Calhoun was old hand at playing people against one another. The situation at hand was far less than ideal, but he was confident that it could be shaped into a more formidable plan. He could turn it around, especially now that Celia had gotten her brother Ed to leave the Vault. Without Ed, his idea for the abandoned military base would be useless.
Celia had stormed off in an immature rage, which irritated him, because he'd been hopeful that the girl would play to his tune. She was a hard one to persuade, but then, she'd always been a loner, lost in the tunnels of the Vault. Skipping school, getting into trouble, sneaking around like a dog with it's tail between it's legs... Calhoun sighed. Maybe she would be better off, out on her own. He'd rather she'd stick around. He liked her, despite her childishness. Liked her... in a way he'd not been fully able to explore, within the confines of the Vault.
Calhoun pushed such thoughts away, and gathered the key people to his plan. Mike Rind, Ed Landis, and the ever-stalwart Head of Vault Security, Officer Sam Pesaro, sat at a table in the common house, where Calhoun laid out his idea.
Using his Pip-Boy, he showed them the map altered by Lionel's information. "Here is the vague location of an abandoned military base," he said. "I am of the opinion that it would be our best bet for striking out. But, there are considerations to make, before we decide."
"A military base would be in terrible condition, after the War," Landis said, frowning. "Wouldn't it had been hit the hardest?"
"We'll have to have a look, regardless. If it's in terrible shape, we can try the southern option. But I want to run down the plan for this base first, and plan out as much as possible. Our... decaying associate says there should be robots patrolling the base, which means it has no raiders, creatures, or other sentient danger."
Sam Pesaro shook his head. "Old military robots-we'd get disintegrated if we bothered them."
Calhoun ignored the negative thoughts. "Ed, you were the head of robot repair at the Vault. Could you disable, or reprogram a military model Mister Handy?" He looked at the heavy-set man, expectantly.
Ed scratched his stubble and looked thoughtful. "Well..." He sighed. "The Vault Handys are on pre-programmed maintenance routines, and tethered to their individual station. These guys are probably free roaming, which means someone would have to get up close to manually shut them down."
"But it could be done?" Calhoun shot him a critical look. "If someone was quick enough?" Ed nodded, warily. "So, we'll go look at the place, get a feel for what kind of security is there, and plan out action."
"...If there are any other kind of robots roaming the grounds, I'd need the specifications for them," Ed added, nervously. "The Vault has the appropriate training material for that."
"Like a how-to on building robots, maybe? It wouldn't be a bad idea to have more," Pesaro said.
"RobCo was pretty twitchy about corporate espionage," Mike said. "We'd have the wherewithal to disable, repair, and dismantle the security bots, but without the computer systems at the Vault, we couldn't even dream of reprogramming one."
"Anything you might be able to scrounge up from the Vault to help with that?" Calhoun asked.
"I know the ins and outs of the Handy hardware, but if we can't connect to them, we'd just be the owners of a pile of junk." Mike shrugged a shoulder. "Realistically, we should be more concerned with the power system of the base, if it's operational, if it can handle more than a couple robots. They aren't solar-powered; they'll have to recharge their energy cells if they are operational, at least once every 24 hours. If there is working power at the base, then we need to know that the draw on the generator isn't going to cause some sort of catastrophic explosion, once we start utilizing the place as a home."
"I vote that we keep the robots, if we can," Pesaro said, "and if anyone needs to pinch something from the Vault... I will look the other way, for now. Just try to keep the thievery simple." He looked at Mike. "Leave anything we don't need, and certainly don't go taking things that the Vault might need."
"Let's talk about the people who will scout the base," Calhoun said. "If we send the right team, we can go ahead and disable the robots before we get into any serious planning. If nothing pans out, we'll be able to scavenge the robots for parts and make some capital for rebuilding in another location."
Everyone agreed. Pesaro pointed out that Calhoun, as former Overseer, shouldn't go. "My job is to keep the entire group safe," he said, "and if we lost our 'boss', we'd be lost to the wastes in a very short time."
