Liam's hand immediately shot out and slammed on the shutdown button of his terminal, but he knew it would look suspicious if they were both caught staring at a turned off screen. Katie solved this problem by leaning in pressing her lips to his.

Due to his panic attacks and social anxiety Liam didn't make friends or girlfriends, so he had never so much as held anyone's hand before. Somehow her surprise attack on his mouth didn't immediately send him into a bout of twitching and stuttering. Instead he felt rather at peace; something he hadn't felt since he was younger than Darla.

"Oh I'll just leave these here!" he heard his mom say, but he barely registered her words.

Liam was the one to pull away as he hadn't taken a breath before Katie went in for the kiss and he needed to breathe. "Nice cover." Liam said.

"No problem." Katie said back.

"So we're doing this Saturday?"

"If everything goes right." Katie affirmed. "Alright I'm going to head home now; we'll talk to your parents about the car tomorrow." Katie headed out the other door leaving Liam to contemplate breaking into a guarded pharmaceutical company.

"Crap why didn't I just tell her to install the damn thing? I can't get shot." Liam said rubbing his eyes. He set his teeth on edge. "What if the police come and arrest us? They'll search my computer, find the halo disks, then when all those rich guys found out what I've done they'll kill me." Liam's face was twitching like crazy and he couldn't stop shaking. "It's fine, fine, fine." Liam fumbled for his pills and popped two chasing them with a mentat. "Just figure out the best way in and out of there."

The next day Liam hid the program in his wall safe where it would be safest before heading to school. Katie joined him halfway on his walk to school still dressed in the disguise she had donned for his parents. The day before Liam had only noticed that it made her look pretty; now he noticed that it also left her looking trapped. Like a lion being forced into a blouse and skirt.

"Why are you s-still wearing that?" Liam asked.

"Can't have your parents asking around and finding out that their baby boy's been hanging out with Katy the chem dealer." Katie said like it was obvious. "Besides don't I look nice?"

"I like you better the other way." Liam admitted. "You look more natural; more like you."

"Well aren't you as sweet a glass of southern ice tea." She said pinching his cheek. "Still it's better this way, if someone comes investigating us all they'll find are two all American sweethearts."

"Because I'm an all American teenager." Liam said. He didn't exactly look the part with his hoodie and faded jeans. "Hell, you look so different people are going to wonder who you are and why you're hanging out with me."

"You know Liam you don't give yourself enough credit; I'm sure if people didn't think of you as a freak they might like you. You might even be one of the popular kids." Katie said.

"And why would I want to be one of them?" Liam asked.

"You got me." Katie said with a shrug. "Are you going to go to class?"

"Yeah, you?"

"I need to do some more work on breaking in; maybe you could print me that map of the building?"

"I can do you better." Liam grabbed a sheet of paper out of his notebook and sketched out an exact replica of the map they had been looking at last night. "I hope it helps."

"Looks pretty nice." Katie commented. "I don't suppose you draw me." Liam shook his head and Katie pouted like she was disappointed. "Well maybe we could take an art class together. I'll see you later."

Katie walked off holding her hallowed out books filled with chems and Liam wondered why he felt how the books looked. "Hey Liam." Liam turned and saw Melissa.

She was a mousy girl with light brown hair who was in the AV club with him. She was smart and the only person who Liam could discuss with computer things with. As a fun pass time they would create little interfaces and challenge each other to hack them. Liam had actually just done this in the vein hope that she may of been able to succeed where he had failed and crack the Vault-tec interface.

"Hi Melissa." Liam said grabbing a book out of his locker and turning to face her. Like most girls Melissa put him on edge, but Liam was never close enough to her to ever cause a panic attack like he was with Katie.

"Who was that girl you were talking to?" she asked.

"It was Katie, I've told you about her before." Liam said.

"That was Katie? I thought she was a chem dealing sociopath; someone said that she's been to jail for stabbing someone."

"Who told you that?" Liam asked. He knew for a fact that Katie had never been to jail, she was too smart, if she had then he would never have made her his chem dealer.

"I heard it through the grape vine." Melissa said pushing her glasses up on her nose. "Why were you talking to her? You don't want people to see you together; they might think that you two are friends."

