Black Market Merchant

Hanna sheepishly took Lisa's hand and stood up. Lisa smiled approvingly and then shouldered her coffin again.

"I sorry you had to see me kill them. It wasn't the best thing for you to have seen. It’s just that I needed to make an example of them, to show I mean business and deserve to fight their boss." Lisa spoke softly to Hanna. "I hope you can forgive me."

Hanna slowly shook her head. "I'm ok."

Her dark tan face was slightly paler than normal, but Lisa could tell Hanna was a strong girl. After fighting in so many battles herself, Lisa had grown numb to seeing death and she had seen many of her allies become as well. Hanna seemed no different. She too was seemingly growing numb. Unfortunately, a child should never become this way.

Lisa shook her head to dispel these thoughts and started forward towards home. Hanna quietly followed close behind. The two were about to leave the area when Lisa suddenly remembered something very important.

"Awe come on!" Lisa said giving an audible moan. "Hanna, I cannot believe I made a mistake."

Hanna looked up at Lisa a bit confused and asked, "What mistake?"

"I forgot to bet on the fight for a powered computer or laptop. Now I can't read the blueprints!" Lisa said shaking her head.

"That is unfortunate." Hanna replied quietly.

"Oh well." Lisa sighed as she took a step forward. "Guess I better do it next time. Everyone makes mistakes." Then the two continued to head back home.

The two women were going to cross back through the market area again to go back home. This time however, Lisa went down a different side road just to see the rest of the market before they returned. The road was the same as any other, trashy, wet and rickety market stalls were scattered on both sides.

Most of these stalls were selling things that didn't interest either of them. For example, kitchenware, faded old clothes, and other random items one normally wouldn't need. They were passing by the last run-down stall when something familiar caught Lisa's eye. It was a grey plastic square corner of what might be some electronic device. It was under a stack of books and she almost didn't see it.

The stall owner was an older woman. She looked about as decrepit and aged as her stall. Lisa eyed the stack of books and the grey plastic corner. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her. Stopping abruptly, Lisa asked if she could look at it. The old lady nodded looking happy that she might have a costumer.

Carefully Lisa took off the books to revile the object beneath them. Her eyes sparkled seeing her find. It was a small laptop! A bit of retribution for her previous mistake.

Carefully and with some hesitation, Lisa lifted the top of the laptop. There was an audible crunching crackling sound as soon as she did! Lisa could feel her heart clench hearing the awful noises. She tried to peak at the screen hoping that it wasn't cracked or ruined. However, she couldn't tell yet. Closing her eyes, she carefully finished raising the laptop top, doing her best to ignore the horrid crackling sound as she continued.

Finishing to raise the top, Lisa tentatively opened one eye, hoping for good news. She sucked in her breath sharply seeing the screen. The screen was miraculously ok! Only one corner was cracked, and the rest of the screen only had lots of dust and dirt on it. The joints of the laptops lid and bottom must have had a lot of dirt in them. That is what caused that terrifying crackling noise.

Lisa sighed out loud relieved. Next was to see if it worked. Looking down at the keyboard every key was accounted for. The touch pad and selection keys at the bottom of the board also seemed to work. Finally, the real test. Was the laptop capable of running?

Lisa presses the power button gently. Nothing happened. She pressed it again, a bit harder and longer. This time there was a slight 'click' noise from the power button. Then the black screen of the laptop suddenly turned dark gray. The sound of a small fan running inside it could also be heard. Then the computer company name appeared on the screen. It worked!

Concealing her excitement, as best as she could, Lisa looked at the old woman. The old lady was looking up at Lisa expectantly. She then crossed her arms expectantly for Lisa’s answer.

"I'll give you five dollars for the laptop." Lisa said without betraying her excitement.

The old lady didn't budge hearing the price. She calmly folded her arms across her chest and leaned back against the wall behind her. "We both know it's worth more than that. It even runs. One hundred dollars." She replied flatly.

Lisa sighed in her head. "Let me think for a moment." Lisa answered unfazed. Just then the screen changed to a login page. Seeing it Lisa then asked, "Do you know the password? I can't use it if it's locking me out."

"I do." The old lady replied with a nod.

"How about twenty-five dollars. It's not like I have any way of charging it any way." Lisa offered. By trying to phrase her wording to say that the laptops usage would be limited, Lisa was trying to negotiate the price to be lowered. A quite simple tactic.

