Chapter 20: I Put a Spell on You
Six's own scream woke her. She tried to sit up but something heavy was on her shoulder. She was almost panicking as she opened her eyes. She was expecting to see total and utter darkness; instead she saw Boone's face, lit by the nearby campfire. She took a shaky breath and tried to relax.
"You were screaming." He said as he removed his hand from her shoulder and sat back on his knees.
"Sorry, I…" Six started as she sat up. Once sitting, she couldn't find any more words.
"Want to talk about it?" He asked, concern evident in his voice.
"I… N-… Ye-…" She sputtered out. She took a deep breath and tried again. "Yes, but not now."
"You never sleep well." He paused. "I know a thing or two about nightmares. Is it Nipton?"
"Hmm? Sometimes but not mostly." She gave him a half-hearted smile. "Well, I'm awake now. You get some sleep and we'll talk in the morning." Boone gave her a glare. "I promise." She added.
"Alright." With that Six vacated the bedroll and pulled on her duster, trying to maintain some of the leftover warmth. She took up a spot by the fire and tried to shake the dreams from her head. She heard Boone settle in and eventually heard him fall asleep.
Six watched the sunrise; it wasn't as pretty as some mornings. She stood up to wake Boone but he sat up as she stood.
"Good morning." She said as she stretched the kinks out of her back. They packed up the campsite and donned their gear and headed back to McCarran. Six had a package of Dandy Boy Apples she munched on as they went; Boone had some Salisbury steak. She finished just as they stumbled across the Centurion who led last night's failed ambush. She grabbed his helmet. She caught sight of Boone's glance.
"What? I'm starting a collection!" Six said and tucked the helmet under her arm. They started walking. Soon she noticed Boone's steely glare was focused on her.
"Alright, alright I promised." She relented. "I may have… left out something when I told you about what happened in Goodsprings." His glare intensified. "It wasn't very important at the time and besides, I'd just met you." She tried in defense. "Anyways, I told you the first thing I remembered was waking up in the doctor's office. That's not true. The first thing I remember…" She trailed off, remembering. She swallowed and tried again. "The first thing I remember is the dark and cold. I didn't understand where I was at the time. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move. I was terrified. It wasn't until I managed to dig myself free that the realization dawned on me. I'd been buried alive. The last thing I heard was the robot approaching before I must have passed out." Six sighed. "The rest you know. Meaning you know as much about me as I know." She tried a smile, but failed.
"Sounds like you. You didn't like it so you did something about it."
Six laughed. "Well the Mojave isn't going to save itself!" Six could have sworn she saw a smirk on Boone's face.
They walked on through the morning. Six had just finished some InstaMash for lunch when Boone broke the silence. "I thought some more about what you said last night."
"Oh? I said a lot of things last night."
"I think maybe you're right. Maybe I should go to Bitter Springs. I don't know what I'm hoping to find there."
"What changed your mind?" Six asked gently.
"Nothing. Dream. Just tired of thinking about it."
"Okay. We can head there now."
"No." Came Boone's quick and firm response. "After the strip. You still have unfinished business."
"Alright. After the strip then."
"I hope this isn't a mistake."
"I don't know either. But whatever happens, I'll be there. What are friends for, right?"
"Even if I'm stoic and intimidating?"
"Hey! I catch glimpses of that elusive sense of humour once in a while. It's just buried under all that military."
The rest of the walk to Camp McCarran was uneventful. They saw a few Fiends in the distance but the Fiends fled at the sight of them. They reached the camp just before sunset. McCarran was quiet. Six relayed the news of Keely's status to Angela and told Dr. Hildren the data was gone. After getting an earful from the doctor, Six and Boone headed out in the main buildings large entryway. As she was stretching and considering finding a comfy bed she saw Colonel Hsu standing in his office doorway. When he caught her eye, he beckoned them over. She trotted off toward the colonel with Boone in tow.
"Welcome back." Colonel Hsu greeted when they were in his office. "Find anything exciting exploring this vault?"
"One civilian, alive and well; and one more reason to hate Vault-Tec." Six responded happily.
