Chapter 184: She Wasn’t the Free Part of the Deal

Dove looked at the map, then at the crew leader. "If you want my husbands to frighten somebody until you get everything, that costs more than lunch and a charming smile."

He rubbed the back of his neck. He was a broad wolf beastman with a sunburned nose, introduced as the man responsible for the truck and its crew. He wanted a fair division if one was possible and a safer way to reach the equipment if the shed had shifted.

The surviving business partner had sold specific tanks to the base. The other group claimed its own agreement with a former employee. Nobody had compared the lists in person yet. It might be a dispute over two different sets of goods or a mess somebody had created by promising too much.

Dove could work with uncertainty if people admitted it. She couldn’t work with being invited into a fight under the name of recovery.

Dove agreed to inspect the yard and help with what they judged safe. In return, they would choose first from the company’s household surplus and receive a share of the food payment. "If your other crew starts a fight, we leave," she told him, making him add it beneath the offered share. "I’m not trading either of them for a water tank."

Edrik watched the leader sign the simple terms and asked where the crew intended to sleep if the trip ran late. Dove appreciated the question. She had begun noticing that plans sounded much better before anyone admitted how tired they expected her to be.

There was a former roadside diner beyond the yard, currently used by the recovery team with its owner’s permission. Two rear rooms were available, separate from the workers’ main sleeping area. They could inspect them before deciding to stay. Dove marked that on the map along with the route back.

Dove made him mark the parking spot. The supply yard sat beside an old landscaping business, with the diner farther along the same road. A paved loading area separated the office from two sheds. Employee lockers in the smaller shed were outside their agreement; company surplus in the office annex was included.

She drew a line through the lockers on her copy. "Anything on this map worth checking first?" she asked Sprout privately. "I want useful things, not another afternoon hauling somebody else’s boxes."

"Contents are unconfirmed. I can record the permitted search area."

"The annex, then. And leave their lockers off it." She circled the room beside the office. Household surplus might mean chairs, dishes, or nothing worth carrying, but she would see it for herself before helping anyone load a tank.

Thorne checked the return road while Edrik asked about water and the crew. Dove could now see where she would work, where the truck would wait, and where they would go if the job ran late.

"That’s much better," she said, handing back the map. "You almost made this sound like an invitation to get yelled at in a parking lot."

The leader laughed uneasily. "I’m hoping to avoid that."

"Lovely. Try telling the other guys before we get there."

The crew left with a morning meeting time for Day Ninety-Six. Dove closed the day’s tasks after the basin sales, her practice, and storing a sound shelf hook recovered from the landlord’s agreed surplus pile. Eighteen new Favor brought her balance to eighty-five, with twelve hundred and twenty-six normal coins.

She kept the two development books on her list and went to dinner. Their prices weren’t the obstacle now; the men still needed to complete the listed practice. She liked knowing what the saved money was for, especially while listening to two terrifying men argue about who had washed the pans last.

The next morning she washed, ate, practiced for fifteen minutes with Edrik, then finished packing and checked the new daily stock. She chose food, and family-sized pizza trays appeared, six sales for sixty-six normal coins. Eight trays were available. Dove stared at the preview until Thorne asked whether Sprout had offered another motorhome.

"Worse. It’s offering food I want to keep."

Edrik came to look at her face rather than a screen he couldn’t see. "We could be customers."

"We could also eat our actual breakfast before making poor choices."

She left all eight trays unissued in the shop until they had somewhere to stop and eat. Food would be served promptly during a planned meal stop, not dragged through a hot day pretending the space was a freezer.

They met the crew at the checkpoint and followed its truck in their pickup, carrying their handcart and personal supplies. Edrik drove while Thorne watched the turns. The men ahead learned quickly that staring back at Dove was a poor substitute for watching the road.

Dove found useful goods at a small abandoned convenience store during the first rest stop. Sealed drink mix, batteries of types they could actually use, paper towels, and sturdy trash bags joined the load. Her third stored item completed the road task. She kept looking until the safe shelves had been checked.

Thorne brought her a bag of familiar cheese crackers from beneath a display. Her face must have done something embarrassing, because his smile softened immediately.

"These the ones you like?" he asked, keeping the bag out of the dust while she reached for it.

"You’re about to become very popular."

"I thought I already was."

She kissed him before taking the bag. Edrik watched with raised brows until she offered him a cracker too.

"You can earn your own kiss," she told him.

"Give me a minute," Edrik said, already checking the next shelf with very suspicious determination.

He returned with a small packet of chocolate that had softened without splitting its wrapper. Dove laughed, accepted it, and kissed his cheek while the crew leader suddenly became fascinated by his truck’s mirror.

They reached the supply yard late in the morning. A low chain-link fence enclosed two sheds, a paved loading area, and a line of portable tanks behind the office. The other group’s truck stood beside the larger shed with its rear doors open.

Dove stayed on the clear pavement while both crews introduced themselves. The other leader was a sturdy elk beastman holding a marked list. He looked surprised to see a woman, then more surprised when she asked to compare what each group had actually been promised.

Both lists described blue water tanks, which explained some of the argument. One listed the smaller portable units. The other listed the large wheeled tanks along the fence.

Dove was beginning to think the morning might end pleasantly when a worker beside the truck shouted. One of the large tanks had broken loose on its wheeled frame, rolling down the slight slope toward the men sorting equipment by the shed.