Over The Edge

by Lordgoth99

Ex-NCR Veteran Desert Ranger Benjamin "Ben" McCall, lives in luxury from his career as a private detective. His ex girlfriend is murdered in front of his eyes. The investigation of her death, uncovers a conspiracy so dark, so heinous, and places the entire Mojave Wasteland in the sights of a madman looking to reclaim glory long since lost.

4. Checking Out

Over the Edge Part 4

"Checking Out"

Before the Courier's clearing it out, the Monte Carlo Suites was once the biggest hole in the Westside wall. From Ben's own personal patrol experiences, it was an armpit, a real cesspool of heavy chem use, moral turpitude, and the Scorpions gang. However, after just two years and several thousand caps, the people of Westside had fully renovated and upgraded the old flophouse, turning it into a cozy 3-star hotel that was owned by the members of Westside's Co-Op. This, along with several other businesses being opened, had started an economic revival of Westside, once one of New Vegas's poorest areas. This environment of general optimism was what greeted Ben, once he arrived at the Monte Carlo Suites.

Ben walked inside the newly renovated hotel lobby, which sported modern furniture, a well-appointed front desk, and a bar/lounge located on the newly built 4th floor. He walked up to the front desk where a young, dark-skinned 16-year-old girl with a Raider hairstyle was wearing a light blue utility jumpsuit. The girl was sitting in a chair, staring at the reception terminal, looking bored out of her mind. As she spotted Ben walking towards her, she spoke first, relishing the chance to talk to a guest instead of continuing to stare at the terminal screen. "Hello sir" the girl said, with an upbeat and optimistic tone, "My name's Alana, and welcome to the Monte Carlo Suites". "If you're looking to book a room, they're 75 caps a night, up front of course, we sadly don't do tabs". Ben smiled slightly, then responded, "I'll certainly consider it Alana. "I was actually wondering if you could help me find someone". Ben then pulled out a photograph of Emily from his duster pocket and showed it to Alana, as she analyzed the photograph, Ben watched her closely. He kept a close eye on her body language and facial expression, watching as she clearly seemed to recognize Emma's face in the photo. Alana handed Ben the picture back, "Yeah, sorry mister I didn't see her" Alana said nonchalantly. "I see" Ben told her, "try taking another look at the picture, it might help jog your memory" Alana's facial expression began to turn more serious, "listen, I'm not really a fan of giving out any information about my guests without their permission first, Emily never told me about any guests I should be expecting". Ben immediately responded, "that's funny, a second ago you said you didn't know her".

Alana froze, she knew that Ben had caught her in a lie. Ben continued, "listen Alana, I bet you know that Emily works with the Followers, who have always supported Westside through thick and thin". "I also know about loyalty, as a Desert Ranger, one of the first things we're taught in training is to be loyal to our cause, to serve and protect the citizens of the Wastes". "Emily and the Followers are amazing individuals who've helped countless people at great cost to themselves". Alana responded, "and what would an NCR Ranger know about helping others without expecting something in return?" "Well miss Alana, for one thing I'm a Desert Ranger, I left the NCR a long time ago". Ben paused and sighed, unable to stop the pangs of sadness from getting to him, "she more than anyone else, made me realize that I picked the wrong side". "Listen Alana, Emma's been killed, I've been tasked with figuring out who ordered her death, that's why I'm asking for your help, as you clearly know her".

"Look Ranger", Alana said sternly but tinged with sadness, Emma is like the big sister I never had". "She taught me battlefield medicine, wasteland cuisine, and thanks to her, I can hack any terminal this side of the Colorado". "She was there for us when nobody else wanted to help, so yeah, I help out the Followers, helping wherever I can and rebuilding New Vegas one brick at a time". Ben responded, "that's very admirable of you Alana, I know that Emma must be proud of you for the work you do for others". Ben paused again, "I just hope that she'd be proud of me". He didn't want to tell Alana the truth, he rightly knew that revealing Emma's death would shatter her and kept it to himself. "Listen, my name's Ben Macall, I'm a friend of hers, she asked me to investigate the disappearance of 7 of her researchers, she then told me that she'd booked a room here but didn't give me the number". Alana then paused, "so you're the detective the Followers hired, guess it would make sense that a Desert Ranger would show up out of the blue". "Yeah, I'm the one" Ben said, "but I can't do very much detective work if I can't examine any potential evidence". Alana realized that Ben was the real deal, "alright then, she's staying in room 303, third floor, left of the stairs at the end of the hallway". "Thanks Alana, this means a lot', Ben said, however she quickly spoke back "by the way, I'm going with you, I'm not letting you rummage through Emma's room without me watching your every move". "Fair enough", Ben replied, "lead the way then".

