Eight hours later, they returned to town hungry and slightly sore. After a while of aimless wandering, which allowed them to take in the dull features of the Mojave wasteland surrounding the town, the pair had come across some scattered groups of geckos. Ember saw the opportunity for target practice and Rex saw the chance to tear geckos to shreds. An equal amount of happiness for both of them; happiness that earned them a couple spare gecko hides and eggs that would make a few spare caps.
The town residents were awake by the time they returned, which made the small adventure worth it in the end. Some were bartering with the traveling merchants, attempting to strike up some outrageous deals, whilst others loomed by the local doctor, Ada Straus. Ember didn't really care to call her a doctor though, since Rex had more ability in the medical field than her. It was also the fact that Ada was the town's drug dealer that assured her that the Followers wouldn't be hiking their way down to Novac to seek her knowledge. Those easily scammed by that type of person was usually those Ember took great effort to avoid interaction with. But, she had given the sniper her word that she would see this through.
Before she could even attempt to plaster on a fake, friendly smile, something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was a man in NCR ranger armor limping into the gates of the motel. Even from this distance away, Ember could tell that his limp was a heavy burden. Not your typical, "I stepped on a nail" or "I tripped", type of injury. She watched his struggle across the yard to what she presumed was his bungalow, before he slipped out her sight inside of it.
Deciding that chatting with the ranger would be much more interesting than listening to anything the other residents had to say, Ember retraced his steps to the small bungalow's door then politely gave a hard knock, figuring she would only try her luck by sneaking up on 1st recon snipers at night. She heard a slight shuffle from inside before a voice called out to her. "Come in!"
The door opened into a room about as shabby as her own hotel room, but a bit better kept than her own. After taking in the sights of the room, she looked at the ranger, who was waiting patiently in a seat by a desk for her to take in the scenery. Realizing that her silence may be considered rude, Ember found her voice. "Uh, hi. I'm Ember and this is Rex." The cyberdog gave a happy bark as a way of greetings and the courier felt relief in the fact that he didn't attempt to attack the ranger for his sin of hat. Though she still intended to keep a close eye on him.
"You must be new in town. I'm Andy." The ranger said pleasantly, which made her believe that he was a great place to start this investigation.
"I've been here before a while back, but kinda got the blunt end of the town's night time sniper after I tried to make conversation." Ember mentally corrected herself that she originally intended to yell Manny's head off for the confusing mission he had sent her on, but the ranger didn't need to know that. She also wasn't going to let him know that she still didn't know his name, even after being given this rather morbid task. "Got any idea what made him that way?"
"Ah, Boone? Been that way for a while now. Had his wife taken. I don't think he'll ever be the same as he was. Damn shame." Andy shook his head then continued on. "I told the Rangers up at the station to keep an eye out, but there's just too much ground to cover."
The courier leaned up against the wall across from Andy. "What was his wife like?"
For some reason, that question caused the Ranger to break into a smile. After a heartbeat of a moment later, the smile lessened into a sad grin. "Carla was a knockout. Whenever Boone walked around with her, he always had a funny grin on his face like he couldn't believe his luck." He let out a huff of a laugh. "I know we couldn't." With a little effort, Andy leaned back in his seat. "Her looks wasn't the only reason she stuck out. That girl never minced words. If she'd had better food or hospitality, she'd let you hear it. Trouble was, she usually had."
Ember nodded, understanding how this could create a bit of tension in a "humble" town like this. Those who weren't "grateful" enough for what they were provided usually didn't last long in a tight community like this one.
"I don't think she meant it though. She really was a sweet girl." The way he said those words made her believe that to be a fact. "I think she just wanted to remind herself that there are still nicer places in this world than Novac. Who could blame her for that?"
Feeling the mood was too dark for a first conversation, she decided to question him a bit about his own history. As most NCR Rangers were chocked full of at least a few stories, Andy didn't disappoint. The ending to his own was a little pitying though. Exchanging a few tales of her own adventures with NCR proved to keep the mood from simmering down. One thing lead to another and Ember found herself explaining to the Ranger that he wasn't useless in his injured condition, that his mind was well intact. He seemed to gain something from that and offered to teach the courier a Ranger defensive move.
