The faint sounds of pre-war music were filtering into the sewers from the streets above when the Securitron stopped before a heavy steel door. Veronica still hung limp in Valeria's arms, and she worried that Veronica's pallor and shallow breathing were signs of more injuries than a broken arm. Valeria hadn't seen Veronica fall into the arena, but the nearest catwalk was twenty feet over the concrete floor and she had fallen hard.
"This here's the basement of the Lucky 38." The Securitron drawled as it swiveled to face them. "You jest step into the elevator and it'll take you up to meet Mr. House and get your friend repaired."
"Thank you…um?" Valeria asked awkwardly.
"Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!" The robot exclaimed. "Where are my manners? They call me Victor ma'am."
"Thank you Victor." Valeria said as she pushed past the Securitron and approached the door which had begun to grind open.
"Aw shucks pardner, don't mention it." Victor replied as Valeria stepped into a dark echoing chamber containing several massive turbines and a force of watchful Securitrons stationed on a catwalk far above. The elevator Victor had mentioned was easy to find, and as soon as Valeria stepped in the doors closed with a ding and it began to rise. She had no idea why the reclusive warlord of New Vegas wanted to see her, but Veronica needed immediate medical care and House was her only chance.
Finally the doors slid open revealing another Securitron. Unlike Victor, the robot's screen projected the image of a beautiful dark-haired woman with a rose tucked over her left ear.
"Welcome to the Penthouse Sugar." The Securitron said cheerfully. "I'm Vera, Mr. House's girl." Valeria started in surprise upon hearing the Securitron's name.
"As in Vera...Keyes?" She finally stammered.
"Of course." Vera replied. "Well, not the real one. Mr. House programmed me with a synthesis of her personality. I see to all of his…personal needs." Valeria stood frozen as she tried to think of a reply, then Veronica moaned reminding her of the urgency of their situation.
"Oh dear. The poor thing looks pretty bad." Vera said as she tilted forward to look down at Veronica. "Follow me Sugar. Mr. House had an Auto-Doc installed which should fix her right up." Vera then swiveled about and rolled across the lobby through a tattered curtain. Again Valeria followed, noting the dry rot that afflicted the drapes. That was the only sign of the age of the Lucky 38, which otherwise looked almost antiseptically clean.
Beyond the curtain, Valeria found an elevated walkway with several winding staircases descending to the Penthouse floor. Walls of curved glass revealed the night sky and suggested that they were in the disk-shaped structure at the very top of the casino's spire.
"This way Sugar." Vera urged as she waited at the end of the walkway before another curtain. Valeria strode forward as Vera rolled out of the way and held the curtain with a heavy claw. Valeria stepped past the robot and saw they were in a bedroom on an open balcony overlooking the living area below. Several inert Protectrons were placed like decorative statues, and a sinister looking device with segmented steel arms poised like the limbs of a preying mantis was next to the bed.
"Just lay her on the bed Sugar." Vera advised, and with a doubtful look at the machine Valeria gently did so. Immediately the machine's monitor flickered to life, showing a series of jagged lines. Valeria knew enough about medical technology to know that she was looking at Veronica's vital signs, which were probably being detected from sensors in the mattress. With a whir, the machine's arms unfolded and one with a syringe attachment extended toward Veronica's neck. Valeria lunged forward to grab it and stopped short as one of Vera's claws closed about her arm in an iron grip.
"It's okay Sugar. Just let the Auto-Doc do its work."
Valeria jerked at her arm, than heard Veronica sigh. She snapped her attention back to the bed in time to see the injector arm withdraw and Veronica's vital signs became less jagged. Vera released Valeria's arm as the Auto-Doc's other arms began to move with various pincers and cutting implements.
"Mr. House is a busy man and likes his appointments punctual." Valeria glanced at Vera than looked worriedly back at Veronica. "Don't worry about your little friend Sugar, I'll take good care of her. Just take the stairs down from here and head left. You'll know when you find Mr. House."
Realizing she had little choice but to trust the robot, Valeria nodded after one last look at Veronica then walked toward a curving stairway descending from the balcony. Vera was friendly enough, but the robot's grip left little doubt that she could take on the role of enforcer if needed.
