CHAPTER TEN: IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT

Ash was having fun. The food could've been better but a meal was a meal, and the NCR soldiers made good company. They were eager to chat with an outsider, at first throwing questions at her left and right. She tried to answer to the best of her ability. They were curious. Most of them were young, too, in their late teens. Mr. Fantastic was thankfully absent from dinner, probably too busy trying to figure out what exactly she had done to start up the plant. But Ignacio, who she wished could replace that idiot in glasses, came up to join them after thanking her. Even Boone was talking, once the troops focused their attention on him and his scoped rifle.

"There are more things to consider than where the target is. Wind speed and direction, target speed and range, light source, other enemies. We have to work in pairs. If we didn't, we wouldn't be nearly as effective."

One of the younger men spoke up in between spoonfuls of stew. "Is that why everyone in 1st Recon wears sunglasses? The light?"

Boone nodded. "Glare can ruin an otherwise good shot."

Another one, this time a woman: "What about the Rangers? Do they recruit out of 1st Recon?" Damn, but they were green. Ash probably knew more about their military than they did. Poor kids got rushed into it too fast.

"They can. They pull the best from all battalions."

A different one sighed. "Wish I could be a Ranger just for the equipment. It'd be real nice to have a uniform that fit right and a gun that fired every time I pull the trigger."

Ash finished her glass of water. "They don't arm you well?" She wasn't about to start spouting off the many shortcomings of the NCR in front of a group of them. Hearing things like this sure fueled her opinions, though.

"Nope. You'd think they'd give us better gear, especially with the Legion right over in Nelson."

"Wait, what happened there?"

"Legionaries came in and took the whole place out. Now there's a hostage situation going on. Started the other day, I don't think it's been resolved yet."

Ash glanced at Boone. He didn't look pleased, more so than usual. She set down her almost-empty bowl of stew. "We'll see what we can do there."

"You're going now?"

"The sooner the better." She stood and grabbed her pack. Boone followed suit. "Thanks for dinner."

"Hey, wait up! I have something." One of them ran off. He came back a minute later, holding a small object wrapped in cloth. "They gave me one of these. Not much use since they gave me a shotgun with it. Figure you could get more use out of it. There's a workbench in here if you want to mount it up now."

She took it and unwrapped it. A rifle scope, in pristine condition. She smiled. "Hey, thanks. Maybe it can help me out tonight."

"You see them?"

"Yeah. They're alive."

"Good." Boone crouched down on the rocks. Ash was peering through her newly-fitted scope. A few legionaries lay dead behind them, taken away at a distance so the two could creep up onto the hillside overlooking Nelson.

"Any guards?"

"Couple back by that gate. Some dogs, too. Probably more in the barracks."

"Okay. We do this as quick as possible. They get the idea that we're attacking and they might do something drastic. Whatever you do, don't miss." It may have been the second or third time tonight he was telling her what to do with her rifle. Or the tenth. He lost count.

Ash looked away from her scope for a second to glare at him. "I've shot a gun before. I know what I'm doing."

"You sure about that?" He had only really seen her shoot her revolver at hulking robots at close range. Hell of a lot different than moving human targets at a distance. Still, he knew there was an edge to his words that wasn't meant for her. Incidents like this – hostages, mercy killings – didn't sit right with him. At all. They hadn't even before Carla.

She made an irritated noise deep in her throat, almost a growl, but didn't pick a fight. "Are we gonna do this or what?"

Boone flattened himself against the rock and looked through his scope. "You take the pair on the right. I'll handle the others. You lose track of things, tell me."

"Wow, really giving me credit here." Her voice was a whisper, but still incensed.

He took a deep breath and exhaled, and heard her do the same beside him. The first shot hit its mark straight in the head. The body fell. Already the others were turning. Another shot, another body down. Ash had fired twice but said nothing, so he could only hope for the best. He let off two more rounds. Somehow the dogs dropped too, even though he had been aiming at the now-dead legionaries next to them. In the calm that followed, he eased his rifle down and looked at Ash.

She was still watching through her scope. "Told you I could shoot."

"I didn't –"

Ash interrupted him. "I'm not seeing anything coming out of the barracks." She moved into a crouch, rifle at her side. "You wanna get in closer?"

He nodded. He almost opened his mouth to remind her to reload while they moved, but realized that it wasn't necessary, and wouldn't be the best thing to say to her right then. They stopped on a lower rocky edge when the door to one of the buildings flung open and a dozen or so legionaries piled out. They scattered quickly, but none made for their direction, not yet. Boone fired until he had to slide back and reload. Ash crawled up to the edge and took aim. They were running forward and shooting now. By her third shot, their bullets were getting too close for comfort. One ricocheted off the front of the boulder Boone was crouched behind. Ash hissed and rolled back, clutching her shoulder.

"Hit?"

"Only a graze. Five left. You stay here."

She left her rifle on the ground by her side and shifted further down the trail towards town, concealed by the rocks. He popped out to fire, taking another down before he had to duck back again to avoid the bullets headed his way. Then that unmistakable revolver rang out until all six shots fired, echoing through the hillside. When the stark silence took its place, he rose to look. Ash was standing over the freshly killed bodies, reloading. Midway through, she looked up at him and nodded. He grabbed her rifle and walked down the hill.

He handed her gun over. "You're not bad."

"Gee, thanks." She holstered her gun and slung her rifle over her shoulder.

"Your arm okay?"

"Yeah. I've had worse. Let's get them down." She jogged to the center of town and climbed up onto the raised area that the three crucifixes were on. He followed. "You all right, boys? Boone, give me your machete. I'll cut the ropes, you help them down." He complied. Each of the soldiers thanked them profusely and ran – as best they could – up the road. When they were left alone, she handed his machete to him and wiped her brow. "You should go with them. I'm gonna look around."

She hopped off the platform and stalked away before he could respond.