Colonel Hsu chuckled. "I'll bet. We're all impressed with the work you've done for us. I thought you might be able to make use of this." He held a key out to her, which she took. "It's a key to a little hideaway south of here. We've used it as a place for Rangers to rest and resupply. I thought you might get good use out of it."
"Oh thanks! Can you input the location into my Pip-Boy?" Six asked.
"Certainly." Six held out her wrist and the colonel deftly entered to co-ordinates.
"We're probably moving on tomorrow, but we thought we should mention that you may have a Legion spy in your midst."
The colonel's eyebrow rose. "Oh, what makes you say that?"
"Well, I didn't even know we'd be going to Vault 22 until the night before we left but some Legionaries tried to ambush us last night outside the vault." She held up the helmet between them. "Could be chance, could be more." Six shrugged.
"Usually I wouldn't talk about this with a civilian, but lately I can't send a patrol on a bathroom break without it being ambushed by someone who heard they were coming. So somebody's getting the word out."
"We could look into whose leaking NCR intelligence." Six glanced over to Boone who nodded in agreement. "Might be a job best suited to outsiders."
"Hmm... Well, why not? Given your recent arrival, at least I can safely rule you out as the leak. I'd like to have absolute trust in my men, but that's just not practical right now. Go ahead and look into it. See what you find."
"Alrighty, we'll see what we can do."
"Also you may be interested in this. We actually took a Legion officer alive a few days ago, but so far he hasn't spoken a word."
Six hummed and looked over at Boone who looked surprised. "Huh? Something strange about that?" She asked, her heart suddenly in her throat.
"The Legion trains their soldier to kill themselves rather than be captured." Boone quickly explained.
"Oh… why does everything I learn about the Legion make me hate them more?" Six sighed. "I'd sure like to meet this Centurion. Think he'll like my new hat?" She motioned gleefully with the helmet in her hands.
"I have Lieutenant Boyd trying to get the prisoner to talk, and she's excellent. But I think she's hit a wall. Talk to her, if you like. See if she has any use for you. Her office is right above mine, but I think she might be interrogating right now. So she'd be upstairs on the other side of the building."
"All right. Let's go start some trouble." Six said with a look of mischief on her face. "We'll report any progress." Six tossed over her shoulder as she turned and headed out with Boone behind her. She heard a good luck offered from the colonel as she left. They headed toward the other wing and up the weird, once moving stairs. At the top they found a frustrated and pissed off looking, female MP. Six cautiously approached.
"You stick out like a sore thumb around here. You sure you're in the right place?" The MP asked as Six drew near.
"You're Lieutenant Boyd?" Six hedged.
"Yeah, what's it to you?"
"Courier Six at your service. I hear you have a problem with a Centurion." Six patted the helmet under her arm. "I did too. Colonel Hsu asked me to lend my expertise."
"I've heard of you. So far this has gone exactly as expected - poorly. But with the work you've done for NCR already, you might be just what I've been looking for. We captured an honest-to-God centurion of Caesar's Legion recently."
"I hear that's a big deal."
"Better believe it. Everybody, everybody in Caesar's Legion from Caesar on down will kill themselves before they can be captured. They're so twitchy they'd probably do it if you reached out to hug them. But here's this guy who's an elite commander in their army and he just gives himself up, even as his men are slitting their own throats around him."
"What do you think it means?" Six asked.
"Well, I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like a man who's willing to cooperate. Except he hasn't. Only times he speaks up are to insult you. He's a real prick, by the way. And I'm supposed to get information out of this guy."
"Hmm. Sounds like a coward to me." Six mused. "Usually I'd object to using violence on a prisoner of war but with the Legion, turnabout is fair play. Why don't you just beat your prisoner senseless?"
"I like you. Have I said that yet? Problem is that the NCR frowns on using that sort of tactic. There are some restrictions still in place from President Tandi's administration. But here's my favourite thing about you - you're not in the NCR. Plus, for all this guy knows, you're completely insane. That's a winning combination."
