Black Market Merchant

Lisa and Mrs. Smithy were sitting alone at the mahogany table. They had spent the remainder of their time with the four rich men working out additional details of the town’s current facilities, contractual details, and price arrangements. It was the first time for Lisa to actually conduct a legitimate business deal outside of her schooling. Fortunately, Mrs. Smithy was kind enough to assist and explain the more confusing details. After all it was well over two hundred years and countless days of fighting since Lisa had learned about marketing practices.

The four men said that they would return once their schedules worked out but assured them that it would take no more than a few days. Mr. Cline also said that he would be sending a ship or two ahead of time to collect the first load of scrap metal. Along with the ships would come one of his best assistants to oversee things until he personally signed the deal completely.

Mrs. Smithy let out a satisfying sigh. "I am so glad that is over. I had spent nearly three days trying to find someone willing to work with us. I can't thank you enough for setting this chance up for me."

"You're welcome." Lisa replied waving her hand in the air nonchalantly. "We both just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I too needed a way to get my electricity sold to someone. The repairs and parts I need won't pay for themselves."

"Indeed." Mrs. Smithy replied with a nod. "Are you not worried about this Crescent Moon Fighter that Mr. McMathers mentioned? He seems like a dangerous fellow."

"Not at all. I relish the opportunity in fact." Lisa replied giving a confident grin. "I may look like a soft-hearted lady, but I just can't sit still. I have to blow off some steam some way and this fight will be a good chance to do so. The fights up until now haven’t been putting me to the test."

"You mean, you are the Match Fighter that's going to fight him?" Mrs. Smithy asked raising her eyebrows.

"Why yes. I am a Match Fighter and now officially a businesswoman as I intended. I should probably come up with a name for my electric company." Lisa said tapping her chin in thought.

Mrs. Smithy was genuinely surprised. Looking at this tall, slim, and gorgeous lady, she would have never guessed that she would have been a Match Fighter. Now she understood why Lisa had originally asked to be called 'Queen'. It was her Match Fighter name, and the rich men might have only known her as such. There was probably some reason as to why all the secrecy.

"So, you promised to introduce yourself properly after the meeting. Is now a good time?" Mrs. Smithy asked.

Lisa looked around at the market guards lurking around keeping an eye on everything. The market had started to again more customers as the day wore on and the guards seemed quite occupied, but why risk being overheard. "If you can indulge me for just a while longer, I would like to show you that the electricity I promised is indeed real. I will tell you my name then. For personal reasons I can't speak it here."

"Very well. I can wait a bit longer, it's not that big a deal." Mrs. Smithy replied. "Besides, I too want to see that the electricity really is being created."

"We can go just after my friends get back." Lisa said taking a glance in the direction they should be coming from. They weren't there yet, so she shimmied deeper into the comfortable white chair.

"Sounds good to me." Mrs. Smithy said taking another sip of her water that she had brought along with her. "Not to pry or anything, but you kept mentioning in the meeting that you wanted to stay here. What is the reason? If I had a good chance such as yours, I would have taken it. This town is practically war-torn ruins and wastelands, you should have joined them as a representative for their companies."

"Yes, this town had seen better times, but I feel it can see them again. Though I may not be from around here, as I only arrived her nearly a month ago, but some stuff happened, and I am helping out some of the locals. Especially one young girl. Her parents were murdered, and I have been helping her out.”

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that. Have you discovered who is responsible?" Mrs. Smithy asked putting the water down with a concerned look.

"Well, I can say that I and others also helping her, know who did it and the first one has already been dealt with." Lisa replied being sure not to give too much away. If she had mentioned that it was the very gang that they were sitting in the compound of, and that she had beheaded one of them already; Mrs. Smithy might want to call if the arrangements and get out of here.

"Well, if you do catch the rest, I would like you to try them in court. The ERM is creating a formal court system and wish to conduct things within proper law and order. This land has become far too violent, lawless and corrupt. If the regular people are to thrive and survive, proper laws must be upheld." Mrs. Smithy said with a twinge of pride.

"That's good to hear. Maybe one day everyone can be truly happy. I just hope that it can be with in my time." Lisa said thoughtfully.

Just then Sadie and Zane returned from meeting with Rickshaw. When they arrived, Lisa noticed Sadie's grumpy expression.

"What's wrong? Did it not go to well?" Lisa ventured to ask.

"Everything was fine." Sadie replied hastily. "Zane has his debut fight in a few weeks, then he will be official."

"Well, that good news." Lisa said still curious as to why she was mad. "So, was Nicky there? Is that why you seem upset?"

"Hmpf, ya, she was there." Said replied tossing a brown braid over her shoulder and looking away from Zane.

Lisa picked up on these cues and decided it to press further. Now wasn't the time to talk about it. "I see. Well things turned out well for the both of us. So, I guess we all can head back to the dam." Lisa said changing the subject.

"Sounds good to me." Sadie murmured.

It wasn't long until they finally left the Mad Dog compound and were back in the rundown town. Mrs. Smithy still could not believe how nice the compound actually was and could not help but talk about it. Her and Sadie chatted about the place as they went. While Lisa and Zane followed behind with the four guards, who looked quite relieved to be out of there.

