There was more to the Sierra Madre than Chloe had initially realized. Between the terminal entries she'd read in the Villa and what Elijah and Dean had told her Chloe felt like she almost had all the pieces of the Sierra Madre puzzle. A man beleaguered by a decade of setbacks and losses who decided to build a casino to reverse his fortunes and begin again, and to offer the same to all who came to its doors. The vending machine technology was extremely impressive, with the ability to solve all of the Wasteland's shortages. No more hunger, no more thirst, if the technology used for the machines could be replicated.

Of course, Chloe left that to whoever would come after. Elijah had hinted that he was most interested in the vending machines, and that whatever was in the vault was beneath him. That is, unless the vault held the key to the secrets of the vending machine technology, which Elijah seemed to think so. All that remained was getting inside.

To that end Elijah had directed her to investigate the casino and look for any keys or passwords she could find. According to some floorplans Elijah had seen the elevator to the vault was in the hotel suites at the top of the building, hidden somewhere in one of the rooms. As the casino was too big for just one person to search he'd offered to search the rest of the Casino and kitchen areas, while she was to find Jackson and enlist his help in finding the casino's security office.

Seeing as how Chloe hadn't seen Jackson since they first arrived in the casino she decided to search the one area she hadn't checked yet, the Theater. She walked out into the lobby and followed the curved stairs up to the second floor, noticing the beautiful green door with 'Suites' written above it. Directly ahead was the hall to the Theater, and she stepped into it. The wall was lined with posters advertising shows and performances that had never happened. Danny Parker and his Modern Jazz Group, Ali-Din Magician and Illusionist, and...

Dean Domino, the King of Swing. Chloe stood in front of the poster for a few minutes, admiring the portrait of the man before he had been turned into a ghoul. Chloe shook her head and reminded herself that cutting him out of the heist was for the best. A man who couldn't die could find fortune elsewhere. She needed what was in the Sierra Madre to escape to the East, to get away from the wars of the Mojave and... Begin again.

She pushed open the door to the theater and passed through the lobby. The double doors leading into The Tampico, as it was called, were locked, and so she went left. There was a hologram across the room, standing by the stairs, and Chloe hoped she wouldn't have to sneak by him.

She turned left and saw it. Above the stage, suspended over it, were the words 'Dean Domino' in neon. She walked down the stairs to the main floor of the lounge and proceeded around the bend to an open door. She peeked around a doorframe to the left and saw Jackson standing by the curtain, probably preparing to ambush her. She pulled out her .45 Auto and racked the slide.

"Freeze."

Jackson put up his hands. "Damn it. Maybe one day we'll meet each other without having to reach for our guns" he said, and turned around. Chloe lowered the .45 and Jackson crossed his arms.

"Hopefully after today we'll never see each other again. I found Elijah, he said we're almost done. There's just one more thing we have to do" she said.

"And what is that?"

"Find the key to the vault's elevator. The elevator is somewhere in the Suites, at the top of the building. He wants the two of us to search for the elevator's key, while he does the same. I figure we'll check the Suites together and see if it's up there, and if not we can split up and look for it separately" Chloe explained.

Jackson seemed to think about it for a moment before he nodded. "Fine. I was already up there, but I didn't see any elevators besides the one that brought me down here. Didn't see any keys, either, but I wasn't looking. Let's go."

Chloe stepped back and allowed Jackson to walk past her. She joined him and the two of them snuck back through The Tampico to the doors back to the lobby, heading straight for the elevator to the Suites. Thankfully the elevator was big enough for the two of them, and after a few minutes they arrived.

"You woke up here? Lucky you. I woke up on the floor of the kitchen. Sexist security system clearly thought that's where I belonged" Chloe said, and Jackson scoffed.

"How could a security system be sexist? You've been spending too much time in the Cloud."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Which way?"

Jackson gestured down the hall to the right. "I woke up in a security office, maybe that's what we're looking for" he said, and walked down the hall. Chloe followed him all the way to the end and around the corner, the door at the end open. Chloe looked around, noticing the Hunting Shotgun on the shelf. Her Single Shotgun would suffice for now.

There was a terminal on the desk, and Chloe walked over to it. Much to her frustration it was locked, and she huffed in annoyance. "Can't believe neither of us knows how to crack one of these stupid things." She turned around and looked around the room, Jackson sitting on one of the benches. "Alright, let's keep looking."

Together they left the security room and retraced their steps back to the elevator. Opposite the door to the elevator was a utility and laundry room, the shelves packed with miscellaneous tools and junk. Detergent, cleaners, spare pilot lights for the casino's stoves and ovens, duct tape, wrenches, hammers, Wonderglue. There was a terminal to the left of the door, and Chloe took a look.

'Notes on Emergency Protocols

Been reading this over: "in the event of a fire, chemical leak, nuclear attack, or other threat to the casino, the interior and exterior doors will be hermetically sealed to prevent harm coming to the guests. During this time, Holograms will be deployed and assume threat status until the lockdown is ended."

Guess can't be too careful these days. Still, what if there was another leak at the switching station? Not to mention the gas valves in the kitchen. If those got hit, the whole casino's a torch.'

Chloe stood and looked at the other terminal, but it was locked. She turned around and saw Jackson by the back door, looking up and down the hall. She joined him and they walked across the hall to ransacked kitchen, the floor an absolute mess. They took a right and left the kitchen, a vending machine in an alcove across the hall. To the right was a hotel room, a hologram patrolling it, so they went left.

