Burke approached the Black Talon Mercs camped out next to a Metro tunnel in D.C. "Have you found him?" he asked.
"We think so, but he is protected by Reilly's Rangers. It looks like they are on their way to Rivet City. We expect them to come through this tunnel. When they do we will ambush them." a merc explained.
"No, you are not to engage with Reilly or her rangers. They are doing important work in scouting the D.C. ruins. Mr. Tenpenny has plans on getting that data on a future date. They will be disposed of after that. Simply watch them. If he seperates from the group then grab him. Notify me immediately upon capture. Do. Not. Hurt. Him. Understood?" he ordered.
The mercs nodded and packed up. Burke walked over to a building and lit a cigarette. His reports have said nothing of Kirk in D.C. He must still be in Megaton. Other reports say some incidents have happened up north but nothing concrete. 'Patience is key here. He will fall back into my hands. Him or his father. It matters not.' He put his cigarette out and walked away.
James had been out of the vault for about a month now. At this point he figured the vault had long calmed down and once his work was finished he could return to see his son. Speaking of which he has had many strange dreams about him. At one point he could feel his presence in his sleep one night. He decided not to focus on these dreams and stay focused on getting to Rivet City which was coming into view.
It had been a rough couple of days in D.C. but thankfully Reilly and her crew kept him safe. They walked up to the platform where Reilly hit the intercom and asked for passage into city.
"Well doctor, this is where we part ways. I'd ask for payment for protection but you helped us so lets call it even." Reilly said, shaking his hand.
"Thank you Reilly, I won't forget this. Good luck out there."
The mercs left James and Jax who turned toward the bridge spinning their way. As they crossed Jax asked, "So do you think the doctors here will help you?"
"Twenty years ago they would. Not sure how much my reputation is worth nowadays. We will soon find out."
Kirk and Nick kept their guns trained on the doctor. He was skinny man with glasses and blonde hair. He honestly looked like a textbook dork. The gun he lowered looked massive in his small hand.
"So glad to see you two. My name is Doctor Weston Lesko and I am in dire need of capable men to fix this problem. Please come in." he said, putting the gun down on a shelf and waving them in.
Kirk and Nick hesitantly entered, both feeling uncomfortable all of the sudden. The room he was in was filled with equipment, some he recognized from his vault just more rundown. Various food items were strewn about as well, showing he has been in here for quite a while. The man seemed ridiculously comfortable despite the situation. However his words gave Kirk hope that the problem he is trying to fix was the ants.
"So you have been down here to eradicate the ant problem?" Kirk asked, putting his pistol away.
"Eradicate!? Absolutely not! My work is far too important and the progress too valuable to start from scratch now!" Lesko yelped.
"Your work?" Kirk asked. He placed his hand back on his pistol without realizing.
"Yes my work! I have been working for months now to shrink the ants back to their correct size before the radiation mutated them!"
"Are you talking about the ones that spit fire?" Nick asked, walking around the room. He blocked the other door in the room. Tension was beginning to rise.
"W-well, they didn't use to do that. An unforeseen mutation from my experiment. However, I now know how to correct it!"
Kirk's anger was starting to bubble. "How do you get a fire mutation from a shrinking one? How are you even doing any of this? The fact you got this far in their mutation in only a few months doesn't add up either." Kirk asked, glaring at the man.
"Ah you seem to have some knowledge in the scientific field, how wonderful! You will understand then. I did cut some corners to progress my experiment faster. An FEV was used on the Ant Queen and her eggs in hopes that her babies will be birthed in their normal size. Unfortunately as I said the pyrosis abilities were developed instead."
Kirk eye twitched from the man's aloofness to simple science. Kirk knew what an FEV was from school, it was not something to mess around with. At least not without proper science team. "Lesko an experiment like this, especially using an FEV, is beyond dangerous. Did you not think to have a more...controlled testing site for the ants? One where you ensure they could not escape or roam free from the test site? Where they could potentially attack civilians?" Kirk did his best to keep his emotions in check. Lesko may not know that Grayditch was wiped out.
"Oh you are a fellow scientist! You are correct I am well aware of such precautions. I will admit however that I was excited to find this nest and forgo the usual experiment preparations. Can't sleep on an opportunity, as they say!" he chuckled.
Nick looked at Kirk who was fuming like he was. Lesko noticed the expression on both men's faces and chuckled nervously. "I'm sorry is something wrong?"
"Yes. Are you aware that Grayditch is gone? Everyone is dead except Bryan Wilks." Kirk said with a stern face.
"Oh dear. I was afraid of such a possibility when they broke out. However that is a small price to pay for the advancement of science. A few die but if I succeed many will live." he said calmly and cleaning his glasses on his coat.
Kirk punched the man in the face knocking him down. "AH! YOU BRUTE!"
Kirk placed his boot down his chest to keep him down. "You bastard! Twenty-four lives! An entire town! That is too high a price for an experiment!" he yelled at him. Nick was taken aback for a moment at the outburst. 'He counted the bodies?' he thought.
"My work will help save lives!"
"It has done nothing but kill! You have no basis that it would have worked! You just wanted to play God!" Kirk yelled, digging his heel into the doctor's chest.
"Y-you know nothing...of progress! Please...you-you're hurting me!" Lesko said, trying to push his foot off.
Nick gently grabbed Kirk's arm and gave him a nod, gesturing him to lift his foot. Kirk obliged, walking away. Nick turned to Lesko, "Tell us how to stop them, you said you needed our help right? How do we stop these crazy ants?"
