Chapter 21 – Up North
The team spent the night at the small settlement that had grown up around the Bunker Hill Monument. Actually, placed on the adjacent Breed's Hill, this 221-foot obelisk was built fifty years after the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was fought in the 1700's between the British and the new American Revolutionaries. Still mainly in one piece, the obelisk was the centre point to a small community of locals and caravan traders. It was home to old man Stockton, the owner of a large caravan business, running three caravan trade routes patrolled by Trashcan Carla, Lucas Miller and Cricket. The settlement was surrounded by a high wall and guarded by the locals. Inside, it's main attraction was the bar, owned by Joe and Tony Savoldi, which offered drink and accommodation to the weary traveller.
Enjoying a decent enough meal and not having to be on sentry, the team rested well and set of early the next morning, aiming to get the Taffington Boathouse by around midday. Cait and Curie had packed their kit and were standing ready to leave when Nate came to join them, having finished speaking to Deb, the shop owner at Bunker Hill.
"Where's Piper?" Nate asked.
Curie shrugged her shoulders and Cait said, "Fuck knows," frustration clear in her tone.
"Go grab her would you," Nate asked Curie who nodded and headed back to the accommodation.
"We are always running after her or letting her sneak off to speak to people. I swear she makes it up half the time just to shirk off having to pack her stuff up or break camp." Cait said crossly.
"She works hard as a reporter, Cait, you know that." Nate stuck up for Piper.
"This morning she left her bed roll and kit all over the place and then, as soon as it came to pack up, she is nowhere to be seen. Rushing off because she must speak to someone." Cait raises her arms in exasperation. "Maybe I should try that sometime," She said sulkily.
"You packed her kit up for her?" Nate asked.
"Yes, I bloody well did." Cait huffed.
"Thank you," Nate said, "I'll speak to her about it."
Cait dropped Pipers kit at Nates feet and walked over to join the returning Curie. At the same time Piper arrived, slightly out of breath, from an office at the back of the merchants hall.
"Sorry, Blue," Piper said, scooping down to pick up her kit, "Got chatting to old man Stockton, looks like I might have an in to," Piper leant close and whispered, "the Railroad."
The Railroad was the name given to the underground movement which had the primary aim of freeing sentient synths from their creators at the Institute. Synthetic Humans, such as Curie, were manufactured by this sinister and shadowy organisation called the Institute, and then sent out into the commonwealth to pose as humans, whilst remaining under the Institutes control. Noone knew where this Institute was based or why they were set on replacing humans with almost identical robotic doppelgangers. Whatever the reason, many of the synths created by the Institute developed independent sentient characteristics and so began searching for freedom from their master's control. This is where the Railroad would step in and help. Unfortunately, as the institute had a policy of sending a Courser, a highly effective assassin synth after escaped synthetics, to track them down and kill them, being in the Railroad was a dangerous profession.
Curie's current body that she occupied was one such synth. Designated G5-19, this synth, who was a courser herself, had escaped the Institute and, desperate to be freed from its control, agreed to go through a risky memory-wiping procedure, carried out by Dr Amari at Goodneighbour. Sometimes, such as in the case of G5-19, this procedure did not work and so, in her case, left her in a persistent vegetative state. It was G5-19's Railroad handler that gave her to Curie. This allowed Dr Amari to transfer over Curies robotic consciousness from her Miss Nanny robot body into this synthetic one.
Being in the railroad was a closely guarded secret and one that some people would kill to keep that way. Piper had already got herself into hot water more than once trying to uncover this underground organisation.
"I hope you are not getting yourself into more trouble with them, Piper, I seem to remember the last time you tried this, it didn't end well for you." Nate helped her on with her backpack. Nate remembered back to the time, long before Piper had moved in to Home Plate, when she had accosted him just outside Publik Occurrences, asking to be hidden from an angry pair of bounty hunters. It had turned out, after Nate was able to speak to them, that the Railroad had put a bounty on Piper's head because she was sniffing about trying to discover the location of their HQ. Nate had paid off the bounty, only after scaring one of the bounty hunters half to death, and then was able to get a message to the head of the Railroad, Desdemona, promising that Piper wouldn't do that again.
"No way Blue, not making that mistake again, and besides, you have a way of being very persuasive when you want to be," Smirked Piper, rubbing her bottom for emphasis. "Stockton approached me last night, it seems they want to do an interview, for some positive PR."
"Oh, ok." Nate smiled, "just keep us involved, ok?" Nate signalled to Cait and Curie, "That sounds like a noble cause and one we can help with, even if it is only to watch your back."
"Thanks Blue, that's sweet." Piper touched his arm.