The old lady sighed aloud and grumbled out a reply, "Fifty dollars. I won't go any lower!”

"Deal." Lisa said gently putting the laptop’s lid down. It crinkled a bit, but no harm was done. Then Lisa set it back on the old ladies' stall and slipped of her coffin. Since Lisa was in a public area, she was sure to be careful that no one watching could see the coffins contents. After getting the money from her safe, inside the coffin, she gave it to the old lady.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Lisa said giving a smile.

The old lady in turn flashed a half-hearted smile while also quickly stuffing the money safely away deep in her scraggly coat pocket. "Like wise."

Turning to go, Lisa motioned to Hanna that they were going and then tucked the laptop gently inside her jacket. This way no one would see her new valuable possession. Having a laptop in a town with no power might draw unwanted attention.

The walk back home was rather uneventful. The wet roads puddles had shrunken considerably, and the sun occasionally peaked out from behind the clouds. They talked about some of the random things and clothes they had seen in the market, but other than that, they walked mostly in silence.

They were only one street away from home when Hanna asked a question. "What's the best way to collect information?"

"You are doing it right now." Lisa replied. It was good to see that the little girl was taking her advice seriously. "By simply asking questions and listening carefully to others. Most of the time people like to hear themselves talk and end up telling you everything they know. Half the time you don't even need to trick them, just simply let them talk."

"I guess that makes sense." Hanna replied thoughtfully.

They arrived back at home far sooner than everyone expected. Lunchtime was still over an hour away. When Joan heard Lisa announcing their arrival from outside, she had only just started the fire in the garage.

"You’re back really soon." Joan called to the two ladies as they entered the garage entrance. "Did everything go alright?"

"We had a few problems, but we got most everything I need for now." Lisa replied.

Then while watching Joan cook, Lisa explained what had happened to them on their trip. Joan looked worried when hearing about the fight with Jackson's Match Fighters but didn't interrupt. Then only once Lisa was done, did Joan speak.

"My goodness that does sound rather like a very exciting trip! It makes my runs to market for food sound so boring." Joan said with a sigh. "So, does the laptop work at all?"

"Yep." Lisa said taking out the laptop from her jacket. "I'll try to open the dam's blueprints after we eat."

Just then the rest of the neighbors arrived at Joan's garage. The smell of the soup cooking must have drawn them over. Seeing Lisa and Hanna were already present, they curiously asked why. Lisa then had to retell their trip to the market all over again.

"You actually met one of the Mad Dog gangs' lieutenants?" Benny exclaimed first. "What a lucky break!"

"And you got a laptop as well." John said joining in. "So, you'll be leaving us soon?"

Lisa nodded slowly. "I still plan too, but only if I can read the blueprints."

"I see. Well at any rate, the soup smells done. Let's eat." John replied licking his lips hungrily.

Soon an hour or so later, everyone had eaten their fill and gotten comfortable inside the house. Being midday, everyone was going to try and take a nap before resuming their afternoon work. Lisa sat alone at the kitchen table and opened the laptop. It creaked loudly again with all the dirt in its joints. She tried to blow the dirt way and managed to get a lot of it out. Then she started it up.

While waiting for it to load up, she got up and headed over to her coffin that was still in the garage. Inside it mixed in with the electric parts box was the scanner she had taken from the AFR Officer. It had a port on its backside to where she could connect it to the laptop. Fortunately, the two could connect to each other.

Then after typing in the password that the old lady had given her, did she finally have a chance to see the main screen. Glancing at the battery meter she saw that there was forty eight percent remaining. Plenty of power for the moment.

Plugging the scanner to the laptop was a simple as it sounded. The file to the scanner's contents opened up immediately after plugging it in. Thankfully, there were only three files inside. One was the system files of the scanner. The next one was labeled Random Files and had nothing all that important it when Lisa checked. Then the final file was labeled, Maple Valley Dam Files.

Lisa excitedly clicked on it and watched as a loading screen popped up and slowly loaded the files. Then after a minute the files opened. When it did Lisa held back a cheerful shout, so as not to wake anyone napping.

Just as she had hoped, there indeed was all the blueprints, schematics, maps and functions of the dam were all there. In fact, there was more available here than she expected. She could now start her takeover of the dam facility. Lisa rubbed her hands together excitedly and started studying everything about the dam carefully. She could almost feel the money in her hands knowing that it wouldn't be too long before she would get rich from the electricity.

However, the future would not be that easy as she was eventually going to find out.