Lesko got up, adjusting his coat and putting his glasses back on. He pulled out a handkerchief and put it up to his bleeding nose. "Down in the nest, is my computer I have a device that can sever the empathetic link to the queen. This will force them into a frenzy and kill each other. Once done, I can go down and adjust the mutagen and try again."
"Try again? No Lesko, you will not continue this. We are wiping out the nest Nick. Now where is it Lesko?" Kirk demanded.
"I have come too far to start from scratch! I can make this work!" Lesko yelled, reaching for his pistol. Kirk whipped his pistol out and pointed it at him. "Don't even think about it. You should have thought of the consequences of taking shortcuts. Now tell us where it is."
Lesko pulled out a syringe. "Please, I can fix this. I will have my robot secure a testing site as I should have before. If you help me, I will give you this. It's a Mutagenic Enhancer, it will give you the enhanced attributes of these ants."
"Why would I inject anything from- wait... Have you tested this on someone already?" Kirk asked, lowering his gun.
"Yes, on a young man name Will Brandice. He was very willing and he showed signs of it being successful. He was also supposed to be my contingency plan in case a problem arose with the ants. However I am guessing he died."
Kirk looked at Nick, "That explains all the crushed ants. Did this serum give him increased strength?" Kirk asked Lesko.
"Yes, he showed signs of being marginally stronger, he also stated he had increased sense of smell and hearing. His sight was slightly improved he thought but again these were marginal differences."
"Marginally stronger? Doc this kid ripped an ant's head off with his bare hands and crushed several with a sledgehammer." Nick said.
"Well the boy was already strong the serum only enhances what he had. He wouldn't be super human like a Super Mutant but he could lift what he already could with less effort so to speak. Fascinating to hear he was able to show increased strength though, hmmm maybe heightened emotional state exemplifies the qualities...how interesting." Lesko said, walking around with his chin in his hand.
"Regardless of your offer, you still have innocent blood on your hands. I can't allow this to continue. Your work ends here." Kirk said, walking up to Lesko.
"Who are you to judge me? Who are you to decide my fate, my future?! You are a boy and refuse to see the bigger picture!" Lesko yelled and then turned to Nick. "You. You must understand where I am coming from. These ants have been a danger to all wastelander and settlements. You have to agree that reversing their size back to normal will help us."
Nick stared down at the ground and glanced at Kirk. "He has a point Kirk, if their is even a chance of him being able to reverse them, shouldn't we try? I'm not a brainy scientist, but I've heard enough horror stories of an ant lair being found and wiping out a settlement. I'm not as smart as you guys, but my gut is saying that this could be huge."
Kirk let out a deep sigh and walked over to Lesko's board of equations. He was not an entomologist but he understood the basics of what he was trying to do. He pondered over the equations for a minute and then turned back to them. "The experiment is risky but yes if it worked it would change life in the wasteland considerably. You could even use it as a basis to reverse other mutations such as the Brahmin or Mole Rats. However like I said, he had no basis on how to do it. Using an FEV showed that. He was using it to force something to happen and he hopes to fine tune it. Even then it could take years or decades of trial and error until he figured out the right mutagen to revert them. Even then it's not guaranteed to succeed in shrinking them all the way down. Now they have pyrosis, what would they develop next? What if they got even bigger? He had no parameters or safeguards to this. He never prepared to deal with those situations, as we can see happen to Grayditch. Even developing an Enhancer from the ants tells me he wasn't fully committed to shrinking them. He only wanted something to succeed and slap his name on it and be remembered for something, like all scientist want."
He walked up to Nick and pointed at Lesko. "I am not saying the experiment is bad or a waste of time. I am saying that he is the wrong man to do it."
Lesko looked down at the ground in shame. Everything he said was true. Had he really been so blind? The FEV was just a shortcut for him to make better progress, he used it to focus on other tangible experiments. He didn't keep proper oversight on how it was working until it was too late. He realized then he made a huge mistake. He sat down in the chair and put his head in his hands. "Are they really all dead? Nothing left?" he whimpered, as tears flowed.
"Only Bryan Wilks survived like I said earlier." Kirk said. He knew Lesko meant well with this experiment but he made the mistake in thinking he could solve this issue in his lifetime.
Lesko composed himself and nodded grabbing a marker and erasing his equations. He started drawing a circles and lines on the board.
"The Queen is protected by a handful of guardians. They are bigger and tougher than the other ants. You will have to get through them to get to the Queen. Through that door around the corner is where they all are. Kill the Queen and activate the device to kill the rest of the ants." Lesko said pointing at parts of the board as he spoke.
Lesko walked over to Kirk and handed him the Enhancer. "Take it, do what you want with it. I am going to compile the rest of my data and take it to Rivet City. I hear their is a good group of scientists there who may be able to help me with this experiment. That way I am kept in check and maybe make better progress than by myself. I'll wait here until I hear back from you before I leave. One more thing, how do you intend to kill the Queen?" His voice had lost it's energetic tone. It was like he didn't care about anything anymore.
"I figured we just shoot her until she stops moving." Kirk said, getting worried that it won't be so simple.
"You are gonna need a lot more firepower than that to kill her. Those grenades you have might not be enough either. Do you have any energy weapons?"
Kirk remembered the alien blaster he still had in his pack but decided not to mention it. "We will manage with what we have Lesko."
Lesko nodded, "Good luck then."
Kirk pocketed the syringe and nodded to Nick, signaling he was ready. They checked their guns and went into the lair, determined to end this.