Chapter 54: Dead Money

Chapter 54: Dead Money

"You're back," Christine sounded surprised, sitting on the back of the sofa. "Didn't expect you here so... soon. You sure you still want me here, collars and all? Not -nngh!- not much for waiting around with a bomb around my neck."

"Yeah, well... you're not gonna have to wait for much longer. I found the phrase for the elevator's audio lock."

"You did?" Christine hopped off the sofa. "Damn. Looks like even the Old World can't keep you out when you've got a mind to get in."

"Speaking of that," I said, looking around. "... where is the elevator? I'm guessing it's up here somewhere, but..." I was thinking about what Elijah had said when I turned on the power in the casino: "Once I can access the music archives, we'll need to go to the top and ride our fortunes down."

"Lucky for you, I had plenty of time to look around while I was stuck here," Christine said, walking past me and toward the bar. "There's a hidden door on the wall here... somewhere."Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

"Hidden door?" I asked, walking behind her and trying to get a look at what she was doing. She was reaching under the bar, and looked like she was feeling around for something. I heard a soft click, and part of the wall moved inward soundlessly. It revealed a short hallway behind the bar, and what looked like elevator doors at the end. There was a small flat terminal on the wall next to the elevator in lieu of buttons.

"Well... there it is," Christine cleared her throat as she got up from the bar and looked inside the short hall. "So... I just rasp out some words, and the vault opens?"

"Seems that way," I said with a shrug. "Only one way to find out, I guess."

"That woman, the starlet... she didn't build this place," Christine glanced back at me, confusion evident on her face. "Why would the builder make her the key to the vault?"

"It's..." I thought back to Dean, and everything he'd told me about Sinclair, Vera, why the casino was built, his plans to try and rob the place... "It's complicated. Trust me on this."

"Yeah... I suppose it would have to be. The sealed doors, the security... I'm not sure, but this place... it doesn't feel like a casino." Christine said.

"So, what does it feel like?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"It feels like a fortress. Like a... a motte-and-bailey that a conqueror in the middle ages would build for his seat of power, or something." She must have seen the confusion on my face, because she quickly added: "It's a type of castle. Don't worry about it."

"An abandoned fortress..." I said, looking around. "Maybe that's why the old man wants us to crack it open - so he can make it his own and play at being King."

"I think that's exactly what he's planning," Christine deadpanned. "Still, it doesn't explain why she's the key to the lock."

"The guy who built this place, Sinclair - he built it for Vera." I said, recounting what I could of my little... chat with Dean. "He wanted her to have access to everything. I guess the Sierra Madre was the object of his obsession... or affection, maybe. I dunno." Christine thought on that for a minute, looking pensive. Eventually, she shrugged.

"Love makes people do strange things. Won't argue that. It can... drive you crazy sometimes if you can't... connect." I was half tempted to blurt out the fact that I knew Veronica right then and there, but she kept talking before I could. "I suppose... if they loved each other, and they were together... I suppose that's all that mattered." She shook her head, and ran a hand over the scars on her bald head. "But she's in that side room, dead, because the Madre wouldn't let her leave. And who knows where he is?"

Right. Enough dawdling. We needed to get moving, and try and turn Elijah's plan on its head... and to do that, I needed to get into the vault.

"You ready to do this?" I asked, walking toward the elevator. She nodded, and fell in step behind me. "The sequence is: 'Begin again, but know when to let go'."

"All right," Christine cleared her throat again. "If you go down there, are you... are you prepared..." She grabbed me by the shoulder, and looked at me with a serious - and a worried - expression evident on her face. "I mean, what if you don't come back?" I tried my best to force a smile, relaying confidence that I really did not feel.

"Well, I've got you to come down after me. It'll respond to your voice." Christine still looked worried, but... there was something else there. Was that...?

"I... just wanted to make sure you're ready. When you go down there, that may be it for us... I mean, we won't be needed anymore."

"He hasn't needed us for a while. He already said he would've blown the collars if he could, but he can't because of something to do with the floors... the construction of this place blocks signals..."

"Elijah will follow you down there. Who's to say he can't blow the collars from his Pip Boy?"