Alana got another employee to watch the desk, then the two walked up the stairs until they reached the third floor. Then, the two of them walked to the left down the hallway, counting room numbers until they spotted room 303. Ben quickly took cover on the left side of the door then drew his Ranger Sequoia, Alana was visibly puzzled by Ben's actions, but Ben quickly retorted "in my line of work, you can never be too careful". Alana put her key in the door's lock and as she was about to open the door, Ben stopped her. "Don't just open it like that, it could be booby trapped", "are you crazy, booby trapped?" Alana said, looking visibly irritated. She ignored Ben's advice and opened the door, triggering a crossbow trap, firing a bolt that barely missed her head, and hit the wall directly behind her. Alana tried to process how she, by the thinnest of margins, escaped certain death. Ben, visibly irritated by Alana's hasty opening of the door slowly walked inside the room, checking for tripwires and pressure plates hidden under sheets on the floor. The room was well appointed, with a wooden bed frame with a comfortable mattress and covers. There was a desk with a chair, a nightstand which had the mounted small crossbow on top of a pile of burnt books and held in a small vice. There was also a Vault-Tec style dresser, stocked with basic clothes and a box of bobby pins. Finishing off the room were the doors to the bathroom and closet space. After Alana pulled the bolt out of the wall, Ben then took it from her hands and examined it. "That's a titanium tipped bolt", Ben paused, "if you were 2 inches taller, it'd hit your head and skewer your brains like a Gecko Kebab, you got to be careful, this is the Wasteland". "Thanks for the advice dad" Alana replied sarcastically, with an annoyed look on her face.

The two then searched the room after Ben found no more traps and tripwires tucked away under the carpet or strung between the doorways. He started to open the Vault-Tec dresser, looking for anything Emma left behind. He found some of Emma's clothes, various shirts, lingerie, and pairs of cargo pants inside the drawers. He then decided to dismantle the crossbow trap, then open the nightstand drawer to check the inside. When he slowly opened the drawer, buried under the various papers sat a teal-colored box, that Ben immediately recognized. "Found something", Alana rushed over to see what he'd discovered, "one 50 round box of .380 auto, mercury core, the ideal bullet of an assassin" Ben said to himself". Alana pulled the box out and opened it, "looks like about half the bullets are missing", Ben replied "the real question is where's the gun?". Alana then opened the closet door, then pushed aside some old clothes left on the hangars, revealing a locked wall safe. Alana called to Ben, "over here", Ben walked over to her, "good find" he said sincerely, "Now, do you have the key on you, or do we have to pick it open?". Alana smiled a little, "I'm a few steps ahead", she then pulled out a keyring, bristling with various keys.

After she found the right one, she looked at Ben and said, "now it's my turn to save the day", before unlocking the wall safe. "alright Ranger, let's see what's behind door number one" she said jokingly, even earning a slight chuckle from Ben. The safe door swung open, revealing the safe's various contents. Inside was 2 stacks of NCR$ 10000 that had the currency straps on them, 2 more boxes of .380 mercury core bullets, 3 Grenades, 2 cigarette packs that had several small cylindrical metal objects next to them, a personal first aid kit, a small stack of papers with 2 orange keycards on top of them, 1 holotape, and sitting in the far back of the safe, were two old dishrags. When Ben picked them up, he knew he'd found what he was looking for. He removed the rags to reveal a matte-black finish .380 handgun, along with a silencer and several magazines.

"Well Alana, looks like I found the smoking gun", Ben said, trying to find some levity while his mind started to arrive at grim conclusions. He'd known Emma for 15 years, this was the woman who despised the brutal and uncompromising barbarity of the Wastes. Emma had always despised that he had joined the NCR, which in her own eyes, was a corrupt and bloated bureaucracy, dedicated to enriching itself and colonizing the wasteland. He knew that for the longest time, the two disagreed about whether the Followers or NCR was the best hope for the wasteland, however his illusion of Emma as a nonviolent peace-loving person began to fade. His mind struggled to come up with a positive conclusion, using the evidence before his eyes. Alana interrupted him with crucial information. "Ranger, these cigarette boxes are packed with C4, and those small metal bars are the fuses". Ben froze, Alana handed the two cigarette boxes to Ben, which after a quick examination, realized she wasn't lying. "You really weren't kidding, C4 molded into a shaped charge, all you need then is to know where to place it and the target". Alana handed Ben a folded copy of the day's Mojave Post, with the headline "Sir Ashely Craven, Energy Baron, Coming to Speak at the Ultraluxe". Craven's picture was circled several times in blue ballpoint pen, making the target clear as day.