"I was hoping I could be there for the first look," Calhoun said, disappointed.
"It's still too dangerous, Calhoun."
He conceded. "Well, who will go, then?"
Pesaro looked at Ed. "You can teach other people to disable these things?"
"Yes, with the manual. It's not something you can just pick up on your own. Even Celia had to read the manual for the Handys before she embarked on that... terror campaign of hers." Ed sighed in disapproval.
Calhoun chuckled. "I'd forgotten about that. Every other day, wasn't it?"
"Oh, I remember now." Mike shook his head. "Disabling the Handys in the medical clinic was the worst of it."
"She said she was fighting off robot invaders from Mars," Calhoun said, remembering. "It was pretty funny until she actually took the Handys offline." He smiled to himself. Yes, he rather liked Celia, he thought, because that inventiveness of hers was entertaining.
"The little snot finally has an applicable skill," Pesaro muttered.
"Hey," Ed said, "she might be a snot, but she's still my sister. She was ten, for crap's sake."
"I caught her spiking Mr. O'Nan's coffee with Mavis Pottin's horrid perfume once," Mike said.
"I caught you cherry bombing the Overseer's personal toliet, once," Pesaro said, eyeing Mike, who flushed red. "At any rate, it would be a good idea to include her in the scouting team. She's sneaky, and we need that."
"Where is Celia?" Ed asked, looking around.
"She... went somewhere else after having a issue with management," Calhoun said. "I will have a talk with her, when she cools down. Speaking of which, it's rather hot in here..."
He excused himself from the table, and walked outside for some fresh air. The girl was nowhere in sight. He sighed, looked up. The sky was lit up with brilliant stars. I hope she listened to me, he thought. I really do need her help.
Celia felt the chill deep in her bones, crawling up her back, and along her scalp. How did anything grow here? When the heat-blasted day was gone, the world felt frozen in the light of the moon. Her teeth were chattering by the time she'd made it halfway to Grayling.
She fought sleep the whole way, but when her eyelids started to force themselves shut she had to make a choice. Sleeping out in the open was just not an option. The road blurred in front of her, and her head spun. Yes, she had to find somewhere to bunker down.
She shivered, looked around. There, she thought, that car. She went to the door, but the handle was stuck shut. Figures. She leaned into it through the window, and pulled herself inside.
She curled up on the front seat, looking out at the stars in the sky. What am I doing? she thought. I'm going to get myself killed.
Sleep overtook her, before she could bother to answer.
Lionel was surprised that Lilian had come back-he'd nearly convinced himself that she was dead. She sat at the table, drinking a bottle of water, giving him the stink eye. She was furious with him for yelling at her, and he was furious with himself. He'd lost his composure at having her home, acted foolishly. He didn't know why he got so angry when he couldn't say what he wanted to say.
He'd also been angry at that stupid little girl, who forced him to watch her dogging him all the way from Grayling. He could have just walked off into the wastes and lost her, but Dr. Jen's words echoed in his head. "Couldn't hurt to make friends."
He ignored Lilian's glare and thought about "friends" and what it meant. Jen was a friend. But she was Lilian's daughter, too, so he didn't know if she could be counted. Lionel hadn't been good at making friends, even back in the day. Never had a problem attracting ladies, though. He smiled at Lilian, fondly. Even though she'd thrown the radio at him, all the anger dissolved from his mind. He forgave her, without question, for having run off.
"You're mad at me," he said, calmly. "We have all the time in the world. You'll get over it." He wouldn't apologize for being mean. Lionel didn't make a habit of saying sorry, even if he was at fault.
Later, when he laid himself down on the mattress and pushed himself against the wall, she let the glare fade. She broke the silence in the room with a scoff and said, "You're a cad, Lionel."
"As long as you're saying that," he said, sleepily, "I think I can handle it."
Life went back to normal.