23

"You're listening to the adventures of me, Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, and my stalwart ghoul manservant, Argyle. Today's episode: Defeat At The Hands.

"We're doomed, Argyle. Doomed!"

"Wait! Can you hear music? "Hail to the Chief". And are those ...?"

"Vertibirds! And they're dropping cages onto the Deathclaws. We're saved!"

"I haven't seen a Vertibird since that unfortunate incident back in the Summer of '63."

"Ah, good times, Argyle. Good times."

"Why would anybody cage Deathclaws though, boss? Who'd be crazy enough to mess with those things."

"That would be me, your president, John Henry Eden."

"Boss! It's an Eyebot ... and it's talking to us!"

"I never knew the president of the Enclave was an Eyebot. That is a rather surprising development."

"The Eyebot isn't your president. I'm talking to you through the Eyebot and I'd just like to thank you boys for baiting the trap for those creatures. You've done your president, and our great nation, a service that can't be repaid."

"Money would be payment enough. Right, boss?"

"Now, don't go telling anybody about these Deathclaws, boys. It's all very hush hush and I, your president, would hate to have you killed for treason."

"You can count on us, Mister President. Argyle and I know how to keep our mouths firmly closed."

"Especially if opening 'em gets us killed."

"Well, so long, boys. Don't forget to vote in the next election."

"Sure. When is that?"

"He's gone, Argyle and look, over there. Someone is waving at us. Right in the building we've been searching for."

"Then let's go meet the mysterious Doctor Dérobé!"

"Be sure and tune in next time for another exciting adventure of me, Herbert "Daring" Dashwood and my stalwart ghoul manservant Argyle!"

Patience pushed the remains of the door off to the side. She couldn't hear the crash that it made. In fact, she couldn't hear anything. She reached up to her ears and her hands came away with blood on the fingertips. Making a quick check of her body, she found several cuts and pieces of shrapnel embedded in her legs and chest. She pulled the shrapnel pieces out, glad that she couldn't hear her own screams of pain.

With difficulty, she pushed herself upright, wobbling for a second. She reached out towards the nearest wall to steady herself, almost missing it. Misjudging the distance. Her eyes out of focus. She felt a coughing fit begin to erupt and watched, as if separate from her own body as she coughed a splatter of blood onto the floor. Internal injuries, she surmised.

Hobbling outside, she began to call for Valrie and Gia, finding it strange, unable to hear her own voice. To the right, a fresh mound of rubble had fallen from the face of the next building. To the left, a small, smoking crater was all that remained to show where the missile hit. She had been lucky, the missile appeared to have had less explosives in than she would expect, or less powerful explosives. Either could be the case in this world of scarce resources.

She opened her jaw wide a couple of times, attempting to clear her ears, looking around for any sign of her friends. Then she saw it. A pool of blood and Valrie's football helmet in the centre of it. She dropped to her knees, reaching out, ignoring the pain, and grabbed the helmet. Valrie and Gia were nowhere in sight.

She could feel tears begin to prick the corner of her eyes, but the tears would not come. Even now, her body wouldn't allow her to cry. Holding back her sadness, tamping it down, deep inside, out of the way. Crying would not bring Valrie and Gia back. Back from the dead or back from wherever the Super Mutants had taken them, Patience didn't know.

Turning her head around, she stared at the fresh mound of rubble and, for the first time, saw the sole of a boot sticking out from beneath it. It was possible she could dig out Vincent's body and find those Stimpaks he had found. At least then she would have the energy to stand up and search for her friends.

Stumbling over to the rubble, she stopped as she saw it moving. The slab, under which Vincent lay, had fallen at an angle, landing on another piece of rubble, leaving a slight gap underneath. Vincent could still be alive. Looking around, she saw her sidearm on the ground, a few feet away. Picking it up, she gave it a quick check. A couple of minor dents on the barrel, but nothing major.

Edging around the rubble, she found Vincent laid on his back, staring into the sky. At first, she thought he was dead, until he jerked and coughed, silent to her damaged ears. He didn't seem able to move, however, but she held her sidearm trained on him as she rummaged through his pouches and pockets.

The Stimpaks weren't the only things she found. The holo-tape, containing all the information regarding the secret vaults, the new weaponry, her fellow soldiers from her vault. All of it, right there on the little black box of tape. She turned it over in her hands a couple of times, considering all the damage such information could cause. She needed to destroy it, but not quite yet.

