Despite the pleasant activities that preceded my rest, I didn't sleep well. A series of disturbing dreams about Piper haunted me, with various enemies I'd made in the past - raiders, super mutants, synths - putting her in peril while I was paralyzed, unable to help her. In the final dream, Brotherhood of Steel vertibirds were descending around her, loudspeakers droning 'abomination' and 'degenerate.' In slow motion, power armored knights descended from the sky, and I could only stand there, rooted in place. Helpless.

 

I awoke to the beating of propellors as a very real vertibird touched down on the outskirts of County Crossing. I admit, I was feeling kind of paranoid after that dream, and I got into the power armor right away. Once I was suited up, I headed towards the camp's little orchard, where I saw John Peterson talking with a man in the uniform of a Brotherhood of Steel field scribe.

 

As I got closer, I could hear them talking. The certainly didn't seem concerned about anyone overhearing them.

 

"I've brought two initiates with me who will serve as the advanced party for this outpost. Brother Joshua is the senior and you should go to him with any concerns. As for me, I'll initially be working on setting up a water purifier and a water tower just north of the camp, and after that I will be returning to the airport."

 

"Only two?" Peterson was asking, "I was promised a full garrison. Two men won't be able to keep out the super mutants if they attack."

 

 

The scribe shook his head, "we will send additional personnel once the advanced party has finished their site survey. You have nothing to fear, Mr. Peterson. Beyond having our word, your potential for food production is priceless, and so it is also in our personal interest to protect you."

 

I was quite close at this point, and the scribe turned to face me. I looked to Peterson, saying, "John, I see now what you meant when you said your security needs were taken care of. Scribe, ah..."

 

"Elijah," he said. "Scribe Elijah. You must be Charlotte Ellison, our legendary ally from the west."

 

I smirked at that. "Legendary is a stretch," I said, "but yes, that's me. Is the Brotherhood taking control of this settlement?"

 

Elijah looked a little surprised, perhaps he wasn't expecting such a direct question, but his composure only shook for the briefest moment before he said, mirroring my turn of phrase, "Control is also a stretch. I'm here on behalf of Proctor Teagan. He has tasked me with visiting a number of farms and small settlements and inducing them to donate a portion of their crops to the cause."

 

"A large portion," Peterson groused.

 

Elijah frowned at that, but didn't directly answer Peterson. Instead, he continued explaining to me, "Mr. Peterson explained to us his needs, and we agreed to provide protection and technical assistance in exchange for food. All in all, I think it was quite a generous concession."

 

 

I was kind of mentally chewing on the development, and I apparently waited too long to respond because Elijah added, tentatively, "is there going to be a problem with this arrangement?"

 

"No," I said. "As long as John made the choice freely, it's his own business what to do with his land. I'm sure you've been briefed on my agreement with Vault 81."

 

The scribe nodded. "Your 'spheres of influence?' I'm familiar. The Brotherhood won't interfere with any trade links you want to set up here, and of course Vault 111 citizens may freely pass through this territory. The Brotherhood's role his is purely one of advisors and assistants."

 

"I see," I said. The old 'military advisors' game? That was a popular one before the war, too, and I didn't have any illusions that the Brotherhood wouldn't eventually take over County Crossing entirely. But, I also wasn't in a position to do much about it. And so I changed the subject. "Are you familiar with Recon Team 429 Alpha?"

 

Elijah thought for a moment, then answered, "I'm sorry, I'm not."

 

"I found several of their members in the ruins of the old National Guard facility north of here. Unfortunately, they didn't survive." Withdrawing the holotape and dog tags, I offered them to the scribe. "I recovered these."

 

Elijah stopped me, saying, "thank you for bringing these back. But I'm not the right person to give them to. These need to go back to the Prydwen. A senior officer such as Lancer-Captain Kells needs to know about this."

 

I gestured towards the vertibird, "can I bum a ride?"

 

Elijah walked back to the vertibird and spoke to the pilot briefly before waving me over.

 

"I need to stay here to work on the water purifier," he explained, "but Lancer Patricia is returning to the Prydwen shortly. She can take you with her at that time."

 

I thanked Elijah and Patricia for their flexibility, then checked in with my companions. As much as Heather was interested in another visit to the airship, they decided to stay at County Crossing for the time being. Moreover, Doctor Wolfe hadn't finished her interview with Bessy, and needed some more time. She also explained to me that she'd left some research materials back at the Slog and needed to collect them. 

