The sound of construction was audible from several blocks away. Marian approached Goodneighbor to see construction workers building a wall near the skybridge. Three birds were sitting on top, one looking straight at Marian. Several guards wandered around with submachine guns ready for a fight. Marian knew several of the members of the Watch who were standing around. They were the most aggressive members of the watch and were probably itching for a raider attack.

Hancock must have taken her suggestion to expand the city in order to allow more residents to live there. Including the skybridge was a stroke of genius, it would assist in expanding the city vertically as well as horizontally. That will allow for even more new residents, or maybe even some crops, opening the possibility of Goodneighbor being more self-sufficient if they ever needed to barricade the city. Marian hoped that it would never happen, but that kind of preparation can save the city.

She walked past the construction, keeping her distance from all the people who she knew were looking directly at her, and entered the city. She stood at the entrance; she wasn’t prepared for the number of people. She hadn’t seen so many people since Valentine closed the case they worked on.

Don’t show fear.

“Hey, sweety!” a rough feminine voice called out.

Marian looked around and saw Daisy waving her over to the store. The counterfeit detective made her way over to Daisy’s Discounts, aware of where every individual around her was. She soon stood in front of the booth where the ghoul sold her wears. Behind her, a young man was installing shelves into the back wall.

Daisy smiled. “Glad to see you again,” she said. “Rumor had it you might be dead.” Daisy passed some potato crisps over to her.

Marian accepted the proffered food readily and tore the seal off before consuming the contents. “Nope, haven’t succeeded in dying yet,” she said between chips. “I see you’re upgrading your shop.”

“Knick Knack insists that I get some shelving. I keep telling him there isn’t much point right now. But I guess he wants to have something more to do than stand next to me all day.”

So that was Knick Knack. Marian hadn’t met any of the other hostages after the rescue. Hancock insisted on keeping her in the house in the alley until he finished taking care of the others. He barely even bothered saying hi to her after she was no longer useful. She should probably keep her promise to visit him since she was visiting his city, but he might have a job for her. One she didn’t have time for.

“Why isn’t there a point?” she asked.

“With the city expanding, this shop will no longer be viewable at the entrance,” Daisy explained. “Hancock wants to keep KL-E-O near the new entrance and has offered to let me expand my shop into Kill or be Killed’s current location. I figure I will have Knick Knack trained as an apprentice by then, so I jumped on it. I didn’t see you enter with a client, so I’m wondering what brings you to Goodneighbor today.”

“Just, thinking about things,” Marian said looking away. She didn’t need to go into detail. Daisy didn’t need to know Nick was missing. “To be honest, I was thinking about those Silver Shroud episodes that everyone around here listens to, that doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else. I was wondering, why is that?”

“That’s because the show is transmitted here,” Daisy explained. “The person in charge is Kent Connolly. He lives over in the Memory Den.”

“I think I’ve heard some guards talk about him. Isn’t he addicted to the pods?”

“I’m afraid so. He’s a good person, but he took things harder than most after the war. Being kicked out of Diamond City didn’t do much to help him either. Now he just lives in that fantasy world of the Silver Shroud. Poor guy.”

Marian was quiet for a moment, chewing on her crisps. She couldn’t help but relate to him. She had taken things too hard. Even now, it was obvious the other hostages were getting on with their lives, but she was isolating herself in the wasteland. She should be able to walk back into a settlement. She should be working on her reputation to get jobs, and maybe even some caps. Instead, she was barely able to stand in front of Daisy without fearing everyone else, even if no one had any reason to hurt her.

“I wonder if he’d be willing to make some new episodes,” Marian said. “I’m getting tired of listening to the same story line over and over.”

“You can talk to him. He may be willing to do that; he needs something to do when he’s not in a pod. But you will have to do all the leg work.”

“I’m used to that,” Marian responded putting the empty crisp container back on the counter for Daisy to dispose of. “Thanks for the food.”

“Don’t be a stranger,” Daisy responded.

Marian wandered over to the Memory Den. She stayed close to the Old State House. The last thing she wanted was for Hancock to look out over his balcony and see that she was snubbing him. The last thing she needed was for him to cut her off and leave her to fend for herself.

She stood next to Hancock’s house for a bit, gathering up her courage to walk through the open area between his house and the Memory Den. She then moved through that area, trying to seem as casual as she could. There was nothing to be afraid of, but she was still afraid.

She finally got to the large doors in front of the Den and moved swiftly inside. She wandered through a twisting hallway until she found herself in a large room. The memory pods looked a lot like the mind pods she had seen in the Capital Wasteland. There were two on either side. The two on the right were occupied. Beyond them, there was a place where the floor raised two or three feet. On that area was a woman reclining on a lounge chair, looking at a television.

