Black Market Merchant

“Well, that is a rather flashy way of getting Martinez’s attention. It would certainly get mine.” Zane said leaning back in his white plastic chair. “My concerns would be where do we put them, how can we feed them, especially since we currently can barely keep ourselves fed, and how do we even break them out to begin with? They are underground right?”

“Zane is right.” Willis added. “Didn’t you say there was almost eighty woman and likely just as many men?”

“I did.” Lisa nodded. “There are almost two hundred people being forced to work in that factory.”

“Seriously?” Eva murmured as Lisa nodded to confirm it.

“I noticed that the room the ladies were being kept in had vents just like the ones Wayne and I used to break in. If we can find a shaft going to the surface close to where they are being held, getting them out will not be too hard. The area around the golf course is also oddly poorly guarded or monitored too. I think I might have a few ideas but nothing concrete yet. I’ll use tonight to think of some ways to solve the other issues.” Lisa explained.

“Lisa…!” Sadie sighed massaging her temples as she took in all this information. “That is a crazy number of people to handle! I know that they need help, but why should you have to be the one to save them?”

Lisa adjusted herself uneasily in her seat, a far away expression then appeared on her pale face. “Let me tell you a story from long ago during my time in the military. It’s not something I would like to think about, but I’ll tell you all anyway.”

Everyone could see the rare sight of pain cross briefly on Lisa’s face. As she told her story, they all fell silent. They were all excited to hear a little more about this mysterious woman’s past.

Lisa took a deep breath to clear her thoughts, “This particular event happened after I recovered from my first time getting shot in eastern Europe, a story for another time. I was being redeployed to Switzerland to assist the United Nations (UN) and Swiss forces with maintaining the Swiss borders. The Swiss had remained neutral to the wars that had been raging for the last two years but even they couldn’t be spared from the fallout of the bombs or the chaos that followed.”

“The Swiss borders were not being invaded by soldiers but rather civilians. The wars that raged outside this passive country made the small country look like a beacon of hopeful refuge for those fleeing their countries. However, Switzerland is a small country derived of mountains and little farmland. The country had already seen their population boom prior to the wars, and they had little room left to support growing further. Atop all this, getting food imported to them was exceedingly difficult for this landlocked nation and starvation was beginning to be a major issue.”

“The refugees were relentless, even knowing that the country had little to offer them in terms of relief did little to slow their advances. The refugees would rather have risked starvation than guns, bombs, and radiation. They crossed impassible mountains, cold lakes, war-torn and bombed cities from France, Germany, Italy, and Austria only to be stopped at the borders by armed soldiers or dying in the process.”

“Switzerland used to have an open borders policy with the rest of Europe, which worked well in peacetime, but turned into a mistake once the war’s broke out. They had almost no way to keep people from forcing their way into the country. This is where I came in.”

“Dozens of US Marine units like mine were sent to assist in blocking up any roadways and railways that led to the rural areas outside of the country. We were placed under the direct command of the UN and were subjected to their ways of handling the situation. Once these passages were blocked could the Swiss military focus on protecting the cities nearest to the borders without fear or the distraction of refugees coming in from other areas. Only then could we then detach from the UN’s chain of command and rejoin the US forces either in the Mediterranean or the Eastern Europe fronts.”

“We were at the time stationed in the small town of Gondo, in the Zwischbergen province, which is on the edge of the Swiss and Italian boarder along route E62. Here the route wound its way through the Alps and followed along the steep cliffs that followed the Torrente Diveria river. Gondo was an important place to block up for both the large, easily passible roadway and the hydroelectric dam that it had. Unlike the dam we have, this one was far smaller and surrounded by lush forests and greenery.”

“Just beyond the dam was where we were sent to blow up the cliffside at a narrow pass along a bend in the road. Yet directly in the spot where were needed to cause the explosion, a refugee camp had already been set up. We spent a full day using an interpreter to speak to the Italian majority refugees to leave the area immediately. Naturally, they refused and demanded asylum. A few tried forcing their way past us, but a few bullets in the air turned them promptly away.”

“This is where things got horrible. After we reported the situation to our superiors in the UN and relayed that there were nearly three hundred refugees, the orders we got back shocked us. They told us to order the refugees to disperse by nightfall and if they hadn’t left, we were to blow the pass up regardless.”

“They told you to blow the pass and kill everyone there with it?” Eva interrupted with a ghastly expression.

“Yes, that is what we were told to do.” Lisa replied in a cold tone.

“That’s insane!” Tayvon muttered.

Lisa took off her Yankees hat and loosened her long, raven black hair from its ponytail. “To us it was insane as well. However, we had no choice. We could not let them in, and they would not leave. I tried to get them to go, I even begged them to leave on my knees, but all my words fell on deaf ears.”

