"Sounds like the Colonel is putting up a fight." Dean said as he glanced over his shoulder toward the Town Square. Veronica was close behind him, her teeth clenched with the effort of not coughing although her throat and lungs still burned from exposure to the cloud. She had been staring in shocked amazement at her former mentor's image when Dean suddenly gripped her upper arm and pulled her toward him.
"The shit's about to hit the fan." He hissed urgently in her ear. "If you want to find Valeria we need to leave while the Colonel's attention is elsewhere." Veronica started at her friend's name and with one last look at Elijah's image turned and followed the ghoul down a side street. Royez and his soldiers were too distracted by the holograms to notice their absence, and then roars and gunfire began to echo over the distorted sounds of the loudspeakers.
Dean didn't turn around as he led Veronica through a small square with benches arranged around the blackened trunk of a dead tree. A signpost, nearly sheared off at the base was leading against the decaying trunk. Only two signs were visible, one inscribed with the words "Town Square", and the other snapped off.
"Where are we going?" Veronica demanded. "Val's Vertibird crashed north of here."
"In the Sierra Madre, the best routes are never direct." Dean replied without turning around. "I've discovered many paths through the cloud and the holograms. Of course things have changed a bit in my absence, and the Supermutants are a wrinkle."
"So you don't really know where you're going?" Veronica accused with a scowl.
"I may be out of date." Dean replied as he stopped and turned to face Veronica with his arms crossed. "But I'm still your best chance of getting through this death trap in time to save your friend. So unless you intend to go it alone you have no viable alternative."
The sounds of gunfire were fading, and Veronica looked north before nodding grimly.
"Good." Dean replied as he turned to continue down the street. "Now that's settled lets hurry. The Sierra Madre isn't getting any younger." He led Veronica around the courtyard to a wrought-iron gate blocking an archway to another courtyard. Dean gave an experimental shove and scowled, as it remained closed.
"Blast!" He exclaimed. "Two centuries of neglect and this gate is still!"
"Something's coming!" Veronica warned as she turned toward one of the other entrances. The sound of grunts and heavy footfalls came from the only other street exit and Dean quickly scanned the square until he saw a crumbling hole in one of the stucco walls.
"Looks like we take the scenic route." He announced as he ran to the opening and stooped through the hole. Veronica followed him into a dark room strewn with rotting books and a couch tipped on its back.
"The Villa was never meant to last." Dean observed as he made his way through the debris to a green door faintly visible in the darkness. "It was just theater to assure Sinclair's creditors that he was delivering what he promised." Dean stopped as he noticed something on an empty bookshelf near the door. Veronica looked back as the sound of movement past their refuge began to fade.
"It appears the Colonel is doing an admirable job of drawing attention." Dean observed as he blew dust off a pair of dark glasses and adjusted the earpieces over what remained of his ears.
"Much better." The ghoul said with a smile as he turned his inscrutable gaze toward Veronica. "The eyes are the windows of the soul they say. I prefer to keep the shades drawn on mine."
"They won't last long if you don't get moving." Veronica warned with a fierce scowl as she clenched her fists.
"Quite right, let us be off." Dean replied cheerfully as he opened the door and led Veronica into another square. Despite the precariousness of their situation, Dean seemed completely at ease, reminding Veronica how long the ghoul had lived in the dead city.
As Dean led Veronica along covered walkways, he continued to tell her about the Sierra Madre as if conducting a tour.
"Old Sinclair squandered a fortune building that casino." Dean explained as he nodded toward the towering structure looming above them. "It was billed as the ultimate playground for the rich and famous, a place where anyone could 'begin again'." Dean stopped in front of a green metal door, and after testing the handle shoved it open with his shoulder.
"Of course that wasn't its real purpose." He added as Veronica peered past him into a dark hallway. Dean continued his lecture as he led the way inside.
"The Sierra Madre was actually a vault meant to keep Sinclair and his most prized possessions from the bombs, including Vera." The corridor turned to the right and Dean suddenly flattened against the wall before turning to Veronica with a finger to his lips. Veronica crouched near Dean's knees and slowly peered around the corner. A hallway with doors open on both sides stretched before them, illuminated by the flickering blue light of a guard hologram like they had seen in Furnace Creek. The hologram was walking soundlessly toward them and Veronica tensed as she prepared to run. Then the hologram stopped and stood motionless for several long seconds before turning and walking back down the hallway.
"The holograms are still operating." Dean whispered. "So our brutish friends must have avoided this place. Good, because that's where we have to go."
"How do we get past it?" Veronica asked as she watched the hologram turn at the end of the hall and begin to descend a staircase.
"If memory serves, there is a security terminal near the stairs." Dean replied as he stepped into the hallway. "Not my area of expertise, but for a Brotherhood Scribe?"
"I'm on it." Veronica replied grimly as she saw the terminal feebly lit by still glowing emergency lighting.
