"Bang!"

A rope net spreads out, trapping a small beetle.

The beetle jumped up and down inside, and after a while, as if in anger, suddenly a dazzling blue light flashed all over its body, and the net burned into smoke.

"Crackling!"

The arc spawned out of thin air, but it had no effect, the net was shot from Andy's riot weapon, and what he had obtained from Dog City in the first place, the electric beetle's electric shock was not enough to destroy it.

"You'd better stop a bit."

Andy lifted it up and threw it into a plastic bucket and fastened the lid, there were several electric beetles in it, these guys were not difficult to catch, they used some ash puff fruit from the edge of Burnham Spring and threw it into the water to cook, mixed some candy into it, put it into a large pot and kept stirring it to give off the smell, they gradually couldn't keep themselves close, and after ingesting the soup, they were weak because of the anesthetic in it, and even the electricity emitted was seriously weakened.

Carrying the plastic bucket back to Frank and the others' house, Frank took the plastic bucket full of electric beetles and walked to the room inside, ready to start making the worms into biological batteries.

Phil walked over with a couple of boxes of .45 bullets and some treatment needles.

"These are all rewards for helping us out, we don't have much to scratch... A few of them are hand-loaded from recycled shells, I hope you don't dislike them. ”

Andy took out a few bullets from the most broken box, it really didn't look very professional, this was actually the bullets that Phil and his own recycled and made, it was amazing.

"How do you make them?"

Phil took out some small machining objects and pointed to a homemade machine tool on the side.

"We would make our own gunpowder from minerals from Burnham Springs, and then we would recycle the spent shells or exchange the trash for some shells from the occasional passing merchant, and we would melt the lead over a campfire and cast it into a bullet, and then we would take it to this and hammer the primer into it with a little wooden hammer... Hand reloading, it's just reloaded with bare hands. ”

Andy looked at the rough warhead in front of him and couldn't help but be a little suspicious, lead cast warhead?

"Uh... IMHO, have you ever had a safety problem with the use of these munitions? ”

Phil smiled awkwardly.

"In the beginning, well, it was there at first, but it didn't go wrong. Sparky was the first to teach us this craft, and the Explosives Gang was blocked by the NcR sanctions, so the explosives and bullets they used were all made themselves... After a long time, my craft has also improved, at least it can be used normally, although the power... Naturally, there is no possibility that there are pre-war relics and those made by professionals. ”

Andy put away the bullet suspiciously.

"Well, thank you Phil, if only I could help you. But I still have to say what I told Frank again, Burnham Springs is not a good place, you have enough bottle caps to get out of here as soon as possible and live in a better place, not to mention anything else, you don't have Frank's physique, you can't stand the pollution here. ”

Phil smiled but didn't say anything, just nodded slightly.

Sparky seemed to be in a much better condition, crouching alone in a corner not far away, tinkering with something.

"Do you have any questions now?"

Andy felt that the matter at Burnham Springs was almost over now, and that he should consider whether to head northeast and return to the Great Dome to deliver the data canister to the scientists, or go south to the Hoover Dam first to hand over the newly arrived data evidence to Mayor Dodge and let him decide what to do with it.

"Nothing else is fine... But the beasts began to multiply again. ”

Andy looked at him in surprise.

"Those lizards have almost been killed, could it be that they have reproduced in just a few days?"

Phil shook his head.

"It's not a lizard, it's a scorpion... In the past, these bugs and lizards were mortal enemies, and they looked at each other as food, so their numbers were relatively balanced. A while ago, the number of lizards exceeded the number of scorpions by a lot, so the flood began to attack us, and after you killed them, those scorpions had a living space again, and they all came out of the ground and ran rampant, hey... It's endless. ”

Andy pondered that it was better to finish the matter anyway.

"Is there anything you can do to get rid of them? Like the lizards you did before. ”

Phil looked puzzled by this, and pouted.

"Traps almost make no sense to these bugs, these scorpions seem to be... Vegetarian, and they are all underground, ordinary baits can't attract them, and even if they attract traps, they can't be triggered normally. ”

Andy also found it tricky, so he had to leave after a few simple goodbyes.

....................

After thinking about it, Andy still decided to go back to the Hoover Dam first, after all, Dr. Goddard said before that ZAx is still close to three months away from the collapse, and now a month has not passed, so it should not be in a hurry, and the Dodge Mayor is probably more urgent, after all, the people from the National Anti-Terrorism Bureau are walking around the Hoover Dam every day, and it is better to go back to Burnham Springs first.

The Atomic Humvee kicked up a puff of sand and headed for the Hoover Dam at full speed.

Frank pulled out a few bottles of aged coolant from a hidden storage spot and gave it to him, looking at the label as if it was a pre-war relic, which did provide some help, and he should go back to Dog City to see how the salvage workers were doing when he had time, and maybe take care of the car or something....

On the way, Andy took a distant look at the fort of Ashid, where a high wall had been built, and there were more horses and sentry posts at the gates, and groups of NcR soldiers roamed the neighborhood in full armor, supervising the passing trains on the two railroad tracks, and patrols had set up checkpoints on the perimeter to guard against marauders.

