You Can Depend on Me

You Can Depend on Me is a side quest in Fallout: New Vegas.

Detailed walkthrough

 * Speak with Alice McLafferty at the Crimson Caravan Company to begin the quest.
 * Deliver the invoice to Dr. Hildern. He can be found in the Camp McCarran terminal building on the ground floor. Talking with him the first time, he may just initiate the quest There Stands the Grass. Talking to him again, there will be a dialogue option to deliver the invoice.
 * Complete the following objectives in any order:
 * Buy out Cass's contract. Speak with her at Mojave Outpost, at the bar. This objective can be completed via a variety of skill checks and will be rewarded with 500 caps and NCR fame on quest completion regardless of which option is selected. Completion of this part of the quest also makes her recruitable as a companion. Can You Find it in Your Heart must be completed or Ranger Jackson must be removed by means of an undetected kill. (Otherwise, killing Cass with a silenced weapon while staying hidden will complete this part of the quest, but will not net any payment.)
 * Barter check of 50 requires one to pay her 750 caps.
 * Barter check of 75 requires one to bring her 12 whiskey.
 * Both Speech checks (50 and 75) require no payment.
 * Jamison needs to be convinced to quit his job. He can be found at the Atomic Wrangler Casino at a slot machine by the bar. Upon quest completion one will be rewarded with caps and NCR fame.
 * With a high enough reputation with the NCR, he can be convinced without any skill checks, this results in receiving 500 caps.
 * He can be convinced without having NCR reputation, without any skill checks, which results in receiving 300 caps.
 * Passing a Barter check (50) here will increase the amount to 400 caps.
 * He can be convinced by using a Speech check (50), which results in receiving 500 caps.
 * He can be killed with a silenced weapon while staying undetected, this results in receiving 150 caps.
 * Acquire the Gun Runners' secret manufacturing specifications. A high Sneak skill or use of a Stealth Boy is recommendable to get in and out without being noticed. The full reward for this quest are 500 caps. Note that this part of the quest is optional and can be skipped with no negative side-effects.
 * Pick the average lock at the gate. Make sure to stay hidden. Head to the front door, then all the way to the back of the building. Grab the information off the computer terminal to the right of the room, and head back out again. Make sure to remain hidden or else the guards might start hostilities.
 * There is a shift change sometime between 10pm and 11pm (while the gun smiths are conveniently asleep), during which the player character can follow a guard through the locked gate. The guard will leave the door unattended briefly to patrol the compound. By moving quickly and quietly, the building can be entered, the data retrieved, and the compound exited before the guard returns to his post. At this point, the gunsmiths may still be awake. In this case, waiting until around 6 am is recommendable, as the gunsmiths will go to sleep at this time.

Behind the scenes
"You Can Depend on Me" is a 1961 single by Brenda Lee, it was featured a year later on her album "Brenda, That's All".

Bugs

 * Sometimes Henry Jamison may have no dialogue options, just "bye" due to the fact you never received or the game removed the quest item.
 * If you have completed "There Stands the Grass" quest, Doctor Hildern might glitch and not accept your parcel. As for the Xbox 360 and PS3, there is no known way to correct the lack of an option to give Dr. Hildern the invoice. For PC, it is possible to advance the quest by using the console command, which will mark the Dr. Hildern part of the quest complete.
 * When you complete this quest and hand in the holotape schematics taken from the Gun Runners, a lot of items/weapons/apparel will disappear from your inventory. A possible way around this is to give all your items to a companion, however this might fail as well.
 * During the first leg of the quest, Doctor Hildern may never appear, though he does show up on the compass. There is no fix for the Xbox 360 leaving the quest impossible to complete.
 * When you walk out of the office after giving the package to Thomas Hildern, there will be none of your HUD showing and you can hear a very deep breathing sound. Also, you will not be able to move or access your Pip-Boy.
 * This may be a design oversight, but when you download the specifications to your Pip-Boy, and sneak out, regardless of whether or not you're wearing a Stealth Boy, you will be caught and attacked.
 * Unfortunately, when sneaking into the Gun Runners factory without killing any of them, Blake's inventory will not change.
 * Getting the plans in a non-violent way by simply sneaking in and out can sometimes cause the gun runners to become hostile, even after leaving the Gun Runners factory and the policed area. This can be fixed by simply waiting a couple of days. They should then return to their neutral stance. Alternatively, close the gate at night so they can't see you, save and reload while within range of the guards forcing their script to reset.
 * If you have killed Van Graffs as a part of the quest "Tend to Your Business", talking to Cass will start the quest "Heartache by the Number" from the part where Cass asks you to kill Alice McLafferty. Killing Cass is the only way to continue this quest.
 * After stealing the pre-War schematics, fast-traveling back to the Crimson Caravan will cause a freeze while loading.