Black Market Merchant

Chapter 9: Loot

There wasn't much to take from the Hummer or bodies of the two dead soldiers. From inside the Hummer she hadn't found anything important until she spotted the scanner that they had used in the dam building earlier. Turning it on she found that was intact. A truly lucky break indeed.

Then checking over the bodies of the soldiers, she took their weapons. The two Laser rifles were called ZKZM-7000. They were far different looking than its predecessors, now less boxy and more streamline. It was made of modified carbon fibers and plastics. The rifle consisted of two important components: the laser, which shot red lasers in a solid state, along with fiber optics doped with rarer earth materials and its lithium battery, which accounted for most of the weapon's weight. It also had a digital counter built into its stock. This displayed the remaining battery power and slowed the user to adjust the power level of each shot.

She also had taken two military helmets, knives and grenades. Additionally, she ripped out the Hummers battery. The battery could power smaller vehicles or charge devices for a long time. This would allow her to view the blueprints after she got hold of a computer or laptop.

She had also pulled out her long, thin sword from the destroyed turret. Its sleek shiny, but still dull, metal reflected well in the sunlight, not a scratch to be seen. Folding the sword back up, she grabbed her leather jacket from the ground and put it back on. Then she placed sword back in its place within the jacket.

Everything else was useless to her and nothing would have been worth reselling to anyone in this town. Taking what she had collected, Lisa decided to leave. She had also lit the Hummer on fire before leaving and its black smoke billowed out over the dam and the river fed lakeside.

John was waiting nervously at the entrance of the dam power station. He dared not enter the place after he lost sight of Lisa. Upon hearing the massive amount of gun fire on the other side of the building, John was worried that she might be in danger. However, his fears were quickly subsided some after seeing Lisa casually returning from the back of the building.

"What happened?" John said trying not to raise his voice. He didn't know if there were any other shooters around. "What was all the shooting and that helicopter about?"

Lisa sighed. She hadn't thought of what to tell him. "Well, I figured out who killed Hanna's parents. It was the gangsters that left not too long ago. Did you see or follow them?" She asked trying to change the topic.

"Yes, I saw them leave the building and I started to follow them. It looked like they were headed towards the town's government district. I was going to follow them further, but then I heard all that gun fire. You hadn't returned yet either. Then that helicopter landed behind the building. I thought it's symbol looked like it could have been from the AFR!"

Then he saw she was carrying the two laser rifles. His eyes widened with concern, "Where did you get those guns? What in the world happened?"

"Let's just say," Lisa said thinking quickly, "That there was some AFR soldiers and now there are less soldiers. The details really aren't important. Also, I got the blueprints." Lisa said holding up the scanner to him with a triumphant look.

Johns face was riddled with confusion and more questions, but before he could say anything, Lisa interrupted him.

"Well now that we know where the gangsters are likely hiding out, we need to come up with a plan. Let's go back to get my coffin and then to the others." Lisa said while adjusting the laser guns straps on her shoulder as she walked past him.

John tried to say something, but it was clear this woman, whom he just met this morning, had some secrets. It would take time for her to gain his trust or for him to learn what happened himself. After all he was a former police officer. Discovering secrets and clues was his former duty. He decided to silently agree and just observe her for now. He then curiously, but cautiously, followed her back down the road to where her coffin lay.

"I tried moving it to a more hidden location, but it was far too heavy for me. How can you even carry such a thing?" John probed.

"As you guessed earlier, I do have prosthetic legs and they are really great quality. Besides, I got used to carrying the coffin after a while." Lisa said without hesitation.

"How did you get them?" John asked seeing her put the heavy coffin over her other shoulder without any effort. "I mean, those prosthetic legs specifically. Sorry if I am reminding you of any bad memories." John corrected himself, feeling a bit embarrassed at his own forwardness.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed at. I will tell you the story one day, but for now you should know my profession truly is a merchant. I buy, trade, sell and steal, if need be, to make my earnings. I hope you don't mind this, but can you keep this a secret?" Lisa said explained as they walked back towards the police station.

"I think I can do that much, but I will need answers eventually." John said with a sigh. "The police around here, if you couldn't tell, no longer exists. To be honest, most of us couldn't have survived without stealing, as shameful as it is."

"Not at all. This strange world we live in is harsher than anyone can imagine. The future is never going to be clear. We do what we can to survive." Lisa said looking far away, as if she were somewhere else.

