Layla slammed the Sierra Madre snow globe on the counter in front of House's monitor bank in the Penthouse.
"Thanks for the help," she said tartly, using all of her will to not look at the little glass dome. She'd slammed it a lot harder than she'd meant to and hoped she hadn't broken it.
"You seemed to have managed fine without any assistance." House didn't sound too impressed with her display. That was a big surprise. "In the future, have your employees refrain from pestering my robots."
"Yeah, I hear Victor was the one who actually helped, so I guess I can count on him at least…"
"Yes, well, Victor's insubordination has been dealt with."
"What did you do to him?" Layla hadn't expected the outrage to show in her voice as much as it did.
"What I do with my property is none of your concern." He gave an audible sigh at the face she was making at the monitor. "Victor's 'cowpoke' demeanor is unchanged. His loyalties have just been reaffirmed. Now, do you have my chip?"
Layla hesitated for a moment, then dug the disk out of her pocket. She ran her thumb over the metal, feeling the scar on her head itch.
"Good," he continued. "Insert it into the slot." There was an opening in the console similar to the one in the weather station at the Fort. The Courier looked at the chip one last time, then slid it into the slot.
"Excellent. Jane will have your payment. And if you'll accompany Victor down to the basement, I can finally show you the potential the Platinum Chip brings."
The robot in question rolled into the room. Layla bit her lip, looking at him as if the alterations House had made would show on his monitor.
"Come on, darlin' let's go see what the boss' got cooked up." Victor seemed as cheerful as ever.
"…Okay." She followed the securitron to an elevator just off of the monitor bank. Soon they were riding down to the basement, Layla still giving the robot a sick look.
"Are… you okay?" she finally said. She knew plenty of people wouldn't be concerned about the robot, but Victor was an AI, knew of his existence and could think for himself. His disobedience of House's orders was proof enough of that. Limiting his functions or reprogramming his personality were just as bad as if House had trapped her in the presidential suite or had her leg shot off. She wanted to talk more about it, but the Courier was painfully aware that House was probably listening in on everything they said.
"Don't you worry about ol' Vic. These old processors still got some life in them."
That didn't answer her question, and she bit her lip again, trying to think if there was any way to figure out exactly what it was House had done. The problem was, anything Victor said or did could be a programmed response, not his actually personality.
"You're a sweet thing to worry, but I'm fine." Victor continued. "Boss man doesn't like to alter his fancier hired hands."
His screen switched to the winking cowboy. Layla decided that would have to do for now. The elevator opened to a large room. There were a few securitrons behind a force field, standing around piles of sandbags and crumbling concrete walls with targets on them.
"Step up to the testing field and take a look," House's voice came over the room's speakers. "With this, we can finally move on with my plans. We have much to accomplish, you and I."
*.*.*
"How long could it fucking take?" Cass said moodily, putting a card on the table. Raul gave it a look from behind his cards, then threw down a Jack, making her retract hers. The caravaneer grumbled as she put her feet up on the table, away from the cards.
"Layla mentioned House is a windbag, and so is she. I'd give it another hour or two," said Arcade, looking sourly at the mud-covered boots inches from his plate of leftover grilled mantis.
"You've got a lot of nerve calling anyone 'windbag,'" Cass said.
"Oh ha ha ha." He elbowed her feet off the table and went back to his food. The kitchen was starting to smell heavenly from the first batch of cookies Lily had put in the oven. The nightkin flipped on the radio as she got the second batch ready to bake.
Arcade pointed a fork at Boone, who sat across the table reading an issue of True Police Stories. "I've been meaning to ask what exactly were you two doing at McCarran that caused Layla to pass out from overexertion."
Boone lowered the book and glared at Veronica, who in turn glared at Arcade. The girl turned her gaze over to Boone after a moment and gave him an innocent grin.
"So I wasn't supposed to tell Arcade?" She balked at the face he was giving her and jumped out of her seat, moving toward Lily.
"Grandma! Can I help you with that?"
"Oh thank you, dear! Hold that tray steady now." The super mutant started putting blobs of dough on a tray while the scribe kept her back firmly turned against the death glare she was getting.
Arcade cleared his throat, and Boone looked back his way. "We're going to have to start chaperoning you two. How did she manage to get so worked up in a 'safe base full of allies'?"
"They were probably screwing," Cass said, grinning in the sniper's direction. "At least they should have been."
"Nothing happened," the sniper said, gaining a room full of suspicious looks.
Arcade opened his mouth to deliver some form of snarky rebuttal when the voice of Mr. New Vegas came over the radio.
"Sources say a plot to destroy the Camp McCarran monorail via an explosive device has been foiled by an alert civilian contractor. Security is being tightened."