Alana turned to Ben, "looks like Craven's the target, makes perfect sense after examining these keycards. "They're supervisor keycards for the Ultraluxe, if the killers have these, they have access to the entire casino". Ben concurred, "That gives them access to Craven and the other VIP's, all they have to do is plant the C4 under the podium, then blow the place". Alana and ben looked each other in the eyes, clearly realizing what they'd stumbled upon. "Alright, so we know that Craven gives his speech in 2 days, we also know that the assassins will plant C4 somewhere inside the venue, and we know that, since we found no detonator, one of the assassins kept it with them, just in case the others get killed or are captured" Ben said. Alana replied, "so it stands to reason that we need to go to the Ultraluxe and stop this". "We?" Alana, this ain't shooting Radroaches behind the dumpsters, these guys mean business", Ben said. Alana however wasn't going to back down, "I just helped you search the room and opened the safe for you, that makes us partners, and partners don't operate alone'. Ben sighed, "look, personally I don't have a problem with you coming along, you have been a real help here, but I don't think your folks would be happy with you coming along with me". Alana responded, "I understand where you're coming from, but I have no parents, ever since me and my brother left the bunker, we've been on our own until Emma and the Followers found us".

Before she could speak, Ben paused, "you said you grew up in a bunker?". "Yeah, until I was 14, then me and my brother left with Veronica when she and the Outsider showed up". Ben could hardly believe what he was hearing, he began to sweat, but kept his cool. "So, you're with the Brotherhood, probably training to be a Field Scribe, right?". "Yeah" she responded, "How'd you guess?'. "Well", Ben said, choosing his words carefully, "l've encountered Brotherhood before", Ben paused again, "you know what, you can come along, I know firsthand what the Brotherhood can do". Alana was overjoyed, sporting a glowing smile, clearly happy to be going on her first real adventure. "I'll go grab my stuff, trust me mister Ranger, you won't regret this". As she ran down stairs to grab her gear, Ben grabbed the safe's contents and placed them in his inventory, after he did so, he then decided to search the bathroom. As he walked over to the bathroom door, the pungent odor of bleach and Abaraxo Cleaner irritated his nose, causing him to put his ranger helmet back on.

Ben slowly opened the bathroom door, revealing a bathtub, a sink, toilet, and a wooden TV tray, that had several used and empty bottles of various cleaners. Then, as Ben began to search the bathroom, he spotted something in the small crevasse between the sink and the wall. He reached behind and grabbed the item with a pair of tweezers, however when he did, he made a gruesome discovery. In his hand, was a haphazardly folded dishrag, soaked in blood, and as he examined the dishrag, he felt a small circular object that was hard and solid. "Could it be a bone fragment perhaps, or a shell casing maybe?". However, when he unfolded the dishrag, there, in the area where he felt something, was a partially rusted engraved gold ring. He picked up the ring, examining it with his eyes, he managed to identify a symbol on the ring, a white handprint, a White Glove. Thoughts of its owners last moments alive, considering the harrowing implications of the evidence, reminded him of the savagery of the Wastes. He'd seen it before too many times, the lengths people or groups were willing to go, the resources they were willing to squander, to accomplish the goal. For them, the ethical and moral costs of their actions never mattered, it was always about the end goal.

Just then Alana rushed back inside the room, sporting her own customized blue Field Scribe's robes that had been lightly armored and upgraded. Slung over her back was her heavily modified Laser Rifle "Master Blaster", she also had a Laser Pistol in a holster on her hip, a Pip-Boy 3000 on her arm, and a Power Fist in her inventory, just in case things got up close and personal. "You like my digs Ranger?" Alana said, visibly excited about putting on her old gear, "you look ready to roam the Wastes", Ben said, smiling at Alana, slightly inspired by her passion for exploration and adventure, something he'd lost after years spent cleaning up the results of the Wasteland's savagery. "Is your boss ok with this" Ben said, "Yeah, I left a note for my brother and the other staff, they'll be cool if I take a vacation" she said to Ben. "You sure you brought enough caps and supplies, because we aren't coming back here for a while", Ben said. Alana quickly replied, "I got everything I need, lets go", she said brimming with excitement. "Alright then", Ben said, "we're going back to my home first, to check up on some things and stay the night". "Where's your house" Alana asked Ben, "I just hope it's not some run-down shack somewhere". "You'll be relived to know that it isn't, I got a place in Lake Las Vegas". "For real, that's awesome, I always wanted to go there and see if it really is the ritziest place in the Mojave" Alana said, filled with enthusiasm. "Well then", Ben said, "lets get going, as he opened the Monte Carlo's doors and the two new partners walked off into the Mojave, ready to start their adventure.