Morgan shook his head. “Ease up. I’m getting to that. Let me give you some background first. See, your timing is most fortuitous. There’s death in the air of Freedom. Bad enough keeping the peace from within, but now the stickies are becoming stirred up. A group like yours enters, and we take notice. I quizzed that Adrian scavie that came in with you, and he told me a few things. If your son hadn’t fucked up in the vid arcade, I would have been coming to you with an offer anyway. Now I can make the offer, and it’s one you can’t refuse.”
“I don’t like being pushed,” Ryan warned.
“Who does?”
“Why me?”
“I know you’re not exactly a teenager. A man lives to be your age, he’s got something on the ball. That’s why I’m willing to make this deal. Frankly I need your help. Good sec men are impossible to find, much less keep. They tend to have this annoying habit of following the money. I pay a decent wage, but once some dumb-ass baron gets his panties in a wad, off they go to fight yet another private little war.”
“I’m not a sec man.”
“Now you are. Better still, you’re an intelligent sec man. Freedom exchanges information with other villes, other barons. Your face and name aren’t unknown in this region. Amusingly enough, since you’ve never left any of your past adversaries alive, there has been no bounty placed on your head.”
“I’m not laughing.”
“Well, I found it amusing.”
“You seem to know a lot about me.”
“I know a lot about anyone who comes into Freedom, or at least I try to.”
“You can’t know everything. Can’t know what I’m thinking about right now.”
“I could hazard a guess.” Morgan eyeballed Ryan carefully. “What’s with you, Cawdor?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you look and act the role of a gunslinger, but your vocabulary and carriage belie the brains of an educated man.”
Ryan snorted. “Doc Tanner’s the one for book learning. Not me.”
“That preening fool? Far as I’ve been told, he wears knowledge like a suit of armor, verbosity aimed at keeping the rest of us poor, slack-jawed yokels out of the loop. No, you’re smarter than you let on, Cawdor, otherwise you wouldn’t have survived Deathlands as long as you have.”
“What do you know about survival? You hide in this back office, away from the mall floors, away from the outside. When’s the last time you felt real sunlight, Morgan?”
“Been a few months, but haven’t you heard? It’s dangerous outside. Skin cancer. Rad sickness. Who needs it? Not me,” Morgan replied in a salesman tone. “That’s why people come to Freedom to shop, to live, to deal. We’re a stronghold, Cawdor, with a movie palace, places to eat, things to buy, places to stay. Safe, wholesome entertainment, minus a few gambling dens, bars and the after-hours gaudies.”
“Yeah, men gotta have their drinks, cards and sluts.”
“Damn straight!” Morgan said. “All any man could want is in here.”
Ryan licked his lips. “Even as big as this place is, you can only stay back here for so long. Outside world will come in soon enough and stomp you flat.”
“A year ago I would have told you that was nonsense, Cawdor. Now I’m not so sure. I don’t have a problem with outside. I just don’t want to deal with it. Why do you think malls were built in the first place, back in the predark days of consumerism?”
“I don’t know. Greed, I guess.” Morgan shook his head. “Wrong. Protection. Downtown areas were getting too dangerous. Muggings, rapes, theft. People were afraid to go out on city streets to buy their needed goods. Mail order was fine for some items, sure, but man needs to go out on his own, do his own hunting and gathering, and malls such as Freedom were built in response to his needs. Or her needs. Malls were traditionally a female haven. Sexist, I admit, but I’m just repeating what I’ve read.”
Ryan gestured toward the bank of vid screens. “Looks like you have eyes everywhere.”
“Once upon a time, we did,” Morgan corrected, standing up and walking over to the wall. He hit a few control keys, switching the screen images, as well as the angles they were showing, as he continued to talk. “I’m being honest with you here, Cawdor. Very few people know the extent of how Freedom has backslid in recent months. Only the key people in my sec squad are aware of this, but all of these screens used to be fully functional.”