 

And so we parted ways for the moment. The trip to the Prydwen wasn't completely uneventful - we took some ground fire from out of the morning mist at one point - but soon enough the massive airship was starting to emerge into view.

 

 

Once we were on board, I dropped off my suit for maintenance - Proctor Ingram agreed to requisition replacement parts for the damaged areas as long as I'd compensate Teagan before I left. The difference between this visit and my last struck me immediately. Last time I'd been on the Prydwen I'd faced something just an inch short of open distrust, but this time Ingram seemed eager to help. I wondered if Alexia Gray had played some role in that, and I made a mental note to speak with her before I left.

 

With my armor left in Ingram's hands, I tracked down the Lancer-Captain on the bridge. 

 

"Captain Kells?" I asked.

 

"Ah, Overseer Ellison," he said, "I wasn't expecting to see you back here so soon."

 

"I'm afraid I haven't come on a social call," I explained, offering the dog tags and the holotape. "I found the remains of several members of Recon Team 429 Alpha."

 

 

Kells took the artifacts from me, evidently somewhat dismayed. No, not dismayed. Disappointed. "I've been expecting that for some time. Ever since we became aware of the synth threat, we've been sending small reconnaissance groups into the Commonwealth."

 

"Like Recon Team Gladius?" I asked.

 

"Exactly. Unfortunately, most of the teams disappeared before completing their mission. 429 was one of them."

 

"I'm sorry I couldn't bring you better news," I said.

 

Kells' face hardened at that. "Sorry?" he snapped, "I don't think you understand us yet, Overseer. Those men and women knew the risks they were taking. They gave their lives gladly to protect humanity, and it's the least any of us would do. So... sorry? No, we're not 'sorry' that they did their duty."

 

I didn't like the change in his mien - it reminded me too much of Maxson's strongman act, and frankly it worried me how easily they wrote off their own people. Perhaps, I told myself, Kells was just putting on a strong face for the benefit of his crew, but I wasn't so sure. His callous reaction was just too consistent with the other things I'd seen amongst them. So I didn't bother arguing the point, instead summarizing what I'd learned back at the training yard.

 

"The holotape did indicate that some of the squad members were trying to reach a satellite array on the coast. Unfortunately, I don't have any more specific information."

 

"We'll have out scribes analyze the tape for any further clues. In the meanwhile, we would greatly appreciate it if Concord and the Minutemen would notify us immediately if you find any further signs of our missing recon teams. Even the smallest bit of remains might have important clues to understanding the synth threat."

 

"Of course," I said, "am I correct in assuming that Ambassador Hunter has already traveled to Concord?"

 

"As a matter of fact," Kells said, frowning a bit, "he has not. The Handmaiden requested his assistance with a special project, which delayed his departure."

 

"Really?" I said. "That's fortunate - I have something that belongs to him. If it pleases you, Captain, I'll let you get back to work while I track down the Ambassador."

 

"Of course, Overseer. Thank you again for bringing these remains back to us."

 

I found Hunter at a research station in the main hull of the ship, working on some sort of chemistry project. 

 

"Ambassador Hunter," I said, "I see your trip got delayed."

 

 

"It was unavoidable, I'm afraid. A matter came up that required my... particular expertise. But you're back... did you find the eyebot?"

 

I nodded, offering him the memory unit I'd extracted from it. "I did. The robot was a total loss, but this is its memory stack."

 

"That's great news," he said. "I'll use this data to start the next phase of my project. And that, I can do at Concord, so I'll meet you there."

 

"Not going to get hijacked by the Handmaiden again?" I asked. "What did she have you doing, anyway?"

 

"That's... a need to know matter. Let's just leave it at 'something in my area of expertise,' for now."

 

Hunter obviously didn't have anything else for me, so I let him get back to his work and headed back to the power armor maintenance area. I wasn't too surprised to find that the work on my armor was already more or less complete; like I said, the Brotherhood seemed oddly eager to help compared to last time. What did surprise me a bit was to find Alexia Gray waiting for me.

 

"So," she said, "you came back with a different set of armor. I hope you didn't interpret us gifting you with T-45 as an insult."

 

 

"I took it more as a sign that you weren't quite ready to trust me, but that you still wanted to give a sign of your generosity."

 

"Probably not too far off," Gray conceded. "The replacement parts are T-51, not our best but still used by many of our knights. A sign, I hope, that we're ready to trust you now."

