Myina dropped her pack off at her room while Vargas returned his rifle to his own, and they met up at the tent. It was a poor excuse for a bar. Some random tables and stools set up inside the tent with a few ice boxes and a lone bartender. But it was a place to sit and drink and talk, and sometimes that's all you needed.

Myina decided she'd get her own info first, then see if she could press Manny about Boone's wife. She'd seen enough lonely men in her travels to know how to get what she needed out of one, and Manny was definitely lonely. Myina almost hated to work him over like this; Manny honestly seemed like a decent guy, but she had a job to do, and right now he was supposed to be just another mark.

Myina sipped her whiskey slowly, letting the burn of it warm her in the cooling desert air.

"So the guy you're looking for, name's Benny. He was travelling with some members of my old were going to Boulder City." Manny started, slipping onto the stool to the left of hers.

Boulder City. That was where Chesty, her current bounty, was last seen. Sweet. Two birds with one stone. "Any idea why they went that way?"

"No clue. I know Benny hadn't paid up yet. Maybe that was where they were supposed to get square."

Myina rummaged through her still addled brain. "Where is Boulder City, again?"

Manny looked at her a little confused for a second. "It's straight up Route 93 from here. Just keep following the road north. Look, I know it's none of my business, but what is it with you and this guy? I mean, you really tracking a poker chip across the damn Mojave?"

She laughed a little, and decided she'd be a little more straightforward with him. She shifted so that the right side of her head was facing his direction, then lifted her bandana. Manny gaped momentarily at the scar. "He do that to you?" Myina nodded.

"He and the others jumped me on my way up to New Vegas. Tied me up, stole the chip, then shot me in the head. Left me to die in a shallow grave. Part of me still can't believe I survived, really. So as you might imagine, I've got a bit of an axe to grind." Myina replaced the scarf and turned back to her drink, but not before she noticed the anger set in on Manny's face. For a second, she thought it might be directed at her, so she quickly went on to reassure him. "Look, I know some of those guys are your friends. I swear I'm not going to go after them. It's just this guy, Benny? He's the one I want. I promise I'll leave the others alone; they were just doing a job."

Manny shook his head. "No. No, you do what you have to. I can't believe those sons of. . ." He sucked in a deep breath, calming himself. "Look. We were close at one point, and yeah, I still see them as friends, but that shit? That's not right. I swear I didn't know they'd done that to you. All they said was they were hired to help steal something from Benny's boss. That's it. They never said a damn thing about killing someone."

Myina nodded and sipped at her whiskey again. "Well, what I said still stands. I'll try to leave them as best I can."

Manny's anger seemed to dissipate as he nodded quietly in response. She let the silence mull for a moment, deciding how she was going to take the next few steps.

"So uh," she cleared her throat, "You were in a gang, then? Were they tough?" Myina hoped she could pull him back a little. Sweetening him up might make him a little more open about the questions she'd have to ask him about Boone's wife.

"Were they tough?" Manny smirked a little, "I was in the Khans, man. It doesn't get any badder."

Myina laughed a little with him. An encouragement to keep him going. He swigged his beer and turned to her. "See, I grew up in North Vegas. Me and my cousins. We were some bad seeds. Got in with a gang. I loved it."

"Yeah?" Myina mirrored him, turning so she was a little more prone to him. She'd had enough experience interacting with people to know this would make him feel more comfortable talking to her.

"Yeah. But then something happened, and I couldn't handle it anymore. So, I enlisted. Earned my future." He seemed very proud and determined about that. She couldn't blame him. Myina had seen enough of people who were trapped in their upbringing, be it a farmer's life, or a drug dealer's like that of the Khans. It wasn't easy to break away from that.

"What was your tour with the NCR like?" She noticed him getting closer to her. He'd turned his whole body so that he was facing her, his knee a mere inch from her thigh.

"Oh it was great. I wouldn't trade it." The happy nostalgia crept onto his face. "I mean, something about that lifestyle, the discipline. Seeing new places, making people safe. What's not to like?" He smiled so sweetly at her, and she reciprocated. She might be working him for a job, but Myina had to admit, she liked being able to bring out the happiness in people.

