Ch#25 Behind closed doors
"Finally!" Sarah exclaimed as she fell back onto the bed after shedding the flight suit, harness, and the 'G-suit' harness that was strapped around her waist and legs. It hadn't been more than 5 hours since she had put it on this morning but, it felt so good to be free of it.
"While it is true that I prefer you with less clothes, we have to get dressed to go down and me my dad and Dr. Lee." Michael said, running his gaze over her bare legs hungrily. Despite having made love multiple times the night previously, the young man couldn't help but feel his body stirring once again.
They didn't have much time to spare. Michael had agreed to meet his father and the doctor this morning, but now the morning was bleeding into the afternoon. So, he tore his eyes away from the enticing sight and started to dawn his own clothing and armor once again.
"Plus, we probably have to check in at the Citadel soon; make sure they know we aren't dead or something." He stated, only getting a groan in response. Once he had his pants on, he grabbed the note out of his coat that her father had left on her desk the night they had left.
He held it out for her to grab, but she just looked at it.
"Sarah, I know this is hard but, I know you still care about him." He told her quietly. "Your dad loves you; even if he is a little too overprotective."
Sarah let out a resigned sigh and took the note. She had been very aware of his lingering gaze and was purposefully trying to entice him into bed once again. But, instead, she now had to deal with complicated thoughts and emotions that she would rather not have to dwell on.
Michael kissed her on the cheek and went back to getting dressed.
"By the way, what was it that that guy wanted you to do for him?" Sarah asked while she got dressed.
"Oh, Elliot?" He asked pulling on his pack with his rifle securely strapped the the side. "He just…wanted some help with something personal once spring rolled around; no big deal or anything. Nothing to worry about. You ready?"
Sarah looked around for anything she had forgotten but found nothing, so she nodded and followed him down and then back onto the flight deck. For the moment the clouds were holding back, allowing for the sun to warm them both. Her stomach pitched violently when she stared down over the edge at the climb they were going to have to make to get back to the market.
"Don't worry, Sarah." Michael said with a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be with you the whole way."
And true to his word, her boyfriend was with her the whole way down— laughing his ass off. She continually promised to get her recompense once she was back on solid ground. Once they stepped back into the market she took a few swings at him but he was able to swiftly dodge out of the way and dart into the crowd.
She felt the queasiness from the climb starting to subside as she darted into the crowd after him. They chased each other like school children before something caught Michael's eye.
An older man in a suit and tie walked through the milling late morning crowd, scanning the faces— He was searching for someone. Specifically what caught Michael's attention was the large emotionless bodyguard that followed close in his wake. The way the bodyguard moved as he walked and scanned the crowd, touched another memory in his mind from yesterday and another day— farther in the recent past.
He would have continued to look but, when he switched his eyes back to the older man their gazes locked for a moment. Trying not to look like he was observing them, Michael continued to look around the crowd casually— pretending their eyes meeting was just random. By that time, Sarah had caught up with him and delivered a playful punch to his shoulder.
Michael swiftly grabbed her hand and started weaving through the crowd with her. She followed along, sensing the change in his attitude.
"Don't look around. Just keep moving and act normal." Michael said, loud enough for her to hear.
—
After another 10 minutes of weaving through the crowd, darting through stores, and acting naturally while moving locations rapidly— the young couple ducked into a passage way that lead away from the market and towards the medical bay and research lab. Michael changed their direction a few times and did circular routes through the same areas to make sure no one was following them before finally ending up outside the research lab.
As soon as they entered, they found an empty room. Sarah glanced back at the shut door and then to him.
"What was that about?" She asked, still not sure who they were evading.
"Just attracted the attention of someone who could be troublesome. I prefer they don't know anything about us or why we are here or that we're associated with Dr. Lee." He said, walking deeper into the empty lab.
"Who was it? an old enemy or something?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"Nope."
"Then how do you know they'd be troublesome?"
"Just a feeling." He said, turning his head to the side and concentrating on his senses. "Hey…do you hear that?"
"No?" Sarah said, cocking her head to the side as well to try and catch whatever it was. "What am I supposed to be hearing?"
"Voices…whispering or something." He said, walking further into the room to try and chase after the faint noises he heard. He opened a door along the side of the lab and directed Sarah to do the same. "I think I hear my dad and Dr. Lee's voices but they are faint. They might be in one of these rooms off the main lab."
"Got it." Sarah said, going to the opposite side of the room to open a door he hadn't yet. Once she saw it was just a storage room she close it and looked around. Michael was opening another door and listening for the sound he had been chasing. The Sentinel spotted a doorway at the end of a walkway that was at the top of some stairs and went along the wall of the room, so she climbed the stairs and moved towards it.
When she finally got closer she heard faint noises herself.
"Hey, Michael I think this is it." She called down to him as she cranked the handle and whipped open the door quickly— only to freeze abruptly in place.
