FO4 | Book 1: Bombs on Monday Morning ✔️

Ch 12: Everlasting Memories

Piper didn't seem too surprised to see us.

"Well, well. Nicky Valentine walks into my office for a change."

"What can I say, Piper? You, me, and hard luck all seem to run together like acid rain down an old sewer."

"You, uh, including your client here in that analogy?" She snickered. But then she took a good look at me and her smile faded. "Jesus, Blue, you look like shit. Come sit down, let me treat your wounds."

"My wounds?"

She looked taken aback. "Your nose is clearly broken with those bruises around your eyes. And that cut looks deep." She stepped closer to me and pointed to my lip.

"We've been through a lot in the last few hours, that's for damn sure," Nick muttered.

Piper urged me to sit on the couch, so I took a seat while she pulled a first aid kit out of a drawer on her side table.

"So, you two finally gonna let me in on this little case of yours? What's the story?"

"Where do you want me to start?" I countered. "The part where Kellogg turned out to be working for the Institute? Or the part where he told me they have Shaun?"

"The Institute? Hoo boy..." She removed some cotton swabs from the first aid kit along with a bottle of rubbing alcohol. "I've been investigating these creeps for over a year now. To this day, there's one thing nobody really knows."

Nick finished for her. "What the Institute actually is. or how to get in."

"Bingo. But there's one person who must know, right? The guy who just handed them Shaun." She poured some of the alcohol on the cotton ball and dabbed it lightly over the cut on my lip.

The sting hurt, causing me to wince and scrunch up my face which in turn hurt my swollen, broken nose. I was feeling queasy from the pain.

Nick gave me a begrudging look and me and crossed his arms. "Kellogg. Huh..."

"Yes, he's dead, but he didn't give us much of a choice, anyway," I defended.

"Yeah, I knew he wasn't gonna go quietly the moment I saw him..."

"So murderer and kidnapper gets his brains blown out by an avenging parent." Piper sighed. "It'd be a great ending if we didn't still have the biggest mystery in the Commonwealth to solve."

She applied a Stimpack to my nose, and I could feel my nose healing. It wasn't a pleasant experience. Then, she wiped the dried blood off my chin with another cotton swab.

"Doesn't matter what he knew," I murmured past Piper's fussing over me. "I'd kill him again in a heartbeat."

"Gets his brains blown out..." Nick thought out loud. "Huh. His brains. You know, we may not need the man after all."

Piper smirked. "You're talkin' crazy here, Nick. You got a fault in the old subroutines?"

"Look, there's a place in Goodneighbor called the Memory Den. Relive the past moments of your life as clear as the day they happened. If anyone can get a dead brain to sing, it'll be Dr. Amari, the mind behind the memories. Hmm. I guess we're gonna need a piece of Kellogg's brain. Enough gray matter to bring to Amari and find out if this is going to work..."

"Jesus, Nick... Gross! Seriously?!" Piper turned her head and gagged.

"I know it's grisly, but what choice do we have?" He threw his hands up. "We got no leads. Nothing. That old merc's brain just might have all the secrets we need to know."

"Actually, I interrupted, remembering the piece of tech I got off Kellogg's head. I took the gadget out of my bag and flashed it to him. "I think I already got something. Kellogg had this... thing attached to his head."