“It’s more interesting if you come inside,” the woman called out in a sultry voice. The kind of voice that said she knew how to get people to want to do what she wanted. Even Marian found herself drawn to that voice. She wondered if that woman was as experienced as she sounded, and if she would show off some of that experience.

Marian walked up to the woman, feeling like a kid who was caught somewhere where kids weren’t allowed. She tried measuring up this woman, but she could tell, she was already behind on that front.

“You don’t look like someone who is out to remember your past,” she purred. “You look more like someone who would want to forget. Why are you here?”

Marian tried to pull herself together. She was supposed to be a detective. She was supposed to be looking for Nick. She was stand-in Nick, and already, she was being torn to pieces by a few words.

“I heard that the Silver Shroud is played here. I was wanting to talk to the guy who puts them on,” she explained.

“Cut the crap, honey,” the older woman said. “Your gun isn’t the kind that an innocent Settler would be carrying around. You’re either here looking for trouble, or you’re trying to start trouble. I don’t need that in my place. Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here, or leave with your dignity intact?”

Marian looked away for a second. There was so much around the room, it was easy to get distracted. But she needed to find Nick, and this woman was between her and someone who may know where he is.

“I’m Matilda Prior, Nick Valentine’s partner. I’m trying to catch up to him, but I’m not sure where to go,” she said. “I believe he came here and I’m hoping the guy who runs the Silver Shroud show can tell me where he went.”

“Is that so?” the woman purred. Matilda was starting to feel like a mouse under the lioness’ gaze. “My name is Irma. I’m an old friend of your ‘partner’, why hadn’t he told me about you before?”

“I don’t know. Probably because I’m not very good, and he’s hoping I’ll just go away. We got two jobs at about the same time. Mine was supposed to only take about a day, and I would catch up, and well, I’m sure you can tell how long it really took.”

“I can see that. If you’re really Nick Valentine’s partner, then you’re a friend of mine as well. I’m more than willing to help you get a hold of the person who Nick talked to. Problem is, he’s in a memory pod right now. You can’t get to him.”

“Oh,” Matilda’s heart dropped. She was already behind Nick. The fact he didn’t need to slow down to eat and sleep only meant that he was constantly getting farther from her. Now she had to wait an indefinite time to find out where to go next. At this rate, Nick would be dead before she found him.

“Don’t worry, there is a way to talk to him. Do you know how memory pods can be hooked up so multiple people can share a memory or experience?” Irma asked.

Matilda remembered in the stories about the Lone Wanderer, something similar had happened to her. “I have heard of something like that. I have never looked into it enough to confirm it.”

“It’s very true,” Irma confirmed. “We have a special pod. One that will help you talk to Kent. That way you can get the information you need, and Kent won’t need to even leave his pod. What do you say?”

“Of course,” Matilda said. “Anything.”

Irma slid out of her lounge and stood straight up. Everything about this woman was elegant. Matilda was jealous. Old friend of Nick’s indeed. Matilda suspected it was more like “old flame”. Irma was sexy and classy. She was beautiful and graceful. She was everything Matilda was not. She was perfect for Nick.

“This way,” Irma cooed and lead Matilda to a door behind an open curtain.

Matilda followed her down some stairs. She could have sworn she heard a pneumatic hiss behind her as she started walking down the stairs. It didn’t matter, probably one of the two other people ending their time in the pod. She needed to focus on Nick.

Irma led Matilda into a smaller, but still spacious, room with two memory pods. There was another woman there in a lab coat. Her skin was darker than Irma’s, her short hair was a beautiful black.

“What is this?” the other woman said.

“My business partner,” Irma introduced. “Doctor Amari. This here is Matilda Prior.”

Matilda waved.

“She’s looking for Nick Valentine. I told her that we could set her up with a memory pod to help her. I’m sure you can work your magic to help Nick.”

“Of…of course,” Dr. Amari said. “Just lay in that pod over there, and I will get things ready. Irma will give me the details.”

Matilda unloaded her backpack and Faenus near a couch. She worried about those items being left unguarded, but still, she needed to talk to Kent Connolly. She turned and climbed into an open pod. The lid lowered, she saw a screen, and then the world changed.

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. She was supposed to watch a platoon fight. See a strategy in action and come home to write a report about it. Instead, she spent three days watching a platoon slowly self-destruct. Now she was sitting in a hiding place, watching a platoon of bodies, and a raider’s den of bodies, wondering what to do.

