Chapter 5
The fact that there were several bunker to the north of the Commonwealth, that didn't narrow anything down, though he vaguely remembered the coordinates of Artemis's holdout bunker.
After about an hour, he arrived, and made short work of entering the password into the door. He tentatively stepped into the bunker, and froze as Brandis subsequently shoved a laser pistol in his face. "How did you find this place?!" The Paladin barked out, and Lawrence put his hands out slightly, showing he wasn't holding any weapons.
"Your team left holotapes telling the way." He held up one hand with the holotags of the squad. "Unfortunately they've passed."
Brandis lowered the pistol, with a sigh. "I see. I tried to find them and I was even waiting for them...I see that I failed."
"You didn't fail. You did what anyone would've done." Lawrence said, handing over the holotags. "I do have a few private questions though."
"Please, please, ask away, I don't mind." Brandis said, heading into the bunker and sitting down in the chair at the table. Lawrence followed him, taking a seat near the storage rack. He had to be careful about how he asked the first question.
"Before you left on your mission, do you know if Elder Maxson was aware of your suspicions on his loyalties?" Lawrence was known to be blunt when it came to the betterment of the Brotherhood and this was one such time.
"Of course he was aware. I wasn't quiet about it. You don't think…" Brandis trailed off, coming to the realization that Lawrence had assumed. "No concrete proof, but there's a secret holotape I've obtained where Maxson mentions Enclave loyalties, and Kells and Quinlan may be involved as well. We've been in touch with Sentinel Lyons on the off chance we need her, but a testimony from you aboard the Prydwen coupled with a possible holotape full of proof I received prior to leaving the ship may be what we need to call west."
"Well I'm fully willing to come back if it means clearing the Enclave's power over the Brotherhood on the east coast. Plus, an in-person witness will bolster your case." Brandis responded, standing up. "I'll gather my things and head to the airport. When I get aboard the Prydwen if it's not too late, I'll stop by your quarters and we can talk then."
Lawrence nodded, "the word is Tesla if you see me in the mess hall at some point." The use of a code word in public spaces like that was a sign that both parties were willing to converse privately without making others suspicious.
A few hours later, Lawrence was sitting in his quarters going over the contents of the holotape when there was a knock on the door. "Who is it?" He called over his shoulder, ready to quickly eject the tape if need be.
"I come as a friend." Brandis's voice came from the other side of the door. And Lawrence chuckled. "Come in then!" He called out again, going back to reading the last of the entries on the holotape.
"That the physical evidence?" The older man asked, approaching and reading it over Lawrence's shoulder.
"Yeah. It's quite damning. This, coupled with your testimony should be enough to hold a trial. Of course, that's assuming we don't just get authorization to kill them outright. Please, have a seat." Lawrence said, gesturing to the table behind them. He'd placed a voice recorder on the table and as the two of them got settled across from each other, he pressed the record button.
"Swordsman Lawrence Carter, assigned to the Brotherhood Airship Prydwen on the investigation into potential ties to the Enclave from three members of the Eastern Brotherhood leadership, Proctor Noah Quinlan, Elder Arthur Maxson, and Lancer-Captain Samuel Kells. This is the testimony of Paladin James Brandis, on his suspicions and the lost of Recon Squad Artemis possibly in retaliation."
The two of them sat for nearly 6 hours taking down Brandis's testimony and Lawrence asking clarification questions. By the end, both men were exhausted and starving. "Well now that that's done, I'm going to raid the mess hall for food. You coming." Brandis said, standing by the door. Lawrence locked the trio of evidence holotapes in his locker befor nodding.
"I normally dine here alone, but I suppose I can join you." He said, following Brandis to the main deck. There, they both noticed a mysterious lack of Paladin Danse, and Nate Burns looked upset about something. Almost as soon as the two of them heard a scribe congratulating him on the promotion did they realize what had happened.
Rumors had been circulating all day about what was found out by Nate. He'd gone into the Institute and brought back a treasure trove of data, including DNA samples of every synth the Institute had. One of those samples supposedly matched Danse. Any one of them could have been called upon for this duty, and technically it was supposed to be Lawrence's job, but for some reason Maxson singled Nate out for this. Another piece of evidence in his corruption.
After they both got their food, Brandis and Lawrence separated in the mess hall, since the room was nearly deserted, since it was nearly 11 PM. Most of the people not on duty were asleep. "Can I ask you something, Carter?" Nate's voice came from across the room, and Lawrence looked up from his food, "of course, ask away." He said in response.
"How do you deal with it? The pain of betrayal like that. Being forced to end the life of your mentor." Nate asked, and Lawrence wasn't about to tell him this didn't happen often. "It varies." He said with a shrug. "Some folks head down to Diamond city or Goodneighbor."
"Some turn to chems or alcohol." Brandis added, giving Lawrence a pointed look that neither of them were sure if Nate saw. Lawrence glared back at him. He knew he his chem of choice was sometimes dangerous, but he wasn't particularly upset about that.
"Anyway. It's nearly midnight. I have duties to attend to tomorrow as well as the night watch shift on the flight deck tomorrow as well. So I bid you both adieu and I am going to bed." Lawrence said, standing up and heading back to his quarters. He was awakened at 7 in the morning by his door opening slightly and the clattering of a holotape to the deck. Groaning, he grabbed the tape, and noticed the writing on it as he stood up. Read this as soon as possible, Swordsman. He couldn't place the handwriting, but it seemed familiar.
Placing it into the terminal on the console he loaded up the message, and what he saw made his heart drop.
I've found out that there are certain dissenters in our ranks. I know Paladin Brandis to be one of them. Our attempts to silence all of the dissenters in Recon Squad Artemis failed. So we need to keep an eye on him. I've ordered Knight-Captain Cade to keep him on limited duty as long as possible.
