Narrow alleys lit with mismatched bulbs gave way to a wider, well lit path, straight to the base of the Tower. Rosie took a long moment to look right up the full length of the Tower. “How many floors?”

“Eighty.” Even Brandon sounded impressed.

Clad in leather armour and sat with his boots on a desk the deputy barely looked at them “What’s your business?”

“Here to see the Lady.” Brandon answered, annoyed with the lax attitude.

“Lady’s sleeping, come back tomorrow.”

“We’ve come a long way, it’s important.” Rosie stepped forward, her annoyance far less hidden. Brandon tossed a pouch that clinked onto the table and the deputy finally paid attention.

“What’s it about?”

“Tell her it’s about the mighty man.” Rosie had heard the message, and the song, a few times. She couldn’t listen to the song without crying.

The radio hissed and they were ushered into a construction lift. Rosie paced nervously, the lift felt like the smallest space she’d been in for a month. It felt sickeningly familiar, all except the glimpses of the ground below falling away.

Cold wind cut through the open floor they exited onto Rosie knew this had to be the sniper’s nest. She saw only one, lay motionless. Face covered in black goggles, set in a hood of metal ring mesh. Even in the near total dark the system managed to scan one of their rifles, something about the design stood out to her.

Behind a door that looked oddly familiar, Rosie heard soft music filling the entire space. Inside walls were carpeted like floors to deaden sound.

“No one sees the Lady armed.” The combat shotgun and the man's demeanour left no room for discussion. Brandon looked uneasy as he handed over the cut down carbine from under his arm and the revolver from his hip. Rosie gave up her pistol and tried to keep her throwing knives, till Brandon took them off her himself. She didn’t need them anyway, not with Charlie’s training in hand to hand combat.

“No touching.” Brandon turned to the armed man warning him, after being drawn to a box of square pictures. The black steel core of the Tower curved through the rooms, the only thing left free of patterned wall coverings.

Her reflection drew Rosie to the wall of glass. Even the slight distortion couldn’t account for how little she recognised herself. Her posture straightened, her movements fluid. As she stared down at the patch work of lights along the distant valley floor a familiar voice spoke.

“Do you know what our friend did when he saw the view?” Rosie turned and saw an older woman, dressed in a thick white robe. She heard the testing question within words.

“I don’t know, frankly I’m surprised John made it up all the way up here.” Rosie knew how little he liked heights. The woman stepped closer to her, quickly glancing at Brandon, then focusing on her. She cupped Rosie’s face in her hands and stared into her green eyes.

“Come with me child.” Rosie felt unsure and the lady walked to a glass room within the room. Brandon nodded and she followed. “This is a soundproof room, you speak the truth now. Who is he?”

“He’s a friend, he took me in.” Rosie had a cover story but couldn’t lie to enigmatic Lady Luck, her calm manner and intense focus left nowhere to hide.

“I can smell the Steel on him child, you’re safe now, speak true.” From the corner of her eye Rosie saw the armed man enter the outer room, Brandon unaware, still staring through the north facing window.

“No, stop, please. He’s not with the Brotherhood any more, he saved me.” Rosie’s calculations left less and less time to reach the increasing threat.

“No such thing as an ex-knight.” The warmth Rosie had always heard vanished completely. Panic built as looked over the lady’s shoulder, seeing Brandon still facing away. Rosie drew in a deep breath, ready to bolt from the inner room when she saw Brandon’s hands behind his back. His right in a closed fist, a stop signal.

She’d brought him up here, too keen to impress and now he was in danger, trapped at the top of the world with one way out.

“Please, you’re making a mistake, he saves people, they saved me from slavers.” Rosie had no choice but to trust the truth.

“When?” Lady Luck raised her hand and the armed man stopped.

“The day after I left the Vault, they were those things, ghouls, wearing red masks.” Rosie took a few more deep breaths to calm the reaction from the pipboy. Thinking about what she’d do to those things now. Lady Luck flicked back through a yellow pad filled with handwritten notes, letting out a deep sigh of relief.

“That was before they got...” Lady Luck waved off the armed guard and Rosie relaxed, letting the dreamlike state fall back from under the surface. “Go on through child, sit, I’ll have food sent up and we’ll talk. You should know John…the Brotherhood have him.” Her reaction worried Rosie.

“I know, I’ve seen him, he’s ok.” Rosie saw the joy it brought to the woman to hear that, she couldn’t understand it. She and John couldn’t have spent that much time together yet here she stood, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of the soft white robe.

Rosie left the room within a room and stood next to Brandon, still looking out the north window. “Well done.” Brandon whispered. “I knew you’d see the signal.”

“They were gonna shoot you.” Rosie didn’t understand how calm he seemed.

“I’ve had guns pointed at me by far scarier people than a few beatniks at the top the world Rosie.” He let out a quiet laugh. “Besides, helped myself to one of your thorns.” In his closed fist he held one of Rosie’s knives, plucked skilfully from her as Brandon seemingly disarmed her.