The NcR recaptured the fortress of Alashid, the heart of the Eastern SAR.

He also deliberately took a circle to see the large crater left by the explosion of Tibbetts prison from a distance.

Eventually, Andy, deciding not to waste any more time, headed straight for the Hoover Dam.

After entering the city of Hoover Dam, the people in the streets and alleys were talking, Andy was a little confused, so he just wanted to ask a citizen to inquire, but he was surprised to see the gentleman's hat of the Crimson Caravan and several guards of the Crimson Caravan walking through the street.

As soon as he saw Andy, he immediately burst out laughing.

"Isn't this our hero! Welcome home! ”

Andy frowned and looked at this beer-bellied greasy man, wasn't this guy arrested before? He was arrested and interrogated by the military police during the bomb planting, and has confessed that he had gone to the designated area at the behest of McClavdie, the manager of the Crimson Caravan branch, and that his actions had seriously endangered the public safety of the city of Hoover Dam.

Now, he has regained his freedom in such a big way, but it has only been a few months.

"You've been released?"

The gentleman's hat nodded rightly.

"That's nature! I have not committed any crime at all, so why should I be arrested? It's not just me, our entire Crimson Caravan has been wronged, and all of them have been lifted! ”

Andy didn't know what to say for a while, although he was talking nonsense at this time, but what he said was probably officially recognized by the NcR, otherwise why would he appear openly?

"Does Mayor Dodge really think so?"

The gentleman's hat glanced at the people around him a few times, and laughed again.

"How long the hell has it been since you've been back to Hoover Dam? Joseph Dodge, he's not mayor anymore! ”

Then, he added it with a gloomy face.

"Not only that, but the National Counter-Terrorism Agency is investigating the wrong things he has done in the past, and it won't be long before he will be in Black Canyon Prison to serve his sentence, I can't imagine how funny that scene is."

Andy could barely believe his ears, the Dodge mayor was removed?

Several members of the Crimson Caravan walked away arrogantly, Andy immediately walked to the top of the dam to the west, and saw that the building of the Crimson Caravan Company had returned to its former prosperity, and the policemen who were watching at the gate were gone, replaced by the guards and merchants of the past, and the gentleman's hat was right, the Crimson Caravan was completely unrestricted.

He grabbed a passerby, who saw that it was Andy who did not refuse his inquiry.

"It's you, what's the matter?"

Andy then asked him about the recent developments at the Hoover Dam.

The passer-by also looked worried.

"The situation is not very good, when the local army returned to the Eastern Special Administrative Region, we all wholeheartedly welcomed it, thinking that good days were ahead... Now, though neither the Brotherhood of Steel nor the Marauders dare to come near here to do anything wrong, all the lost lands have been reclaimed; However, with the Hoover Dam prices skyrocketing, the taxes to be paid, and the fact that there is no way to increase our income, how do I feel that my life is even more miserable and tiring than before? ”

He pointed to the Crimson Caravan's company building.

"McClavdie's people monopolized the market again, on the contrary, the Three Brothers Caravan Company was investigated, and I heard that even the store was closed because of crime and violence."

Andy was shocked again, the three brothers caravan had only been a few days before falling into the abyss again?

"That's... I've heard Mayor Dodge..."

The passerby sighed.

"I don't understand what happened, it is said that the mayor of Dodge was determined to be mainly responsible for the 370 robbery, the Bull Head City tragedy and the Eagle Rock incident, and he also caused the escape of Black Canyon Prison during his time as the warden, and committed serious negligence, so he was suspended during the investigation of the task force."

Andy scratched at his hair, only to feel that his understanding of the world had been turned upside down.

"Why? Who found Crimson Caravan and McClofty innocent? Who found the Three Brothers Caravan and the Dodge Mayor guilty? ”

Passers-by whispered to Andy.

"National Anti-Terrorism Agency."

................

Mayor Dodge is sitting in his office, the door guarded by two Counter-Terrorism Agency agents, and he is effectively under house arrest after being temporarily suspended, how is this different from a prisoner who has been arrested and released on bail awaiting the judge's final verdict? This realization made him sigh and look at the investigation report in his hand.

Unexpectedly, after holding on to the Eastern Special Administrative Region for so many years and working hard for so many years, the first thing that came to him after the local finally restored contact was not good news, but a series of special investigation teams against him.

He had read the report four or five times, and every time he saw it, he couldn't help but feel depressed and unable to continue, but after a while, because he was bored, he picked it up again and read it from the beginning. The National Counter-Terrorism Agency deserves to be a professional national investigative agency, and without any resistance, even if those past events have passed for many years, they will not be delayed in finding the clue, and the investigation report lists the wrong and stupid things that Mayor Dodge did back then, fully demonstrating his stupidity.

Such a report may be submitted to the NcR Congress and other dignitaries later, and it will inevitably continue to spread to all high-level people in the NcR country, which can be called a public execution, not to mention what people will think after reading it, which will naturally cut off his way back to China, and behead his political life with a knife.