I suspect that he's turned Carter to his side as well, as they spent a long while yesterday afternoon together in Carter's quarters. Watch him as well. On the other hand, we should keep him off the Prydwen as much as possible in the coming days. We have to destroy the institute as soon as we can to maintain our cover.
Deal with this "railroad" as soon as you can as well. Use Carter to scout the location, it'll keep him busy for a while. We can do a deep search of his quarters while he's gone and he'll be none the wiser.
-Maxson
Ejecting the tape, Lawrence grabbed it and the trio of others, stuffing them into his pockets as he left his quarters, grabbing the folder out of the door basket as he went. It was exactly as the tape had said, scout out the location of the enigmatic Railroad. Find their entrances. Memorize the route. The usual scout and report type mission.
He read the folder as he walked back to Teagan. Arriving there, he pulled the four holotapes out of his pockets and quickly shoved all four onto the floor at Teagan's feet. "I need you to watch those for me. There's specific reasons as to why. Read the labeled one." Was all he said before turning on his heed and heading out to catch a Vertibird.
He decided to head to Bunker Hill. The number of Railroad agents in the most recent battle told him they had a base close to that location, so he was interested in finding out where it was. As the Vertibird brought him down, he hopped out, heading into the settlement. The term was a loose descriptor of the area. He knew of the secret bunker underneath and wanted to know if it'd have a way to assault the headquarters of the Railroad.
Climbing down into said bunker, Lawrence let his eye adjust for a moment before venturing deeper. Rounding a corner of the tunnels, he nearly falls into a larger pit, before he takes a glance around. On the other side of the room was a metal shell that he assumed led to a door of some sort, while there wasn't really anything else in the room.
Heading down the metal catwalks up to the metal part, he saw that there was, in fact a door, and he took a moment to listen, and heard some sort of shuffling and muffled voices down the hall. He couldn't make any of them out, but he could definitely hear more than one person.
Dropping into a crouch, he proceeded down the hall and stairs, and as he got closer, he could hear hushed voices.
"Do you think it's the Railroad?"
"Can't be, they wouldn't be this sneaky about walking down here."
"But what if they're being followed?"
"They wouldn't come if they were being followed."
"Well how are we supposed to get out of the Commonwealth without them?"
Lawrence's interest was piqued at the last comment. Knowing what they did of the Railroad, he suspected these were Synths up ahead. Pulling out his 10mm, he pulled out the last of his X-Cell stash and used it, and after a momentary rush, charged into the room.
All four Synths standing inside the room were shocked to see him come rushing in, and a few seconds later, all four of them laid dead on the ground, sparking, and his 10mm was empty. Relaxing, Lawrence quickly searched the room for some sort of hidden passage or false wall. Finding nothing, he frowned, re-holstered his pistol, and started heading out after leaving a card with the brotherhood emblem on it. As he got down to the dirt floor of the large room, he heard voices coming down the exit passage.
He quickly hid himself as best he could as he saw a few people walk right by him towards the room with the dead synths. As soon as they rounded the one corner up the stairs, Lawrence darted towards the exit but not before hearing someone shout, "THE BROTHERHOOD WAS HERE?!" behind him.
He quickly hauled himself out of the trap door in Bunker Hill, before quietly and calmly walking out of the settlement. It was starting to get dark, and he hadn't brought extra ammo with him, as he wasn't really expecting to need to reload at all, so he needed to find somewhere to hunker down for the night. He headed for the bridge over the river, deciding that, if nothing else, he'd make a run for Diamond City to hide there for the night.
As he reached the midpoint of the bridge he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up to see someone jumping down off the destroyed porch of an old building, they remained at a crouch as they moved away from the building and Lawrence particularly took interest. Someone moving like that, this time of day, told him that there had to be some sort of secret entrance back there.
Waiting for the person to clear the building enough he wouldn't be seen, Lawrence clambered up the destroyed porch and wrangled the door open without falling. He looked in an didn't immediately see anything, but the floor just ahead was destroyed and collapsed and he was certain that they'd hide a door there.
Climbing over the debris he found his suspicions were correct, there was a door there. He wasn't sure if it went to where he was hoping, but it was his only lead at this point. Pushing the door open, he peered in, seeing a whole lot of nothing with a staircase going down. Following it down, he went through another doorway into a maintenance room for the sewers. He peeked into the gated room to his right and saw a fusion generator, he'd have to find a way in there, and grab the Fusion Core out of it. The Knights pay handsomely for fusion cores.
As he turned to the left and saw a hole knocked in the wall. It looked like it went into some sort of tunnel so he made his way down it, slowly. After traversing a long distance in standing water, as well as stuff he didn't want to think about, he came to another short hallway and then to a door.
"Bingo." He whispered to himself, before back-tracking the way he came. As his feet hit the ground, he noticed Nate heading across the bridge, and jogged to catch up with him. "Paladin! Wait up!" He said quietly, but loud enough Nate could hear him, as he approached, Lawrence took a glance around momentarily before speaking. "I found the back entrance to the Railroad. If I'm right it leads right up to the catacombs under Old North Church."
"Yeah, you're correct. But the front is a better entrance." Nate responded, as the two continued walking. "How so?"
"Well it's simple, they can keep an eye on who comes and goes through the front. If we were going to hit them, hitting through the front would be a viable tactic."
Lawrence frowned slightly, what was it with Paladins and wanting to go in guns blazing. "I suppose you are right. I'll report everything to Kells as soon as I get back to the Prydwen. You should probably be ready as well, we should strike as soon as possible."