Black Market Merchant

Chapter 103: Militia Leader
Nathan was mulling around the grounds outside of the Militia’s base. Ever since the last main meeting that the whole ERM council attended, there hadn’t been much going on. Other than dealing with a few internal squabbles and complaining from dozens of citizens, he hadn’t accomplished very much.

The lesser wounded from the previous battle with the Black Rats had already been sent home. Leaving only the most injured to be dealt with by the lacking medical staff. He would check up on them at least once a day, but he could tell many were suffering and unfortunately, their numbers lessened by the day. Nothing was all that much different from when the Black Rats were ruling the area.

”Mayor Dees, it’s time to go check up on how much scrap metal the others have collected. We should go check on the docks area first. We need to be ready for when Mrs. Smithy returns with a buyer.” The speaker was Anthony Roth, Nathan’s new personal assistant.

Though Anthony was an assistant, he looked more like a bodyguard. The man was huge and stood a full head taller than Nathan. Despite his notable size, Anthony was a rather timid and gentle man. When Nathan first met Anthony, he saw that a fly had landed on Anthony’s shoulder and freaked out upon seeing it. He proceeded to start swinging his clipboard at it frantically but with little success and the fly easily escaped. Nathan could help but find the sight to be comical.

”Alright, let’s get going.” Nathan replied giving a sigh.

The two of them headed towards the docks and along the way they passed many of the towns people. Some were carrying metal stuff, a few were Militia soldiers keeping an eye on the area; while most were just wandering about with nothing to do.

”Any changes coming our way soon, Mayor Dees?” An elderly man walking by asked.

”Not yet, but hopefully soon. Stay positive.” Nathan replied giving a reassuring smile.

”I hope so.” The elderly man replied. ”The young ones are getting restless.”

Nathan agreed inwardly. He then merely waved goodbye and continued walking on. The people hadn’t been all to inspired lately. With the gangsters gone and not that much of an apparent change in their lives, it was bound to happen. It wouldn’t be long before the townspeople would start thinking of possibly rebelling just as he had.

The area that they were currently walking through had been the same area that Dilly had driven his Mech through. Many of the building’s sides that were lining the streets had been shredded and rubble lay scattered everywhere in the streets. Fortunately, most of the residents had long since moved out or they buildings were just empty store fronts.

Soon the two arrived at the docks, leaving the wrecked streets behind. Here there was a lot more productive activity going on, which was a nice change in pace. Men and women were bringing all kind of metal items to give to the militia. Militia representatives were making sure that everyone was proceeding in an orderly fashion as they formed lines to add their items to three growing metal plies. This was done so that the militia members keeping records of the metal collected by the people would be able to ensure that they were properly compensated for their work. Of course, only once they were able to sell the metal, if at all. Just as the Council had agreed on.

Gillian was the one overseeing the work going on here and seemed to be doing a good job. The militia and citizens were all working awfully hard together and appeared to have accomplished a great deal so far. Nathan and Anthony headed immediately over to where he was.

”Things are looking good.” Nathan called out to Gillian.

Gillian looked up from his note work scattered around on an old table. The paperwork was being held down by smooth, tan stones to keep the constant stiff breeze from blowing them away. He gave a relieved look seeing that Nathan was coming over.

”Ah, there you are.” Gillian said leaving the table. ”I needed an excuse to stop working. I absolutely hate pushing a pen around all day. If I were younger, I’d rather be out there working.”

”Glad I could be useful somehow.” Nathan replied as the two shook hands. ”Everyone seems to be doing something productive, all but me.”

”That’s not true.” Anthony said coming from behind. ”As the Mayor, you oversee everyone’s work, so in essence their work is yours too.”

”That’s one way to see it.” Gillian said giving a shrug like nod.

”It’s just not the same as doing it with my own hands.” Nathan replied.

”Well, then help me out.” Gillian said pointing over across the street, opposite from the river. ”I need an extra man to help carry that half of a car. There were some ants in it earlier and they bit one of the workers. The bites ended up causing an allergic reaction. Don’t worry, it wasn’t serious. Just his forearms will be lumpy for the rest of the day. Luckily, he had gloves on.”

”Sure, I can help out.” Nathan said giving a grin.

”Uh, ants? I think I’ll stay here and uh, check over the documents.” Anthony said skittishly. He stepped over to the table and started looking over the papers immediately.

”Alright, you do that Anthony. I probably made mistakes anyway.” Gillian replied holding back his laughter. Anthony sure hated insects.

