Chapter 21

Duty or Desire

"This is becoming a bad habit, Nate," Cade chuckled.

"Ugh. Don't remind me," his patient groaned as a headache which he'd received from the sedative-laced dart that had put him to sleep finally started to throb.

"Need those painkillers now?" Cade asked after watching Nate's face scrunch up as his brain seemingly threatened to escape his skull.

"Absolutely!"

As Cade searched his bag for the medication, Nate's hurting mind finally kicked into gear.

"I take it Elder Maxson must know at this stage that Eve is gone?"

"Young Arthur Maxson is currently missing."

Nate blinked. "Sorry... what?"

"We're not wholly concerned just yet," Cade added with no hint of concern. "He's been known to take a few hours to himself and go strolling around the countryside with no particular goal in mind. His duty can weigh heavily on him. I believe that sometimes he just needs to get away from it all. Used to cause such panic back in the Capital Wasteland when he'd wander off. But we've gotten used to his odd habits since then."

Nate managed to sit upright at long last just as his memory kicked into gear.

"... Shit! What the hell was he thinking?!"

"Sentinel?"

"Just remembering something," he mused to Cade as another voice rumbled in his mind - My apologies... Sentinel.

"Who is in command in Maxson's absence?" Nate barked.

"That would be you."

Nate blinked. "Sorry?"

"Captain Kells has been temporally relieved of command. The next highest rank is you."

"God damn it!" he snapped. Ignoring the blinding headache which was only starting to subside, Nate got to his feet and set out for the doorway.

"Where are you going?" Cade shouted after him.

"To find Eve and her idiot rescuer!" Nate roared back before he added offhandedly in an almost strained voice, "If Maxson turns up while I'm gone, tell him I need to speak to him."

"Oh, I must certainly will."

It was the dead of night as Nate attempted to track down the pair who'd escaped.

He wasn't the only one on their trail. A number of Brotherhood vertibird sorties were swarming the skies while ground patrols searched every building in the effort to locate Eve.

After an hour pf no luck, Nate stopped and pondered.

If it was who he suspected that took Eve then he needed to think like him. He needed to consider everything that he would when making such a move.

"Got it!" Nate muttered as it finally struck him where they had obviously gone.

He started back for the shoreline just behind Eve's cell.

"Of bloody course," Nate hissed as he knelt at the tracks and the familiar drag of a small jetty which led to the sea.

Maxson had obviously been planning this. There was no other way that he'd have a ready boat here waiting. The only thing he didn't do right was clear the trail behind him although an attempt had been made at that.

Nate practically growled. Idiot boy he thought. Maxson's young age was starting to show. He could have come to Nate and told him his plan. He would have helped. But who could the boy trust in the Brotherhood when you considered everything which had only recently been revealed? Nate knew the answer that Arthur had come to.

Eve.

Maxson trusted Eve and now he was helping her escape while his chapter thought he was off wandering the surrounds to clear his head.

After quickly scanning the far coast, Nate took a best guess at where his Elder would go with an unconscious Eve and headed for the ruins of the General Atomics factory he could just about make out on the distant and dark shoreline.

The swim was long, hard and cold. Nate couldn't feel his hands as he emerged from the waters.

His guess was pretty good he mused after spotting a small battered boat that appeared to have been recently scuttled and now only partially protruded from the shallower waters.

Nate had to think about this. Maxson would lay low until the initial search had eased off. He knew how the Brotherhood mechanisms worked. Hell, he'd built them in the first place.

The large factories themselves were a write-off. Too big and bulky. Too obvious.

But... just to the south-west was the brewery normally staffed with super mutants. The Brotherhood would not normally think to check there as why would anyone choose to take on the normal residents as they attempted an escape.

Nate stepped up his pace, desperate to fight off the cold that was seeping into his bones.

The cloudless night sky didn't help him keep warm. It also didn't help that the Gwinnett Brewery had recently been heavily decorated by the mutants who'd lived there with the leftovers of their hapless victims which caused a very different type of chill to run through him.

