Children. I Work With Children (Part 2)

(or, EllieRocks. Hard.)

 Game date: 9/10/2020

So it seems that ER got a Peaches message, telling her that the blood drive benefit concert was going to be attacked, and advising her to drop out of it.  But she didn't want to disappoint her fans.  What's a pre-teen pop star to do?  

Well, in this case, she asks her illicit friends to step in.  Would we pretty please protect the benefit concert?

The general consensus was, sure.  As long as we get paid.

The kid coughed up a few grand to split among the group.  I did accept my share, and then promptly spent it on security cameras.  More on that later.  

I have just experienced my first group planning session, and have discovered a newfound respect for anyone capable of directing such things.  Yes, even you, Father, although grudgingly so.

My main priority was to learn the layout of the venue, and the schedule of the event.  That posed few problems, and to be fair, most people present did likewise.  Their strengths were fairly obvious, most
people placed themselves without me having to make any real decisions.

Except for Layla.

First she gave me trouble over getting a replacement BANlink.  Then she seemed to think she could simply place herself onstage, without even consulting the performer (and had no qualms about shopping for clothes to that end, by the by).  Finally, others in the group ended up passing the hat to get her a 'link, despite the fact that she had the funds already.

I wonder what happened when she visited her old home?  I should ask about that.

This was the longest meeting I've ever attended, including all the board meetings I was forced to attend before leaving home.

The morning of the concert:  Move-in day at The Wall Club

ER is not the only performer for this event, so we don't have exclusive access to anything.  Still, we arrived early enough to get our people and equipment in place without arousing too much suspicion.  I couldn't get into the security room, but the sound and light boards were in the open and the cameras themselves were easy to hijack.  I plugged my eyes into all the existing security and show cameras, and found a few blind spots that had to be covered -- there went my share of the advance payment, as I had to rush out and buy new cameras to slap into place.  Got Maggie into the rafters and Owlet patrolling outside, Parker time-sharing between the two drones.  Set up all the camera feeds to loop through my VR.  Searched the place like crazy for anything that looked hinky and couldn't find it.  The gnome dug
out something from under the stage that she thought looked out of place, but it turned out to belong to another performer's crew.  Fortunately, this was the only such incident.

Mauger made a brief attempt to establish rapport with some of the roadies, probably for his narcotics business.  I don't know if it went anywhere, but it didn't distract him from the main goal.  He was in his sniper position before the doors opened, his scope feed linked into my server along with all the rest of the cameras.

With Katrya set up as close to ER as possible, I felt pretty good about our arrangement.  

The concert begins

The first person to notice something wrong is Katrya, and she's not even on the floor.  It's the Border Patrol guards.  Not their presence; we expect some form of government security since this is a DHS-sponsored event.  No, the problem here is, out of all six BP agents, not a one of them seems to be old enough to shave.  They're all green recruits, or maybe even actors in BP univorms.  She tells me so, in that odd stilted accent of hers.  

"IF border patrol is here, they are outside or not currently visible. This is decoration. Is meant to.... relax people. Which should make us -not- relaxed."

So now I'm thinking that this attack we've been warned of is an inside job, and I'm suspicious of the fake guards, and the government rep.  I tell Parker to follow him when he leaves, just to see if he meets up with anyone -- but to not get too far away.

Meanwhile, Mauger has already spotted another, unrelated element: pickpockets.  Maybe a whole team of them.  He points out a few and asks me to save pictures.  I'm already streaming all of this to my server (assuming I don't max out my bandwidth and storage), but I quickly set up a macro for him so that he can tag these grifters when he spots them.  I think it's kind of funny, and wonder for a moment if they spotted us before we spotted them.  But then Vamir asked a question which sobered me right up: "Are these people taking items, or planting something?"

Visions of microbombs and exploding bougies run through my overactive imagination.  Mauger said he was fairly sure it was just stealing, but I replayed one of the tagged events anyway, to be sure.  I'm definitely becoming more paranoid, lately.

Then Aru decided to try to stop one of the thieves.  Nothing violent, just a wrist-check, all the while staying in his bartender persona.  The pickpocket looked very startled (answered that question; they definitely did not spot us), and after a brief struggle got away.  Mauger tracked him, so I got to see an amazing quick-change, assisted by his clothing.  I was seized by envy.  Yet another pretty toy I need to acquire on limited funds.  Shaking myself, I warned Aru (unnecessarily) to not give chase.  We still have an attack to stop.

From that point, most of the concert proceeded as a concert should.  Loud music.  Bright lights.  Drunk dancing.  You know, fun -- if I hadn't been working.

And then the shit hit the fan.

(to be continued in part 3)