Night was coming. More raiders could be coming. Ants and centaurs could be coming. If she was lucky, a slaver would find her. She would get collared. Then father would find out where she was, he and mother would get a company, maybe even a battalion together and come rescue her. Luck didn’t look like something she had a lot of today. She wasn’t very special.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

She was getting hungry. She had eaten all of her food, maybe one of the bodies had something she could eat. She started to move from her hiding spot, until she heard footsteps. She then crawled back into the hole that she was hiding in, waiting to see what would kill her. She pulled out the knife Christopher gave her. She wasn’t allowed a gun, but Christopher gave her a knife. Said she couldn’t shoot her face off with it. It was dull, and small, but it will have to do. She hoped he would teach her how to sharpen the knife when she got home.

A ghoul wandered into the area. It looked like it was once a woman. But now it was just a ghoul. The thing started pawing at the bodies of the men and women of her platoon. She was insulted. It was bad enough they died, but now not only were they being raided, but by a Thing! She clinched her teeth; she was going to kill the Thing. She would go home, and tell her family what she did, and they will be proud of her. Father would be proud of her. She will finally do something more than “achieve expectations.”

Just as she was about to rush out of her hole, the ghoul turned to her. Its dead eyes looked straight into hers. It saw her! It was going to eat her!

“I know you’re there,” It said. “You might as well come out.”

She was scared. She found herself pushing herself against the back of the hole. There was nowhere else to hide. It wanted to eat her.

“Look, girly, I’m not coming to get you. You can stay in there for all I care, but I thought you’d like some food and a safe place to sleep.”

It went back to pawing at the bodies of one of the men who were part of her platoon. It pocketed his weapon and was stripping him of all of possessions. When it grabbed his holotag, she had to do something.

“Stop!” she called, moving out of her hiding place.

“So, you decided I wasn’t so bad,” it said.

“Don’t touch that,” she continued. “You can have everything else but leave the holotags.”

It looked at her. She pulled out her own, she showed them to it.

“They need to keep their ho-lo-tags,” she said slowly. “So, when they are found, their bodies can be iden-ti-fied.”

“I’m not stupid,” it said. “And I can hear you fine.”

“I thought your brain was rotting.”

“You stupid kid, that was for feral ghouls. Didn’t your fancy schooling teach you the difference?”

“My fancy….?” She stopped talking. “How do you know what kind of schooling I got?”

“I can tell what you are. Fine, I’ll leave the holotags. But I’ll take everything else. A girl gotta eat.”

“Are you going to eat…?” She looked down. She was afraid of the answer. Maybe it will kill her first.

It looked up at her. They were silent for a moment. “What? No! What the fuck are you taught about ghouls, girl?”

“I wasn’t taught that they SWEAR so much!”

“Listen, girly. Ghouls don’t eat people. At least, not if they haven’t gone feral. We’re just like you. Only ugly, and we live longer. I can tell you have never met someone like me before. So, don’t believe everything you’re taught by people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“The best scientist…”

“Blah, blah, blah. They may be scientists, but they don’t spend any time talking to the people they tell you to hate. So, they do their research, find that there is a reason to hate someone like me, and call it a day.”

She was quiet. She was taught by the best scientists in NCR. This thing didn’t seem to care.

It moved to another body and started stripping it. She didn’t know how long this would go on for. She needed to do some work herself. She went to one of the bodies and took a holotag.

“I thought I couldn’t do that,” It said.

“One stays with the body,” she said. “I need one to prove that they died. No one would believe me if I don’t prove it. I wish I knew the coordinates here, but no one told me where we are.”

“That sounds like bad teaching,” it said. “Not telling everyone where they are.”

“They said that it wasn’t my job. I probably wouldn’t have understood anyway. I don’t know how to mark this place; I was told not to worry about it.”

“It sounds like your fancy schooling was lacking in what you need.”

“It’s not that, my brothers all know this stuff. It’s just that… I’m not supposed to be out in the field. I’m supposed to be a strategist. Helping figure out how to make the best decisions on a big scale. Knowing exactly how many people to send into a location to take out a death claw with the least number of casualties. Things like…that.”

“Sounds interesting. Come on girly, it’s getting late. I have some iguana-on-a-stick and Nuka-cola at my place. I’ll walk you home in the morning.”

She followed it. They were at its house. The house was small, it looked like someone made six giant boards into a box, cut out a door, and called it a house. There was soup cooking outside. It put some soup into a bowl and gave it to her.

“You may enjoy some rad scorpion better than iguana,” it said.

She took the soup and started drinking it. It tasted like it had brahmin cream. It was not good food. She would have been eating better back with her family, but she was hungry. It got another bowl for itself and gave her a Nuka-cola.

