The Courier did not go up to the tower, but watched from the ground as Yes Man cheerfully hurled a struggling General Oliver to his doom in the waters below. Some say he was smoking a cigarette at the time.

When Yes Man rolled back to him, he ground it out under his heel. "We done here?"

"We sure are!" the robot intoned brightly. "You did a great jo-o-ob."

His voice wavered on that last word, slid down a few pitches, and trailed off as his flickering smile blinked out. . .

And was replaced by a familiar visage.

It was said afterward that the Courier turned ghost-pale, though whether anyone was actually close enough to see his face is questionable.

"You of all people." If House's static image could've shaken its head, it would have. "I wouldn't have expected most people to figure it out, of course, but you've been to Big Mountain. I must confess, I'm a bit disappointed. Did you never consider that I would've achieved - and in fact surpassed - the advances of the Think Tank in two hundred years? Did you imagine that with such technology available, I would be yet content to languish in my mortal husk? Arrogance blinds intelligence, I suppose. It's a pity, Courier, you could've been so much more, and it seems to me there is nothing more tragic than wasted potential. . ."

By all accounts the Courier tried to speak but looked as though there was something wrong with his jaw.

His hand moved to his weapon, and House chuckled. "But seeing as you really believed I'd survived for two centuries with a security system so flawed a single maniac with a pulse rifle could launch a successful assassination. . . it's clear what you possess in intelligence, you lack in critical thinking. Or perhaps you're simply lazy. Tell me, is there a single aspect of your 'plan' that you came up with yourself, or did you steal it part and parcel from Benny - who, if I may remind you, has also been markedly unsuccessful in his attempts to eliminate people?"

The Courier managed to speak this time. "You think I made it this far and I won't finish it? I'll find you. I'll-"

"Have you been listening? There is no 'me' to find. I've completed the upgrades. I am now completely interfaced. Securitrons, remove the Courier." House chuckled again. "It's not necessary for me to say that out loud, of course, but I thought you might appreciate it."

Stories diverge after that. Some say the Securitrons threw the Courier off the Dam; some say they simply gunned him down; less reliable sources insist he escaped and headed north up the Colorado.

But everyone present on the Strip remembers what happened there.

It was already a good deal quieter than usual, lacking the throngs of NCR troopers and loosely populated with nervous squatters and well-to-do locals. Still, the brief dead silence that swept over the Strip was unprecedented, though it quickly gave way to anxious murmuring, as every eye turned to the Securitrons - specifically, their monitors, on which one and all had appeared the face of Robert Edwin House.