TLW decided that he would make the trip before nightfall if he hurried. He took up his backpack and put it on his shoulder. It weighted enough to take out some of the fatigue, but was lightly enough to not slow him down. Tree-dog had also put in some water and food for the trip. He was good to go.

He had several choices to get to Megaton. Either go around the barricade and take the bridge over the river and then basically follow the road too Megaton. It was a safe area now with over three checkpoints with soldiers guarding the route, but it was also an hour detour. He then decided to take the ferry from behind the Lincoln memorial, go through the Arlington cemetery and pass Greyditch. It was the safer route and it was also the one people took when they going to work on the other side of the rider or around the "breadbasket."

It was a nice change of pace to actually get around the countryside of the mall. Greyditch had become the place where the farmers and ranch owners around the "breadbasket" area came to trade and to get their essentials. He did not go through it this time but instead went to another place that he had visited before. The Super-duper mart. The deserted shopping centre that was once a raider camp and a place were lots of people were tortured and killed. Not it was abandoned. Unlike most of the other ruins of the Capitol Wasteland, there was no concrete plans on what to do with this building. Everything of value had a long time ago been removed and it was only a shell of a building now. TLW stopped for a second and watched it and let his thought wander for a second. Then he continued on his journey. Megaton was only a hour away now.

As he walked down the road he had to notice the changes that were being made. He had taken a detour looking at Super-duper mart, but when he again came onto the main trade route things had changed. First of all there were unarmed people walking the roads. That itself was a modern day miracle. But the road itself had been much better. On about 80% of the distance stone or cement had been laid so it made the walk much easier and much faster. There were checkpoints where armed soldiers was standing by incase the rare threat of radio scorpions attacked, something that happened less and less frequently. Behind Megaton the ranch had start spreading and was growing into the borders of the town. The backside of the wall that protected the city had been removed, creating opportunities to expand the city. The entrance had been previously been protected by a robot and a sniper, but now there were to easy barracks with atleast 20 soldier standing guard. The machinery that closed the main entrance was still there though, ready to be closed on moment notice.

The city itself had changed. Simms who often patroled the city alone needed help from atleast five people every day just too keep the presence in the street. The crime rate had first increased and then decreased when Simms reorganized the Regulators from operating in the wasteland to be a kind of marshal of the law in small settlements. Now Megaton was the biggest settlement outside of the mall and a place for people to get away and stay for a different perspective of life. The waterworks had also been changed to meet the demands of an ever growing city. But thanks too the Jefferson memorial project there was enough water to the wasteland for at least two or three generations. A pipeline was made and pumped water into the city and created also the one thing people outside the vaults never had experienced, a warm shower.

TLW was enjoying this luxury for the first time since he had left the vault, his house was just as he left it, and he for once felt a relaxation about everything was fine for the first time in a long long time. Afterwards he sat down on a couch, thinking about everything that had happened until now. He was going to look at the receiver tower but needed some time for himself first. Hell, he would fix it right away to get be done with it. He dressed up in his jumpsuit that had the numbers on the back worn out after a long use. He considered equipping a gun, he still needed to do that but it was maybe a matter of time before the need inside a settlement of being armed was gone. There was at least three regulators and one army soldier standing guard at the center of megaton. They actually had a booth were there always was a soldier at duty so people at Megaton could run there if the need for protection arise. He walked down the aisle to the center where the bomb once was. The cafeteria was still there but had increased their business to expand to a second floor and they also had refurnished the place so it looked a little less dirty, and the business was blooming thanks to those things.

The Lone Wanderer decided to eat something after his belly rumbled again. He sat down, ordered a Nuka Cola and some iguana-on-stick. It smelled delicious. The first stick went down in seconds and half of the cola seconds later. The culinary cuisine of the wasteland changed also as the time went by. Brahim steak was of course now the main dinner dish for almost anyone living here. There were enough of them too goo around and one brahim provided food for 100 people if every part of it were used, and now there were over 10.000 brahims in the capital wasteland. The nuka cola was another case. Unfortunately it was not a priority of things needed to be produced, and therefore something scavengers looked for in ruins. At the beginning it was easy too meet the demand with thousand of vending machines just lying around, but soon it started to be more and more difficult too find them and people with money started to pay more and more for them. It was still not too expensive too get one. For The lone wanderer it was free after he had saved the city from a nuclear annihilation, but if not it would have costed him maybe 100 caps. A price that would triple if not a good source would be found soon. The rumors of a Nuka cola factory filled with the black honet had lead more than one man too search the wastelands with all the dangers that lurked around.

