Missing in Action 23) Charlie Foxtrot, Andromache
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"Grandma made this for you, Becky."
Kana accepted the poncho from Lily's leathery hands and put it on. The bighorner wool reached almost to her knees and took the edge off the biting chill that had swept over Jacobstown in the morning, ushering in more orange clouds from the Divide.
Ashton and New Hopeville, once. Her home. She basked in the nostalgia for a moment, then focused on the gift and the kind nightkin's expectant expression.
"Don't you like it, dearie? Grandma tried to make it just like your friend's."
Kana's lips twitched at the thought of what he would say. The color and pattern were completely off.
"It's just what I needed, grandma." She sat back down on the bench the two of them shared under Jacobstown's billboard, the best spot to observe the main gate and the road. "How's Leo doing these days?"
Lily huffed, already hooking a new strand of yarn into a hook with a steady hand Kana always envied. 'Especially now.' She carefully flexed her stiff right hand and watched the paler scar tissue from the electrical burn stretch. She wore her Pip-Boy on her left now, the limb still too tender to support the extra weight.
"That bad boy's been quiet, dearie, but he's angry with the people who've hurt Becky. Very angry." Lily nodded. "Grandma is too."
Kana studied her. As she created stitch after stitch, Lily began to hum a tune and pop her lips. The nightkin showed none of the signs of snapping into her alter-ego Calamity had instructed her about in the previous week, during her rehab sessions.
"Dr. Henry's treatment makes the tells more obvious, but be careful with her," the ghoul jack-of-all-trades had warned her repeatedly, "There's only so much it can do, and Leo was always a tough cookie."
"Thanks for coming, grandma. It means a lot."
"Grandma misses little Jimmy too, Becky," Lily said, squeezing her shoulder gingerly.
Kana gave the hand a squeeze and returned to her vigil as Jacobstown bustled with activity around her. The click-clack of Lily's knitting rhymed with the hammering and hissing from the forges and ammo presses spitting out gear and the armored plates that went to reinforce Jacobstown's perimeter.
She spotted Marcus on his rounds a couple of times, either Neil or Keene always beside him. What little of him she saw these days, he was always wearing Paladin Jacob's power armor, and today was no different. She waved, but he didn't stop. Kana sighed.
'Big boy's still sulking.' Marcus had been beyond annoyed at her since Lily said she'd come along. Her reassurances that it was only until Westside came within view, and that she'd send the nightkin back at the first sign of an NCR patrol, assuaged him little.
It probably had to do with her accepting the dog's offer as soon as she could trudge out of the gates without collapsing first.
'By the time I'm back, he'll be over it,´ she told herself. He always was.
"Someone's coming, dearie," Lily said, tilting her head. "Maybe it's your friends?"
Kana stood, wincing when her sides complained, and squinted at the road as she trudged to the gate. Two figures were cresting the last rise then, one of them a beanpole of a man with combed blond hair and wearing a familiar white coat. Kana's surprise turned into worry as the tall man stopped in his tracks, while the shorter woman started jogging to the gate.
'What are they doing here?'
The super mutants on watch levelled their HMGs at the newcomers. The younger woman wearing abused Vault blues and a fitting flight jacket didn't seem to notice. She waved her flight officer cap, shouting.
"Boss! Boss, it's me -" she trailed off, freezing as she finally noticed the sentinels. "Huh, could you please, you know, lower them? Lommy? Theodore? It's me, Janet! You haven't forgotten 'bout me yet, right?"
"Sorry, girl," Theodore drawled back. "We got our orders. Nobody gets in without Marcus's leave."
Kana rolled her eyes and trudged through the gates, ignoring the two mutants' looks. The road sloped a little, slippery with snow half-melted by the previous night's rain, but if she let that daunt her, she'd never make the trip to Westside.
"Arcade, stop playing the scarecrow and get down here!" she shouted at her fellow Follower, still standing a ways back. "They won't shoot you."
"Forgive me if I doubt that!" the tall man answered. She chuckled. It had been too long since she heard him shout at her. "I'm very comfortable up here, thank you very much."