"So why'd you leave, then?" She asked, honestly interested now.

"Ah, well. . . I just felt like it was time, you know? Wanted to have a home." Something in his expression shifted. He wasn't telling her the whole truth, dodging something, so she stayed silent, tilting her head slightly to press him to continue. "Plus I was up at Camp Golf when Bitter Springs went down."

Bitter Springs. She wasn't surprised, now realizing that he'd been a part of that. Even in her damaged memories, she could recall hearing about the Bitter Springs massacre. It was one of the reasons she had a bit of a distaste for the NCR. She knew the sordid reputations of the Khans well enough, but still. Even war should have guidelines. And civilians should be off limits. It had been a bad situation all around. The whole truth.

"I faked like I was sick to get out of going, because I knew some of the people there. But when everybody came back nobody would tell me what happened. . . And people would call us murderers sometimes when we showed up to secure towns. I don't know." Manny's face dropped and he became a lost in his beer.

But she could see the pain on his face, all the same. Like he had said, he wasn't proud of them, but the Great Khans were still his friends, his family. Myina nodded to the bartender to bring them another round. "So what did happen at Bitter Springs?" She pried, letting herself inch closer to him, hoping her physical closeness could help keep him talking.

Manny shrugged. "I still don't know exactly. Just that a lot of people died who didn't want to be part of the fighting at all. I don't blame anybody for it. There's so much chaos when you're fighting, you're lucky not to shoot your own guys. But it did take something out of it for me. Just wasn't the same." He seemed a little mournful, but quickly picked himself back up.

"So when it came time to re-enlist, I just took my papers and walked." He brightened a little. "Hung out in New Vegas for a bit until I came across Cliff. He was in town restocking. Mentioned that his little town could use a bit of security, and well, it sounded like I could make a future out of that. Brought down my best friend to share that future with me."

"Your best friend?"

Manny nodded. "Boone."

That caught her off guard. The way they'd acted to each other in the shop was anything but the behavior of friends. Manny could apparently read the surprise on her face as he nodded.

"Yup. Craig Boone and I were snipers together during our First Recon days. I used to spot for him back then. After we got out, I talked him into settling down here. Only, as you might have noticed, we're not exactly on friendly terms anymore." Myina could hear the obvious regret in his voice.

She saw her chance to press for the answers she was looking for, so she angled herself closer to him and laid a hand on his knee. "Why are you on bad terms with Boone?"

Vargas shifted on his seat. "Me and his wife, we didn't see eye-to-eye on some things. We had some pretty big arguments. See, she came with us from New Vegas. Real city type of girl, you know? But then one day she turns up missing, and he hasn't said a word to me since."

"Missing?" Myina allowed herself a small gasp, trying to feign ignorance of the topic. "Who would want to hurt Boone's wife?"

"Man, everybody." Vargas emptied his beer, then motioned for another. "That girl didn't have one friend in this whole town and she didn't want any. She wanted to sit in her room all day and make herself miserable. And she went out of her way to be rude. She upset a lot of people." He laid a hand on her thigh. She didn't think it was intentional, but she couldn't help but smirk inwardly as he finished with, "You wouldn't have liked her, either."

Myina was beginning to see why Boone had drifted away from Manny. If he had loved Carla like it seemed he truly did, even his best friend couldn't break through that, no matter how unpleasant she might have been. But if Manny really was to blame, she had to find out.

Leaning a little closer, she put on a bit of a playful air, as if taking on the role of a coconspirator. "Did you have anything to do with Boone's wife's disappearance?"

"Believe me. When I heard the news, my first thought was, I owe somebody. Big." Manny laughed slightly, but it sounded almost hollow. "I figured Boone would come around after a while. But he hasn't. And I'm starting to think that if he doesn't find her that things will never go back to the way they were."