The doctor turned back to Boone, eyebrows raised. The sniper's face was back in the magazine.
Shaking his head, Arcade went back to his food. Raul blocked another of Cass's moves, and she grumbled something about skinless cheaters. Arcade looked up from his plate, unable to hold his tongue any longer.
"And where exactly did you drag her afterwards?"
"Bitter Springs," Boone said from behind his book. "I… There was something I had to do there. Not a big deal."
Arcade was about to comment, but was again interrupted by Mr. New Vegas.
"Also, a Legion slaver party was wiped out in a failed raid of the Bitter Springs refugee camp, with two armed civilians inflicting heavy Legion casualties."
Now the sniper was giving an innocent look to the doctor, who glowered. "I don't suppose that was you two-"
"One witness said, quote; "God sent us two angels, and at least one o' them had a .308 caliber flaming sword of justice - with a telescopic sight."
The doctor threw his hands in the air, exasperated.
"Anything else? Was it some kind of trap just for you? Or did that creep Legionary spy who's got a hard on for Layla show up?"
The doctor's jaw dropped as Boone brought the magazine back up to his face, refusing to answer.
"Jesus Fuck, I'm not going anywhere with you two," Cass said, amazed. "We go for a drink on the Strip and there'll be murderous, flesh eating crazies after us."
Cass gave him a very suspicious look as the sniper's lip twisted in a vain attempt to hide a grin.
"This is getting fun!" Veronica said from the stove. "Did you make that robot the sheriff of Primm too?"
"That one wasn't us," Boone said from behind his magazine.
"No fighting!" Lily said, setting down a plate of cookies. "Eat up, there's more on the way!"
The conversation died down as everyone took a cookie. Cass and Raul continued their game as they ate.
"It was Layla though," Raul said after cookie number three. "That robot sheriff. She told me about it."
"Why the fuck would she make a robot a sheriff?" Cass scoffed.
"She liked his hat."
"What is it with her and robot cowboys?" Veronica said, cookie dough spoon in her mouth.
"No worse than robot prostitutes," Boone said from behind his magazine, and Veronica's face turned red.
Arcade dropped his fork. "Did Boone just burn you?"
"I heard you actually tried the thing," Raul said to him.
"WHAT? No I didn't." The doctor turned on Veronica. "What did you tell them?"
"I didn't say anything!"
"You fucked a robot?" Cass said incredulously to Arcade. "Ew! Not that one at the Atomic Wrangler! Oh that's just nasty!"
"I didn't fuck a robot!"
"What the hell are you people talking about?" Layla said as she stepped into the kitchen. "Hey! Cookies." She reached over a furiously blushing Arcade and grabbed one before taking an empty seat next to Boone.
"So, what'd House have to say?" Cass asked.
"Well," she took a bite of the cookie in her hand. "Oh man these are good, thanks Grandma!"
"You're welcome, dear." Lily beamed.
"Well, the Platinum Chip apparently was a new operating system for the securitrons," the girl continued.
"And?" Veronica said.
"And…" She looked over her shoulder, out to the hall. "Hey Victor? Could you come in here real quick?"
"Whatcha need?" the robot said as he rolled in.
"Show 'em your new toys."
The securitron's grenade and rocket launchers both came out of their housing. The winking cowboy flicked on his screen.
"They've also got a new auto-repair function and better targeting systems," Layla added, noting her companions varying degrees of shock. "Did you get anything new in particular, Vic?"
"Still sorting through all the data, little lady. I'll let you know if I find anything."
"All right, thank you," the Courier said.
"Don't mention it." He rolled back out of the room.
"Well, that's… something," said Arcade.
"All of them have this now?" Raul said. "All of them?"
"I don't know if the reserve units are even all the way online yet, but I figure they'll all have the upgrades once they're activated."
The ghoul leaned back on his chair. "Did he say anything else?"
"Yes." She looked at Boone. "House's numbers say the Legion won't survive more than a year without Caesar. Congratulations, you've killed the Legion."
"Huh," the sniper grunted, grinning slightly. He reached for another cookie.
"They're still going to attack the Dam, so we're going to have to prepare," Layla continued. "House wants me to talk to the Boomers, try to get them on our side."
"Boomers?" Cass asked.
"Group of munitions junkies that took over Nellis Air Force Base fifty years ago," Arcade said, leveling a look at the Courier. "They blow anyone up that tries to get near them."
"That's them," Layla said, reaching for another cookie. "Sweet Christmas. Did you put Jet in these or magic, Grandma?"
The super mutant laughed. "Just an old recipe deary. I'll teach you one day if you'd like."
