Mister Burke

Mr. Burke (Born 2221) is a mysterious man who can be met in Moriarty's Saloon in Megaton. He is the sinister right-hand man of Allistair Tenpenny, and wants the town destroyed via detonating the bomb. However, it is not known whether he is truly under the control of Tenpenny, or if he is manipulating his employer toward his own ends.

He can also be murdered without fear of retaliation from the law in Megaton.

A successful hack of Colin Moriarty's private computer will result in this information about Mr. Burke:

Related Quests
He can give the Vault 101 Dweller access to Tenpenny Tower in exchange for installing a Fusion Pulse Charge inside Megaton's bomb.

If you do not follow Mr. Burke's method of completing this quest, Talon Company hitmen may show up at random encounters, and try to kill you. If you loot their bodies, you will find contracts to hunt and kill you, signed by Burke. This is different, however, from Talon Company mercenaries, who will come after you when you have good Karma, regardless of your actions in Megaton.

Female players with 'black widow' perk get two special dialog options with Burke - they can claim they live in Megaton and Burke will change his plans, or they can persuade him to pay an extra 500 caps for rigging the bomb without the need to pass a speech check.

Note that The Power of the Atom** quest is still available from Burke even if Roy Phillips has killed Alistair Tenpenny and taken over Tenpenny Towers. After installing the Fusion Pulse Charge and traveling to Tenpenny Towers, you'll find Roy Phillips and Mr. Burke speaking on Tenpenny's balcony. Phillips is intimidated by Burke and his ability to infiltrate the Ghoul-controlled Tower, and allows Burke to detonate the bomb and destroy Megaton. This act impresses Phillips so much that he hires Burke as his new right-hand man. There is a youtube video showing this act.

-**If you want to keep Megaton, and get a house there, you can still get the achievement from disarming the bomb. (Xbox 360) If you did this you are still able to acquire the suite in Tenpenny Tower if you allow the ghouls forced entrance.

This player loaded up on anything you can grab from Vault 101 in the beginning and walked encumbered to Megaton. Then talked to Simms and walked to the bomb, disarmed it, walked back to Simms, got my Megaton house. I never even talked to Mr. Burke or even have seen him. I'm at level 19 with random visits from Talon Mercs when I load into the wastes from a building. They threaten to kill me, but never do. If I had talked to him would Talon Mercs normally try to kill me? (PS3)

Corpse Loot

 * 10mm Round (10)
 * Dirty Pre-War Businesswear
 * Pre-War Hat
 * Silenced 10mm Pistol
 * Tortiseshell Glasses

Alternate versions
Mr. Burke does not exist in the Japanese version of Fallout 3, thus disabling the "detonate the bomb" option in The Power of the Atom as the player cannot get the Fusion Pulse Charge under any circumstances. The player can get the love letters if the Black Widow perk is used.

Appearances
Burke appears only in Fallout 3.

Trivia
Burke is the name of an upper-middle class town in Virginia south of Fairfax and Annandale, i.e., roughly where Tenpenny Tower would be.

Burke is also the name of an antagonist in Aliens, a sinister man who is notably callous towards human life as long as he makes a profit, as demonstrated by the way he attempts to impregnate Ripley and Newt with Alien embryos prior to the departure from the colony. There is a very slight resemblance in the appearance of the two men, but clothing and voice are extremely different.

He is voiced by Wes Johnson, who also voiced many characters in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, most notably Lucien Lachance, who speaks in a manner similar to Burke and shares Burke's rather evil alignment and propensity to call on the player to murder people. The other notable character voiced by Johnson was The Mad God Sheogorath in the Shivering Isles Expansion. Other than that, he also voiced all of the male Imperial citizens, as well as most of the guards all around Cyrodiil.

Bugs

 * It is possible that when you first enter Megaton, Burke will be glitched in such a manner that he "sits" outside of Craterside Supply as if there were a chair there, in the same way he's supposed to sit in Moriarty's Saloon. Nevertheless, Burke will not automatically engage the Lone Wanderer in a conversation as is the case in Moriarty's.


 * It is possible that upon entering Megaton for the first time, you may witness him sneaking around near the bomb. He can be engaged in conversation normally, as if he was sitting in Moriarty's Saloon. The Lone Wanderer must engage him in this conversation, as he will not automatically talk to the player like in the Saloon.


 * Even if Burke is killed before you ever set foot in Tenpenny Tower, such as during the confrontation with Lucas Simms, you may still find that hitmen specifically from the Tenpenny Tower quest possess notes signed by Burke commissioning your character's termination. You can still find these notes on them even if you used Black Widow on Burke and he is sending you love letters at the same time.


 * It is possible - especially on the PlayStation 3 version of the game - that if you kill Burke, then (after a long while) he may respawn back, and can be found standing beside the bomb if it is disarmed, though he cannot be engaged in conversation.


 * If you use pickpocketing to steal Mr. Burke's ammunition, he will draw his weapon to shoot Simms, then holster it over and over again. When you follow Simms outside, he falls down dead anyway.