Black Market Merchant

Chapter 145: Not Cash
Before Lisa’s fight had started, Zane had placed his thousand dollars bet at the betting booth and then stood off to one side of the hall. He watched the tellers carefully as they dealt with other patrons. If he was going to figure out where the cash was being stored, he was going to need to follow his own bet money. This was because after watching for a few moments, Zane noticed something odd. Most of those doing the betting never handed over a single bill to place their bets.

All they did was extend their wrists and one of the three tellers working at the booths would wave a small wand like device over their wrists two times. If all went well, a green light would light up and the patron moved on. If the light was red the patron usually got angry and asked for a rescan. If it failed again, they would end up leaving looking embarrassed. Zane was disappointed seeing this, because using Digital money from Chip transfers was all done all online and he had never learned how to utilize this process because of the towns lack of power.

”If they are chip betting, where’s the physical money? How am I supposed to find out where they keep their stash if no one else is going to use Paper money?” Zane worried to himself.

Rumbling down the crowded hallway everyone could hear the announcement for the Clover Clippers versus Queen. The anticipated fight was starting soon. At this moment, the crowds surrounding the betting booths started to dissipate towards the Arena. It wasn’t long before Zane was the last person standing alone in the hallway. Seeing he was exposed, Zane slipped behind a building support beam half sunk into the wall.

”Finally. Now let’s see where they take the money.” Zane thought keeping an eye on the teller that he had given his bet too. The beam provided just enough cover to keep from being seen by the three tellers that were in the booth.

Zane waited five minutes before he saw the tellers make a move. Fortunately, the booth appeared to have no immediate exit and the tellers would have to come out into the hallway to leave. The tellers took their time packing up what money they had received. They placed the cash into a marked safe box and then onto a silver-colored hand cart.

The sounds of the crowd’s cheers made it sound like the fight was getting quite exciting. Zane wished he could be there to see it, but the possibility of getting an easy cash grab was more tempting. He had done similar scout and heist missions before for the Black Rats and so far, this felt no different.

The tellers pushed the cart across the wide tile hallway towards a double door passageway that led further into the warehouse. Zane also noted that the bank building was in this direction too. Perhaps there was a connection between the two buildings? Even if there was no way to steal the money, this was still good intel.

The first teller, wearing a blue vertically striped shirt, used an electronic badge to unlock the double doors. Then the second teller, with a yellow vertical striped shirt, continued pushing the cart and moved into the passage. The third and largest teller, with a red vertical striped shirt, followed closely behind. Once the other two had entered, the blue striped teller let go of the door to follow.

Zane had to hurry! If he were to keep up with them, he had to make his move before the door closed and locked or all was lost. Taking off his shoe rapidly, Zane then quickly threw it, like a bowling ball, across the smooth tile flooring of the hallway at the closing door.

The shoe slipped soundlessly across the polished and smooth white tile floor, like a ghost on ice. At first Zane thought he had made the toss too weak and it looked like his shoe was going to stop short. Then, just as the shoe stopped moving, the door closed with a soft thump.

Right onto the toes of the shoe’s edge!

”Whew!” Zane sighed.

Then taking a quick glance down each end of the hallway, Zane saw that no one was watching him, and the hallway was completely empty. Satisfied he then hurried across and opened the door to peek inside. He could see that the smaller passage was carpeted blue and that it bent sharply to the left. As he peeked, Zane also saw that the three tellers were just now disappearing around the turn. There were no signs of anyone else being inside.

Slipping on his shoe Zane quietly closed the door and hurried after the tellers. Thankfully, the carpet muffled his hurried steps and he soon caught up with them. The passage was quite bare, with only a few potted fake plants lining the way. Zane dared only advance when they were three plants ahead, and even then, he felt far too exposed. Luckily the three tellers were not paying much attention behind them and were talking casually with each other the entire time.

The passage took one last turn to the right and Zane waited a few seconds after they turned it to approach the turn himself. Peeking carefully with one eye, Zane saw that the blue shirted teller had unlocked another double door and they all were going inside. From what Zane could see was that beyond these doors was a completely different looking interior from the Warehouse Arena.