Well, there was a point in his favor. Boone had seemed sure that his wife was dead. If Manny still believes she's out there somewhere, Myina doubted he'd have had anything to do with it. And if he did have anything to do with it, he obviously wasn't going to fess up here and now. So she'd have to take things up a level.

He was already several drinks farther down than she was and Myina figured if she could get a few more in him, maybe he'd bring her back to his room. Once he passed out, she could do a thorough search and see if there was any evidence to be had. She sighed inwardly. At least he's cute.

Turning the charm up, she leaned in even closer, sympathy etched over her face. She laid a hand on his arm "You've had your needs neglected for far too long, haven't you? I can tell."

Manny's glassy eyes softened toward her. "Yeah, I. . . everybody depends on you, you know? But they don't ask you about how you feel. What you worry about." Myina felt bad again. He really was a nice guy.

Vargas turned to her and smiled a lopsided grin. "There's something I like about you. You just seem really understanding."

It took two more beers and some sharing of anecdotes to get Manny in the right place, but soon enough he had an arm thrown around her and she was escorting him back to his room, both of them giggling like school kids.

She dropped him on his bed, closed the door behind them and went to curl up next to him. Manny pulled her in for a tight, drunken hug, then turned his head to her shoulder. Myina laughed a little and stroked his short curly brown hair. "You gonna be alright, there?"

"Yeah." He sighed deeply and she could smell the beer. "You know, it's too bad I don't swing that way. You seem like a great girl."

Myina blinked in surprise. Well, I'll be. She couldn't help but smile. He really was in need of a friend, if he brought her back to his room just to snuggle.

"Well, I can't say I'm not a little disappointed," Myina joked lightly, smiling down at him. "You seem like a great guy too."

"Thanks." Manny smiled sheepishly, then took on a serious air again. "I know that's why Boone hasn't talked to me since Carla left."

"Oh?" Myina leaned on her hand, staying close to him. "Why do you say that?"

Manny shrugged. "He thinks I had something to do with it. He thinks I have a thing for him you know." Manny lifted his head and looked at her. His eyes were deep and filled with a sadness that pulled at her heart. Damn that thing. "But I don't. I mean, he's been one of the best friends I've ever had. Helped me get through training, always looked out for me. He never judged me for being a Khan, you know? I never wanted to lose him as a friend."

Myina laid a hand on his chest, hoping to make feel secure. He sighed, "But Carla. . . she just wasn't good for him. If she had made him happy, I would've supported him. And sure they were happy together for a bit, but it wasn't long before he changed. He seemed to bow down to her on everything, even if it made him miserable, and most of the time it did. And she was happy to make him do it, too." The frustrations and desperation in his voice intensified. "I mean, the way she spoke to him, treated him even; it was just awful! And he just . . he just took it. . ."

Manny rolled on to his side, his frustrations evident. "Carla took advantage of him and I couldn't forgive that. But all he sees is that she's gone. He doesn't even care that I've lost the one person I could truly call a friend."

Myina frowned and curled closer to him, stroking his hair. She didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say. But she held him close and rubbed arm and shoulder, comforting him the best she could, and he held her close in return.

She was relieved when he finally fell asleep, snoring softly in his intoxicated slumber. Myina stood up carefully and began to eye the room. The first thing she noticed were the three mattresses piled against a wall. The checkered suit and group must've stayed here. If they had come through a few weeks ago, it made sense.

A terminal sat against the far wall, and Myina headed for it immediately. She was dismayed, however, to find nothing of use on it. Only a note from one of his buddies complaining about the checker-suited asshat, Benny. At least it sounded as if the group would likely not have trouble giving him up to her.

Myina looked back over at Manny, sleeping soundly. . she'd pulled Manny's boots off him and covered him with a blanket. It was the least she could do for getting him drunk. Now, where should she look next?

Myina gently pulled the door closed behind her as she stepped back out into the desert night. After she had been satisfied that she'd checked every corner of the room, with no evidence to be found, she'd dug a pencil and a notepad out of his desk, wrote a quick note and laid it gently next to him on the bed. She didn't want him to think he'd driven her off, so she just explained that she needed to run a few errands in the morning and didn't want to wake him up, but she was thankful for a great night and could they maybe do it again sometime?

