Volume 6 - Chapter 24
By the time I entered past the gate into the main camp of the Allco R&D campus, Jacques was already out of site. There wasn't so much a doorman or even a door, as there were several turrets placed at a gate hanging slightly ajar. If someone got close to the turrets without having one of those badges visible, it would shoot them on sight. I considered trying to bring the turrets under my control, but there were just too many people to get close enough to do anything to them. Even if many of them appeared drugged out or drunk, I had a feeling at least a few of them were paying attention and may not be as out of it as they appeared.
I was truly alone at this point. I stepped into the courtyard, and the atmosphere didn't feel too much different from the Ascension raider meet. The tensions seemed to be less high, and more people were minding their own business rather than paying attention to their neighbors. It seemed slightly more peaceful. That didn't mean there were arguments, fighting, and even the occasional gunshot, but that was the nature of being around a bunch of drugged-up raiders.
For myself, I had already experienced being alone among groups of bandits. I no longer felt I needed to take something to make me have the physiological appearance of being high. There were plenty of raiders who didn't care to take drugs often. Furthermore, acting like I was on Dret was rather easy, and most raiders took Dret if nothing else. You just had to act tired and chill, like someone on marijuana.
That wasn't to say that Dret was anything like marijuana. It was fast acting and more powerful. Too much would knock you unconscious and was a way to knock out people you wanted to go to sleep. It was an inhalant, but it didn't come from burned leaves. Rather, it was a volatile fluid that smelled harsh and evaporated quickly.
"Hey, baby… you see anything you like." I looked up and jerked as I saw a scantily clad woman approaching me.
She was about ten years older and her body was only covered with a thong-like piece of underwear and a bra-like covering for her large chest. Her skin had various cuts, bruises, and cracks on it, some of which looked like they were quite old, showing that she was living a particularly difficult lifestyle.
I lifted my hand a shook my head. "No, thank you."
"What are you fucking gay?" Her flirtatious manner became angry. "You're leading me on?"
"I'm… with someone." I took a step back, trying to keep my distance while diffusing the situation.
This only seemed to make her angrier as she took several more steps bridging the distance between us. "You owe me now. You taking a show with your eyes and you're not giving me a thing. You think that's fair?"
I did look her up and down when she first appeared, but I wasn't enjoying her body. I had just been shocked by her light clothing. Most people in this apocalyptic world tended to wear very little."
"Is there a problem?" A group of three men appeared, but they barely looked her way, instead staring at me with predatory smiles.
"No problem, I'm just going."
"He flagged me for my services and now he's not paying!" The woman declared.
"I didn't do anything!" I cried out in surprise.
"Oh, yeah?" The frontman cracked his knuckles while grinning. "I'll tell you what, I can mitigate your situation. Just give me all the drugs you have on you. I'll pay the misses and you can be on your way."
The woman gave a satisfied nod, while all three men were grinning like cats. That's when I realized I was in a con. I was a new guy who just walked in and stood around for a minute looking lost, so they decided to give me a shake-down. My head blew through a half dozen scenarios on how I should react. If I gave them what they asked for, wouldn't that put a target on my back? Then again, there were three of them on me. Could I afford to fight them?
After thinking about it for a moment, I realized that I only had one more option. I took a breath and relaxed, taking on the persona I used when I dealt with Caleb. How was I able to deal with Caleb? It was pretty simple. With the collar on his neck, I knew I had his life in my hands. It meant I could speak to him however I wanted. That said, I didn't have these guys' lives in my hand, but I knew I'd need to act the part if I wanted to survive, let alone climb the ranks.
Someone couldn't climb the ranks starting at the bottom, so this moment right here was going to determine whether I would succeed or fail. I lifted my hands and started clapping. My hands moved slowly and deliberately, and I smiled back at him, a look that didn't match my eyes.
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"Not bad. Not bad."
The three men froze, the leader's smile dropping for a second. "We have a problem?"
"Not at all." I smiled. "I think you three will do nicely. The girl too."
The three men frowned at each other, and the girl even took a step back, covering herself like she was afraid I'd grab her.
"You seem to not be understanding the situation." The leader spoke slowly.
I chuckled. "No, you don't seem to be understanding the situation. Right now, you're wasting your time trying to mug your clan members? Is that how you've been surviving? You're picking on new members who probably have almost nothing anyway. You may have gotten away with it so, but doesn't that mean you're the trash of this clan?"
"What did you say?" One of the men shouted, stepping forward angrily, but the leader held up a hand stopping him.
"We're well aware we're disposable. We're just trying to get what we can take." He admitted. "What are you suggesting?"
"You've already made it in the clan. You're a Cock and Balls, the lot of you. You can extort anyone and take anything you want, as long as it helped the Cock grow, so to speak. However, when you're just raiding your members, you're a parasite that offers nothing of value. When the time comes, Marsh won't hesitate to remove you, and that's presuming one of his lieutenants doesn't do it ahead of time. Your current actions make you no friends, but many enemies."
The leader's hand turned into a fist. "I'm already aware of that! Yet, no one would take us in when we arrive. They expect us to bring them shit. Well, if I could get the shit myself, then I wouldn't have joined a bandit clan in the first place!"
"It's true…" I held up my hands. "No one will receive anything for nothing, and the wasteland is a dangerous place to go hunting for goods. This clan isn't going to give you safety or the shit for you to survive. You need to go get it out on your own."
"Are you going to say anything I don't already know?" He snapped. "The clan will do nothing for me, and it won't do nothing for you either! So pay up or I'll break your legs. After that, don't expect the clan to do anything but throw you out on your ass. If they don't cut your throat first, you can call yourself lucky."
"I didn't say that doesn't give you anything." I stroked my chin. "What the clan gives you is a reliable customer base."
"What?" He blinked.
"You have a group of people with a similar attitude and lifestyle. We call that a demographic." I responded, thinking back to the books I had been reading about being a salesperson. "With a demographic, if you come up with the right thing, you can make tons. You just need the right product."
"I don't have any products." He growled but then asked hesitantly. "Are you a chemist? If you are, you'd be popular."
They all had uneasy looks at that. Pharmacists and chemists were highly respected among bandit communities. Jeri was practically untouchable among the Dragon Claw, although she preferred to stay up in her lab and teach some of the others how to cook drugs. She had complained that they all wanted to learn how to make Dret and Krunk, and cared little for RegenX or Rad-B-Gone and what she considered important drugs. I shook my head. I didn't have Jeri with me and couldn't fake it this time.
His expression darkened. "Then, you're just wasting our time!"
He took a step forward, but I held up a hand and pointed at the girl. "You do have a product though."
They all turned back to look at the girl.
"Me?" She blinked, and then sniffed, pulling back her hair. "I may be a hoe, but these guys aren't my pimps. They don't even make enough to hire me. They just promised me a little dough if I did this little scheme with them. Don't pull me into your crap."
"How much are you making?" I asked. "You don't look like you're living the good life."
She made a face. "I'm not as young as I once was. Some of the new bitches try to price me out, and a lot of the men will steal or refuse to pay."
"Isn't that because you're lacking a pimp?" I asked.
She looked away. "Most of the guys think I'm not valuable enough to be worth their time protecting. I can barely make enough to feed myself, let alone support someone strong enough to protect me while watching me get run through by dozens of other men."
"Ah… therein lies the rub." I stepped forward, "Value is subjective. Whether something is valuable or not… that depends on how you treat it."
"Enough games!" The leader snapped. "What does any of this have to do with us?"
"You?" I smiled. "I need your help. We're going to make a lot of money."