Emma and Brian waited to be invited back to the Mayor's office.
It should be a quick decision to make, but the bastard was actually going to take hours. He probably finished his doughnuts before he even decided to think of it, and that thought made her a little pissed.
She kept glancing out the window, hoping the light outside, the position of the sun, would guide her to how much time was passing. It felt like too long, and she'd long since stood up and paced all over the room in anxiety as they waited to hear back.
There was a high chance the response might not be positive. She chewed on her nails, eyes flitting the way they'd come from the office, and back to the window. Occasionally, she'd glance at Brian. He didn’t seem to have the same problem she was, sitting down, fidgeting occasionally to settle himself more comfortably, but he didn’t look worried.
An hour or so might have passed when Emma gave in and uttered a vehement curse. Brian looked up at her, and she stopped herself from apologizing. She had every right to be anxious, in fact, in her opinion, he wasn’t anxious enough.
"Emma?"
She released her breath in a gust and threw up her hands. How did he not feel the pressure on them? It was practically squeezing the breath out of her. A lot of people depended on this, and they were here ready to make a deal with a greedy pig. Emma could even add dictatorial, and wondered why the people of the town let him block them out just so he could have his space to eat.
He didn’t seem to like new comers and refugees streaming into his town, but they needed him.
"I'm a little nervous," she admitted. "I was rude to him earlier. What if he refuses to help us?"
She knew the town's trading deal was reliant on her actions and her minimal negotiation skills. She didn’t want to let them down, and the mere possibility that she could made her heart race and her stomach lurch uneasily.
"Don’t sweat it, Emma. You told him what he needed to hear, so he would listen to us. If you'd gone in there begging or trying to get an exchange right off the bat, especially after we essentially broke in, he would have sent us away without thinking about it. You got him to pay attention to you."
She chewed on her lip, thinking about his words.
"You think?"
"Yeah. I have faith in your ability to win Mayor Williams over."
She wondered what he based that belief on, but hearing the words made her calm down slightly. Getting him to pay attention might not be enough to be of help to them, though.
After a while with no word, she'd had enough. If he wasn’t going to come out to them, they were going to have to go back and talk to him.
"Come on, Brian. Let's go see if he's had enough time to reconsider."
He got up, and they walked slowly back to Mayor Williams's office. He was still sitting at his desk, but there wasn’t anything in front of him. He was staring out the window with a thoughtful look on his face, that hardened when they walked in. He looked more serious now than he had before, but he wasn’t sending them away. Instead, he folded his arms back over the desk and gave them his full attention.
"All right. I've had time to think about it, and I'm more ready to talk business." He waved a hand at them. "Now, talk."
Emma faltered, though it only lasted for a second. His intimidating factor had gone up a notch, and she thought this was the face that managed to win this man the election. He didn’t look any less cruel, but he also looked sly and calculating. She wondered how long he had been in politics.
"When everything shut down, electricity, cars, there was heavy traffic down the highway, and a plane came down right in the middle of it. A lot of people didn’t walk out of that accident, a lot of the ones that did, and are still alive, were heavily injured. Medical supplies are dwindling, but that isn’t even the biggest problem right now.
"Food shipments that were supposed to come in didn’t make it, so right now we're worried about keeping everyone fed. Some stores were broken into, food stolen, but the police are doing something to try and reduce the damage. Our biggest problem is that we're too small. We don’t have any big food reserves, and we're looking for support from other towns. We were sent here, but I'm sure others were sent to other neighboring towns."
He nodded once she'd stopped talking. "You do realize, miss, that as much as you need help, I have put my own people first. We have food supplies, yes, but we also have more people. There weren’t any big accidents around here and that just means more people to feed. We have no idea how long this situation will last, so depleting our own resources to help yours, won't be of benefit to us in the long run."
It was cold hearted, but she could understand the logic. It didn’t make her happy that he was right.
"But we won't just be taking for free. I'm sure we can find things to trade."
He raised a sardonic eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Cars unaffected by the EMP will still run," she pointed out. She didn’t mention how she'd only overheard this conversation from some officers at the station and had yet to see it herself. "My town would be willing to open the use of our gas stations to you in exchange for food. We have a lot of it and we're not currently using it for much."
That was something she was sure of. A lot of the fuel that was still in use was going to fuel lamps, but not many people had them, and the police station only had a few of them.
Mayor Williams stared at them for a moment as he deliberated, his fingers tapping lightly on his desk. "And how exactly would this benefit me?"
"You would have more access to easy transport, and may be able to trade further with other towns if you have the use of vehicles."
He looked away from them, staring down as fingers of both hands tapped on his desk. She assumed he was considering the proposal by the furrow growing on his brow. She counted down in her mind the seconds before he looked up with a heavy frown that seemed to age his face.
"All right," he accepted. But held up a hand before either of them could think to be happy about it. "I will give this idea a trial run. This weapon, if that is what it is, clearly took out anything that worked with electricity. A lot of modern cars depend on it, but I will have some of my people look for older models that might be able to run. But—" he cut them off again with a hand, when she opened her mouth to say something.
"Let's get something straight. This is on trial only. I won't give you anything right now. The deal may be on, but I will cut it off if there are any issues, or if our own supplies begin to run low. I am willing to exchange a truck full of food for a full tank of gas. If this is disagreeable, you can both walk yourselves out."
She held back from showing her how giddy she felt. It was a good enough deal and they were desperate enough to take it. She stood up, Brian following her lead, and she stepped forward, offering her hand to the Mayor.
"You have a deal, Mayor Williams."
His face was closed off as they sealed the deal with a handshake.
"A vehicle will arrive the next day to collect the gas and drop off a supply of food."
She gave a sharp nod and left the office with Brian on her heel. She walked fast until they got outside, and she let herself drag in deep breaths.
"We actually did it," she muttered to herself. "We got a deal."
"No, Emma. We didn’t do anything, it was all you in there. I didn’t even say anything, I kinda feel bad for being useless here."
"No," she protested. "It was good having you there, I don’t think I could have done so well if I was by myself."
She was too easily intimidated. It might have lessened when her life changed, but it hadn't changed that much. He might be a greedy bastard, but Williams had proved he'd earned his position, even though he stood for pretty much everything she disliked about politics and politicians.
Brian didn’t look like he believed her, but he didn’t argue. It was true, though. Having him there wasn’t as good as having Chase, but she wondered how ready the Mayor would have been to listen to her if she'd just been a single woman on her own, far away from home and trying to play at being a shark.
"Fine, but you did well to handle yourself, and you're saved your townspeople for a little longer."
Yeah, that would still be a problem. How long would the supply last? How long would Williams be willing to trade? Even with this, they would need more. She couldn’t be as optimistic as Brian, because she knew it was only putting off the bigger problem.
"The deal won't last long, Brian. Not when food becomes the main priority for everyone. This is only a temporary fix."
How long was temporary was their new big problem. And besides that, she didn’t trust Williams. When she'd mentioned exchanging for gas, he'd acted like he wasn’t aware of any running cars. But they already had a truck that would bring the food over to them? Either he was really confident one would be available, or he was manipulating them. She was more worried about the latter idea, but it was bad either way.
Vaguely, it felt like making a deal with the devil, and she wondered how long it would be before he stopped playing nice. What really worried her, though, was when his obvious greed would come in.
Brian shrugged and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We'll figure something out later. For now, we should go home. It's getting late and we have a long way to go."
Right. They didn’t want to miss curfew. Emma put her anxiety aside for the time being as they collected their bikes and headed for home.