"Just how are they able to keep that place so orderly?" Mrs. Smithy asked.

"Other than the large amounts of income, they have a caretaker that is in charge of keeping the place in perfect condition. I heard a rumor that he was the original Town Planner in the past." Sadie replied. Her mood seemed to have improved now. As the two continued chatting and moving further with the four ERM guards, Lisa nudged Zane.

"So why was Sadie so mad earlier?" She asked quietly enough for Sadie not to hear her.

"I'm not sure." Zane answered shrugging. "We turned in the forms and set up my fight. Then that pretty blond lady, Nicky, cane over and started bad mouthing us. I assume it was because of that."

Lisa picked up on him mentioning he thought that Nicky looked pretty and already knew the real reason. However, she decided to see how things went from this point on and kept it to herself. If Sadie had a thing for Zane than things could get interesting and didn’t want to ruin any potential juicy stuff. Despite having a military, tough girl lifestyle, Lisa did like and good romance novel or movie every now and again.

"I see. I am guessing that Nicky and Sadie have had this kind of rivalry thing going on for some time now." Lisa replied still speaking softly to not be overheard. "As long as Nicky doesn't directly threaten Sadie, I think it is best we stay out of it and just focus on winning our fights. That is bound to fix the main issue. Not to mention help us."

"Ok, I think I can do that much. So, what about getting me ready for my upcoming fight?" Zane asked changing the topic. "Anything in particular I need to focus on?"

"Well, first of all, we need to make sure that your wound is up to the task. Not only for the fight, but for the training too." Lisa said as the group rounded the next street corner and the dams Powerhouse building came into view. "You need to get back into shape. Sitting around and recovering is good, but your muscles will get lazy. We can do very simple arm and leg training for a little while, then once the wound looks better, we can work on your core strength. I am sure that is what Sadie will deuce as well."

"Nicky said something about not letting you do all the Managers work either to Sadie and that you might make Sadie useless. Probably should let her make the choices." Zane replied. "Not that I don't agree with you though."

"Hmm, ok. In that case I will try to make my suggestions seem like she thought them up. If she says the same stuff as me, then no need to worry. Sadie will be able to handle Nicky's jeers, I'm sure of it. Though clumsy, I think Sadie will end up being a fine manager." Lisa said thinking his comments over.

"Sounds reasonable. I just want to hurry and get back at all these guys that keep messing with me." Zane said tightening his fists and Lisa took notice. "No one ever screwed with me as a gangs lieutenant like that before and now that I am not, I just feel agitated."

"I can understand that feeling." Lisa replied slowly. "After getting out of the military, I found it quite vexing that there was no chain of command. With every conversation or encounter they just seemed to lack any proper mannerisms to indicate who was in charge. It took a while to readjust into 'normal' society. Everyone would rather just force their way through you, rather than show others respect for just being fellow humans."

Just then they arrived at the entrance to the dam. Lisa went up to the hidden gate and once again unlocked it to let everyone in. When they reached the Powerhouse building Lisa turned to explain the situation to the ERM group.

"My name is Lisa Cunningham and for the moment the dam under repair and is only slightly operational. I do have the Control Room powered up and monitoring the electric output. Right now, I haven't any problems with that room’s equipment either, so that will speed things along nicely. I only have one generator that is currently powered on and several others I have taken apart for inspection. The single generator is only powering the dam’s tunnel and Control Room for right now. Follow me and I will show you to the tunnel." Lisa said turning to go inside.

The group followed silently into the building. Lisa took a moment to unlock the big green metal door. As she did, Lisa continued speaking. "Behind us are some of the transformers that are currently disconnected. This is to prevent any power surges or unforeseen issues to harm them." Then giving a big shove, Lisa pushed open one of the heavy metal doors with a whoosh. "Now here is the electricity, as promised!"

Mrs. Smithy and the four guards inhaled sharply. It was obvious that they too had not seen electricity in an awfully long time. Perhaps they couldn’t really have had expected her words to be true until they had actually seeing it for themselves.

"This is wonderful!" Mrs. Smithy said stepping inside to gaze up at the lights. "This settles it. As soon as you are able, come join us across the river. Our elected Mayor, Nathan Dees, and the rest of the council would be thrilled to discuss matters."

"Well, why wait?" Lisa replied giving a chuckle. "I can come over tomorrow."

"Very good. We better hurry back to give our account and everything ready for your arrival." Mrs. Smithy said turning quickly to go out of the tunnel. "Come on boys, let's get back to the boat and get going!"

Lisa watched them heading down hill towards the docks as she stood in the entrance to the dam’s fence. She thought aloud to herself, "I wonder how things are going to work out with this, Nathan Dees and the ERM. Hopefully, they aren't going to be more trouble than they are worth. Militia tend to attract troublesome forces. Still with that trouble will come money. It always does. He-he!"

A happens chance encounter is starting to turnout to be a big break! “It hasn’t even been a month since coming here and already I’ve got a potential first customer!”