Jacob Burns and the Order of the Algorithm #Wattys2017

Chapter 12: A Very Unexpected Guest

"Hold your fire, hold your fire!" The yell echoed throughout the room as the figure doubled over in pain, but I kept my gun trained squarely on him, refusing to let the man out of my sight.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?!" I demanded as I approached the stranger on the ground.

"Ugh, the name's Valentine, and there's no need to be pointing that thing at me, so put it away, will ya?"

"Valentine?" I said curiously as I lowered my gun. "Detective Valentine, from Diamond City? I've heard of you..."

"Yeah, and I've heard of you too, Jacob Burns. Guess I should have listened when they said you were prone to friendly fire..." The man groaned as he got to his feet, one hand clutching his injured side.

But that's when I saw it.

A glint of steel as it reached up to adjust his fedora and a face made of metal and plastic stared out from underneath. Unblinking yellow eyes bored into mine as I reeled back.

"You, you're one of them... You're a synth!" I raised my gun, ready to blast him into oblivion when Ilya suddenly reached up to stop me.

"Nick?" She asked timidly as she approached, "Nick, is that really you?" My jaw could've hit the floor.

"Wait, you... know him? How is that even possible?" I asked as I kept my gun steady.

"Well, first of all, kid, I wasn't always a synth. Used to be a man, just like you. Second, her father worked with me on a few cases as an expert witness. In exchange, I promised to look after young Miss Astor here and keep her out of trouble. Looks like I've got a lot to answer for." The machine laughed, but I didn't think it was funny.

"And how exactly did you end up like... this?" I demanded.

"Now, that is a long story," the synth said as he picked up the brandy from the table, "One better told around a warm fire and a cold drink, wouldn't you say?"

This couldn't be happening... I mean what were the odds? That right after we tangle with the Institute and the Director himself, the one synth out there that just so happens to know Ilya shows up? This smelled to high heaven and I wasn't having any of it.

"Not a chance," I said with a snarl, "Ilya, get behind me. We're getting out of here."

"What? No! Jacob, I knew Detective Valentine from before the War, he would never hurt me. Please, let's hear him out at the very least."

"Ilya, he's a synth!" I yelled as my eyes darted around the room, just waiting for more to appear any second. "Whoever this Valentine was is long gone, just like McDonough, just like everybody else. He's just another empty Institute shell... Now, back away from him so I can put this thing down once and for all."

"What, no!" She screamed loudly as she stood in between us, "Absolutely not, I won't allow it!"

"Get out of the way, Ilya," I barked, "Right now."

"Whoa, hold on there kiddo," Valentine said as he stepped around the girl, "I haven't been with the Institute for a long time. Got out of there as soon as I could, in fact. Any sane synth would... Besides, just look at me, I'm old hardware see? All used up. They don't want me any more than I want them."

"But you were with the Institute once, and as far as I know they could take you over at any moment. Thanks, but no thanks. Synth." I added with disdain.

"Listen here," he said, quickly losing patience himself, "I've seen a lot of things in the Wasteland, gone up against synths and fought them myself. Hell, I lose more of my cases to them than anyone else, so if the Institute were to take me back, then they would have done it by now."