Chapter 10 — Hard Negotiations
Virgil, Amari, and Hancock sat in stunned silence as Nora shared everything that had happened at the Institute since she became Director. She told them about how the Advanced Systems division was working on improvements to their laser weaponry, and about how the Housing division was working overtime to stockpile bagged food product, blankets, fresh water, and other necessities in case the Brotherhood forced them to burrow deeper into the Institute and they'd be forced to set up a blockade. Nora even told them about Dr. Li and how she was forced to join the Brotherhood to help with Liberty Prime, that news made Virgil utter a string of profanity under his breath before regaining his composure. By the end of it all, Nora's throat was sore and she felt emotionally exhausted.
"So what do we do now?" Virgil asked.
Dr. Amari shook her head, "A fight with the Brotherhood isn't going to end well. This group is far more militant and involved in the wasteland than the group I knew of in the West. And now that they've pinpointed the Institute's location, they'll stop at nothing to wipe it off the map."
"Everyone is working double shifts to ensure that we have as much ammunition, aid, and food as we need for what's to come." Nora replied. "I've been sending groups of synths topside as quickly as I can but I still fear it's not enough. The Railroad is struggling to secure safe houses for the amount of synths who are ready to leave, and now Des has told me that some of the wastelanders are taking it upon themselves to exact revenge on escaped synths. Two have been murdered by vigilante scavers in the past week."
Dr. Amari pinched the bridge of her nose, "I can talk with Irma and see if we can house a couple synths for the time being. Using the abandoned warehouses here in Goodneighbor seemed to work out well until Bobbi threw them out into the Boston ruins."
Hancock inhaled deeply at the mention of Bobbi No-Nose but said nothing. He just sat behind his desk twirling his hunting knife in between his fingers listening to the conversation, but Nora could tell that the ghoul was nearing the limit of his self control.
"She did what?" Nora interjected.
"She said that she wanted to give the synths a taste of their own medicine. Word spread quickly about Mayor McDonough and she assumed that since he was a synth when he threw the ghouls out of Diamond City, she'd give the synths a taste of their own medicine and threw them out of Goodneighbor."
"I ain't gonna sing that bitch's praises but she had the right idea." Hancock growled. "An eye for an eye, ya feel me? If that low-quality synth copy of my brother wanted to 'clean up' by throwing the ghouls out of Diamond City, then the Institute can find another place for their fuckin' science projects."
Hancock didn't meet Nora's eyes when he said that but he saw the disapproval on her face as clear as day.
"For Christ sake," Dr. Amari snapped. "If we all went around with that attitude, we wont have to fight the Brotherhood because all of us will be dead before we can fight. Have you ever heard the phrase: an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind? Well that's what'll happen if you don't learn from your brother's mis —"
Hancock exploded out of his seat and slammed his hunting knife into the ancient oak desk so hard that the blade pierced through the wood and poked through the bottom.
— "That synth is NOT my brother!" He snarled.
The room fell silent. Virgil's mouth fell open and he shut it right away. Dr. Amari, however, drew herself up and looked Hancock in the face. "John, none of us can take back what happened to your brother. The Institute has done awful things, terrible things, but they also offer us our best chance of survival. Would you really let your revenge get in the way of securing a better life for the people here in Goodneighbor?"
"Yes," Hancock said through clenched teeth. "I ain't a noble person. The Institute will pay for what they took from me."
Nora placed a hand on Hancock's scarred forearm hoping her touch could quell some of the rage. She looked into the ghoul's coal eyes and saw just how wounded he was.
"Rage isn't going to bring him back John." She replied. "Believe me, I know how you feel."
Hancock pulled away from Nora and settled back in his chair. "If I wanted a pity party, I would've sent out an invite."
Nora jerked away and bit her tongue at the remarks that rose to her lips. The words were fueled by frustration and her own pain, she knew that, but she also knew it would've felt so damn good to tell Hancock to go fuck himself.
"How about we put a pin in this conversation and reconvene when emotions aren't as high." Virgil said. "Nora how much time do you have with us topside?"
"I didn't give them a timetable but I'd say no more than a week at most." She replied. "If an emergency comes up, they can always relay me back at any time."
