1
"Fawkes!", the Lone Wanderer called out.
"You made it back.", the super mutant accepted, a little surprised. "No casualties despite the months away."
"It was a lot quicker on the way back.", she replied. "Where's Valentine?"
The super mutant paused. "Who?"
The Lone Wanderer stopped cold. She lifted a single finger and pointed to her left and right. The rest of Reilly's Rangers immediately quieted and started searching their base, guns drawn but without the heavy weaponry and the now power drained power armors waiting to be dragged inside. A quick sweep showed that no one else was in Reilly's base.
Fawkes stood from his chair. "Who were you thinking could be here?"
"A detective from the Commonwealth!", the Lone Wanderer informed desperately. "A synth, robot with a failed foam covering and trench coat with fedora combo. He's the one that figured out that the General was the one who detonated the nuke on Commonwealth soil."
"What?", Fawkes disbelieved. "But the whole invasion of the Capital Wastes, her new provinces - that's all predicated on...and she committed the crime?"
The small woman held her hands out. "I know, right? We have to broadcast this to the people as soon as possible. But if we don't have Nick Valentine, master detective of the Commonwealth, then we're not the revealers of the great secret. We're just a bunch on the bottle cap of the Brotherhood of Steel accusing the leader of an invading nation for being guilty of the very crime that nation is invading for.
"Plus, some cracked woman broadcast that she was a Brotherhood of Steel member and poisoned the entirety Commonwealth."
The supermutant cocked his head. "So the Commonwealth has already been killed?"
Butcher shook his head. "No, just royally pissed off. So the calls on Commonwealth radio went from 'careful diplomatic integration of the Capital Wastes' to 'kill 'em all'."
The Lone Wanderer continued. "So the one thing that could actually stop the General, showing that she dropped that nuclear weapon, is worthless unless we have Valentine. And he's not here! He had a boat to get back to land. He knew our plan. I found this place, how hard can it be for a robot super detective to find it?"
Fawkes lowered his voice. "Well, you do say that he knew your plan. That plan seems to be to tell everyone, which means the Brotherhood of Steel so they can have Three Dog broadcast it. If he's a robot, he wouldn't have to rest here like you would. If he is as smart as you say, what if he went straight for the Citadel?"
"You're a genius.", the Lone Wanderer realized. "Reilly, you're coming with me to the Citadel right now. Let everyone else recover from our ship sinking and the Glowing Sea and the trip up and everything. We'll meet up with Valentine with the Brotherhood of Steel. And if he's not there, you can collect your unit's caps and I'll meet up with him at Three Dog's in case he went straight to the source."
Reilly nodded. "Butcher, you're in charge. Get everything back into fighting shape: the men, the Hellfires, all of it. I'll be back with the biggest bag of caps you've ever seen and then we'll celebrate, okay."
Butcher frowned. "Okay."
The Lone Wanderer nodded, ignoring his expression. "Good. Let's go." Reilly and and the Lone Wanderer left them, dressed in their regular attire.
Butcher turned to Fawkes. "We're betting that Valentine is smart enough to find his way to where he needs to go and survive the Wasteland long enough to get there. What if he's not?"
Fawkes responded, "That's not what is beginning to concern me."
"I'm sorry?", Butcher inquired.
The super mutant sat back down and adopted and introspective pose. "Did this Nick Valentine have some driving programming to help you?"
Donovan informed, "He's not like that. He's a synth - he has the memories of a pre-Great War cop."
"Oof.", Fawkes let out.
"What?", Butcher and Donovan and Brick asked.
"Did he have some great hatred of the General or the people of the Commonwealth? Some love of the Capital Wastes or us or the Brotherhood of Steel?"
"No. Why?", Butcher kept on.
Fawkes nodded, mostly to himself. "Because you're not painting the picture of a man who's out to save us. What if he's smarter than you're giving him credit for? That he isn't just helping you take down the General because she was responsible for the nuclear strike. I mean, you say the Commonwealth has been poisoned by someone who announced Brotherhood colors. What if he's not helping? What if he's just seeking justice? That doesn't necessarily mean working with us any more than he feels he has to in order to complete whatever he's attempting."
