"Well…" Olivia said, pausing for a moment to recompose herself. "You have certainly blown my expectations out of the water. To think our meeting would be so fortuitous. I never would have guessed." She smiled gently. Adam returned the smile.
"I'm happy to help." Adam paused. "I am curious about what's the story with you and the chest though." Adam asked slowly.
"I'm sure you are, but that much is for me and me alone to know." She grinned softly. Adam chuckled a bit.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Well, you didn't do this just for my satisfaction, we had a deal so, let's have it." She smiled and then got the Combat armor off the stand and laid it down on her counter. "This now belongs to you. 4 thousand caps, debt to be paid at a later date, with a 10% interest fee on whatever you don't pay off now. Sound like a deal?" Adam smiled.
"Yes, that does, but truthfully I did find some things out at the location you gave us. Hence the extra backpack I'm wearing." Adam said, pointing to Salvatore's backpack he had strapped to his front again, almost exclusively filled with cleaning supplies, since that was all he found in bulk. She laughed.
"Oh yeah? I thought that was a fashion statement." She smiled.
"No it is not." Adam smiled back. "But I do have a lot of stuff to offload to various vendors, and some requests to fill, so let me make the sales and then I'll come back to you when that's all sorted so I know what my finances are like by then." She nodded.
"Alright, that sounds good." She took the combat armor and stashed it away, putting it out of sight since it would belong to Adam later.
"Oh yes." Adam took off the leather armor pieces she had given him before he left. "These belong to you. I'm sorry but one of the shoulder pieces took a laser blast directly so it is quite badly damaged." She took a moment to examine the shoulder piece in question and then chuckled.
"Armor's job is to keep you alive, if it took a blast that just means it was doing its job." She tossed the armor aside. "I think it was a worthwhile investment."
"I'm glad you see it that way. Give me some time, I'll be back a bit later." Adam said as he left to begin selling to the various vendors in town. He missed the days when he could sell everything to Chuck but Chuck only had so much money and there was less to buy in Naper. In Midway he could theoretically make more money as well as acquire anything he needed though it did mean a lot of walking around to offload his goods at the correct vendor. A weapons merchant, after all, would not buy his bulk supply of cleaning supplies. But these thoughts were pointless, he had work to do. So he began his selling venture.
He visited several merchants, the merchant he was introduced to in ghoul town, to offload a selection of things to him, since, like he said last time, they needed an influx of goods. He was very interested in buying a good bulk of cleaning supplies, which was good for Adam. That was 252 caps from him. Then he went to two of the Midway folks who had requests of him. He got 120 caps from them collectively, 70 for the military circuit board, and 50 for the high-spec sensor module. Then he went to Jay to offload his few guns, and Jay gave him another 200 caps. He didn't have many guns after all. Lastly he went to Lune to offload practically everything else he had collected, she gave him 357 for the lot.
Adam had kept a few of the things he had bought. For one he kept the stealth boy, it was bulky but it was not too large and there was no reason to let go of such a good tool, after all being able to turn invisible with the turn of a knob for a few minutes is an incredibly useful tool. He also kept the military uniforms and helmet. One military uniform was left at the safe house and the other one and the helmet was kept on his person. Afterall he didn't yet have a change of clothing, having at least a second outfit would be good. The helmet could be a good backup if his ever broke. However with all of this new gear, in addition to his books, bobbleheads, and random odds and ends he kept, his bag was getting too full even before he set out to scavenge. He needed a place to keep his stuff, not a rented room but something more. Aside from buying a house in Midway the next best option was a storage unit, luckily he knew where to find one.
Taking a detour through a different section of the mall to reach the area where household goods and camping supplies were sold he came across the largest boutique space, completely converted into a storage unit zone.
The interaction with the front desk was short, and uninteresting, but for a fee of 100 caps he was able to rent a closet sized space for a month. This was more than sufficient. He offloaded all of his unneeded things from his backpack into the closet and then locked it behind him. Next was a room. He wanted to buy the armor from Olivia but he needed to make sure his expenses were covered. This was like buying a car, you had to consider how much you had left over before you put a down payment on the purchase. This was no different.
This too was incredibly easy. The Layover was, thankfully, not booked this time like The Delta was, and he got a room for two nights for 250 caps. He had decided not to get the layover package this time as he still had two washer drier coins and the meal vouchers weren't really worth it. The soaps were nice but he still had some left over and not worth the package price. At the very least he didn't need it for the next two days.
Finally, with his gear dropped off in his room, a quick shower to freshen up, he went back out to head to Olivia to make the purchase. By now, after all his sales and purchases he had exactly 2723 caps. Give or take a few caps he either miscounted or overlooked. He needed a very comfortable buffer to live off of, he didn't want to be without any money to live on but the less he paid the higher the interest. So, by the time he had arrived at Olivia's shop he had arrived at his answer.
"2000 caps downpayment." He said putting the two thousand caps in slips onto her counter with a smile. Olivia nodded and then took the armor back out from the chest she had stored it in and placed it on the counter.
"2000 caps it is then." She said as she took the slips and put it into her cash register. "Which means you will owe me 2200 caps." She then paused as she handed over the armor.
"I'm curious though. What happened at the place I sent you? I thought it was once a military base? Did you bring back no armor to sell to me? I figured there would be something." Adam let out a small laugh.
"It was picked clean, the soldiers who lived there before had taken everything with them when they left… except for cleaning supplies." He rolled his eyes. "So other than two military uniforms and one helmet I found nothing much worthwhile. I'm keeping those things though just in case." She nodded.
"And… what happened there?" She asked hesitantly. "I mean to you…"
"Ah." Adam said, pausing for a moment to think. "Um.. well…" He paused a second time. "Do you have a minute for a story?"
"Sure. I got plenty of time." She smiled.
"Well then let's start at the beginning…"