Chapter 9: The Man Behind the Mask
I was looking into the face of a nightmare.
His skin was deathly pale, his body stiff like rigor mortis. If I had thought the synths in the mine had been terrifying, I had no idea what terror could really look like. It was as if someone had scooped out the mayor's soul and stepped inside his body like a wrinkled old suit.
It was impossible to believe that this was the same man I'd been speaking to only moments before. That smile twisted even wider on his face, more inhuman with every passing second, and I felt myself break out into a cold sweat. My hands were shaking, my heart was thumping, and my mind was reeling as I collapsed into the nearest chair and just stared at the thing sitting across from me.
I knew what that was.
That's a synth.
It didn't matter how weak McDonough might have appeared, that… thing was the single most dangerous abomination in the Wasteland. A Gen 3 synth… and to think I had been speaking to it this entire time. There was no telling what kind of hardware that facade was hiding, but one thing was for sure, the real mayor was long gone, and there was a good chance that I was on the way to join him.
"Who… What are you?"
"Well, that depends," the voice said silkily. "The body you see before you is a Class 2 Generation 3 synthetic bio-unit, a perfect replica of the man once known as Mayor McDonough. Now the man currently speaking through him? Why, that would be me." He smiled that mile long smile again and a cold chill rushed up my spine.
"I am the Director. Head of the Institute and Father to the Future. The synths are my creation." He gave a little bow as the weight of the situation crashed over me.
I couldn't believe it. My head was spinning, floating somewhere between nightmare and reality… This just couldn't be happening. Nobody encountered the Institute and lived to tell the tale, and here I was sitting face-to-face with the single most dangerous man in all the Commonwealth, possibly the entire world.
What the hell do you say to that?
"Yeah? Well, fuck you then!" I said, even as the sweat poured down the back of my neck.
"You always were a charmer, weren't you Jacob?" He said with a dry laugh, "Some things never change."
"Of course, there's no need for me to ask you your name, your reputation precedes you. The fallen knight of the Brotherhood, Jacob Burns… Condemned by his own kin, cast out of every vestige of civilization in the Commonwealth, and forced to scrounge for scraps with the very abominations he once sought to destroy. Quite the tale, isn't it? So many unfortunate twists and turns, so many unpleasant surprises. One has to wonder how a single man can have such bad luck…" He trailed off, but the meaning wasn't lost on me.
"It was you, wasn't it," I said quietly as a lump began to form in my throat. "You ordered the attack. You sent those synths after me, after my vertibird. You crashed them into the main engine block with a nuke on board. You murdered my people and what's more, you let me take the blame for it." He smiled again.
"That I did, Jacob, that I did. Though is 'murder' really the right word? Your people vowed to wipe me and my synths off the face of the earth. What would you have us do? Wait until your dear Maxson was on my front doorstep? Any chess player knows the first move has the most advantage, and this? This is war. You should know that better than anyone, Jacob."
I spat on the ground.
"Bullshit! You declared war on the Commonwealth the moment you started kidnapping people and replacing them with these… these… things! Who the hell do you think you are?"
"Well my mother, God rest her soul, named me Shaun. A dreadful name if you ask me, especially for a man of science such as myself, but you may call me the Director, or Father if you prefer. I am used to both." He laughed again, a harsh dry noise that grated my nerves like rough sandpaper.
"You…" I said, my body shaking with rage and grief. Was this all just some game to him? He seemed endlessly amused by my every reaction, like a kid with a magnifying glass just before turning it to the sun to burn anything in its path.
"Son of a bitch! I ought to jump over this table and rip your synthetic heart right out!" I yelled as I got to my feet, but the Director merely wagged his finger with a disapproving tsk tsk tsk.
"Oh I'd be careful if I were you, Jacob," he said as casually as can be. "Do remember where you are, and to whom you're speaking. The guards are standing right outside and I am but the humble Mayor of Diamond City. Not only that, but you have no place to go. Why I could just take young Miss Astor as I pleased, and nothing could stop me. Yet here I am, willing to make a deal… with you.
"You want… a deal? With me?" I was taken aback, what could he possibly want from me?
"That's right," he said simply. "I am not the monster my reputation would have you believe. In fact, I am a very fair man. I have no desire to make a prisoner out of the girl, quite the contrary, the Institute would make the perfect home for the likes of her. She'd be protected from the harshness of this reality, from the raiders and the radiation, and she would be accepted as family among us. You would be paid of course, and given safe passage out of the Commonwealth. After all, you managed to accomplish a feat in a single night that all my synths couldn't manage over the past few decades. That certainly seems deserving of a reward, does it not?"
I sat there for several moments, barely able to believe what was happening. He was right of course, the Institute was the most advanced society out there. If anyone could keep her safe from the Wasteland, it was them. But then, who'd protect her from their mad experiments? Even if it was true he wouldn't actually harm the girl, who's to say he wouldn't go back on his word and turn me into the Brotherhood for the reward money…
"So, what? You're buying me off?" I asked.
"Oh certainly not!" He laughed again. "All I want from you is what you've already offered, to convince Miss Astor to come with us, to the Institute. Assure her just as I have assured you, our data indicates she will listen."