She dug the needle of one of the Stimpaks into her leg and pressed the plunger, sending whatever cocktail of drugs, stimulants and painkillers it contained rushing into her bloodstream. The effect was almost instantaneous. The pain disappeared straight away, smothered by the painkillers or healed, she didn't know. Soon after, her hearing began to return, a sharp ringing sound the first thing she heard and then that diminished and she could hear once again. She touched her injuries. The bleeding had stopped. Whatever was in those Stimpaks, it worked miracles!

Now, she considered Vincent. She could hear him coughing. She could see his body twitching. It would be so easy for her to walk away. To let him die. His eyes rolled around and fixed upon her, the pupils dilated, his face drained. He tried to talk.

"P ... Patience?" He coughed again, spitting blood onto his chin. She could hear his ragged breathing. "I'm sorry."

The contrition of a dying man. Not one, final attempt to justify his actions. Not even trying to say anything about orders. Only a simple apology. She could let him die. Anyone else in the Wasteland would. Let him die and steal his belongings. Valrie would let him die. Especially after turning on them before the missile hit.

But she wasn't Valrie. She wasn't anyone else.

The Stimpak needle penetrated Vincent's arm and she pressed the plunger, shooting him up with the same wonder cocktail that now had her feeling almost at one hundred percent. Vincent arched his back, letting out a strangled gasp as life reentered his body. His hands grasped and clutched at the ground and he raised his head, staring around. His eyes wide and questioning.

"We have to talk." Patience held the holo-tape between her fingers, out of reach of Vincent, his leg still trapped beneath the rubble. "Tell me, if this hadn't existed, all this information, would you have tried to kill me."

"No." His eyes never left the holo-tape. He was telling the truth, Patience could tell. "I told you, I'd have told the Brotherhood and Moriarty that I'd killed you, but I'd have let you go. That's still an option, here. Give me the tape. We'll call it square and go our separate ways."

"What if this tape didn't exist now?" Patience took the holo-tape between both hands and snapped it in two, taking the tape inside and unspooling it, tearing it into pieces. Vincent threw his head back and slapped the ground.

"God damn it, Patience! Damn you!" Vincent pursed his lips, breathing through his nose. "And the original files?"

"Blew them to shit too." She caught Vincent looking at her Pip-Boy and she tapped her finger on the screen. "Nope. Not on there, either. I got the files I needed, for me, not you. There's no locations for any of the vaults in here."

"So, that's it? All the good we could have done with the things in those vaults. Gone." He slumped onto his back, rubbing his hands on his face. "God damn."

"You could still do some good. Some thing really worthwhile. Not the bullshit the Brotherhood fed you, or that Moriarty promised you. Something truly good." He raised his head, frowning at her. "Valrie and Gia are gone. I think ... I hope they're alive, but I think the Super Mutants have got them. What do you say? Be a hero with me."

He didn't answer. At first he couldn't stop staring at the destroyed holo-tape. Patience could see the thoughts running through his head. He appeared to be in two minds, fighting against his training and his morals. Clenching his fists, he turned his eyes back to Patience and reached out his hand.

"Alright. Let's get our girls back." He grasped Patience's hand as she offered it and gave it a vigorous shake. "And fuck any Super Mutants that get in our way."

Returning back through the ruins turned out to be easier than going through the first time. No Super Mutants patrolling. The Metro station where they left the drugged up, copulating raiders now appeared empty. The filthy mattress Bradley and Lyla had occupied lay barren.

They soon found their way back to the GNR building. Vincent had convinced her it had to be the best option. The boy from the Metro station, Bradley, had mentioned the Mall. The long open space in the city where the Super Mutants had been taking their captives. There was no way that Patience and Vincent could enter the area unseen. Nor could they go in, guns blazing. They needed help.

They needed the Brotherhood of Steel.

"Absolutely not, Brother Vincent!" Knight Captain Hazel had other ideas. "You will report back to your assignment and this ... civilian can be on her way. People die all the time. We are not a search and rescue operation."

"Knight Captain, hear me out. We just need a couple of Brothers. All they have to do is cause a diversion and retreat." Vincent surprised Patience. An hour ago he would have accepted the Knight Captain's denial without rebuttal. "We'll be the ones taking the risks."

