Lisa stared at the trio of armed young men standing in the middle of the road.  They wore ragged clothes; their weapons were scuffed by age.  She could hear movement in the woods one either side of the road.  These three had allies under cover.

How many she didn’t dare to guess.  She had fourteen on her side, not counting Wayne’s and Dave’s young children.  If they were willing to confront her group they would need at least ten, including those three.  She had two people with bows in front of each wagon.  The eight riders had hand weapons.

They could take on these outlaws, no question.  The three in front of her looked pretty lean.  Maybe they’ve faced warriors before, but more than likely they haven’t.  While her opponents might be hungry and outmatched, they did have combatants under cover.  Her side would probably win, but not without losses.

Lisa remembered Coe’s warning about outlaws and robbers.  These robbers could be working for someone, she thought.  Maybe one of those nastier merchants in Great Junction.  Killing them could make a powerful enemy.  Or it could silence a source of information.  Makes fighting them awfully risky.

What’s left?  Talking?  Pretty much.  Either talk or turn back.  So I’ll talk.  They won’t be expecting that.

And maybe that gives me an advantage.

Lisa turned to her back to the trio and addressed her friends.  “Nobody moves unless I say so.  Got that?  Keep your eyes open, but stay calm.”

She turned to Little Wolf, sitting beside her.  “If anything happens to me, you get them back Quail.”  He nodded.  She climbed off the wagon and walked up to the young men blocking the road.

“My name is Lisa Herbert.  I’d like to speak to who ever’s in charge.”

The tallest of the three stepped forward.  “That’s me.  They call me Ned.”

Lisa took a long look at him.  He was close to Dave’s height, with wild brown hair and dark eyes.  He was leaner than Dave or Wayne, but not in a starving way.  She thought his age might be between hers and Wayne’s, but she wasn’t sure.  Considering his lifestyle, he might just look older.  He did carry himself like a young man.

So maybe I can talk to him, she thought.  I’ll just have to try not to talk down to him.

She walked up to Ned and stuck out her right hand.  “Pleased to meet you.”  He didn’t take her hand.  She put it down, and continued.  “My friends and I are heading to Custer to do some trading.”

“That a fact?”

“Yep.”

“Do some trading with us, first.”

Here it comes.  “What’s your offer, Ned?”

“You let us have some of your stuff, and we’ll let you go to Custer.”

She mouthed an “O” and nodded.  She put her hands on her hips.  “So, you want us to give you some of our goods.  In exchange, you’ll let us continue on to Custer.  That sounds a lot like a toll, there, Ned.”

He smiled.  “Yeah.  So this here’s a toll road now.”

“Oh, come on.  This wasn’t built as a toll road.  Only Earth had toll roads, and there you paid money.  Now, if it’s money you want, I can see if I still have a few Great Junction trade tokens.”
Ned’s face darkened a shade.  “Maybe you pay our toll now.  Be a shame to hurt someone as pretty as you.”

She ran her right hand through her red hair.  “I’m glad you think I’m pretty, Ned.”  She let out a breath.  “But compliments won’t change my mind.  If you want some of our goods, you’ll have to make us a better offer.”

He folded his arms across his chest.  “Like what?”

“I don’t know.  You have any meat?  Seeds?  A decent cook?”

“I don’t like that bitch’s tone, Ned,” one of the boys next to him said.

Lisa smiled pleasantly.  “I’m an honest person, Ned.  I’m not fooling with you.  You have something we want, and we can make a deal.  See, we’ve come this way because we want better lives.  You want a life, don’t you?”

Ned smiled back, but more cynically.  “Yeah, sure!  One of these days I’ll get a big home and a pretty wife.”

“I don’t mean that.  Wouldn’t you like to go to sleep without worrying if someone will take your place in your group?”

Ned didn’t reply immediately.  Lisa felt her spirit rise.  It didn’t take much experience to know how outlaw gangs worked.  A leader rises up because he’s the biggest, the meanest, or maybe the smartest.  Usually he gets there over the corpse of the old leader.  He ends up having to worry about that happening to him.  Knowing that Ned was thinking about that gave her an even greater advantage, and she employed it.

“You have any children, Ned?”

The other two snickered.  “No,” he snapped.  He regained his calm a moment later.  He ginned at her.  “You offering?”