"Because that would lower everyone's opinion of me by so much." Liam said.

"I'd hate for someone not to hire you because they think you and her are associates." She touched his arm and Liam pulled it away holding his cheek to stop it from twitching.

"I've g-got to g-get to class." Liam said feeling about an hour of twitching and shuddering coming on. Maybe he would skip class and enjoy a nice controlled mentat high.

"S-so, did you hear about the party that I'm throwing this weekend?"

Liam bit his upper lip at this of course Melissa would plan their B&E during the night of an actual party. No one would be at the facility if the party was keeping them full of booze. "You're throwing the party," Liam said thinking that Melissa wasn't the type to do something so social. "I may of heard someone mention it." he admitted.

"It's my birthday and I wanted to tell you even though it goes without saying that you're invited I wanted to invite your personally. Maybe you could be my date." Melissa said.

"Ah, I d-don't think so Melissa I have plans." Liam said. To be honest Liam had no idea that it was Melissa's birthday and although Melissa was nice enough and smart he didn't really see any future for them, if the world wasn't going to end he probably would have ended up dating maybe even marrying her, but not with what he knew now.

"Well maybe you could move your thing to the party." Melissa said persistently.

"It's uh kind of a family thing. They're not going to let me ditch it; they've been planning it for a while." Liam said.

"What are you guys doing?" Melissa asked.

"Camping trip." Liam said.

"Well if you decide that you can spare a couple of hours before you go." Melissa handed him an invitation before heading off to class allowing Liam to pop a mentat and do the same.

Just like the day before Liam had trouble sitting through class and he wondered for the hundredth time why he did. Even if the world wasn't going to end he could make more than enough money to live on from hacking bank accounts and stealing information.

Heck even without that skill he might be might have been able to become Katie's second. Still he immediately answered the question with the same answer he always used. One day after the world ended people would need to rebuild and then it would be those who knew how to build things who would be powerful. That was why Liam memorized every formula and textbook he could get his hands on. That and he didn't want Darla to grow up stupid; he didn't think he could take that.

"Hey Liam I saw you talking to that new girl, do you think you could introduce me?" It was Billy Mobius who asked him. He wasn't the nicest person, but he wasn't smart enough to be a bad person either. He never insulted Liam directly only when one of his friends egged him on. Overall Liam felt bad for him; he would never really know what it was like to think for himself. "Not like you would know what to do with her anyway huh?"

"That girl is Katie." Liam said and immediately Billy moved away.

"Oh you don't want to mess with her Liam; that girl's crazy." Billy scooted away as Liam's ticks began to set in again.

'She has a way to make money and she's got a thriving business that she actually plans on expanding. As far as crazy goes she's probably one of the sanest people I know; then again she's also ignoring the impending nuclear apocalypse, so sane is a relative term.' Liam bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, but with the mentats still rushing through his system he didn't notice until a drop of blood hit his hand. 'I wonder what she's doing right now.' He thought unconsciously answering the questions on the board.

Katie didn't like school, they weren't teaching anything that she couldn't learn on the streets. Most of what they taught was useless information anyway; who cared about the weight of the average atom bomb anyway.

The only real math that mattered was how much cash you could get for selling a certain amount of chems. All the science she needed she could learn by mixing chems in her friend's reverse engineering knockoff med-x and mentats. None of that cheap stuff for Liam though; he was a friend and would be treated a

Uh.

Because of her attitude toward school and the fact that she was well known as the friendly neighborhood chem dealer she was commonly known as one of the most bad of bitches. Which is why she was surprised when one of the quietest girls she ever met walked right up to her and got in her face.

"Hey I saw you talking to Liam." Melissa said.

"Yeah, I was." Katie said narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips interested in seeing where this was going.

"Well I want you to stay away from him." Melissa said poking her chest. When Katie looked down at the finger Melissa pulled it away and dropped her hand to her side, but she didn't back down. "I've been friends with him for a lot longer than you have and I can tell you he doesn't need some chem dealer throwing all that drama in his life. You might kill him."

