Chapter 17
Imperfections
"Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement."
-Ronald Regan
He mentally cursed himself for failing to finish with his targets before the whore. It felt as though he was rusty, having lost time to a girl that until recently had no skill in sniping.
By this point, word had gotten around that Legionary camps were systematically being thrown into disarray. Bounties were on the heads of both predators: A reward of Legionary coin and fame on the girl, and a reward of bottlecaps and high tech weaponry on the man.
Their trails were covered well. Nikolai made an effort to cover his tracks to near total obscurity in some areas, and to make his trail a little too obvious in others (to make any pursuers consider the possibility of an ambush). He remained a step ahead of any pursuers until he reached his final target before New Vegas.
The girl had it a little easier. Having partnered herself with another deathclaw, the prints left in the dirt confused her pursuers. Some believed that her pet had actually survived their initial assault, and she was still with him. Reports back to Caesar and Lanius contradicted early reports of the first attack on the girl, and only confounded the Legion further.
Regarding the Brotherhood Whore, the order was "Shoot to Kill". She was no longer to be taken alive. Legionaries would shoot on sight. Nikolai, however, had a Kill/Capture on his head. If it was possible, he'd be captured and interrogated.
It was apparently possible, because of his current predicament.
Being Spetsnaz, Nikolai was trained to resist interrogation. Torture was frowned upon, since it tended to get the easiest lie to make the pain stop. Instead, Nikolai was thrown into a dark cell after he was found. His hands were bound behind his back and he was stripped of his guns and his knife, which were held in a locked bin in his cell.
They knew Nikolai wouldn't take his weapons without knowing where he was. If he somehow broke free with his weapons and went out the front door, he'd be gunned down almost instantaneously.
He understood the danger, and so he sat in his chair, biding his time. Meanwhile, he worked on the rope binding his arms with a rusty nail jutting out of the chair. He stopped the moment his interrogator (not the man he was supposed to kill) stepped into the room.
The door was shut and locked again, and the man slowly approached and sat across the table from Nikolai. For a few moments, no words were uttered. Nikolai continued slowly working on the ropes, cutting into his palms as well. He fought not to wince.
"It's finally come to this," said the interrogator. "We have one of you, and I'll not be as foolish as the others have been."
"So you acknowledge that the other scum we've killed are fools?"
"I agree. They were scum. They needed to die. We needed new leadership. So thank you. Once the girl is killed, we'll be stronger than ever."
Nikolai stared.
"Killed?" he asked.
"Yes. You don't think we'd be so weak in reality, do you?"
"You have a plan?"
"You don't think we'd be so stupid as to explain, do you?"
Nikolai was silent. The man smacked the table.
"Talk. We'll start off easy: Where are you two headed? The Fort?"
Nikolai leaned forward a little bit and spit at the man. He was rewarded with a black eye.
"The Fort?" the man asked. Nikolai tried to kick at him in response, and he lost a tooth as a consequence.
"The Fort?" the man asked, this time angirly. Nikolai shook his head.
"The Fort? No. No, we planned on removing all influence first. We'd leave Vegas for last, after every other Legionary encampment was ruined."
Nikolai began to resist the interrogation using the ancient art of storytelling. He leaned forward in his seat.
"There was a man, you see... he wanted the demise of the Legion for what it did to his wife."
The interrogator faltered. "You don't mean that bastard First Recon guy, do you?"
"No, worse."
"Who?"
"Andrei Faustin. His wife come here from Russia as missionary. She was raped and enslaved. Faustin found out. If we don't report to his contacts in Seattle, he'll just keep sending more and more until the Legion is dealt with. What fool would do all of this because a beast was killed? There's much more than that."
The man opened his mouth to speak, but Nikolai kept going.
"Faustin wanted us to meet his partner, I think his name Anson. I only met him once. He was short, like you. He had thinning blonde hair, a thick blonde mustache, and he wore sunglasses and an ugly sweater vest. The sunglasses weren't even that nice. They looked like a cheap brand someone made with parts scavenged off the ground."
"This-"
"Can you imagine? He actually wasted his time finding two lenses to fix the sunglasses with."
"But what-"
"They didn't even match entirely. One was brown, and the other was almost orange. They were scratched up so badly that I don't know how he saw through them."
"And-"
"Come to think of it, he reminded me of another suspicious man named Dean. Dean... what was last name... Goodman? Da, Dean Goodman. He was tall, but skinny, like a pole. He have scar above left eye. Isn't that strange?"
"Listen, let-"
"He always tell me when we meet "Faustin's damned dog keeps trying to hump my leg". He was big time complainer..."
The next three hours went on like that. Nikolai just kept talking. And talking. And talking... and talking...
The more he spoke, the less chance the interrogator had to question. Plus, he (the interrogator) ended up walking out of the interrogation with a notebook full of bullshit Nikolai pulled out of thin air.
