16

Carol's Place is in one of the larger upstairs areas in Underworld. You go through the door and there's the entrance to the diner off to the left, and the main counter right in front of you. Otherwise it looks just like any other interior in Underworld. Same beige walls. Same fake pillars up against them. Same soft lighting, flickering or not depending on whether Winthrop has got around to fixing it yet.

Carol usually sits behind the counter. She was there when Three and I walked in. I took my hat off so she could tell who I was.

"Thistle! Welcome back," said Carol, standing up quickly. "Have you seen Gob?"

"Thanks, Carol," I said. "Yeah, I saw him. He's still working in Megaton. Still seems to be doing okay. I gave him the caps you sent him."

"I'm so glad to hear he's all right," she said. Carol has been around longer than almost anybody in Underworld. She survived the War and all the horrors that came after it. You'd think by now she'd have a skin like armor plate. Not so. She's just as nice as Moira, and gets her feelings hurt easier. I'm sure this is why Greta is so protective of her.

"I need a place to sleep," I said.

"Yes, of course. I guess you've had a long trip." Carol glanced at the doorway, where no Greta was to be seen, and leaned forward. "No charge," she said. "Since I couldn't afford to pay you for checking on my boy."

"I couldn't let you do that," I said, and pushed the last of my caps across the counter. "Especially not if business is bad."

"Thank you," said Carol quietly, and rang it up. She gestured at the back alcove. "Make yourselves comfortable. There's nobody staying right now, so you've got your pick. The sheets are all clean."

"They always are," I said, and unslung my rucksack as I headed back toward the alcove. All the beds were lined up along the wall, same as they had been when I was here last. I went all the way to the end of the row and shoved the ruck back against the wall beside the pillow. I put my rifle there, too. Then I pried my boots off with a groan and shoved them under the bed. Three watched all this sort of blankly. He left his own boots on as he sat down on the bed next to mine.

"Not to worry," I told him. "This is one of the safest places we could be right now. Especially with Fawkes outside."

"Gary," he said. A muscle worked in his temple as he clenched and unclenched his jaw. He looked over his shoulder, back toward the door.

"I've known Carol and Greta for a long time," I said. "They're okay. And Jay's not going to come looking for me. Not unless somebody else pays him." I lay back and tipped my hat over my face, blotting out the interior lights that never go off. Sleeping outside, you get used to the dark. It always feels weird for me to sleep indoors and have lights on all the time.

That time, I was too tired for it to bother me. I don't remember a thing until Three woke me up by saying my name.

"Whuh?" I said, removing my hat with one hand and reaching for the rifle with the other.

"Thistle," said Three again. I sat up.

"Oh. Good morning. Or whatever it is. What's going on?"

Three worked on it for a while and came up with, "Fawkes."

"He sent you to get me? What, couldn't you sleep?"

Three shrugged. I guessed he'd had another nightmare, or whatever I should call those hideous moments that woke him up nights. He always seemed to have a little shadow under his eyes, so no help there. At the moment his dark hair was damp, which was the only clue that it might be morning. Time is a shaky concept in Underworld.

I reached under the bed for my boots. My mouth felt horrible. I hoped whatever-it-was could wait until I'd had time to freshen up. "Is this urgent?" I asked.

Three shook his head.

"Did Jay leave?"

Nod.

"How is that not urgent?"

Three smiled slightly, eyes suddenly narrow. "Gary," he said. "Know where."

"You know where he went?" I asked.

"Fawkes," corrected Three.

"All right. I'm going to go freshen up, and then we'll talk about it." I could smell coffee and something cooking from the diner, which was torture, but I didn't have any money left. Three and I would have to eat out of the rucksack. I wasn't sure what to do about Fawkes yet. "How long did I sleep?"

Three held up nine fingers.

"Wow. That long."

He grinned, a real smile this time. "Gary," he informed me cheerfully, and made an ushering gesture toward the door.

"Okay, okay," I said, and got my other boot on and staggered out.

Twenty minutes later I emerged from the restroom as groomed as I generally get. I haven't got enough hair to bother about, and I usually only have one outfit, so it's trying to get everything clean that takes the most time. Even after Project Purity, it's dusty in the Wasteland.

Fawkes stood waiting beside the same bench where I'd left him last night. He was looking implacably calm as usual, so I guess nothing bad had happened while I was asleep.

"Good morning," he said. I settled my hat carefully on my head.

"Morning," I said. "If that's what it is."

"Very early," said Fawkes. "But yes. You went to sleep late in the afternoon yesterday."

"How'd you know that?" I asked.

"I asked Cerberus the time."