The Penthouse was well furnished, but not opulent. Clearly House felt that the view from the panoramic windows was all the display of wealth and power that he needed. Valeria found the stillness unsettling. Aside from the sounds of her boots on the paneled floor, the only sounds were a low throbbing and the muffled moan of the wind from outside. Everything looked frozen in time, as if guests had stepped out for a moment and would soon return. The throbbing sound grew in volume as Valeria stepped around another stairway and into a room dominated by a large wall monitor surrounded by smaller screens showing images from both inside and outside the casino. Flanking the monitor were two Securitrons, motionless except for the occasional flicker of the images of stone-faced police officers on their video screens.
Suddenly the main monitor flickered and a monochrome image snapped into focus. It was the image of a man's face, perhaps forty years old with dark, slightly thinning hair and a thin mustache. The image was frozen with one of his eyebrows raised sardonically.
"Welcome to the Lucky 38." A calm male voice emanated from speakers hidden. "What do you think of my city?"
Valeria scowled as she rested her fists on her hips. "It's impressive." Valeria observed. "But you only control the Strip. You are either unable or unwilling to run anything outside the walls. The people outside have been left to fend for themselves while the few inside live with a level of luxury I've never seen in the wastes."
"You disapprove?" House asked with a tone of amusement.
"I'm just making an observation." Valeria replied with a frown. "But you didn't bring Veronica and I here out of charity. You want something, and it must be important for you to risk defying the Legion."
House was silent for a moment as Valeria waited for his reply. When he finally spoke, his tone was brusque and businesslike.
"Clearly there is more to you than your appearance would suggest. Very well, I'll get to the point. Tonight we have witnessed the beginning of the end of the Legion. There has been no sign that Caesar survived the chaos in the Thorn, and like any cult of personality he had no clear plans for succession. Most likely the Legion is about to tear itself apart in a struggle for leadership. My money is on his spymaster, Vulpes Incultua to try for the throne. Like many in his line of work, he was doubtless more aware of the realities of the Legion's situation than even his master. In any event we are likely facing a civil war between factions of the Legion."
"So how do you think Veronica and I would be any help?" Valeria asked crossing her arms.
"My Mark 1 Securitrons are neither numerous nor heavily armed. I have kept the NCR and the Legion at bay with the suggestion that I have a more formidable force hidden in reserve."
"You've been bluffing?"
"My dear, I never bluff." House admonished. "Although I may not be forthcoming with all the details. I do have an army of Mark 2 Securitrons in reserve, but it is inert without a critical software upgrade. That upgrade was encoded in a single device, a platinum chip built at considerable cost in the former town of Sunnyvale. The nuclear apocalypse began sooner than I anticipated, and I had to defend my city with inadequate systems."
"You were alive when the war happened?" Valeria interrupted. "Are you an AI?"
"Don't let the monitors fool you." House replied with a hint of amusement. "I am flesh and blood. My longevity is the result of much sacrifice, both personal and financial."
"So you must have found the chip and want it recovered." Valeria said after a pause.
"Your directness is most refreshing." House replied easily. "At this moment my city is vulnerable, either to war within the Legion or to a renewed offensive from the NCR. To add to the precariousness of the situation was Caesar's mad attack on the Boomers. Those xenophobic tribals were not allies, but the bunker containing my army lay beneath Nellis. Now the Legion controls the base, and it's only a matter of time before they find it, and the Legion lacks the Boomer's reverence for old world technology."
"I still don't see why you need Veronica and I."
"Actually, it's you that I have an interest in." House explained. "Your companion is a former member of the Brotherhood, a group I have never gotten along with. However you have demonstrated a capacity for loyalty, which is highly desirable under the circumstances."
"And my resemblance to Vera Keyes had nothing to do with it?" Valeria observed cynically.
"It had everything to do with it." House replied with a chuckle. "I wouldn't have given you a second glance except that you tripped off a facial recognition protocol I had ignored for centuries."