"They could still hit you if they wanted," she said, before turning to her former employee, who was trying and failing to get a word in. "Janet, why are you here? Where's Jack?"
Kana stumbled and almost fell when the younger woman glomped her. "Oh Boss, where have you been? Things have been terrible at Nellis since you were there last! Mother Pearl and Loyal have gone bonkers!"
"I was shot," she said drily. "Can you –" Janet drew back, embarrassed. "What do you mean 'bonkers'?"
Janet wrung out her hat, sneaking glances at the armed mutants. Kana snapped her fingers, even as she kept an eye on Arcade. Christ, he looked ready to bolt. "Eyes on me, Janet. What happened?"
"You – You were late, Boss. Too late. Another caravan delivered the solar panels and spare parts, enough to last the Boomers years, and their boss's been filling Mother Pearl and Loyal's head for weeks with all kinds of ideas about that bomber they all dream about, and they listen to him!" Janet gulped for air, then looked down. "He makes my skin crawl. Raquel's and Jack's too, but Raquel's the loudest voice left against him and Jack couldn't leave Lindsay, so they sent me to find you."
"Did he give a name?"
"He insisted we just call him the Good Man." A chill that had little to do with the temperature shot down Kana's spine. "Boss? You have to come and fix things! You -"
"A short guy in his forties? Sharp features?" Janet nodded, inching back. "Always wears shades?" Another quick nod.
Kana ran a hand down her face. How? How had he known to slip in so quickly?! Where did he even find the solar panels on his side of the Colorado? Contreras's bribe had cost her a metaphorical kidney, and that was nothing compared to shipping the parts up from New Adytum, but she'd covered her tracks!
'Unless –' Kana bit her lip. Had Miguel, Kreger and the other associates of the Westside-Ashton Co-Op sold her parts to his agents, believing her dead and wanting to cut their losses? But how did he know she had any in the first place?
"What's the news?" Marcus asked, startling her. She hadn't heard him approach. At the gate, Theodore and Lommy held their machineguns across their chest. "Janet, long time no see. Kana?"
"Inculta has the ear of the Boomers," she whispered. The math ran in her head as Marcus cursed softly. It'd have taken Janet at least a week to get to Jacobstown, and that was only if she already knew where to find her. Probably much longer then, depending on when she met Arcade. Was Raquel even still alive at this point, or had she suffered a tragic accident? Was there any chance to turn things around?
"I need to go," she said, trudging back to the town and berating herself even as familiar words justifying yet another delay started to pop up in her mind. 'I can stop on the way to Nellis. Let 'em know I'm alive and see David. Just for a few hours.' Marcus's arm barred her way. "What?"
"You're in no condition to make that trip. Nellis is too far."
"I'll take breaks if I have to. I'll have Arcade, and Janet, and Lily can carry me." 'And the dog too, hopefully.' She met his beady eyes, refusing to walk around the arm. "There's no time for this, Marcus. The Boomers sit on the largest depot of explosives and artillery in the Mojave. He can't have it. He can't."
She was fastening the holster with Albert's old .223 pistol under her poncho, spreading the weight away from her wound, when someone knocked at the door of the bungalow she used as emergency storage for her caravan.
Arcade strode in, peering over his shoulder, and quickly shut the door behind him. His chiseled, handsome face sported a few new lines and shadows, and he looked like he'd lost some weight.
"I think I'll never get used to so many muties in one place," he breathed out, straightening. "So, Thanatos has come knocking on your door again? How are you feeling?"
She bit back her first response, checking she'd put everything in her sling pack instead. "Better every day. Did you get my letter?"
"I woke up with that dog slobbering all over my face. In my tent. At the Fort. My God, he stank." Arcade huffed, pacing, the floor creaking slightly with every step. He wasn't looking at her. "I asked around for a bit before they started to look at me oddly, and nobody saw a dog with gigantism. Red Lucy had it happen in her bedroom, while she had company. She wasn't thrilled. I haven't heard from Raul, but I assume he got it too." He took off his glasses, wiping them furiously. "Another one of your friends from the Divide?"
"Later." She waited, but he busied himself with those damned glasses. "Does Julie know you're here?"
