In the private room at the Atomic Wrangler, Ron and Charles sat together. Charles said,
"Haven't seen you in a while, Ron, but it's good to see you again. I was feeling all depressed about the fact that we lost the dam, and it made me rethink all this violence, you know? You remember when I was a man of science? Sure, we made guns at RobCo, but it was impersonal. But in this wasteland, it's fight or die, especially when you have to go to New Vegas. When you're in California, you see shit you don't want to see, but you deal with it."
"You doing good, Charles? I'm here for you, friend."
"Yeah, it's just that now, with these fucking Freeside assholes trying to undermine us and using the casino drama and quote on quote protestor massacre as proof we're ineffective, it pisses me off. But let's hope the complaints stop with our new ultimatum to these Outer Freeside towns—either join us or be destroyed by our forces."
"But anyways, Ron, I don't mean to bother you with my problems. How've you been doing, friend?"
"Good. Fewer people have been coming ever since the war, and the ones that do come in,well you've got to be careful whether they'll shoot you or not. But hey, I can't complain. You've got to be careful too though, Charles. I know you seem to not care about your life, but I know Iris does even if she doesn't seem to care about me ha i'm not losing any sleep over it though that's your woman, Lara's long gone now."
"Alright, old man, whatever you say," said Charles.
"You're an old fucker too, Charles. But anyway, I need to get on with my show, even if there's barely anybody here. As they say the show must go on."
Then, with Ron leaving and closing the door, Charles sat for a bit and drank while listening to Ron's show in his room. But soon, he got back into focus, stood up, opened the door and left.
James was approaching him, but upon seeing Charles leave, he didn't proceed.
Once Charles left the Wrangler, he headed back to the Freeside Security Agency. The streets were now surrounded solely by soldiers, with bodies being cleared out and the scent of blood lingering in the air.
Then, entering back into the Freeside Security Agency, everybody seemed on edge. Charles went into Ashley's office and said,
"How's the declaration been going?"
"Surprisingly well, actually, even after that mess happened right on our doorstep. We asked all the leaders of Outer Freeside to pledge loyalty, and surprisingly, most of them did. That doesn't mean they like us, of course, but still, it's going well."
"Okay, but for the holdouts, we should bring in our men and replace the leaders with our people."
"Yup, we already put that in the declaration, so everything's been going smoothly. But we were also told by the NCR to check on the Van Graffs since they saw Legion soldiers using energy weapons at the dam. And the Silver Rush is now closed, with a sign on the door saying they moved locations to avoid the violence in Freeside so It's looking very suspicious, so could you investigate that, Charles?"
"Alright, I'll do that, but this isn't going to be as much of a breeze as it looks, Ashley. We still have to worry about the Freeside terror group. They're definitely going to try to rally support against us with that disaster happening right on our doorstep, and they'll blame me—which may be right—but I had no other choice."
With that, Charles abruptly left the office to deal with the Van Graffs.
Once he reached the Silver Rush, with the Atomic Wrangler crier still yelling in his ear, he saw the place was closed, the windows shut, and the sign that Ashley mentioned.
He then tried to break in, shooting the window with his laser rifle to enter.
Once he entered, he stepped on a wire and, realizing what it meant, ran back out through the window. Some of the glass cut him, making him bleed, but he was far enough away when the building exploded.
Then the Atomic Wrangler crier ran up to him and said, "You okay, Mr. Charles? What was that?"
Before Charles could answer, James, Ron, and everyone from the Atomic Wrangler came outside. Eventually, Freeside agents and Securitrons arrived.
With that, Charles sighed and said, "I'm done with this. James, get me a drink."