"Oh, and Cait is not happy, you left her to tidy up this morning when you ran off to speak to Stockton. Let her know you appreciated her and what she did, would you." Nate made the tone enough for Piper to know this was an order and not just a request. Last thing he needed was the two of them bickering on the way up to Taffington.
In general, the morale in the team, most especially since the introduction of corporal punishment, was very good, but sometimes, with two strong willed personalities, such as Cait and Pipers, there would be friction. Nate had never needed to revert to using his new position, or the powers affording him as any cross words were soon forgiven. If you believed in star signs, thought Nate, Caits Pisces and Pipers Virgo were opposites and could be the best of friends as long as they respected each other's differences. Nate smiled to himself, he always teased Nora for her following all that astrology nonsense, but he was amazed how much he retained.
Nate looked up to see Piper talking to Cait and Curie and although he couldn't hear what was being said, it looked amicable enough. Nate turned and waved at Carla who was heading over to the bar and then he followed his companions through the front gates of Bunker Hill and on to the road north.
They had moved less than a street when the team were forced to seek cover, as someone started to shoot at them from one of the rooftops. The aim was terrible and shots ricochet off the walls over on the far side of the street. Nate could see Piper and Cait getting ready to breech the front door of the building the shots were coming from. He hugged the front of the adjacent building, moving up to join them. A burst of concentrated fire on the sidewalk juts in front of him caused Nate to pause he looked up and waived the girls in, given them the signal to breech without him.
Piper and Cait took up positions either side of the door frame as Curie moved up to the door with her sawn-off pump action shotgun. She pointed the weapon at the top hinge of the door and fired, moving to the bottom hinge quickly after. She then moved back and Cait took over, putting her boot into the door and making it fly off its hinges. Piper ran past Cait and as quick as a flash all three girls were in the building. Nate could hear a shout and a burst of weapons fire, followed by an explosion . A second, louder explosion was then heard from somewhere on the first floor. There was then a short silence followed by another burst of gunfire, a scream and back to all quiet.
Nate had held back as he wasn't park of the stack clearing the house, and so he was staying outside. House clearance wasn't always a clean and tidy affair, and so Nate had taught the girls that if you are not part of the house clearing team, don't wander in afterwards and definitely not before the 'all clear' is given. In the confusion, any wandering lone person could be easily mistaken as a hostile.
The clearance was textbook and when Cait gave the signal Nate entered the ground floor. The room was mainly empty except for a two person sofa, now up against the wall, with the body of a raider underneath it. From the scorch marks, Nate could see that a grenade or small explosion had gone off.
"The fucking moron dropped a home made on his foot," Nate heard a voice from the other room. "Thankfully it wasn't a powerful explosion." Cait chuckled. Home made explosives were not only very dangerous to any intended victims, but they were also often just as bad for the health of the person making them. Creating explosives from whatever unstable and often unknown chemicals that were still available in the commonwealth, led to various results from explosives going off prematurely, to them having too much power, to them not going off at all. None of those situations benefitting the person throwing them. Nate moved through to the second ground floor room, a long abandoned shop, and started up the stairs. The first floor was dimly lit by a brasier and had a single fridge, on its side with the door missing. That was the only piece of furniture other than the fire and had all sorts of drug paraphernalia scattered on it. Curie was taking some of the syringes that had not yet been used. Nate and the team might not be users but they were happy to sell any drugs they might find.
"Pssst," Piper calls down from on the second floor.
Nate looks up to see Piper placing her finger over her mouth and signalling for Nate to join her. Nate made his way up and saw Piper standing over by the only door in this room, Nate assumed on to the roof. The room had a large steamer trunk in it, another lit brazier, a bedframe and a mattress laid on the floor.
"Hey quit messing around, will ya." Came a voice from the other side of the door. Piper had her 9mm Glock out and was pointing it, about head hight, directly at the door, moving it left to right as she tried to listen to the direction of the raider outside. She fired one round into the door and there was a groan and silence.
"Nice shot, Missy." Nate nodded in approval.
"He was pissing me off, he just wouldn't stay still." Piper moved to slowly open the door.
"Remind me not to piss you off anytime soon," Nate smiled, drawing his pistol to offer the reporter cover.
Piper opened the door which fell open as the body of the raider Piper had shot, slumped into the room. Stepping over the body, Piper was already alert for any further threats coming from the roof. Nate followed, placing his hand on her shoulder, making her aware of his presence. The roof was mainly empty except for the mini fusion reactor that had once served as the power source for these buildings. It hummed gently, signalling that it was still in use. Piper whistled appreciatively as she saw a fusion core still plugged into the control panel. "We'll be having that thank you," she murmured whilst putting the fusion core away in her bag. Both Nate and Piper checked the remainder of the roof and apart from a body of a ghoul, that had obviously been living up here before it became a drugs den, there was nothing else of value. They went back inside to join the other girls.