"Guess we found the master suite" Chloe said, and Jackson said. They pushed open the double doors, the room inside nothing short of impressive. The windows, thankfully still intact, we're completely shrouded in the Cloud, blocking the view outside, but Chloe could imagine that it was amazing. There was a terminal on the wall to the left, behind a bar, and she approached. The terminal was blank, but the door next to it was open.

Chloe peeked into the room and saw it. In the corner, partially hidden by a red curtain, was the elevator. She walked over to it and looked it over. There was no panel, just an intercom and junction box. She frowned and looked the junction box over, finding nothing out of place. "Damn..."

"Now what?"

"It's voice activated. Whatever the password is, it's literally a password. A phrase or statement that has to be spoken before the doors will open. Maybe..." Chloe said, and trailed off. She pressed the key to the intercom. "Begin again."

Nothing happened.

"Well, it was worth a shot" she said. There was a safe in the wall, but it too was locked. "Maybe the password's inside the safe."

"Maybe."

She was about to suggest they head back down to the lobby and split up when she heard footsteps in the room. She turned around and saw Elijah, Gauss Rifle in hand. "Any luck so far?"

"The elevator's got a voice-activated lock. The password's some kind of phrase, so that's what we're looking for" Chloe said, and Elijah nodded. He stepped past Chloe and checked the intercom out for himself before turning back.

"Figures. Pre-War junk. Very well, we'll have to split up" Elijah said, and left. Chloe looked at Jackson, who just looked back at her. He took off at a brisk pace, leaving her alone in the room. She searched it high and low, checking every desk, cabinet, and shelf she came across, and aside from a Big Book of Science on the bookshelf* there was nothing in the main room.

She turned the knob to the bedroom and pushed it open, shocked by what she saw. Written on the wall were the words 'LET GO' and the skeleton of a woman sat in a chair, clad in a stunningly beautiful dress, empty needles all around her. The room actually had an Auto-Doc of all things, and the dresser had a holotape in it. Vera Keyes' Audition. There was no way to play the tape, so Chloe put it back.

She stared forlornly at the woman in the corner before gently closing the door and heading back out to the hall, closing the door to the master suite behind her. The hall stretched on to the right, so Chloe decided she'd take a look before heading back to the lobby. The hall branched to the left ahead, the hall there collapsed. There was a skeleton on the floor, Police Pistol in hand, and Chloe couldn't tell if the holograms had got him or if it was suicide. Just another one of the Madre's mysteries.

She moved on and entered the hotel room at the end of the hall, the bedroom door shrouded in Cloud. The path was a dead end, so she headed back the other way, past the master suite, and back through the kitchen and laundry room. She went left and made her way back to the security office.

With the terminal locked and no way into it, there was no way to shut off the holograms, so she ignored it and searched the lockers and armory, coming up empty. Between the .45 Auto and the Single Shotgun she was set, especially since there were no Ghost People around.

Pulling out the .45 Auto Pistol and walking back through the halls Chloe headed for the elevator, and took it down to the lobby. The casino's main floor wasn't that large, but she hadn't searched all of it yet. The elevator arrived at the lobby and she took the stairs back down to the main Casino area. There was a hologram on the lower level, patrolling the West side, and Chloe took the stairs up to the lounge. She remembered there was a hologram patrolling the offices behind the bar, and headed right. Over the game tables and slot machines were arches and their supporting beams, the emitters for the holograms on them. She hooked one leg over the railing, then the other, and dropped down onto one of the beams.

So far the holograms hadn't seen her, and she made her way across the beams to the counter. She gently eased herself out onto the ledge, the counter below her, and hopped down. There were some filing cabinets and a safe, locked of course, and she opened the door to an office. There was a terminal and a safe under the desk, both locked, and Chloe groaned. 200 years since the bombs dropped and no one had been through who could unlock any of this stuff.

Chloe was picking her way through the filing cabinets and the gun locker, a Browning Automatic Rifle of all things inside, and noticed a ledger and some loose sheets of paper on the bookshelf. Curious, she walked over and picked them up. The ledger contained boring logs and notes, and she set it down. She picked up the papers and began to read.

'Notice on Vault Security Protocols

Mr. Sinclair has notified us that the installation of the casino's vault and its systems has been completed, and he'd like to take the time to inform us all of the security procedures. The vault, as you all know, can only be accessed via elevator, the sole one located in the suites. The vault is protected by solid holographic walls that seal off the windows and doorways leading down to the vault door. In addition to this, the vault is protected by a number of laser turrets, all strategically placed around the room.

There is an alternate route into the vault, as you may know. If the holographic force fields are up, one may proceed through the back halls of the vault area to reach the system terminal that controls the forcefields, turrets, and alarms.

The primary security for the vault, however, is the elevator. The elevator does not have a traditional lock, but rather a voice-activated access system. No key, access card, or lockpick in the world can access the vault. Instead, one must know the pass phrase to speak into the intercom. However, even if one knows the pass phrase, they still will not be able to access the vault. The system has been specially keyed by Mr. Sinclair to only recognize the voice of Ms. Vera Keyes. Only her voice uttering the pass phrase will unlock the vault.

It goes without saying that these security measures, along with the work of you fine men among the casino's living security force, makes the Sierra Madre Casino and Resort the most secure vacation destination in the world.'

Chloe set down the papers, unable to believe what she'd just read. Even if they found the password to the vault, they still wouldn't be able to get in. She had never heard Vera Keyes' voice, but she doubted that hers would be enough to pass. Being that Chloe was absolute certain the skeleton on the master suite was Vera's there was no way to get to the treasure. Everything she'd done, everything she'd been through, had been a waste of time.

Chloe pulled out her .45 Auto and headed for the door. There was nothing left to do but put an end to this and leave.


*This book is actually there in-game.