"Oh. So did anybody give you a hard time?" I said.

"No," said Fawkes. "Oddly enough."

"That's good, then." I resettled my knapsack. "So you wanted to tell me something?"

Fawkes was silent for a moment, apparently trying to figure out how to phrase something. "Is it true that you will be looking for new employment soon?"

"Um," I said. "Yeah." Since I'm flat broke now. But I didn't want Three to feel like I minded what I'd spent on his clothes, or Fawkes to feel like I was sorry I'd used all those stimpaks on him. Both of those were necessary things. There was no point in bringing them up.

"I have a suggestion along those lines," said Fawkes.

"What's that?" I said. "And what does it have to do with Jay?"

"It's possible this person will be hired as well. So I overheard this morning, at least." That's how he said it, too. This person.

"So what's the job?" I said. I'm guessing it's not something easy, if they're willing to invest in Jay's services.

"I understand the Brotherhood of Steel is looking for an independent contractor to retrieve something from a private Vault," said Fawkes.

"Oh, Hell no," I said. "I don't work with the BOS. They're gun-crazy bigots and if that's not enough, they also shoot Ghouls on sight."

"I think you may judge them harshly," said Fawkes. "And they will not attack you if you are with me. I am nearly certain."

Three cocked one dark eyebrow up at Fawkes. "Gary nearly?"

"Great," I said. I stood there for a minute, thinking it over. It sounded like a very bad idea. But it was Fawkes's idea, wasn't it? Maybe he knew something I didn't. That wasn't hard to imagine. Maybe he just wanted to see if I would trust him the way he'd shown he trusted me. I owe him that. "All right," I said. "You know how to get in touch with these id – these guys?"

"Yes," said Fawkes. I might have imagined the tiny hesitation before he said, "If you will follow me."

There was nothing else I could say but "Sure. Let's go." I ignored Three's disbelieving stare as I turned toward the concourse doors.

So we left Underworld. Fawkes reached for the barrel of the gatling laser as he stepped out the front door of the lobby. I took my rifle off my shoulder. You want to be ready if you're planning to spend any time out on the Mall, and I wasn't sure what time it actually was. It might be daylight already.

It wasn't quite. The sky was pale, but everything below was still dim, the way it gets when the sun is just thinking about rising. It was even a little chilly. I could see the hulking shapes of the super mutants moving around out in their dugouts and behind the sandbags, but if what Fawkes had told me about their sleeping habits was true, that was no surprise.

Fawkes turned immediately to the right and set off down the sidewalk. I stuck behind him, and Three stayed beside me, walking softly in his boots. He seemed to be getting better at that as time went on. In a few more weeks, I probably wouldn't be able to hear him at all. It didn't really matter how quiet he was now, though. Not with Fawkes tromping through the cool morning in his enormous Vault boots. I'm sure some of the mutants must have seen him, but no one took a shot. Maybe they knew enough to respect the gat. Or maybe they knew who Fawkes was. A lot of people seemed to.

I saw the Lincoln Memorial looming up ahead. There were guys camped out under the shelter of the pillars, one or two smoking cigarettes slouched against the stone, but they obviously weren't Brotherhood. None of them had the heavy bug-eyed power armor that usually identifies knights and paladins from a distance. Fawkes was turning off to the right, toward the front of an abandoned building. The front doors were intact, and the ground floor windows were boarded up. Fawkes shoved one of the doors open as if he knew it wasn't locked, and then Three and I followed him inside.

The first thing I heard after the door closing was the sound of safety catches being thumbed off. Four unreadable helmets looked at us over the barrels of assault rifles. The four gunnies stood behind sandbags. I noticed peripherally that we were in a good-sized lobby, smaller than the Museum's but big enough to easily hold the gunnies plus tables, chairs and us. The floor was marble, but that's no surprise in any building on the Mall.

Fawkes looked down at them. "My name is Fawkes," he said. "I understand the Brotherhood is interested in having an item retrieved."

"Fawkes," said one of the gunnies, and lowered his weapon. The others followed suit. His voice came out tinny and flat through the helmet as he said, "Haven't seen you in a while. It's Sigerson, remember me?"

"I do," said Fawkes. "Good morning, Knight."

"Morning," said (apparently) Knight Sigerson. "You might be too late. They're negotiating with somebody about it now. We'll tell them you're here, though."

"Please do," said Fawkes. Nobody asked who Three and I were. If we were with Fawkes, I guessed it didn't matter. Sigerson said something to one of the others, and he went jogging off to a door on the other side of the lobby.

After a minute or so he came back. "Paladin says send them in," he said.