 

"I appreciate that... but what changed? It hasn't been all that long since the last time we spoke."

 

"A few things," she said. "First, we've been conducting something of a background investigation into you, using our admittedly limited intelligence gathering resources. We've verified your claims about how the Institute wronged you, and how you defeated their mercenaries at Joint Base Hagen. We're also aware of your effective and responsible use of pre-war technology to improve the quality of life in your territories. We haven't seen any indications that you are abusing the resources you're blessed with."

 

"And that alone made you change your mind about me?"

 

"Given time, it probably would have, but there are other factor that accelerated your acceptance. As our understanding of the situation here in the Commonwealth has come into focus, it's become more and more clear to us that we need local allies to succeed. I'm sure you're aware of the Gunners. They have been presenting more and more organized resistance to our efforts, and our forces, while substantial, may not be enough to tackle them, the super mutants, and the Institute all at once."

 

"So... you want more help from us? Tell me more."

 

"Not direct help, as it were, though continued free trade is certainly something we want. We would like to become a party to this... security arrangement you have with Vault 81. We would like your cooperation, or at least non-interference, with the establishment of a Brotherhood of Steel 'sphere of influence' in the Commonwealth.

 

"Like at County Crossing?"

 

Alexia shook her head, frowning a bit, "I advised against offering such a generous inducement for exactly the reason you are alluding to. But let's be frank: Concord was not exercising its 'rights' with regard to that area, and the path of least resistance to secure support from the Crossing was to provide security assistance."

 

"Scribe Elijah told me the Brotherhood did not consider County Crossing to be their territory, just the beneficiary of their advice and assistance. Is that accurate?"

 

Alexia shrugged. "It's accurate today. But let's not kid ourselves, that's going to change. I think we might as well discuss our lines of demarcation now. Are you willing to accept Route 1 as our border? Everything east of the highway is Brotherhood territory? Of course, the Minutemen would still be free to operate within our sphere of influence."

 

"That's quite a concession," I pointed out, "and it would put most of metropolitan Boston under your remit."

 

"Do you really care?" she asked. "You already ceded that territory to Vault 81. Let us work out our own border with them south of the Charles."

 

I visualized the path of Route 1, thinking through the implications. "That would bring the boundary line very close to Bunker Hill, and also give you control of the waterfront opposite Logan Airport. Would you settle for Route 1A instead? With the proviso that Jeffries Square and Central Square are also yours to develop?"

 

"The proximity to Bunker Hill was deliberate, as was the inclusion of the waterfront zone. I don't expect you to make any concessions on behalf of Vault 81, but securing both sides of the channel are important for the security of Logan Airport. And really, you don't have any interests in that region, do you? You lose nothing by granting us that added security."

 

"And further north? There's a Minutemen base on the east side of Route 1."

 

She turned, pointing to the rows of armor in the maintenance bay. "The Minutemen don't pose a threat to us. I've already told you we don't plan to interfere with their operations. They're welcome to maintain a base in that area. They can even administer the settlement if they want. Call it a sign of good faith."

 

 

I almost asked her how the fact that the Slog was run by ghouls would impact her position, but there was a bigger issue that I'd been a little belated in recognizing. Alexia was trying to secure separate agreements with Concord and with Vault 81. That diluted our bargaining power and surely cut into the potential concessions we could expect. So I decided to slow-walk things for the moment.

 

"I think we can reach an agreement... if not exactly what you're asking, then something."

 

"Good. Governor's Island is too small an area - it's impossible to defend it in depth, much less develop our own logistics base. We need-"

 

I groaned, "please don't say you need living space."

 

Alexia stopped, confused? Flustered? Then, after a moment of consideration, she laughed. "I suppose that might sound a little ominous, wouldn't it? But only to old souls like you and me. To the rest," she waved expansively, "it would mean just what the words mean - and it would be the truth. The Brotherhood can't be itinerant visitors forever; defeating the Institute will take time, and in that time we need to eat, we need to build spare parts, we need to sleep. We need... to live."

 

"God, you just couldn't resist, could you?"

 

Gray turned to face me directly. She was considerably shorter than me, but she looked up into my eyes defiantly. "The war burned away ghosts clinging to those words. Don't drag them back into the world. I understand that you look at us and you see something sinister. But that's only because you're an outsider - not just to the Brotherhood, but to the whole world. You're an alien here, just like me. It took me decades to really feel comfortable in this world, and it will for you too. I guarantee it. Don't judge the people of this world until you understand them."