One thing that Nate agreed on with Maxson was their extermination alongside raiders and ghouls. Not all ghouls he mused to himself. But they all turn eventually Nate thought darkly. Even Hancock one day would start to lose his mind. Or at least it was assumed.

They had talked about it once. Hancock, during a particularly somber talk, had asked that if it happened during Nate's lifetime would he be the one to put him out of his mindless misery. He'd agreed to the task. This was of course before he'd found his place with the Brotherhood and with it had come the many disagreements he had with Hancock.

The brewery had one lone mutant apparently standing as a sentry when he arrived. A few minutes of watching caused Nate to believe that it was not as it seemed. The mutant didn't move. He could hear disjointed talking but no movement.

A few minutes of watching caused Nate to believe that it was not as it seemed. The mutant didn't move. He could hear disjointed talking but no movement.

He stepped closer and found the creature dead. It had been propped up against a chair and railing to appear alive. By its side was a small holotape player that was set to repeat a string of phrases that were clearly meant to be taken as being from the dead super mutant. In the darkness and from a distance, this was enough to dissuade most travellers from investigating.

He stepped inside.

Dead mutants were piled up in most rooms, with some clear burn marks from laser weapons.

Or at least a laser Gatling, Nate thought as he stepped over the heavily damaged body of a mutant overlord.

The trail of dead led to the roof to his surprise. He'd have thought Maxson would have holed up inside the building itself.

He quickly made his way to the roof where he found his quarry.

A small fire crackled in the upper office, it's light carefully shielded from view by large metal sheets which had been dragged into place over what had been large empty windows.

Nate had barely taken a step towards it when the cold press of a gun touched his neck.

"I underestimated you, Sentinel."

"And I completely misread you, Arthur. I'm not here to turn you in. I'm here to help."

The gun wavered before it pulled back. Nate turned around to face Maxson who carefully holster the pistol he never really used. The laser Gatling he'd used to clear the floors below was within easy reach on his back.

"I apologize. For what happened in the prison. I didn't have time to explain."

"And knocking me out was the smart thing?"

Arthur almost shrugged. "The quickest certainly."

"Where's Eve?"

Maxson merely strolled past him and led the way to the small office.

As Nate stepped in after him, he spotted the fire he'd heard contained to one side of the small unit. It lit up the dark within and gave very welcome heat back to Nate's bones.

Just to the other side, Eve was stretched out still asleep. She rested on an old mattress that Maxson had covered over with some sheeting while she herself was in a blanket.

"Not awake yet?"

"She had a heavier dose than you," Maxson replied. "Cade assured me that she'll be awake in few hours."

"Cade, huh?"

Maxson took a seat on a rickety chair next to where Eve slept.

"He is a loyal man. Loyal to the Lyons family and my own."

"I don't doubt since he lied to me about you being off on a walk of the wasteland."

Maxson half-chuckled. "Not strictly a lie."

Nate sank down and sat on the floor not far from the fire. "What's your plan then? Tell me you're not just winging this."

"We're getting to the Commonwealth Brotherhood. Once Eve's awake, she'll take us to them and I'll consider what needs to be done with Elder Lyons."

"Why did you knock her out at all?" Nate almost laughed.

"She... she was argumentative. Refused to leave with me. I went to Cade afterwards for the tranquilizers."

"Thank god I'm not you because when she's awake you're going to hear about it."

"Heh. I know. Sentinel... you understand why I have to do this?"

Nate shrugged. "The Brotherhood you have been part of and thought you knew is not what you thought it was. What you'd believed it was. And they tried to kill someone you loved. I murdered the man who took my wife and son from me. I'm more surprised you've kept your cool as much as you have."

Maxson stared at him in surprise before he nodded carefully.

"Thank you."

"For?"

"Tolerating my bullshit as Eve has said on numerous occasions."

Nate started to laugh. "Well, I'll wait until Eve wakes up to hear her say it in person. What time do we move out?"

"Hopefully before dawn. Once Eve is back on her feet, we'll make our move."