"S-sarah?! what are yo—"
Sarah slammed the door shut with so much force the sound reverberated through the room for a moment while her face burned brighter than the sun and she picked her jaw up off the ground. She turned on her heel and walked rapidly away from the door before she ran into Michael who had been coming up the stairs.
"Hey, what's going on?" He asked. "That was my dad's voice wasn't it?"
"That— I saw them…they were, uh…busy?" She finally managed to mumble out, while looking everywhere in the room but at him.
'I really shouldn't be that surprised— they are related after all.' She thought to herself as her mind processed what she had seen.
Michael just looked at her, totally lost. However, any confusion he had was cleared up when he heard the door open again to admit two red faced and slightly disheveled looking doctors into the lab.
"Oh…"
—
The four of them stood facing each other, eyes either stuck to the floor or darting to their partner. Dr. Lee and James' kiss bitten lips and ruffled appearances were more than enough evidence of what they had been doing in the room when Sarah had opened the door. Sarah was still red as an irradiated tomato with her eyes glued to the floor.
"I suppose now would be the best time to say: welcome back Leo!" Dr. Lee said, attempting to push away the awkward tension in the room. "I can't believe you actually found James after all this time; you have my utmost thanks. I—We would be lost without James."
"No need for thanks." He stated, sounding slightly dismissive. "I had my own reasons for finding him."
"Y-yes, of course…" She said hesitantly, before turning to Sarah. "Hello Miss Lyons, it has been sometime since we last met. It's good to see you are doing well. How has your father been doing?"
"He's, uh— he's fine." Sarah responded, really not wanting to add more complicated things into the complex array of thoughts pinging around her head at the moment.
Sensing the attempt to start a conversation had failed James pushed through to concentrate them on a common subject. "Well, now that Madison and I have had the chance to speak once again— I think it's time to address Project Purity once again."
"I…I don't know, James. So many years have passed. Is it really still worth trying?" Dr. Lee asked.
"How could it not be worth improving the lives of everyone in the Wasteland? What could be a more worthy endeavor?"
"You certainly haven't lost any of your passion, have you James." She replied making him smirk slightly as something else came to mind.
"No I haven't." He then got more serious, once again. "It's as important to me as ever, Madison. I know it's important to you too." He stepped closer to her and took her hands in his. "Let's finish this together."
"James, I…" The female doctor blushed and looked away slightly. "We don't even have a G.E.C.K. I might be able to get a small team together, but we'll need proof that it works before people believe us."
"I know, I was thinking about that. The lab at the facility had some pre-war computers that we scavenged. One of them might be useful."
"From the last reports, there's no power at the facility. Even if one of those computers had a database, we couldn't access it."
"That's why we are going to go there and get things set up and running as best we can, once again." James said confidently. Dr. Lee deflated slightly and looked away again, knowing that because of his absence he didn't know what the current state of the Jefferson memorial.
"Good luck with that." Michael stated bluntly. The young man leaned against a locker nearby. "The whole place is now the property of a clan of Supermutants."
His father looked at him with wide eyes and then back to Madison for confirmation.
"It's true." She said, nodding her head. "No one has been able to get close to the monument since those monsters moved into the neighborhood— well, except for Michael."
"Well, if he got in there before we can—" James stared before his son interrupted him.
"Not gonna happen." Michael interrupted, already knowing what his father was purposing. "The only reason I got in there was because I had Sarah watching my back with a gatling-laser, half a ton of power armor, and most of the mutants had left on some kind of raiding party. And that only gave us a couple of hours inside before they came back and chased us through half of D.C. You aren't going to be able to take that place back, and be able to keep it, without some major firepower."
"Can't you just call in back up?" James asked Sarah hopefully.
"That isn't something I can do." She stated firmly. "Risking my own life to watch Michael's back is a different issue entirely than what your talking about. Assaulting and then holding the Jefferson Memorial would take a significant amount of resources— I couldn't do that with out the council's approval. We are in the middle of expanding into the wasteland as it is; as well as trying to eliminate the slave trade."
Seeing James and Dr. Lee both deflated slightly Sarah added: "We have a location on the center of operations for slavers in the Capital Wasteland now, thanks to Michael, so perhaps it won't be too long until we can take care of it."
"We can start putting a team together and working on what we can from here and putting together a proposal for the council." James said, looking at Madison with a hopeful expression.
"Then, I guess we better head back to the Citadel and get to work." Michael said, before hearing the noise of the door opening and admitting an older man in a suit and a large bodyguard into the lab. "Shit." he whispered under his breath.
—
"You there!" The older man said, locking eyes with Leo before he could pull Sarah towards the marketplace once they were out of the lab. "I saw you in the market place a little while ago. What are you, some sort of lab assistants? No, you look a bit more…weathered."
