New Vegas: Sheason's Story

I got about halfway up the stairs before I came to a stop in front of the Vera hologram. She was standing in the center of the winding staircase with one hand on her hip, and one leg sticking out of the slit up her dress. The hologram was still and silent, the edges appearing to flicker slightly the closer I got.

This was, I think, the closest I'd been to any of the holograms here (without one trying to kill me, that is), and it was astounding the amount of detail I could actually see. When it stopped flickering, I could make out things like individual hairs on her head, pores on her skin, and small details embroidered on her dress. If she wasn't glowing blue and semi-transparent, I could've almost mistaken her for a real person.

"Hey, uh... thanks for the save... back... there..." I trailed off, realizing what I was doing. I tried to shake it off - or shake away my increasing delirium. Take your pick. "Right. Okay. So, I'm talking to holograms now. I guess it's no stranger than talking to ED-E and expecting a response..."

I smirked on the outside, but just mentioning ED-E got me thinking about my friends back in the Mojave. ED-E, Boone, Veronica, Arcade, Raul... Cass... my thoughts lingered on Cass for quite a while. I still had no real idea how long I'd been here. Did they even know I was gone? What had happened to Veronica after we got separated? What if I fucked up, and really did die here? Would they even notice? I'd been so busy just trying to survive this hellhole that I hadn't really had time to think...

While I was standing there, lost in thought, the hologram was silently staring at me with unblinking eyes. I shook my head, trying to get back to focusing on the task at hand. Eventually, I moved, and her head followed me with an unnatural precision that creeped me out to no end.

"Excuse me gorgeous," I said, trying to slide past the hologram; I had no idea if I could walk through it, and wasn't really willing to test the theory... I mean, hell, this thing is able to shoot lasers out of its face, so who the fuck knows what would happen if I tried to walk through it? "If you'll just let me slide on past here, I've got places to be. Keep watch on the door for me, make sure no more of the Ghost People get in, would you?"

The Vera hologram continued to stare at me, following me as I walked past... and then, very slowly, the hologram nodded.

"Yeah, that wasn't creepy or anything."

I stepped out of the elevator, and walked into the small lobby of the Tampico Theater. There was a counter right in front of me with a sign labeled "box office" and a pair of double doors next to it. There were about half a dozen posters hanging on the walls which at one point were probably lit up. Most of them were faded and nearly illegible, but two were still distinct enough: Vera Keyes and Dean Domino.

"Heh..." I smirked to myself as I walked past Dean's poster in the theater. "Guess Dean's mustache wasn't manly enough to survive ghoulification."

There were three ways to go from here: another set of double doors right in front of me, and two short hallways on either side. There was a glowing blue light down the right hallway - another vending machine. Maybe I'll -

Beep.

Okay, maybe I won't head down that way... there must be more of those static spewing speakers somewhere... I just hope they're the unshielded type. I didn't have the ammo to waste on speakers I couldn't blow up. I backed up until my collar stopped beeping, and tried the two large doors. I jiggled the handle - nothing. I threw my shoulder against the door, and it made a solid enough thud, but it still didn't budge.

"Hmph. Let's see what's behind door number three then." I said, walking down the last hallway. I came to a corner and... there was an open door. I started to feel a rumbling in the pit of my stomach... something wasn't right.

"This is a trap." I voiced out loud. "This is just... it's too easy. Too much like I'm being funneled this way. This has to be a trap."

So, what did I end up doing?

I walked through the open door anyway. It's not like I had anywhere else to go. And besides, if this really was a trap, best thing to do would be to spring it - find out exactly what was going on, and be proactive in dismantling it. Better than sitting around doing nothing.

Of course, when the door slammed shut behind me, I started to think that perhaps this hadn't been the best idea after all.

Okay, stay calm Sheason. Take stock of your surroundings, figure out what's going on. The interior of the Tampico theater was a lot like the Shark Club back in New Reno, where I'd seen Bruce Isaac that one time. Really high ceiling, a large stage dominating the center of the room small circular tables filling up the available floor space, half-moon booths lining the walls, and a bar in the back. The whole theater was dimly lit - except for a bit of blue underlighting from behind the bar, a "Dean Domino" sign in big neon letters hanging in front of the curtains on the stage... oh, and a whole load of red lights from shielded speakers lining the walls.