Virgil nodded and he rose from his seat. Dr. Amari and Nora followed suit. The air in the room seemed to crackle with tension, and Nora wanted nothing else but to be anywhere else in the wasteland at that moment.
"Nora, would you accompany Dr. Amari and I to the Memory Den? I'd love to hear a more detailed update about the hydroponics experiments that Dr. Holdren has been doing." Dr. Virgil said.
"Sure." Nora agreed.
As the trio filtered out of Hancock's office, Nora could feel the ghoul's gaze on her back. She wanted nothing more than to look over her shoulder one last time or say something, anything, that might take away some of his pain, but Nora came up short. She had spent so long being angry at the Institute for what they did to Shaun that seeing that anger on someone else made her wonder if Nick had been right after all. Maybe the Institute couldn't be redeemed.
As she closed the door, she thought of all of the people fighting to make the Institute a better place. She thought of Dr. Binet and his son, and of Dr. Li and her sacrifice, and she thought of Nate — who had just as much of a reason to hate the Institute as anyone — and she thought of synth Shaun. When Father created a clone of himself, he intended to program him to recognize Nora as his mother. Although Nora felt no maternal affection towards the child, he — for all intents and purposes — was still a child.
There were innocent people living in the Institute. Children weren't asked to be born and synths didn't ask to be created, but all of their lives weighed heavily on her shoulders.
Like it or not, she was Mother to these people in either name or bastardized genetics. She might've failed at being a mother the first time through, but she was determined to not fail again.
Cold, salty sea spray carried by the ferocious wind whipped at her face as she soldered one of the actuators in Liberty Prime's knee joints. Keeping a huge hunk of metal like Liberty Prime out in these inclement conditions seemed counter productive if they ever wanted to get this construct operational, but then again, the salt, wind, and rain coupled with a bit of rust would ensure that Dr. Li's acts of sabotage would go unnoticed.
So maybe she soldered the green and red wires together, or maybe she was too skimpy with the oil on the castors, hinges, and joints? Those weren't fatal errors by any means, but her small acts of defiance would slow down Liberty Prime's pace by a good 20%. Hopefully that would be enough time to give the Institute advanced warning.
Dr. Li replaced the metal paneling that covered the joints and stapled the rivets back in place. The searchlights that scanned the grounds swept by her in the predictable two and a half minute circuit and she could hear the soft snoring of the poor, young Scribe who was tasked with supervising her work while Proctor Ingram was off duty.
She pulled up the collar on the military fatigues the Brotherhood issued her and climbed off the scaffold and back onto the metal walkway where her 'guard' was perched.
"Hey." She said just loud to wake the girl.
The Scribe jumped and stood upright like she had been shocked with a taser.
"Ad Victor — I mean — uh — shit —" The panic in her face was clear as day and Dr. Li gave her a small, maternal smile.
"Hey, it's okay. It's nearly three in the morning."
The girl, who couldn't be any older than sixteen, set her wide, dark blue eyes on the older woman.
"I'm s-s-orry." She half stuttered and half shivered. "I wa-wasn't asleep for very long, I just—"
Dr. Li held up her hand to quiet the girl. Truthfully, she didn't care about the girl's excuse. She was frozen to the bone and desperately needed sleep as much as she did.
"How about we just keep this between us, okay? Go on. Go up to the Prydwen and get some sleep. I'm going to turn in as well."
The Scribe smiled in relief and then stood up a little straighter and grasped for the authoritative Brotherhood tone that she had been taught to repeat. "Proctor Ingram needs a full report of the work you did."
Dr. Li suppressed an eye roll and handed over a small notebook full of her immaculately handwritten, albeit waterlogged, notes.
"This should suffice until Ingram and I can meet face-to-face to discuss my work." She said cooly.
The Scribe took the notebook and saluted her. "Ad Victoriam ma'am."
Dr. Li nodded her head in dismissal and walked down the metal ramp and across the muddy courtyard. A Knight clad in full Power Armor stood at the airport hanger entrance. He stood at attention and held his laser rifle across his chest.
"Ma'am." He remarked but didn't move his head in her direction.
