Another luxurious car was in Liam's driveway when he got home from school that day. It was a different one than the one Desmond had originally brought, but a thousand images of how the man might be holding his family hostage inside flashed through his thoughts.
Not surprisingly he wished that Katie was there; she was the tough one after all. Steeling his resolve he ducked under the porch window, hopped the fence, and peeked through the back door into the living room.
It wasn't Desmond like he had expected it was someone just as worrisome if not more so: Mr. House. The only other person who knew down to the day when the world was going to end to the date. He was sitting on their couch smiling his thousand watt smile, twisting his mustache as he laughed at whatever story his mother was telling. Meanwhile his father was making futile attempts to try and show Mr. House the business plan he had been taking to every bank that would let him in the door.
His mother turned her head in his direction; Liam tried ducking behind the door, but it was a vein attempt. "Liam!" she called and he sighed.
Whatever the conversation might be he knew it would take at least three mentats to get through. Luckily Katie had restocked him that morning and while he still felt a bit twitchy after the first two the third put an end to that.
"So as you can see Mr. House we would be making a profit within three years and after installing the new frames you would see a return on your investments within three months of that." Mr. Wells said pointing to a chart in the folder which Mr. House wasn't paying attention to at all. As soon as Liam had walked in the door his gaze was locked on the younger boy.
Liam gulped, he felt intimidated. He may be good with computers and science, but Mr. House was a certified genius in all aspects. A king of industry, and one of the robot giants who made incredible profits off of the war. "Yes, yes very interesting." he said grabbing the folder without glancing at it. "Well it looks like your son has arrived."
"Oh yeah of course." Mr. Wells said seemingly barely realizing himself that Liam was here. "Liam Mr. House had some time between his meetings and came here to uh talk turkey." His tone was nice enough, but Liam knew his dad well enough to know this was his "don't screw this up for us face". "To talk about you specifically." Liam felt his heart start to beat harder and he found himself wishing he had taken more than three mentats.
"Yes well I'm still a bit confused about that, you see I was at the meeting at the high school, and as I recall you were only giving away two scholarships for you company." Mrs. Wells glanced at Mr. House who seemed surprised that she had remembered that and pieced that together so quickly. Liam was not, he didn't get his intelligence from dad after all.
"There may have only been two scholarships available Mrs. Wells but I'm not here to talk to your son about a scholarship. I'm here to offer him a job."
"A job?" Mr. Wells spluttered. "Mr. House as smart as my son may be he's not cut out for the back breaking work of robot building. That's hard, man's work not for someone as delicate as Liam here, besides he's already got a job helping me in the shop when he gets older."
"Well as honest and hard as the work may be Mr. Wells no human being has built a robot since the fifties." Mr. House ran a hand through his hair still focused on Liam. "I want Liam here to work alongside me on a new project."
"Alongside you?" Mrs. Wells asked for her husband was too stunned to respond.
"Yes, you see Liam has a gift with computers. One that I must say rivals my own, and I believe that I can put his talents to good use at my company. The bulky hard drives and monitors that you see across the world today are inadequate for future projects that I will be working on, and I believe that with Liam's help I can solve quite a few problems that have been plaguing me in the design. As for salary I can bring Liam on at a few million dollars a year to begin with then once we have designed and patented a few projects together we can talk about giving him a stake in Rob. Co and in a few years when he graduates college he may be able to sit on the board someday." Mrs. Wells' eyes were as large as a deer caught in the headlights and she was squeezing Mr. Well's arm in a vice grip. "Of course depending on how your son preforms there's no reason he wouldn't be able to take over the business when I am no longer capable."
"A-and you say all this is because Liam is good with computers?" Mr. Wells asked receiving a nod of recognition from the richer man. "How did you find out about his talent? If you don't mind me asking of course."