What.

"Wait, he has a Pip Boy?" I asked, a small piece of the puzzle sliding neatly into place. "Is that why-"

"Forget the Pip Boy!" Christine cut me off. She didn't look worried now... it was something else. "I know he's going to follow you down there... and he isn't going to let you leave. He's not one for sharing. Never was." That's when I figured out what the something else was that I'd seen in her face. I knew that expression. I'd seen it on my own face... and on Cass' face.

"That's why you're waiting. You want to be the one to kill him." I said simply.

"I..." She looked worried again. "I can't let him leave. Look, you've done so much, and he's not going to show himself until you go down there. I'm... I'm not going to get another chance!"

"You were the one who came up with this plan, to draw him out like this." I said. "I want to kill this fuck, same as you, but I don't want to die in the process - and if he kills you, then I'm going to be stuck down there. I won't be able to get out."

"I know," she said softly, nodding her head. "And he will kill me. I can't get the collar off." She sounded... I don't know, almost resigned to the idea of already being dead. "And even if I could... I need to be sure. I need to see his eyes - his face - when he dies. I've... I've lost him so many times. He needs to die... what happened here, with us? He's... he's done so much worse."

That's it. Time to tell her. She needs something to live for.

"Like what happened with Veronica?"

Christine's eyes went wide as pie plates, and her mouth fell open.

"What." She breathed, just barely loud enough for me to hear. "How do you-"

"Veronica is still out there, Christine," I said, doing my damndest to maintain eye contact. "She still thinks about you. She still misses you. She still loves you. I know this, because she's told me. Back in the Mojave, she's one of the people who's been travelling with me."

"I... I..." Her face was practically frozen; she wasn't even blinking... and then I saw a single tear run down her cheek.

"I'm sorry for springing this on you, but... You need to know. And you have to live. Not for me - for her. As bad as he is, Elijah's not worth it - he's not worth your life. If you die here? You'll never see Veronica again."

CRACK.

I saw stars. Christine slugged me in the face so hard, my head was knocked to the side and the rest of my body wanted to follow. Damn. Part of me didn't want to look back. Had I fucked this up?

"You..." Christine's voice was wavering. "You have to promise me. P-promise me you'll deal with him.. if I see him, I..."

I turned back to her; her expression was stony, and her eyes were reddened and bloodshot. Her cheek was still slightly wet from the single tear that had escaped, but she wasn't crying. The look on her face was fierce, if nothing else. Hell... maybe I could salvage this yet.

"When he comes down to the vault, I can corner him down there. He won't escape. I swear." I said, rubbing my cheek and flexing my jaw. Why do all the women I know like to hit so damn hard?

"A-all right," Christine started nodding, swallowing audibly. "All right. I'll... but I'll need to get off this floor. He'll pick up my collar, and..."

"Don't tell me where you're going," I said. "I'll find you after this. For now... just say the words, and let's settle this so we can go home."

"I... never mind," Christine shook her head. "Let me get the vault open..." She walked over to the panel in the wall next to the elevator doors, and spoke clear into the mic: "Begin again... but know when to let go."

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open to reveal an elevator with spotless mirrors, gilded filigree designs along the edges of all the panels, and a rich, red carpet on the floor.

"I'll do what I can to try and help you out. If I can find a terminal on another floor, I should be able to contact your Pip Boy - just make sure your radio is tuned to 372.12 Hertz ULF."

"Got it," I said, hiking the holorifle up my shoulder, and walking into the elevator. "Don't worry. Elijah's a dead man. He just doesn't know it yet."

"Good luck..." Christine said, stepping back from the elevator. With that, the doors shut.

Just how deep does this place go?

The elevator had been moving at a fair pace for... some time now. I'm not sure. What I did know is that I'd been descending rapidly enough for my ears to have popped twice, and it was still going.

Eventually, the pace slowed, and it finally came to a halt. The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. I found myself in some kind of maintenance hallway - it kind of reminded me of the sort of thing I'd seen in Vault-Tec facilities in the past. Less curved perhaps, but still strangely reminiscent of Vault-Tec architecture.