"That'd be great!"
"Did House have some kind of trick to get you in without getting the fuck blown out of yourself?" Cass asked, putting her feet back on the table and ignoring Arcade's glower.
"Uh, he mentioned that I should be extremely careful, and that they've blown up a bunch of his securitrons already." She smiled toothily. "So, who's coming with me?"
"I'm nowhere near drunk enough to agree to that," Cass said tartly.
"Yeah, I've got to wash my hair," Raul said, taking another cookie, "Sorry."
"I'll go," Boone said.
"Bigsurprise," Cass said between coughs, earning a glare from the sniper.
"Wait, Nellis Air Force Base?" Veronica asked, and Layla nodded. "Oh, I'll go too. The Pulse Gun Father Elijah mentioned was supposed to be around there." She frowned at the sudden emergence of dirty looks that 'Father Elijah' caused.
"Oh, that works anyway," said the Courier. "I was gonna pick up ED-E from the Brotherhood on the way. His upgrades should be done by now."
"Great," the scribe said, looking grateful at the sidestep.
"Anyone else? Grandma, are you heading back home soon?"
"Just for a little while, pumpkin. Gerdi's got a lamb on the way," she said.
"All righty, guess it'll be a foursome when we get ED-E," the Courier said. She started to stand, but froze as Boone cleared his throat loudly. She looked at him and groaned, sinking back into her chair.
"What?" Arcade said, already sounding suspicious.
"There's been a… development." Layla sagged against her seat for a moment, then stood. "Okay, you guys need to know about this. It's kinda bad."
She felt several pairs of eyes on her and she bit her lip. Her gaze flitted back to Boone, who nodded encouragingly at her.
"It seems that the Legion wasn't happy with the whole killing Caesar thing."
"I can't imagine why," Arcade said.
"They put a bounty on Boone and me."
"That's not such a big deal," Veronica said. "No one's gonna go after you who wouldn't anyway and why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's kind of a big bounty… and it's for alive only."
"How much?" Cass asked, mouth full of cookie.
"Two million caps," the Courier answered. There was a stunned silence. "Each."
"Fuckity fuck-fuck!" Cass sputtered, crumbs flying. "Wait, why didn't Raul get a bounty?"
"I wondered that too," Boone said. "He did more than Layla."
"Hey, if the Legion doesn't want to spend millions of caps on me, I'm okay with that," the ghoul said.
"Anyway," Layla said, getting their attention. She took a deep breath and said the next part quickly. "Things are going to start getting crazy. If anyone wants out, I think now would be a good time to part ways. No hard feelings."
There was another silence, and Layla's face took on a sickly look as no one answered. Biting her lip, she sunk back in her chair. She felt a hand squeeze her shoulder, and was surprised to find Boone giving her a reassuring look.
"Oh for the love of… No one is going to puss out now," Cass said testily, giving the others an impatient look. "Right?"
"Despite it being a pretty terrible idea, I'm not going anywhere," Arcade said.
Veronica nodded. "Yeah, I have to put this on the top of the 'stupid' list too, but I can't give it up now."
"How can it be any worse than getting shot in the shinbone at Caesar's personal camp?" said Raul. "I'm sure Lanius will just let us have the Dam if you ask nice, boss."
Layla gave them all a grateful smile. A moment later, her smile faded. "Are you sure? Four million is a lot of caps. People will be coming out of the woodwork…"
"Well shit, when you say it like that, maybe we should just turn you in for it," Cass said.
"It is tempting," Arcade added.
"Well… you'll have to get through Boone first." The Courier looked toward the sniper in question, who was grinning marginally.
"I don't know, if they agree to not turn me in, I'll help them with you."
"That's reasonable," Veronica said. "Can everyone agree about that?" The group at the table all nodded, except Layla, who leveled mock-glares across the room.
"Some friends." She suddenly grinned. "Hey Victor!"
The robot rolled back into the room, and the girl continued, "You won't let them turn me into the Legion for two million caps, right?"
"Well… that is a whole heck of a lot of money…" The screen flashed to a winking cowboy. "But they'll have to go through ol' Vic first."
"Ha!" She leveled a grin at the others. "At least I've got one true friend." She got up from the table, walking to the robot. "I'm retiring to my room. Would you mind escorting me away from these ruffians?"
"Sure thing, don't want anything happening to you on the way."
"Why thank you." The girl hooked her arm in the robot's and gave a smug grin to the group as she started for her room.
"I hate that robot," Cass said sourly.
Thanks for reading, and we'll be back on Tuesday/Saturday updates. I'll spill the beans now: after we're finished with Boomtown, we're all taking a trip to Utah :3