However, Nikolai got so into the storytelling that he slowly stopped working on the ropes. When he realized the error, he cursed and kept going again, relieved that he could wince a little as he did so without eyes on him.
He was aware that his blood was likely beginning to pool on the ground, and he knew that if he was caught, there would be trouble. He had to work quicker, but he couldn't work too quick, because there was always the chance of the rotted wood losing the nail.
Not being able to view his progress did harm to his resolve. He had no knowledge of how far through the rope he was.
Dean Goodman was the name of a man Rascalov shot in the head during an encounter at a bar eight years earlier. The only part of the description he gave of Goodman that was accurate was the scar above his left eye. He imagined the bullet that entered the back of his head and left his eyeball hanging out by a length of tendon left some sort of mark.
Nikolai didn't know much about Goodman. They were strangers. One might say "hello" to the other from time to time in passing, but that was it. Nikolai did have to admit that Dean's wife was very attractive. In a drunken haze, he'd tried to force her to the back of a bar. It was not the first time an angry woman kicked him in the groin.
No, but it was the first time he'd gotten kicked by a woman wearing steel-toed boots. He didn't get up for the remainder of the night. A vulture actually landed on an old telephone pole nearby, watching, thinking he must've been dying, or else he wouldn't have been so still.
He did die a little, in a sense. It took a kick to the ribs the next morning to will him up again. Nikolai never went back to that bar again, since Goodman's wife frequented it.
He got through half of the rope before someone barged back in. He froze, and for a moment feared he'd been caught. It was the same man as earlier. This time, he came with someone else. That "someone else" was bigger than Nikolai by a head, and stronger than him, too. Nikolai watched him as he was introduced by the interrogator as "Bear", and he continued watching as Bear moved the table Nikolai sat at with one arm... over to the opposite wall with a loud crash.
"I will speak the truth only to DeWitt," was all he said. He would repeat his statement after Bear popped his left eye. He would repeat his statement again when Bear nearly gave him a concussion. He would repeat it one final time when Bear sliced open his cheek with a knife.
It was only after his fourth request that his interrogator left the room. At this point, Nikolai successfully cut through his ropes. He'd bled profusely from the wounds Bear left him with, so the blood on the ground was not suspect.
When the door slammed shut and Nikolai was left with Bear, clutching a knife coated with the Russian's blood, he finally released the rope and quietly stood up. Bear was watching the door, as if preparing to drop to a knee when DeWitt made himself known. Silently, Nikolai picked up another nearby chair and smashed it against Bear's neck as hard as he could.
Instead of knocking him unconscious, Bear stumbled forward a step, and then slowly righted himself and turned around to leer at Nikolai. All was quiet for a few moments.
Nikolai was suddenly on the receiving end of a barrage of slices. His instinct told him to control the knife hand, which would have been fine advice... if Bear didn't seem to have the strength of six men in one arm. Nikolai ended up with gashes all along his torso, and he was losing blood at a steady enough pace.
Bear was merely toying with him. He could've stabbed him at any moment. His attacks slowly pushed Nikolai to the wall, and the Russian came up with an idea. With his back against the wall, and Bear preparing to finish him off, Nikolai did something he wasn't proud of. He emulated Goodman's wife, minus the steel-toed boots.
Unfortunately, the attack was only enough to make Bear flinch. It gave Nikolai enough time to whirl around behind him and wrap his arm around the walking tank's neck.
Size is irrelevant. Enough pressure on the carotid artery will knock anyone unconscious in seconds. The choke hold Nikolai employed required all of his strength, which was waning as he lost blood. Bear stumbled around for a few seconds before sitting down in the chair Nikolai was originally bound to (the fall enough to slice the Russian's leg open on the same nail that freed him). It was in that chair that the man lost consciousness.
Once Bear was dealt with, Nikolai searched him for the keys to the bin his belongings were housed in, and he found it. He took no time to mock his enemy, knowing that his target would likely be discussing the terms of what was supposed to be a conversation with Nikolai, and as such would arrive shortly.
After his escape from the Brotherhood, while he was still off-course, Nikolai stumbled upon a small village built up around a Nuka Cola plant called "Coke-Erie Village". The village was dominated by children, and it was well defended but apparently rarely attacked by raiders, and almost never by Super Mutants. They agreed to trade with the Russian if they could play with his horse while he was around, and he agreed, deciding that killing a town full of children would not bode well for his ammunition stores, and he had a feeling they were expecting him to do something like that.
While in Coke-Erie, Rascalov was warned not to overstay his welcome, as "grown-ups who come to the village and stay too long tend to become monsters," as so eloquently said by their leader, Mido. When he off-handedly asked why that was so, the kids mentioned a reason behind Super Mutants rarely attacking them, calling it "The Trade". They offer long-term visitors over the age of twelve to the Super Mutants, and in exchange, the Super Mutants don't bother them. It was not a perfect relationship (since Super Mutants occasionally forget that they have a cease-fire), but it allowed Coke-Erie to continue to exist.