"You mean when I was stopped at the gate to the Strip?"
"Yes. You have a 99.8 percent match to Vera Keyes, once obvious differences such as your deformed canines were accounted for. Such an occurrence is so unlikely as to be statistically impossible. You are linked to Vera, and with your stated intent to learn about your past you have a personal stake in this mission."
"So where is the Chip?" Valeria demanded as she folded her arms.
"It is in the Sierra Madre." House stated simply.
"Domino said nobody has managed to get in." Valeria observed. "How do you know it's there?"
"I allowed Domino to 'capture' one of my Securitrons and I've used it as a double agent. I gave Domino access to some select secrets for the opportunity to find out what he's up to. As I suspected, the fortune locked away in the Sierra Madre is not what Domino wants. He wants to destroy me and rule the Strip himself."
"Domino knows about the chip and your army?"
"I doubt he knows fully what it is." House said dismissively. "But I believe he was the one who stole the chip from Sunnyvale and took it to the Sierra Madre."
"Why did he take it?"
"To answer that question I have to explain a little about Mr. Domino." House replied.
"Dean Domino rose from a life of poverty in the former English city of Liverpool. He gained prominence as an entertainer but his fame and wealth were never enough. Domino is driven by hatred of all members of upper class society and he used his connections in the entertainment industry to freelance as an industrial spy. His typical modus operandi was to use an attractive starlet to ingratiate himself with the rich and powerful."
"So Vera Keyes was the celebrity he used." Valeria observed, forgetting to keep her face impassive as she listened intently.
"One of several, and easily the most…fascinating." House said, his voice becoming distant as he remembered a long-lost era. "I suspected Dean was up to something, but I played along for the pleasure of Vera's company."
"What happened to her?"
"Vera and I had a…falling out and she turned to Frederick Sinclair to further her career in Hollywood. Dean hated Sinclair as much as he hated anyone of privilege, so he used Vera to gain access to the Sierra Madre, probably after he stole my chip and replaced it with a fake."
"Dean said he was the only survivor when the bombs fell." Valeria interrupted.
"For over a century I assumed nobody had survived that inferno." House admitted.
"Dean was probably planning to sell the chip to one of the many agents who were attending the Sierra Madre for its Gala. Being an obsessive sort he stayed there after its destruction, benefiting from the longevity granted by his ghoulification. Shortly after I began rebuilding Vegas and civilizing its tribes, Domino suddenly appeared and got a job singing at the Atomic Wrangler. I didn't know if he was the original Domino, and frankly didn't care. Then the Legion defeated the NCR and one of the Strip families, the Omertas, attempted a coup. It was a near thing, but Domino rallied the Ultra-Luxe and helped put down the revolt. The White Glove society may strive to be genteel, but it wasn't that long ago that they were vicious cannibals. I rewarded his service by giving him the Ultra-Luxe while putting a lesser boss named Cachino in charge of what was left of the Gomorrah. As the Omertas are fond of saying, 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'."
"Why didn't Domino care that I look like Vera?" Valeria asked after a moment.
"I imagine he simply regarded your similarity as a coincidence. The posters with her likeness are idealized, and it has been two centuries since he last saw her. That and Domino doesn't have the facial recognition technology that I use."
"So you think I'll get this chip for you out of…loyalty?"
"Loyalty to your companion if nothing else." House replied. "She's made no secret of her desire to find the Sierra Madre. With control of my army, I will secure New Vegas's independence from both the Legion and the ambitions of the NCR. I built an industrial empire with my ability to recognize talent and use it. More than a desire for wealth drives you, and with your superior physical abilities, you may succeed where everyone else has failed."
Valeria stared silently at the monitor as minutes ticked by, then she lowered her arms and placed her hands on her hips.
"Veronica goes with me." She stated firmly. "She's studied the Sierra Madre and knows more about it than I do."
"Very well." House replied. "I have my reservations about her loyalties but I'll leave that to your discretion. In addition to supplies I will pay you both one thousand caps in whatever currency you desire. Do we have a deal?"
"Yes." Valeria replied grimly. "We have a deal."