Whenever he put it into demonstration on her, she didn't not expect to go from staring at his hat to looking up at Rex's tilted head. A few practice tries with a chair as her staged enemy, and the Ranger gave her form a nod of approval.
They parted with Ember promising to visit some of his Ranger buddies down at station Charlie and that she would come visit again sometime.
With some base knowledge about Boone's wife, she felt more confident in their search for her seller. That confidence was beaten into the dust whenever most of the residents had the same thing to say. Miss Jeannie May and Manny seemed the most relieved by her disappearance, which made her stomach churn. Just as she thought she had went through all the people in the town, she spotted a rusty shack down the road and she knew that there was one other person in this town that could give her a lead.
Upon walking into the shack, however, she wished that she had never seen this place. It and its lone resident just screamed "roach shit crazy" to her. Before she could even excuse herself away from the brewing storm of crap she knew this guy would tell her, he jumped up from behind the small barrier of sandbags the room had. "What! How'd you get past the guards?!"
Ember slowly closed her eyes and silently pleaded for any god to give her strength to get through this conversation without shooting him, or herself.
"Who sent you? I ain't talking! They tried to get me to talk before, but I didn't say nothing. And I don't aim to now, by gum." His shouting caused her a headache.
Opening her eyes again, she turned back to him slowly. "I don't mean you any harm."
"We'll see about that. You come any closer and I'm liable to stick you with my stickin' knife. Ol' Sticky's feeling mighty ornery this day." The old man brought out a knife to prove him point and Ember felt Rex tense up beside her.
"We can just talk from this distance, alright?" Her hand met Rex's head as she tried to put on a gentle smile.
"You sure, now? It's kinda hard to hear you."
"You just talked about stabbing me with your dirty knife. I'm fine where I am."
"Okay, Okay. But speak up a little. But not so much that They hear you. They got people everywhere, always listening." He shifted his gaze from side to side, as if looking for his fictional "They".
Ember let out a breath before asking the blunt question that everyone else was too soft for. "What do you about Boone's wife abduction?"
Surprisingly, No Bark started to hum a little. "Seen it all. Seen shadowy folk come to his room and leave again in the middle of the night. Thought one might've gone in the lobby, too, for a spell." That was all the information the Ember needed. As he dissolved into crazier ramblings about theories of who it was, she exited the shack.
Glancing down at her Pip-Boy, she noticed the time was around two hours before Boone's shift. The perfect amount of time to find evidence. She just needed to chat the old lady up a bit, which was easy. Knowing the old woman didn't care for Rex, Ember unhappily left him by the traveling merchants to wait until the deed was done.
Slipping into the lobby, she fell into the role of the cheery, friendly, young courier persona rather easily. She guessed it had something to do with the fire that was burning in her gut with the information she had obtained from No Bark. He may have been crazy, but she knew that was one too many fingers pointing towards Miss Jeannie May. And as she talked pleasantry with the old woman, the connection formed more and more in her mind.
For a brief moment, Miss Jeannie May excused herself to the restroom for a bit and Ember assured her that she'd treat any traveler who wandered in with the hospitality that Novac was known for. As soon as the door closed behind her, however, the courier set to work, searching around the front desk of the office for evidence. That's whenever she came upon the floor safe. Its lock was as easy as child's play for her to pick and she soon found herself with a document, which had the formally written title at the top: "Bill of Sale".
Quickly reading the contents of the document, she felt sick. It was bad enough to sell your fellow woman off to slavers known for abuse and rape. But an unborn child? If she hadn't promised Boone he'd get his revenge, Ember would've personally beaten the woman to a bloody pulp.
The time was still an hour before Boone's shift, so she forced herself to slip back into her persona and put the document into one of the many pouches on her hip. Miss Jeannie May returned, unaware of the courier's discovery and plans, and they returned to their chat.