Katie thought that if this Melissa girl honestly thought that a chem dealer would make Liam uncomfortable then however long they knew each other must not be enough. "I don't think that Liam needs you to guard him." Katie said.

"He's delicate, sometimes he bugs out so hard that he can barely even talk. I'm sure that in front of you he can barely get a word out, and that's not healthy for him." Melissa glared at her through her thick glasses and Katie couldn't help but feel intimidated. The girl was small, but she looked like she could handle herself in a fight through sheer force of will if necessary.

"Well I'll tell you what if Liam stops talking to me then I'll do the same." Katie said and Melissa turned on her heel stomping away. 'That girl's not right in the head.'

While Katie agreed that Liam was rather delicate she didn't think that hiding him from stress factors was helpful. That was why she had introduced herself and introduced him to his favorite chems. She liked to think that she was helping him, and while she was sure that he ran all sorts of checks on her Liam had allowed her farther in than anyone else she knew. That Melissa girl certainly didn't know that Liam had performed digital bank heists or about his mentat dependency.

Katie readjusted her blouse and continued on her merry way making her way to the gymnasium where she would talk with the person getting her access to the facility. His name was Pete, a hardcore chem addict who was always looking for a fix. He wasn't like Liam though she doubted anyone was. Pete used chems for strictly recreational reasons and he had no reputable skills. He couldn't steal like she could, market like a good dealer should, or hack a terminal like Liam could. The only thing useful about him was that his dad was a janitor at the pharmaceutical company.

He wasn't even smart enough to figure out how to break in on his own. He had told Katie about it during one of his drop offs and Katie had offered to do the job even give him all the chems he could want in exchange for his dad's key card. For Pete it was a once in a lifetime deal and for Katie it was a golden opportunity.

"Do you have the card?" Katie asked sitting down next to Pete who seemed confused.

"Uh, who are you?" he asked.

"It's me Katie."

"Whoa man I must be tripping pretty hard cause I would swear that you're wearing a dress. You even look kind of pretty." He rubbed his eyes and squinted at her, but in the end he just shrugged and handed her an envelope. "My dad is on one of his fishing trips, so he won't miss it until next week. You're going to do it before then?"

"Doing what Pete?" Katie asked standing up.

"Right man." Pete said. "Hey you got something for me?"

"Your favorite, a crate of mentats mixed with nuka cola." Katie said tucking the envelope in her pocket. "It's in the usual place under the bleachers."

"Righteous." Pete said standing up and heading over to the spot where his special treat was hidden.

Katie checked her watch and wondered if she had enough time to enjoy a brief lunch before Liam's class ended. She supposed that he still had plenty of mentats to hold him over. Unless something set off one of his panic attacks there was no way he could use them all.

She grabbed a sack lunch out of her locker and grimaced at her own cooking. She decided that she would use the snack-o-matic in the hall instead.

She reached up to feed it a few dollars, but a hand came up under her arm and cupped her breasts. She threw her elbow back to knock off whoever was doing it, but whoever it was held on strong kneading her breasts through the fabric. "And who might you be?" The voice was too deep to be a student and Katie thought it had to be a teacher. "I've never seen you around here before." She shoved again, but this time he brought up his hand to smack her. "You must be that transfer student that the rumors are talking about."

"Let me go you pervert." she spat, but she realized it was more or less hopeless.

"You should be a little nicer to me; I could ruin your whole year. Make sure you don't ever go to college if you don't do what I say." That settled it he was a teacher and he thought that Katie was the kind of girl that cared about grades.

She finally found the pin that she used to keep her hair up and she pulled out. She pressed it hard against his rib cage and forced him back a step. "You better not mess with me Mr. Baxter!" Katie said waving the pin menacingly. It was several inches long and very sharp.

"Katie, is that you?" he asked. "Look you don't want to do this, after all I just saw you dealing chems that's why I grabbed you after all. And that's what I'm going to tell the principle and the police when they come to investigate."

"But you'll be lying." Katie said furiously.

"Who do you think they're going to believe?" he asked spreading his arms. "Now why don't you come here and let me finish what I started. I'm sure I left you pretty horny too."

