A/N: Sorry about the update delay. Working on Poser stuff.
18
As we started off I asked Fawkes, "You got the chems and food?"
"I did," said Fawkes, and reached up and poked at a burlap sack hanging from the backpack of the gatling laser. It was big and it hung kind of awkwardly, but he didn't seem bothered by it. "I suggest that we stop and eat before we go down into the dark. We will need to be alert then."
"Okay," I said. "How about the lobby at the Museum?" That way we'd be sheltered, but I wouldn't have to see anyone from the town. I was a little concerned that my name might get back to Ahzrukhal as someone inconvenient, and the terrifying picture of Fawkes rampaging through Underworld tended to stick in my mind.
We hung around in the dark corner near the door to eat. Fawkes knelt, unslung the sack, and ponderously sorted through it, picking out with two fingers anything that looked like it might have meat in it. He handed Three a package of Dandee Boy apples. Three squatted with his back against the wall and started to tear the package open.
"You want a stimpak for that leg?" I asked him. He shook his head. "Suit yourself." I took some snack cakes out of my pack for my own breakfast. I've got kind of a sweet tooth when I get a chance to do anything about it.
"How about telling me what that was all about?" I said after a while. "You want to do that?"
Three swallowed what he was chewing. Then he looked me in the eye and shook his head.
"You won't, or you can't?" I said.
"Gary," he said warily. "Can't." I eyed him for a minute.
"Okay," I said. "I'll guess. I know that wasn't just for my sake, because you didn't offer to kill Tulip back at the shop."
Three waggled one hand back and forth. I tried to ignore the loud crunching sound that was Fawkes eating. Opening the packages was out of the question given the size of his fingers vs. the boxes, so he just ate them whole. This didn't look healthy to me, but I guessed he knew what he could and couldn't handle.
"True," I said. "Different circumstances. So why'd you decide to kill Jay?"
"Gary he might get to gary gary gary be a," Three said, and fought with himself over the next word. Finally he gritted his teeth and spat out, "Problem."
"Sure," I said. "But if that was it, you'd've just broken his neck, prompt. You were playing with him."
Fawkes paused long enough to say, "That much was clear."
Three shot Fawkes an I wasn't talking to you kind of look. He turned back to me and shook his head. "He gggtold you," he said, and after a few sputtered words I figured out that he was trying to repeat what Jay had said to me earlier.
"Too much of a girl scout," I said. "That's what he said." Three nodded gratefully. A drop of sweat ran down from his hairline. "And not fast enough," I added quietly. "But yeah. We all know that. I'm not as fast as you or Jay. Not strong, like Fawkes. And between me and Jay I'm not sure who's the better tracker." But I've got a good idea, given that he bushwhacked me without too much trouble. "So you decided to get him because I can't, is that it?"
Three shook his head. "You," he pinched his lips shut for a second, clearly resisting another gary. "Won't."
"Yes," said Fawkes. "Three and I are not sure how you feel about this person. This gives us cause for concern should we encounter him in other circumstances." Three looked grateful for the interruption, for once. He'd probably done about all the talking he was going to do for today.
"You're worried I'd hesitate if he came after us," I translated this slowly. The other two waited while I thought about that. Jay knew I had let him off. Twice, if he counted when he stepped out to give me the stimpak and I hadn't shot him. I would swear he hadn't known what I was going to decide this morning, but that could just be because he couldn't really read anyone who thought differently than he did. That wasn't really the important question, though, was it?
"I've known him for a long time, off and on," I said. "He knew me before I looked like this, he was there when I got burned, and he acts like he doesn't care that I've changed. Or notice, much. Not a lot of people I can say that about." Or maybe he'd just never thought of me as a woman to begin with. There was evidence for that, if I wanted to look at it head on. Just because I'd noticed him right off didn't mean the feeling had been mutual; in fact, I had no reason to think it had. Maybe he thought of anybody he wasn't actually paying for sex as a gun with legs, like he was. I'd met enough people who seemed to take basically that view. Not all of them were men.
"I don't like him," I said. "I'd kill him if I had to. I'd rather not have to." I took a drink of water and offered the bottle to the others. Fawkes shook his head. Three took a quick drink and gave it back. "Besides," I said. "He's not coming after me on his own. And nobody's going to pay him, now he's managed to piss off Ahzrukhal." I laughed shortly as I put away the water and stood up. "I'm not important enough for that."
The others stood up as well. Fawkes brushed crumbs from the front of his worn trousers with one great hand. I still can't quite describe his expression. For one thing, like I've said, he doesn't have them in quite the same way as most people. He can't move his brows much, and he has no lips. But there is very definitely something he does when he's waiting for me to realize something nasty that he's known all along. This time it might've been his shoulders, dipping forward like he was waiting for a weight to land.
"What?" I said. Three looked from me to Fawkes, frowning. I opened my mouth to ask what was up, and then I got it.
I wasn't that important.
Fawkes was.
Most people knew who he was. Some of them probably also had reason to know he had a mind of his own that worked not as well as, but better than most humans. A mind like Fawkes's in the body of an enormous, immortal, constantly growing super mutant could have resulted in the most dangerous person on the planet.
