Cort was fighting extremely hard against the impulse to thrust Madison Li's nose up into her face, all too easy to visualize thanks to the Pugilism Illustrated magazines she had been pouring over lately. The woman was thoroughly infuriating.
She had started her day agreeably enough. Wandering through the corridors with Dogmeat she questioned the carrier's citizens about various things while munching an apple Charon had thrown at her as soon as she had gotten up, flicking the core to the dog when she finished nibbling at it. Still too early for the Science Lab's staff to be about, she had been hailed by a somewhat unsettling elderly man upon entering; balding, bespectacled and wearing a grey suit he trotted over to her from the corner of the lab.
"You! You look too...weathered to be a lab assistant. Are you for hire?" Cort blinked at what was either an insult or a compliment on her appearance and answered him, idly watching Dogmeat approach the man's guard, who was ignoring the dog entirely. He sniffed interestedly for a brief moment at the guard's legs, seeming to confirm something, then returned to sit beside her, panting.
"Depends on what you want to hire me for. I'm on business of my own here."
"I assure you, it would be well worth your time. I'm looking for some particularly valuable missing property." He rubbed his hands together, and Cort's eye twitched at the papery sound they made, echoing in the quiet lab. Already deciding that the man was another trolley heading for crazytown but with ample time to kill, she plunged in.
"Well, go ahead and shoot. What kind of property?"
"You'll be searching for an android! Do you know what an android is? No, I imagine you don't."
Cort smiled benignly. "It's a robot designed to act as a functioning passable facsimile of a human being. Probably quite difficult to produce considering the degradation of modern technology today."
The man gobbled for a moment before catching himself, looking shrewdly at her. "My, appearances can be deceiving. Was I wrong about you being an assistant of Doctor Li's?"
"No, I'm just a scientifically minded itinerant medic. So, androids?" Cort rocked up on the balls of her feet with her hands laced behind her back, thoroughly intrigued by the man, creepy vibes notwithstanding.
"Yes. I am Doctor Zimmer, from the Commonwealth, a great and advanced area to the north of here. We have created true androids, thinking feeling persons who do what we program them to do. Like any complex systems however, there are occasional problems with them. They get confused, and wander off."
Drawing her brows together, she stared at him speculatively. Cort was beginning to not like where this was going, starting in around the 'programming of thinking feeling persons'. "And this involves me how again?"
"Why, I want you to help me find him! He must have done something incredibly drastic by now, like reconstructive surgery or a mind-wipe, possibly both. Otherwise I should have located him by now. You should start by investigating with doctors and any technicians this area may have to offer, although most of them will very primitive indeed. He might even think he is an actual person at this point. Don't worry about talking to him, you would only cause him distress. Just locate, and then come back to me so I can retrieve him for reprogramming."
Cort crossed her arms and looked down, thinking rapidly. Rearranging your face and committing memory suicide did not sound like particularly confused behaviour to her. What it sounded like was a desperate and viciously executed plan to get gone and stay gone. Reprogramming a thinking feeling person. I don't particularly like the sound of that even if the guy's insides look like a toaster. I do like the sound of me warning them and throwing this little creepy gnome off the trail. Reaching a decision, she looked back up to Zimmer.
"Sure. I can't promise it will be quick though, I'll have to cover a lot of ground to reach the people out there. What can I expect for payment?"
"Oh my heavens, I completely forgot. I can offer you technology from the Commonwealth, wonderfully advanced by your standards. You'll be the envy of all your friends! Remember, come back to me first once you have found him, I have a room taken out aboard ship. I can't tell you how pleased I am, Doctor Li would not even give me the time of day, too occupied playing with her little chemistry sets." Patting her on the shoulder, he motioned to his guard and made his way out of the lab. Cort rubbed vigourously at the spot he had touched and settled in to wait for Doctor Li to appear, poking through the equipment and notes on the various tables and reading avidly. She was jerked out of her investigations by a cross voice coming up behind her.