 

I could see this was a pointless argument - I wasn't going to convince Alexia Gray of anything if we kept talking. So I pulled us back to the original point at hand. "About the dividing line... I understand your rationale, but you're asking for a lot. I'm not willing to make a bilateral agreement with you that changes the territorial status quo. Vault 81 needs to be part of this discussion. If you arrange a summit, I'll attend. Have Ambassador Hunter apprise me of your plans... and then we can talk further."

 

Alexia seemed disappointed, but she agreed without further argument. "I understand," she said. "Then we'll talk more in the future. By the way, I was wondering... have your people ventured as far as Salem yet?"

 

I shook my head. "No, not that I'm aware of at least. Why do you ask? Is there something up that way we should be concerned about?"

 

"No, forget I mentioned it," Gray said. "It's probably time for you to return to your people, isn't it? I'll ensure a Vertibird is waiting for you on the flight deck."

 

I collected my armor and made my way back to the flight deck rather deep in thought. My mind went back to an old-timey science fiction movie where the protagonist is attending a banquet with alien dignitaries. One of the aliens tries to casually insert a Hitler quote into the conversation, and the protagonist calls him out on it. Later on, surprise surprise, that alien turns out to be the bad guy. I hoped Alexia Gray wasn't going to take a similar heel turn in the future. There weren't many links back to the old world, and she was one of them. 

 

By the time I climbed into the vertibird, a new sense of distrust - something thicker and darker than the misgivings I'd felt before - was seeping into me, and I decided to not have them drop me off at the Slog as I'd originally planned. I'd rather not have them see the ghouls there if I could help it. So I directed them to Greentop Nursery instead. After taking a moment to check in with Trish and Amos, I walked the rest of the way to the Slog.

 

 

The walk did give me a chance to observe conditions on the road. Evidently the Minutemen patrols were at least keeping super mutants from moving back into Breakheart Banks, but I also didn't see any traders or travelers on the road, which told me that Malden was still probably impassible. We'd need to take some more proactive action to open the way, either by clearing Malden (unlikely) or by working out the northern route I'd been thinking about since we secured Greentop. 

 

By the time I actually reached the Slog it was getting dark, but even then I could see Wiseman had been making progress on expanding his farm to support the new inhabitants. The original group of ghouls that founded the settlement lived in a concrete building that had once housed the showers for the swimming pool (and indeed, they still worked on on side of the building - something I took advantage of when I arrived to wash away the grime of the day's travels), but it was about at capacity. Instead of trying to pack more people in, Wiseman had overseen construction of a series of small shelters just north of the main building. 

 

My companions, however, weren't forced to sleep out in the new housing area - they were inside the showers with the ghouls. Right away I noticed that Winter was out of her powersuit, and once I'd shucked my own power armor I eagerly took advantage to get a good hug. The powersuit preserved her curves well, but it's hard to beat the texture and warmth of skin on skin.

 

"Hey sweetie," I said, "I was starting to think you were going for a record with the powersuit."

 

 

"I thought about it," she said between smooches, "but I really needed a shower - and who knows when I'd get another chance."

 

Laughing, I agreed, "I hear you there. How's everyone else? Heather and the Doctor make it up here OK?"

 

"Yeah," she said, "they're over in the bedroom looking Heather's latest treasure."

 

"Oh? You found another magazine?"

 

"She got it off a trader before we left County Crossing. One of those Wasteland Survival Guides... the guy was done reading it, and he let her have it."

 

After giving her another nice kiss, I walked over to the bedroom door, greeting Heather and Wolfe. "You two doing OK?"

 

Heather was pointing to something in the magazine, and Wolfe's eyes stayed on the page when my guide looked up to answer me. "Doing great, actually," she said, "you?"

 

I rolled my eyes, "I've had better days. I mean, I'm fine. But I think I got a glimpse of the Brotherhood's true colors, and I didn't like it. Someday, we're going to have problems with them. But what have you got there?"

 

She held up the cover for me to examine it. Like the other post-war books I'd seen, the cover art was hand-drawn, though someone had used colored pencils to give it a little more life.

 

 

"I remember the Combat Zone," I said. "Up by Boylston and Washington, right? Pretty wild party spot. It made it through the war?"