"Ha! Shows what you know, old man," I said with a smirk on my face, "Girl's got a mind of her own, and even if she didn't, I'd sooner jump off the tallest tower of the Wall then help the likes of you."
"Stubborn as always, though I suppose that is to be expected," the Director sighed as he slowly got to his feet. He strode over to the open window with calculated, mechanical steps and stood there for what seemed like an eternity, just staring out at the vast horizon with a look of almost sadness upon his monstrous face.
"Look out there Jacob, beyond the Wall of this so called city… Tell me, what do you see?" His voice seemed far away, as if lost in a memory that had never existed in the first place.
"What are you-" I began.
"Tell me what you see," he said again, and I got to my feet. I looked out over the city, a webbed jungle of rope bridges and makeshift shanties so much bigger than I remembered, but beyond that, there was nothing. Nothing but ruins as far as the eye could see.
"I see the ruins. All the wreckage the Old World left behind…"
"The past, you mean."
"I guess." I shrugged, what was he going on about?
"Hmm…" He seemed to mull that over for several moments before speaking again.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this you know. This world was meant to be something better, but history was stolen from us by the very men that had made the promise in the first place. The grand visions of our forefathers smothered by the greed of capitalism and the foolishness of communism. But you see, we needn't accept this reality, Jacob. We can make the world more than it was, as it always could have been."
"The Omega Vault…" he continued quietly. "It's important. It really is humanity's best hope for the future, no matter what the world might think. In it is contained the single most powerful experiment Vault-Tec ever attempted, a Noah's Ark and a Garden of Eden all in one. It can restore the world, not just restore it, but remake it better than ever before." His eyes shone with a dark brilliance as his voice dropped to a feverish whisper.
"Can you imagine such a world? Gone with the clunky gas spewing robots and dilapidated ruins, replaced by the clean efficient synths and the sleek glass towers of a shining utopia. No more hunger, Jacob, no more strife or war or radiation. We can make it a reality, the world can be remade, all that we need is the missing piece…"
"The Conduit," I said.
"That's right," he replied, a madman's smile twisting across his face. "And the girl will lead us right to it. To the Vault and to the Future, for the benefit of us all." I shook my head, barely able to believe what I was hearing. He was mad, no different than Vault-Tec and all the rest. Technology like that never turned out to be what it seemed, and always came at a terrible price. If what he said was true, then it was a power no man should have.
"And what happens when people reject your "utopia" hmm? What happens then? Do you replace them with one of your synths, to do with as you please just like our dear mayor here? You're just like the Old World you know, do you honestly think you can control all that power? That if only you'd been there then none of this," I said as I stabbed my finger angrily out the window, "would have happened? You're insane."
"Insane? Is that what you think? Quite the accusation coming from a man that cannot say for certain that he is indeed a man…" The Director said darkly.
"I… don't know what you mean," I replied uneasily.
"Oh come now Jacob, we've all heard the rumors. Have you ever felt… not quite yourself? Ever had a change of heart you just couldn't explain? Synths can go rogue you know, and thanks to the underground railroad we have no way of knowing who they are. Think Jacob, have you ever felt like there was something you'd forgotten but just couldn't remember? A dream that always faded away before you could catch it?"
You're a synth Jacob, admit it. There's no other explanation.
Fahrenheit's words echoed in my ears. It was a question that had been haunting me ever since the day the Prydwen had fallen. Why? Why had I done it? I had never disobeyed a direct order like that before, and yet that night I broke nearly every oath I had ever taken. And how had the Institute known where to find me? No one had known where I was going, and yet Maxson had found me as well… just in time to watch my vertibird fly up into the air and head straight for the Prydwen…
No. I thought to myself, I may have made mistakes, but they were mine. No one else made them for me. I'm sure of that.
Even so, my voice cracked as I spoke again.
"I know who I am, and I am no synth."
"Hmm, you don't sound so sure of that," the man said with another laugh before sitting back down at the table. "As fascinating as all this is Jacob, I grow tired of our little game. It's time for you to decide." And with that, he produced a laser pistol from beneath the table, and pointed it right at me.
"The truth is you've started something here, a chain reaction that cannot be reversed. If not me, then someone else. There is no stopping this vault, Jacob. Others will come after the girl as well, and you and I both know that she is not made for this world. You cannot protect her from this, nor yourself, so don't be so hasty to throw your life away for some vault dweller you've only just met. Be smart here, Jacob. Do the right thing.
The right thing.
The last time I did the "right thing" and everyone I had ever known was killed in hellfire, but what choice did I have? No one would ever believe me, it was the "mayor's" word against mine… I was at a complete loss. It was beginning to look utterly hopeless as the next song came on the radio, a disgustingly sweet number that left my insides churning.
"So what's it going to be, Jacob? It's very simple, really. You're either with us… or you're against us. There is no other choice."
I stared down the barrel of the gun.
"There's always a choice," I said with a glare.
"Wrong answer," he said as he raised the gun. "Goodbye, Jacob."
Just then, a massive tremor shook the room. The harsh metallic sound of about three tons of groaning steel and grinding gears roared throughout the stadium.
We both whipped around and looked out the window. The gates had been flung wide open.