Right. Definitely being funneled somewhere.

It took a while, and a lot of experimentation to see exactly where I could go without the speakers setting off my collar, but I eventually found myself in the center of the room, right next to the stage. I hadn't noticed it on the way there (mostly because I was too busy looking at the position of the speakers on the wall), but there was a stand right next to the stage, and a few pages of paper sitting on it.

"Hmm..." I grabbed the sheets to get a closer look at them - and suddenly heard a clink of metal against tile. I looked down at my feet: there was a small key on the floor that had fallen out of the pages. I put the sheets back and knelt down to pick up the key.

"So..." I heard a smooth voice, amplified and echoing off the walls. "You showed." I got up and was completely unsurprised to see Dean. He'd pulled back one section of the red curtains, and was standing on a catwalk behind the stage.

"Dean," I growled, still clutching the key in my hand. I had no idea what it opened, but maybe if I got him to talk... "I thought you might be the one behind funneling me into this linear path." Dean smirked, and started chuckling to himself.

"Felt the collar start kicking again as soon as the elevator doors rattled open," Dean reached into his jacket, and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. "Think you're going to up-stage me, here at the Sierra Madre?" He shook his head, and lit his smoke, making 'tsk, tsk,' sounds. "I don't think so. Now that I'm inside... well... I suppose I don't need you anymore, do I?"

"So, stabbing me in the back for the Sierra Madre, then?" I looked around the room as I spoke. Was he stalling me, or was he just gloating?

"You think I'm the bad guy here?" Dean asked, his voice laced with faux-indignation. I shrugged.

"Well, you are monologuing at me. Isn't that what bad guys do?" I asked. Dean's smile evaporated, and he started scowling at me.

"You think you're so clever, don't you. But I'm not the one slapping bomb collars on innocent folks and flicking the switch. And I'm not stabbing you in the back. I was facing you the whole time."

"Yeah, because that makes it so much better," I muttered under my breath.

"This heist?" Dean pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and leaned on the railing. "I planned it lifetimes ago. You and that old man? You're nothing but tourists. So... it's time for a little show. I'll just grab a seat up here, and watch how this plays out from backstage. Security can handle it from here." So, he was stalling for time - he must have some way of activating the holographic security. Well, two can play that game.

"And the collars?" I rapped a knuckle against the bomb collar around my neck. "You sound awfully eager to kill someone whose life is tied to yours." That seemed to stagger him a bit, but not for long.

"No... no... the collars... I know what happened now. Sure, mine activated... but it feels different. The electronic tap-dance inside... I can kill you and make it out while security is busy frying you to a crisp. Hands are clean, then smooth sailing to the vaults of the Sierra Madre." Dean looked immensely smug... but if I could keep him talking, he'd probably spill his whole plan, and I could turn it on it's head.

"I'm that predictable, am I?" I said, nodding my head. "You're probably right..." That's when I saw where I needed to go: there was a door off to my right that, more likely than not, led backstage - and while there was a speaker on the wall, it was broken, with no light, and pieces hanging off the wall. that meant I'd be able to open the door without worrying about the speakers blowing my head off. Probably.

"I'm not a betting man. I've come too far to leave it to chance," Dean took a draw from his cigarette, and was clearly enjoying looking down on me from a quite literal sense. "Way I figure it, you'll try and run for the exit, and only I know where the key is - and where the safest place in the whole theater is: backstage. You?" Dean laughed a few times. "You're trapped down there, and you couldn't shut off the speakers, unlock the doors, or cancel security if you tried."

Jackpot.

"Alright... So as long as I make sure I don't run for the exit, I head backstage, disable every speaker, grab every key, then shut down security... yeah, that plan sounds pretty clear to me, Dean. Thanks."

I'm sure if Dean still had skin, he would have blanched.

