In the irradiated, actually glowing, Glowing Sea, Charon's Enclave issued metal stomped slowly along with Nick Valentine's pace. Separated from the two by the others of Reilly's Rangers were Reilly herself and the Lone Wanderer.
"You think it can hear us?", Reilly asked.
"I don't think it matters.", the Lone Wanderer replied. "I can figure out what you want to discuss. But if you think about it, nothing really changes. At least in the short term."
Reilly objected. "But he laid into you pretty heavily."
"With words?", the other woman scoffed. "None of us were going to let the Children of Atom take control of a potential nuclear launch site. Let's just get that out of the way. It would be different if say, we had already inspected it and all there was was waste for them to collect. But an actual, operational warhead? Launch capabilities? No matter how much Nick hates it, or the machine that acts like the detective acts like he hates it, even he could see the contradiction between getting to the bottom of why the General is blaming the Brotherhood of Steel for the nuclear strike that has brought us so close to war and allowing a church dedicated to nuclear destruction to get their hands on nuclear weapons. I remember when their founder worshiped at a live bomb. There's no way Valentine can justify not stopping them. And it's not like there are a lot of ways to convince a religious fanatic to not follow their religion.
"Now let's say he actually objected. What was he going to do? Spin around and turn his pipe gun on all of us in our power armors? For the same reason he didn't turn on us then and there, he won't do anything now."
"But he's a machine.", Reilly countered. "He doesn't really fear for his life like...well, us."
"No?", the Lone Wanderer asked. "If he's a machine that's just programmed to act like the man Nick Valentine, then the man certainly would. But from the few synths I've met, they're more human than anyone seems to give them credit for. Don't mistake him walking around this Glowing Sea without a suit for a lack of self-preservation: after all, the radiation will affect him less than Charon.
"And if he really wants to bring us to some kind of justice for preventing another nuclear attack by those people...well, he has to make it back for that to happen. And he'd have to lead us to where we're going and back as well. Your rangers are a recon team, after all. He can't exactly lead us in circles without tipping us off that he wants us dead, in which case Brick turns him into spare parts. He still can't attack us, because Brick would turn him into spare parts. And he can't exactly lose us because look around you."
The flat plains of the Glowing Sea had not foliage or structures or even thick mists to hide anyone.
The woman continued. "If he really was against us killing the Children of Atom, then his best bet is to lead us back to the Commonwealth. If we find that the Children of the Atom launched on the Commonwealth, we'll have ended people that the Minutemen would have tried to end anyway and no one can really object - including the pre-war cop, Nick Valentine. If we find something else, he still needs us to back him up in figuring out what really happened because no one else is listening to the truth and the truth is what's going to save the most lives here. Either way, if he wanted to 'turn us in' he would need someone to turn us in to."
"So, whether Nick is more or less mad than he seemed doesn't really matter. He still has to take us to Sentinel Site. There's an argument that he still has to help us afterwards as well. The only time he can turn on us is after we have something he can use to prove that the Brotherhood of Steel didn't attack the Commonwealth. And since the General doesn't seem to be listening to us anyway, we'll be well on our way back home by then."
In a sing-songy voice, the Lone Wanderer imitated the response she expected. "'Oh no, the band of adventurers that can survive trekking all over the wasteland are way to far away to send our grunts after, so our goon squad won't get wrecked by them. I mean, we really have to get them - after all they just stopped a war between the two biggest powers known to the east coast and must be punished for saving all those lives. Oh no!"
She continued normally. "So let's say Valentine has heard me tell you all this. Whatever you think of the question of whether he's a machine or a man, you will believe that he's already concluded everything I just told you. I walked into his office and he had me half dead-to-rights from the sight of me."
Reilly inquired. "But isn't that because Old Man Stockton told him we were coming?"
"Can you tell one trader you never met from the disguise of a trader you were waiting for in less than a second?", the Lone Wanderer countered.
The power armor next to her couldn't nod in agreement. "I see your point."
"Besides, it's not like we're the bad guys.", the Lone Wanderer reminded. "We're trying to stop a war. We just may have prevented a nuclear holocaust. He can see that we're not a pack of raiders who ran into that village just to kill everyone.
"I think he was just mad in the moment because he thought I slipped up in telling them. I'm sure by now he realizes that I had to make sure."
"Make sure?", Reilly tried to follow.
The Lone Wanderer's power armor couldn't nod either. "Those Children of Atom could have simply held Sentinel Site as some sort of holy place and not wanted us to trespass with disrespect: they could have offered a guide. They could have understood that they wouldn't live to see any 'division' and stayed put. Worst case scenario, we were walking into a trap and they already had more vicious fanatics stationed there; in which case they would have tried to send someone off that we wouldn't notice to beat us there. Even if they had split into multiple factions and had disagreed with others that were at Sentinel Site, they could have warned us. That could have gone a number of different ways - being crazy enough to declare intent to launch while knowing we wouldn't let them was only one of them.
"But I still wouldn't call Valentine out on it. If all this goes unsaid, things will probably play out like I said. I don't want any surprises out of him at this Sentinel Site just because he thinks we thinks we're clever and arrogant."