“I’m not your type.  I bite.”

Lisa put on a more pleasant expression.  “I don’t have kids, either.  Haven’t been looking to, really.  Someday I will.  I’d like to see them grow up.  I’m sure you’d want to see your kids grow up, too.”
She waved him to step closer to her.  “My friends back there probably don’t want to pay your toll.  They’re good fighters, Ned.  They aren’t the best, but as you can see they’re well fed.  They’d rather fight than give in to you.

“Me, I can fight, too, but I don’t want to.  Like I said, someday I want to marry and have kids.  But, y’know, they’ll only follow me so long as they agree with me.  Same with you, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So, if your friends attack first, or my friends think you’re about to attack, we fight.  If we fight, some of your friends will die, and some of mine will die.  Nobody wants to die, right?”

“Course not.”  Ned shook his head and frowned.  “Look, what are you talking about, anyway?”

Lisa raised her hands, palms slightly inward.  “Suppose your men escort us to Custer, and on south to Pine Needle City.”  When he didn’t immediately answer, she continued.  “That way, you’re helping us, and we can give you a reward.  Y’know, pay you for your help.  Your friends get something, my friends get something, and we’re all happy.”

He nodded slowly.  “I guess that sounds fair.”

“Oh, it’s more than fair, Ned.  In fact, you might come out ahead.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, I give my friends a share of what we get in trade.  That’s one of the reasons why they’re with me.  They’ll get something in exchange for helping me make deals.  And they don’t have to keep what they get, if they don’t really want it.  They’re free to trade their share for something they do want.

“What’s more, once folks get to know them they’ll trust them.  My friends can, if they want, get some more goods and visit the towns we’ve been to again.  They can make more deals, and get more goods.  Pretty soon they’ll be living the good life.

“I’ll bet you and your friends are pretty tired of scrounging for scraps and and stealing bits in the night.”

Ned shrugged.  “We’re surviving.”

“Look at my friends, Ned.  We’re eating good meals.  And get this.  Sometimes, because we’re the first traders the folks in town have ever seen, they’ll feed us.”

“No.”

“Yes!  We’re making their lives better, Ned.  They like that.  They want to thank us for helping them out.  C’mon, Ned, wouldn’t you rather be thanked than hunted?  Wouldn’t you rather be liked than feared?”

“Yeah, maybe.  What do we gotta do?”

“Like I said, you help us.  Get us to Custer and Pine Needle City.  If you’re worried about folks recognizing you, we’ll protect you.  But nobody knows who you are, right?”

He smiled.  “Yeah, we ain’t been seen by anyone round here.”

“But I bet you do know who has been seen.  I’ll bet there are some other outlaws who know you.”
His face fell.  “Sort of.”

“Let me guess.  They aren’t willing to share in their big robberies, huh?  They think you’re too poor to bother with.”

“Something like that, yeah.”

“Well, Ned, here’s your big chance.  Not everyone gets this sort of a deal.  You join up with us, follow my lead, and you get your share of what we get in trade.  You tell me who the other outlaws are, and help me catch them.  Who knows?  Maybe you’ll be the man to do all the trading around here.”

She motioned him closer, so she could whisper to him.  “I’m not from this world, Ned.  Most of my friends aren’t, either.  After we finish here, we’ll be going to another world to make more deals.  Be a good guy, and you could have some of this world’s trade to yourself.”

His eyes widened.  “You mean that?”

“Oh, yeah.  Give up being an outlaw and become a trader.  You might have competition, but you’d be the first.  Follow my lead, and you might become the best.  You’d be a great man, Ned.  A great man would have to beat the women off with a stick.  You’d be liked and loved.

“A man who’s liked lives lots longer than a man who’s feared.  You ought to know that.  So which would you rather be, liked or feared?”

Ned began nodding to himself.  A grin crept onto his face.  “You make it sound awful nice.”  He looked at her, and nodded firmly.  “You got a deal.  I’ll get my guys together, and we can talk about our reward.”

“After you tell us what we’ll have to get through to make it to Pine Needle City,” she added, pointing to him.  He nodded, then began to assemble his men for a conference.

Lisa turned back to her wagon.  She was grinning from ear to ear when she arrived.  Little Wolf looked at her.  “Are you going to pay their toll?”