Black Market Merchant

Chapter 156: Dock Child
Lisa closed her damaged arm with the black egg device and the bicep armor was easily flattened and smoothed back into place, as if there was no damage at all from the procedure or injury. Her arm’s skin now looked completely normal, even her skin-colored paint was unaffected. She also took a moment to do the same smoothing process with the dented area on her shoulder from when the Twisted hit her.

Then collecting everything and putting it neatly away into her coffin, she was ready to go find Tom. As she headed down the row of red roofed storage units, Lisa looked out for the others searching the area. Dozens of door locks had been broken by the team, but similarly like the unit she was in before, the units were already emptied.

”Well, this is unfortunate.” Lisa sighed aloud walking by the empty units. ”I was hoping that there would be something inside some of them. Even junk would be better to find than nothingness. It’s odd though. They said they would save the locked units for last. I wonder why they are opening them now?”

After passing a pile of rotting pallets, Lisa spotted a familiar white glow of something shoved against the wall. Stopping she staired intrigued by the pale bones of some long dead human. This permanent resident looked to have been shot through the sternum as Lisa traced the hole with her forefinger. As she did so she mused to herself, “Hmm, this area doesn’t seem to be all that inviting.” Then standing she looked at a huge leafless bush nearby and saw another similarly discarded pile of bones. “I wonder, did Hanna wander this way after escaping the dogs? It seems to match up with her story.”

She then took a moment to scan the roads leading to and from the area and surmised that this area was far from any residential area and that the gang probably used this place as an execution ground. It wasn’t all that uncommon for any gang to have such a favored location. Lisa shrugged and continued along a few of the units until, passing by a pathway between two sets of units, leading to the next row beyond, Lisa heard some commotion. Changed her direction and going through the pathway, Lisa decided to check it out.

Just as she expected, Willis, Tayvon, Eva and Henry were rummaging around in an opened unit. Unlike most of the others, this one had stuff inside. In the roadway between the rows of units was a small boat trailer and the trailers aluminum frame looked brand new, as did the tires. It also looked like the team had laid plywood on the trailers center to create a way to carry stuff on it like a makeshift cart. On this modified cart were several undiscernible objects, some were wrapped in tarps, still boxed up or piled in a mixed fashion.

Eva was keeping watch outside while the rest were working, and Lisa waved to her as they spotted each other at the same moment. ”Eva, I’m back. How’s things going on here.”

Eva seemed to relax slightly and called back as Lisa came up to join her. ”It’s been alright. As you might have noticed, we haven’t found much at all. This is only the second row we have checked too. We ran into a small problem.”

”Oh, what happened?” Lisa asked stopping next to the boat trailer.

Hearing the conversation outside, the men came out to join them. Each one carried a box out with them. Willis had heard Lisa’s question and answered it as he came out.

”There were some sketchy guys hanging around the far side of these units. They didn’t have any Mad Dog symbols on them, so I’m not sure if they were locals or not.” He then set the box down and continued. ”What made them sketchy was that as we watched them, out of sight of course, they kept pointing at the dam and eyeing it.”

”That’s not all.” Tayvon added. ”They were loading similarly marked and sized boxes into a unit too. We didn’t see exactly what the box’s said or potentially were. From our hiding spot it was too far away. They were working there for a while and it wasn’t until Eva and Henry joined up with us did we then start searching the units.”

“So, I take it they are gone now?” Lisa asked curiously.

“Eva watched them while we looked at the first row of units and they left an hour ago. They seemed warry but not because of us.” Henry replied.

”That’s good to know. It is better not to get found out anyway. Especially when you don’t know the situation. Good work though.” Lisa then pointed at the boat trailer. ”So, what have you guys found?”

Eva pointed at the disordered pile at the front. ”This is all copper wires and electrical junk. We know that copper is a good trade item to outsiders, so we made sure to collect any.”

”Hmm, from the looks of it, all this stuff is useless to us anyway.” Lisa said turning over a broken piece of a flatscreen TV.

”Then under this tarp we found some really nice clothes.” Henry said while lifting the tarp. Underneath was a mound of assorted jackets, dresses, socks, jeans, purses, and random accessories. ”Eva told us what was worth keeping and to cover them up.”

”That was because clothes are hard to get shipped into town.” Eva explained. ”If anyone saw these, they would definitely try to steal them from us.”

”Why are clothes so hard to get?” Lisa asked.

”Because most clothes nowadays are made of cotton and cotton comes from the southern parts of the US.” Eva replied. ”As you know that area is under a lot of fighting between the AFR and Texas Coalition. So, getting the cotton shipped out here to Utah is hard enough, but finding a textile factory willing to ship this far north of Moab City is even harder.”

”I see.” Lisa replied. She didn’t know about the conflict between the two factions in great enough detail to understand the relations they had with surrounding territories and wildlands. In fact, there was still a lot of current events that she had no knowledge of and that was something she needed to change.

”Lastly, we didn’t find any fishing poles or tackle like you wanted.” Tayvon said while patting a large wooden box. ”But we found something that might be better.”

Lifting off the wooden lid Tayvon revealed a huge fishing net. Its green nylon strings were neatly wrapped up and it looked to have been used only a few times. The net appeared to be several dozen meters wide once it was taken out, judging from the size alone. How something like this had ended up so far away from an ocean vessel was anyone’s guess.

”Awesome! This would be great to somehow use to use in the river. The townspeople could probably use the food.” Lisa said stroking the net.

”Our thoughts exactly.” Tayvon replied. ”Fish are normally only caught on special occasions by the hunters. Migrating fish don’t make it up this far north and any other species are few and far between.”