The two leaders then went to join four other men waiting by the car half. The ants had already been dispersed and the men only needed an extra set of hands before moving. The six of them were able to carry the car half over to the closest of the three piles without any mishaps. A militia soldier recorded the addition and gave the four men the credit. As ERM leaders, Nathan and Gillian’s contributions were not going to be counted.

Nathan wiped a bead of sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and took a glance over at Anthony. Anthony was still fervently looking over Gillian’s work alongside an assistant soldier that had joined him. The two of them appeared to be working quite hard.

”Anything else that I can do?” Nathan asked Gillian. ”Anthony looks distracted and I don’t want to keep doing nothing.”

”Well, a bunch of soldiers had pulled down any still standing streetlamps over the past few days. The citizens were going to build carts to drag them here and they should be done by now. We could go help them pull the carts.”

”Sounds great. I am sure the task won’t be easy.” Nathan replied sounding simply just glad to move around. ”Lead the way.”

…

Mrs. Smithy and her four guards had left Lisa and the dam to quickly cross over to the ERM’s controlled area. After paying the boat driver, they headed straight for the headquarters. She was overly excited to announce her good fortune.

When they arrived, she was only able to find Mr. Flanagan working with two assistants on documents pertaining to who owned what in town. Apparently, Nelly Havens Head of Records, was putting a lot of work in and needed to have her findings overlooked for final approval.

”Mr. Flanagan, are you the only one here?” Mrs. Smithy asked breathlessly while knocking on the entrance to the room. ”I have good news that I must tell everyone in the Council!”

”You were able to get a buyer than?” Mr. Flanagan asked standing up from behind the table they were working at.

”Yes, and much more. If things work out well, the people will be right as rain in no time. But I will explain that once the Council is together. There is just a lot to explain.” Mrs. Smithy replied happily.

”That’s great!” Mr. Flanagan replied. He then turned to speak to the two assistants with him. ”Go and get Mayor Nathan and the rest. We need to meet here as soon as possible.”

The two assistants left in a hurry. Mrs. Smithy then came inside and sat down in an empty seat, as did the four guards. They all looked exhausted.

Mr. Flanagan noticed this. ”I’ll be right back with some water and food. I think you all need it.”

”That would be wonderful.” Mrs. Smith replied, and the guards all nodded in agreement. ”Until then, let me just get my notes and paperwork in order.” She pulled out from her backpack a small stack of papers and started sifting through them.

…

It was over an hour later by the time everyone on the Council was gathered. Gillian and Nathen were the hardest to find. Anthony was supposed to have kept an eye on them but got distracted. They were eventually found working in the streets three blocks away from the dock metal site. Mr. Flanagan gave poor Anthony a long lecture about the incident and how vital his job at keeping an eye on the Mayor was.

”Alright everyone, let’s get this special meeting underway.” Mr. Flanagan announced clapping his hands together. ”Mrs. Smithy has returned from her mission and apparently has good news to relay to us. Is that correct?”

”Yes, it is.” Mrs. Smithy replied standing up to address the Council. ”Very good news.”

”Let’s hear it then.” Mr. Zimmerman grunted as he scooted forward in his seat expectantly.

Mrs. Smithy cleared her throat and started to speak as she read off a paper held in her hands. ”Firstly, the initial objective was to find a buyer for the metal. It was harder than anticipated. I found, by chance, a woman by the name of Lisa Cunningham who was interested by our plight. It just so happened that she was already going to be meeting with several rich investors and invited me along to join them. Through that meeting many things were discussed, and fortunate deals were made.”

She looked up to survey the room. Everyone was eager to hear what came next. Not wasting another moment, she continued.

”The buyer for our scrap metal is a Mr. Cline, Owner of River to Gulf Shipping Co. He will be sending several small vessels and a special assistant to oversee the work. He agreed to pay us the requested rate. This is not all. Three other investors also learned through this meeting, that we have an untapped industrial opportunity here and would like to work with us to get it going.”

”One of them is Charles Goodman, he owns an alcoholic beverage company and perfume products line. He wants to look into potentially outsourcing some of his business out here to us to likely create a beverage dispenser facility. Then there is Dino McMathers and Rich Rotters. These two men will be interested in investing as well, but only after Lisa Cunningham is able to perform her end of the deal.”

”This is the most important part. Lisa Cunningham, also known as the Match Fighter Queen, is in control of the dam here in town. She was able to get the hydroelectric station of the dam working and can now produce electricity! She is going to get the dam up to full capacity and we can purchase the electricity, and once again get our town back and running like it once was!”