Chapter 8

The days following the revelations to the Brotherhood were a flurry of activity. Garret took over Quinlan's old office and even had a door installed so he could meet with people privately and review any decisions made by members of the accused trio. Lawrence and Teagan were busy interviewing the members of the Brotherhood they could get to.

Sarah authorized a large reduction in the combat and patrol teams being dropped into various areas of the commonwealth to post those who would be on those teams to security for the trio. She also promoted Scribe Neriah to the new Proctor in Quinlan's place.

Finally, nearly a week and a half after the revelations, all the interviews were done, and after delivering the last holotape to Garret, Lawrence finally got a minute to relax, and he collapsed into a chair in the Judiciant's office.

"Good lord! That was a right pain!" He said, eliciting a nod from Garret.

"I know, but I thank you and Teagan for doing that. If we were at the Citadel we'd have a whole team who could do it, but we're already working on limited resources as it is." Garret said, never taking his eyes off the terminal in front of him. "Speaking of limited resources, I'm thinking your assumption that Brandis's team was dropped in an attempt to silence them was correct. Too many direct violations of protocols involving the dropping in of a team and then for Maxson to send you in immediately followed by Danse's team? Not allowed by the Codex. You would have to give the all clear on Brandis's team fate prior to their deployment."

"I know. It never sat right with me, hence my investigation. Anything on Danse?" Lawrence responded, moving a chair over to where he could sit and view the screen. "Not concrete either way. I am currently reviewing all the data Paladin Burns—sorry, Sentinel Burns—retrieved from the Institute. They do have DNA records and I have compared them with the Brotherhood scrolls to find the match Quinlan detected, but I need to dig deeper to ensure the records weren't altered."

"Move." Lawrence said, and Garret shook his head. "I know you know how to alter them and detect alterations, but I'm not letting you touch it anymore than you already have. No offense, but I want to maintain it's integrity. Now, if you were to give me a holotape with the program on it I can use that."

"Garret. We've worked together how many times? I learned everything I know about the Codex from you! Do you really think I'm going to break something?!" Lawrence said incredulously to him.

"Not you. Quinlan. We both know he likely hid purgers within his system. One wrong button press while you do your thing and the entire tape gets wiped."

Lawrence facepalmed, shaking his head, "I'm losing it. I'm losing my edge. I forgot all about that being a possibility."

Before Garret could respond to that, there was a knock on the door, before it swung open to reveal Nate, holding former Initiate Daniel Clarke, as well as a holotape. "What does the Codex say about those who were removed from the Brotherhood returning?" He asked, pushing the younger man into the room.

"Back up. Explain." Garret said, standing up. "Please."

"A few days ago, I was tasked by Kells to find out who was responsible for missing supplies from the depot. Turns out Clarke here was feeding feral ghouls inside the airport." Nate summarized his interactions with the former Initiate. "Well this morning he arrived on a Vertibird transport and tried to tell me that the ghouls were Kells's idea and he was told he wouldn't get in trouble."

"And I told you to listen to the holotape! It will explain everything!" Clarke shouted in response, causing Garret to silence all remaining words by holding up a hand.

"Let me see the tape." He said, taking the tape from Nate and passing it to Lawrence who put it into the audio player behind them and pressed play.

"Initiate Clarke. Thank you for meeting with me." Kells said, followed by the rustling of papers and the sound of a door closing and a chair being moved slightly.

"Of course. Though I'm curious as to what this is about. Did I do something wrong?" Clarke said.

"No, of course not. I was just looking at the reports of the battle for the airport. I noticed that Knight Lucia was put in for a promotion to Knight and you were not. I don't care as to why." There's a sound of papers shuffling and a file cabinet closing.

"I do want to offer you a way to earn a promotion to Knight, or the recommendation from myself at least."

"I'm listening."

"There's a problem still inside the old terminal building. Large amounts of feral ghouls are living down there. It's a hazard and sickening to have them this close to the Prydwen." Kells continues speaking slowly, as if he's choosing his words carefully, "Elder Maxson doesn't deem them a real threat unless the emerge from the terminal. I have been told to find a non-violent way to deal with them."

"And what does this have to do with me?"

"As part of that directive, I've had a few scribes researching potential ways to deal with them without outright killing them. They've suggested trying to feed them to pacify them."

"And you want me to do it."

"Correct. As part of the Logistics Division, no one will question you when you take supplies out of the depot. I'll work on making sure the scribes don't note the losses."

The tape ends abruptly, but there was enough there for the point to be made.

"Well that happened." Lawrence said, pulling the tape out and handing it back to Garret. "I believe that we have a few injustices to correct."

"That we do." Garret said, as Lawrence stood up as well. "Daniel Clarke is hereby reinstated in the Brotherhood of Steel. Furthermore, he will be put in for a promotion immediately and a commendation for assisting in an active investigation. Dismissed. Both of you."

After Nate and Clarke left, Lawrence looked at Garret. "How many tapes is that? 20?"

"Something like that." Garret said, pulling off his hat and tossing it onto the bed before taking off the battlecoat as well. "Who's idea was it to make the warmest possible clothing into what a Judiciant has to wear all the damn time?"