"So you want me to do what you can't."
"I think if you rough him up enough and really put some fear into him, he'll sing like a choir boy. So let's do this. When you're ready, I'll go in and give you a little intro. Then I leave the room and you make him regret the day he was born. We go back and forth a couple of times until either he talks or he can't move his jaw anymore. Either way we've had our entertainment for the day."
"Alright. Let me try talking to him first. If that doesn't work, we'll move on to violence."
"Okay, I'll go in and have a word with him. Then I'll call you in." Six and Boone followed Boyd into the room with the prison cell. Boyd unlocked the door and went in while Six placed her pack, rifle, pistol and combat knife on the table beside her Centurion helmet.
"Long time, no see, Silus." She heard Boyd begin.
"Lieutenant. I was just thinking about you." The cold voice made Six's blood run cold. It just dawned on her exactly what she had agreed to.
"That so?"
"I was. I was just thinking about that pretty neck of yours."
"How sweet."
"I was thinking about how it would look with a Legion slave collar on it."
"I'll pass."
"Do you know what I love about our slave collars, Lieutenant?"
"If you love them, maybe you should try one on."
"I love how tightly they fit. I train my men to make sure the slaves' flesh bulges a bit around the top and bottom. Know why?"
"It's all the rage in fashion circles."
"Not quite. If you fit it just right, their body never gets used to the feeling of wearing it. It cuts in just enough when they swallow or turn their head to remind them who they belong to. And it's that constant reminder that keeps them docile." Six almost gagged in disgust.
"In that case, maybe you'd better save the collar you were going to give me."
"Oh? For whom?"
"For a friend of mine you're about to meet. My friend isn't very docile."
"And who is this friend of yours?"
"You know all the rules the NCR instituted to protect enemy prisoners of war?"
"Of course."
"My friend doesn't. Oh, and Silus? If you resist at all, I'll personally blow your brains out. Come on in. He's all yours. I'll be back in a bit to see how you're getting along. And I'll need you to surrender your weapons before you go in. You can pick them up from the locker on your way out." Six was in awe. She didn't know if she would be able to keep her cool like that. Boyd left the cell and motioned for Six to enter. Six took a deep breath and went to step forward before she felt a hand on her arm.
"Be careful."
"I know." She smiled weakly to Boone as he released his grip. She stepped forward and went through the cell door. She was immediately greeted by insults.
"What an ugly little worm you are. What pile of excrement did the lieutenant pluck you from, worm?" Six smile wanly at the malice in the comment but tried to make the smile look sinister. She didn't take the bait. "You must have some reason to be in your line of work. Tell me, what did the Legion do to you? Did we enslave your children? Slaughter your family before your eyes to teach you a lesson? Whatever it was, I hope I was there to give the order."
"You must miss giving orders, now that all your men are dead." Six said sweetly.
"Foot soldiers of the Legion are trained to not have to think for themselves - to have conflict removed from their minds. They kill themselves to evade capture because they are not trusted to make such a decision rationally in the heat of battle. But I'm no foot soldier. I knew I could escape captivity on my own, without revealing the tiniest iota of information to my captors."
"Sounds to me like you were too gutless to follow Caesar's orders."
"I'll show you gutless, you snivelling bitch. I'll spill your guts all over this room!" Six did everything in her power not to flinch. She'd found the kink in his armour.
"Yeah, yeah, but I want to know how a coward can attain the rank of centurion."
"Coward? I've faced odds that would make your NCR soldiers wet themselves. I've led charges against men with guns carrying only my knife, and I can tell you, it was they who feared me. But suicide is a weak death on a battlefield. It says to your enemy that you fear capture. It says if you're caught you can be broken."
"And if you can't go through with it, you look even weaker." Six shook her head disapprovingly.