"Look, this a restricted area and I'm tired of telling you people...oh my God." Speaking was an older asian woman in a labcoat and skirt, who jerked to a halt a few feet from Cort when she had turned around. "You look so much like him. You're James' daughter, aren't you. What are you doing here?"
"Hello to you too, lady. You're Doctor Li?" Cort continued when the woman silently nodded. "Looking for him, since he left without leaving a forwarding address. Now would you mind telling me where he is, and why the hell he's out here, if you please?"
"He's trying to restart Project Purity. Years ago, your parents and I worked on it together, but when your mother died James decided to abandon our work and leave with you, forcing all of us to do the same. Because of your birth, the entire project was abandoned, and I returned to Rivet City. It was all I had left." Li paused. "You don't know where he is? I assumed he was the one who had sent you here. For that matter, aren't you supposed to be safe in a Vault?" Cort bristled at the unwanted diatribe, finding it far too close to home. Firmly jamming her hands into her pockets to prevent something unpleasant from happening, she glared at the woman.
"I left it to look for him after he abandoned me. Staying in there wasn't something I wanted to do."
I was under the impression that's the exact opposite of what he wanted for you."
"Well, as I'm sure you're aware, we don't always get the things we want, Doctor Li. Now will you kindly tell me where I can find my father?" Whatever Cort said had touched off a similar nerve with the older woman.
"No, we certainly do not. And I have no idea where James has gone. I would assume back to the old lab. Now kindly leave so I can return to my work."
Cort shrugged. "Just tell me where the lab is and I'll beat feet."
"It's in the Jefferson Memorial. I don't recommend going, and I told your father as much. It's not safe."
Oh, just fucking peachy. It just had to be there, didn't it. Scowling, she fired off another question. "I'm not safe. What is Project Purity?"
The woman looked at her for a long moment before replying. "It's a discarded dream, given up and dead. That's all I'm going to say." Walking over to dig around in a file cabinet, she handed Cort three holotapes. This will explain more of it, and I suppose these are really yours now anyway. Project Purity died with your mother, and I'm sorry, but nothing will bring either one of them back."
"Well let me tell you something, Doctor Li. You can't miss what you never had." Cort left the lab, chased by the lie she knew her words to be.
Charon had spent the hour or so while Cort was gone repairing their weapons and armour, having opted to remain in the room. He looked up from the cracked ablative panel he was in the middle of replacing when she came back in through the door, shuffling through a handful of holotapes. "How'd it go?"
"Good news and bad news. Found out where Dad went next. Found out that where Dad went next is the Goddamned Jefferson Memorial." She crawled onto the bed and leaned comfortably against him, pushing one of the tiny tapes into a slot on her Pip-Boy after pulling the cover loose.
"Colour me fucking shocked. When do you want to head out?"
"After we've visited the merchants and I've asked around some more for Moira, it won't take long and it'll be easier in the dark. I've already found out some stuff, and got another job..." she trailed off as a pleasant male voice started pouring out of the Pip-Boy's speaker.
"Well, there's no more mystery behind Catherine's health problems. The news of her pregnancy has lifted the spirits of everyone here, and given us a renewed interest in making the purifier work. We now have a future generation to provide for..."
Cort replaced the tape instantly with the next two as they ended, and when each had finished playing replayed the recordings from the files now stored on the Pip-Boy in order. Pulling up another recording Charon hadn't heard before, she talked conversationally over it. "My middle name is Catherine, you know. He doesn't sound any different. You think that he would sound different back then, but he doesn't. He sounds like him."
"...an adult now. You're ready to be on your own. Maybe someday things will change and we can see each other again. I can't tell you why I left or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the Vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going."
"Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with."
"Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you."
After a long silent moment, Cort stood up and shoved the tapes deeply into the bottom of her pack, then started calmly clipping her armour into place. "Let's go finish what we need to do and get to the Jefferson." Charon slowly started moving again while keeping a careful eye on her, replacing the last damaged panel he was still holding and getting his own belongings together as she put Dogmeat's armour back on. "The job I got was from this creepy little bugger who's looking for an escaped android, can you believe it? They want to reprogram him for running away. Bastards. Whenever I manage to find him, I'll have to help him." Standing patiently by the door until he was ready, Cort then strode out of the room and into the rest of the ship.