(The reason it didn't, of course, is that Fawkes has a tendency to think big thoughts and watch the world go by if nobody is actually shooting at him. He's not one to go out and try to change things on his own. I think this is part of why we get along. Now he is patting me on the shoulder, sort of carefully so he doesn't throw me off with the typing.)
"You're thinking about those Talon mercs," I said.
"Yes," said Fawkes. "Three probably has not drawn enough attention to himself to warrant a price on his head. And they were carrying a heavy weapon."
Three nodded in agreement with this.
"Yeah, well," I said. "I doubt anyone's going to hire Jay to kill you."
"Gary?" said Three skeptically. I shrugged as we headed out the door again, and down the stairs toward the subway.
"He'd try. He might even succeed. Super mutants aren't invulnerable. I just about killed Fawkes down here before, remember?" I hauled the gate to the Metro open and stood to one side of it for a minute, letting my eyes adjust without making too much of a target of myself. I could feel Fawkes behind me, a large breathing warmth. Three leaned on the other side of the doorway, staring through the chain links.
Everything seemed quiet up ahead. I shucked the plasma rifle off my shoulder and started in.
"The thing is that Jay is expensive to hire," I said. "And he probably charges more to kill than he does for courier work, or bodyguarding, or anything else less risky. There's plenty of ex-Enclave out there who'd probably try it for lots cheaper."
"I have long been prepared for that eventuality," said Fawkes.
"Yeah," I said. "I guess you would be."
Not a lot happened for a long time. We walked through the Metro, following Fawkes's map. We were attacked by Feral Ghouls one time, but there were only three of them. Three and I killed them before Fawkes had the gat powered up. Three stopped to search the bodies, squirreling away a few caps into his new pockets, but I didn't want to touch them. I'm not squeamish, but no Ghoul likes to be reminded how easy we can go from people to animals. These had been starving so long they were absolutely savage, coming at us with nothing more than claws and teeth.
It was a longer trip than the one in. For one thing, the place we were headed was well out to the Southwest of the City, and D.C. goes on for a long ways. When we were tired, we found a maintenance cubby with a couple of dingy old mattresses thrown down in it, and Three and I bedded down behind the chain links while Fawkes stood guard outside. I didn't sleep very well, and the mattress I was on smelled bad, but it was better than nothing. We ate there, too, and managed to wash up and do whatever other business we had to do at one of the old restrooms that still had running water. For once I was really glad for Project Purity. The water was safe for Three as well as for me and Fawkes, and we filled all our water bottles at the sinks.
That day I started to notice that itchy feeling in my spine again. Somebody was following us. I kept an eye on our back trail, but that's not much good down in the Metro. Even where it's not dark, the tunnels curve around so much that visibility is low.
Still, I had a pretty good idea who it was. Talon Company mercs aren't that good at stealth, and Ferals and Raiders aren't that patient.
"We need to get up top soon as we can," I said to Fawkes that day.
"Yes," said Fawkes. He was looking at the map while Three and I kept watch up and down the tunnel. We'd stopped here because the lights were almost all working, so it was easier for him to read it. "There is a station five miles from here. I suggest we surface there."
"Okay," I said. I didn't mention the fact that Fawkes's voice was, as always, loud, and anyone within a hundred yards of us probably heard him. And whoever was following us couldn't be too far back, or he'd lose us in the tunnel. That was why I hadn't mentioned it to Fawkes and Three yet. Neither of them had suggested they knew we were followed, but I knew Fawkes had better ears than I did. Maybe he heard something and just didn't want to say.
I was real alert from then on, keeping an eye and an ear open and my finger on the trigger. If anyone wanted to ambush us while we were still down here, they'd have to do it soon. Three picked up that I was nervous and got tenser himself, but he didn't ask.
Nobody attacked us. When we got to the station it was empty except for a couple of mole rats, and they ran off to hide at the sight of Fawkes. Five minutes after that we were out the chain link gate and lurking in the stairwell, letting our eyes adjust to the bright sun. I made sure the gate was closed tight; it was rusty enough that it couldn't be opened or closed quietly, unless the unseen pursuer had brought oil with them.
After a minute I jerked my head at the stairs and led the other two up and behind the stairwell, so we couldn't be seen by anyone inside. We were on a big dusty flat, nothing but dirt and rocks in every direction. Green grass was starting to grow in the distance off toward the Southwest, suggesting there was a water source in the direction we were going.
"Okay," I said quietly. "You guys start walking." I pointed at the first outcrop between us and the green. "I'm going to stay here for a couple of minutes, see what I can see. Somebody's been after us for a while. I want to know who. And if that's going to happen, they have to hear Fawkes walking away. Stop when you get to cover and wait for me, all right?"
Fawkes nodded without speaking. Three shot me a wary look – be careful – and they started off together. I went as quick and quiet as I could and crouched down behind the parapet of the subway entrance, merging my shadow with the structure's. I powered up the plasma rifle and waited. At full power it made almost no noise.