"You think I'm going to slit my throat for some megalomaniacal self-appointed dictator? I didn't work my way up to have it all be taken from me out of some irrational paranoia. Caesar's losing it. I believe that. He's been shutting himself in his tent. Privately, he complains of headaches. Whatever it is, it's affecting his ability to lead." Six simply listened. "Time was essential for my mission, but we waited three days for him to dispatch us. Another of his headaches. Does that sound like a man in command? He has an operative planted in this very base, but does he use his agent to rescue me? No. He's content to have the agent spend his nights radioing troop positions back to our base camp. He knows I'm here, and he's left me to rot."
"Who's the operative?" Six's curiosity got the best of her.
"I don't know. I know he sends intelligence by radio in the middle of the night. Sometimes that intelligence would find its way to my century."
"Thank you. You've been very helpful." Six smile sweetly to him as she moved toward the door without turning her back to the Centurion.
"I hope the Legion burns your wretched body at the stake when they conquer this place. There's nothing you can do to stop that."
"You don't know who I am, do you?" Six grinned mischievously.
"I know that you're a brainless cretin and I know that by this time next month the streets of New Vegas will be decorated with the decaying heads of NCR soldiers."
"I'm the courier who killed Vulpes Inculta in Nipton, routed the Legion at Nelson and successfully interrogated a gutless Centurion." With that Six left through the prison door.
Once outside she leaned against the wall and collapsed to the floor; the mixture of adrenalin and relief causing her to shake all over. She hugged her knees tightly, not caring how she looked to the outside world.
"You ok?" Asked a rough female voice.
"Ye…Yeah. Just need a sec to catch my breath."
"You did well." Boyd began. "I don't know how you did it without putting a scratch on him, and I'm a little disappointed personally, but it saved the NCR some face. And it could save us more than that when all is said and done. I'm gonna talk to some people when we're through here. This is about double the standard fee we'd give a "consultant," but from what I saw, you're more of an artist. So think of this as your commission." She presented a handful of NCR bills.
"Boone…?" She asked, indicating the money with a shift of her eyes.
"Yeah." Boone took the money from Boyd.
Six took a deep breath; there was more work to be done. "Hsu already has us looking for this spy." She started as she raised her eyes from the ground to Boyd. "Have you noticed anything suspicious lately?"
"Now what kind of MP would I be if I didn't notice anything suspicious? I've had soldiers go AWOL, break-ins, thefts, you name it."
"Tell me about the break-ins."
"Maybe break-in isn't the right word. We didn't find signs of forced entry. But I've had reports of someone sneaking into the control tower at night. It's probably just a meeting spot for a steamy military base love affair. Kids today. But it bothers me that they didn't break in. It means they have an access code. Most soldiers around the base don't have that." Boyd explained.
"Would you be willing to give me the control tower access codes so we can check it out?"
"Sure, if you want to investigate." She handed a slip of paper from her pocket to Boone. "It's not like there's anything to steal up there. Just a bunch of old communications equipment."
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Six let out a long, loud groan. "Old communications equipment? As in old radios? As in easily repairable means for contacting people far away?" Six's mind made a leap and she groaned again dropping her face into her knees. "And he has the access code! Which means officer." She didn't see Boyd or Boone's surprised faces at her revelation. She grumbled and pushed herself to her feet. She shook away the dust and walked over to the table to retrieve her things but left the Centurion helmet where it was.
"The Centurion said the spy radios reports at night." Six fit all her equipment back into place. "Boone and I will stake out the tower. Lieutenant, please sit tight. We don't want to spook the spy or let him know the centurion caved."
"Alright, you have until dawn."
"Thanks. Let's go, Boone!" Six nodded to Boone and the pair briskly made their way to the tarmac. Boone indicated the tower once they were outside. Soon enough they'd found a vantage point sufficient distance away where they wouldn't be noticed but close enough to recognize the spy through a scope. They set up; both prone, both with sights trained on the door.
Hours went by. Six figured staying prone would leave her stiff. To her surprise, she wasn't. But she was getting tired. It was past midnight and sleep was starting to creep up on her. She was musing on what her favourite colour was when Boone's quiet word sounded from beside her.
"There." Six shifted to catch the officer moving across the tarmac in her sights.
"Do you recognize him?" Six breathed.
"Captain Curtis."
