Part 13: Questionable Ethics
Otis was dressed up in crude, makeshift metal armour with a bent and rotten wooden sniper rifle. It was clear that his popularity at protecting people would be unusual, given one look at him.
"Hello there, gentlemen!" he spat out with a rough voice. "You should know how dangerous Freeside is, and that's where I-" I Cut him off to save him some time.
"We know you're a bodyguard, here's your caps, now escort us around safely." Getting straight to the point.
"Certainly, but keep close to me or I cannot guarantee your safety." He said, before leading us around Freeside. When we came close to the Vegas gates, he stopped and turned to us.
"I don't like the look of those guys up ahead, come on, I know an alternate route there." He uttered. We all stepped gingerly around the corner of a building to find four men, who all came running at us. Quick to the draw, Otis aimed his rifle and swiftly fired three rounds, leaving them all dead.
"Interesting, you fired three bullets and took out four guys." Arcade noticed. He seemed to be very good at picking up small things like that.
"Noticed that huh?" he said, being caught off guard. "Yeah…I keenly aimed one of the shots through some soft tissue so it would hit the man behind him."
"Very well" I said. "Thanks for your protection." I said as he slowly walked back to the front gates. Arcade pulled me aside and whispered in my ear.
"I don't know about you, but there's something fishy about more than just how much he fired. Any ideas?"
I looked around, trying to find something to use as evidence against Otis. Looking at the bodies, I noticed they were a little odd, so we both investigated. Arcade pulled out a stethoscope and checked each of the bodies.
"They're Alive!" he shouted. "Their hearts are still beating but they're not moving as well as slowly breathing. Guess they used a drug that lets them stay still. So that's how he's popular, he fakes hits and people think he's great at protecting them."
"Think we should talk to Otis, or go straight back to the King?" he questioned me.
"Well, the more evidence the better I guess. Let's hear Otis first." I said, to which we caught up to Otis to question him on the alive men.
"What, you liked my service so much you want more protection? Well tha-"
"No, we're here to question you on how the men are still alive! I checked their heartbeats and I heard them. You fake hits to make people think you're a good bodyguard, but in reality, your armour and weapon is considerable poor." Arcade truthfully said. After this, Otis appeared noticeably shocked.
"I Don't..fake my hits" he hurried to respond. "Why would I do such a thing?"
"Feel free to come with us, and hear their hearts for yourself." I said. "But regardless, how about we report you to the King? He controls a lot of Freeside, he'd ruin your business for sure. But if you cough up some caps, we might look the other way." I blackmailed him for some extra caps, even though I would go to the King anyway.
After slowly gulping and standing blank-faced for a moment, Otis responded by saying "You can't tell the King this, he'll ruin me! Here, take your fifty caps and these extra hundred as a sign of good will. I promise never to do this again." With a facial expression that made it rather predictable he was lying again.
"Thank you, we'll keep this to ourselves." I said, before we both sneaked straight back to the King to tell him our investigation was over.