Alex pauses, waits a moment. Then starts. "...It's a four-man job. Always was. Elijah tried it before, a few times. Most got killed. Or killed each other out of greed. The last group almost did it, but instead he got caught in the casino, trapped there--so close to everything but not close enough. And now, locked in there, he couldn't communicate with his slave."

Here, here is where Neil would note changes. In the subtle tones of affection that move through Alex's voice, usually only heard with ED-E, Boone--and to a greater extent, Neil himself.

"...He was a nightkin that had been close to the Master. And broken and devastated after the Master fell. Elijah--" Spit with hate. "Manipulated him. Used him. Took the Master's place. Trained the nightkin to do the shit work--and the grunt work. He grabbed everyone who fell into those traps and attached bomb collars around their neck."

Which made Alex and the nightkin. Two. "Plus there was the ghoul already there." The third. And a final fourth. The affection returns, with a strange combination of pride and protectiveness.

"And a woman from the Brotherhood's inner circle, who had been following Elijah, hounding him, to put him down. She survived torture, brain surgery, and kept going. He took something from her. Something she could never get back. So at least she would make this right."

Christine.

"It still would have been worthless, and we would have just been stuck there without a clue, except I had a PipBoy. And Elijah hacked it to give us commands. Threaten us. Let us know our true value." Pieces of shit, of course. "And warn us of all of the bomb activation spots. Which was nice." Right.

"Proximity detonators," he explained. "That were, of course, everywhere we needed to go."