Black Market Merchant

The group of rich men were all sitting on soft plush white chairs around a large round mahogany table. They motioned to Mrs. Smithy for her to sit as well before speaking and she graciously accepted. Her four guards kept an eye on the situation around them. Lisa decided to stand behind Mrs. Smithy for a positive backing effect.

Mrs. Smithy swallowed her nerves and prepared to speak. The ERM and people of the eastern part of town were counting on her to get help. Though she kept nervously pushing upward on her glasses, with every word she spoke hereafter was filled with sincerity.

"My name is Mrs. Smithy, and thank you for indulging me. I am a representative for the newly formed East River Militia, just on the other side of the river here in town. I wish to offer a trade opportunity to all of you. We currently have a surplus of metal that we need to sell. From those sales we wish to purchase a large number of various supplies needed desperately by the people under our care. Specifically, medical supplies, food, clothing, building and repair materials. We estimate that by the end of six months all our resources will be gone, and the people will starve. Then if the hungry survive, the summer heat will likely kill the rest of us."

Stopping, Mrs. Smithy looked around at the silent men around her. They were all paying attention and didn't show any sign of disgust or displeasure, a good sign.

Clearing her throat, she continued. "As for the issue of money, we will offer you the standard pay for the metal. Then using that same money, buy the supplies we need to be transported, by you, to us. This way you will lose nearly nothing and always be gaining capitol. Queen here has said that you all might be interested in such an offer."

"That is correct." Lisa (Queen) replied before the men could give a reply. "This is not all that's being offered. If you agree to help out the ERM with this deal, I will be unable to go with any of you to fight. However, if you bring your challengers here, I will fight them for you for half what the hire rates would be. No matter who."

"Very interesting." McMathers replied looking between the two ladies. "The metal trade offer is really a paltry offer. It really doesn't give us that much money to make. Yet, Queen, are you sure that you want to tie in your chances with this ERM, instead of making far more with us?"

"Of course." Lisa replied right away flashing a confident smile. "I think you are missing something important here." Lisa than looked at Mrs. Smithy. "You told me that your area lacks the necessary power for producing anything of value, correct?"

"Yes, that is correct." Mrs. Smithy replied. "We have buildings that have a wide variety of production capabilities. Ranging from soup cans to construction Mech assembly, as well as chemical and adhesive solutions products. However, none of these buildings or facilities are operable without electricity."

"So, this is the point I want to make, they have no electricity. As such no one is making or buying anything of value. A waste of this town’s productivity and overall worth. What if they had electricity though?" Lisa looked around at each of the men, each one in thought.

It was Mr. Goodman that replied first. "Then they could produce items for sale, and I assume you mean that we could buy them for resale?"

"Exactly!" Lisa replied clapping her hands together. "I am sure that Mrs. Smithy would be more than happy to offer you all more than generous discounts for your assistance. Mr. Cline, you have a shipping company, so you will be the first to profit for this investment. Not only will the scrap metal deal work out but having a constant trade network to this area will be a great future source of income. This whole town needs so much raw and crafted items that I am confused as to why no one has yet tried this yet."

Then Lisa turned to Rich Rotters. "Mr. Rotters, your new Mech company would benefit from this immensely. If you were to purchase the Mech factory here, or buy the parts for cheap, your business would likely explode from the extra income. Not to mention that the new workers would probably be able to work for far less than your current employee's. Of course, all with in Mrs. Smithy's expectations. No need to cheat the locals."

"Then you, Mr. Goodman." Lisa said turning to him. "You could open an alcoholic distributor here to open up trade to Moab City and other areas for cheaper as well. I am sure Moab has some kind of shipping tax or fees put into place for river traders, after all that is how the city has prospered. Shipping from here would be immensely less expensive. Then once the people here start to make more, they will want to buy your products and you have seller’s priority. That goes for all of you, you all would have an insider offer that no other merchant would know of."

Mrs. Smithy looked at Lisa with great curiosity. She couldn't help but wonder to herself, "Why is she so adamant in helping us? We only just met this morning by chance. There has got to be some benefits in this for her, but what could it be?"

McMathers cleared his throat. "This all sounds like a promising idea, but doesn't it all depend on if they have electricity? Do you have a solution to this problem?"

