Black Market Merchant

Lisa and Wayne carefully, almost tentatively, approached the location of the entrance Wayne and Willis had found. This was because there was absolutely no cover to be seen for what felt like kilometers. Not just because it was a golf course with pristine, finely cut grass and hedged knee-high shrubbery, but because the landscape itself was exposed from ground to sky. The assumed flat land was not exactly flat at all, but rather small rolling hills that were all equal height that created this illusion.

The route they took was the main asphalt pathed pathway that connected all the golf course’s holes and numerous forks splitting off from this path. This particular fork that they were going towards led to what looked like a similar asphalt paved, but now narrower, maintenance path that cut between Hole’s 7 and 8. Here the grass and shrubbery wasn’t as well kept, probably on purpose. Likely it was to make the area seem less conspicuous or to help hide the secret entrance better.

When the two of them peered around the edge of the nearest mound of Hole 7, Lisa might not have been able to see the entrance if Wayne didn’t point it out for her. What ultimately gave its location away was that the path diverged into the grassy mound much closer than any path would normally be. This caused the path to seem to run into the mound and appear to sink under the earth. This also smartly linked the passage within to the outside world without leaving any tracks in the sandy ground to give away the entrance.

Squinting, Lisa could barely make out a button and speaker that was tucked away under a clump of grass that grew tall along the steep, grassy mound. All this secrecy and camouflaging made her even more interested as to what lay within. However, it seemed that the entrance was likely only possible to open from the inside. Meaning they had to find an alternative solution.

“Well, we definitely can’t get in that way.” Lisa whispered to Wayne kneeling below her.

“So, what’s the plan? Do we wait for someone to come by and open the entrance for us to sneak in after them?” Wayne asked softly.

“No, that’s to risky since you saw earlier that the inside entrance was guarded.” Lisa replied as she turned away from the entrance and headed back towards the main path. “I do have one idea of how we can get in though.”

“What is it?” Wayne asked getting up to follow her.

“Well, since this place is underground, they will need air ducts to create ventilation. All we need to do is figure out where one is and pray that it will be big enough for us to crawl through.” Lisa answered.

“I see. Won’t that be too loud, breaking into the ducts and crawling around?” Wayne asked.

“Probably, but as things stand its all we can do.” Lisa replied giving a small shrug.

Lisa didn’t go all the way back to the main path but instead turned to go up the less steep side of the mound and onto the green of the course. Before she reached the crest of the mound, she stopped to survey the area around her. The crest of any mountain, hill, or even a ditch was always a dangerous location. Any movement here would not be masked by vegetation but instead become visible for anyone watching as the sky would give away their outline or figure moving across it.

Lisa saw that no one was nearby them on the path and from along the fence they had come crossed. Then she took two steps further so that her head now broke the crest of the mound. She half expected to see people out here playing golf or driving golf carts around to their next hole, but there wasn’t a soul in sight. Still, she remained careful and took her time checking every angle, dip, or oddity the course had on it.

Satisfied she waved on Wayne to follow her. When she was looking around one location nearby struck her interest, a circular row of hedges surrounded by decorative round, smooth river rocks. In its center was a three-meter-tall wind silo that was wavering gently in the stiff breeze that was blowing above the mounds.

Lisa chucked as the two of them arrived at this spot. “Just as I guessed. This decorative formation is actually hiding the air ducts. Look, there are at least a dozen or more places just like this one on the course.”

Wayne looked around him at the spots Lisa was pointing at. Wayne sighed voicing his thoughts, “You are right. I might not have even looked at these and just tried looking along the paths for any other entrances.”

“What is even better though is that this grate is rather large. Hopefully, the duct underneath is as well.” Lisa said dropping down onto her knees to grasp at the grate.

She gave it a slight tug upwards and notice that sand and a few smaller rocks were resting on the grate’s edges. If she had tried lifting the grate right away those items would have undoubtably fallen into the duct and made a ton of noise as they struck the large fan spinning within or on the duct floor itself. Carefully she brushed back the encroaching debris from the grate and did so while Wayne watched carefully from behind.

He didn’t know much or anything for that matter, about infiltration or how to be sneaky in a situation like this. Wayne decided right away that it was best to let her lead the way and learn from her. Lisa could sense this reaction coming from him and chose to let him be. After all, two hands are quieter than four, especially when they are your own.

After the edges were cleared Lisa effortlessly lifted the grate and uncovered the duct. The only concern for the moment was the large spinning fan that was sucking air into the duct. They needed to think of a way to stop it from moving or disable it all together.

To their delight, however, the duct below was easily wide enough for them enter. They guessed that the duct had to be a bit more than a meter wide. The drop into the duct looked to be deeper than they were tall, so getting down it silently and passing the fan was going to be truly tricky. Them jumping down would cause more noise than mere rocks and sand ever could. Not to mention potentially falling right through the ducts bottom side.

