Chapter Three: Stalemate
United States Disciplinary Barracks
Camp Tibbets aka "The Cube", Kansas
August 30th, 2077
Captain Mercer lined up his shot and released the basketball into the air. It flew twenty feet towards the basket and made a satisfying *swish!* as the ball hit nothing but net. Mercer grinned at his opponent, a hulking brute called 'Moose' Jenkins. 'Moose' tipped the scales at 300 pounds and benched twice that at the yard's weight pile. A year ago, an inmate made the mistake of riling up the big man who mistook 'Moose's' gentle nature for weakness. The offending inmate was discovered the next day in the showers with a cinder block jammed in his bunghole and drooling like a retard. No one in the stockade ever messed with 'Moose' after that. Mercer and 'Moose' got along well since both were skilled players on the court.
"Damn, Moose! You slowing down or what? I've won three in a row.", said Mercer as he took a swig from the bottle of purified water.
"Screw you, you honky-tonk hustler! If 'ya didn't hip-check me on that last shot, you'd be the one owing me twenty cartons of smokes.", replied 'Moose' as he dried himself off with a doo-rag.
While both men continued with their trash-talking, Major Warner was scanning the grounds with a pair of Bushnell binoculars. He was still wearing the standard black jumpsuit with Cochran boots and his collar insignia shone brightly after it was buffed with Brasso. The corrections officer watched Mercer and 'Moose' intently as they spoke. Too bad I don't have an eyebot handy, Warner thought to himself.
The fact that Mercer continued to exist irked him. The captain was proving to be difficult to kill but it wasn't for lack of trying. Two zoot-suit pimps he ordered to shiv the captain were decapitated and their heads staked on lead pipes in the laundry room.
A few days later, an intoxicated Boozefighter MC one-precenter was shredded by a bottlecap mine placed underneath his bunk and set off by a pressure plate. He made the mistake of cursing out Mercer's mother in the middle of the library.
Warner even resorted to using a Chinese assassin captured in Alaska providing him with a dart gun and ammo laced with puffer-fish poison. A guard detail found the assassin stuffed in a trash can; his face was bloated from being shot in the face with fifteen darts. The pistol and the remaining ammo were never recovered. Captain Mercer definitely was living up to his formidable reputation.
As he continued to monitor the inmates on the exercise yard, Major Warner was approached in the guard tower by a man in a grey pinstripe suit. An annoyed look crossed the major's face; he really wished the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would limit the influence Vault-Tec exerted here in Camp Tibbets. He especially wished that Dr. Sydney Barrows would take his pompous, egg-head ass somewhere else. The middle-aged scientist always managed to be in Warner's presence when it was the least welcome. Warner grunted his acknowledgement of Vault-Tec's senior researcher and turned around to face him. Dr. Barrows pushed his horn-rimmed glasses back onto his nose as he finished dictating his notes into a Lil' Pip 3000 wrist unit.
"Dr. Barrows. So what brings you to the crow's nest today?"
"Good morning, Major Warner. I am here to discuss my need for new test subjects. There are several projects that are stalled because you have failed yet again to procure live humans for us to experiment on. So, when can my researchers expect a new delivery eh?"
"I don't need to remind you, sir, that every prisoner we 'provide' you needs to be accounted for. While Vault-Tec has made a significant contribution to this facility, Camp Tibbets is still administered by the federal government, in this case the Army. I'm the base commander and I will let you know when I will have new guinea pigs for you to play with. Are there any other questions or concerns for me, doctor?"
"No, major, there isn't. Just remember that while you command this base, you still have to answer to a higher authority. It's in your best interests to co-operate with me if you don't want to find yourself with new orders to report to the Sichuan theatre, hmmm?"
Satisfied that Major Warner was suitably cowed, Dr. Barrows turned on his heels and left the guard tower. As the Vault-Tec researcher walked out, the major was thinking about arranging a suitable accident for the good doctor that couldn't be traced back to him. This wasn't the Super-Duper Mart where you could just place an order for people, asswipe. Although he was a sadist, Major Warner still felt a need to keep up appearances.
As he watched Mercer finish his pickup game with 'Moose' Jenkins at the basketball court, an idea started to form in Warner's devious mind. Maybe there's still a way to kill two birds with a single stone, the major thought to himself.