Journal of Honcho Biggs - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of the Journal of Honcho Biggs, titled "Primm Slim Pickings".

## Primm Slim Pickings

   My next tip: learn how to read. You'd be surprised on how much of a leg up on the average wastelander you'd have by knowing how to read. Though I suppose you wouldn't be able to understand this tip without first being able to read...maybe I should make a holotape for this.

Anyway, I read the paper, so I knew Primm and the areas around it would be crawling with gangers. Hopefully the courier wouldn't get his head shot again. On the way to Primm, we found a few abandoned prewar houses. Looking through real careful, we found a dress cabinet partially caved into the ground. Me and Niner worked to get it open, and viola - something real to wear! Nice little formal wear, though I know it was a far cry from the tuxedos and suits I'd be wearing on the Strip. Oh well, we're getting somewhere.

The road is quiet. Primm is quiet. Folks are milling around, working to rebuild what the convicts destroy. I asked an NCR trooper where the convicts were. "Some courier came 'round and cleared them all out. Thing of beauty."

The courier did this? No wonder Sunny was all over him. First he wipes the floor with them in a dust up at Goodsprings, and now he mops the floor with them in Primm. I asked the trooper where the courier was now. He shrugged, then mentioned he last saw the courier talking to the local NCR commander, Lieutenant Hayes.

Another tip: Know what kind of authority you're talking to. Some want you to kiss their feet. Some want you to be straight with 'em. Hayes wanted me to be straight. I found him talking to some ratty looking reporter. The reporter was trying to interview someone with knowledgeable about the courier, and Hayes couldn't provide. So of course I offered my services, for a price, and I'm a few caps richer just for speaking.

Hayes and the reporter tell me the courier is heading to the Mojave Outpost to look for a new sheriff for Primm. It's about midday now, so I decide to spend the rest of the day selling what I've collected. The courier wiped out the convicts holed up in the Bison Steve, but quite a few left their stuff behind.

I guess Vikki and Vance still remembers me, as a few familiar faces welcome me inside as I go to sell my new loot to the local merchant, Johnson Nash. When he runs out of caps, I try his wife, only for her to pull a gun on me! I didn't even do anything. Maybe Sunny's spreading rumors.

I got fat sack of caps now, but then someone approaches me, offering a job for much more. His name is Steve, as in Bison Steve, the owners of the hotel, passed down through generations. He's looking to get it up and running, but he needs some help. I say I'll help in exchange for partnership, but Steve says no, the courier is already my partner. The Courier! I'm afraid I've finally run into someone that's more of a hustler than me!

He says if I bring him some janitorial supplies, I can become a junior partner, or a senior member of the board if I prefer that term. Whatever, I'll take it. Being a junior's partner is better than being no partner. Of course I got Niner a spot too. Last tip of the day: look out for your friends. You can't make it big in organized crime alone, or you end up stuffed in a dumpster. Trust me, I've done the stuffing many times.

We sleep that night in some spare mattresses in the NCR camp. Before I go, the reporter tells me to look out for my interview in the next issue. Look at that, I'm already getting my name out there! So, as we go on the road to Primm, I've got hundreds of caps, a solid partner in crime, a solid junior partnership in a casino, a good ol' sledgehammer, and finally, some nicer clothes.

These pickings ain't so Primm Slim after all.