"If I remember right, yours." Lawrence said with a smirk. "You were asked to come up with something for a Judiciant to wear in an official capacity and that's what you picked."

"In my defense, it was December." Garret said, chuckling. "I'll have to have the guidelines updated to omit the cap indoors and the coat when the temperature is above like 73."

Another knock on the door bought both men back to the task at hand as Garret called out "come in!"

Sarah entered the room, closing the door being her with a firm 'thunk'. She slapped a file down on the desk, and Lawrence immediately noticed it. "I'd ask you the meaning of all of this, Carter, but I don't think you'd know about any of it."

Lawrence picked up the fairly thick file folder, and leafed through it, frowning. "Nope. Don't know hide nor hair of half of this mess." He pulled out one page in particular and handed it to Garret. "I doubt that would even stand."

"A disciplinary report for insubordination because you were out of contact for over a month on an operation the Elder himself sent you on? And that doesn't look like your signature. Let me see the rest of your file." He said, taking the folder from Lawrence and going through each paper individually. "The write up from the first Elder Lyons after the White Shores op, no matter how controversial, is legitimate and will stand."

Lawrence frowned at that revelation, but it wasn't unexpected. He had agreed to it after all.

"Twelve write ups for insubordination for improperly reporting in during the commonwealth intelligence operation are falsified and your signature forged, correct?" Garret said, handing a small stack of papers to Lawrence who quickly checked them over.

"Yep. None of those are my signature."

"Thought so. Two reports on your lack of action on jobs given to others are obviously unable to stand. Then this multi-page report on the lack of maintenance on your weapons is not even something that matters." Garret said with a sigh, rubbing his face. "Looks like we're going to have to go through everyone's files. Thankfully doing this at the Citadel won't take nearly as long as it's going to here."

After nearly an hour of the three of them going through any and everything in Lawrence's file, only 4 items stood: the write up from the failed White Shores op, two commendations for his work in the commonwealth, and the latest commendation for the investigation from Sarah. The rest of the documents were added to the ever-growing pile of evidence for the upcoming hearing.

"I had no idea Maxson was forging my signature on things. I guess he wanted to push me out of the Brotherhood after he realized I was onto him." Lawrence said, collapsing back down in his chair.

"I'm not surprised. It seems like you were one of only a handful of dissenters left. Teagan wasn't on his radar, nor were the other Swordsmen who were still left."

"Cade's the only other living one."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. All the others either died at Adams or after that during other ops. Cade and Teagan are the only two who were spared. Probably because they're both not combat-facing." Lawrence said, sadly.

"Cade's been uninterested in continuing anything related to the Swordsmen since the unit was disbanded. White Shores hit him hard, we lost Evans and Ishimura there, and barely had time to grab their tags on the way out. We had to leave them. Harlen got seriously injured on the way out and ended up being unable to continue on active duty because she got an infection we couldn't treat in the field."

"I'm not surprised. That'd hit anyone hard. I'm sure your time in the Wasteland kept your mind off it."

"Actually quite opposite." Lawrence said, standing up to pace the room. "I couldn't be the good husband to Moira I should've been. The kids hardly saw me, even when I was home I was always off with Jericho. When I was out for work, I was gone for weeks or even months at a time with the caravan. I left all of that behind to try and regain what I was missing the whole time."

"When we get back, make amends. Bring them to the Citadel. If they'll come. See what we can do."

"If the Elder will let me, sure." Lawrence said, stopping his pacing.

"With as much as you've done for the Brotherhood, even before White Shores, I highly doubt Elder Lyons would say no. She always praised your intel, remember." Garret said with a smile.

"That's true. After this whole mess is over, I'm going to ask about starting the Swordsmen as a unit again. Take some of the load off of me."

"Might be a good idea. You're overworked." Teagan spoke up from the doorway as he pushed the door open. "In other news, we have a problem."

Gathering in the observation deck, Lawrence listened to the radio calls, frowning. Maxson had managed to convince an Initiate to let him free, and they were trying to track him down.

"Your orders, Elder?" Lawrence asked, without even checking if he was going to be deployed.

"Negative. Swordsman." Sarah replied firmly. "I know where he's likely headed, and we can just send a team to retrieve him." Her comment made Lawrence tilt his head at her. "If we know where he's going, why are we standing here?" There was always a degree of informality in the relationship between the Swordsmen and the Elder, but even then there were boundaries, and Lawrence just crossed one.

"Because the Elder ordered us to." Garret said, smacking Lawrence's shoulder, as Sarah spoke as well. "Because if my suspicions are incorrect, then we will have all three of them loose."

"Oh." Was all Lawrence said as he went quiet. "Now, I'm sending Sentinel Burns down to lead the capture team. He's intricately familiar with Fort Hagen so he'll know where it's likely for Maxson to hide."

Now it all made more sense. Someone with intricate knowledge of a location would be better suited to rooting out where someone's hidden within.

As they all began to filter out of the room, a single radio call came through. "We've got him, Elder. I'll personally make sure he doesn't get out again."