Chapter 16 - Black Market.

The elevator only showed -3 floors, which means the building had only three underground floors. One of them was used as a parking area, while the second floor contained the building's water and electrical mainboards. This confused Arther as he had thought the black market might be a big area as it was a gathering of many big figures in the black world.

The man led both of them to the third floor, what was surprising was the third floor was empty without any activity, this made Arther feel even more confused and a bit vigilant towards the guy leading them. Seeing Arther's action Robert showed a grin but didn't explain anything to Arther as it was with him when he visited these places for the first time.

As they kept walking through the third underground floor they reached a small passage on the other end of the floor, the man stopped in front of the passage opened the fenced iron gate there, and gestured for Arther and Robert to go in. Arther looked inside the passage which was a bit dark he didn't see anything inside which made him confused. Robert wasn't new here so he knew about the way to go, he led Arther inside the passage which was so small that only two people can pass through at the same time. As they reached the other side of the passage there was a silver electronic door made of an unknown metal. On one side of the door, there was a scanner and camera where Robert showed his pass and the stamped letter. After a few seconds, the door slowly opened.

What met them was an astonishing scene.. The place was huge, it seemed like an underground base with cement walls on all sides, a huge building was on the other side of the floor, the area of the floor was similar to the floors of the main building, there were many small shops on all sides of the walls, with vendors in black clothes selling various things, there were also many things displayed on the shops.

Many people were bargaining with the vendors for many goods. As they went further Arther saw a variety of things like some antics not sure if they were real or fake. There were even shops for exchanging foreign currency, this was very useful for those thieves snd robbers.

Shops with drugs, banned products, jewelry shops, automobile parts, second-hand vehicle shops, bars, brothels, cold weapons, etc. shops were common here.

Robert led him towards a shop with many automobile parts exhibited, Arther didn't know much about these things so he just followed Robert as he met with the shop owner who was a middle-aged man with an injured leg, he had a huge scar on his face which made him look ferocious. He led them inside the shop, looking at their behavior Robert must be his regular customer. The person led them inside the shop and walked to his counter to find a book.

He placed it in front of them with a smiling face, "These are the good baby's I have in hand and can satisfy your needs. They are a bit worn out hence can be sold at a lower price."

Hearing this Robert had a smile on his face as he gestured Arther to take a look. Seeing Robert's behavior the man understood that Arther was the true customer. So he shifted his attention towards Arther.

"Robert, don't you wanna introduce this little friend to me?" he asked Robert with a sly smile.

"Ah, this is Arther, my friend, he will be the one to make this deal. Arther this is Jack. Jack is a retired soldier and also my mist trusted supplier."

Arther exchanged courtesies with Jack. He concentrated on the book, the book contained some photos of old trucks, pickup trucks, bulldozers, cranes, soil compactors, excavators, dumpers, Tipper lorries, Trailers, and some old discarded military vehicles of the older versions without any instruments.

There were those mining hauler monsters. Arther wanted such a guy as the weight itself might make it unstoppable, but he didn't have enough money to buy even its worn-out older version.

After seeing all the photos and going through their information Arther picked up a few of them to physically inspect and try to see if they can be accepted as a carrier vessel, then make some modifications inside them.

He pointed out those photos to Jack, "Can I see this vehicle personally to select one."

Hearing this Jack had a conflicted expression as in black market no one can see the goods before payment as the place to store goods was not here and every big business here had their secret warehouses to store their goods. So he can't accept Arhters condition, but the price of each of those selected ones was a big deal for his business so he had to think of it as if he rejects the condition he might lose this deal.

Seeing Jack's expression Arther knew he had made an impolite condition but it was necessary for him. "You can trust me if the condition of the vehicles is as written here then I will buy one after inspection, and I will also require few expensive parts to modify the vehicle which we can have a deal of. "

Hearing this Jack thought that Arther was sincere enough and he didn't have anything to lose. He just needed to make a few arrangements in the warehouse before taking Arther there. So he asked to meet them in the shop after an hour and a half. Seeing Arther agree to it made him happy and gifted them with an invitation letter to the auction held every day in the market. It contained many good things from many big businesses. Arther accepted the invitation letter as he expected to meet that guy there. Since the invitation was sent only to few people with connection inside and big business and backings.

Arther didn't have any money on him for now so he was not going to participate in the auction.

After they left Jack's shop Robert didn't follow Arther for the auction as they only had one letter and was given to Arther by Jack. They parted from here and decided to meet at Jack's shop at the decided time.

Arther knew from Jack that the auction was held in that huge building. That building was also the core of the Black market, many rich businesses had their shops inside and only people with a certain amount of money can enter there. It was highly secured so no one can sneak in. The shops contained only premium products fantasized by riches. The building was connected to a four-story small building outside. It was also a VIP passage for those riches. The auction is half on the 1st underground floor.