It filled his belly and gave him a feeling of satisfaction. He let the food go down his stomach some minutes before he left the table. Now there was the case with the broken radio-tower. It was situated two minutes outside the city on the areas highest point. It was once a other broadcast-tower with a waterpump, but it had been modified the last year to also be a broadcast tower to spread information too the thousands of thousands of wastelander that started to settle the area. The walk was easy. The radscorpions had been a long time ago erased from the area and the biggest threat was now dust and stone coming flying with the wind. The tower itself was guarded by one guard sitting in a both, just accompanied by a radio, some magazines and a standard sub-machine gun. The guard was there not because of raider threat, but because some crows, moles and and other rodents suddenly could arrive and destroy something if they were not chased away. TLW had a suspicion that it was exactly this that had happend now and some guard had been sleeping or not noticed it.
"Good morning soldier" he said to the soldier that sat on a chair inside the shed and reading a police story magazine. The soldier quickly stood up when he saw who was coming. TLW was a famous face that all soldier should have seen.
"God morning sir!" he said with a stout voice.
" So, have is the new life treating you?" he asked the soldier who was at least 10 centimeter taller than him.
"Incredible sir. One and a half year ago i was fighting for my life against the mutants and Talon, and now i have a job that gives me caps that i can buy food and water with and i have my own place in Megaton. I am now living and not only existing."
"So what did you do before the founding of the Mall?"
"I was raider sir."
"Excuse me, a raider?"
"Yes sir."
TLW though about all the raiders he had killed, it was maybe hundred, but he did not regret it. They were animals that slaughtered and killed innocent people that only tried to survive.
"Than you must hate me, i killed many of you. But more important, how did you change. The raiders were a bunch of Jet psychos that killed for fun.
"I do not hate you. You fight a battle for good, a battle where we dont have to wonder if the next day is the day we day. And when it comes too the raiders, they had families also. I meet you once actually. I lived at Evergreen mills, and you released the abonmation that was called Behemoth. After the massacre it was just me and two other raiders left. We tried to catch up with another group, but they just killed the two others on sight. I got away. I hid and lived on mole rats for three months. Until i noticed the pure water coming out from the basin. I surrendered to some Steels. In exchange for information on the raiders i was allowed to be a soldier. Trained for four months and then placed here."
"Good for you, i believe you saved lots of live by helping us with the raiders threat. What's your name?"
"I was called Rash, but i prefer the name Matthew.
"Matthew it is then. I have a problem with the communication tower, it does not receive the transmission from The mall."
"Oh, ok. There was a guy here two days ago, but i will open the gate and let you see it again.
"Thanks."

It took them two hours with climbing too check the tower. But then TLW noticed it. It was placed inside the smaller second dish. A round object that was beeping a signal. TLW had seen it before, when he lived inside the vault. It was a transmitter that send a ping-signal to a specific location. But it also had a second function. It could receive signals from a nearby source and it also could block the interference. It had been placed there with purpose. TLW climbed down and went back to Matthew.
"Do you have a ham radio inside the shack?"
"Yes sir."
" Then send a call to the Citadel. Frequency 184.00 and say the code STOLTENBERG SUGER. Then ask for a Verti-bird to get to this location ASAP. I need to go there immediately."
"Right away sir." The Matthew ran away.
TLW looked at the little square box he had in his hand. It still beeped. Who had placed it there and why?

Not more than 30 minutes later he walked into the B-ring of the citadel. He also took with him Matthew who had seen the guy that possibly had placed it there.
"Woow, i never been here before. I once saw it through a binocular, but just being in a radius of 100 meters was a death sentence."
"I felt it the same way first time i was here. Now its more like a second home."
They stopped right before the group room.
"Wait here until i call for you."
"Yes sir" Matthew stopped and saw the TLW walk into the room.

After 10 minutes of debriefing Elder Lyons and his daughter the silence went down into room.
"So, who was it that placed it there?" Sarah asked
"I dont know. Could be Talon mercenaries, but they have disappeared into the earth after Paradise Falls felt." TLW said.
"Thats right. I have doubled the scouts into the north-western area, but we havent seen one Talon soldier the last two months. We now believe that they have withdrawn. I had some men raid Fort Bannister, but they found burned ashes and nothing else." Elder Lyons summarised.
"They are not retreating. They are regrouping." Sarah said.
"They are planing something. They have taped our broadcasts the last two days. I dont think they expected that the taping would give interference in the broadcast signal. What about the witness?"
"I can bring him in" TLW said.
"Then do it."

Not more than a minute later Matthew stood infront of them.
"I can not say that he looked different then the rest of the so called engineers that arrives. He was wearing a blue overall and said that he was ordered from The mall too fix the antenna. He looked like a normal caucasian guy with black hair. But there was something in the way he talked and walked. It was like he was to civilized almost. Talked with advanced words."
"Oh my god!" she said loudly.
"What is it?" her father asked.
"Its the Frumentarii."
"The what?" TLW asked.
"The spy network for the legion. I know remember it. They sendt some of the officers to an unknown location. I heard them talk about it while i was chained in the bedroom of the tent. This must be it. Trust me, there could be no one else of the factions that is strong enough to attack us. We need to check the other radio masts also. I believe that all of them are tapped, but this one got discovered because of being placed to close to the dish." Sarah Lyons said.
"I will get it checked right away." The Elder Lyons said and walked out the room.
"Thanks Matthew, i will make sure that the next supply transport with the Vertibird will have a room for you."
"Thanks sir."

TLW used his room at the citadel to spend the night. The next morning Elder Lyons woke him up.
"All seven of them were bugged. They could have been tapping us longer than two days. We have been broadcasting since before the foundation of the The mall." he said with a sharp tone.
"I think that we are looking for the enemy behind our enemies. The ones that have pushed all the buttons with the slavers and Talon."
" I agree. But if they are planing something, they are not far away. We have to prepare for the worst." Elder Lyons said with a low voice.
"We must prepare for war."
War, war never changes...