Black Market Merchant

Chapter 132: Assistant
Olivia Green was not at all happy with her new assignment. For years she worked for the River to Gulf Shipping Co. all the way from the lowest dock worker, to become a crew chief and then painstakingly proved herself to be capable of being an Assistant North Regional Tradesman. There were only eight other Assistants in the entire company, and she was only one of two women. The only positions higher than hers now were four Head Tradesman, thirty-two Board of Tradesmen positions and the sole owner, Mr. Cline.

If this order had not come from Mr. Cline himself, she would have argued fervently. To travel and trade anywhere north of Moab City, by boat, was considered to be an entirely useless endeavor. There was nothing out here but empty towns and a dead end in the desert at the foot of a dam. In most of the company’s opinion and her own, only desperate traders and vagabonds traveled out here. Now Olivia was going exactly to the place she never would have bothered to be. The town at that dead end dam.

After leaving the Moab City docks with four small flat-bottomed barges and a collective crew of ten river sailors, the trip went by rather quickly. Not even a day and a half of boat travel had gone bye, by the time she caught sight of the ruined tall downtown buildings of this wayward place poking above the Colorado river’s steep cliffs. After rounding the rivers next bend and going down a long uncommonly seen straight portion of the river, she saw it. That stupid dam.

”Get ready to dock. We are going to be pulling in on the port side. Just past the wreaked bridge.” Olivia shouted to the crew on deck, before relaying the same message over the radio to the other three vessels. ”This is one big crap hole we got sent to. Right Herman?”

”Yes Captain. I’ve seen cigarette trays better looking.” Herman, a tall redneck looking man, replied. His American southern accent was even stronger than usual when he was making a joke. ”We are just here to get scrap metal, or are we hauling off the whole dang rusty town?”

”I wish.” Olivia replied with a snorted of disgust. ”We are just going to make contact with some local militia types, get the metal and pay them so we can get out of here. This place has no other value.”

”Couldn’t agree more captain.” Herman replied topping his raggedy truckers’ hat to wipe away at some sweat.

The four boats drifted slowly up alongside the ragged looking wooden docks. The boats fresh black paint and pretty white lettering appeared completely out of place next to the splintering, sunbeaten docks. Olivia stepped off the barge with a huff and grumbled inaudibly under her breath as she could feel the timbers sinking slightly under her weight.

”Can this dock even last another day? I already hate this place even more.” Olivia muttered as she watched as three men with green arm bands approached the docking boats. Olivia assumed that they were the ones she was supposed to meet with.

”Hello there. You must be the Assistant from River to Gulf Shipping Co. So very happy to be working with you.” The young man at the center of the three said giving a warm welcome. ”My name is Nathan Dees; I am the Mayor and leader of the East River Militia.”

”I bet you are.” Olivia thought inwardly. Then she broke out into a bright white smile, which was a stark contrast compared to her very dark skin complexion. ”Hello there, Mayor Dees. I am so glad to do business with you. So, let us not waste any time and get this job underway.” Olivia was a trader by heart. No matter what the situation or mood, she could always perform well and get the job done.

”That’s simply fine with me. Please right this way. We have three piles already gathered and ready to be loaded.” Nathan said gesturing in the general direction.

Olivia joined the three men as they walked around a pile of old pallets and crates. In the meantime, Herman and the rest of the crew were busy securing the boats and preparing to make way for the loading process. A few curious locals were already starting to gather to view the new arrivals.

”Before we get started let me introduce these two with me.” Nathan said to Olivia. ”The big guy is Anthony, my assistant. The other is our Vice Mayor, Mr. Flanagan.”

”It’s a pleasure to have you.” Mr. Flanagan said extending a hand out to her. While Anthony only gave a timid wave with his massive palm.

Olivia shook Mr. Flanagan’s hand. ”Thanks.”

Rounding the old and rotting objects on the dock, the four of them came into view of the piles of metal. Olivia was taken aback by the sights she now witnessed. Dozens of people were still slowly working as they dragged, carted, or carried more metal objects towards the three piles. Their appearance was woefully bad. Most of the men were unshaven, bone thin in appearance and many had blank, lifeless expressions as they worked. The women were in no better condition either, with messy hair, dirty skin and equally dull expressions as the men had. Olivia noted that many of them wore nearly no makeup or bright clothes, adding to the deprivation of this town. It was clear that this town was still badly suffering from the apocalypses of the past.