“What do you talk about during meals?” It said.

“Mostly the adults talk, kids don’t have much to add to the conversation. But the other day, I was able to help my father find a new way to secure a building.”

“Is that so?”

“No, his real strategists showed me how that wouldn’t do any good, and I was told not to waste my father’s time anymore.”

“Is that all your family talks about, is killing and strategy?”

“Sometimes we talk about mechanics. My little brother, William, is supposed to be a great mechanic. He even fixed a radio once. But mother took it away and gave it to her troops, said we didn’t need the distraction from our studies.”

“Does your family ever talk about books?”

“Like Sun Tzu, and Caesar, and Plutarch?”

“I was thinking more fiction. Like E. B. White, and Mark Twain.”

“Not really. Father and mother say that stuff won’t help us promote the family. We are supposed to do everything we can for the rest of the family. Reading a book for fun doesn’t help.”

“But sending a kid out into the wasteland to watch a group of people die does? How old are you? Ten?”

“Twelve! I was learning strategy, it’s just that they weren’t supposed to die. But the leader was new and couldn’t keep the team together. They had been fighting each other since yesterday. Jones even threw the radio off a cliff.”

“Looks like you learned something,” it said. “I think reading a book might help you more than you think. The stuff you read gives you rules, but fiction will help you understand how to apply them in this imperfect world.”

It got up and took her bowl from her. It put them in a larger bowl full of water, and then it walked into the box-house. It came out with a book.

“Here, I think you might enjoy this. I used to write in a journal a lot when I was your age. Maybe you might like doing that some yourself. That way you can keep your thoughts hidden from anyone who wouldn’t understand. Go ahead, take it.”

She did and looked down at a blue notebook.

“Go ahead and sleep, I will clean up. I’ll take you home in the morning.”

She went to bed. The next morning the ghoul gently shook her awake. She got up and they went to the outpost her father was in charge of. A soldier went to get father.

“Maybe I should get going,” the ghoul said.

“Please don’t, father will want to thank you. He’ll see you aren’t all bad. Maybe he will even start letting ghouls in.”

The ghoul stayed.

Father came out, he looked happy. He wasn’t smiling, but he never smiled. He walked up to them. He would see that everything about ghouls was wrong. That they are nice. They deserve to be treated nice. He would thank her for finding his princess, and everything would be better.

“Child, come here,” he ordered.

She marched to him and saluted.

“What did you bring here?”

“She saved me, father. She brought me here. I would have died with the platoon if she did not rescue me.”

“Is that so?” He walked past her. He was going to thank the ghoul. He was going to thank the ghoul.

She remained standing at attention.

“Then I would like to thank you, for bringing my daughter home safely.”

The sound of the laser was heard. She did an about-face and saw the ghoul laying on the ground. Blood was around her.

“No! Why did you do that? Why did you kill her?”

“I rewarded it by putting a monster out of its misery. You aren’t crying, are you? I know you aren’t crying in front of my soldiers! If you are, you will be doing pushups until you stop crying.”

She wiped her face and stood as straight as she could.

“Good, now go inside. Since you’re the only survivor, you will have to do the debrief. I will have the trash picked up.”

Matilda saw a screen, and the pod suddenly opened. She rolled out of the pod and onto her hands and knees. She was unsure how she got out of the pod, but it didn’t matter at that moment. She was finally out.

A familiar voice shouted near the back of the room. She looked up, and saw the back of Hancock’s coat and hat, he was facing Dr Amari and Irma. His posture showed he was not happy. The women looked more chagrined than scared.

She felt some strong hands move under her arms and help her stand up. She accepted the help as she got to her feet. It was Fahrenheit who was holding her up.

“Take her home. I’ll be there as soon as I finish up here,” Hancock ordered.

“Yes boss,” Fahrenheit responded and helped her out of the Memory Den and into the open air.

Marian needed to talk to Connolly, she still needed to find Nick. But at that moment she just wanted out of that place. She wanted to forget everything that machine forced her to remember. Fahrenheit led her to the alley and to the house where they staged the search for the caravans from.

“You still have your key?” Fahrenheit asked.

Marian pulled out her key and opened the door. They went into the basement and waited for Hancock.

They didn’t wait long; he must have been on their heels. The ghoul burst into the basement, looking like he was still as mad as he was when he was in the Memory Den.

“What the hell did you think you were doing? Getting into a memory pod like that? Are you trying to get yourself killed? Didn’t I tell you what this place is like for people with histories like yours? But you still needed to get into a fucking memory pod? What happened?”

