Black Market Merchant

Carefully Lisa took off from her magnetic belt her collapsible katana and using just the blades tip, she quietly pried at the slatted vent’s screws out from the duct. Once it was free from the duct, Lisa pulled it inside the duct and placed it further ahead to be out of the way. She did, however, take two of the screws out to use in just a moment.

Lisa cautiously poked her head out into the gloomy room. She saw that the rooms front door was right next to this cell and thankfully closed. That meant the vent traveled over the hallway and they still needed to be a quiet as possible when crawling out. She also noted that there were no guards currently inside, another plus.

Then looking into the nearby corner, she spotted the round black eye of the security camera. She could barely make out the lens and let out a slight sigh of relief seeing that the vent was angled down and couldn’t see her. All she needed to do now was simply disable it. After seeing how lax the gangsters were here the last time, she doubted that the camera going offline would be noticed right away and they had time to make the escape.

Lisa carefully rolled onto her side and prepared to throw one of the screws at the camera. Even though the small screw weighed little, thanks to her incredible strength, when she chucked and hit the camera on the first try, it plowed right through the plastic covering and disabled the cameras lens.

Looking around her it seemed no one heard the noise and woke up. This was lucky, because if they woke up and saw Lisa, they might become rowdy and alert the guards. Lisa then laid onto her stomach and took aim with the other screw at Jenifer’s exposed cheek. Carefully dropping the screw, it bounced off Jenifer’s face and immediately her eyes flew open. Jenifer sat slowly up and looked around her in confusion.

“Psst.” Lisa hissed gently.

Hearing the noise, Jenifer looked up to see Lisa hanging halfway out from the vent with her finger held up to her mouth. Jenifer’s lifeless brown eyes lit up and an unbelieving smile appeared on her thin features.

Lisa rolled quietly out from the vent, heels-over-head, and landed carefully on the metal floor. Jenifer tossed off her dirty threadbare blanket, if it could be even called that, and jumped up excitably. Lisa quickly grabbed onto Jenifer’s arms to calm her down before she woke the others.

“Told you I was coming back.” Lisa whispered into Jenifer’s ear.

“H-how? W-were?’ Jenifer stammered.

“Shh, wake the others one by one.” Lisa whispered. “Tell them to put on what ever they have and get ready to go. We are going out through the vents, and they need to be quiet.”

Jenifer nodded vigorously and then she tiptoed over to the lady next to her. When the woman woke up Jenifer excited pointed at Lisa and motioned for the lady to be silent. The woman was confused at first and only when she saw Wayne lowering the rope from the vent, did she understand. The lady silently got up and threw on her paper-thin shoes and tiptoed quickly to Lisa.

Lisa waved up to Wayne who was holding onto the rope and motioned for him to go get Henry and tie the two ropes together. There was nowhere inside the duct to tie the rope off too and it was going to be to much work for either Wayne or Henry to hold onto the rope and get every woman out safely. If their knots and the rock held out, everything should go fine.

It took no time for Jenifer to wake up the eight other ladies and soon all of them were anxiously crowding Lisa. Lisa did her best to keep them calm and silent. So far, no other ladies in the other cages had woken up yet and Lisa wanted them to stay that way for the time being.

“Stay quiet. I need you all to do one thing while we wait.” Lisa whispered to the ten anxious ladies. They all nodded with wide, expectant eyes. “Stuff anything you are not taking under your sheets so that it looks like you all are still in bed. If the guards come it needs to look like everything is normal.”

“Ok.” Jenifer whispered back. Then obediently the ladies pushed their yellowed pillows and a few bits of gritty clothing under the threadbare sheets. Though the lumps under the sheets didn’t look big enough to Lisa, as long as the guards didn’t look to hard it just might work.

Wayne came back just as the ladies started to crowd back around Lisa and the rope. He gave Lisa a thumbs up and she nodded in reply.

“Ok, step into my hands and I’ll lift you up most of the way.” Lisa said to Jenifer. “When you get up there, follow the men’s instructions carefully. You must go slow and only travel on the towels that are up there. If you make any noise, stop moving right away and wait for them to tell you to move.”

Lisa then looked at the others, “You all need to do the same.”

The rest of the ladies nodded, and Lisa hoped that they would do as she said. They looked much too excited. Lisa then crouched down and clasped her hands together at her waist so that it created a place for Jenifer to stand on.

Jenifer carefully placed one foot into Lisa’s hands and placed her scrawny hands onto Lisa’s shoulders for balance as well. Seeing that she was ready Lisa whispered, “One, two, three…”

Jenifer was lifted to reach just half a meter away from the vent hole. Henry had appeared on the other side of the vent hole to help Wayne hold the rope still. If the knots and rock held then they wouldn’t need to hold the rope anymore. They could then focus on leading the ladies out.

The old rope strained and made an uncomfortable groan. Lisa winced upon hearing it, and preemptively reached out her hands to catch Jenifer in case the rope did break. Jenifer, undaunted by the noises and driven by the prospect of freedom, finished climbing into the vent.

“Follow me slow and silently.” Henry whispered.

Henry then carefully squeezed by Jenifer and Wayne, being sure to stay on the dish towels that were laid out. Jenifer did as she was told and followed him, but her excitement was shown to be still unbridled on her face. As they went, Lisa prepared the next lady. The whole process of lifting the remaining ladies took mere minutes.