"Wh- what now? Try and come back here? No..." Dean chuckled nervously. "No, you belong out in the audience... I mean, not like... uh... you even could get backstage. That key you snagged - it won't work!" I think this was the most nervous I'd ever seen Dean - barring, perhaps, our first meeting when I told him our collars were linked.

"I guess I'll just have to try the key and see." I said, holding it up to make sure he knew I still had it. Dean started looking around frantically - and, very slowly, the curtains started to close.

"Oh, of all the - where the hell are those stupid holograms already?" He was muttering to himself, but his voice still carried. What he said next, I knew he meant for me: "Even if you do get back here, you won't live long, trust me!"

As soon as Dean slipped out of sight, I made my move, vaulting over a nearby table and running for the backstage door. My collar started beeping at first - I must have slipped into the range of another speaker - but by the time I threw myself into the back wall, my collar had gone cold.

There was an electric fizzle in the air - and more of the holographic cube-scribbles were starting to coalesce into actual shapes all around the room. If the timing was the same as the Vera hologram in the lobby, I had maybe three seconds before they turned into security holograms and fried me to a crisp. Maybe. Given how unreliable my internal sense of time was being, it could have been more, or it could have been less.

I only really started to get worried when the key didn't turn. I glanced over my shoulder; there were three of the holograms in the room starting to take shape. I punched the door, right next to the lock to try and shake it loose - it felt like the lock was just stuck. The key turned, and I bolted in through the door - and not a second too soon. As I slammed the door shut behind me, I heard a crackle of electric fire in the air, and a laser blast hit the wall.

I was in a hallway. If what Dean said about the backstage being safest was true, then that probably meant the holograms weren't programmed to patrol back here. But the downside was my eyes were starting to sting and water. I looked off to my right, down the hallway, and sure enough, there was an emergency exit that looked like a pile of rubble, with a thick miasma of Cloud trying to push its way into the casino.

"Damn..." I breathed, trying to hold back a cough. The cough made me look down involuntarily, and I noticed something peculiar - a strange blue light on the floor, coming from behind me. I looked around, and found one of those circular hologram emitters mounted on the wall, glowing blue. "Huh... I wonder..." The casing came apart with a pop, like the emitter in the medical district, and with a few pulled wires, the blue emitter dimmed and went dead.

"One down..." I muttered, moving forward and hugging the walls to avoid the Cloud. It was getting really hard to brea-

Beep.

"Damnit!" I rasped, running forward. I had to check to see if the speaker was shielded or not. I got to the end of the hallway, rounded a corner, past a door with a star on it, rounded another corner, and looked up as the beeping around my neck started to get faster - there was a speaker hanging on the wall.

And after a point blank shot from the revolver, the speaker was nothing more than a few pieces of metal junk hanging on the wall. The beeping around my neck fell silent, and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. With any luck, any of the other speakers back here would be destroyed just as easily.

I backtracked slightly - back to the door with the star on it. This was Dean's dressing room, by the look of it. Maybe I'd find something useful in here - like another key. Maybe a way to shut down all the holograms, or the speakers.

As it happened, I did find a key after tearing apart most of the room - to what, I'm not sure. But that wasn't all I found. There was a safe built into the wall, right above his desk and next to one of those mirrors with the lights ringing the edges... but it hadn't been closed properly. It looked closed from a distance, but... I grabbed the edge, to see what was inside: a holotape. It wasn't marked. Feeling a tug of curiosity at the back of my head, I grabbed the tape, and plugged it into my Pip Boy. It contained an audio file.

"Pretty as a picture..." Dean's voice issued out of my Pip Boy's speaker. If this was recorded when I thought it was, then his voice had hardly changed from when he still had skin. That's when I heard another voice - a feminine voice that I'd heard enough of over the radio that it was unmistakable: Vera Keyes.

"Uh... Dean, I..." She sounded nervous. "I didn't hear you come in."

"I'm not wearing my dancing shoes, so I walk a little softly now," There was a strange sort of measured precision to his words - like he'd rehearsed them. "What, did you think I was a Chinaman? Come to cut your American throat?"

"Dean, really."

"What - no hug? Come here." There was that same faux-indignation I'd heard earlier.