Katie stepped forward seemingly resigned to her fate and Mr. Baxter began to wrap his arms around her. He didn't expect the stab and wasn't able to move away or defend himself. The needle sunk deep into abdomen drawing spurts of blood that stained his shirt and her blouse red.

"You crazy bitch!" Mr. Baxter yelled out as he sunk to the ground and clutched the needle.

"Keep pressure on it!" Katie spat kicking him with all the force she could muster. She stormed off leaving him to bleed; she doubted that he would actually accuse her of anything since he didn't have any proof. It was just one of those empty threats that she had learned to spot a mile away. You had to in her business.

She waited until the last school bell rang and Liam found her at their usual spot. "Is that blood?" he asked immediately noticing the red stain on her blouse.

"No, it's cranberry juice." Katie said and Liam nodded. That was one of his vices she thought. He thought he was too smart to be lied to, so he didn't realize when it actually happened.

They made the walk to Liam's home; at the halfway mark Katie split off leaving Liam to make the rest of the way by himself.

Liam wasn't stupid, he knew that cranberry juice didn't crack like that on fabric. It had to be blood, but Liam knew there were a hundred and one possible explanations for it. He also knew that about half of them were violent possibilities, but Katie could take care of herself. I she didn't ask for help then she thought she could handle it, and all signs said that she was.

Right outside his house Liam saw something odd. A car fancier than anything that anyone in town owned; it looked foreign. There were plenty of garages in town, but his father's was well known for being cheap and doing good work, so there being a fancy car here wasn't all that unusual.

Still something about it set him on edge, he fumbled with a mentat and steeled his resolve before entering his house. As soon as he opened the door he saw something out of place; it was a man. Tall and handsome with a thick head of dark red hair he was out of place among the average looking faces of the town. He wore a pinstripe suit that commanded attention and a pair of black framed glasses.

"Oh Liam, it seems as if this kind gentleman is here from that store that we bought your terminal from. He says that there's been some sort of recall, and that he needs to check your computer for some kind of deficiency." Mrs. Wells said standing up and motioning for the tall man to do the same. "I thought I should wait for you to come home before I let him in your room."

"And you are?" Liam asked.

"The name's Randall Lockheart," the man said standing up and extending his hand for Liam to shake. "According to the list we have at the shop you were sold a defective computer. If it doesn't work then I'm supposed to give you a full refund." He spoke with an English accent and Liam thought that Al's pawn shop wasn't the type to give a damn about refunds or safety precautions. And someone who was working there certainly wouldn't be driving a car like the one in the driveway.

"And what shop is that again?" Liam asked feeling the twitches try to take over. It was no coincidence that he had hacked the city plans yesterday and today someone was trying to take his terminal.

"Oh you know the pawn shop." Whoever this person really was Liam realized they hadn't done their homework. "Anyway why don't you let me into your room and I'll run my little safety test for you."

"Why don't you just tell me how to do the test and I'll do it myself." Liam said positioning himself between this strange man and his mother.

"Sorry I have to see for myself, so you don't get scam us out of a refund." Randall said narrowing his eyes. "I'll tell you what if you let me do the test I'll pay for a brand new terminal fresh off the line."

"Why would you do that?" Liam asked.

"How's about a bright shiny pip-boy in exchange for that computer boy?" Liam thought that someone that could so casually promise something impossible wasn't someone he wanted having anything he owned.

"I think you need to leave now." Liam said and seeing that he wasn't going to get anywhere Randall made his way to the door.

Before he left though he turned and said in a grave whisper just loud enough for Liam to hear "You may have discovered something you can't handle you ankle biter." He left and as soon as the door closed Darla started wailing loudly. His mom rushed over to comfort her and she looked at him nervously.

"Liam, what was that about? Who was that man and why did he want your computer so badly?" she asked clearly not grasping that Desmond had come in here intending to steal the computer. He just hadn't expected to find her there; Liam shuddered to think what he might have done if his mom had realized how dangerous he was.

"When Katie came over yesterday, she said that her dad might come over and ask to see my computer. He's really paranoid about someone taking pictures of his daughter; she said not to let him see my computer at all or he would just smash it to bits. He's a little off." Liam said.

