Nun smiled and let out a friendly laugh. “So you want a solo contract?”
“Yes,” she said, still folding her arms.
“And you understand the terms of any solo contract I give?”
“Yes.”
“I think I can smooth over a solo contract as opposed to an open one, if Ripp finds out that is.”
Nun thought for a moment and purposely drew out the situation with more silence, just to have a little fun with Lilly.
She unfolded her arms and put them on her hips as she leaned forward.
“Please?” she asked with a smile.
“Lucky for me, I don’t answer to Ripp,” Nun said as he slid the small box over to her and motioned for her to open it.
After a moment, she opened it, and took out the small data drive that had the information about the contract.
Nun put his hands together, stood up, and walked over to a monitor on the wall. After his eyes were scanned, he navigated through a couple of screens and typed in some information.
He turned around and put his hands on his hips mocking Lilly in a friendly way.
“Okay,” he said with a smile.
“That’s it? Just like that?” she asked, thinking about how he had the box ready to give to her at the beginning of their conversation.
“Everything is on there. If you need an advance for any gear, talk to Maricella.”
“Thank you,” she said with a huge smile.
“The fact that you are thanking me for sending you out in the Fringe makes me want to reconsider this.”
“Thank you for trusting me is what I meant.”
“Good girl,” Nun said as he walked to the door and opened it.
“I won’t disappoint you,” she added.
“I know you won’t.”
Lilly stood up and followed him to the door.
“Lilly?” Nun asked as she walked past him.
She turned around and saw Nun with a much more serious face.
“Yeah?”
Nun took a slow breath and pursed his lips.
“I don’t want to cause any problems between you and Ripp, but I do think he underestimates your potential. Yes, he wants to protect you, but all that will do is hold you back in the end. We don’t achieve great things because of fear. We achieve great things when we come at it head on. Let me know whenever you are up to the challenge. My door is always open for you.”
Finally. She thought to herself as her face lit up.
“Thank… Okay, I will,” she said.
Nun chuckled and motioned for her to leave. He watched her bounce away then went and sat back at his desk. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a colorful Chinese finger trap.
Twenty-five
Every yell, every cheer, every curse, every bottle broken, every snarl, and growl, and laugh bombarded Bean. She tried to see through the patrons but she was too short.
“Everybody, shut up!” Bean’s voice boomed over the crowd, causing almost everyone in the two main areas of the Pits, including some of the fighters, to freeze.
One of the fighters, who was losing, saw his opportunity for a cheap shot and kicked the other fighter in the side of the head. He celebrated as his opponent hit the ground hard, but there was no one else to see it, because everyone was looking at Bean.
“Lilly!” she screamed as she frantically and clumsily climbed up on an uneven table and scanned the room.
“Lilly!” she screamed again as she bolted off the table and charged through the crowd.
Most of the people stepped aside, making room for Bean, but some unobservant people had to be shoved out of the way.
She grabbed the Lilly-hair look-alike and spun her around.
“Don’t you know…”
The skinny, wide-eyed woman with pigtails dropped her drink on the ground.
“Lilly, I thought…”
Bean gripped her even tighter out of frustration.
“That hurts, let me go!” the woman said as she tried to pull away from Bean’s grip. “What’s wrong with you?”
Bean seemed confused and felt sorry that she was hurting the woman. She let go, but then knocked the woman out cold with a heavy right punch.
Some of the crowd cheered.
“Lilly!”
The Bookie appeared and put a gentle hand on Bean’s shoulder. She turned with a raised fist but saw that it was him and lowered her arm. She began to breathe heavily, her eyes turning red, and her tears mixing with the sweat on her face.
“I’ve lost Lilly. Ripp is gonna kill me, Corn.”
“Let’s go look for her outside,” he said, knowing all too well that Lilly wouldn’t be there.
Twenty-six
Ripp and Gus turned onto the access road for the depot and headed for the main complex. They weaved through the rows of rusted eighteen-wheeled transports and parked on the ramp that led up to the loading area.
The Umitilla Military Depot was home to acres of underground storage units, a large staging ground, and a main complex littered with warehouses that were all dedicated to the old army’s supplies.
When Ripp discovered the base, he had tried to break into some of the bunker doors with explosives, but soon realized the four-foot-thick steel doors simply weren’t going to be opened. As disappointed as he was initially, he was okay with never seeing what was behind those doors, because there was a lifetime of scavenging left for the main complex. Over the next five years, the depot became Ripp’s “gold mine” and established him as “the” runner. Other runners had tried to find out where he was finding all of the equipment, but were never able follow all of the way. Some turned back after hours of driving due to fuel restrictions, some turned back after fear consumed them, but mostly because when you were this far out in the Fringe, you needed de-radiation injections and those were costly and weren’t guaranteed to keep you from exposure.
Ripp had an advantage with his modified hot rod. It was a portable de-radiation chamber itself. One of only two working units in all of Nucrea. The other one was built into Johnny’s.
Ripp knew that eventually someone would find out where he was scavenging and accepted that it was too big of an undertaking to clean the depot out alone. Johnny suggested he team up with a trustworthy, robust regular named Gus, and the rest was history.
Together they found a great deal of the working technology in Nucrea machinery, building materials, piping, wiring, weapons, clothing, and nearly all of the armor and uniforms used by the Nucrean Guard.
Although all of those types of supplies always brought a nice payout, the seed stores and hydroponics equipment were what made Ripp and Gus their individual fortunes, positioning Nun, their contractor, as the indisputable market baron of the Fringe.
One day a new Runner named Tooth, managed to follow them all the way to the depot undetected. Tooth was able to make a good amount of money for himself with what was left, but always hated Ripp and Gus for finding it first.
Scanning every corner with their headlights, Ripp and Gus made their way through the offices on the second floor of the main building. They stopped at a wall ledger and tried to make out the faded lettering. He tapped a marker that read, Receiving Offices 202-216.
“Let’s go. Nun said the info should be in the manifests or shipment ledgers.”
“That makes sense, of course, if they haven’t disintegrated into dust like everything that was made of paper.”
“Stop complaining. This has to be the easiest con we’ve had in years.”
“All this way for some files that might not even be here,” Gus said more to himself than to Ripp.
“Triple our fee,” Ripp said.