"No..." Elijah said simply, his face screwing up into a frown again. "I'm not going to take the chance while I'm so close... not this close, no. Not again... I can wait. Afford to be careful. You... you're locked down there. This is the only entrance, and I have free reign of the Sierra Madre. I have time... more than you. Besides, there might be more traps. I'll send more scouts in... yes, others. You're... resourceful. I'm so close now, I don't want to leave anything to chance."

"Oh, you think you have time, Elijah?" I said, folding my arms over my chest, and trying to stare him down through the screen. "Well, chew on this - throwing a wrench into the works is what I do best. It's what's you've counted on, relying on me to get the job done. Unless you come down here, I'll destroy the vault, and everything in it." That was bound to get his attention.

"No. I don't think so. It'd most likely trigger other security measures... if you hurt the vault at all. The builder of this casino built it to last - the Sierra Madre withstood the war. I'm sure the Vault is protected as well. Besides, you wouldn't have followed the signal if you didn't want this place's secrets for your own. You're curious... past the threats."

Damnit, this wasn't working. I needed to think of something, and think fast - if he didn't come down here... Time to nut up or shut up indeed.

"We'll see how protected the vault is when I detonate this collar," I said, tugging at the bomb around my neck. Elijah raised an eyebrow, and looked at me questioningly - I don't think he expected that.

"The collar? Even if you could trigger it..." Elijah shook his head. "No, you'd die. If you wanted to kill yourself, you'd have done it already."

"Hell, it sounds like I'm dead anyway, the way you're talking. Denying you the Sierra Madre vault would be worth it. So... I guess you need to ask yourself," I leaned on the desk, staring at the screen with as much menace as I could muster. "Are you willing to risk it?" Elijah snarled, and tossed the cigarette off to the side.

"Kill yourself, and you decide this now. I can shut down your signal, prevent the collar from going off." Wait a minute...

"Really? Between floors? I don't think so. If the collars could be detonated between floors, I'd be as dead as Dean." Elijah was silent for a very long time, trying to stare me down through the screen... and he blinked first.

"Huh... clever. Whoever designed the Sierra Madre... their obsession with messing with frequencies and signals..." He got up from his seat in front of the camera, and I was met with a darkened screen - but he kept talking. "I'm coming down - I'll meet you face to face at the vault entrance. If you resist, I'll use the collar, even if it puts the vault at risk." There was a burst of static snow covering the screen before winking a final time and turning off.

"Christine," I said, tapping the side of my Pip Boy. "You made yourself scarce yet?" Silence... and then.

"Yeah." Her voice was soft and muffled.

"I'm going to need your help with something..."

A metal thud reverberated through the whole chamber... followed by a 'Ding!' Guess that means Elijah's here.

I had a good view of the chamber from my vantage point. I hoped that I'd be completely hidden from his view... I suppose I'd soon find out. There he was, and he came to a stop in front of the same force field door that had barred my way initially. Of course, unlike me, he didn't try and go around; he merely lifted his left arm (which did have a Pip Boy), pressed a few buttons, and the force field fizzled into non-existence.

He walked onto the open catwalk slowly, looking around. He was wearing a blue, tattered robe, with a weird kind of metal trim. I felt like I'd seen that kind of outfit before, but... I couldn't exactly place where... He came to a stop in the center of the platform, and stared directly at the closed vault door. There was something strapped to his back - some kind of rifle, but I couldn't tell exactly what it was.

"Hmph," Elijah grunted, and brought up the arm with the Pip Boy again. "So, you think you can steal from me?" He yelled. "The Sierra Madre is mine!"

He stood there in the center of the platform for a very long time, looking around.

"What the... You... You've taken your collar off the network, haven't you?!" I snuck around, trying to keep from making any noise; I didn't have a clear shot from where I was. Elijah was still looking around, but had taken the rifle off his back - and I'll be honest, my bowels clenched at the sight of it. He was holding a fucking Gauss rifle! One shot from that would blow me in half, those things were meant to take out tanks!

"So," Elijah growled, scanning the area with his Gauss rifle. "You're even more resourceful than I thought. Doesn't matter - I don't need the collar to kill you!"

