Chapter Five.

Moira stared at an empty box of Mentats, wondering if Leo Stahl might have some he was willing to sell. Silver was sitting at a table on the other side of the shop, nursing a bottle of whisky she had found.

I'm not blowing up Megaton, Moira thought. But someone might.

It was a little after noon, and only a few people had come through looking to buy anything. Lucy West had wanted paper to send a letter, and Walter was looking for something he could use on the water pumps. She had handled their purchases in a dazed, mechanical fashion, which hadn't gone unnoticed. Silver hadn't gone unnoticed either, but neither Moira or Silver were aware of it.

Moira was too busy contemplating what she was going to do about Mr. Burke to notice much of anything. By the time she had popped her last Mentat, she had worked out three options: Tell Lucas Simms about Mr. Burke and hope he took care of it, do what Mr. Burke said, or leave town forever.

Telling Simms might deal with Mr. Burke, but she was savvy enough to know Simms wouldn't do anything to Moriarty, who Mr. Burke said he was in league with somehow. She wondered how Moriarty felt about Megaton being blown up. Based on what she knew, he had no good reason to go along with such a proposal. Could Mr. Burke have been bluffing?

If he wasn't, she was in trouble.

The things Mr. Burke had said weren't adding up, but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to ignore his threats. She knew it was a weakness of hers, and that people lied all the time, but for some reason she always seemed to feel there was a ring of truth in whatever people said.

If she left town, where would she go? Getting set up in Megaton hadn't been easy, and aside from Rivet City, few other towns were as secure. Plus, she would hate to hear about Megaton being wiped off the map, knowing she might have done something about it.

She sighed, realizing that was what she would have to do. If she rendered the bomb inoperable, then it didn't matter if Mr. Burke or any of Tenpenny's goons came by and tinkered with it.

But Lucas Simms had told her a long time ago not to go messing with the bomb.

But Mr. Burke told me how to get around that, didn't he? She thought.

All she had to do was go down to the bomb at night and rig it so it couldn't explode, instead of putting on the timer device. But it'll be dark, and I won't have much time, she thought.

She'd have to know what she was doing before she opened the device up, that much was clear. Moira began to wonder where she might get schematics for a nuclear bomb. Based on what she had read about them in old books she had scavenged or bought, the blueprints on how to make them had been kept secret for many years.

Absentmindedly tapping the empty box of Mentats on her chin, and smelling the inside of the box, she thought she remembered something that happened a few months prior. A mercenary had come to the shop looking for something Moira didn't have. She had been a short woman with close-cut red hair who talked like she had been born a man.

She was a member of Rodney's Rangers, or something like that, Moira thought. What had she wanted? Snapping her fingers, she remembered. "A mini-nuke!" she said, making Silver look over at her.

"What?"

"Uh, nothing," Moira said. "Say, I need you to mind the shop for a few days. I'll let Mr. Simms know, so no one bothers you, okay? I've got to go somewhere and get something."

"Bring back booze and chems," Silver said. "God knows I need 'em."

"Uh, I'll do that," Moira said, hoping she'd find a crate of Mentats while she was out. She also hoped she would find a mini-nuke that she could take apart and examine. It stood to reason that the mini-nuke was just a smaller version of a nuke, which was what was sitting at the center of Megaton. Defusing a mini-nuke was likely the exact same procedure as defusing a regular nuke.

I'm a genius, Moira thought. Now where would I find a mini-nuke?

Some of the caravan traders often had nifty items they picked up in their travels. She frowned, knowing that a caravan had left Megaton for Grayditch to the south a few days earlier. Another wouldn't be through for a week and a half at the earliest, but the one that left would be a while in Grayditch. It was a small town, but close enough to the ruins to be a hotspot for scavengers, who sold to the caravans.

If I hurry, I can catch up with them and see if they have a mini-nuke or know where I could get one, Moira thought. If she packed light, hurried, and didn't get held up, she could be back in time to figure out the nuke and defuse the big one. With the bomb rendered inert, no one could blow up Megaton, and she couldn't be blamed.

I really am a genius, she thought.

She got up from her stool and headed upstairs where she found a knapsack which she began packing with supplies. She threw it over her shoulder when she was done, and headed back downstairs where she grabbed a 10mm pistol she kept under the counter. She had spare clips in the sack in case things got nasty.

"Alright, the price list is by the counter. No haggling while I'm away," she said to Silver as she walked out the door.

Silver said something, but Moira didn't hear. It took her about five minutes to find Lucas Simms and ask him to keep an eye out for Silver who was watching the shop for her. She didn't notice Simms looking at her as though she were crazier than usual. "I'll keep an eye on it," he said. "Be careful out there. One of these days you're not going to come back."

He, or someone else, said the same sort of thing every time she left on an expedition. Once the guide was complete, all the risk would be worth it. She had packed a few note books and holo-recorders to take notes while headed to Grayditch for the mini-nuke, turning what would have been a distraction into a learning opportunity.

Genius, Moira thought, walking through the front gate of Megaton.

To be continued…