"Well that is actually confidential. You know lawyers always want to make sure no one knows anything just so they can make themselves look smart." This earned a nervous chuckle from Liam's parents who looked as if someone had struck them over the head with a solid gold brick and then told them to keep it in exchange. "Before any of this can happen though I'd like to speak to Liam alone for a few hours, just to get a sense of who he is and see if he's Robco material." They nodded and Liam wished for the first time that his parents weren't so naïve. "I had some reservations made at that steak house in the next town over, supposed to be the best in the state, but why don't you two go and enjoy it for me while I speak to your son?"
"That sounds just wonderful." Mrs. Wells said finally regaining her composure. "Darla our daughter is over at her grandmother's for the day; Liam you're okay talking to Mr. House aren't you?" Liam didn't think he could be less okay with anything in the world, and he tried to convey this message through his eyes, but both his parents remained oblivious to his fear. "Fantastic, we'll get our coats."
Mr. House waited until both of Liam's parents were out the door and down the street in their car before he finally turned and spoke to Liam. "Well then Liam, you're a smart boy so there's no need to beat around the bush here. You hacked into my computers in an effort to find material suitable blackmail material, but instead you found my algorithm. The algorithm that predicts the apocalypse. I call it PAM."
"I read the file." Liam agreed.
"Then you know that we're doomed and even if by some miracle no one flings a bomb then the next apocalypse is only a few short years away. Now I knew someone hacked my computers, as for how you did it I have no idea, I programmed them myself after all. I traced it back to this town then your little terminal back there, but I saw no point in making a fuss over it. A teenager now knows that the world's going to end, what does that matter? Then just a few short weeks later an alert goes off on my computer. Your terminal accessed the blueprints of a building that I and some other very important people have been looking for, for quite some time."
"The chem company." Liam whispered.
"Exactly. I was shocked, for a second there I considered the possibility that you were one of my competitors hiding out in a small town in an effort to throw me off, but after confirming that you exist and that neither of your parents are secret geniuses I concluded that you came to arrive at the information you found completely by accident." Mr. House squinted at him and Liam held his breath worried that he had somehow angered the man. "Do you know what it is you have found?"
"A bunch of complex medical, technology, and biology files." Liam said.
"If that was all you found do you really think that I and a very dangerous individual named Desmond Lockheart would both be in this mound of dirt you call a town?"
"I suppose not."
"No, we would not. What you found Liam is the personal sized solution to the apocalypse, a get out of jail free card for whoever possesses it. Within the data you found there were the half completed projects of a very special think tank of billionaires and geniuses. Some speculation for immortality through the use of cryogenic-stasis, experimental radiation treatments, the complete elimination of the need for a human body, and incredible life support systems capable of extending the average of life for hundreds possibly thousands of years. But as I said most are only half finished and the science behind them is so complex that any normal person like your parents would think themselves to death trying to read a step by step instruction manual on how to complete them."
"Then what do you want from me?" Liam asked forcing his hand to stop trembling.
"It's not about what I want Liam, it's about what you want Liam. You want to live through the apocalypse; trying to hack Vault-tec is a bold move even by my standards. I can provide you with all the money in the world to finish these experiments as well as an extra pair of hands to assist in making these pieces of science fiction reality."
"So you really do want a partner?"
"Exactly, and having one as gifted as you are will make things much easier for me in the long run. Not even I could hack the computer at that chem company, but you did it with a pre written program in mere minutes under the stress of a gun at your temple. Given enough time I may be able to do the same, but as you know time is one of the things we don't have." Mr. House's gaze fell on Liam's are where the pip-boy was attached. "I suppose that is connected to the super computer through some kind of remote interface, so you can access the plans whenever you please. We could begin work right now." Mr. House looked back up at Liam and saw the fear on his face. "While I understand that even for the most brilliant minds this might be quite a lot to process, but you need to make a decision and I expect one by this time next week. According to my projections that's the latest we can begin and still finish in time for the big show." Mr. House stood up, pulled on his coat, and reached for the door, but before he could step through the doorway Liam called out.
"If I'm going to do this my family has to get a get out of jail free card too." Liam said.
"Why of course." Mr. House nodded.
