Black Market Merchant

Chapter 136: Small Trade
Lisa soon came down from the bedroom with her flashy MFA getup on, sword in hand and the polished coffin strapped to her back. The grim expression and airs she gave off were ones of urgency and excitement. Things had been kind of physically dull to her lately and Lisa was feeling the need for a fight to get her heart pounding again. Seeing Lisa now in full fight mode made everyone waiting, either inside the Powerhouse or on the outside, take her excited energy as a bit intimidating and dangerous.

”Everyone else ready to go?” Sadie called out to the others while peeking out from behind Lisa’s coffin with a smile. Hearing her voice seemed to break the uneasy tension.

”I think so?” Wayne replied. ”Eva and Willis, do you two have the pelts?”

”We do.” Eva replied while Willis lifted up a bag of tanned furs. Due to Lisa’s efforts and decent snare making skills, there was around forty rabbit and squirrel skins inside.

”Good. Now Tayvon and Henry, you guys are going to do what we planned?” Wayne asked looking over at the two men.

”Yep, going to start checking out those storage units for anything useful. We’ll start with the ones we find that are unlocked already.” Tayvon replied.

”We can save the locked ones for later, just in case we do find something really good and can’t move it all on our own.” Henry added.

”Sounds like you guys are settling in good with this assignment.” Lisa said walking past them and into the parking lot. ”Don’t forget to make sure to look for fishing gear and anyone that might be snooping around the area. We don’t want another gang incident to happen.”

”Understood boss.” Henry replied.

”I was thinking of looking for a weapon while I was at it too. I think you are right Lisa; things can get dangerous pretty quick.” Tayvon said referring to the Mad Dogs arrival earlier.

”Sounds great. Make sure you find something you feel comfortable handling and swinging. Don’t just look for something cool, looks are not everything. Functionality and effectiveness is everything.” Lisa advised and Tayvon nodded back in reply.

”What about the workers on the other side of the dam? Will they be alright without us being nearby?” Zane asked eyeing the area. He was subconsciously still anxious about being around former enemies, especially since they hadn’t reconciled yet.

”They should be fine.” Lisa replied sensing his thought process. ”They are going to be working on the path between the dam and the way down the cliff side. They will be too occupied with clearing the trees, rocks and training the pilots. As long as they don’t cause any incident with the Mad Dogs, all will be fine.”

”So, after we sell the pelts what are we to do next?” Eva asked.

”Well, let’s start by walking towards the market area and talk along the way. I don’t exactly have a lot of extra time.” Lisa replied urgently crossing the parking lot.

Following Lisa out of the fenced in dam area, Tayvon and Henry split off from the others to head down the hill for the storage units. The others stuck with Lisa as they listened to the rest of what she had to say. Though they had to wait a bit longer for her explication. The hill was too steep to hold a conversation and keep up with Lisa’s rapid pace. Only after they reached the bottom did Lisa continue speaking.

”So, after we sell the pelts and hopefully get a good trade or cash, I need you Eva and Willis to go back and join up with the other two. I am sure that it will take them a long time to check on things there. They may also need help carrying items if they find something useful. Wayne, you are going to come with us. I think you are going to need to report on what you see to Nathan or Gillian later on.” Lisa explained.

”Where exactly are we going too?” Wayne asked a bit curious. ”I know you have a fight to be in, but not too sure why you are actually fighting?”

”I’ll tell you in a little bit.” Lisa said looking further down the street. ”We are already coming up on the market area and I don’t want our conversation overheard.”

Sure enough, the sides of the trash littered streets and sidewalks were now being lined with small, stuffy stalls selling various and seemingly random items. The three volunteers marveled at this seemingly poor market area. To Lisa this place was on the low end of what a market should look like and not all that impressive. However, to the others this was a massive difference compared to their own market’s feeble ware options.

”Look at all the stalls and people too!” Willis remarked stopping to gaze at the intersection they had been passing through.

”I didn’t think we would see such a crowd on this side of the river. The Black Rats never would let this many people gather in the same place.” Wayne said looking around curiously alongside Willis. Perhaps on lookout for any gangsters that might try breaking up the market crowd.

”There are so many things for sale! Oh, look at the number of clothing options!” Eva said speeding ahead of the group to look at a stall selling t-shirts and various other articles of clothing.

Lisa sighed inwardly. Back in her day, two hundred years ago, this place would have been considered at best a third world market. It was still hard for her to believe that she was still the former and now destroyed USA. Malls, retail stores, super centers and organized Farmers Markets had seemingly long become extinct. Seeing Eva and the others being so excited by this run-down and desperate place reminded her of the depravity that many people had now been growing up in.

”Come on now, let’s not linger too long. We still have work to do.” Lisa called out to everyone. ”You can look at things on your way back, after we sell the pelts.”