"Oh, the new Auto-Docs can fill in for me, and have better bedside manners. Julie has fallen in bed with Lucifer. She'll barely notice I'm gone." At her quizzical look, he elaborated. "Mr. House made her an offer she could have refused but didn't. It's a long story, and there'll be plenty of time on the return trip, so -"
"Arcade?" Something flickered across his face. She recognized that expression and her guts became one burning knot. He had it every time he had to speak to the relatives of a deceased patient. "Arcade, how's David?"
He ran a hand through his hair. "You better sit for this." She didn't want to, but complied, his tone striking old strings from back when she was a freshman just out of Tibbets' and he the youngest student tutor at the Boneyard University. He put his backpack on the ground and dug around inside.
She could tell he found what he was searching for when he hesitated. Kana's heart skipped a beat when he produced a stuffed animal.
Mr. Rawr was a misshapen thing abused from being dragged around for too long. Once upon a time, it may have resembled a deathclaw, or so her husband insisted. She'd added a new patch every time she stopped by at La Casa Madrid.
She couldn't remember David without it, even when he was just a mewling newborn.
She stared at it, her shaking hands were numb as they dug into the threadbare terrycloth. "Tell me."
"Sarah tucked him into bed one night. The next morning, he'd disappeared."
"A four year old doesn't disappear. He was taken. They took him." She met his gaze and what she saw made her stomach fall. "How long?"
"Just before I left, a couple of days after the dog did his rounds." She bit down on her knuckles, teeth drawing blood. Arcade grabbed her wrist, forcing her to look up again. "Kana, Red Lucy has her best hunters on it."
"… But?"
He sighed and produced a folded slip of paper from his pocket. Someone had crumpled it and then smoothed it out again, several times. The words were still legible in a neat calligraphy.
"It's striking how much your baby boy resembles his father.
For old times' sake, he'll remain on your side of the Colorado until the Saturnalia celebrations begin.
Your dear friend,
A Good Man."
Her vision swam and blurred, no matter how she tried to blink it furiously into focus. It felt like blades were carving her heart out.
The Legion had her son. Vulpes had taken him. Put a collar around his neck and a crimson cross on his clothes. He - He'd be punished every time he cried, but he would continue because he didn't understand, because he was terrified of new places he couldn't comprehend, so they'd punish him again. And again. But they'd keep him alive until Saturnalia, and then -
Arcade was shaking her, his voice soft. " –hunters will find him. They'll bring him back."
"No, they won't find him. Not in time," she said, the certainty physically more painful than any wound. It was enough to get her on her feet, Mr. Rawr in a death grip. "It's my son. Vulpes wants me to come looking." 'And leave him free to advance his plans undisturbed. Goddamnit!'
"Kana –"
"He said Saturnalia." Her voice shook as she tied Mr. Rawr to her belt and grabbed her sling pack. "T-That's in less than a month from now. You know how the celebrations begin."
Arcade's eyes widened, the floorboard creaking as he hurried after her. "The Romans sacrificed cattle, not –"
"This is the Legion! You think Caesar cares about historical precedent? Because I'm not betting my son's life on it."
Marcus's last attempt at convincing her to desist met deaf ears. He still had a few more words of advice for her – mostly to steer clear from La Madre mountain and the dog in equal measures – but he didn't keep her long.
She didn't tell him about David's kidnapping. She didn't need his pity now, and he'd made it clear he could offer little help.
As soon as Arcade was done with his quick visit to the main lodge, they hit the mountain road.
Lily led their short column, knitting kit replaced by a super sledge, eyes scanning the early lengthening shadows. The clouds from the Divide rolled above them, threatening rain, and the nightkin had better night vision than any human.
Janet brought up the rear more out of lack of anywhere else to be than choice. Kana felt her staring holes into her back. Her former employee, now happily married to her Boomer sweetheart, was waiting for the answer that'd probably doom her new family and threaten to bury the vision Kana and her husband shared again. Maybe for good this time.
'But what good is it, without David?'
Her recovering body set a pace so frustratingly slow that it took over an hour for Jacobstown to disappear in the forest. Another hour swept by at the same pace, and the dog didn't poke his head out of the shrubbery. It was plenty of time for Kana's thoughts to turn on herself. Janet's unwavering stare didn't help.