Lisa’s fears of the vent being too noisy was calmed down too. Though the twelve people moving inside and adding more weight was a cause for concern, Lisa didn’t here a single thump, groan or creak. Whoever build the duct knew what they were doing.

Lisa waited until the last lady had climbed out of sight before she turned to the cages gate. Reaching into her back pocket, Lisa pulled out the key to the cages that she had saved from before. The key slipped into the lock and clicked louder than expected. Then pushing the gate open the henges let out a horrible squeak.

Lisa winced and looked around her at the other cages. Just as she feared, the noise woke a few of the ladies. The one lady closest to Lisa in the right cell was the first to spot Lisa. Letting out a shocked inhale the lady put a hand to her mouth.

Lisa hurriedly motioned for the woman to remain silent, but the damage was done. The other ladies in the cell woke up as well. Soon the room was filled with hushed please, murmurs of concern and confusion. One by one the other cells occupants were woken up and he noises grew louder.

Thinking quickly, Lisa reached into her other back pocket and pulled out the stolen Mad Dogs’ red and black armband and shoved it onto her arm.

“Shut up!” Lisa called out softly. She tried to be loud enough for everyone to hear her but not loud enough to alert anyone outside the door.

The ruse worked and several ladies instantly stopped their commotion. Lisa only had to repeat herself once more and soon the room returned to a depressing silence. They all blankly staired at her, some with dead eyes while other glared with contempt. A few others even laid back down to get back to sleep.

Lisa then silently hurried over to the door and peered into the small square window at its center. Looking both ways Lisa was relieved to see that there wasn’t a single guard stationed outside the doorway. It looked like the gangsters had full confidence in the security of their compound. After all, they were in fact underground and even if there was a jailbreak there was no way anyone would get out unseen in the singular hallway.

Relieved Lisa turned back to face the grungy ladies. She then took off the armband and raised her finger to her lips once more, being sure everyone watching her saw this.

“My name is Lisa and if Jenifer told you anything, I am going to need you all to be absolutely silent.” Lisa whispered and then paused for affect.

She noticed that at the mention of Jenifer’s name, a few ladies’ expressions lightened and some even glanced amongst each other. Seeing that she had their attention, Lisa continued to whisper.

“I am going to be breaking you all out of here and taking you somewhere safe. Stay quiet. You are wondering how, right?” Lisa asked as the ladies collectively started showing signs of excitement or uncertainty. “Look in the cage next to me. See, there is no one inside.”

Lisa then walked back into the cage to lift one of the threadbare sheets exposing the yellowed pillow and scraps of clothing inside. Next, Lisa pointed up at the rope that was dangling from the vent. Seeing these things sent another ripple of excitement and a hoard of whispers erupted.

“Shhhh!” Lisa urged. “What part of stay silent do you all not understand?”

Hearing Lisa’s warning the ladies stopped. However, one lady, she was a tall blond with a blackened eye and wearing handcuff, whispered to speak for the rest, “Tell us the situation. What do we need to do?”

“I’m going to let one cage of ladies free at a time and help you all get into the vent.” Lisa explained slowly and softly. “Inside the vent is another guy, he will guide you all to the vent that leads to the surface. There you will wait, as still and as silent as you can, until a second man arrives. The second man will then lead you across the golf course to a fence, do not do anything that he hasn’t told you to do. If you get found out, then everyone here will remain trapped. Got it?”

“I think we understand, but how can we trust you? This is all too good to be true.” The handcuffed lady asked skeptically.

Lisa caught sight of the woman’s gaze and saw it was on the Mad Dog armband. Quickly taking it off and stuffing it back into her pocket, Lisa explained. “I am not a Mad Dog. I stole that band for a disguise. Remember I was here two days ago? Jenifer had that unfortunate period accident, and I took her to and from the Meth lab.”

“It could have all been a trick.” The handcuffed lady replied stiffly. “How do we know that there isn’t a bunch of Mad Dogs waiting for us out there to get us into an unseen place to **** us?”

“Jeez, aren’t you a little ray of sunshine.” Lisa said rolling her eyes. Then coming out of the cage Lisa walked broad shouldered over to the handcuffed lady. Lisa then looked down at her crossly. “I get it, someone has to be the voice of caution for these poor women. But think about it, has anyone else come to save you all yet? From the looks of most of you, you all have been here for a long time. Whoever you are waiting for to come save you might never come. How long will you keep waiting? I won’t force you to come with me, but what other choice do you have? Come now while we still have time.”

The handcuffed lady shifted nervously at Lisa’s straightforwardness. Lisa took that moment to look over the blond lady. She was around the same age as herself and probably the most physically fit of the ladies here. The blackened eye she had was probably related to the reason she was in handcuffs. This lady was the rebel type, the kind Lisa knew she had to get into line first before the others would follow along.

“Fine.” The handcuffed lady sighed. “I’ll take the risk, but I am going to go out first to see if what you say is true. I have been tricked before, but I can at least warn the others if you lied.”

“Fair enough.” Lisa answered before she quickly reached into the cage and grabbed the lady’s handcuffs. Before the lady could react, Lisa gave a sharp twist and there was an audible heavy metallic snap. To everyone’s amazement, the cuffs little chain links joining the cuffs were broken!

“Y-you snapped my cuff with you bare hands?” The blond lady stammered.

Lisa gave a confident smile and unlocked the cage. “I did. Now follow me to freedom.”