"We'd better hurry before the hologram returns." Dean urged. Veronica didn't reply, instead walking up to the wall terminal and pressing the activation button under the monitor. To her surprise the screen lit up and green text began to scroll across the screen.
"Robco Termlink." Veronica said as she watched the commands scroll before her. "Standard RT-V300 Terminal. I'm surprised it still works."
"Not everything was built to the same shoddy standard." Dean explained as he peered down the darkened stairway. "If Sinclair felt it was important he built it to last."
"I'm just glad he didn't have a proprietary OS created." Veronica replied as her fingers flew over the keys. "From what I read he with obsessed with security."
"He was trying to get his fortress built before the war began." Dean said wryly. "I'm sure some details slipped his mind."
"Damn!" Veronica swore. "It wasn't that one."
"I don't mean to rush you." Dean said nervously. "But I see a light coming toward the stairs."
"That's okay, I have two more tries before lockdown." Veronica replied as she stared at the screen; sweat beading her brow as she continued to type.
"Now would be a good time." Dean said, an edge of panic creeping into his voice as the hologram stepped onto the landing and flashed yellow as it tilted its blank visor toward him.
"Third times the charm!" Veronica shouted as she frantically accessed the prompt again.
"Veronica!" Dean shouted as the hologram turned red. The ghoul dove into the hall and scrambled to his feet in a desperate attempt to outrun the hologram's energy beam. It was then he noticed the silence, and saw Veronica grinning at his discomfort.
"I told you I had it covered." She said sweetly as Dean climbed to his feet and straightened his coat with a scowl.
"Well, the way is clear now." Dean said as he strode past Veronica and began to descend the stairs. "We need to hurry, but first a quick stop for supplies or we'll be of little use to Valeria."
Veronica's smile vanished as she remembered their mission and quickly followed Dean to the first floor. Another hallway stretched before them, also faintly illuminated by emergency lights. As Veronica followed Dean she glanced into the rooms lining the hall and saw each contained an upright steel cylinder the size of a Pulowski personal Fallout Shelter. The difference that caught her eye was the caduceus scribed on the curved door. Veronica's eyes widened as she realized what it was she was looking at.
"These are Mark IX Auto Docs!" She exclaimed wonderingly. "I thought none had ever been deployed!"
"As I said." Dean replied as he stared thoughtfully into the last room. "When Sinclair thought it was important, only the best would do. This however is much more recent."
Veronica stepped behind Dean and gasped as she looked past his shoulder. The room was small and cluttered with trays of stained surgical instruments, blood spattered medical screens, and two gurneys with headless corpses arranged upon them.
"Well, this is interesting." Dean quipped as stepped up to the corpses. "There's just enough cloud contamination in the air to slow decay. Any more concentration and these fellows would be just blackened skeletons."
"What happened to them?" Veronica wondered as she hesitantly touched the sleeve of the white jumpsuit covering the body.
"Who knows?" Dean replied with a shrug. "But the bow ties on those mannequins are suggestive aren't they?"
Veronica looked up in surprise and saw several bone white figures arranged against the walls with heavy steel collars fixed around their necks. Wordlessly, Veronica stepped past Dean who watched her with his arms folded as she approached a mannequin.
"Bomb Collars." Veronica whispered as ran her fingers along the cold steel of one of the devices.
"A shaped charge fastened around the neck." Dean said thoughtfully as he rubbed his chin. "That would definitely keep one in line."
"But who…" Veronica wondered as she turned away and saw a monitor on a steel table behind the mannequins. She turned on the monitor and began to type and read, her mouth set in a grim line.
"Well this could be useful." Dean announced as he pulled a toolbox out of a cabinet. Veronica ignored him as he pulled tools out of the metal box, finally producing a crowbar, which he regarded thoughtfully.
"I think we have what we came for." Dean declared as he stepped behind Veronica and glanced over her shoulder at the monitor. "Did you find anything?"
"It's all research notes on the collars." Veronica replied with a frown. "Frequencies, different triggers, and how to unlock them. It's all so familiar…"
"So we have detailed instructions on how to use the collars." Dean replied ironically. "How very lucky." Veronica started to turn when her head exploded with pain and the world went dark.
Veronica awoke in agony with the feeling of being carried. The world faded into darkness again until she felt the jarring impact of being dropped on a cold steel surface. Veronica tried to force her eyes open, but only managed to open one as she felt warm wetness running down her face. Above her was Dean Domino, his shadowed form framed by a narrow steel opening. He stepped back and a door slid shut closing her inside what she realized was one of the Auto Docs. A dim light flickered on and Veronica twisted her head as a whirring began to fill the air. She saw a cluster of articulated mechanical arms extending toward her, tipped with pincers, syringes and a spinning metal saw. As the arms descended Veronica screamed.
Outside the Auto Doc, Dean Domino pulled a cigarette out of a scavenged pack, lit it, and inhaled deeply with a sigh, as Veronica's screams abruptly ceased and the room fell silent.