"Soldier, did I fucking stutter?" The Knight Captain only came up to Vincent's chin, but still seemed to loom over him. "We cannot waste the limited resources we have. Neither in supplies, nor in personnel. Yourself included. Report to your assignment! Dismissed!"

Vincent glared at the Knight Captain, then stiffened up, stood to attention and saluted. Turning on his heel, he strode back to Patience, waiting outside the door. She pulled her arm away as he grabbed her, trying to pull her away from the doorway.

"That's it? You're giving up?" Patience pushed Vincent away. "Well, you ungrateful bastard, if you won't help, I'll go in alone."

"No. I'm not giving up." Vincent hissed, his eyes roving side to side, making sure no-one could hear them. "But Hazel is one stubborn fucker. If she says 'no', she means it. Doesn't mean I'm going back to Moriarty."

"So, if they're not going to help, how the hell do we get through hordes of Super Mutants?" She allowed Vincent to pull her along, now, out of sight and earshot of anyone else. "I can't let Valrie and Gia die without at least trying to save them. I can't!"

"You remember that set of power armour you found? In that basement?" She nodded, furrowing her brow. "If I'm right, the only reason she couldn't get out of there was because her fusion core ran out. I may be wrong, but if I'm right, I'll be the distraction you need."

"Alone? That would be suicide." Patience found herself concerned for the man she considered allowing to die, not that long ago. "I couldn't ask that of you."

"You're not asking. I'm telling." Vincent smiled, then. The first true, genuine smile she'd seen from him. "I thought joining the Brotherhood of Steel would make me a better man. It didn't. But this? If I can help get our girls back, if I can do one good thing, maybe ... maybe that will make me a better man. Let's face it, I can't be much worse."

Patience considered arguing with him, but something in the back of her mind stopped her. The soldier in her, that manufactured, soul-less thing that Sara became, manipulated and brainwashed, told her to accept it. Acceptable losses. But Patience wasn't that Soldier. She wasn't that version of Sara, or the other one, the sweet one. She was Patience and, to Patience, there were no such things as acceptable losses.

"Alright. You go get what you need." She grabbed his forearm and squeezed, forcing a smile. "While you do that, I have something to do, myself."

Vincent nodded and headed away down the corridor. Patience watched him go and then lifted her arm to look at her Pip-Boy. She hadn't had time to tell Valrie and Gia, before Vincent's betrayal and the missile. She had chosen not to tell Vincent after pulling him out of the rubble, and now she didn't think she would tell him.

She switched on the Pip-Boy, flicked through to the map and watched the flashing green dot and the words 'Second Location' blinking at the same time. The dot flashed right in the centre of the Mall. After everything she had learned, from Moira and from the files and videos on the Vault-Tec mainframe, she finally thought she knew what she was.

She was a weapon. A weapon aimed towards the Super Mutants and their 'King'. "The methods may change." The words from the dream haunted her waking mind. She wasn't a gun, or a bomb. She was that different method. She didn't think she would survive this, but knowing that she could stop the Super Mutants? That made it okay.

She switched off the Pip-Boy, resolving herself to what she needed to do, then turned and headed towards the stairs to the second level. Even though she had accepted her fate, it didn't mean that she had to accept Vincent sacrificing himself. Not alone, at least. Of course, that depended on whether her 'hero' status held any privileges. That remained to be seen.

"Run that shit by me again." Three Dog removed his sunglasses, leaning forward and frowning as he swung the glasses by the arm.

Patience knew it was a long shot. It was, for all practical purposes, the biggest of Hail Mary's, but she had to try something. Anything. She couldn't do it alone. She couldn't allow Vincent to sacrifice himself, regardless of the things he had done, and she couldn't allow Valrie and Gia, if they were still alive, to stay in the hands of the Super Mutants.

She ran through the plan again and Three Dog paid close attention to every word she said. He didn't interrupt at any point. He listened, screwed up his face at several points almost as if she had physically hurt him with her words, and gave her the time to finish what she was saying. When she finished, again, he sat back, lifting a leg onto the opposite knee and chewed on the arm of his sunglasses, lost in thought.

"So, what do you say? I know, I know, it's unlikely, but it's worth a shot, right?" She watched him, eyes wide, urging him to say yes. "Right?"