"Alright, the moment he goes through that door we'll follow, quick and quiet, and catch him in the act." Six said as she quietly stowed her rifle. Boone still had his sights trained on the traitor.
"Boone?" Six was trying not to worry. The pause stretched on.
"He's in. Let's go." He quickly shouldered his rifle and took off across the tarmac. Six followed close behind. They closed the gap in twenty seconds. Six quickly keyed in the access code and as quietly as possible they opened the door and snuck in. They waited at the bottom of the stairs inside. Six could hear rustling around up above her. She waited, listening to her heart pound in her ears.
"Lupa, this is Frumentarius Picus, over." Broke the silence a few moments later. Six saw Boone's expression go grim even in the dark.
"Go ahead, Picus." They heard crackled from the radio.
"Afternoon patrol enters Fiend territory at 1300. Have them mine that stretch."
"Ten-four, Picus. Fiends will be alerted. What's the status of your primary mission?"
"Charges are set. Detonation will occur as the train leaves the station. Over."
Charges? Station? Six wondered. The Monorail Boone had mentioned. Shit, shit shit!
"How long?"
"A couple of minutes." Shit, shit shit! Kept running through Six's mind. She signalled Boone. He nodded and they moved. She drew Lucky in preparation. The captain turned suddenly, startled by the noise. "What are you doing here? You don't have clearance."
"Screw clearance, Picus!" As realization dawned on the captain Six pulled the trigger and put an end to the traitor with a bullet to the chest.
"Shit, shit, shit!" She finally voiced the mantra going through her head as she rifled through the former captain's pockets. She found a piece of paper with numbers on it and a key word she was looking for. Deactivation! "Come on!" She shouted to Boone and the pair bolted from the tower. They ran toward to main building. "Find the colonel! Warn him! I'll deal with the bomb!" She shouted as she ran. Six slammed into the building's door and forced it open. She headed to the stairs as Boone left her side. Once at the top of the stairs she saw a big sign that said 'Monorail' and followed the arrow to a door down a hallway. She forced open that door and found the empty station platform beyond with the train waiting, empty.
There's still time. She approached the train and carefully inspected it as she went. She then entered the train. She checked under the seats and behind them but a tiny red flash behind a vent caught her eye. She carefully removed the vent and saw the bomb. Trying to keep her hands from shaking, she typed in the deactivation code. The little red light went out. She let out a sigh of relief as she heard a clattering on the station platform. She looked over to see Boone, Hsu, Boyd and half a dozen MPs.
"The bombs here in the vent. I put in the deactivation code but I ain't touching it. You've got people who do that, right?" Six asked Hsu. He made a motion and two MPs got aboard the train and took her place. She headed out onto the platform.
"What happened?" Cononel Hsu asked as she got off the train.
"It was Captain Curtis. He was Legion."
"Curtis? He's been in the NCR long before our conflict with the Legion. There's just no way… I hope you're mistaken, but somehow I don't think so. It'd explain a lot. This is much worse than anyone expected. There could be others, too. You two have done everything that was asked of you. You have my personal thanks for this, and I'll make sure you receive the credit you deserve." He looked between Six and Boone. "Both of you."
"Credits all well and good but what about sleep? Sleep is good too." Six stretched elaborately and yawned as the colonel laughed.
"I'm sure we'll all sleep better thanks to the work you've done here. Your usual tent is still empty. You'll be heading out in the morning still?"
"Yup, Boone tells me there's live music on The Strip." She smiled involuntarily.
"The Strip? If I had known, I would have let you use the monorail, but as it stands now, I want our mechanics to go over every inch of the thing before we start it back up again."
"Oh, no worries." Six walked toward the doors back into the main building. "Good night!" She called back as she went through the doors. Once inside the building, she glanced over at Boone and then jumped away to strike a heroic pose as she smiled wide.
"Courier Six: Saviour of the Monorail!" She arced her hands in front of her to indicate her name in lights. "Liberator of Nelson! Avenger of Nipton! Guardian of Goodsprings! And Bane of Centurions!" She laughed aloud.