Dr. Li exhaled another snide remark that came to her tongue. She thought back to her old friends back in Rivet City. Sure, the work in the science lab was serious business but her colleagues at least had personalities. Hell, even her Institute colleagues' with their eclectic mix of madness and genius could hold interesting conversations. But the soldiers that populated the Brotherhood of Steel were about as intelligent and as charismatic as the average wasteland scavver.
She relished in the warmth of a nearby trash can campfire and held out her frigid hands to the flame's warmth. Her stomach growled but she pushed down the hunger pains. She had gotten use to the gelatinous food product served in the Institute's commissary. Sure the texture was off-putting at first, but the food was nourishing and nutritious, and Dr. Li had a difficult time finding the usual wasteland fare of mole rat steaks and bug meat appetizing. Apparently her years at the Institute had made her a bit soft.
When Dr. Li entered her quarters, she heard the telltale sound of wrenching and then the sound of liquid hitting a metal bucket.
"James?"
She found him on his hands and knees behind a blue medical partition. The military fatigues that Dr. Li scavenged for him stuck to his skin. He was panting and clutching himself.
"There's something wrong with me." He moaned softly.
Fear and panic immediately flooded her brain. He looked okay; he was underweight but the shit that Scribe Neriah had pumped him full of was finally out of his system. Nevertheless, Dr. Li was worried, but she couldn't let James see that.
"You've gotta be more specific than that." She snarked, her voice masking her fear with scarcasm. "I've been telling you that there's something wrong with you since we were teenagers."
"Stop deflecting with humor Maddison." James rolled back onto his knees and sipped a bottle of purified water. The sickly green and yellow tinge to his skin was beginning to clear up, but his eyes were glassy and blood vessels bursted in one of them painting his left iris a brilliant red-black
"Did you do a rad count on your blood?"
"I — I can't hold the needle steady enough to do it." He shuddered. "Oh …"
He wretched over the bucket and puked again. Dr. Li removed her damp jacket and donned her Institute scrubs before helping James back to the hospital bed.
"Tell me your other symptoms." She said sternly.
"Nausea and probable dehydration, a pounding headache behind my eyes, muscle aches, and …" He hesitated. "… I've started to lose some hair."
She was about to brush the last concern off as a mark of James's vanity, but when she looked closer, she saw what he meant. She gently ran her fingers through his thin, snow white hair. Sure enough she noticed bald patches, but what worried her more was that the skin on those bald spots were oozing a cloudy liquid. She ran through a possible diagnosis in her head: ringworm, a possible bacterial infection, or maybe a serious allergic reaction or flair up of psoriasis, but something told her that James's illness was different.
"Well let me help you with the blood draw and then I'll do some tests and see what it could be." She said.
But when she pushed up James's sleeve to apply the tourniquet, a three inch long piece of his skin sloughed off in her hand like it was tissue paper.
"Oh God!" She exclaimed, failing to conceal her horror.
They both looked at the piece of skin that had fallen to the ground as though it was a radscorpion ready to attack. Dr. Li's blood ran cold and for one of the few times in her life, she saw true fear in James's eyes.
"Maddi…" He breathed. Everything he could say or ever wanted to say was carried in his smooth, baritone voice.
Blood from the wound began leaking down his bicep and dripped onto the bed. Dr. Li grabbed some sterile gauze and gingerly bandaged the wound, praying that the rest of his skin still remained attached to his body. Both sat in uncomfortable silence until she had finished the blood draw and put the vial into the centrifuge.
The machine's whirling noise filled the silence. Dr. Li knew exactly what could cause a person's skin to slough off their body like a snake's. She saw a couple of cases when she was a young doctor in Rivet City. A wastelander came in complaining of advanced rad poisoning after passing out drunk near an Old World toxic waste disposal sight and left 48 hours later driven mad by the pain as his nose fell off, his skin blistered raw and then healed, and as his hair fell out in patches.
"I suppose this has been coming for me for a while." He murmured.
"James…" Dr. Li didn't know how to finish that sentence or if she even wanted to
She washed her hands and then sat on the cot across from him. The sleep she craved twenty minutes ago had long fled from her mind.
"This can end two ways for me." He remarked factually.
"James…" She replied this time more throatilly but he ignored her plea.