"Addicts, they are such disgusting animals," Piper exhaled, walking past the mess on the ground floor. Nate spotted the glare Cait gave her.
"She wasn't talking about you," Nate stepped up to Cait, and taking hold of her arm he spoke softly.
"Yeah, sure she wasn't," Cait glared back at Nate. She then looked down at his hand, which was still holding her upper arm. Nate held his grip, not holding tightly but not releasing either. "Okay!" Cait answered, not sounding like she was at all. Nate decided to have a word with Piper as she seemed to be in wind up mode and was now pushing all of Caits buttons.
The team formed up outside and continue to patrol north. They passed the regional office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Drugs, Tobacco, Firearms and Lasers (BADTFL) and past the bridge that leads off to the local Poseidon Energy Turbine. Nate was itching to explore some of these locations, as he was sure there would be plenty of loot to find, but he was on a promise not only to Doc McClintock and the Bobrov Brothers, but now also Jack Cabot. Get the work done first, he told himself, then plenty of time for some fun stuff. First he needed to have a word with Piper.
As the team patrolled, he saw Piper was up front as so moved up to join her, swapping his place at the rear with Curie. If he had looked back at Cait, as he walked past her, he would have seen her smirk. It was obvious, she was looking forward to Piper getting into trouble.
As Nate walked up to match Piper's pace, he asked, "Am I to assume you are looking to get a rise from Cait?" he smiled at her.
"Oh, she is just being grouchy, probably due on, and she really needs to grow up. So, I left some of my kit unpacked this morning, not really life and death stuff is it. Not like getting an actually in to the Railroad and their mission." Piper began to get excited.
"Yes, the Railroad is an important player in the campaign against the Institute, but so is my sanity and wellbeing." Piper smiled at that. "Can you tell me, honestly," Nate continued, "that your comment about addicts was just careless phrasing?" Nate looked expectantly at his companion. At least Piper had the good grace to look a little sheepish at that question as she chose to keep quiet.
"Figured as much." Nate nodded to himself. "Look, if you want a spanking just as soon as we get to the boat house all you need to do is ask. I can't say it will be the most private of locations, who knows, Lucas and his guards might juts be walking past as they catch a glimpse of me blistering your backside." Piper began to protest. "Oh, don't you worry, Cait will be standing right next to you showing off her newly acquired red hot seat, so how about you guys call it quits and instead we enjoy the rest of the trip?" Nate kept the tone light but left no doubt in Pipers mind that he meant it. He absolutely didn't want to punish any of the girls on the road, as you could never guarantee who would be watching. This was a very personal thing to him and his girls and not something he wanted being gossiped about throughout the commonwealth. That being said, if they pushed it too far he might just have to.
"I am going to drop back and speak to Cait, okay?" Nate was checking to confirm Piper was on board and happy to behave.
"Yes, sir," Piper huffed, smiling.
Good thought Nate, she was being jovial but had taken on board the warning. Nate was sure the girls would sort out their little spat later today, but Nate didn't want to let it get any more acrimonious on the patrol up, as that was risky and likely to give him a headache.
"So, I spoke to Piper." Nate pointed out the obvious, as Cait would have seen them chatting, "And I told her that if she continues to wind you up, I would have no problem giving her a good hiding as soon as we get to Taffington," Nate paused.
"Good, I would like to see that." Cait snapped back.
"You would, as I also told her that her spanking would come directly before yours and that the two of you could make up, noses to the wall, nursing very sore and well spanked backsides." Nate finished. Cait stopped walking and looked at Nate.
"Why, she was the one that started it," Cait sounded aggrieved but also, in Nates mind, like a bratty teenager.
"Piper didn't mean to leave her stuff for you to tidy up, she has been chasing an in with the Railroad for years, and this morning she was given one. Worth a few untidy clothes, don't you think."
"For real?" Cait asked in a much softer tone.
"Yes, she spoke to Stockton, who is something of a go between. They want some good PR and have chosen Piper to do the article." Nate answered.
Caits shoulders sagged a little, as if the fight had all but left her. "I guess that is worth a few messy clothes then," She accepted. Then she looked at Nate and said quietly, "I'll go an apologise then." Cait sounded so defeated.
"Don't be too contrite, she was a little minx with that statement about addicts, so the two of you should make up, but she is currently as likely to get a tanning as you are, so don't roll over too much. I'll stay here, why don't you go up to join her." Nate started to walk slower to allow Cait to move up to Pipers position at the head of the patrol.
Cait turned to Nate as she started heading towards Piper, "That was better," she smiled.
Nate had to think for a second, oh yes, he realised, she was talking about his attempt at telling them off when they left Cabot House. Yes, this telling off was much better, much better because he meant it.