"It's the dumbest idea I've heard in a long time." He reached over to the table beside them, picking up a mug of the beverage that tasted like machine oil. "I mean, not only is it unlikely that anyone, no matter how much you've helped out the Wasteland, will come to waste precious ammunition, but you going in there to die? That's beyond stupid. That's stupid on a historical scale."

"You're not going to do it." Patience nodded to herself and started running scenarios through her head, trying to find one where, at the very least, Valrie and Gia survived. She began to stand. "Thanks anyway."

"Hey, hey! Hold up." Three Dog reached over and pulled her back to the chair. "I didn't say I wouldn't do it. I just needed to be clear that it's not likely to work. I mean, really, really unlikely."

"You'll do it?" She felt a rush of relief run through her body. If only one extra person turned up, it would be a help.

"I can't go around building you up to be a hero, the Beautiful Stranger, here to save the Capital Wasteland, without urging people to be inspired by you. That's what a hero really is, the inspiration to be better." He paused and looked into her eyes, his face softening. "Does the hero really need to die in this scenario? What does Vincent think about that?"

"I haven't told him." Three Dog raised an eyebrow at that and Patience looked away. She didn't know if Sweet-Sara ever became self-conscious and she felt certain Soldier-Sara didn't. She only now realised that she, Patience, did. "It isn't really a choice."

"There's always a choice." He frowned again. "Choice is the only true freedom anyone really has."

"Not me." She lifted up the arm with the Pip-Boy and tried to open a gap between the device and her skin, showing the tubes and wires. "I'm a weapon. Created to be a soldier. This thing? I don't know if it's a bomb, some kind of healing thing, or what. I was aimed and fired towards this confrontation. War never changes, only the methods."

"You could walk away. That's a choice." One look into his eyes and she knew he didn't have a shred of belief that she would do that. She shook her head. "No. I didn't think so. It's not in your nature. I'll do it. If you make me a promise? Promise me you'll try, at the very least try, not to die?"

"If trying will help, I'll try." She stood up and placed her hand on Three Dog's shoulder. He crossed his hand over, patting hers. He didn't smile, though.

"Patience?" Vincent barged through the door, looking sheepish. He made a lazy salute to Three Dog. "We're going to have to make a quick exit."

Patience squeezed Three Dog's shoulder then, reluctant, slipped her hand from under his, moving toward the door and Vincent. She didn't look back. She didn't want to see any sadness in Three Dog's eyes. She didn't want to say goodbye and mean it. Leaving it this way might give the DJ hope that she would return, even if that hope was empty.

"What's the situation?" She grabbed Vincent's arm and pulled him along the corridor, checking each doorway as they moved. Vincent had a new, bulging backpack.

"The situation is that I've borrowed a shit-ton of stuff and the Quartermaster is just about to go back to the armoury after her break." They passed a couple of Knights who gave them both sidelong glances. As they left earshot, Vincent continued. "When she notices stuff missing, and she will, she's going to go ape-shit, at which point everyone in this place is going to be after our heads. So, I, kind of, set a distraction."

"A distraction?" Patience didn't like the sound of this. It was not going to help her plans. She checked her faithful Chinese rifle and her sidearm as they moved through the building, descending the stairs to the first floor and the exit to the city.

"A bomb? Well, not a bomb, really. More like a big noise and a lot of smoke." Since the showdown between them, the subsequent missile attack and coming to their agreement, Vincent had started showing his emotional side. He cringed, apologetic. "If I've set it right, it'll seem like an accident, but it'll get us out of here with minimal ..."

As they reached the entrance area of the GNR building, a loud thud occurred several doors away, shaking dust from the walls, and was soon followed by a billowing cloud careening down the corridor towards them and then expanding out to fill the entrance area with thick, roiling smoke.

Brotherhood troops began to run this way and that, picking up weapons and running towards the origin of the explosion. Some running up the stairs, others taking positions facing the doors. As the smoke thickened even more, Patience and Vincent took advantage of the chaos, waiting for the right moment to slip outside.

This was it. They were on their way. First to pick up the power armour for Vincent, then on to find her friends. Live or die, this was the time. This was the moment she'd been running towards ever since Valrie had dragged her out of the sun, saving her life. This was the time to be the hero in her own story and the villain in the story for the Super Mutants and their 'King'.