“I’ll go in first.” Lisa whispered. The she let out a soft sigh, “Stopping the fan shouldn’t be too hard for me if my plan to stop it works that is. What concerns me is the duct. If it can hold my weight, then it will hold yours. Unfortunately, you weigh less than me, meaning I’m the test dummy for this. Also, from here on out, we will only use the hand motions I taught you.”

“Ok, lead the way.” Wayne replied. “What are you going to use to stop the fan? I don’t see any wire or control panel.”

“Oh, I’ll just use my hands.” Lisa replied nonchalantly rubbing her hand together.

“What?” Wayne replied unsure he had heard her right.

“Yep, like this.” Lisa replied as she eyed the fan carefully.

Judging from the rotation of the cobweb dancing in the airflow of the duct below, Lisa could tell the fan was moving counterclockwise. Holding her left hand out towards the center of the gyrating cone at the fans center, Lisa aimed to grab at it first. Seeing this, Wayne thought her goal was to try forcing the fan to come to a stop.

Lisa tapped the spinning cone teasingly to see if it was safe enough to touch. The surface was smooth and not going as fast as she guessed. The blades spinning below her were visible enough to make out that there were six altogether. Seeing them also convinced her that her plan would work.

With a swift burst of movement Lisa grabbed the cone with her left hand and clamped down hard. The sudden force striking the cone cause the fan to groan and the gears within to creak slightly, but this was all Lisa needed. The fan blades were slowed significantly and now with her right hand she grabbed a blade and jolted the entire mechanism to a full halt. To both of their surprise the fan blades were half a meter wide! If she had done this with her original hands, Lisa would have probably been cut or lost a fingertip!

Wayne started to let out a whistle of amazement but clamped a hand quickly over his own mouth upon realizing he was supposed to be quiet. Lisa glanced glaringly at him but seeing that Wayne knew his blunder she went back to work on the fan. Though stopped the fan was trying desperately to keep spinning and was giving her somewhat of a hard time to hold on.

Letting go of the center cone, Lisa reached her left hand to the underside of the fan until she felt some wires. Giving a quick tug Lisa ripped them out of the fan and immediately the fan lost all power. Looking up, Lisa gave Wayne a thumbs up and started to enter the duct.

Wiggling between the half meter wide fan blades wasn’t easy. Lisa did her best not to get her clothes caught as her front and backside scraped opposing fan blades. Once she got her hips through, she carefully placed her feet on either side of the duct as vertically as she could. Then rocking from side to side she shimmied down the duct until her shoulders passed under the fan. Now she could use her hands as well in the same manner.

Looking down at the duct floor, just centimeters below her, she was not to thrilled. It looked like aluminum and flimsy as paper. Lowering a foot onto the floor her fears were heightened. The aluminum floor started bending inwardly at its center. However, when she placed her foot nearer to the edge it seemed to hold her weight.

Then lowering herself fully onto the duct there was a light groan and the duct appeared to shutter somewhat, but it remained silent. Looking up at Wayne who was kneeling above the hole, she pointed to his left and using both hands explained to him to pull the grate towards the hole and then crawl in after her.

Wayne nodded and did just that. When he crawled in, he was far less capable or as silent. Lisa had to hold onto the bottom of his shoes for him to even climb down. Not because he wasn’t strong enough to scale the walls as she did, but because the shoes bottoms were so worn out that they had zero grip left on them. On more than one occasion Lisa thought the whole mission was going to fail. However, Wayne managed to get in and cover the hole after him without dropping a single rock, so he wasn’t a total liability.

Once Wayne was down and on the aluminum duct floor with Lisa, Lisa peered into the ducts darkness that traveled in two directions away from them. Behind them it was pitch black, ahead there was a faint glow. Yet the glow isn’t what prompted them to go forward. There were voices coming from the ground above them and towards the grate!

“Did someone see us?” Lisa thought as she tried to shuffle forwards being sure to keep her feet as close to the ducts walls as possible. Wayne did likewise and just as he cleared the line of sight from the hole above, the voices grew clear!

They both stopped and froze to become stiller than statues. The voices sounded to be coming from two men.

“Ah, s***. Looks like another fan died.” Voice one spoke in a twangy voice.

“Should we take a look at it?” Voice two asked with a nasally tone.

“Naw, I can tell its broke.” Voice one replied. “Lets just call it in as such and get back to checking the rest.”

The voices quickly died out and the two let out a sigh of quiet relief. Then shuffling towards the source of the glow they came to a slatted window. What they saw below them was not what they expected at all. Inside was a huge open room with dozens of tables running lengthwise and covered in glass and metal equipment. Behind these tables were women wearing nothing but bras and panties!