"A key to no door

Smoldering ruin awaits

An altar below."

Vincent looked down at the Riddle Trailer with unblemished hatred. 'Always with the fucking riddles.'

Even if it was in the inherent nature of the object to be puzzling, Vincent would have preferred a treasure map with a note attached stating death was eminent. Vincent knew from experience you could always kill you way to a prize, and that even death could be cold cocked in the face.

Vincent had yet to find a fucking puzzle he could do the same to.

"Well, so much for having the key to something like this. What good is a Russian speaker if he can't even translate it right?" Leon bitched from across the room. Nate shot him a seething look before replying.

"That is exactly what it says Leon. Not a mistranslation or me filling in words. If you'd like to learn an archaic language, go right ahead." Nate accented the last remark with an irritated wave of his hand.

Palmer shook his head before turning to Lazarus. "Can you make heads or tails of this?"

Lazarus stared at the small section intently, cross referencing every word with some hint of the wasteland he had seen so far. "I'm going to need to sleep on this."

Vincent dismissed Leon, Palmer, Lazarus, and Nate who all gratefully went off to their respective beds. Before heading up the stairs Vincent turns to Haskel, who is rapidly cleaning glasses by the bar.

"So long as we are actively trying to solve this thing none of us are going to end up murdered right?"

Haskel nods slowly. "As all testimonies regarding the materials go, that is correct. So long as we are working on the material and don't actually stop we can rest easily."

"So, someone needs to be actively working on it?"

"Not to my knowledge, no one needs to be actively working on it every hour of the day."

Vincent slowly nods. "Good, now go to bed Haskel."

"Sir?" Haskel looks… bemused. He's a slippery man, at once wary of Vincent's authority but unafraid of his skills.

"That's an order Margulies. Get some rest, we are dispatching a team east to the Regulator's HQ tomorrow for several contracts and I want you there to agree to terms on some of the bigger bounties."

"Understood Captain. Good night." Haskel nodded stiffly and silently left the building.

Rafael tossed and turned that night, unable to fall asleep. It had been a stressful night after word had spilled that St. Stephen's Log was sitting idle in their camp. The Riddle Trailer had a nasty history of inspiring treachery and greed amongst wastelanders.

As deeply unsettling as this thought was, it wasn't what was keeping him awake. Jesse was quietly tucked in on the other side of the room, not making a sound. None of his housemates were making noise, and apart from the wasteland winds there were no other sounds from the house.

Except the whispering going on in his head. Murmurs, echoes and fragments.

Rafael shut his eyes and tried to block them out. One word sticks out over and over however.

And that word was Adam.

Haskel had assembled Ginny, Leon, Felix and Siobhan for the day long trip to the Regulator HQ out by the front entrance to Ridgefield. As the team prepared to depart Rafael came bound out of Gibson House, fully dressed in armor and touting a Missile Launcher on his back.

"Looking to come with Rafael? I know you're itching for a chance to test out your missile launcher-"

"We need to go south."

Everyone in the group froze, save for the always impassive Haskel. "For what cause, pray tell?"

Rafael walked to the edge of the group. "Adam. I couldn't figure out what it meant, last night all I could hear was Adam in my head. It isn't Adam at all."

Felix shifted his feet uncomfortably, while Siobhan raised an eyebrow at her comrade.

"Rafe, buddy what are you talking about? Who said Adam?"

Rafael wiped the sweat gathering at his brow and looked pleadingly to Haskel. "It wasn't Adam at all. It was Atom! I thought the murmurs were Adam, but they were Atom! Do you understand?!"

Haskel stared at Rafael for an eternal minute, before his eyes flickered ever so slightly. He looked back towards Gillian House, to where Vincent was currently working with Lazarus and Anatoliy on the Riddle Trailer. "Leon, Virginia, how well could the two of you navigate to Megaton from here?"

"What?! Why would we be trailing back down to Megaton-"

"Answer the question." Haskel snapped back, his normally even tone flaring with irritation.