John saw her disconnected expression and decided not to ask anything else for now. From just looking into her lazy grey eyes, it seemed she had probably gone through a lot. Soon they arrived back at the station and saw that the three had finished burying the Marshals. Joan had even tied some wood together with rags, to form a cross over each grave.

"You're back. Did you get the guy?" Richard called out waving to them.

"Not exactly, but we did confirm who the culprits were. We need to come up with a plan to get them." John replied.

"But first I think we need to pay our respects." Joan said quietly.

The rest started to look sad at hearing this. They had lost some apparently good friends and the gravity of this was still settling into there minds. After each one of them had said a few words about the Marshals, they left the quiet police station without a word. Then they started walking back home in reverend silence.

Suddenly, Lisa's stomach growled uncontrollably. Hearing the funny sound, the tension between everyone broke. The group chuckled amongst themselves.

"Let's get something to eat." Lisa said rubbing her stomach, in an effort to quiet it. "I haven't had a full meal in a few days."

"Well in that case let's head home and I'll cook something nice." Joan said putting a friendly hand on her shoulder. The three men behind got excited, apparently, she was a great cook.

Special Officer Daniel Hawkins was furious! Not only had he allowed some random woman to not only destroy his Hummer and kill his men, but he had apparently lost the blueprints. The helicopters blades hummed loudly as it flew just feet from the treetops towards the temporary AFR base.

The base was located in a deep, but small, canyon on the far side of the mountain. There were only two possible routes to get there. From the air, via helicopter or hover transport ships; or by a thin dirt road that went through the mouth of the canyon. Its position was so neatly located, that even by satellite its location could hardly be seen.

The helicopter pilot skillfully floated down into the tightly walled canyon and onto the bases landing pad. Then as soon as the pilot had landed the Special Officer jumped off. He headed straight for the transmission tower building. He had to survey his body camera video to see if he could identify his attacker.

He barged into the building startling the four military personnel inside, who then immediately jumped up and saluted seeing his rank. Hawkins went right up to the first soldier and took off his own small camera that was on his chest.

"Search the video and identify the woman near the end of the recording immediately!" Officer Hawkins yelled thrusting it into the soldier's hands.

"Yes Sir." The soldier said taking the camera and plugged it into his computer. Officer Hawkins waited impatiently as the soldier found the correct footage and played it, while simultaneously running a facial recognition software on the woman's image.

After several minutes, the soldier finished running the program. "Sir, the findings were inconclusive. It seems that because of her hat and speed at which she moved at we couldn't get a proper identification." The soldier reported.

"Are you sure? Run it again." Officer Hawkins commanded. But the results in the end were the same. He grumbled to himself as he left the transmission tower building carrying the data from the program. However, before he left, he submitted his findings to his superiors back at headquarters. Perhaps they would find out more.

He went right to the headquarters of the base straight away. After going inside, he went directly to his office. It was a medium sized room with a larger thick window looking out towards the dusty canyon road. On his desk were piles of paper and data reports that he had yet to organize since the base's recent formation. This particular location had very little strategic purpose to the AFR and there was no need for a military oversight of these lands either. The area currently had no resistance forces at all.

Officer Hawkins tossed the data onto the growing pile on his desk and sat down exhausted into his padded chair. He rubbed his temples as he thought about what had happened. Why did she suddenly attack them unprovoked? That was only his third time coming to that decrepit town. Not only that, but her skills and movement was far superior to that of any normal or even modified human he had ever encountered.

There was a sudden knock at his door. He was surprised as hearing this and called for the person to enter. The door opened quickly and his assistant, Second Lieutenant Mark Caswell, stepped inside.

"Sir, the Commander is sending a transmission to you. He's on screen now." Caswell said standing in attention.

"Already? I just sent my findings only a few minutes ago." Hawkins said quickly getting up and he walked into the headquarters to see, on the big screen in the center of the main wall, was his superior.

"Reporting Sir." Hawkins said standing in ridged attention.

"Special Officer Daniel Hawkins." The Commander said with an aged but powerful voice. His gray hair was shaven down in neat Military style and his decorated, yellow trimmed black uniform was impeccable. "It seems that you have indeed found a person of great importance there in that little town. It was unexpected that you would find such a high priority target so soon. Though we can't confirm her identity, we know that she's a dangerous Queen type soldier."

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