A Rose Among Thorns

5 | Getting a Clue

Nick explained exactly what he was as they walked back to Diamond City: a prototype synth made by the Institute that had been discarded due to his inability to reach whatever standards they wanted. He could only guess that a cop personality wasn't as beneficial as an engineer or a scientist. A synth is a robot installed with a human personality and they had become so advanced that they could look like humans—a friend you knew for years could be swapped for a synth and you would never know. And that swapping happened almost every day; those kinds of kidnappings were the majority of his missing persons cases.

Briar Rose listened but had trouble wrapping her head around what he told her. Synths? The Institute? The world had changed even more than she thought; not being able to trust anyone in thinking they could be a synth was worse than the continuous fighting consuming the Commonwealth. What Vault-Tec did to her doesn't compare to the suspicion—she wished she would've died with the others instead of dealing with this distrust.

Because of the puzzled looks on her face, she had to explain her reason for why she didn't understand. Nick pointed out that he had noticed the Vault suit but she corrected his assumption that she had been a Vault dweller—a Vault dweller, yes, but a 210 year one. He stared at her, stunned.

"So, every Vault probably was a fake front of safety?"

She shrugged. "I don't know; I couldn't find any evidence of what experiments would go on in the Vault we just left."

"Because it never opened," Nick answered. "That room Skinny had me locked in was the Overseer's office; the terminal still worked, and I found that construction had been completed, but the bombs fell before they could get anyone in. It was only going to be the wealthy, though—mayors, high society, billionaires, stuck-up bitches... Those sorts of people."

"Maybe that was their experiment: see how well the wealthy get along."

"We already know the answer to that: they don't."

They made it back to Diamond City at nightfall; the scent of cooking food made her mouth water, and she wanted to go get whatever the robot chef cooked but Nick appeared unaffected, turning straight for his office. She wasn't going to slow him down by going to eat—she wanted to get started on getting Shaun back as soon as possible.

They walked into Valentine Detective Agency; Ellie wasn't in sight.

Nick took a quick one-over of the room, then turned to the back room. "Ellie?"

Briar Rose heard a flurry of movement. "Nick?" There was the creaking of wooden steps, then a feminine gasp. "Nick!" Ellie came barreling out of the back room and threw her arms around Nick's neck; she was a good head shorter than him.

He chuckled and patted her on the back.

"It's really you."

"It's hard to mistake this mug for anyone else," he said.

She lifted her head off his chest. "You keep laughing at death, one day death's going to laugh back." She looked over at her. "Thank you so much for bringing him back."

"And still in one falling-apart piece," Nick added in.

Ellie shook her head at him with a rueful grin as she stepped back—used to his sarcasm. She reached into a pocket as she faced Briar Rose again. "I know money wasn't on the table, but here's my thanks." She handed her a jingling bag of caps.

After she took it with a thanks, Ellie turned back to Nick. "So, how did the case with Darla go? Find her?"

"Yes; her 'kidnapping' was a ruse to trap me— Yes, I know you were suspicious, but I'm here now, so no harm done," he quickly added in to Ellie's smug expression. "Our friend here persuaded Darla to leave Skinny and go home; we don't have to worry about this happening again too: Skinny's dead. He might be lighter with the hole in his head; then again, my bullet probably added an ounce..."