Leon nodded slightly. "I know Ginny's done the route before, and with Rafael's Missile Launcher we should be able to make the trek in a couple of days. Maybe less if we hoofed it."

"Leon, take Virginia, Felix and Rafael to Megaton. Use the main roads, and I implore you to use brute force when applicable while en route. Siobhan, you will come with me to the Regulator HQ."

Ginny looked exasperated. "Our orders were pretty damn simple Haskel."

"And my instincts are telling me otherwise. You will go to Megaton, and you will follow Rafael's lead. If Vincent asks I have an appropriate cover story prepared for you four. He won't mind in the long run if I'm right about this."

"And you're just going to waltz through the wasteland with Siobhan as your only backup?"

"I've worse with less, I will persevere. Now get moving."

Leon led his companions out of Ridgefield and along a dirt trail that would take them towards Megaton.

"There has to be more, what kind of Riddle Trailer ends with the first paragraph?!"

Nate was sure that Vincent would drive him to drink before night fell. Rubbing his temples he flipped back towards the first clue they had deciphered the previous night.

"The first section was very clear, but everything else after it? It's just recipes for wasteland food. Brahmin Steaks and Mirelurk Cakes and that sort of thing but not a single corresponding clue."

Vincent took another swig of purified water before pacing back towards the bar. "What does that leave us with Nate?"

"Well, assuming I don't have to decode cooking recipes? I imagine we have to decode the first clue before we find hints of where the second is located."

A knock at the door interrupted Vincent's line of thinking. "Come in."

Haskel entered smoothly and immediately began to talk. "I had to make some adjustments to today's schedule. I came to inform you that I have redirected Leon, Felix, Virginia and even Rafael to Megaton, while Siobhan and I will travel to the Regulators."

Vincent wheeled around from where he was standing, despite his calm demeanor he was obviously caught off guard. "Why Megaton? Will they be safe? Why the sudden change?"

"My apologies for the sudden change, but I saw an opportunity and took it. As an expanding security company we have very few contracts and the addition of more contracts will only help us in our expansion. Leon and Virginia have already proven their worth to the townspeople, so our foot is securely in the door. Furthermore, Rafael has brought it to my attention that we have a limited number of explosive devices and requisitioned fragmentation mines and more grenades for the group. And I think we both know that if you didn't have faith in Virginia's survival skills you wouldn't be standing here arguing the fact."

Vincent stared long and hard at Haskel before replying. "If you aren't being up front with me, you need to reveal your motives right now. Otherwise, I want them back in four days."

"I didn't give them a time limit, but Rafael seemed adamant on being back sooner rather than later."

"If they aren't back within the time limit I am sending you out there to find them, and if you don't bring them back alive I will let the good doctor play with you. Do I make myself clear Haskel?"

Haskel nodded stiffly. "Crystalline. Siobhan and I will depart for the regulators now."

"Take Mirza and Jesse with you, Raiders and Talons are known to frequent the Scrapyard junction."

"As you command Captain."

The group arrived in Megaton that evening, mostly due to their light loads and hurried purpose. Deputy Weld greeted the Cowboys upon their entrance, and the four moved into the walled community with purpose. Leon was the first to strike up the conversation as the group moved into the grotto.

"So you heard voices in your head that told you about Adam, but you think Adam means Atom. Yeah, Rafe is there a reason we haven't put you out to pasture yet?"

Rafael merely trudged into the center of town, where the undetonated atomic bomb lay dormant. Confessor Cromwell continued to preach at his followers, and the air had taken on the sickly sweet haze that Leon had grown used to.

"The voice said Atom. Atom is the name of the bomb. Tell me Leon, if you were standing up on that balcony, or had entered the town and looked down into the grotto, what would you describe Atom as?"

It clicked just like that for Leon. "An Altar Below… Holy hell Rafe, All right then. You might be onto something here. All right everyone, we hunker down at Moira's for the night. We can confront this in the morning."

Thanks for reading, please rate/review or message me with questions/comments!