"And my girlfriend." Liam felt idiotic just saying such an adolescent thing in front of such a powerful man over such an important topic of discussion, but it seemed to only amuse the older man who smiled in the doorway.
"I wouldn't expect anything less, but a bit of friendly advice from one friend to another: family always screws you in the end. No exceptions." With that he left leaving Liam to try several pointless breathing exercises to try and calm down; he felt like he had just made a deal with the devil for his soul.
Speaking of devils, there was his favorite red head walking down the street. He knew that he could never tell her what had just transpired or that Mr. House had been here at all, or else risk his nonexistent relationship with her. He only hoped that saving her from the nuclear fire would somehow make up for the fact that he didn't warn her about it in the first place.
Katie's heart was in her throat and she could hear it beating in her ears. She was nervous for the first time in how long, she had known that Liam was hiding something, but how could he hide something like this from her. Why would he keep the biggest secret in the world hidden from her and still willingly enter in a relationship with her.
She hoped, she prayed that Desmond was a senile man with a lot of money to blow, and maybe it had just been him that arrived in town then she would believe it, but within weeks of his arrival a second highly influential and rich individual arrived and presented himself right at their school. What were the odds of that?
It certainly explained some things: the random mutterings that Liam spoke when he thought no one was listening, his sudden demand for things like stimpacks and med-x his unusual paranoia, angst, the panic attacks that gripped him. All things that one would expect from someone who was constantly waiting for the world to end; just the thought that any of what Desmond said sent chills down her spine. She couldn't imagine living with that information all on your own.
She also couldn't imagine the fact that Liam of all people would even be capable of keeping such a secret. Speaking of Liam she glanced at him standing in his doorway seemingly waiting for her. "I thought your parents and us had dinner plans." she said noticing s stark absence of any kind of adult in Liam's home which would make what she was about to do a lot easier.
"They got a free steak dinner at some restaurant over in the next town; I guess it slipped their minds." Liam said giving an awkward smile telling Katie that he was hiding something from her already. "I'm sure they'll regret not getting the chance to sit you down and talk."
"Oh Liam you flirt." Katie walked past him into the living room leaving him with a blush over his pale features. "I've got to say Liam getting your parents out of the house just in time for you to be in your house alone with a girl, how very scandalous." Liam visibly gulped as he turned redder than a tomato and Katie laughed again. "Oh relax Liam I'm just teasing." She glanced around for a few brief moments and spotted a few frozen dinners on the counter. "Still I am pretty hungry."
"I can heat up what my mom was planning on making." Liam said shaking his head as if to dislodge some naughty thought. "Just give me a few minutes."
"Sounds terrific." Katie said glancing at the hallway where Liam's room and the restroom both lay. "Your bathroom's down there right?"
"Y-yeah." Liam said pushing his glasses up his nose. "It's the last door."
"Thank you." Katie walked down as casually as she could manage, and even opened the door the door at the end of the hall to make it sound realistic, but she quietly entered Liam's room instead.
The only poster it could be was the Rob-Co Pip-boy poster that hung right above the terminal Liam had in his room. She peeled away the tape that held the thing in place; sure enough there was a safe there undetectable unless you were looking for it or knew where to find it like she did. She reached toward her hair and pulled out one of the bobby pins that held it in place. She pulled out the switchblade she had in her skirt pocket and used it as a torque wrench.
She hesitated, if she unlocked this safe whether or not there was anything inside it would mean that she trusted the world of the psychotic lunatic who tried to kill them twice over that of Liam, who she had known for years and who she cared about deeply. Whatever was in this safe, whether it was the truth about the apocalypse or not he had put in here because he wanted to keep it private. How could she ever hope to have a relationship if she was so willing to put it all at risk over someone else's word?
'Why does this have to be so hard?' Katie asked herself still hesitating on the lock. 'Just see what's inside and if it's not those halo-tapes that Desmond said were here just forgive him for whatever is in here.' Katie tried to convince herself that it shouldn't matter because Desmond wasn't telling the truth and whatever was inside would only prove that, but she wanted to have a normal relationship, to be a normal person in a normal relationship.