? He'll be replaced by the next low life addict and our plant in Diamond City will help maintain order if things get out of hand there. Stop hiding behind your fake desire to protect the Institute. That may work with Father, but I know the truth."
Ayo walked up to her and Nora had to fight the urge to take a step back. She knew he was doing this to intimidate her, but she refused to be cowed by the bully.
"You are dismissed, Mother." He growled. His face was inches from hers and she could smell the mint from the toothpaste that he used.
Before she made it to the door, Ayo then drawled out "Father will get my full report - audio and all - so consider your next moves carefully. You are a helpful little mole, but I wont tolerate any lapses in your resolve. You are fully committed to me as my courser or not at all. If you see those two abominations again, you will shoot them. Do you understand me?"
Nora couldn't look at him. She could feel the possessive stare on her back like a sniper's dot. Ayo wanted her complete obedience, but Nora also knew that he wanted her physically as well. Over the past four months of her incarceration with the Institute, he had made his predilections quite clear. Heated glances masqueraded as pure vitriol when people who mattered could see, but then it had progressed so much farther. Touches became longer than appropriate and unannounced visits to her private quarters started two weeks ago. No, Nora was a caged bird trapped in a gilded cage with a prowling tom cat ready to devour her upon first sign of weakness.
"Yes, I understand." Nora finally said. Her voice was quiet, barely above a whisper, but she couldn't trust herself to speak any louder.
"Yes, what?" Ayo replied icily. Nora winced. Her stomach churned in disgust. Disgust at herself and at this lecherous, licentious man.
"Yes, sir. I understand." She gritted through her teeth.
The automatic door slid open. Nora managed to make it back to her living quarters before she lost her temper. In a blind rage, she hurled a heavy microscope across the room and watched in perverse satisfaction as it cracked along its neck and as the internal mirrors shattered into beautiful crystalline pieces.
She sank to her knees and then collapsed onto the ground. Her head was pounding - partially from the stress but also partially from the cybernetic - and she pushed the button on the wall near the door.
"How can I assist you, Mother?" Allie Fillmore asked through the intercom.
"My head is killing me. Can I have some aspirin?" Nora asked.
All non-emergency medical requests went through Allie. Nora was allowed aspirin once every two days and was allowed to take sleeping pills once a week. However, starting two months ago, Nora began hoarding the pills as one last ace up her sleeve if things became too bad. Between acting as the Institute's angle of vengeance and destruction, the crippling loneliness, and Ayo's bolder advances, Nora wondered if that moment was on the horizon. Of course, to keep up appearances, she had to use some of the medicine for its intended purpose, but having a way out kept the waters of panic from fully drowning her.
"Right away Mother." Allie replied. "Will you be accepting your meal in your room tonight?"
"Yes, please." Nora replied. "Product #8 if you'd be so kind."
The food at the Institute was a colored paste that was served in a thermonuclear pouch. After cracking the packaging open and putting it into a heating bag for five minutes, the food was ready to be consumed. The paste had an unpleasant gel-like consistency and the flavors were often nondescript and they blended together with one another. Still, Nora forced herself to choke the food down. It wasn't satisfying - not like the way the warm, salty broth from Takahashi's stand could warm even the coldest of hearts - and it didn't offer anything outside of nutritional sustenance, but it kept her strong and healthy enough to clear the required courser fitness tests so she could go topside.
Nora tore off her black leather clothes, put them in a dropbox by her door for the night shift synths to collect and launder, and turned the shower on to it's hottest setting. She felt compelled to take scalding showers. Not only to wash the blood off her skin but also to feel something other than numbness brought on by the pain, hopelessness, and fear. She adjusted the tap so it was just hot enough to be uncomfortable, but not too hot that she would get first degree burns, and drew the curtain around her.
She closed her eyes and let the water hit her face. Tears mingled with the heated water droplets and she put both of her hands on the tiled wall to prevent her from collapsing. Nora ignored the razor and the soap - not trusting her trembling hands from accidentally (or purposefully) cutting herself while shaving - and just let the water cleanse her. Nora heard the door bell ring to her room, shut the water off, and wrapped herself in a coarse white towel.
She undid the towel, pulled on an oversized t-shirt that fell to her upper thigh, and then wrapped herself up again to preserve her modesty and to hide her thinly-veiled breasts from sight in case Ayo was deciding to torment her some more.
When she opened the door, she breathed out a sigh of relief to find that it was just Liam Binnet and he was carrying a metal cafeteria tray with her food, two capsules of aspirin, and a bottle of purified water.
"Hey Liam." Nora replied. "Thanks for the food. I'm sorry that you had to bring it all the way up here. Why didn't you send a synth?"
The young man, who couldn't be older than seventeen, looked sheepish and tucked his hands into his pant pockets.
"I'm doing this as penitence." He replied. "I'm being grounded by my Dad for rigging up his terminal to play chess with Brendan. I accidentally lost some important data and my Dad's been spending all day trying to recover it."
"So you're doing community service?" Nora replied with a smirk.
"Yeah, something like that." He replied.
She didn't know that much about Liam and knew less about his father Alan, but she figured that they both were some of the more moderate Institute residence. They did their work and kept to themselves. Even in the Directorate meetings that Nora was occasionally invited to, Dr. Binet often acted as the moral compass and voice of reason for the group.
"Well, I hope the rest of your community service goes well." Nora said politely. "I also hope that your Dad recovers that data. How 'bout you keep your chess playing to a normal game board from now on?"
"Yeah, that's the plan." He replied with a good-natured smile. "Goodnight, Mother."
Nora winced at the title and Liam noticed. "Sorry. I know you hate that name. Goodnight Nora. If you don't know how to play chess, I'd be glad to teach it to you. Brendan's still getting the hang of it, but you're a quick study. I'm sure you'll catch on quickly."
"I'll think about it and let you know." Nora replied and waved farewell to the young man.
She brought the tray into her room and was about to set it on the table when she felt a piece of paper taped to the underside.
She pulled it off and read the short handwritten note. I can help you escape here. No Father. No Dr. Ayo. Just Freedom. - L
Nora held the note to her chest like it was made with solid gold. Hope, a twinge of light to guide her through the tormenting darkness, was a precious gift and Nora knew she owed that kid so much for such a small favor.
Although she had no idea how he planned to do it, nor did she know if it was just a cruel joke, Nora held onto that hope. Suddenly the tasteless Institute food product didn't taste so bad. It had a slightly sweet tang to it. Now all Nora wanted was a nice glass of whisky before she crawled beneath the starchy covers and waited for sleep to come.