When the next day came Adam found out that, to his dismay, there was a radstorm. With the storm being especially severe today most people were staying indoors, though the shops were still open, luckily. However this meant Adam would be confined indoors for the day while he waited out the storm. He just hoped that tomorrow, when he would be traveling with the caravan, the storm wouldn't be an issue. Otherwise he might need to convince Deccanus into taking some Rad-X.
Adam headed to one of the indoor cafes for breakfast, spending 35 caps for a meal and then headed to the shopping center to do something that he had been needing to do since Second Life. Sell Buddy's backpack of goods.
Back at Second life he, Salvatore, and Buddy all had backpacks, however since Buddy was sent away he couldn't sell the items he gave to him. And, as he confirmed, the backpack still had things in it when he found Buddy at Second Life. Everything he had collected at Second Life was high quality, since he had the pick of the liter. So there was no doubt in his mind that the contents would be extremely valuable.
Rummaging through the backpack last night before bed he found that the only things that were missing from the backpack were the chems. However in their place was an assortment of random things he definitely didn't pack into this bag at Second Life. Things such as Sensor modules, crystal lenses, packs of cigarettes, even some hand made sculptures. If he were to guess, the people at Renaissance took the chems themselves, but seeing as they were good natured barter based people, they exchanged the chems in the backpack for whatever they had on hand. It's obvious they tried to find things that were of equivalent value, though with a very rough estimate Adam took a loss on the deal.
However, considering the people of the town took Buddy in, kept him safe, cleaned him up, and left the items in the backpack mostly intact, it was perfectly fine in his books. In addition, this was where, apparently, the best chem dealer in the entirety of Chicago lived, so poor grade chems from a raider base would likely not sell as well here of all places. So perhaps this was for the best.
After breakfast Adam took Buddy and his bag down to sell off all his gear. It took some time to sell off everything to the correct vendors but at the end of his mercantile adventure he had earned a total of 1975 caps. It was, after all, the most valuable things from Second Life.
Better yet he didn't need to share these caps with anyone. Deccanus wasn't involved so he didn't need to split with him. Technically he could split some of it with Salvatore, but he bought out his contract so it was fine to keep this money. So now, with well over 5000 caps, 5180 to be precise, he was able to see the goal he wanted to achieve when he got back to Midway coming into view. This was an unexpected view in his calculations. He had, of course, remembered Buddy had a backpack full of things. But he had forgotten he would be able to sell them so he was actually doing quite well on caps at the moment.
The rest of the day was spent doing a lot of nothing. Adam spent most of it in his room tinkering with Buddy, checking his code, fixing up his servos, and mostly just making busy work for himself. There was something cathartic about it, working on a robot brought him back to the old days. It was nice to be doing it again.
After dinner of 32 caps Adam went to sleep. The entire day was largely a big nothing event. After all the majority of activities at the Pier were outside and during a radstorm, obviously, most were closed.
The next day came and it was finally time for the Caravan to leave. Adam left his room, geared up, Buddy at his back. He thanked the hotel staff for his stay and then headed to grab a quick bite for breakfast, 25 caps later, he was fed, geared, and ready. He didn't know when or where the Caravan would be leaving, in hindsight that should have been something he asked about but he didn't think of it until now.
Regardless he was soon joined by Deccanus at the gate and then, after about another hour of waiting, a caravan worker with 2 brahmin and 2 guards showed up.
"Are you Adam?" He asked casually as he saw the two of them waiting.
"Yes, that's right." Adam said with a smile.
"Good." The man replied curtly. "The Madam has informed me that you will be accompanying us on this run, just don't get in our way and there will be no problems." He said, strangely rudely before the gate began to open for him. One of the guards then walked over.
"Don't mind him, he's always like that." The caravan guard chuckled. "Always nice to be working with a fellow hunter." He smiled and offered Adam his hand which Adam gladly shook.
"Is this the normal setup? 2 brahmin, 2 guards, and 1 merchant?" Adam asked.
"Yeah, this is standard, and the route will be standard too."
"I heard you guys stay out for months at a time, this true?" He asked. The guard nodded.
"Yes, though it depends. Sometimes we are only gone for a few weeks, other times it can take a lot longer, depends on how many settlements we are heading to and how long it takes for us to move our product." Adam nodded, choosing not to dwell on the product. "This time though we are only heading to Midway, we don't know anything about the Caravans' disappearances so we are going to air on the side of caution."
"Smart." Adam commended.
"Well it wasn't my idea. It was grumpy pants over there." He said as he gestured with his thumb to the merchant. "He acts like an ass but he is careful to make sure everyone is well cared for." He shrugs and then notices the merchant and the other guard starting to move.
"Right, well time to go, just follow along and I'm sure anything that comes our way we can handle." He said before he jogged to catch up with his fellow guard and rejoin the pack. Adam took a step to follow behind them but was stopped by Deccanus putting his arm out in front of Adam.
"Wait a moment." Deccanus said, seriously.
"What? What is it, Deccanus?" Adam asked, confused.
"We should not follow closely behind them." He said as he watched them leave.
"What? Why? I thought the whole point was to follow so we could see what was happening to the caravans."
"Yes, but if we are to change the variables it might not occur." Deccanus said as he turned to look at Adam. "If, for example, it is some sort of ambush, then the addition of two additional guards might dissuade the attack. While the caravan would arrive at its destination it does not solve the issue and we would be no closer to an answer. However if we are to follow from a distance, keep ourselves separated from them as a group, we could still follow their trail and allow anything that might occur to happen naturally." Adam stood there thinking for a moment before he let off a long sigh.
"That could end up getting these guys killed." Adam said worriedly.
"Indeed." Deccanus agreed. "But if you want to figure out the source of the issue, this is the best way to do so." Adam stared at Deccanus for a moment before he nodded slowly, and begrudgingly.
"Alright, we will do it your way. Just for the record, I don't like it." Adam said with a frown.