What right did she have to write off the Boomers, and all the lives their alliance with the Legion would endanger? Wasn't it her moral duty to act when she could –'Maybe' – still make a difference?
Arcade fell in step with her then, sparing her from having to answer her conscience.
"You can throw your foulest repertoire at me, but I have to ask. How do you know he's telling the truth?" Kana drew in a breath, nearly biting her tongue. Arcade continued after but a moment's hesitation. "Did it cross your mind that he's lying? That, maybe -"
"Don't say it!" she hissed. Lily glanced back, leathery face scowling, but Kana shook her head.
"Then how are you sure?" Arcade whispered after minutes of uncompanionable silence, one eye to the nightkin. "Please, I can't help you if I don't see the whole picture."
She studied her former mentor and oldest friend. 'Can I still trust you?' She didn't voice the question, but the oily guilt didn't silence her doubts, either.
Someone had tattled to Vulpes Inculta: about her deals with the Boomers and about David. The list of those who knew about both was short and Arcade was at the top of it… but Arcade also despised the Legion and what they stood for with a fervor very few could match. That would have to do.
"He said 'For old times' sake'," she explained, picking up the pace a little. Her side and legs complained, but trudging was maddening. "We never shared 'old times'. That's his last mocking jab at my husband."
"Was he -?"
"Our deal, Arcade," she said slowly. "Have I ever asked you more about your father and his old partners?"
"No, you haven't." The minutes crawled by, slower than their snail-like progress. Arcade stole glances at her every so often and then insisted they take a break when she couldn't suppress her labored breathing. Stubbornness and a grip on Mr. Rawr forced her legs to trudge on for another fifteen minutes before she had to surrender to the evidence that two weeks of rehab weren't enough.
Before she could ask Lily to carry her, Arcade had her sitting on a relatively dry patch of ground, back propped against a tree, and she was nursing a bottle of water with dissolved sugar and potassium.
She was halfway through it before he broke the silence.
"Don't take this as a bargaining chip, but I didn't come here just for you. I had to check on Henry. Some of those old friends you mentioned, they've dropped off the map recently, on top of everything else that's happened. He's fine, by the way. The cold is preserving him and his attitude."
"He was one of them?" She'd seen very little of the cagey, obsessive scientist over the years, and technically being his patient didn't change that.
"The connection is tangential, but you could say that, yes," he obfuscated, checking that Janet was out of earshot. The younger woman was sulking by the road, deflecting the sweater Lily tried to force on her with overwhelming concern. When did she even knit that?
'She'd make a stellar grandma.' "And the reason you're telling me now is?"
"Who knows. Maybe because you're the only person I know that won't denounce me to the Office." He ran a hand through his hair, then tilted his head towards La Madre's peak. "Marcus mentioned the trespassers that have him worried?" Kana nodded. "There's one of their bunkers hidden up the mountain's side. A vertibird fueling station that wasn't touched in decades, until half of the old team disappeared. The timing can't be a coincidence."
"Maybe some old timers got together for one last hurrah against the filthy mutants and didn't invite the rest," she offered bitterly, but her thoughts went to the Enclave assassin who stole the Chip and Derek from her. Had he used the bunker as a base, before Mr. House wrapped him around his finger?
She shook her head. Derek, House, Ross, the Nursery. They didn't matter until David was back in her arms.
Arcade gave her an odd look. "There aren't that many of them, and the only one up to it would be Orion Moreno anyway," he huffed. "Last time I saw him, he was so senile he couldn't get past Westside without getting turned around."
Janet yelped then, muffled by the wool sweater tossed into her face. Lily grabbed her super sledge, but to Kana's relief, wasn't about to smash the woman's unappreciative head in.
"Someone's coming, dearie. Stay very close to Grandma."
Arcade was helping her back to her feet when the tall man melted into view. The high-collared coat he wore, complete with matching gloves and thick boots, was a greyish-black hue Kana couldn't quite place and made it hard to distinguish him from his surroundings. For being unarmed – or looking like it - he didn't appear fazed by the straw-hatted hulk of purple muscles barring his approach.