"Katie and her family are British?" she asked.

"Yeah, they moved here a couple years ago." Liam said. "Don't worry about it mom he won't come back. I need to make a call; I promised that I would tell Katie if her dad came by."

"Oh well the phone's in the kitchen."

Liam nodded and not for the first time he wished they had one of those wireless phones everyone was so excited about. "Hello?" Katie's voice cracked out on the other line.

"Katie, we may have a problem." Liam whispered so his mom wouldn't hear.

"What is it?" Katie asked sounding concerned.

"Some guy came by my house today, and he kept trying to get to my computer." Liam said.

"Are you guys okay?" Katie asked.

"Yeah we're fine he didn't seem ready to hurt anyone, but I'm worried about his timing."

"You think that he came because we hacked the city plans?"

"I don't see any other reason why someone would come for my computer."

"Do you think he's from the pharmaceutical company?"

"He might work for the security company that was hired to protect the place."

"So what do you think? Should we call it off?"

"Huh?" Liam asked. He had told Katie thinking that she would decide whether or not to continue; it never occurred to him that she might ask his opinion. He debated whether or not it was worth the risk to keep going with the heist. For him it was, it was his only chance to save his family, for Katie this break in would only put her in danger. So the question was, who did he care about more. Why was he even asking though, he had risked treason charges to try and get his family into a public bunker. "No we shouldn't, he doesn't know what we're planning or who you are. All he knows is that we accessed the city plans and he won't know which building we checked either. Besides no matter what kind of equipment this guy has there's no way he's hacking into my computer. "

"Alright genius, we'll keep going. We should steer clear of each other until Friday and Saturday in case that guy is watching you." Katie said.

"Alright." Liam said slamming the phone down into its holder. Strangely enough Liam felt an odd twisting in his stomach like the first time he had drained a bank account before he learned to target corporations.

It would fade though, once his family was safely secure in a bunker of one kind or another, he was sure of it. Still it wouldn't hurt to check out this Desmond Lockhart in the meantime.

Liam searched well into the night before he finally decided to stop and fall into a fitful sleep.

Just as Katie assumed Liam's parents were more than happy enough to loan them the car. Their only condition was that Katie would stay for Sunday dinner the next night so they could get to know her better.

"You're parents are really nice Liam; do you think I should bring anything to dinner tomorrow?" Katie asked as they slid into the car.

"Just come and talk about football or something; I'm sure it'll drive my dad crazy." Liam said ruffling through his backpack to make sure they had everything that they needed.

"Yeah he does seem like a football fan." Katie said turning the key in the ignition. "So do you have what we need?"

"A change of clothes, my program, a copy of the blue prints, and mentats." Liam said shaking the pill bottle. "What about you did you remember the key?"

"Of course I did. Now give me a minute to change." Katie pulled the car down on a side street and Liam stepped out of the car while she changed.

To his surprise Liam had to catch himself staring at her in the mirror. "Liam!" Katie snapped and Liam turned his head cheeks burning. She stuck her head out the window and narrowed her eyes at him. "Were you trying to peek at me?"

"O-of course n-not." Liam stuttered.

"You naughty boy." Katie said with a devious wink. "Come on let's get going you horny dog."

"I wasn't trying to peek!" Liam kept insisting on this, but Katie only smiled wryly in response.

They pulled off the road and hid the car a quarter mile from the facility according to plan. "So the factory's about a quarter mile that way, and we have three hours before the actual janitors show up to clean the place."

"If we do it right it shouldn't take one." Liam said. "Are you sure that the badge will get us all the way through to the main computer?"

"Well if it doesn't this will have all been for nothing and it won't matter will it?" Katie sensed a type of steeliness in the look that Liam gave her. While usually a nervous wreck this was the look he reserved for important occasions like gigantic cybercrimes, the fact that he wore it now told her this may have been a little more than just a constant chem supply. "Don't worry Liam; it'll work."

"Good." Liam pulled his hoodie up and they made the short hike to the factory. "So out of curiosity even if I do set a different manifest to the system the chems are still going to be in the factory. How are you going to get them out?"