Marian was silent. Memories of her childhood were still fresh and raw. It felt almost like when father would yell at her for not predicting what Christopher would do to stop her from achieving her mission, so she never was prepared for the unexpected. Excuses weren’t allowed to her, and that was all that was floating through her head at that moment.

“Hey, wait up, it’s not her fault,” a playful voice said from the stairs. A man wearing shades came down the steps with a laid-back attitude. His hawkish features reminded her of the Diamond City guard she spoke to who knew too much about her.

“I appreciate what you did, Windowlicker, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that she put herself in danger in my town,” Hancock snapped.

“The fact that Nick Valentine is missing, and she thought she was being giving a direct link to talk to someone who can get her pointed in the right direction does!” Windowlicker snapped back. “I was there, I saw what happened. She was tricked. Plain and Simple.”

Hancock snarled at Windowlicker. It was almost like he was contemplating going feral on the bald man. Then the ghoul let out a sigh and turned back to Marian.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that. It’s just that everyone has been worried about you for weeks, me included. Then when you finally come home, you don’t even bother to talk to me. I thought we had something.”

Marian started looking at Hancock’s boots. There was nothing she could say to him. Nothing that could make her actions right.

“Can you two leave us alone for a minute?” Hancock asked.

Fahrenheit and Windowlicker left the building, the door clicking close told Marian that she and Hancock were alone.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you like that,” Hancock said. “I forgot that there are some residual effects from being in a memory pod. Especially when they are turned off suddenly. I talked to Irma and Dr. Amari. They are on probation for what they did. What they did to you wasn’t right.”

“Why did they do it?” Marian asked, still staring at Hancock’s boots.

“Nick has a history with the mafia around here. Usually a bad history. Irma thought you might have been a hit man hired to find him. That’s why they got you into that pod. They were hoping to hold you until they could figure out what to do and protect Nick.”

“So, she was just protecting Nick,” Marian responded. “It was my fault. I chose to get into it. I could tell there was a history between them, she seemed like the type Nick would go for. But I did it anyway.”

“No!” Hancock barked.

Marian looked up, meeting his black eyes. “I got into the pod! I let them do what they wanted!”

“You agreed to get into a pod to communicate with someone who may be able to lead you to Nick, not to relive your worst memory. You didn’t consent to that. You were coerced to getting into the pod to save Nick. If you didn’t, you would have had to wait hours to see Kent. They had no right to lie to you like that.”

“I should never have let myself be vulnerable,” Marian said.

Hancock walked up to Marian and place a hand on her shoulder. Didn’t he know what happens to ghouls who get close to her?

“Hey, kiddo, it’s okay. You needed to trust someone to help you find Nick, and you didn’t know he had a history with Irma,” Hancock crooned. “But why didn’t you come get me and let me know what you were doing. I would have helped you find him. You wouldn’t have had to worry about being stabbed in the back with me around.”

“I was…afraid,” Marian forced herself to say. “I know I had been away for a while, and saw the construction, and I was worried you had a job for me, when I really needed to find Nick. He’s been missing for weeks. I can’t catch up to him. He knows how to do this stuff, and I don’t. He doesn’t need to eat or sleep. If I’m lucky, I’ll just look stupid following him all the way back to Diamond City, three months late.”

Hancock was silent for a bit. “For someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, you’re doing a good job,” he finally said. “Nick came by here about two weeks ago. He hired your brother to work on a case with him.”

“He was trying to find a kid,” Marian elaborated.

“I don’t know. I just know he came by my office and left with MacCready. If he hired Mac, then he is expecting danger. That’s normally his way when he hires a backup gun.”

“So, I have two weeks to make up for. I can catch up to him!” Marian started getting ready to run past Hancock and out the door, but he placed both hands on her shoulders and held her back.

“Not so fast,” he ordered. “It’s getting late. I don’t want you going out alone. If it’s dangerous for Nick, it’ll be dangerous for you. I want you to stay here for the night. At least to rest up and have some food. I wouldn’t mind if you accompanied me for dinner either. I’ll get someone I trust to go with you. Someone who I know is a good companion. Do you know where Nick is going? As I recall, you didn’t get that interview with Kent.”

Marian was silent. She hadn’t gotten that interview. She didn’t know where to go.

Hancock smiled at her. “Irma and Amari put some fail safes in the pods, so Kent has to come out regularly to get fed and clean up. He should be coming to the end of his current session. If you don’t mind me sitting in, I’ll invite him to join us for dinner. You and I can discuss politics the way you like, after.”

“Thanks,” Marian said, truly grateful.

“Tell me you forgive me for that trick I played on you, and it will all be good.”

“I can’t even remember.”