He was smiling, the expression slightly off on his handsome face. His eyes zeroed on Kana.
"Good afternoon. My name is Harkness. Doctor Delgado, Doctor Gannon, my master would like a word with you. This way, please."
Kana blinked. Arcade looked as flabbergasted as she felt.
"Yeah, no, we'll pass," Arcade said, fishing for words. "Thank you."
Harkness made a come-hither gesture with his finger. "This doesn't need to get complicated. In fact, it'd be in your best interest to comply quickly, Doctor Gannon."
Snow crunched underfoot from deeper into the forest around them. A branch snapped, and Kana caught a flicker of pale movement in the corner of her eye. Janet was looking at her, the younger woman torn between confusion and terror.
"Run," Kana mouthed.
She didn't know if Arcade heard them too. Like hers, his hand was inching to the plasma defender under his coat. "Care to enlighten me?"
"Orion Moreno's health has taken a turn for the worse recently," Harkness said. "A stubborn relic. We are also currently lacking in doctors willing to look after a former Enclave soldier."
"You're the bad boy that hurt Becky," Lily growled, her voice deepening.
"No Lily, stop! He's not him!"
Harkness barely glanced at Lily, his posture relaxed. "Keep the leash on your pet, Doctor Delgado."
"Don't call her that!" Kana snapped, reaching out as if to grab Lily. Janet was edging away, ashen-faced, lips trembling. Men in pale, chrome armor and full helmets she didn't recognize stood like statues among the trees or kneeled. All had blocky, white energy rifles aimed at them. "Lily, stay calm! Everything's alright! They just want to talk to us! Talk!"
Lily shifted her grip on the super sledge, her head turning with her beady eyes, trunk-like legs coiled to spring. Kana started to raise her hands, palms spread out, urging Arcade to do the same with a look.
"See? It's all good." She looked at Harkness then, but he didn't put a word in. If anything, he looked mildly curious, arms folded behind his back. "Put it down, Lily. Please."
Heavy steps crunched the thin snow behind her and a freezing hand grabbed her gun-arm, twisting it painfully. Kana gasped and grabbed at it only to feel cold metal joints under her fingers. Another chilly hand grabbed her under the armpit, nearly lifting her off her feet.
"Let go of Becky, Tin-Men!"
Blue laser beams lit up the gloom. Janet screamed, Arcade threw himself to the ground, shielding his head, but Kana could only watch as Lily – no, Leo roared, charging to the rescue. Lasers tore into him before he took three loping steps, burning and carving and melting.
Leo stumbled to a knee, face a rictus of rage, legs a scorched mess. He was so close Kana could touch him, if only she weren't pinned. Then Harkness was in the nightkin's face. A blue light flashed and hissed. Purple hands dropped into the steaming snow, taking the super sledge with them.
Lily was back, staring blearily at her cauterized wrists.
"Grandma only wanted to –" The blue light flashed again as Harkness's wrist flickered. Lily's bald head rolled off her neck, but her body remained upright.
Kana choked down a scream, but another hand seized her by the back of her head like a vise. They forced her down on her knees as more grabbed at Arcade. Another figure in white knelt stiffly in front of her to remove her gun, ammo belt, and Mr. Rawr, patting her down with methodic precision.
Up close, the pale clothes under their armor turned out to be plastic and ceramics. Behind the eye-slits of their helmet were spinning eyes of an unnatural electrical blue.
Harkness toppled Lily's headless corpse with a light push.
"I told you not to make things complicated. Make the bodies disappear," he said. Four of the white machines hauled Lily's body and head past her and into the forest. His words only registered when another machine passed by, dragging Janet by an arm. The other, and anything below her belly, were gone.
Kana bit the inside of her cheek until it bled, staring at the steaming, blackened track in the snow as the machine vanished into the forest with the young woman.
She knew better than to ask why. The coldness in Harkness's eyes was eerily familiar.
'They are acceptable collateral damage,' she recalled starkly from another life. 'Don't lose sight of the objective. Again.'
"Who are you?" she spat out at his back.
"The true Legacy," he said. Her heart jumped up in her throat. "Come now. The other should arrive soon."