But the merciless exposure and humiliation, as well as the doomed retirement life in the future, are not the most heart-wrenching for Mayor Dodge, what is most painful for him at the moment is that there is obviously a strong malicious bias in this investigation report, which seems to negate all his contributions and achievements in the Eastern Special Administrative Region for many years, in order to completely brand him into a worthless and useless garbage man at once.

He knows why, President Tibbert's resignation has made everything happen naturally, and if he wants to ask President Tibbette why he stepped down, he has to pursue the Niutoucheng tragedy that was violently hyped up by the local media after the Eastern SAR happened, which happened in the area under his rule, which has nothing to do with him, the supreme chief executive of the Eastern Special Administrative Region, so is this self-inflicted? But Mayor Dodger, who had been sitting here and reviewing it several times in his head, found in despair that even if he did it again, he couldn't do better under the circumstances.

Maybe someone can break this game, but with his ability, he is destined not to do it.

When he was first forcibly sent to the Eastern District, Congressman Dodge was a notoriously incompetent fool, and after so many years, he became the mayor of Dodge who was loved by the people, but today someone once again gave him the title of incompetent fool, and unreasonably raised his hand to weld this big black hat to his head.

Mayor Dodge's eyes were red as he thought about it, and he hurriedly rubbed his eyes before crying, because there was a sound of footsteps outside.

An agent in a suit walked in, holding a box of bland meals.

"Mr. Dodge, resisting the investigation will not gain you any good, sign the confession and confession as soon as possible, and don't continue to waste everyone's time."

Mayor Dodge didn't say a word, just took the meal and began to eat.

The agent shook his head, stood aside and began to look at his watch.

Mayor Dodge suddenly felt a sinking in his legs while eating, he fixed his eyes, and at some point a stack of documents in a folder appeared there, he looked left and right in surprise, and then looked up at the agent standing not far away, sure that no third person had entered the room, what was going on...

He thought for a moment, and suddenly thought of a possibility, so he quickly and quietly hid the documents under the cabinet.

After a few minutes, the agent came over and forcibly took the remaining food and closed the door.

Mayor Dodge waited for the footsteps to disappear and quickly pulled the file out, and saw that there was a small letter on it, which mentioned the recent situation in Burnham Springs.

He opened the folder again and looked at the documents inside, one by one.

Mayor Dodge finally put down the papers in his hand, whispered a word into the air, and then put it close to his body and ran to the door and knocked on the door.

"Have you changed your mind?"

The agent outside the door responded lazily.

"If I just protest that the food is not delicious and not enough to eat, I can't help it."

Mayor Dodge shouted at him through the crack in the door.

"Less nonsense! You! I have important things to say to your deputy director! Immediately! Right now! Tell him that if he refuses to talk to me face to face, he won't want to see the consequences! ”

Shortly after the agent reports, Colemans, the old man in a crisp suit, walks in.

"What do you want to tell me? Joseph Dodge, the investigation into you has been completed, you are even more incompetent than I thought, and the trust that Congress placed in you in the first place has been proven by me to be a grave mistake, of course... Given that you are the first official elected by the president to be removed by a vote of no confidence in Congress since the founding of the NcR, this is normal, so sign your guilty plea and go back to your hometown in New California to farm, and save yourself some dignity. ”

The tall and thin old man said this mercilessly, but the Dodge Mayor slowly took out the papers.

"I didn't want to take out this, but you really did it so badly, you forced me, see for yourself, there is more than one such thing, if I want, they will be scattered."

Colemans took it and looked at it suspiciously for a moment, his expression gradually stiffening.

"It's... Where did you come up with all this stuff! ”

Mayor Dodge pretended to be unfathomable.

"Do you think I've been here for nothing for so many years? Take a closer look at the content inside, which one is made up? ”

Colemans slowly lowered the papers in his hand and stared at the Dodge Mayor in front of him with a new gaze.

"Okay, it looks like I'm really underestimating you, but so what? If this thing is spread out in New California, and we don't even need to do it, someone will put it down. ”

Mayor Dodge shook his head and looked at him fearlessly.

"If you press down, you will be pressed down, but what good fruit will you eat? Face is face, mistake is mistake, these are two different things, you make a big mistake, and... Is it really only this time? ”

Colemans tossed the papers onto the table and pulled a chair across from the Dodge Mayor.

"Okay, you're good, Joseph Dodge, let's talk about how we can shut you up about this."

Mayor Dodge grabbed the report and threw it into a ball of paper.

"This thing will be revoked immediately, and if you want to deal with me, come up with some dignified means, what kind of ability is the shady internal investigation? You don't even dare to mention the cause and effect in the investigation report, just talk about the gold lost in the 370 robbery and the escape from the Black Canyon prison, not to mention why those railway workers dared to rob the criminals; It only talks about the ineffective handling of Bull City and Burnham Springs, but does not mention why there is a shortage of troops. ”

"These illegal transfers of financial resources and troops are the root cause of these tragedies, and without my hard work here, the Eastern Special Administrative Region would have been finished long ago!"

Colemans was silent for a long time, until his cigarette was about to burn out.

"Yes."

He removed the cigarette butt and threw it into the ashtray.

"But don't think you're at ease, Joseph Dodge, we'll have to keep going in the future."