Right. Taking him head on was probably not going to work - especially with as little ammo as I had. That's when I came up with an idea. As far as I knew, he didn't know where I was... and the acoustics in this place were so chaotic...

"You know," I spoke up, my voice reverberating off everything; Elijah looked around, obviously not sure where I was. "I expected more out of Veronica's mentor - the Elder who lost HELIOS One... Now you've lost a courier as well..." Elijah stopped, and looked momentarily stunned.

"Veronica... she... she survived HELIOS." He shook his head, and went back to scanning the chamber. "Hmph. She would... Resourceful. As for 'losing' HELIOS One... that was the only outcome, aside from retreat! NCR, swarming like ants over Old World relics... Hoover Dam... HELIOS... I won't let those... CHILDREN! I won't let them seize anything else! Hardin... McNamara... they can't stop them... won't. So I will, with the Old World as... my... WEAPONS!"

With the last word, Elijah fired his Gauss rifle; the sound was massive, and left a tremendous ringing in my ears. The wall he was aiming at exploded inward in a shower of sparks and seemed to be ripped apart by an invisible fist the size of my head... and kept going. There was a shower of sparks, and one of the turrets exploded. He wasn't even close to where I was... granted, I'd been moving the whole time.

"You want to attack NCR?" I asked, not really believing what I was hearing. Elijah looked around, seemingly surprised that the shot hadn't killed me. "All of it?"

"Attack?" He yelled, still looking around. He fired again - and was still way off. "No, not attack them! Wipe the slate clean! I'll make the wasteland like it was meant to be... undisturbed by man. I'll start in the Mojave... send the Cloud, the holograms... I'll bring ruin in my hands until only I stand atop the HELIOS One tower again! I'll scour Hoover Dam with the Cloud, rain its walls with spears from the sun - with an army of Old World ghosts behind me, holograms all! I'll wipe out the NCR, and then I'll turn my sights on those barbarians across the Colorado - and then the vermin and degenerates living amongst the ruins of House's decrepit empire! All of them will fall before the might of the Sierra Madre at my command! I'll kill them all until it's only me, and me alone! In a quiet world! Make the wasteland like it SHOULD BE!"

"You're nothing more than a killer that aspires to mass murder, Elijah!" I had to really work hard to keep a level voice; I was starting to get really worked up now. He was insane. Forget what he's done to me here - this fucker dreams of genocide! He looked around again - still, nowhere near where I was hiding...

"You think I'm a murderer? HAH! If I was, I'd have set off your collar back in the Villa. The collar ensures compliance, encourages... cooperation. Think about it: would you have gotten into the casino without those collars? No! Human nature is against us, always!" He took aim, and fired again; another miss, shredding part of the catwalk. "Did you know... did you know that I had to keep adjusting the collars, keep changing the rules to make all this possible?"

"What are you talking about?" I was getting close now - with any luck (and if I kept him talking), he wouldn't notice me until I was right on top of him. His gaze darted to where he thought the noise came from, and fired the Gauss rifle again; there was a hideous wrenching sound of metal, followed by an explosion of pressurized gas. Suddenly, there was a burst of Cloud that spilled out like a mass of oncoming death, completely devouring that section of catwalk.

"Every time, even with the collars clutched at their necks... they would betray each other! Kill each other, just to get inside the Sierra Madre! It... it was insanity! They could have had it all, it was... was so close! And... and they kept turning on each other, again and again! Cracking the Sierra Madre, yes, that was difficult... but cracking greed - cracking human nature - that was almost impossible! And that's why the dead man switches went in!"

"So you answered madness with madness." I said; I was right on top of him now, but he still had no idea. He spun a full 180 degrees, and fired again. The ringing in my ears from the Gauss rifle discharging kept getting worse, like someone had stuck a metal pot over my head and was hitting it with a hammer. "You're insane!"

"No! That would imply mental illness or derangement, and I suffer from neither! When your life is tied to another's, sacrifice and cooperation - they can be conditioned - learned - and you can focus on the matter at hand! Greed can be beaten! Contained! CONTROLLED! That's all I've done here! I've brought about CONTROL!"

