A fitting end. I liked the juxtaposition between Benny's yammering on the hill and Pasternak's more utilitarian and dramatic conciseness. Great detail with the increased body-heat ghouls would suffer in the desert as the rads burned off the upper layers of their skin and the sweat glands. The return to the main narration from the flashback was a little bit weird, in that it almost seems Pasternak told the events again to the bound Benny before shooting him. Gotta tip my hat at Benny's craftiness too with the contact poison as well: to act that quickly on a ghoul, that must be some powerful shit. I wonder however how whomever handed the bottle to Pasternak didn't get affected.

From what Jazz says, Pasternak also has, or had, a number of spies, and by the looks of things indeed, life expectancy under him isn't that great, especially if Vulpes and his people are actively gunning for them. Speaking of Inculta, nice little back-and-forth there, foretelling things to come. A sort of alea-iacta-est to a war in the shadows of the main conflict: I'm looking forward to see the moves and countermoves in this 3D chess-game. Nice detail with Vulpes appearing out-of-place in his business suit too: that makes sense and takes the character down a peg too.

Sincerely,
Alexeij

damn this Courier has balls of fucking steel

Pasternak sure is a real piece of work, manipulation is only gonna work for so long. Still interesting how he once worked with Benny like that but made sense he betrayed him, he always was a snake that one.

Jazz I gotta wonder what Pasternak has that made her agree to the job? There’s gotta be more then just money there and fact she mentioned those two certainly leaves thoughts to wonder.

Anywho, nicely done, flashback was pretty well done, curious to see where this goes. Good luck, till next time.
PAR KOTE BAL IJAAT BE MAND’ALOR!

You grabbed my interest with this Ghoul Courier, I believe its never been done before, I;m very curious on what kind of plans he was making with Benny and what led to the Grease head to betray his own partner.

I agree with Able, I can see this going places. The standard image of the Courier is turned on its head already: rather than being an underdog thrust into a game bigger than themselves and rising to the challenge, Russell is a character who already has extensive history, resources, and experience. Turns out, he's also a troll, but Benny walked into the trap cocl first and brains last: it felt a bit forced here and there, though I believe the lived drink also had a part to play in his impaired judgement.

I really like the idea hinted here that he and Benny were partners in backstabbing House, before Benny flipped the rug under Russell's feet to keep the whole pie for himself. I'm also intrigued as to how Benny actually managed it: can't really believe Russell actually trusted him.

Anyway, I'm very eager to see how and if you'll expand this into a larger narrative beyond Benny's creative fate. A more mastermind-planner Courier with his own organization rifbt from the start, rather than as a consequence of the political dog-eat-dog of the Mojave, is a breath of fresh air. Keep going.

Sincerely,
Alexeij

I won't lie, this is probably my favorite thing written by you. I could see this going places, very entertaining places. I really liked what I saw from Russell and what he eluded to in his past. Something tells me he wasn't a very good boy in the Pre-War and I doubt much has changed. The way he states his name as if it should be something to cower from leaves me to believe that he is a well-known person, or at least feels should be.

I liked Jazz as well, she's clearly the subordinate in all of this and Russell is the boss judging by the way she said "The Big Guy" so that makes me wonder what he could have done to gain her loyalty since I doubt she was present before his run-in with Benny.

Speaking of the Ben-Man I do have some issue with the way the trap-was being foreshadowed. It felt a little heavy-handed with all the statements about how he shouldn't be taking this risk as it straight up says "THIS IS A BAD IDEA! LIKE ITS A TRAP!" when I feel like it's just better if you let people think about that for themselves. Also, the things that tipped him off were odd like her usage of the word charlies and Ben-Man, like I get he's paranoid but if something that minor is the switch-flipper he wouldn't have gone up there. Horny or not. Not to mention that even though it was a trap she would have no way of knowing that he says these things unless he had said them when he and Russell had business. And then there's the underwear which is a silly thought process on his part, "What's this? Black underwear? I love black underwear. This is toooooo convenient."

Despite all that you have a solid introductory chapter and I look forward to more.

oooh this is gonna be good :)

You almost had me there that Jazz was the Courier, then I remembered Russell there. Very clever and cunning on his part, really shows how intelligent and observant he is of his targets, here showed he was aware of Benny's weakness towards women.

Very curious to see where else this goes. I am wondering the kind of nature of partnership between Russell and House is in this case? They seem have similar but fairly different personalities.

Anyway, good work. Good luck, till next time.
PAR KOTE BAL IJAAT BE MAND'ALOR!