Just a couple of short chapters to get the story into a new track. Jack's life is done, but Calli's is far from over, and his influence will reach far into the future. Stay tuned for a new era!
The room they had rented for the night was still locked when they finally made their way there in the early morning hours. No one had bothered the baskets they had placed in there. Calli had become sufficiently inebriated to be able to fall asleep, although it was a restless sleep rife with nightmares. Hawk stayed beside her to lightly hold her, whispering to her, calming her when she stirred agitatedly.
Late the next morning they took their leave to walk to the water and scatter the ashes and debris into the river in full view of the wasteland and the Enclave spies. They gave it the feel of a ritual.
They were carrying a large enough sum of caps to make the journey to the Northwest Territory. There was only one place they could purchase the Radilite needed to work on the pathway into Arhome and naturally it wasn't anywhere close. Hawk figured it would take a couple weeks to get there since Calli would undoubtedly make numerous side trips and stops. She never seemed to go anywhere in a straight line.
They would be dealing with the former slave state of the Pit. Calli had been instrumental in freeing the slaves there some years previous, subsequently managing to kill the leaders at the same time, but that had been nearly a generation ago. Now she would be dealing with the grown daughter of those leaders, raised by the former slaves. Marie had proven to be a strong and just leader and was much respected.
Hawk hadn't been there as he had been tending to his own affairs (literally, with the she mutant Halnet, his wife) in the mutant village they simply called the Settlement, hidden away in the North Mountains. The fact that no mutant union had ever resulted in baby mutants didn't keep them from forming alliances. Super mutants were created, not born, and few had been created since they had destroyed the facility at Vault 87. Since the process of conversion had usually resulted in savage insanity, the intelligent, rational mutants in the Settlement were the exception, not the rule.
After leaving the river they headed north over the DC ruins to the Citadel. It had been several years since the Brotherhood, with some unwitting help from the Enclave and private citizens, had managed to scourge the last of the feral super mutants from the city. The number of raiders had dropped as well, as young people found hope in the religion of the Disciples of the One, and a promise of a future that wasn't so bleak and unbearable in the increasing prosperity brought about by the Project, the spread of the GECK, and the increase in resources.
There was still danger around though and the couple didn't relax their guard as they went through the city, noting the clean up under way and the small shops beginning to spring up along the river trade routes. The Lelland Trading Company was helping to change the face of the city.
By the time they were admitted in the gates of the Citadel the Enclave spies had been recalled as it was clear they weren't going to her hidden city anytime soon. It was a good thing for them they had as Calli would never have permitted them to follow after they left the Citadel. She had a little side trip to make before going to the Pit.
Calli and Hawk were stretched full length on the small hill, surveying the Enclave encampment through field glasses.
"Are you sure that's him?", Hawk asked, concentrating on a skinny man talking to the captain. He was wearing the white coat all Enclave doctors wore.
"Ya, that's the guy that kept Jack alive. He could have saved him. He could have stopped the bleeders, but he didn't. He just gave him enough hemostatics to keep him alive until I could get there." Calli's voice was grim. He had also kept Jack alive so he could continue to be tortured. "See that soldier over there beside the garbage can? The one with the can in his hand? That's the one that did it, who tortured him." Her voice dripped with loathing.
Hawk growled quietly, a low dangerous sound that brought an unpleasant grin to Calli's face.
"It'll be dark in a couple of hours. We better get some rest.", he growled.
They crept carefully back down the hill and into the fallen down shed they had made their camp. They left no sign anyone had been there.
It wasn't as hard to sneak into the camp as they had expected. The Enclave leaders must have known Calli would come for the men responsible for Jack, but they had posted no special protection for them. Not only that, both the doctor and the soldier who had done the actual torturing were in the same tent. Calli suspected a trap, but it was almost ridiculously easy to sneak into the tent and dispatch the sleeping men quickly and silently. She wanted to slowly carve them into little pieces but that wasn't her way. Maybe the Enclave leaders had left the way open to cleanly dispose of them, since they had so badly bungled the operation. The captain responsible for hatching and carrying out the plot had been killed in the blast so the leadership was washing its hands of the whole affair.
As Hawk had suspected, Calli didn't take a direct route to the Pit. She was easily distracted, lured by almost any artifact, building or person that caught her attention. She scavenged where she could and traded at various posts and with wandering traders along the way, so her caps continued to grow. By the time they came within site of the tunnels leading into the Pit they had plenty of caps to buy whatever Radilite might be available. The trouble was getting it. It was difficult to find and even more difficult to process. There hadn't been any available for years so Calli had been excited to receive the message that some had been found and was being processed as per her contract.
Calli purchased all the available tiles and powder and made arrangements for them to be delivered to her warehouse in the small town of River Port that had become the trade center for Arhome products, to keep Arhome's location secret. The material would be picked up by the Tradewind and delivered to Arhome Bay on the ship's next trip. It had been expensive, and the guards had been as well, as she had hired Charon's mercenaries to guarantee the shipment would arrive, but the money wasn't an issue. The small deposit of the material had been a rare find. She renewed her contract with the Pitt to purchase any and all radilite material as it became available.