"Dean, I'm getting ready." It sounded a little like Vera was trying to physically push him away, but I couldn't be sure. The background noises on the recording weren't distinct enough from the voices.

"You sing like a bird, pop the safe, and we're as through as through can be." Wait, 'pop the safe?' Was Dean... was he talking about...

"Dean... I just... about tonight, I... I don't know." There was a definite waver in Vera's words now.

"You don't know?" Dean asked, the venom in his words becoming more and more apparent. "I ask you for one... simple... favor... and you tell me 'no'?"

"I didn't say no," Vera blurted out, almost a little too fast... and then added "I just said that... I don't think..."

"You're right, you don't think," Dean growled. "I don't need you - I'll send you back to the farm, worse off than you were, because you'll have seen the Sierra Madre and had to let it all go." His voice was taking on a slightly dangerous sounding edge now. I was almost glad this was just audio, and there were no visuals to accompany it. "I could have gotten any leggy dame out of Hollywood to get out here and play Sinclair's heart strings. You just happened to be the one I caught, it was really your own fault. A little too much into the chems and meds, and..." Dean stopped abruptly, and I could hear faint sobbing in the background. "Aw, shh-shh-shh-shhh... Don't cry. Look, I'm not trying to hurt you. Just one last little job. A little less dirty, a little less messy... Remember: he trusts you, Vera. And so do I. After this, I promise you - all those other holotapes? They'll just go away."

There was a very long pause.

"O-of course, Dean," Vera finally said. The recording clicked, and the speaker on my Pip Boy went silent.

"Well now," I said, pulling the cord out of my Pip Boy. "This changes the landscape somewhat..." I had to move on. I made sure to grab the key, and kept the revolver in my hand - I had no idea how many more of those speakers were out there, and I wanted to be ready.

Beep.

Well, that didn't take long. I was in some kind of prop room... I think. Whatever it was, there was a whole load of junk everywhere, and a speaker on the far wall. And then... the speaker was gone. I checked the revolver to see how much ammo I still had left - three rounds left in the cylinder. Fuck. I need to find more ammo - especially for the holorifle. I still only had the two microfusion cells left for that...

I was just about to leave when I saw another blue glow - this time, it was coming from behind a nearby couch. Sure enough, there was another hologram emitter, which I made short work of disabling, like the first one. That made two. And if there were three holograms out there...

"At least this part of the casino feels more familiar..." I looked around, really starting to appreciate the fact that this was the first place in the actual casino that wasn't spotless. I started chuckling to myself softly. "Hell, maybe the hole in the wall back there is letting all the filth in. It's almost like I'm back in the real world again."

I followed the next short hallway, walking past a poster for something called "Love Sets Sail!" an old world movie with Vera Keyes. There were three doors I could take: one on my left, with a computer terminal next to it, one on my right, with a star on it, and one right in front of me at the end of the hall - which, if my sense of direction was still intact, led back into the rest of the theater.

"Well, this is familiar..." I said, trying to figure out which door I should take first. And in the end, I decided not to take any of them. At least, not at first: I went to the terminal mounted on the wall, find out what it was here for. After everything else I'd had to deal with, the security on this was practically non-existent, and before long I was in the network, and found something very, very useful: The Tampico's 'performance protocols.'

"Hmm... let's see here..." I started talking out loud as I tried to work my way through the computer. "The system is currently set to 'preparations,' and that's turned the sentries on, the ambient audio system on, and the stage audio off... I wonder..." A few keystrokes later, and I'd turned off all the remaining speakers in the theater. I wasn't able to turn off the holograms completely; there was an override in the system that I couldn't turn off, which meant the only way to turn off security...

"... is to start the show. Hang on... what is that... 'please find copy of Dean Domino's 'I Saw Her Yesterday' and deliver to projectionist in the booth.' Hmm..." I stepped back from the computer, and turned to face the door with the star - Vera Keyes' dressing room. I tried the door handle. Locked. No surprise there. I tried the key I found in Dean's dressing room... and wouldn't you know it, it fit. How about that.