“What’s a thorn?” Rosie couldn’t place the word, and even she would feel little comfort from a knife against a gun.

Coffee and warm flatbread, served with diced meat and corn, arrived in the room. The bald man that brought them seemed wide awake for the hour. Rosie tore through three of the meat filled wraps in the time it took Brandon to eat one, much to the amusement of the others. It felt like she hadn’t been hungry before she noticed the food.

“So you want to splice a vhf ping into our fm band?” Rosie recognised the voice as the night time radio host, and recognised another technical mind.

“Exactly, I’m assuming you have a terminal to bridge the modulation.”

“We do. And a cell pack to boost power.”

“How do you keep it—”

“Submerged in vegetable oil.”

“Interesting.” Rosie didn’t use that word often.

“Baby, why don’t you give our green eyed girl a tour, let me talk to Mr…” Lady luck trailed off.

“Black.” Rosie thought Brandon gave a fake name, then realised she didn’t know his last name. Or anything solid information really, yet she still trusted him. He gave her a nod and she followed Mr Goodnight into the adjoining room.

The black steel core of the building took prominence in the room, the terminal and benches clustered facing the corner in an odd layout. Incorporated into the mass of tightly bundled cables and racks of equipment sat a large unit. Removed from something else and absorbed here.

“That’s what John brought us.” Mr Goodnight ran his hand along the unit as he pulled out a chair for her. Rosie saw a look of worry from the man that John couldn’t have spent much time with.

People always warmed to John quickly, not like her. She’d been fine with ignoring just about everyone in the Vault. They were of little interest. Out here in the world Rosie found herself wanting to get to know these people, and completely unequipped to do so.

“What do you think of this? Had to eyeball most of it but I think it will help. We didn’t know when John might come back, so I wanted it ready.” Mr Goodnight brought up some code on the connected terminal. An elegant way of splicing in the high frequency pulse while boosting it’s range.

“That’ll work.” Rosie made eye contact and smiled, remembering what John had tried to teach her about making conversation. “This is pretty clever.” Compliments were always a good place to start. With the wireless four pin connected, and a few subtle tweaks of Goodnight’s code, Rosie hit send. The jet black device went blank for a few moments as the signal travelled out across the wastes. Bouncing off buildings, reflecting from rivers, all returning with information from miles away. A rolling circle appeared on the screen *rendering*. Rosie let out a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding.

“Did it work?” Goodnight had an almost childlike tone, odd for a bald man in his fifties.

“I think so.” Her nimble fingers scrolled along the map screen.

“It looks scrambled, corrupted maybe.” Goodnight couldn’t see the projection like she could, only the garbled two dimensional data that supported it.

“It’s not, trust me.” At that moment Rosie’s view of a wire frame rendered world danced in the air above the device. Augmented reality the readme files called it. She could see the Tower she sat in, the unnerving expanse of open space around the town walls. More structures and roads to the south. The unmistakable eight lane blacktop to the east. And the clear dead stop of the signal at the Vault door that kept her trapped for all those wasted years. Rosie knew if the signal travelled that far in one direction it must have gone in all directions, radiating out over the world. And it picked out a Vault, if it could find one, it could find others.

The excitement of the technical minds at work had not been shared by Lady Luck and Brandon. Rosie felt the tension as she sat back next to Brandon, flashing a quick nod and smile to confirm she’d done what she’d promise. That brought an easing of posture, although it didn’t change the look on his face.

“Rosie…the good Lady and I have been talking, she has an offer for you.” Rosie switched her focus to the woman in the white robe and got the feeling that she was in charge here.

“John, he loves you child.” Rosie knew that and resented being told. “He’s got a place for you, a good place, safe, decent people. And when he’s free of those metal bastards you can be together.” Rosie had to hold in a tear. “You have a choice child, options.” Rosie understood Lady Luck’s point and resented it further still. She knew she had a choice, had her freedom. It’s not like anyone could stop me, Rosie thought to herself. Besides, what she could learn from these people wouldn’t be half as useful as everything she’d already learned.

“I’m ok. When John gets back I’ll find him.” Rosie forced a smile as Lady Luck sat back in her comfy chair. She couldn’t get a read on the expression on the older woman’s face.

“I can’t stop you Rosie, I won’t, but the Brotherhood…” Lady Luck glared at Brandon, who glared right back.

“We will handle the Brotherhood.” Brandon sounded certain. Quiet tension filled the room as a gulf widened between one side of the room and the other. After a few long moments Lady Luck stood and walked to the window, staring out over the dark valley below.

“What can I do to help?” Rosie heard the conflict in her voice, helping people she thought were making a mistake. It seemed to catch Brandon off guard, and the plans within plans began to shift behind his eyes.

“Right now, nothing. When the time comes however...” Brandon’s answer brought a deep sigh from the lady.

“Then Lady Luck is with you. Rest here.”