After the meeting was over Adam returned Buddy his room set and ready to shove off tomorrow, but he had a day to kill and it gave him a good opportunity to place a few orders. So he went to the one man who could procure the things he needed, Jay.
"Well, if it isn't my favorite Scaver! How ya doing Adam?" Jay said with a big smile as Adam walked into his shop.
"Good! How you doing Jay?" Adam smiled back.
"I'm doing just dandy. Now, what can I do for you today?"
"I have a request, a unique one so I'm not sure if you can help."
"Well I can certainly try, I'll promise you that much." Jay laughed softly.
"I need to buy 105mm and 76mm rounds." Adam said bluntly. Jay stopped laughing and then blinked.
"What do you need such big ammo for? You hiding a tank or something?"
"An APC, actually. Or IFV if you prefer." Adam shrugged nonchalantly, enjoying the shock on Jay's face.
"Well, now that is surprising." Jay laughed a bit in shock.
"Yeah, it still needs some work but barring anything unexpected, I should have it fixed up and ready by the time I return to Midway soon."
"Well I got good news and bad news, which do you want first?"
"Uh, I'll take the bad news." Adam said uncertain.
"Bad news is I don't got any artillery shells just laying around my shop. Even if I wanted to sell them to you, which I do, I can't, that's not the sort of thing I stock." Adam nodded.
"The good news is I can get it in for you, it might take some time but 'ol Jay has plenty of connections, I can get you what you need no matter what it is." He grinned while pointing a thumb at himself.
"Well good to know I got a reliable supplier." Adam chuckled.
"Yessir. Do you have a deadline on when you need these by?" Adam shook his head.
"No, I'm also broke at this exact moment so I would need time to earn the capital, but I'm sure having some rounds down the line would be a big help."
"Well I can understand that." Jay laughs. "I'll keep you up-to-date then. I'll pull some strings and ask around about suppliers, but just know that each round isn't going to be cheap, transport costs alone are expensive." Adam nodded.
Adam then left the shop, he did have other things he wanted to buy from Jay, other weapons he would like. He was starting to think long term now, his ideal kit, his ideal loadout, his ideal living conditions, but he had limitations on what he could achieve right now so setting his sights on one thing at a time seemed best.
Honestly Adam was now too ready for tomorrow. He still had a chunk of the day left over and not much money left to spend. With less than 100 caps he had enough for meals and not much else. So he needed to be thrifty.
Adam went back to the bookshop from before and bought a new book, this one about a future where humanity travels the stars in a vessel called the Enterprise, for only 20 caps. It was a worthwhile investment in his eyes. Then, with his new book in hand, he returned to his room in the Layover and stayed there until it was time for dinner. Another 35 caps later and the rest of the day was spent reading.
The next day came slowly. Adam headed to get food from the food court and spent 32 caps. He now had 14 caps to his name. If this didn't work out Adam was going to have to work extra hard to make up for his losses. It certainly was a bit of a gamble but it was more than worth it if everything worked out.
As much as he did act confident to his team when he gathered them, truthfully he was not certain he could fix up the APC. He was definitely sure it could be done, but he was not certain he had everything he needed. However he had prepared as much as he could. If nothing else he could get it working enough to drive it back to Midway to park it there. Though then he would need to keep someone guarding it since the people of Midway might strip it for parts. Thoughts for later, he needed to stay positive.
He grabbed all his gear and Buddy from his room and then set out to the front gate to meet the others. There he saw his team, Eve, Salvatore, Deccanus, Buddy, and Roy.
"Who is this guy?" Salvatore said pointing to Roy, the random stranger who showed up to their meeting point with two brahmin in tow.
"This is Roy, a brahmin driver. He is here because I physically can not transport 6 tires and a giant battery without help, not even talking about everything else. So I paid him to act as the transport."
"Howdy folks." Roy said with a smile. Deccanus nodded and Salvatore shrugged.
"Alright, whatever." Salvatore said, now completely disengaging with the conversation.
Adam had considered the pros and cons of bringing a professional brahmin driver along with them. He was confident that Deccanus would be able to herd the Brahmin easily enough, however his plan was to take the APC right from the safehouse to the Federal Ration Stockpile. So someone would need to return the Brahmin to Midway. It cost a bit more to hire Roy but it would be easier for Adam to handle the logistics.
Of course bringing a man he didn't trust to his safehouse was not the best idea but Roy was only there to transport everything, once he dropped everything off outside he would return to the city. He would never once step foot in the building. In addition Adam paid him extra for his discretion, heavily implying that the secret was the APC itself. However that was just a misdirection to take his attention away from the building. If nothing else, it was one man and a safehouse that Adam had ever yet to use. Even if this somehow became public knowledge it was a heavily armed building with nothing of value inside. Adam was not worried. This was a carefully thought out plan. Of course one can never plan for everything.
The group then got underway, heading down the path for the 3 hour trip to get to the safehouse. The trip itself was entirely uneventful, nothing attacked them, there were no obstacles, no run-ins with unsavory types, just a boring long walk.
Eve and Roy seemed to be the talkative ones in the group, Adam chiming in occasionally with banter of his own. Salvatore talked when spoken too but didn't speak up on his own accord, and Deccanus seemed to be mildly uncomfortable at the moment and was keeping mostly to himself. It seemed there were some growing pains the group needed to go through before they all worked well together, but that was fine, they had time.
After walking for a while they arrive at the brewery and, more importantly, in front of the APC, untouched, just as Adam left it. It was time to work.