Dean's dressing room hardly had anything cluttering it up, but Vera's room... it was an absolute mess. There was clothing everywhere, draped over almost everything. There was a radio in the corner, but it looked like it had exploded from the inside. Every once in a while, I'd seen an empty syringe - they were empty Med-X, mostly, and at least one depleted Super Stimpack. And then, in one of the drawers in the desk beneath her mirror, I found a holotape, with a simple label: "I Saw Her Yesterday."

Okay. That's taken care of... now. How am I going to get this to the back of the theater?

Very cautiously, I opened the door that led back into the rest of the theater. I peered out through the crack - and saw that one of the speakers which had been glowing red now had no lights at all. Good, so my finagling the computer system had actually worked. Good to know. I tried to find the holograms... I couldn't see any of th- wait, there's one. In fact... it was the only one I could see. Right at the back of the theater. The other two were conspicuously absent.

If only I'd been able to find a stealth boy, I thought to myself as I slipped out of the door and into the nearest cover I could find. So far, the hologram hadn't noticed me - it was walking back and forth along the back wall of the theater, near the bar. Above it, I could see a projection booth, and a set of stairs along the back wall that led up there - if I was lucky.

I think I got about halfway - maybe three-fourths, if I'm being generous - before the hologram spotted me. I heard an electric fizzle in the air behind me - the same I always heard when the holograms had spotted someone - and the light spilling on the wall abruptly switched from blue to yellow.

"Fuck it!" I yelled, abandoning all pretense of stealth, and started running for the stairs as fast as I could. "Roll the dice!" I vaulted the railing, and poured on the speed. By the time I reached the base of the stairs, the light behind me had switched from yellow to red. C'mon you sonofabitch, move! Move, before you-

FZZT!

I didn't see it, but a laser cut through the air. I know this, because it clipped me in the side of my torso. I lost my balance, spun around in the air, and my back hit the wall as I fell onto the landing on my side. I'm sure I let out a loud and violent expletive as well, but I can't quite remember what was said. What I do know is that I managed to think through the pain long enough to see the hologram on the far side of the theater start charging up another shot. I pushed off the adjacent wall with my feet as hard as I could; I slid along the floor, and straight into the opposite wall, just as another laser blast sliced through the air where I'd been lying seconds before.

"S-sonuva... bitch..." I breathed through gritted teeth, clutching my side and trying to scramble to my feet. I didn't know if a stimpack would do anything to my side. See, when they don't disintegrate people, laser beams have the nasty habit of leaving a smoking, cauterized, completely fused wound. On the plus side, I wouldn't die of blood loss... on the down side, I'd probably have to cut away the fused flesh before I tried healing it with any kind of chems. And no matter which way you spin it... that was going to hurt.

I climbed up the stairs, clutching my side with one hand and the holotape in the other. The projection booth was small, but overlooked the whole theater; I looked over the railing, and saw the security hologram that had shot me walking back and forth right below the projection booth, acting as if nothing had happened.

"Guard's don't look up," I said with a smirk.

As soon as I popped the holotape into the projector, everything around the theater changed. Spotlights all around the theater lit up the stage, and the ceiling was lit up like the night sky with dozens of tiny lights. The hologram directly below me fizzled away, but then more appeared. At first I thought something had gone wrong, and more security holograms were on their way, but when I looked closer, I realized... it was something else entirely.

All around the theater, I saw several holograms of men and women in what looked like expensive pre-war outfits sitting at tables, or dancing with each other on empty spaces on the floor. On stage, I saw a holographic man in a tux and sunglasses, swaying at the microphone stand in the center of the room, with a holographic band behind him. Music was coming from... somewhere.

I walked through the room, and all the holograms seemed to ignore me; their attention was fixed on the holographic Dean Domino singing on stage. I pulled the holorifle off my back, and made my way back to the only door I hadn't checked - the door that led backstage. With any luck, I wouldn't have to kill Dean, but... frankly, the chances of that were looking incredibly slim. Even with VATS, I probably wouldn't be able to kill him in one hit if I used the revolver, and if I used the spear or the knife on my belt I'd have to get closer than I think he'd let me.

I just had to make sure I didn't miss. I only had two shot left with the holorifle...