"Control your own greed first!" I yelled, taking aim with my revolver from my vantage point on the struts directly above him. The network of beams ran from wall to wall, and were well above the line of sight of the laser turrets - even if Christine hadn't disabled them already. The best part? Elijah hadn't looked up here once.

Guards don't look up.

I slipped into VATS, and squeezed the trigger three times, reasoning that I was so close, I could use my last three bullets...

... and Elijah seemed to just dodge out of the way.

"Hah!" He finally looked up, taking aim with the rifle. "There you are! You think you're the only one with VATS?"

Fuck!

I dove off the beam just as Elijah fired the Gauss rifle. I couldn't see it, but it sounded like the beam was being ripped apart from the inside. I tumbled through the air, hit the grate, and tried to right myself; there was Elijah, bringing the rifle to bear against me again. I couldn't tell if he was moving slowly because I was still in VATS, or... because of something else.

I didn't hesitate - I just chucked my pistol directly at his face. It's not like I had any ammo left.

I'm pretty sure he wasn't expecting that. I mean, really - who throws a gun? But I guess that's why it worked; the pistol tumbled through the air and smacked him square in the middle of his forehead. The Gauss rifle discharged wildly, firing up into the darkness. As he clutched at his face, I got to my feet and rushed him. He opened his eyes just in time to see me grab the barrel of the rifle, and pull it from his hands - and shove it in his stomach.

I tossed the rifle aside while he was doubled over; it clattered against the metal grates, somewhere behind me. I made to hit him in the face with a left hook - but before the punch could connect, my fist was stopped halfway by Elijah grabbing it mid-swing. His grip around my fist tightened, which - I admit - did a decent job of distracting me from the incoming headbutt.

I was staggered backward, and saw stars; I shook it off just in time to see another fist coming towards my face. I dodged the blow, deflecting it away from me and jamming my elbow into his neck with one motion. I thought that might take him down, but he came back at me with another swing; I wasn't fast enough to dodge that one, and he cracked me across the jaw.

"The Sierra Madre is MINE! Do you hear me?!" Elijah shouted, swinging at me again; this one I was quick enough to dodge. "I'll kill you with my bare hands if I have to!" He swung a third time, but I caught it, same as he'd caught my punch - and I smashed my other fist into the middle of his face. I heard and felt a wet crunch under my fist, and I was sure I'd broken his nose. I grabbed him by the beard, and started sending uppercut after uppercut into his gut.

"NO! YOU! WON'T!" I punctuated every word with another punch. I let go of his beard, and smashed him in the side of his head with the my Pip Boy. He tried to look up, a thick trail of blood running down his face, and out of his nose. Surely, that would be enough to-

He tackled me. He grabbed me by the midsection, and the two of us tumbled to the ground, straight toward the edge of the platform. The holorifle jammed itself into my back as I fell onto the metal floor. My eyes started to burn this close to the Cloud, but I didn't dare close them. I was flat on my back, and Elijah was on top of me; his left eye was closed from all the blood running down his face and straight onto me. He clamped his hands down on either side of my head, and I could feel him try and shove his thumbs into my eyes...

His grip loosened when I kneed him in the crotch, though. I'll tell you that much.

I shoved him off me, punching him in the gut several times for good measure. He was too busy yelling and clutching at his testicles to really fight back. I wasn't going to let up now - for all I knew, this was just another feint. I had to end this, and end it now.

I grabbed Elijah by the back of his head, and slammed his face into a pipe near the edge of the platform. The blood splatter left by his face on the metal pipe looked like an ink-blot test. I shrugged my shoulder, and grabbed him by the neck, holding him in place right next to the edge of the platform.

CLUNK.

I stepped back, pulling the holorifle away from Elijah's gut. There was a roughly square shaped hole in the middle of his abdomen. Elijah just stood there in shock, looking down with his one good eye and trying to feebly clutch at the hole in his chest with trembling hands. He started gurgling, and I saw a burst of blood spill out of his mouth.

"It's time to cash out, Elijah," I said, giving him a shove. He fell backwards into the Cloud; it swirled and churned around him, consuming him until I could see nothing left except Cloud.

"This casino's just gone bust."