Mrs. Smithy felt her hopes sink. It was true they had no way of producing electricity. If they wanted to buy wind or solar power converters it would cost them far too much. They also didn't have a way to put them up for use in time or maintain them. Then there was the cost of building an electric power grid. It was just all to unrealistic.

"As a matter of fact, I do." Lisa replied confidently.

Mrs. Smithy and McMathers both gave looks of curious surprise. "Explain." McMathers said leaning forward in his seat.

"Mrs. Smithy, you recall the place we went before coming here?" Lisa said looking down at her.

"Yes, what about it?" Mrs. Smithy said with a nod.

"That was the building that contains the transformers for the hydroelectric dam. That's right, the dam is hydroelectric." Lisa said with a triumphant grin. "I am in the process of fixing it up. I have been able to get one generator running and the dam, alone, currently has a continual power flow. I also have a Merchant, Frank Sellers, that is willing to bring me the parts I need to fix up the rest of the generators. Once the power is up and running at sustainable rate, I can provide all the businesses power. This way everyone benefits in the way I described and potentially even more!"

The entire meeting table was silent for a brief moment. Mrs. Smithy was indeed speechless. She had completely overlooked the possibility of what the dam was capable of doing. To think that someone was already in the process of getting power back to the town was equally as unbelievable.

"Well, I like what I have heard so far." Mr. Goodman replied. "Once I inspect the facilities will I make my decision. If all is well, I'll come up with an agreeable contract. I find no risk in giving expanding into potential gains. Besides this will give me a real reason to travel out here, my wife has been nagging me a lot lately about coming here."

"Thank you very much!" Mrs. Smithy replied looking from Lisa to Mr. Goodman. "I will make the arrangements."

"I think I can spare a few smaller vessels to transport the metal southward." Mr. Cline replied as he started looking at something displayed on his personal tabloid. "I understand that there are people all around the country that are suffering. I might sound harsh, but I can only help those that can help me. If I could help everyone equally, I would. It is just not physically feasible. Once you get the amounts of metal for sale tallied up, then we can discuss from there."

"Thank you very much Mr. Cline. The people will be very thankful for your business." Mrs. Smithy said with a smile.

"I, however, will wait until things are for sure going to work out." Mr. Rotters replied. "I cannot afford to make any such move out here at this time. I will keep an eye on the situation out here though. If I see a notable improvement, I may take up this offer."

"That is understandable, we will work on making things satisfactory in no time." Mrs. Smithy replied.

"Now hold on." McMathers said holding up a hand. "There is something being overlooked. What if the Mad Dogs catch wind of the electricity? From what I understand is that they control this area. If they find out that you, Queen, have been helping out a completely different rival group, will you still be able to protect and supply the electricity?"

All eyes turned to look at Lisa. She expected that this might be brought up. However, she maintained her poker face smile.

"That won't be an issue in time. I plan on working out my relations with the gang to where these actions will be supported, if not produced, by them. I also will provide electricity to this side of town as well. Likely, tripling the number of sales for you all, from the addition of this area. This is another concept I wish to present to the ERM in time." Lisa said looking then at Mrs. Smithy.

"I will relay the message to our mayor." Mrs. Smithy said. She took out a note pad from her belongings and started writing down all that was happening. Unlike the rich men, she didn't have a tabloid to record the meetings progression. She had nearly forgot to pull it out sooner. She was just too excited that things were proceeding so unexpectedly well.

"Well, I am a betting man, so here is my contribution." McMathers finally said after giving a long sigh. "Queen, I will fund your repairs on the dam. In exchange, you need to beat an adversary of mine. So far, he has beaten me every time we challenged one another, and I am tired of losing."

"Alright, that won't be a problem. As long as I can fight them here, I will win." Lisa replied while pounding her fist into her hand to show her sincerity.

McMathers gave a broad grin. "That's the spirit! However, the Fighter you will have to fight is not going to be as easy as Golem was. In fact, I would say that the Crescent Moon of Moab is the third strongest of all Match Fighters with in a hundred miles of here."

Lisa let out a light chuckle. "Well, with this Crescent Moon is about to become the fourth strongest after dealing with me. You have my word."

“For all our sakes I hope so.” McMathers replied.

Lisa then addressed the rest listening in, “Now, what else needs to be discussed?”