When I came to the door, part of me wanted to open the door slowly, try and take him down with stealth... but Dean was probably ready for me. He was probably watching the door with a gun drawn, and as soon as it started moving, he'd shoot through the door before I was finished. So instead I readied the rifle and kicked down the door. He was inside, standing at the top of some stairs, with his pistol drawn.

"Drop the gun, Dean," I gave him the same voice as I used on Dog to try and distract him, maybe give me an opening - or maybe get us both out of here alive. Who knows? "It's over."

"All right, you're resourceful, I'll give you that." Dean tried to maintain his composure as the two of us continued our Mexican standoff. "But it's going to take a lot more than juggling keys and shooting speakers to stop me. As I see it? All I need to do is kill you, then make a run for the exit. You do the same, you'll be clawing at the lock until your head blows off. So... maybe you and I should have a little chat - just like we did when you first waltzed into town."

"Alright..." I said, not even thinking of lowering the rifle. "Maybe we should start with that tape I found in your dressing room." Dean looked annoyed.

"You just don't stop robbing casinos, do you?" He shook his head at me, obviously unaware of the hypocrisy. "What about it? Do you want me to give you a standing ovation for being so... 'clever' then?"

"Why were you blackmailing Vera Keyes to break into the Sierra Madre?" I asked.

"Blackmail is such a strong word, isn't it? I asked her, and she said yes. But then... she started to get cold feet. Personally, I blame Sinclair... he was such a victim, that maybe she felt it would be too easy. It doesn't matter."

"But what did you want her to do?" I knew she was important, but I couldn't figure out exactly why...

"Sinclair built this whole town to accommodate her. Same with the casino's voice lock. He wanted to make sure she had access to everything. And since I already had access to Vera... well, that meant I had access to the vault, too."

Wait, hang on. Voice lock? Was that... I had to find out more. I'm just glad Dean loved to hear himself talk so much. Longer he talked, the more likely it was that he was going to say something I could use against him.

"So... what were you blackmailing her with?" Dean started laughing.

"What wasn't I blackmailing her with? Chem use, indiscretions, more chem use... the usual Hollywood tune. Like Sinclair, people are the architects of their own misfortunes. Leave themselves wide open for someone to waltz right in and take what they want... as long as they take a single step into the trap. Get a few pictures, get a little dirt... and that person's your piano. Vera? Med-X was her thing. Even superstimmed herself for the after-rush."

"So, why did you need her?"

"Because she could get closer to Sinclair than I ever could. He built this place for her... well, after the two 'chanced' to meet. Sinclair was already puppy-eyed, so all I had to do was the introductions. She smiled, fluttered her eyes, showed a little leg... and he built this place for her. Even made her the key to his vault, like a joke... because of her name." Dean voice went low, and he growled: "Her fake Hollywood name." He cleared his throat and continued. "Except Sinclair didn't know I'd been there first. I could twist her whatever direction I wanted. All she had to do was get inside the Sierra Madre for the Gala, then use her voice to open the door. After that... smooth sailing. Would have been the biggest heist in history. Sinclair left holding the bag."

"So what happened?" I asked. Dean scoffed.

"The Bomb. Vera got sealed in here. A few hundred years go by, give-or-take. Almost the end of the story... I waited an entire lifetime, sitting in that Villa, watching it fall apart. Sinclair's Sierra Madre towering over everything - untouched! Then you come along. You and the old man, thinking you can just take it all from me. I planned all this, I made it all happen - not you! Now, I'm going to finish the job. Rob the Sierra Madre, rip out it's heart... last chapter of Frederick Sinclair, close the book..."

"Why?" I asked. Dean seemed taken aback by the question.

"I'm sorry? What do you mean, why?"

"Why go to all this trouble? I mean... it's been centuries. What was your problem with Sinclair, anyway?"

"Problem?" Dean acted insulted. Honestly, I couldn't tell if he was being genuine or not. "All high-and-mighty, that was my problem. Lording it over everyone. Acting so self-righteous, like nothing could touch him. He was the one with the problem. Never got mad at anything. Nothing seemed to shake him. Even after..." Dean grimaced, like he was trying to keep from frothing with rage. "Even after his life kept getting dragged through the dirt! Always kept looking for the bright, shining future in everything! So... I decided to take everything from him."