 

"Eh, kind of," Heather said. "It's more or less just a raider hangout now. I'm pretty sure the nightlife leaves a lot to desire these days."

 

"Huh, I bet. What about you, Doctor? Good interview with Bessy?"

 

"Actually, yes," Wolfe said. "She has a very interesting background. I may have to pay her another visit in the future to follow up with her; the interaction between her radiation adaptation and the horizontal gene transfer was fascinating. Moreover, Bessy isn't actually a breeder. So how her rather unique traits develop is a mystery. I have a lot to learn from her, I think."

 

 

Wolfe tried to boil down her thoughts about Bessy into digestible words, but most of it was still over my head. Bessy wasn't a first-generation ghoul - she hadn't been born before the war - but she'd turned during those initial hard years just after the nuclear winter had broken. At first, other than what Wolfe called the radiation adaptations, which is to say the leathery skin, the breakdown of cartilage, and the strengthened immune system, Bessy had been like any other ghoul. But over time, she continued to mutate. It started with a lump at the base of her spine, which eventually grew into the stubby tail she had when we'd visited County Crossing, as well as a slow fusion of her feet into hooves. Wolfe said that mutations like this often show up in breeders and have something to do with absorbing genetic material from the animals they bear offspring with; but since Bessy wasn't a breeder, her body must have changed by some other means. 

 

Wolfe acknowledged that Bessy might just be a unique mutant totally unrelated to the other Breeders, but she wasn't convinced. Bessy had agreed to let her return and do follow-up tests later this year, but for now Wolfe didn't have any one place that she had to be. I tried not to be too pushy when I brought up Faraday.

 

"I know he didn't make a good first impression with you," I said, "but I promised him I'd ask you to come see him. Will you indulge me?"

 

Wolfe's face took on a sour look, but she acquiesced. "Sure, why not? I need to trade for some supplies anyway. I'll meet with him, but that's it - no promises. Fair?"

 

"Sure," I said, "and while we're on the topic of Faraday... how are you with cybernetics?"

 

She blinked. "That's kind of a non sequitur. Why do you ask?"

 

I explained in very brief terms how my final confrontation with Kellogg went, and how Curie had subsequently fished his implant out of his skull. That obviously grabbed at least some of her attention. 

 

"It's not my area of expertise," Wolfe admitted, "and I don't know how much I can do to help you on that score, but if the opportunity presents itself I'd be interested in learning more about where your research leads you. That said, I'm willing to examine the device at least. Maybe there's something in the man-machine interfaces that I can help with."

 

"Alright," I said, "I think we can arrange for that. First things first though, let's get back to Diamond City and settle things with Faraday... and while we're at it, we need to find out where Piper's trail went cold. It sounds like she might have never made it to Bunker Hill."

 

Those concerns about Piper haunted me through the night. Each time I woke, only to fall back asleep into an even more frightening scenario. I dreamed of her being in the clutches of raiders, lowered into the 'dunk tank' at the Combat Zone to meet a watery doom. I dreamed of her being hauled off to Goodneighbor by the Triggermen, looking for payback over the Vault 114 business. I dreamed that black-clad synths had swooped down and spirited her off to an Institute torture chamber. I dreamed that Faraday had drugged her and locked her in root cellar behind his shack... or was it the root cellar in Sanctuary where I'd found the powersuit?

 

When the seemingly interminable sequence of nightmares finally ended, dawn was just breaking over the Slog. I could feel a mantle of depression settling over me and dampening my mood, but I shook it off for the moment with the recognition that I needed to get back to Diamond City and find Piper. After helping Winter get back into the powersuit, we retraced our original steps to Bunker Hill - albeit this time without the mad dash through the woods - and after a brief visit to see if Piper had belatedly shown up we continued down to Diamond City.

 

I won't pretend it was a completely uneventful trip - by the time we reached the gates I had a couple of shackled prisoners in tow, the survivors of a very badly executed raider ambush - but compared to some of our recent visits to the Great Green Jewel I didn't have quite as intense a sense of dread about the future. We'd also rescued a scavenger from some super mutants on the way and so we made for quite a motley party entering the gatehouse.

 

 

Looking at things in retrospect, it was probably good that Danny Sullivan was on duty. Apparently, for all its faults, Diamond City took a strong stance on the slave trade, and the naked and collared raiders maybe didn't make for the greatest look.

 

"Hold up," the security offer said, "what are you doing with... hang on. Charley? Is that Charley Ellison?"

