Kira Dallas's Arc

Chapter 10 of 13

Kira walked into the Dancing Dead Coffee Hut to find new suppliers. Her old way of checking was dead. She needed people, not numbers. The hut smelled of burnt chicory and gun oil. Traders and ex-soldiers filled the benches. She set her backpack on a stool and spread her supply notes across the counter. A spotted cat in a desert camo safari jacket sat down beside her. Diego Juan Garcia. Donovan had named him a reliable runner who moved goods north and south. Diego tapped her notes with one claw. "Medical gear," he said. "Sealed. I move it. Denver's thick with it." He slid a weathered notebook across the counter. "But first you need to see this, or nothing I sell you means a thing." Kira opened the notebook. Dense handwriting filled every page. Timelines. Anxious theories. A number circled hard at the top: 835 years. A gap between Vault-Tec time and the real world. Her chest tightened. This was her problem, written out by a stranger. The war was older than any record claimed. Every date on every crate was a lie. Diego had reached the same wall she had. "I stopped trusting dates two months back," Diego said. "So I started checking seals myself. Everyone who moves real product does now." He watched her face. He was testing how she handled it. Kira closed the notebook and slid it back. "I buy on seals," she said. "Not dates. We agree." Donovan pushed through the crowd, headphones around his neck, map case on his hip. "Kira. Good, you found him." He dropped onto the bench. "Listen. Diego's Denver run isn't just goods." He pulled a creased map from the case and spread it flat. "There's a broadcast node up there. A big one. Bigger than anything we're running now. If we push our network that far, we don't just buy medical gear. We buy a direct line to the whole northern trade." Kira studied the map. Denver sat far north, past open road and bandit country. Too far to reach this season. She traded a look with Donovan. "How long to prepare?" she asked. "A year," Donovan said flat. "Shortest honest answer. We need escorts, fuel, and the network built out to carry it." He tapped the node. "But that tower changes everything." Diego nodded,”You secure and guard from the north road of your territory to points south and we’ll secure the roads going north to Denver. Start out with smaller heavier armed caravans and in a year the bandits along the way will get cleared out. Then we can really start moving goods. Expect the small shipments to arriving in 3 weeks.” Kira weighed it. Shipments starting in the month and slowly building into solid commercial growth in a little over a year. But it gave her a supplier who checked the way she now had to. It gave the Rangers a northern line. It turned her lost verification tool into a new plan. She shut her notes and clipped the pack. "We go to Denver," she said. "One year. Diego sources the gear. Donovan builds the line." She shook Diego's paw. The deal was set. Her supply problem now had a direction, and it pointed north.