((Collaboration Post between The unknowable and Letter Bee))

[i][b]Flashback - Several Days Before the RP's 'Present Day'[/b][/i]

Paradise 'Par' Rapids appreciated having a Solar-Electric Truck, one that ran on a combination of Solar Panels and Energy Cells, enabling it to move at the same speeds as a normal truck even when it was dark. And, of course, it can hold a lot of guns and other items; that was a plus.

Either way, he was heading for Liberty Island over a bridge; he had people to trade with and a certain someone to meet.

The people at the checkpoint looked at the 19-year old suspiciously, but allowed him in after he declared his cargo. After that, Par went to the market and, after some tough bargaining, sold several guns and pure water in exchange for some boxes of dried mussels. After that, he then, following rumors and directions, set out on foot - albeit after setting the alarms and jury-rigged guns on his car - for the shop of Greg Holden, electrician and scientist.

Greg was at his workbench, tinkering with a broken laser rifle someone had sold him for only a few caps.  Even after more than a year, he was still surprised that people would let such valuable tech go for so little.  Several of the components were still good, after all, and it would serve as a perfect platform for his plasma gun.

He pulled the gun off of his back and laid it on the table.  It was little more than a plasma emmiter off of a Mr. Gutsy with a rechargable power cell, fission battery, and trigger circuit rigged to it so that it could be fired as a rifle.

After he replaced the Laser gun's laser emmiter with his plasma emmiter he started to move over the rechargable cells, but saw that a customer had just entered his shop.  He walked over to the counter.  "Can I help you?" he asked the man standing there.

"Hello there, you must be Greg Holden, the tech-whiz. And, yes, I do need your help. My name is Paradise 'Par' Rapids...and I need to talk to you in private," the man's face drew closer. 

"You see, I have a map, a map to a source of knowledge beyond your wildest dreams, and I have a plan, too."

"Do you always put your nickname in the middle of your name like that?" he asked before realizing that it was probably concidered rude to ask such a thing.  Oh well, he couldn't take it back now.  "So, a source of knowledge beyond my wildest dreams, huh?  It sounds like you're trying to sell me Radscorpion oil, to be frank."

"You might say that..." Paradise Rapids said, "but I have proof." He then went through his backpack, before finding what he wanted.

"Ah! Here it is," the man smiled, pulling out a book, a genuine, bona-fide book. "An Introduction to Tesla Technology, by Dr. Mikhail Zhukov; a genuine, first edition copy salvaged from, well, the place I wanted to talk about."

"Interesting" Greg said, reaching for the book.  "Mind if I look at it?"  A good quality copy of the book might help him out a bit.  Might being the key word.  If V-17 had known about the book it probably would havebeen downloaded into the Neural implant of everyone in the vault.  If he didn't have it, however, there might be some useful info in there that he had yet to learn.

"Here," Par handed over the book, "consider it a free sample, to whet your appetite." 

"So, once you realize that the book is real," which it was, "can we finally talk privately?"

Greg flipped through the book.  Most of the information within was already things that he knew, but there was an entire chapter on high voltage electronics that contained interesting ideas he hadn't come across.  If the rest of the guy's books were as useful as this one it would definately be worth his time to deal with the man.

"Sure," he said, picking up his plasma rifle.  Sure, he'd have to use MF cells to fire it, but it would work in its current condition.  "Just let me lock the door.  The walls are well insulated, I made sure of that, so no one should be able to hear us as long as we aren't too loud."

He walked over and locked the door, then flipped a switch on a radio-like piece of equipment near it.  "Noise cancelation tech.  It should muffle anything we say.  So, is this private enough?"

"It'll do," Par's smile was firm. "Anyway..." he then pulled out a map - a map of Pre-War New York, it seemed. Said map showed several public buildings, and one, named the [i]New York Public Library, Main Branch[/i], was marked by an X.

"As you can see, I've discovered the location of the New York Public Library, and found it not just reasonably intact, but also with a lot of books. However, those books are about to rot or whatever happens to books that get too old, and so I need some way of getting out all those works, or at least keeping them safe. Another consideration is the fact that as you can see, the NYPL is close to Central Park, and Central Park is where those slavers in Old Man's Corner live."

"Those people at OMC are going to interfere with any salvage operations...unless they are either made to believe that we're friendly, or unless they are crushed. I have a plan for [i]both[/i]." Par then turned his gaze on Greg.

"I plan to go to Old Man's Corner, buy some of their slaves, then free them, before keeping at least some of them on as paid workers. I also plan to turn said freed slaves - slash - paid workers into an army that will take down Old Man's Corner and destroy any possible competition from there. However, I cannot do this alone; I need someone to man the operations at the library while I'm getting supplies and stuff, as well as train the workers, or prevent the slaves from running away [i]before[/i] I free them anyway."

"So what do you think? We kill two birds with one stone; Liberty Island is safe from the Slavers' Guild and we get Knowledge. Sounds like a good deal if you ask me."

Greg thought about the man's plan.  "Ok, first of all, you are going to need some serious caps in order to afford enough slaves to threaten them.  Then you'll have to arm and armor them, not to mention feed and water them until the job's done.  I don't have enough caps to do that."

"Also, the slavers aren't going to sell you a lot of slaves unless you make it look like you can handle them.  Escaped slaves make them look weak, even if they escaped from their clients.  It makes their other clients nervous.  There are several places in the city where you can find active robots still.  If we were to find a few and reprogram them to work for us, it would help keep the slaves from escaping prematurely, which would just get the slaver's to blow their collars, and it would make us look a lot stronger than we really are."

"As for the caps, I'm thinking that we need to get someone else in on this.  Either that or sell a few of the robots we take to the locals as guards."

"The robots are a nice addition to our plan, yes. But as for caps; don't underestimate my abilities as a merchant. I have a Solar-Electric Truck parked outside the market - I can show it to you if you don't believe me - and it's filled with enough merchandise and caps to cover the initial investment. I have, in three crates, enough bottlecaps to cause inflation - aka make the actual value of goods rise up because there's too much money - in Old Man's Corner [i]and[/i] Liberty Island, and I have connections that can get me more. Surely you've heard of the Book Runners by now, right?"

"Wait, you're one of the Book Runners?"  Greg was surprised that one of them had come to him for help.  "Why didn't you say so?  That explains how you had a book that was in such good condition.  Three crates of caps, plus trade goods, though, and no security guard?  That's a pretty risky game you're playing."

He thought about it for a few seconds.  "In that case, why not get a few mercs too?  They'll definately help with getting the robots, at the very least, and they'll keep the salvage operation safe incase the slavers take exception to you freeing the slaves or pulling salvage in their territory."

"I didn't say so before because, well, I don't want people to think that I'm a young...upstart relying on my family's resources. I want [i]most[/i] of what I achieve to come from what I [i]do[/i], not just what I've been [i]given[/i]."

"Anyway, yeah, Mercs would have to be people who are not obviously from Liberty Island or serving its interests, but that's going to be my department." He then chuckled.

"So, that means you're in, then? If so, let's open the door so I can show you my truck."

"If it was just a "storm Old Man's corner" thing, I'd say hire a dozen Raiders and let them keep everything but the slaves, but with this plan that won't work.   Yeah, I'm in.  Let's see what you've got going for us, so that we can put the finishing touches on the plan."

He walked over and turned off the noise cancelation device, then unlocked the door.  "So, Mr. Par." he said, covering his tracks incase anyone was listening, "Let's see the merchandise so I can verify what it's worth."