"I hated that." Adam said as he met up with the other two who were waiting a distance away for him.
"Oh but you handled it so well." Mira said, still with the same teasing smile on her face as before. Adam frowned.
"I almost yelled at one of them." He said back.
"I do not see the point of those people. What are they trying to accomplish?" Deccanus asked, stoically, glad the reporters had begun to disperse from where Adam was before.
"It would take a minute to explain and honestly, I'd rather just put it behind me. They are likely just hungry for news, which unfortunately is me." Deccanus nodded, seeming to need no further explanation and not question Adam further but Mira did not seem done with the topic.
"I think you should get used to it. You are a public figure now, you go somewhere populated, good and bad, people will recognize you. You can't hide in anonymity anymore."
"Is that why you ran?" Adam said with a small smile to her.
"I wouldn't be very good at my job if I couldn't skip through a crowd unnoticed. Besides, there's no advantage to my presence being known yet. It's best I remain just another follower of yours. Hence the jacket." She said as she lightly pulled at the jacket and pants she put over her stealth suit to hide it and the Brotherhood logo.
"Friend." Adam corrected.
"Tato Tahto." She said, seemingly replacing the old phrase 'potato potahto' with a variant that used the much despised but hardy tato that had begun to thrive in the wasteland and became a staple in the downtrodden's diet. "But teasing aside, don't worry about it too much. You just hadn't been to a population center in a while and Midway is the population center. They won't do this everytime, just everytime you do something crazy."
"Oh, like soon?" Adam said back, half teasing, half deflated. Mira shrugged playfully and let off a small quiet laugh.
"Yeah, probably. But for the moment, don't worry about it. We got things to sell."
Adam decided to agree with her and get to work, they had a lot of gear to offload after all.
"Wow! Looks like a famous customer has walked in!" Jay said as the three of them walked into his shop and he greeted Adam with a bright smile. "And here I thought you were done with our lovely little city."
"I could never be done with Midway. Besides, Chicago is my home, I'm not about to abandon it!"
"Not surprised since you threw yourself into the fire and stopped Famine!" He said with pride. Adam just chuckled embarrassed.
"Well that's how it ended up."
"No, no. Be proud! Own it! You did the impossible! Brag about it to the whole world!" Jay said boisterously.
"Well I'm not much of a bragger, and besides I didn't do it alone. It was the people of Chicago who came out and helped. Without them, we would have all died."
"And that's why I like ya. You are an honest man." He then looked over at Deccanus and Mira, and nodded. "Well I doubt you came to my shop just to say hi, you got goodies for me?" He asked as he walked back over to his counter, excited to see what Adam had on hand.
"Yessir." Adam said as he dumped off all his goods on the counter from all the bags they brought in. "Having an APC means I can make much larger trips."
"Certainly beats feeding a brahmin, that's for sure." He chuckled as he began to pull out a handful of the guns and examine them. Adam had only brought a handful, most of the guns from the gunstore were kept in the vault, however between the guns from the gunstore, and various others found in between the last time he came here, he did not have an insignificant collection. Especially since the guns from the gunstore, the ones in the back, are all of good quality. In addition Adam had brought all the extra accessories from the shop he had no need of. It was nice to have some rifle bags but he certainly did not need 50, a few would be enough for the vault.
"Well you got some good stuff here, that's for sure." Jay said satisfied after looking through everything quickly. Trusting that Adam was not selling him bad merchandise, at least not knowingly.
"Most of it came from an enclosed space, untouched by time, in good condition."
"I can see that." Jay smiled.
"Before you give me a price, I was wondering if you managed to get a hold of the ammo like I requested last time I was here?" He asked, curious. Jay's expression changed and then nodded slowly.
"Aye, I did." he then lifted up a single 78mm round from behind the counter. "Forty 78mm rounds, ten 105 rounds, all checked and ready for use." Adam was the one who smiled now.
"How much is it going to run me?" Jay sighed and then looked at Adam.
"Between the scarcity of the ammo, transport fees, and scavenger fees, you are looking at near 2200 caps, 'cause you are a valued customer I can bring that price down to a flat 2000." Adam nodded slowly thinking over his words.
It made sense, they were hard to come by after all. Though he honestly expected it would be higher, after all the place you would get more ammo like this was military bases mostly, and those probably are hard to crack for ordinary scavers. Though then again very few people probably have working APCs to begin with so the demand for the ammo is probably incredibly low. All in all paying 2000 caps didn't seem like too bad of a price to pay, he did have enough to cover the costs, but it was quite the chunk of change, especially when he had other things he needed to buy.
"And what is the value of my guns and stuff here? How much can you give me?" He asked, seeing how much he could get in exchange, perhaps cut down the price a lot.
"Well all in all I'd give you something around 1200 caps, I'll make it 1250 for you and then you just pay the difference of 750 caps and we can call it even."
"Wow, you are being generous today, that's a lot of discounts you are giving me."
"Well without your actions I would be out of business, out of town, or dead. All three are not ideal, so I'd say you earned ol' Jay's special discount." He said with a bright smile as he thumbed towards himself.
"Well I'm not going to say no." He chuckled and then pulled out some caps, did some calculations and paid out 750 caps. He was now at 2841 caps, still more than enough to conduct business, especially with all the other things he had left to sell, though most of it was not as valuable as this.
Jay took the money and slid it closer to him on the counter but did not put it away yet.
"Just so you know I do not have the ammo on hand at the moment, it's off site, can't be keeping enough explosives to blow a hole in Midway in my little shop now can I?" He chuckled. "But I can get a brahmin driver to grab 'em for you within a day or two, three at the latest, if that's fine with you."
Adam paused to think, he did want to get to War as quickly as he could. However, War was not going to lose in a few days. In addition he had things he could do in the meantime, waiting was not ideal but it had been a bit since he had been in Midway so perhaps staying here for a few days wouldn't be so bad.
"Alright, that's fine." Adam said after a few moments.
"Good." Jay smiled as, now, he slid all the caps into a drawer of his. "If you had said no I'd have had them delivered to you, wherever you are now."
"Ah, I built myself a home." Adam said with a soft smile.
"Well good for you! I certainly hope it's cozy and safe."
"Cozy is relative, but yes, it's the safest home in the wasteland." Adam chuckled.
"Well color me jealous. But good for you, either way i'll send a message to you when they are here and help you get them loaded up into your car. Good to see you again Adam." Jay smiled.
"You too Jay."