"But what would he be attempting?", Donovan asked.
"You're the technician.", Fawkes reminded. "You've also spent time with it...or him. If you don't know, how would I?"
2
"You mean to tell me that the General is responsible for the very nuclear weapon she has been accusing us of being responsible?", Jameson decried. The Lone Wanderer had never seen the elderly woman so angry. "I...I...the towns she's been annexing. The people kept in their homes."
"Well, at least we got her back with unleashing that lunatic to poison all of them.", Casadin stated.
Cross glared at him. "You know damn well that wasn't our intention."
Casadin appeared to be way to calm for the conversation of accusations and revelations. "But it is the result. We are the Brotherhood of Steel. And we did unchain Wyath and enabled her."
"She tricked us.", Jameson explained.
Casadin rolled his eyes. "You may be saying that for the benefit of our Wasteland Savior here. You may be saying that for your benefit. But not for mine. I know what I did by the result of it, not the intention of it. You want me to get mad? Then I will because that is what is needed to stop the General. You want me to burn in hell for turning my back on my oath to keep weapons of mass destruction from being used on humanity again - because I released Wyath instead of executing her? Well, I agree. You want me to pretend that this isn't exactly what it is? Go find some softer man."
"You all are missing the point.", the Lone Wanderer reminded. "This is what we've been looking for. This is what you've been paying Reilly's Raiders for. As soon as we collect Nick, we go to Three Dog and we've won."
"Who?", the commanders asked.
"Dammit!", the Lone Wanderer exclaimed. "He's the linch-pin in all this. Nick Valentine is a robot with the memories of a pre-Great War cop that now acts as a well respected detective in the Commonwealth. He's the one who figured out that the nuke was fired by the General. We need him because the Commonwealth isn't going to believe the Brotherhood of Steel or their agents."
"You say he's a detective.", Cross reminded. "What about the witnesses he questioned?"
"Dead.", the Lone Wanderer admitted.
Jameson furrowed her brow. "How?"
"We killed them.", Reilly replied. "They were going to set off another nuclear weapon. We weren't going to let them."
The Lone Wanderer sat down. "He's not here. He's not a Three-Dog because if he was, then he would be on the radio getting interviewed and we would have heard it on the way over."
"What about any physical proof that you have?", Jameson asked.
"We couldn't bring back any. Hell, there wasn't even real proof to bring back.", the Lone Wanderer placed her head in her hands. "It was all his deductions. He could explain it. He probably could even explain where to find that evidence you asked for. Without him, we have the truth and we're still screwed."
Casadin nodded. "If he didn't come to us, and he didn't come with you, where do you think he's gone?"
"I don't know!", the woman yelled. "Where does a robot cop with hundreds of years of experience and a sense of justice strong enough to come with us to discover the leader of what passes for his country is a psycho go? Apparently, not here to expose the warlord's crimes! He isn't one of the synths that pass for human, so it's not like a deathclaw or mirelurk ate him up."
"Wait a minute - he's not a robot, he's one of the Institute's synths?", Casadin pointed out.
Cross sat back in her chair, disappointed. "You said he was a robot - people believe robots. Not this blasphemous synth-tech that the Institute came up with. That's not going to help."
"No, no, no!", the Lone Wanderer pounded on the table in front of her. Fortunately, her CHINESE STEALTH SUIT did not augment her strength in the way that Brotherhood's power armor did. "He's got built up reputation for saving children, missing family members, bringing criminals to justice."
"I'm certain it does. That's what these things do.", Jameson said. "Look. We'll forward this information to Three-Dog, it deserves to be out there. If it does some good, all the better for it.
"However. Ms. Reilly - I believe you are owed some number of caps for...well, this level of service rendered. If you will allow me to collect them, you can be on your way. I do not believe this level of service will be required in the future."