As the door closed, Zane took advantage of the carpeting to rush forward and stop the door from closing all the way. This time on the other side of the door there seemed to be lots of people walking by. It was not going to be easy sneaking around inside without raising suspicion. However, Zane had a choice: turn back now and lose this chase or risk it.

Looking through the doors crack, he saw a large open lobby with red carpeting going down its middle and up some stairs circling upwards opposite from him. Darkly polish oak walks and furniture were everywhere. Immediately he recognized the large room as the entrance to a bank. Remarkably similar to the single bank on the former Black Rats side.

Looking carefully at the people passing by Zane thought carefully. ”They all look like Mad Dogs gangsters based on their markings. If I go in and they ask who I am, then I am screwed. But I could blend in as one of them. After all, I used to be gangster and I know I can act the part.”

Then he saw that the three tellers were now turning right again and out of his sight. Taking a deep breath Zane decided to risk it and opened the door as casually as he could. Stepping inside, no one took immediate notice of him. Luckily, security was lacking on the banks inside at this spot. Walking briskly in the direction of the three tellers, Zane passed by several gangsters, but none paid any attention to him.

”If you act like you are part of the place and moving with a purpose, almost no one will mess with you.” Zane confidentially mused in his thoughts.

He soon caught up within sight of the tellers and saw that they were approaching an area labeled on the wall, ’Safe and Lock Boxes’. Zane had to be careful now, this was probably where the Mad Dogs kept their spoils and likely guarded it tightly.

Sure enough, as he followed, Zane saw several armed guards with guns of all kind loitering about. The tellers were now speaking with a tall guard, armed with a shot gun, standing outside of a metal barred gate. Beyond was a large round door to the safe and doors, Zane assumed, that lead to the lock boxes.

This was as far as he was going to get. The tall guard had let the three tellers inside as Zane continued closer. Just before reaching the tall guard, Zane saw that this area was at a cross section with another hallway. A stroke of luck!

Turning to the right Zane headed for the corner wall closest to the metal gate. Then he casually leaned up against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. He was going to pretend to be waiting for someone, while doing his best to listen in on the three tellers’ conversations. The tall guard eyed him a moment, but he didn’t leave his post. Zane must have been convincing enough or not suspicious yet.

”Hey, so I’m still kind of new to this job.” The yellow striped teller said to the others. ”But what else is in here besides money? Gold and jewelry, I bet.”

”Pretty much.” The big green striped teller grunted. ”The only other stuff in here are money data sticks and special information related to the gang and assets. Right?”

”Ya, that’s right.” The blue stripped teller replied as he fiddled with the lock to the Lock Box room they were standing outside of. ”There is also, in the room behind us, all the deeds collected from most of the properties here in town. I know because I used to sort them out before I started working the Teller job.”

”Interesting. I never would have thought about keeping deeds.” The yellow striped teller replied.

”Neither would I.” Zane agreed in his mind.

”Why does the boss even keep them? It’s not like we need to prove that we control the area.” The yellow striped teller continued.

”True enough, but you never know when something legal might come in handy. I hear that some properties can sell for millions, depending on who you sell the deed too or what the property’s buildings might do.” The blue striped teller continued. Then he got the door open. ”I’ll tell you more inside.”

That was all Zane figured that he was going to hear. So, giving a loud sigh, he got up and off from leaning on the wall. The he looked at the tall guard and gave a sheepish grin. ”Well, looks like my buddy is running late. Better find out what keeping him.”

It was better to strike up a conversation and look like you were just innocent, rather than just walk away all sketchy like. The guard would probably take notice and try stopping Zane. As it turned out, Zane’s conversation starter seemed to do the trick. The guard merely rolled his eyes at Zane and didn’t reply.

Zane headed back down the way he had come and on entering the lobby realized that he couldn’t return to the passageway. He was going to have to leave out the banks front and re-enter the Warehouse Arena. It was a lot longer of a walk and he didn’t know the right route to take. Hopefully, no one would notice him entering the same building twice and never exiting.

”Maybe I can catch the last of Lisa’s fight too!” Zane murmured quickening his pace towards the exit.

…

Yet Zane had already been spotted long ago!

Security, under Xander’s orders, had been keeping an eye on him since he had entered the Warehouse with Queen. Being marked on the yellow list, a guard had been tracking him independently on the monitors. Everything Zane had done had been seen!