"Maddi if the radiation finally kills me —"
"— Stop." Dr. Li couldn't suppress the tears that rolled down her dirty face. "Stop talking like that James."
He shuddered as well, his own emotions burgeoning to the surface, "But if this turns out to be the beginning stages of gholification, then I know I just ask that you make it quick. If Scribe Neriah gets word that I've turned ghoul, she'll haul me back into her laboratory of Frankenstein-esque experiments to study me some more."
"Jesus James, I'm not gonna shoot you!"
"If you don't then one of those Brotherhood soldiers will." He snapped.
"I have a better idea." She replied. "My friend … Nora … she spoke of a settlement nearby. Apparently their mayor is a ghoul. You know that things are going to get worse before they get better. You need Med-X at the very least and the Brotherhood refuses to give me any chems for medicinal use because they think I'll use them to overdose. If you leave now before the morning patrols start, you might be able to make it there unnoticed."
"No."
"James, don't be stupid." She snapped.
"If I leave, they will take it out on you!" He exclaimed.
"I'm building their damn murder bot! They can't kill me until it's finished." She countered.
"I don't know where this settlement is Maddi."
She sighed in exasperation, "It's close by. I've never been there but the Institute has done surveillance on the entire Commonwealth. It's about an hour walk due west. The place is called Goodneighbor and its a dive, even by wasteland standards, but Brotherhood patrols have been sweeping through the area cleaning up the 'undesirables' so it should be safe enough."
He shuddered as his stomach rolled once again. Once the need to vomit had passed, he looked at Dr. Li with a pleading expression. "Maddi, I can't run from you. Not again."
"If I recall correctly, you didn't run out on me, you fled from the microscope I threw at you." She said. "And you're not running from me. I know where to find you this time."
"But that's not the point!" He urged. "You won't be able to find me if they detonate that bomb collar that's around your neck, and I will not put you in danger."
"And I won't watch you die." Dr. Li snapped.
James shuddered and laid back on the bed as another wave of nausea made his empty stomach gurgle.
"Then we better hope that this is just the stomach flu because otherwise you'll get to watch me die anyway, whether its by radiation poisoning or by a fucking bullet to the head." He growled.
"John, are you here?" Nora called into the dark office.
"Haven't left actually." He replied back in a low, tired voice.
Nora entered the room and closed the door. She pulled out a tarnished silver lighter and flicked it open. The flame threw harsh shadows on the wall but provided her enough light to go to the half burned candles in the office and light them.
"What are ya doin'?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" She replied. "Your office already looks like a mausoleum. I figured if I light enough candles, we'd have enough of them to do a seance so we could call the spirits back from beyond the grave."
Nora caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and she turned to see Hancock fiddling with a panel beneath his desk.
"What are you —" But Nora didn't have to finish her question before Hancock pulled out a bottle of whisky and pulled the cork out with his teeth. "I thought you weren't suppose to have alcohol."
"I don't do as I'm told." He growled.
"Clearly." She smirked. "You gonna share the contraband?"
Hancock looked at her with a measured expression, took a swig from the bottle, and then handed it out to her.
Nora took it from him, took a swig from the bottle, and sputtered as the heat and raw alcohol taste burned her throat.
"W-what the Hell is that?" She choked out and handed the bottle back to Hancock. "That's the worst whisky I've ever tasted."
He took another pull from the bottle, winced, and set it on his desk. "That's all Daisy could get me. Fahrenheit had the good hookup for booze."
At the mention of her name, Hancock turned away from Nora. His shoulders heaved and a pained groan tore from his throat.
"I'm sorry." Nora murmured but she knew her words meant very little.
"I — I just never thought that she'd go down like that ya know? A woman like Fahr could take down four men at once and not even break a sweat, and then that fucking cunt …" He trailed off. His fist was clenched so hard that Nora could see his pulse beating amid the taught tendons in his wrist. "… I've seen radstag killed with more dignity than what she did to Fahr."
Nora placed a hand on Hancock's forearm and this time he didn't pull away.
"I know how much she meant to you. I don't know if you remember, but you once told me how you first met, about how she beat your ass and left you lying naked in the street for trying to steal chems from Marowski."
Hancock's chuckle was rough, "Oh yeah. Where were we?"