During his very brief stay in Coke-Erie, Nikolai managed to purchase ammunition for his rifle and pistol, some food supplies, a bottle of Vod Kanockers, and seven bricks of C-4 Plastic Explosives, along with blasting caps, and detonators, all in exchange for some candy he had in his backpack and an exceptionally shiny bottle cap.
Just because he wouldn't kill the children in the town didn't mean he wouldn't swindle them.
The C-4 was originally bought as part of a bargain. He restocked on everything, and even got a stable plastic explosive for some random crap he happened to be holding. He intended on using it to blow random things up for his own amusement, like old radios, books, and maybe a few feral ghouls.
Instead, he was rigging most of his C-4 on Bear's unconscious body. He hid the explosives under the gigantic man's shirt, and he walked to the back of the building he was in.
The remaining C-4 was no more than a thimble full. It was placed in a crack in the rear wall. The small amount would not make a loud sound, but Nikolai imagined it would weaken the wall enough for him to escape.
The detonation was soft, as he'd hoped, but his target was near the building.
"What the hell are you doing in there, Bear? If that man is dead, I swear..."
DeWitt flung open the door and saw Bear unconscious in the seat Nikolai was supposed to be in. The Russian had just knocked down the wall and was whistling for his horse.
The target drew a pistol and took aim at Nikolai, but he got too close to Bear. It was the last mistake the man would ever make.
The explosion was deafening, but it managed to take the heat off Nikolai as he galloped away. Legionaries could be heard swarming over the blast site, barking orders at one another and trying to identify exactly how many people were killed in the blast (they wondered if Nikolai failed to escape).
Rascalov didn't waste a moment. He was a half mile away from the camp by the time the Legionaries sorted out what just happened. He looked back over his shoulder at the smoke rising from the camp in the distance, but he said nothing to it. Instead, he took out his radio, and grimaced, intent on treating his wounds once he put a reasonable distance between himself and the camp.
"Whore..."
There was no response at first. Nikolai's brow furrowed into anger.
"Whore..."
There was still no response. The man pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Brotherhood Whore! Answer your damn-"
"I'm up! I'm up... Wh... what is it, Nikolai?" asked a very sleepy sounding woman. Nikolai shook his head.
"Oh, you've got... whatever. I'm done. I'll be in Freeside soon."
"You killed your final target?" asked the girl, now sounding wide awake.
"I blew him to kingdom come with C-4."
The Whore whistled into the walkie-talkie. "Nice touch... how long until you get there?"
Nikolai shrugged, and then mentally cursed himself for being stupid.
"I don't know... three weeks, maybe? Less? Time will pass between the end of this call and my arrival. I know that."
"Well, I'm nearly there. I'll probably get to the gates by tomorrow or the day after. So far, I'm encountering some resistance. More than on the way here, anyway."
"How much more?" asked the Russian while riding. He slowly rolled his shoulder, and thought more of his wounds.
"I think Caesar called for reinforcements from the west. I had to fight my way through a Legionary checkpoint to get here, and I've been running into patrols. I mean, it's not heavy resistance, but..."
"And in this moderate Legionary presence, you're sleeping..."
There was a brief pause.
"I'm a light sleeper," she said half-heartedly.
"Fine, whatever. I kill anybody that gets in my way."
"I wouldn't expect anything less" was the response. She told him that it seemed like the trouble she was running into was becoming less and less frequent as she got closer to Freeside.
Nikolai saw no reason to respond. He had his plan all ready in his head. First, he'd treat his injuries (his wounded eye would require three weeks to heal appropriately), and then he'd proceed.
As estimated, it would be a little less than half a year since the Whore's pet's demise at the hands of the Legion when the hunter and she would rendevous in Freeside.
The Legion is a group of simple-minded bullys blown up to be big and tough. Someone was going to be taking them down a few notches.
End of Chapter
2,870 words.
Nikolai cutting through his binds while being interrogated is a nod to a scene in Burn Notice.
"Coke-Erie Village" is a reference to Kokiri Village in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, as is Mido. It is said that non-forest folk that enter the Lost Woods in Ocarina of Time will turn into monsters. Except Link. Because... Because he's not. Except for when he is, like in Twilight Princess. Wolves are fun, except for when you're around them and they hate you.
What the hell am I talking about?
There are about five chapters left, including next, but discluding trivia. Once this is done with, I'm probably going to stop writing for Fallout. I need to write for something that's actually cheery for once. Like Resident Evil. That's some cheery shit right there.
Next chapter covers Milly's arrival in Rebel-Controlled Freeside, as well as some bargaining between her and the rebellion's leader.