Hi... I've beaten FO1 and FO3 but I haven't finished 2 yet. I'm currently playing that.

I'm in the Den, and was asked by Rebecca to find Fred. I searched all over town, clicking on everyone, and then finally turned to a walkthrough. I went to Per Jorners guide, and it said he's "usually" in Flicks house. Note he said in, so I checked in. Then I checked just outside of. Then I re-checked the whole area.

So then I thought maybe a different walkthrough would have alternate locations for fred. I checked the highest rated one on Gamefaqs and it said "south of Beckys" which is of course Flick's...

It was night, so I checked then, thinking he might hang out at night. No luck, so I waited til noon then checked again.

It says he "looks like one of the addicts but is known as a "citizen of the Den".
So I clicked on both the yellow shirted addicts and the green shirted "regular people" to no avail.

I found ONE person named "citizen of the den" in the East Side but all he said was generic NPC stuff, no actual conversation.

If any FO2 veterans know this elusive man's location, please, lend a hand to someone who wants to help out the Den!

Fred can be tricky to find indeed. He looks like all the other junkies: a bald guy with brown scruffy clothes. Fred has no specific location whatsoever: he can be found wandering around on the whole West side of the Den usually in proximity or sometimes in Flick's house. I believe BlackIsle did it this way to make this quest a bit more challenging but he's there alright. Just talk to every bald jet addict on the West side you see, once the speech interface opens you'll know it's him. Happy hunting!

*edit* night or day time doesn't matter as far as I know. If you don't find him the first time, wait a while or do some other stuff so he relocates and try again.

Ahh, thanks, I actually found him before I came back to this forum to check. I searched google for "Fallout 2 can't find Fred" and found another thread with a similar request. One of them said that he could be in Becky's so I double checked and he was right behind a wall that I could barely see. So that's why I missed him the first 10 times.

Edit: Also I shamelessly admit I looked up how to find that stupid book.