The arid night brightened her senses and Myina stretched, wincing when the injury in her arm retaliated. She wished Cliff had some Med-X, but there was none to be found in Dinky, so she'd have to deal with the occasional complaint the injury caused her arm.

Rubbing her neck, Myina looked around the courtyard and noticed a dim light on in the front office of the hotel. Curious, she swiftly crept toward the window peered in.

Jeannie May was leaning close to a table behind the counter, speaking fervently into the ham radio sitting on it, waving a paper around. A small desk lamp illuminated her features, which seemed twisted in contempt. She looked furious, an expression that seemed somehow out-of-place for her personality, yet fit perfectly on her face. The hard shadows etched into her features almost made Myina shudder.

Myina couldn't hear the conversation, but it seemed that, after a minute or two, Jeannie May was placated. She heaved a sigh, nodded a few times, then replaced the receiver. Crawford ducked under the counter out of sight for a minute, and when she reappeared, the papers were gone. The old woman then clicked off the small desk lamp.

Myina ducked behind the corner of the office building and listened to Jeannie May exit and lock up. What in the world would have the woman sneaking about her own office in the middle of the night? She resolved to find out what and started to lean forward to see if Crawford was gone yet . . . but instead came face to face with a scraggly, bearded, wild-eyed old man, barely an inch away from her.

Myina yelped and jumped back, clapping her hand to her mouth while the other reached for the knife tucked in her belt. Brandishing it in front of her, Myina glared at the man.

"Who the hell are you?!" she whispered harshly, baring her teeth slightly.

"Careful. They got spiiiees all over." The man's eyes widened at her. His breath hit her like a brick, the smell of rotted teeth and decaying food making her flinch in disgust.

"What?" Myina took a step back, careful to keep her knife up.

"You've seen them too, haven't you? I can see it in your eyes. I knew I wasn't the only one." The man crept closer to her, staying close to the cement wall as if he were trying to be a part of it himself.

"Seen who? Who are you?" Myina pointed the blade directly at him taking another step back. Her heel scrapped the wall behind her. Shit.

"Me? Oh I'm No-Bark Noonan!" The man seemed to straighten in pride for a brief moment before crouching back down conspiratorily.

"No-Bark?"

"Yeah," Noonan's eyes flicked across the courtyard, "That's what they all call me. The townsfolk."

"Why do they call you that?" Myina whispered, angling herself so she could move a little further away.

"Cause they know I ain't just barking here. What I say's got bite, 'cause it's the truth!" He lunged forward a little, his low voice grinding out each word.

Myina jumped back, hitting one of the pillars behind her. She inwardly swore, trying to keep her eyes on the crazy old man.

"The truth, huh?" Myina raised an eyebrow as No-bark nodded fervently, creeping ever closer to her. "Mind if I ask you a few questions, then?"

"Okay, okay. Just speak up a little. But not so much that They hear you. They got people everywhere, aaaalways listening." He waved a hand prophetically.

"Uh huh." she slid around the pillar and took another step backward. She wasn't sure how to go about asking what she wanted without giving too much away. "Sooo, what's been going on around town?" she started.

"There's been things of a disturbing nature going on at the McBride Corral. Seems every night one of their herd meets a most unnatural death, and always there's holes all over the body." He ground out. "Work of the chupacabra, the livestock vampire, says No-bark, but they don't pay no mind. Too many holes, they say, and there's bullets in , says No-bark, we got a chupacabra with an automatic weapon. And that's when they get real quiet, 'cause now they see the predicament we're in."

Myina almost laughed at that, the image of a chupacabra dancing around a corral with a semi too ridiculous. "Well, then, tell me, has anyone around been acting . . . strange?"

"I don't trust a man that doesn't have something strange going on about him, 'cause it means he's hiding it from you." For a minute, Myina almost couldn't disagree with him. Then he went on, giggling a little like he was sharing an inside joke she had nothing to do with. "If a man's wearing his pants on his head or if he says his words backwards from time to time, you know it's all laid out there for you. But if he's friendly to strangers and keeps his home spick-and-span, more often than not he's done something even his own ma couldn't forgive."