The stone faced bodyguard behind the older man remained silent and menacing with his eyes locked on Leo.
"You have a problem with the way I look?" Leo asked, shifting to face the older man while partially putting his body in-between them and Sarah. The hallway was tight; no room to maneuver. Assaulting forward with overwhelming force would be the only plausible option if things went south.
"No, no just wondering if you two…might be for hire." The man said, seemingly friendly in his tone. "What with the coordinating outfits and coming out of a meeting with Dr. Lee— I'd venture to guess you two are a team looking for work. I just happen to have a well paying job that you might be interested in. My name is Dr. Zimmer, by the way, I am new in to—"
"What's the job?" Sarah asked as she poked her face from behind her lover's large frame before he could say they weren't for hire.
"To the point. I like that. Well, as it turns out, I've misplaced some very sensitive "property." Zimmer explained, as Leo directed a quick glare at Sarah before looking back to the doctor and his bodyguard. With a sigh, he resigned himself to playing the role of mercenary.
"Cut to the chase, Zimmer." He stated gruffly. "What's the job?"
Zimmer's face twitched subtly but, he stayed friendly in his attitude.
"You'll be searching for an android!" A few things that had been bothering Leo earlier finally connect and cascaded into a realization. He kept his face neutral and his eyes locked onto Zimmer. "Do you know what an android is? No, I imagine you don't. All you know of robots are those buckets of bolts— those Mr. Handshakers and whatnot. Well, that's not ALL a robot can be! Not in the Commonwealth."
Sarah perked up slightly when she heard the name of the territory to the north.
"I'm talking about artificial persons, that think and feel and do what we program them to. And…occasionally they get confused and wander off." Zimmer explained.
"So your android got lost and now you want us to find it?" Leo asked, cutting to the chase once again.
"Yes, I've tracked him this far. He's out there, somewhere. In the Capital Wasteland. He must have done something drastic, like facial surgery and a mind wipe, or else I would have found him by now. It will be no easy task. He may not even realize he's an android. Don't be upset by talking with him. Just come get me immediately. I'll handle it."
"We are a bit busy at the moment with some other jobs, but if we find this android I'm guessing we will be paid on deliver to you— correct?" Leo asked. "What's the reward?"
"Why yes, that would be up for you to decide." Zimmer said, a faint smile coming across his face. Leo caught a slight movement of the older man's eyes to the patch on his shoulder. "A large amount of caps and some of the most advanced technology from the Commonwealth that I have at my disposal. Do those things intrigue you?"
Sarah was obviously interested and failed to hide it on her face, so now Leo felt committed.
"Yes, I would say we are very intrigued. Where will we be able to find you once we have the android or information on his whereabouts?"
"I will be here in Rivet City." Leo nodded and started to back away before the doctor added, "Here, listen to this message he sent me once you get the chance. He's mocking me. I swear I'll make him pay for that."
Leo nodded again and took the holotape before turning away and pushing Sarah down the hall away from the doctor.
—
"The Institute?"
"Yeah, that's what their called." Michael said, as He and Sarah walked through the ruins of D.C. "At least that's what I heard from the rumors. They're dangerous as well judging by the android he had with him."
"Huh?" Sarah said in momentary confusion. "I didn't see…Oh!"
"Yeah, that bodyguard was a prime example of how dangerous they are. Creating robots so realistic even the robot thinks it's human. Infiltrating almost any organization would be easy." Sarah looked up at Michael with slight panic in her eyes as she realized a sudden possibility, but he answered her before she had a chance to voice the thought. "Don't worry, The Brotherhood is probably safe for now. He didn't seem to have any specifics other than the general knowledge of what out symbol looks like and that the Brotherhood is interested in advanced tech. Also, with how isolated the Brotherhood is from everyone else, it would be pretty difficult to slip an android under their control inside."
"How good do you think those things would be in a fight?" Sarah asked.
"From what I have seen of androids thus far, I'd venture to guess, they are easily stronger and faster than regular humans, probably me as well."
"Androids…you've seen other androids? How did you run into those, on some crazy Lone Wanderer adventure?" Sarah said with a laugh as they crossed the bridge over the river.
"Nope, I didn't know exactly what they were until that guy started talking about them. Just had an feeling like something was off about them." He explained. "The way they moved, what their voice sounded like, what they smelled like— I just felt something was…off. It's hard to describe."
"You know, the more I hear you talk about your enhanced senses, the more you sound like a dog." She whispered with a smirk as they hid behind a pile of rubble and watched a squad of talon mercs moving along an intersecting street.
"I guess that confirms you didn't get the same feeling I did with them."
He smirked when she whipped her head to look at him.
"I've met them?!"
"Yup." Michael said simply, taking aim at the talon merc who was now motioning his comrades down the street towards the duo's hiding place after Sarah's outburst. "Both of them actually."
.