Not only the condition of the people baffled her but the piles of metal themselves. Olivia had expected that there would only be enough metal to fill up the boats once and maybe only send one more back if any remained. But her assumption was completely wrong. By what she could now see it was going to take her and crew at least ten or more trips for all four boats to carry everything away! Yet the people were still bringing more.

”How desperate are these people? To continue working in such a terrible state. Why won’t they just move and be rid of this horrible place?” Olivia thought to herself.

Though she already knew the answer. There was nowhere they could even go. With no money, jobs, or connections; moving to a bigger city would hardly change their living conditions. Even in Moab City many refugees and poor folk still permeated the lower streets and infested the slums.

”Impressive work gentlemen.” Olivia remarked pointing at the metal piles, instead of giving her true thoughts. ”I can see why my boss agreed to purchase these metals. There is quite a substantial amount.”

Olivia lifted up her left wrist to tap on a small sleek black and silver device strapped to it. When she did a holographic screen appeared from the device and with a rapid sequence of finger taps, she pulled up the deal discussed between Mrs. Smithy and Mr. Cline.

Nathan was intrigued seeing such a futuristic device. Being in this electronic free town all his life, Nathan couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of such devices when outsiders brought one in. From the ease and speed the device pulled up the contract, he wished he had something like it to help him with his paperwork.

Olivia rotated her arm so that Nathan and the others could view what was being displayed. ”As you can see here, this is the price River to Gulf Shipping Co., or RGS, is willing and agreed on to pay. In my opinion this is indeed a very standard payout for scrapping.”

Mr. Flanagan unfolded a letter from his jacket and glanced over it quickly. The letter was the written deal that was discussed at Mrs. Smithy’s meeting with the rich men and saw that the prices were indeed the same. Satisfied he put it away and nodded to Nathan.

”Very good. I see that the deal is agreeable for both sides after all. Now we can move on with loading the metal and discussing how the payments are to be made.” Nathan said quickly tearing his eyes off the fancy wrist device to look at Olivia.

”I assume that chip transfer is out of the question?” Olivia said glancing around the area. ”There seem to be nowhere that has Wi-Fi or internet access here.”

”Yes, I am afraid this is the case. At the moment we don’t have electricity, much less internet. However, cash or a trade for items to be brought back here are also just as good.” Nathan replied. ”You see there are items such as food, medicine and other essentials that we wish to purchase from RGS to bring here to us. After you take the metal, rather than giving us money, we give you a list of things we wish to buy and deduct it from what you owe for the metal.”

”Yes, Mr. Cline mentioned that this was a possible method. I am most willing to do this. Actually, this won’t be the first time I’ve used this method. Though not on this scale.” Olivia said thoughtfully. ”Who came up with this idea, might I ask? Was it another merchant trading around here?”

”Umm, in a sense.” Nathan replied. ”A woman name Lisa came to us and your boss, Mr. Cline and some others, and offered some rather lucrative business deals. This metal trade deal was actually thanks to Lisa and wouldn’t be possible without her. Not only that, but she is also going to be the person repairing the dam to produce electricity!”

”Really?” Olivia replied raising an eyebrow. She then eyed the dam skeptically. ”That old thing is actually capable of something like that? What does she plan on doing with the electricity?”

”For now, to get the town running.” Nathan replied. ”Lisa also mentioned that other investors would be very interested in opening up businesses around here once the electricity is running. According to Lisa and our Treasurer, Mrs. Smithy, we can offer cheaper labor than other areas for the potential investors to open up business here.”

”Very interesting. I would like to meet this Lisa. She sounds like she is very capable. Using both electricity and connections to some rich merchants to get this town to be productive.” Said Olivia tapping her chin. ”But I need to focus on the now. How are we going to load these piles of metal? I don’t see any kind of work vehicles around or cars for that matter.”

”Well, um, we are going to have to do it all by hand.” Nathan replied reluctantly. ”Like I said, we have no electricity.”

”What?! Are you serious, by hand!” Olivia said suppressing a shout. She nearly lost her composure and revealed her normally hostile attitude. ”That’s going to take forever. My crew will not be happy about this.”

”I understand, but there is nothing else we can do.” Nathan said shrugging. ”We will just have to do it the hard way. Our townspeople are very hardy, and it won’t take too long, I hope.”

”It better not!” Olivia thought. Just then a fly buzzed by her face to dance on her lips before nearly going into her mouth! Sputtering at this unpleasant encounter she continued to fume inwardly. ”This place just keeps getting worse in my opinion. I can’t wait to leave this crap hole!”