The line to trade in the scavenge was not long, and the man at the front was her usual contact, Max. It was still early, so he seemed half asleep as they pulled up. She stopped the hover next to him and gave a friendly wave as she got out.
“Hey Nora.” Max leaned in, his wrinkled, weathered skin, dusty clothes, and hard eyes on display as he glanced over what they had with a flat expression.
“Got some different stuff,” Nora said in an upbeat voice as she unloaded the metal scrap next to him. She forced herself to meet Max’s eyes. “Including . . .”
Tilly held up the box of doorknobs helpfully while Nora showed him the old magazine she had been holding back.
Max turned the magazine over, his eyes widening at the yellowed print. “Well look at this. This is worth more than any of the rest of that metal.”
“Got lucky finding it.”
“You sure did.” He rubbed his whiskered chin as he examined the magazine again, then glanced at the box Tilly still held up. He stood back up and walked to his wooden post, motioning them to follow. “Alright, got the price for you.”
“Okay, great,” Nora said, voice strained. It seemed like Max made up the prices he gave her on the spot most days, but he had been decent to her, unlike the majority of the men she had met.
Nora eyed the amount as he started putting the coins in her outstretched hands, relieved it seemed to be a bit more than normal. She couldn’t haggle; there was one price and she always took it. She didn’t ever want to make waves. Especially not with Tilly, who stood there next to her, watching every move as the dust swirled around them both. The coins Max handed her were small metal circles, made out of the brass and copper that people like her turned in regularly. The amount was not a lot, not really, but enough that Nora could figure out the rest.
“You about done living out there? Not good for kids to be all alone.” Max tilted his head toward Tilly, who was lining the metal doorknobs up on Max’s counter as she took them out of the box.
Nora hastily pocketed the amount, putting it in a zippered pouch on the other side from her gun. “Naw, better to do our own thing.” She swallowed and then added, fast, “Were you able to find those cables I needed?”
“Yeah, I did. Almost forgot.” Max frowned and went back to his station before bringing out a pair of long cables.
Nora reached for them with a genuine grin before Max pulled them away, just out of her reach. The cables dangled in the air, catching the light on their metal ends as Nora’s hand closed around air instead.
He wagged them in front of her face, now trailing them on the ground and stirring up some dust. “But first. What are you needing all these parts for?” Suspicion coated his tone. “What are you up to out there in the desert?”
A sharp shiver ran down Nora’s spine. They were needed to replace a few on Simon that were too rusted to properly clean. She avoided Max’s eyes and instead walked toward Tilly by the counter.“Just fixing some things. Living on our own means I gotta repair everything I can myself.”
Max frowned but didn’t say anything as he handed the cables over. “Better not be something dangerous you gonna bring back to town on me.”
She forced her voice to sound nonchalant while coiling the cables fast around her arm. “Nothing like that. Just finding some things scavenging and wanting to fix them up.”
“Uh huh.” His next words came out like a whip crack. “You didn’t find any of those war weapons or robots did you?” Max asked, his eyes narrowed. “Because some of these parts you’ve been asking me to find . . .”
Nora’s ears turned red as she looked him in the face, forcing herself to meet his eyes head-on. “Shit, Max, I’m not dumb enough to do that. Besides, I know that one of those would be worth way more in parts than anything else.”
Max backed down again, shaking his head. “Alright. Yeah. That’s true. None of my business I guess then. As long as you keep bringing good stuff in. You’re better than the raiders we send out.”
Nora’s gut unclenched. “I’m more motivated.”
“I bet that’s true.”
“Thanks Max. C’mon Tilly.” She waved the cables in the air as she walked back to the hover. “Thanks again. Be back in a week.”
Tilly echoed a thank you a second later.
Max just waved behind him, carrying the metal and magazine to the post he manned.
Nora helped Tilly into her seat and restarted the hover. The cables from Max lay coiled on the hover’s floor next to her. She sighed as she pulled away, glancing at those cables.
Once they were out of Max’s sight, she leaned forward and rested her head on the steering wheel.Stupid. That was stupid.She should have known Max would start asking at some point about what she was doing with how many parts she was needing to replace on Simon or had to try to find a workaround for.I’ll just need to not ask Max for anything anymore.
“Why did we stop, Mama?” Tilly asked.
Nora startled and collected herself, shifting in her seat. “Got lost in thought. Sorry.” She patted her pants. The coins felt just as reassuring in her right pocket as the gun did in her left.
Nora drove the hover away from the Tyra’s gang’s trading area. She relaxed further as they passed a large lake, the separation between the slums and the merchant district. Not only was the merchant district cleaner, with refuse not lining the streets, but there was also electricity from the nuclear power plant that still worked on the lake. Switches that turned on without the need for batteries and grief. Hot water and plumbing too. Steam was already rising from the power plant, adding to the haze. It was the one source of power that Mars allowed them. The humans running Mars claimed the restrictions were to let the Earth recover properly.