"But... that doesn't... what did he even do to you?"

"Do to me? Weren't you listening? He thought he was better than me. Look around!" He started waving around with his free hand; I hoped that he would get carried away and point his gun away from me, but no such luck. "This big casino, this big colossal monument - do you really think it was for some woman? Some vacuous, leggy dame? No... no, this place is all ego, all self-righteous-in-lights, fit him perfect. Had to take him down a few pegs... bring him down to my level. 'Begin again?' Some things you don't get up from... and I was going to prove it."

"Look, forget Sinclair. Even if Vera was the key, she's dead." Maybe I could still convince him to back down... but no. Dean just smirked. He must have something else up his sleeve.

"I only saw her yesterday... well... a few yesterdays. I didn't get to where I am by not being prepared. The one who makes all the hand signs, a little tight around the corners of her mouth? I was the one who put her in the Clinic. Tuned her like an instrument. If she heals up, it's not going to be her voice speaking any more. That is... if the Sierra Madre didn't get to her. If it did, well... I'm sure there's more than enough of Vera around for me to spend a few years piecing a book together."

Son of a bitch. So that's why Elijah wants to unlock the sound archives - he's trying to rebuild Vera's voice to open the vault!

"And if she's alive?" I asked.

"Then she can make some beautiful music... but I'm not a betting man. So I'm not banking on it. The long and short of it - all I have to do is piece together little Miss Vera Keyes' song in the right order, and the Sierra Madre will open it's legs... and I'm in business."

"Yeah... you're right. You're not a betting man. But I am. And I'm betting you have the key to the exit on you. Am I right?" Dean frowned.

"Lucky guess... You sure are a piece of work, I'll give you that. Always asking questions when you should be shooting... Next time you get a chance to kill someone, don't hesi-"

CLUNK!

The holorifle cubes hit Dean square in the chest and knocked him back, launching him into the back wall with a crack and a thud. He was lying there at the top of the stairs, with blue holographic cubes coming off him like smoke.

"Good advice," I said, walking up the stairs. My collar hadn't started beeping yet. Was he still alive? When I got to the top of the stairs, the holographic cubes had disappeared. He was still holding onto his pistol, but just barely. I stepped on his wrist, and the gun fell to the ground with a clatter.

"Th-this... isn't..." Dean was having trouble talking, and frankly, I couldn't blame him - his chest looked like it had been hit with a sledgehammer, and blood was leaking out of every orifice on his face. "... how it's s...s...supposed to... e-end..."

I knelt down over him and punched him really hard in the middle of his face. I heard a sharp crack of bone under my knuckles, his sunglasses shattered, and his whole body went limp. I reached into his jacket, and there in the top pocket was the key.

Beep.

Right, time to go. I grabbed all I needed from the inside of his jacket, and started running. I practically vaulted down the stairs, and ran through the theater, trying to avoid all the holograms.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I got to the door, twisted the key in the lock, and shoved the door open with my shoulder when the lock clicked. I kept running, jumping over the counter and practically launched myself at the elevator door.

When I hit the button, the beeping kept getting faster... the doors of the elevator opened agonizingly slow.

Beep-beep-beep-beep

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" I said, grabbing at the doors and trying to get them open. When it was wide enough to slip through, I threw myself into the elevator, hit the button for the lobby, and held down the 'door close' button.

Beepbeepbeepbeepbe-

As soon as the doors shut, the beeping around my neck stopped... and thankfully, wasn't replaced with an explosion. I let out a sigh of relief, and leaned against the back wall of the elevator, sliding down until I was sitting on the floor.

I looked down at my hands. I'd left the key to open the door in the lock, but that wasn't the only thing I'd stolen from Dean's jacket: in my right hand, I had a packet of cigarettes, and in my left, his lighter. I opened the packet of smokes, grabbing one with my mouth, and flicking the zippo open.

"Guess that's your last curtain call, Dean." I said to myself, lighting the cigarette and snapping the lighter shut. "Hope it was worth it."