"You took me on a date to the Shamrock Taphouse. The place was crawling with Raiders but we took them out and then we found a robot that dispensed beer. That's all we needed for a good night. You talked about Fahr and the good ol' days and I talked about Nate and about …" She still struggled with saying her son's name aloud, "… about my son Shaun. You were there for me when I was in a pretty dark moment in my life. You empathized with me and you didn't try to fix anything because there was nothing you could fix."
Hancock closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "I'm getting flashes of it but it's not all there, so I guess I'll just take your word for it."
"Well what I'm trying to get at is that I'm here for you. No matter how badly I want to, I can't fix what has happened. But you're in pain and you're without most of your typical avoidance methods, and I'm sure that's making all of this a living Hell."
The ghoul swallowed thickly and covered Nora's hand with his other one. Even though he enjoyed Nora's touch, he felt the vortex of hatred, rage, anger, and grief churning his guts into a tempest, so much so, that he wanted to curl in on himself.
"Sunshine, what happened with Bobbi cannot happen again." He growled. "And I do blame the Institute for their role in all of this shit."
"The Institute didn't kill Fahrenheit." Nora replied.
"Didn't they? Didn't they kidnap some of my citizens and instill fear across the Commonwealth? Bobbi No-Nose came in and began spoutin' her mouth off because she was using people's fears of synths as a rally cry to try and overthrow me, thereby murdering my right hand woman."
Hancock sat up straighter in his chair and grabbed a cigarette from the pack and lit it. "Now if this was just business, I wouldn't be so heated up about this. Fahrenheit took the job knowing the risks, but Bobbi targeted her personally. She strung Fahr up by her wrists so she would be forced to dangle until her shoulders dislocated, and then she shot her in the guts. All because Bobbi was afraid of a synth takeover."
"Is it possible that Bobbi was successful in gaining a following because people haven't had the chance to sit down and talk to synths face-to-face, at least not while being aware of who and what they are?" Nora asked.
"People see Nick around here all the time and —"
"— You know that Nick doesn't count in this argument. Everyone can see that he's a synth and can respond immediately, but it's nearly impossible for people to identify a synth up close. What would happen if we had a handful of synths "come out" and talk with the group?" Nora asked.
"Do you think that would work?" Hancock asked.
"I don't know what would work in the situation we're in, but it couldn't hurt." She replied, "The important thing to express to the citizens is that the Brotherhood doesn't care if you're a ghoul or a synth, to them both are considered abominations and both deserve to be exterminated."
"So are you callin' the town for a little jam session tomorrow or am I?" Hancock asked.
"We'd get a better turn out if it was you. I doubt wether the citizens here trust me, but no one has tried to stab me in the street, so I guess I'm doing okay for myself."
Hancock caught her slight jab and shook his head. Hooked at her from across his desk. In the candlelight, his dark eyes seemed to flash gold and amber as the flames round them flickered. "Look I'm not gonna agree to making a speech in support of the Institute. I will not lie to these people. But I wont stop you from speakin' to them."
"Will they even listen to me?" Nora asked.
"They'll listen as long as I ask them to." He replied. "I need to make an appearance out and about anyway. I can't have my constituents thinking that I've holed up and died in this place."
"Thank you. I appreciate it."
Hancock gazed across the desk at her. His fingertips rested on either side of his temples as though he was giving himself a facial massage.
"How are you doing otherwise?" Nora asked.
Hancock groaned, "Aside for having pretty huge fuckin' lapses in my brain and experiencing migraines that could stop a deathclaw, I'm doin' better. This sure beats bein' dead, but only by a slight amount."
Nora came around the desk to where Hancock was sitting and she pulled him to his feet. She only had a week at most topside, and she knew she'd regret it if she didn't get to spend some time fulfilling her more carnal needs.
"You know what helps a headache?" Nora asked.
"What's that?"
Nora pulled him up and out of his seat and over to his bed by his belt. She leaned back on the large bed and pulled Hancock in between her knees.
"If I helped you release some tension." She said, letting the heat in her voice carry the innuendo. "We both have been working too damn hard."
Hancock tilted her face she looked up at him. His lips were inches from hers and he said, "Now that's somethin' we both can agree on."
And he kissed her.