"I have a guy who works in the loading bay, but don't worry too much about it, just focus that genius brain of yours on getting us into the computer."

"What about actual security? Like guards and stuff?"

"This building doesn't have any."

"Doesn't that strike you as odd?" Liam asked.

"Just because a few stupid adults decided that their security system is so foolproof that they don't need actual people to guard their chems it shouldn't stop us." Katie pulled her own hoodie up over her head and they made a beeline for the door just as soon as the cameras moved away.

To her surprise she had to go a little faster to keep up; his long lanky legs were good for more than just standing around she guessed. "Come on let's get this over with." Liam said as Katie swiped the card and opened the door.

"Whoa this place is creepy." Katie said looking around at the completely dark infrastructure of the building. "Which way?"

"This way." Liam said running through the map he had in his head. "We keep going down this hall until it splits off in two directions, then we go right, left, left again, and we're there."

"Forget chems, with my street know how and your computer skills we could be jewel thieves." Katie whispered as they made their way through numerous empty halls.

"Technically I am a bank robber." Liam said with a shrug. He stopped and turned around suddenly. "Did you hear that?"

"What?" Katie asked straining her ears for the noise Liam detected.

"It sounds like rolling wheels." Liam said cocking his head in the direction of the noise. "It's coming from that way."

"Is that guy that came to visit your house in a wheel chair?" Katie asked as they ducked behind a desk.

"Be quiet." Liam said on the verge of having one of his anxiety attacks.

They waited for a few minutes as they watched a gigantic behemoth roll around the corner and scan the area. Both of their jaws hung open at the monstrosity of mechanical engineering before them. A robot standing on three legs painted black, one arm a laser, the other just a hole from which who knows what would fire. "What is that?" Katie asked trembling so hard the whisper barely escaped her lips.

"I-its a sentry bot; it has a rocket launcher and a laser. It shouldn't be here." Liam whispered back trembling sp hard he had to fight to keep his knees from knocking together.

"Present yourselves." the voice of the sentry bot froze them both in place and they saw the light from its head cast overhead. "Present yourselves!" it demanded once again. "If you do not present yourselves then I am authorized to use deadly force; civilian safety cannot be guaranteed."

Slowly they rose hands in the air. "Liam, I'm really scared." Katie admitted shaking so hard she could hardly keep her hands up.

"Peter Jackson please retreat to a distance of one hundred feet for your own safety." The sentry stood guns pointed at them ready to fire with both of them so scared they didn't hear it. "Peter Jackson retreat to a distance of one hundred feet!"

"W-who?" Liam asked.

"Peter Jackon must be the guy I stole the ID from." Katie said daring to glance at the machine which still didn't move. "We need to move; I don't think it will fire if we have this."

"Halt! All employees of the building have signed a waiver that states they will not be taken hostages no matter the circumstance."

"We need another ID." Katie said. "This thing won't let both of us leave."

"Katie give me the ID." Liam said.

"What?!" she demanded finding unbelievable that Liam might leave her to this even if she had convinced him to break in in the first place.

"I have an idea, but I need you to trust me and give me the ID." Liam said looking at her with the same steel gaze he had come in with.

"Alright." Katie said handing him the ID against all her better survival instincts.

As soon as he had it Liam ran right up to the robot. For a fleeting moment Katie thought he may try to disarm the thing like a hero in a gragnok the barbarian comic and her the damsel in distress. This fantasy was short lived and Liam ducked behind it running down the hall as far as she could see. "Liam." Katie asked with a tremble in her voice.

"Prepare for termination." The sentry said leveling its weapons on her.

"Liam!" she cried out falling to her knees and desperately covering her head.

"Prepare ... to ...be termi ... eeeeee." Katie looked and saw the sentry bot slumped its light turned off.

"Liam?" she asked.

"I shut it down." Liam said poking out from behind the robot. "Wasn't that hard honestly." Despite what he said Liam's palms were coated with sweat and he looked like he had aged ten years behind that robot. "Are we still doing this?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course we are; we just beat a robot." Katie said doubling over with nervous laughter. "Come on let's get to that damn computer room.

