The gang had surrounded the house. Various foritifcations had been constructed inside, and outside. Rumor had it that Sully Wallace wasn't going to surrender peacefully. That suited Big Jim just fine, but the council was getting pissy about losing men in firefights. So here, Jim decided to resort to more subtle bullying. They'd been camped out all night, taking a crack at intimidation rather than brute force. Maybe their reputation could do their dirty work now.

"Wallace!" shouted Big Jim.

"Who's this?" came the muffled reply from the house. Sully Wallace had been holed up with his family. He'd told Megan he'd stay awake, but he was too startled to realize he'd fallen asleep anyway. The coffee just didn't have the kick it used to.

"James Cortez, Wallace. Deputy of Brightvale."

"Is this what deputies do these days?"

"Keep goin', Wallace. The guys here are losing their patience. You've kept 'em awake in the cold, all night. I don't think they're gonna be amused."

Sully sighed. He was constantly forgetting that few shared his habit of laughing during crises. "Well, what the hell do you want?"

"Those tarps and drapes aren't foolin' us anymore, Wallace. You've got the only solar cells in this region for a thousand miles. There are better uses they could be put toward."

Continued...

Sully waited for Big Jim to finish; a lot longer than he expected to wait. Finally, he replied. "Oh... uh, is that all?"

The gang, who had their guns trained on the windows and doors, were not amused, as predicted. Sarcasm that might have elicited a sly grin the night before now produced only eyerolling and murmured cursing. Jim snapped his fingers to get them back to attention.

"Well, unless you got some gas kittied away down there... What fuck else do you think?"

"No, seriously!" scrambled Sully. "Hang on a sec. I'm coming out."

Big Jim's face contorted in the morning sun in ways seldom seen by his gang. What the hell was this about? He glanced over and checked in visually with the guys he assigned to each side of the house, to make sure nothing funny was going on.

Sully cracked the front door. "Alright, hold your fire! I'm unarmed." Receiving no reply, he added "...Alright?"

Out of sheer curiosity, Jim gave the ceasefire sign. "Alright," he quipped, trying to disguise his befuddlement as amusement.

Sully slowly pushed the door open, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight. He then gingerly stepped out into view, down a dozen barrels.

"S-so...uh," stammered Sully, only now getting the picture of exactly what forces were arrayed against him. "Exactly h-how many cells are you looking for?"

Big Jim's confounded expression didn't resolve. He was kind of lost, despite the fact that, considering the circumstances, the next question was obvious. "Well how many you got?"

Sully looked around, down the road. "Did you bring a truck?" Big Jim cocked an eyebrow. "I, uh - I don't know if anyone told you this, but I don't just have solar cells. I make them. Hell, they make themselves, practically. If you want one of the cell fabbers, I'll even build you one of those. Then you can make your own. This... stand off isn't really necessary."

Big Jim had gotten so accustomed to beating people to get what he wanted for so long that this kind of offer came as a genuine shock to him. His incredulous expression peaked as he intoned, "Really?"

"Well, yeah." Seeing his lucky moment of confusion lengthen, Sully turned his thoughts to buttressing his claims. "If you want, and.. if you've got a few hours, I can bring some of you downstairs and demonstrate it."

Something in Jim's ego deflated a bit. A solar cell fab would definitely be awesome for the valley's worsening power shortage problems, and he had heard about some of these big cell fabrication projects on the East Coast, but they were still buggy. Still, somewhere between his pride and his bloodlust, he couldn't just tell the gang to put down their guns and go home. After months of putting down any piddly upstart redneck gang with a twisted sense of civic duty and a gasoline habit, it was hard for Jim to believe he could come away from this with more than he came for without a fight. Out of sheer cussedness, he smelled a trick.

"Herb! Take two guys. See what he's up to. Send a guy back to check back in 20 minutes." That sounded like enough time to think of a way to back down with his reputation intact.

comments –Nato