When topics were growing old, Ember glanced down at her Pip-Boy to see she had talked her way well into Boone's shift. She bid Miss Jeannie May goodbye as if she was retiring for the night, but she merely waited a few minutes outside the door. Then she rushed back into the office, faking a look of shock. "Miss Jeannie May, you have to see this! Out in front of the dinosaur! Hurry!" With that she quickly returned outside.
"What is it?" Miss Jeannie May hurried at the command of her new "friend", quickly jogging after her.
"You've gotta see, Miss Jeannie. You just got to." If she wasn't trying to be convincing in her role, Ember would've cringed at the way her accent had taken over her speech. But they were in front of the dinosaur now and a wrong move could ruin this completely.
"Now Miss Ember, what is it you need to show me?"
"Look up there." Ember pointed up towards the mouth of the dinosaur, where Boone currently sat.
"Yes, yes. I see Boone up there." The old woman turned her head back to the other, looking a bit annoyed. "Is that all?"
"You don't see it?" She asked innocently. "Look more closely."
Miss Jeannie May turned back to the dinosaur and squinted as she gazed at its mouth. "I don't believe I'm seeing what you are."
"Let me help you then." The warm persona she wore disappeared as she directed the old woman's attention once again towards Boone. "See that?" Her voice was as cold as ice as she whispered into the other's ear. "That's the husband of the innocent young mother who you sold off to legion slavers. You sold that poor girl and her unborn child for a measly one thousand five hundred caps." She stepped away, reached into her bag, pulled out Boone's red beret, and then stared at the shocked face of the other.
The courier's face was blank as she told Miss Jeannie May the last words she'd ever hear. "I hope you rot in hell, bitch." In a swift motion, Ember placed the beret onto her head and turned towards the Dinosaur. She wasn't shocked whenever the bullet came down and hit Miss Jeannie May square between the eyes. She was just impressed on how fast he was.
Ember didn't find any shame as she searched the corpse for anything of use. Disappointed that the rotten bitch had nothing of use to her, she just dragged the body into some nearby dead bushes then went to retrieve Rex from his unwavering position. They both went up the familiar steps to the mouth of the dinosaur and were pleasantly surprised whenever Boone didn't raise his rifle their way again.
"How'd you know?" A simple question from a short spoken man. A weighted question from a man seeking to finally find some kind of peace.
"Sorry." She whispered in advance before slipping the document out from her pouch and handing it to him. Even though his sunglasses blocked her view of his eyes, she knew they aged more and more with every word of that bill of sale.
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It'd be like them to keep paperwork." Boone folded up the document again and slipped it into his pants pocket. "Here." He passed her a small bag filled with caps and a 1st recon red beret, just like his own. "This is all I can give. I think our dealings are done here."
Looking up from her new beret to meet his eyes, she felt a new question in her mind. "What are you going to do now?"
The former 1st recon sniper looked slightly lost, as lost as a non-emotion showing man can. "I don't know. I won't be staying, I know that. Don't see much point in anything right now, except hunting legionaries." He inclined his head towards her. "Maybe I'll wander, like you."
That popped an idea in her head that she couldn't help but say out loud. "Why don't you come with me? We can hunt down the legion, together."
"You don't want to do that."
"I thought snipers worked in pairs." She had been taught that fact after endless slightly drunk card games with the 1st recon team at Camp McCarran, the cheating bastards.
This statement seemed to entertain Boone though and he gave a nod. "Yeah. Working on your own, you're a lot less effective. I've been there and paid for it." He stared at her so sharply that it felt like he was going to burn a hole through his sunglasses. "But this isn't going to end well."
"Don't act like you know everything." The courier scolded, stuffing her newly obtained goods into her pack. "I'm a pretty good shot and Rex help us through any trouble we get into."
Boone didn't show any physical change as he replied. "Fine. Let's get out of here."
She looked at him for a moment, puzzled. "Don't you need to grab anything from your room or tell Manny?"
"There's nothing there for me to pick up and Manny will know as soon as he spots the body tomorrow morning."
"Alright then, let's go." Ember headed out of the dinosaur, down the road, and away from the town that she still hated so very much. But at least she had gained company that would talk back to her. Well. After a second glance behind her at the sniper, she changed that thought. She thinks the dog will still talk more.