Charon stood apprehensively behind Cort as she happily dickered at the counter of Flak N' Shrapnel's, the weapon merchants in the Rivet City Marketplace and their last stop before leaving. She had efficiently wandered through the entire carrier, politely talking with everyone and picking up a couple holotapes related to the insane android business she had mentioned earlier while investigating the history of the city for Moira. The ghoul had been twitchy ever since Cort had played through the recordings of her father without reacting in any substantial way. This was something again outside of her expected reactions to things, and he had a bad feeling that it meant there were going to be unpredictable consequences as a result. In point of fact, Charon felt like he was following an ambulatory powder keg around. Starting a little when he heard her laugh(thankfully not the alarming type, although he supposed that would have relieved the tension that was slowly driving him crazy), he watched her wave to the merchants and come over, shoving the bag of caps back into her pack. She handed him a combat helmet and a large amount of ammunition a moment later.
"There, now you've got one too. Had the stuff to repair mine a few times over as well, so I bought it up. And look! A silenced N99 10mm pistol. Am I ever going to have fun with this thing. I got the last of their Stimpaks too, so that's everything we need resupplied. They even had a buttload of .44 shells." Cort patted the pistol where it was holstered on her left hip and then turned towards the exit, repeater in hand. Charon resignedly slapped on his new helmet and followed, trading a glance with the dog as he did.
They made it to the door of the Jefferson Memorial with a limited amount of effort, most of the mutants patrolling the outside having been killed on their way down to Rivet City. Slipping inside, Cort had exchanged her repeater for the new pistol and used it to devastating effect, even considering its somewhat reduced impact. Charon brought up the rear with his shotgun and grenades once their cover had been blown, still keeping a weather eye on Cort. The only change in her calm demeanor came when she spotted another holotape, quickly snatching each one up with an avid look on her face and pushing them deep into her pack before moving farther into the Memorial. Even when one of them was shot her attitude didn't change, although she treated them and herself with the same ruthless efficiency she normally had for such things.
The entire building was a maze of pipes and computer equipment, obviously co-opted by the scientists two decades before, most of it dust covered and non-functional. The only exception was the machinery in the rotunda surrounding a sluggishly moving, glassed in column of water, and even those were nearly dormant. After finally clearing out the lower levels they returned to a small living area, Charon quickly venturing upstairs for a moment to firmly barricade all the doors and lay a series of hidden frag mines in different positions. Cort was already playing through the recordings by the time he returned, armour and pack discarded on the floor next to the bed she was sitting on.
"If I'm understanding all this correctly, they were trying to create purified water on a massive scale. Makes sense with the location." Charon removed his own armour and then sat down next to her as she hiccuped softly, watching her fish randomly into her pack for another holotape to insert into the Pip-Boy. "I've gone through almost all of them. He left from here to go back into another Vault to get a piece of tech, somewhere to the west of Evergreen Mills under a garage." She looked up at him bleakly, her voice starting to crack. "I think I know what one it is, Charon. The map markers he left behind line up almost exactly. Oh Jesus, I was there. The first fucking few weeks out here, I passed it doing guard duty for Crow. I was right fucking there." Turning back to the pile of tapes in her lap, she inserted one of the few remaining.
"Well, here we are again. Project Purity and me. It's been close to twenty years since my last entry, as I left all of this behind to make a life for my daughter. We spent that time in Vault 101, tucked away from the rest of the world. It wasn't perfect, but it was safe, and that's all I could have hoped for. Now, my daughter is a grown woman. Beautiful, intelligent, confident. Just like her mother. And as hard as it was to admit it, she doesn't need her daddy anymore." Cort sighed, delicately removed the tape from the slot and placed them all back into her pack, then laid down on the bed and went completely and utterly to pieces.