”So, was this trailer in a unit too? It’s so clean.” Lisa asked.

”It was. The trailer and net were the only things inside.” Tayvon answered.

”Well keep up the search. You guys seem to have everything under control.” Lisa said looking around at everyone. ”There’s some stuff I need to do at the docks. So, I’ll be back before long.”

”Alright. You need one of us to come with you?” Willis asked.

”No. I’ll be fine on my own.” Lisa replied while giving a wave goodbye.

Walking away she heard Henry speaking. ”Well, back to work. Let’s check inside these boxes first.”

…

Lisa was coming up to the old dock side shack, Ulster’s Shop, and found that it’s deteriorating, sun beaten, and wind worn wood somehow had a homely feeling to it. There was a customer exiting the shop as she entered and coming inside, she found the old man beaming at her.

”Your back! This is good news. A new and returning costumer is hard to come by.” He said coming around the counter to speak with her. His cane taped heavily as he did. Then he asked, ”So what can this old coot do for you today?”

”I actually came to see your grandson, Tom.” Lisa replied. ”I have some possible work for him.”

”Oh? This is a rare occasion indeed.” The old man said stroking the top of his head. ”No one hardly ever has Tom do work for them. Unfortunately, he’s at home right now.”

”I see. When will he be back?” Lisa asked.

”Right now.” A voice called from the back room as Tom came out to join them. ”What do you want with me?” Tom asked suspiciously.

”I wanted to know if you had a small soldering tool, specifically one used on computer parts.” Lisa replied ignoring his skepticism.

”I do.” Tom replied. ”Why?”

”Need your help to fix a broken thin coupling. It’s in a very delicate position and I can’t reach it easily on my own to make the repairs correctly.” Lisa said leaning down to speak softly, just in case someone else might overhear outside. ”I will pay you extra to keep this device a secret from everyone. The part I need fixing is extremely important to me.”

Tom didn’t know what to say. Lisa’s expression was telling him that she wasn’t joking around. He normally kept to himself and didn’t get confronted like this very often. He looked up at his grandfather for advice, who in turn shrugged.

”It’s up to you. You are the expert with technology now. My hands are just too shaky to even try.” He replied holding up a wobbling, wrinkled hand. ”I taught you enough and you’re a smart boy. I know you can do it.”

Tom sighed and crossed his arms. ”Fine. I’ll take a look at it, then I’ll make the decision.”

”Once I show you though you cannot speak about this to anyone. Even if you don’t work on it, it must be kept secret. That goes for you too, Mr. Ulster.” Lisa said sternly.

”Very well. I see no problem with keeping my mouth shut. If you pay, you have my word. Customer’s confidentiality.” The old man replied bobbing his head.

”Come over to my work bench and show me the device.” Tom said going towards the tool covered bench at the far end of the dimly lit room.

”Can you make sure no one comes in?” Lisa asked the old man.

”Sure. It won’t be much of a problem to close early. I’ll even sit out on the step to be doubly careful.” Mr. Ulster said limping towards the front door.

Tom had cleared off one half of the bench and placed an old looking car battery onto it. Connected to it was a converter and a small soldering tool was already to go.

”Go ahead and put it up here and I’ll see what I can do.” Tom said patting the bench.

Lisa slid off her coffin and started to unlock it. Tom was curiously watching her but didn’t ask anything. Lisa then carefully took out the black egg device.

Seeing it Tom asked, ”Is that it? Doesn’t look broken or special to me.”

”No, this is just to open up the area where the broken part is.” Lisa replied closing the coffin door.

Then she reached over and grabbed a nearby short stool and pulled it over to sit on. She took off her jacket and placed her forearm onto the table. Tom raised any eyebrow seeing this. Lisa turned on the egg device and started rolling it across her arm.

Tom’s eyes widened brightly as he saw the presumed flesh getting peeled back to reveal the metal armor and circuits hidden inside. Leaning eagerly forward, he watched everything she did with great interest. He was more excited than grossed out by what Lisa did, especially seeing that there was wires and technical components inside.

”So, you’re a cyborg?! I’ve never met one.” Tom asked not taking his eyes of her peeled back skin and the hole created.

”Shh, not so loud.” Lisa replied softly. ”Yes, I am a cyborg. I needed these arms for fighting and got this one injured.” Then she pointed at the broken coupling. ”See, right here.”

Tom took one look at the cracked coupling and nodded. ”Sure, no problem. I can see why you came to me. It is in a hard spot for you to reach. I built several computers on my own and repaired lots of ships navigation systems before. Though your arm is way more complex, I can still fix that coupling easy.”

”Alright then, let’s see you do that.” Lisa said glad to see the boy so enthusiastic. ”Just be sure not to damage anything inside or let anything get in there.”

”Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” Tom said putting on some heavily tinted goggle like glasses. Then he picked up his soldering tool and a small stick of tin.

Though Lisa couldn’t watch the job being performed due to the dangerous light of the soldering tool, she could tell he was doing well. Tom worked quietly and quickly and the whole job took less than two minutes. Tom pushed up his goggles onto his forehead and taped a finger gently onto the repaired coupling. The tin stick had been melted only slightly on to the coupling and refused the two split parts. The job looked very smooth, and Lisa couldn’t see any drip marks.

”That should do it. It really wasn’t hard at all.” Tom said looking up at Lisa.

”Excellent work. I was right to pick you.” Lisa replied flexing her hand and arm. Everything was normal.

Then picking up the black egg device, Lisa started to recover her exposed arm. ”Now let’s talk pay and about making you my temporary repairman.”