Well this guy was definitely off his rocker. Maybe if she just came right out and asked him, he wouldn't remember long enough to be suspicious. "What do you know about the abduction of Boone's wife?" Myina eyed him carefully to see his reaction. Maybe he had done it. He obviously had the sneaking skills to surprise her like that. And he seemed delusional enough that he'd probably done it out of some mind-spun fantasy in the mucked up head of his where his motive might not have been clear enough to suspect by anyone else.

"Ooooh, seen it all." No-bark stopped in his tracks but kept his eyes locked on her. "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. Could be that person went in to get something. Or use the john maybe. . . Mighty interesting either way, you ask me. I thought it was cannibals, come to eat us all for sure, so I kept out of sight. But now I know better."

"You know who it was?" Myina blinked in surprise. The town-crazy might actually be helpful.

"Oooh yes." Myina held her breath in anticipation as No-bark leaned in and beckoned her closer. "Molerat men, come up from the Underneath to steal young women with promises of riches and fancy mud mansions with all the latest designer covet our ladyfolk's long hair for wigs, it's said, being either bald or balding themselves."

Myina sighed. Well there goes that. "Ah," she replied, defeated. Myina replaced her knife in her belt and straightened. "Well, um. Thanks for your help, Noonan."

"Dang it, No-bark, just when you was making a friend." He berated himself.

"Well, I'll be around. So if you think of anything . . ." Myina backed away from him swiftly toward the front gate, making a wide arc to keep as much distance between them as possible.

"If anyone asks, we never spoke." No-bark called after her in a whispered tone.

"You got it, brother." Myina waved and turned her back to him, trotting quickly out the front gates. Holy hell. She thought. No wonder they call him that. His dogs are definitely not barking.

Myina couldn't help but look toward the dinosaur. Boone would be on duty now. How many days had he passed, sitting up there, wondering if the very people he was protecting were the ones behind his wife's disappearance? What kind of pain is that?

Her gaze drifted to the dusty road. Would she even know pain like that? Would she ever have someone she cared enough of about to be caused pain like that? The years of her life stretched out down that road.

She had spent a small portion of her life as a squatter in Vault 13 with a small group of settlers. When they had found the vault abandoned, they found it the perfect place to settle down and have some protection from the California wastes. Myina remembered only bits and pieces of it now. But one of those pieces was the day she'd found her Pip-boy. Her and some of the other kids were exploring the vault and found a panel in one of the storage rooms that led to a hideout just behind the walls. There, they'd encounter two skeletons. Most of the other kids ran out, but Myina and James, a boy maybe two years older than her, dug around for anything of interest. She found the Pip-boy and was immediately entranced. James tried to take it from her, but she decked him squarely in the mouth and ran off with it. She had been only 12 years old at the time. But, out here in the wastes, sometimes that was old enough.

Myina shook herself out of her revere. The sun would be rising soon. She still had no real lead about the disappearance of Boone's wife, but in the meantime, what with this story about the McBride's corral, there might be another job in town. She could use the extra caps. Travelling up to Boulder City would take more supplies than she had.

The weary courier resigned herself to head back to her room, keeping an eye out for No-bark. She was still awake enough that she spent some time milling about the place. Locating a box of Abraxo, Myina ran some hot water and, with ED-E's companionship and Mr. New Vegas' sultry voice, scrubbed down the bathroom and furniture in the room. This wouldn't be a bad place to set up a home-base, so she might as well make it a little more livable. She'd have to tackle the carpet another day though.

Just as the sky was beginning to lighten, Myina crawled into bed, kissing ED-E goodnight, or in this case, good-day. It's going to be good to be back on a nocturnal schedule, she thought as she drifted off to sleep. She dreamt of a chupacabra bounding around her head, wearing a wig and brandishing a rifle. It was quite the sight.