As they made their way to the central computer room Liam saw some rather worrisome things. "Those are ceiling mounted turrets, lasers, even some more deactivated sentry bots."

"Why aren't they firing?" Katie asked.

"They might be disabled until the janitors leave later on so no one gets shot."

"So why did that one come on?" Katie asked.

"Probably just one that they leave active to secure the facility. It wouldn't have done anything if only one of us had come through, but with both of us its security protocols must have activated."

"That's not the only weird thing though." Liam shook his head trying to piece it together. "Come on let's hurry up."

They got to the main computer room where Liam easily unlocked the door through a nearby terminal. He also deactivated the turrets and sentry bots just in case they somehow activated.

"Alright." Liam's fingers flew across the keyboard and Katie admired his figure standing there. Although Liam was a naturally anxious person when dealing with just about any situation when he was on a keyboard he was almost a different person. Confident that each key stroke he made was the right one and cool despite their time limit he was an impressive sight.

"I'm in." Liam announced pulling out his halodisk. "Just this and we're out of here."

"That's far enough kiddies!" A voice yelled followed by the cocking of a gun.

"Who is that?" Katie asked.

"It's Lockheart." Liam said watching as the man approached out of the darkness pointing a pistol at them. "Did he follow us?"

"No I checked for tails the whole way here." Katie said.

"It was a tracking device under the car loves. Got to say though bird you certainly would have seen me if I tried to follow you by car." He spoke with a British accent now and with the confidence with which he held the gun made it quite obvious that he was used to it. "Now why don't you stop copying hat information off that computer?"

"Information, what information?!" Katie asked frantically.

"We haven't copied anything we were just trying to change the shipping manifest." Liam said focusing his gaze on the gun.

"You duckies really are just stealing some chems huh? You don't have any idea what you've stumbled on." As Lockheart said this it occurred to Liam what didn't make sense about this whole thing; there was too much security to just be guarding a couple chems. He pointed the gun at Liam and smiled. "Alright duck since you look like the brains behind this operation why don't you download whatever's on that computer to this blank halodisk. As a favor for shutting down those pesky security systems I'll even let you pick who I shoot. I only need one body to make it look like a robbery gone wrong. The other gets to go free." His handsome features twisted in an ugly smile. "Promise."

Liam didn't catch the halodisk when Lockheart threw it and he fumbled to grab it off the floor. He walked over to the terminal the whole way his own halodisk burning a hole in his pocket. If he could just install this instead of Locheart's halodisk they both might walk away alive.

Very carefully Liam reached into his pocket and carefully pulled out his own halodisk. "Hurry up ducky or I might just shoot your girlfriend here and shoot you anyway." Liam inserted the halodisk and his program immediately went to work attacking the system. Within only a few seconds he was in complete control of the system and he switched on the security systems.

"Get down!" Liam yelled tackling Katie to the ground as the system went online. The computer locked and the turrets armed, but Desmond was too slow to react before a bullet lodged itself into his shoulder. He fell and the system declaring him dead shut off.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

"Let's not stick around to find out." Liam said quickly turning off the system again before it could aim at them.

"What information was he talking about?"

"I have no idea." Liam said. "Let's get out of here."

Sure enough they saw Lockheart's fancy car right outside while they had to run the quarter mile back to their car. "Now what?" Liam asked.

"I'm assuming you installed your program?" Liam nodded and Katie smiled in relief. "Now we need to go to the party to establish an allabi. Just for an hour or two then we can leave, but people need to make sure that they saw us together."

"Okay." Liam leaned back in the seat and popped a mentats to soothe his nerves.

"Thar was insane." Katie said shaking her head. "That guy was going to shoot us."

"Do you think he's dead?" Liam asked.

"He doesn't seem like the type." Katie said.

"To die?" Katie shrugged and Liam sighed.

Katie pulled into the driveway of the mansion where the party was being held. "Did you know Melissa's parents were rich?" Katie asked and Liam shoom his head. "Maybe this won't be so boring."

They exited the car and entered the party which was reaching its climax. "I'll go get us drinks." Katie said walking off in the direction of the punch bowl.