 

I nodded. "It is indeed. What seems to be the problem?"

 

Sullivan shook his head ruefully, then whispered soto voce, "you can't bring slaves into Diamond City. Shit, I didn't know you people were into that."

 

"Hold up, hold up," I said. "No slaves here. These are raiders we captured on the way here from Bunker Hill. We're going to hand them over to the Minutemen for questioning when we get back across the river."

 

 

Sullivan relaxed visibly when I said that, but after a pause he frowned. "That's a relief, but you still shouldn't... ah... it's going to be nothing but trouble if you parade them around in town."

 

"Do you have a lockup I can stash them, then? Maybe in the 'Piper Suite?'" I emphasized that last part with air quotes.

 

Sullivan blanched a little. "The... Piper Suite? It's um... no, that wouldn't work."

 

I wasn't the only one who noticed his sudden discomfort. Winter chimed in, "Danny, is there something in the Piper Suite that we need to know about?"

 

"I, ah, fuck. Listen, it's mayor's orders, I can't talk about it. But, you know, if you were to drop by the security office to lock up those prisoners... fuck. Fuck. Just don't tell them I said anything, or I'm cooked."

 

I really, intensely, disliked the direction this conversation was going in. There's reading between the lines, but in this case the lines were about a mile apart and the writing was in big, bold letters.

 

"You motherfuckers," I hissed. Then turning to Doctor Wolfe, I said, "Doc, can you find your way to Faraday's shack on your own? I've got some business to attend to."

 

She nodded. "Yes, I think I'll be fine from here. Thank you for the careful escort."

 

Then I looked back to Danny. "We're not done with this conversation, Sullivan."

 

"I swear I had nothing to do with it. The mayor said anyone who blabbed about it would get exiled from Diamond City, no exceptions."

 

Winter turned to me. "I think this is more a case of 'we need to have a chat with the mayor.' But I think we need to visit the Piper Suite first."

 

It didn't take us long to reach the security office, and with my power armor and Winter's powersuit, the guards weren't in much of a position to stop us from entering. Thinking back, I'm glad none of them had an itchy trigger finger, because at that moment I wasn't in the state of mind to go easy on them if they tried to stop me.

 

 

Once I was inside, I raised up the volume on my power armor's external speaker and said, "OK, who wants to volunteer to tell me where you're keeping Piper Wright?"

 

I registered a moment of surprise on the faces of the guards, followed by stubborn scowls. I was about to escalate my threats when a voice called out in the distance. 

 

"Blue? Blue?" 

 

I swung my light in the direction of Piper's voice and saw her. Evidently the guards hadn't been very creative when they grabbed her, because she was standing in what looked like an abandoned filing room that had been converted into a holding cell separate from the main cage. It was, of course, the infamous Piper Suite. 

 

 

The guard in front of me adopted a very credible 'well, I'm fucked' expression, before speaking. "Listen, Ms. Ellison, we was just following orders from the mayor."

 

"I'd be a bit more sympathetic if you didn't have my wife in a cage twenty feet away," I pointed out.

 

"What do you want me to do?" He asked, "if I let her out, McDonough's going to use me for super mutant bait." He pleaded with his eyes for me to not press the issue... but I wasn't in the mood.

 

"I'll tell you what. You can either let her out, or I can walk over there and pull the door off its hinges. Piper Wright is a citizen of Concord, and I am one hundred percent sure she's been kidnapped and held here on some bullshit excuse for a charge. If I'm wrong, better convince me now. Otherwise, let her out. Then I'll go have a nice chat with Mayor McDonough about this... unfortunate misunderstanding."

 

"Fuck," he muttered. "Listen, I can't let her out. But if you were to duck into that office over there, you'd find the key to her cell in the desk. Nobody here's gonna get into a fist fight with someone in power armor over this."

 

Maybe two minutes later, Piper's cell was open and I was getting her handcuffs off.

 

"I have been looking for you literally all over the Commonwealth," I said, trying not to betray too much emotion, lest the guards take it as a sign of weakness.

 

 

"I figured it was just a matter of time till you found me," she said. "Helped keep me from going crazy down here. I think... I think McDonough wanted to hand me over to the Institute."

 

"Well," I said, "we're going to find out soon enough. You up for an interview with big mister mayor?"

 

Piper digested what I'd said, and then a slow smile crept over her face. "Oh, that'll just make my day."