Grudgingly Eva left the clothing stall to join back up with Lisa and the other two men did the same. Though Zane had not been to this market area yet, he wasn’t all that much impressed like the others were. After being in the Mad Dogs compound, seeing the heavily crowded arena and richly adorned illegal properties market, this place wasn’t all that special in the slightest.

”That jerk Ernest was unfortunately right, we do seem like a bunch of bumpkins.” Zane grumbled to himself.

Lisa waited for everyone to regroup and while doing so, she took a moment to scan the area. Now that the early morning crowd had apparently dissipated somewhat and noontime was not that far off, some of the vendors were already packing up. She even spotted a store owner flipping around a closed sign on his building’s door. The early closures weren’t because of a lack of costumers or products, but because of the impending summer heat that was forcing the early end to the local market. Everyone used this hot midday break event as nap time

Then as luck would have it, Lisa spotted a likely place to sell the pelts. There was a heavily bearded man sitting at his stall that was labeled ”Animal Products: Buy, Sell, Trade”. The man’s stall was still in the morning cast shade, so he wasn’t packing up just yet like the others across the street were. All around him, still on display, were various skins, salted meats and bone carvings or hooks. It seemed to her that he either had a lot of goods to sell or things had been slow today.

”Follow me.” Lisa called to the others as she started weaving through the sparse crowd towards the stall. The others tried to keep up, but Lisa arrived much sooner.

”Hello there, what can I do for you?” The man replied heartily. On closer inspection Lisa could now see that the man was roughly in his fifties.

”Good morning, I was coming here to sell or trade animal pelts. Are you interested?” Lisa asked getting right to the point.

”Perhaps. What kind of pelts and I’ll need to see their conditions.” The man replied scratching at three scarred marks on his nose.

”I have around forty rabbit and squirrel pelts. They are all freshly killed and sun dried, ranging from about three weeks ago.” Lisa elaborated just as Willis was quickly walking up alongside of her. ”Here, have a look and see what you think.”

Willis felt Lisa’s elbow jab at his arm as she spoke. He caught on and responded by placing the bag of pelts onto the stalls table. The man stood up from his three-legged stool and opened the bag. He took out a few pelts from the top and laid them out onto the open parts of the table. Then carefully he inspected the furs, the cuts in the fur and the dried leathery portion underneath.

Lisa watched the man carefully. There were many tradesmen and merchants that would act like they were doing some kind of examination of a product, but in reality, they were throwing on an act to mark down the price by saying the exam was bad and the product quality was poor. Lisa had to be sure that the man was actually legitimately looking them over or instead trying to pull an easy buy off her.

The man nodded seeming satisfied with what he did. ”Well, the furs are in ok condition and looks like your skinning was pretty spot on. Saw very few scuff marks or punctures. However, since they were only sun dried, it is going to be more work for me to re-tan them. I also don’t have much cash on me either. So, I can only trade items for the pelts.”

Lisa thought for a moment before replying. ”To bad I couldn’t just sell these outright for cash, but perhaps a trade might work out. This guy’s analysis seemed to have been a proper one. I don’t think he’s lying.” Then she spoke aloud to the man. ”Very well, but what I am looking for you might not have. Yet I’ll ask anyway. Do you have toilet paper?”

The man let out a hearty laugh and his teeth shown bright yellow through his thick brown beard. ”Toilet paper? Now that is an unusual request for a trade. I don’t have any I am afraid, but I know who might.”

Lisa perked up hearing this and the man turned over to his left and shouted at the stall next to him. ”Hey Liz? You got toilet paper still?”

An old grey-haired lady leaned back from her own stall to lean on the wall behind her to call back. ”Ya Tusk, I got one twelve pack and a few singles. Why?”

”I’ll trade you four rabbit skins for the twelve pack.” Tusk replied patting a rabbit skin on the table.

”Eh, make it six and you got a deal!” Liz countered showing off a witty toothless grin.

”Deal.” Tusk replied turning back to speak with Lisa. ”So, I’ll take this bag for that twelve pack.”

Lisa sighed, the deal was mostly fair, but she didn’t want to only get twelve rolls for forty small skins. ”If you give me a few of your bone fishing hooks, I can agree to that.”

Tusk rubbed his beard and took another look inside the bag. He inhaled sharply, ”Fine, but I’m being nice this time. From now on bring your stuff to me and I can at least give you a fair trade. No one else in town can do that.”

”That will be just fine with me.” Lisa replied giving a smile. ”You have been more than fair.”

Tusk handed some small bone carved hooks to Lisa and then handed her six rabbit skins. ”Here, give these to Liz and get your toilet paper.”

”Thanks!” Lisa replied taking the skins and turned to go. Then she spoke to the others following silently behind. ”Alright, Eva and Willis you two can go on back now. The rest of us are going to meet up with Benny and Hanna. Hopefully, John let them come on out here. We still need her to properly ID the remaining gangsters.”

”Sounds good to me.” Sadie remarked. ”I really hope those triplets are not in a good fighting mood today. Three on one is never an easy fight! Though I am confident in you.”