“Couldn’t you have blown up another part of the cliffs?” Henry asked.

Lisa shook her head, “No, any other spot was too wide, or the angle of the cliff was to far apart from the other cliff beyond the river.”

“As we were planting the explosives on cliffside above them, we continued to beg them to go. They responded by throwing rocks, trash and one even took out his own gun to threaten us to leave. A UN soldier was the one to shoot him before the situation got out of hand even more. Even though a civilian was dead, the message it sent seemed to have changed the minds of several of the refugees and they started to leave. However, it was too late for most of them.”

“Just as the sun fell behind the mountains, we blew up the cliffside. The valley was filled with dust and smoke in an instant. The sunlight was behind us and we had an unblocked view of the camp being buried before our eyes. It was horrible knowing that innocent humans, just trying to survive, were being killed by our own actions to save others in turn.”

“We had to go and inspect the landslide to confirm that the valley and road was indeed impassable. When our Humvee’s arrived there was nothing left, save for one old man that looked to have just crawled out from the rubble. He was covered in dust, dirt and grim. Yet it was his face and words that stuck with me.”

“Tears dripped through the mire on his face, but he was not sad, rather angry. Sitting on his knees in the middle of the road, he pointed back at the landslide behind him and shook his fist at us. ‘Questa non è pace! Disumano!’ meaning, ‘This is not peace. Inhumane.’ He shouted this phrase at us repeatedly. The furry that trickled from his tears was justified by all rights.”

“This wasn’t the only time we had to blow up mountainsides to stop refugees, but this was the only time anyone died because of our demolition actions. When I saw the state of those ladies in the factory and the hopelessness that was in their eyes, I was immediately reminded of that day. I don’t want to leave them there knowing I can help them.”

Lisa straightened up and cleared her throat, “I don’t have any superior officers telling me that I can’t save those in need. That is why I must do this. Will you help me and be willing to house them here?”

The big room was quiet for a moment. Lisa had a dark past that didn’t match her normally cheery personality, but it did explain her toughness that showed from time to time.

It was Zane that broke the silence. “Good enough for me. I share no feelings for the Mad Dogs and if it will give me a chance at a break away from Sadie’s training, I’ll do anything.”

“Hey!” Sadie complained. “Where did that come from? You are showing great improvements from our workouts. There’s no reason for slandering me!”

Lisa chuckled, “Sadie, you have been going a bit overboard. Zane looks no better than when we found him.”

“Hmpf, my training regime is no different from the pro’s.” Sadie sulked.

“In any case, are the rest of you willing to help?” Lisa asked again. “I know the rest of you are only here to assist with getting the dam running for the ERM to get power, but until then there’s not much else to do.”

“I’ll do it.” Wayne replied. “I’ve seen what that gang has done, and they are much worse than the Black Rats were. They needed to be stopped!”

“Correction, Wayne.” Tayvon said raising a hand. “We all will help Lisa and those others. It sounds to be the right thing to do.”

“Thank you all.” Lisa said breaking into a cheery grin. “I am so fortunate to have found such good allies!”

“So, tell us what plans you do have.” Eva asked. “Even if you don’t have the full idea yet, we can still get started. Look, there’s at least two hours before darkness comes.”

“Well, Sadie, has John and Hanna passed by on their way home yet?” Lisa asked looking at the little woman that was still pouting from Zane's remarks.

“No, they haven’t.” Sadie replied.

“Good. I will head over to the work site in a moment. So here is what I’ll need Willis and Henry to do first thing tomorrow.” Lisa said getting up from her seat. She then started picking up a sheet of yellowed paper and pen from the white table as she explained the rest of the plan. “I want you two to go back down to the river and fish with the net. Catch as much as you can and bring them back here. The prisoners will all be hungry, and we need to stockpile food as soon as possible for so many people. Tayvon, you did great with filleting those fish, so I want you to prepare and smoke them as best you can.”

“Got it.” The three men replied in unison and then they started chuckling at this coincidence.

Lisa ignored them and looked at the other two volunteers. “Wayne and Eva, you two can keep cleaning out the storage units. Only this time search quickly by just collecting clothing, anything that can be slept on, kitchenware, or anything else that would be an immediate necessity. If you see those sketchy men coming back let me know too.”

“We can do that.” Eva replied standing up. “Come on Wayne, we should go now.”

“I just finally got a chance to relax after breaking into that factory.” Wayne mumbled but he dutifully followed Eva.

“What about me?” Zane asked. “I’m thinking that I am not suited for the same jobs as they are doing.”

“You are right.” Lisa nodded. “I need to know how well you can snipe.”