The Caffeine Connection

 Game date: 10/1/2020

Mauger asked for someone to come along for his meetup with one of his drug connections.  This was one of the low-level execs who pinged our VR site.  I guess they liked the rush.  I hope they did.  I've watched a number of that type get nervous breakdowns, and even heart attacks, at very young ages.  On nothing but stayawake pills, sometimes.  A lot of people think corplife is a breeze if you're not a wageslave.  Truth is, if you're not on the top of the ladder, all you see is ass, and if you are on top, you better watch yours.

Anyway, I suggested either Vamir or myself, because we both come from the same background as his mark, and can hopefully keep this meeting from going south.  The Hoods he met with didn't seem impressed with him, and from my reviews of the audio, I kind of come down on their side of things.  I don't quite understand where he's going with this plan of his.  The execs who are willing to give blood on behalf of their bosses are pulling down enough credits that they can easily replace whatever toys they might lose to pickpockets, so I don't personally see them overflowing with goodwill upon getting those trinkets back.  But I'm not about to quibble with Mauger over this.  It's a minor point, I don't see it doing any actual harm, and we already have bad blood between us.  At any rate, he has a drone with him that belongs to this exec.  I don't know if it was stolen at the benefit concert, or it was taken recently.  I haven't been paying close attention.

He takes Vamir, but leaves a channel open for me.  I listen in.

The meeting itself does not raise any red flags.  Skyler, the mark, has a smug attitude, which tells me they're not so far gone into addiction, at least not yet.  They see their supplier as beneath them; typical of that class.  Still, they ask for "other" product lines, indicating that they want harder stuff, so that addiction is coming.  Liked the rush, but not enough.  Mauger dangled the promise of better drugs, offered 50 tabs of the original sample, and Skyler bought 20.  As I said, fairly straightforward.  

What does raise a red flag is that Mauger got a call from his mom in the middle of the meeting.  She told him that the autochef needed supplies, and she wanted him to shop on the way home.  When he asked for a list, she told him that the autochef already sent it to him.  

Mauger didn't seem to think much of this call.  I'd only been paying half attention this whole time anyway, and could barely hear the far end, but my brain is sensitive lately when the word "autochef" registers.  The timing of the call threw my paranoia into overdrive.  Was Ms. Peach Chef trying to tell him something about Skyler?  Was this a sting?  Damn, I should have been paying attention!

I really, really hate saying anything to Mauger that sounds remotely like an order, because that will inevitably trigger another passive-aggressive "Yes, Chief," but I felt this was too urgent to wait.  I broke silence.  "Mauger, check your messages!"

Which he did (without being snarky), and it wasn't a warning after all.  It really was a shopping list...sort of.  I'll get back to that.

After the deal is settled (and it wasn't a sting at all), Mauger casually pulls out the drone and re-gifts it to Skyler, who seems genuinely surprised to not have it.  This makes me think it must have been boosted recently, or else they don't really use it all that much.  They are glad to get it back, but I'm not hearing much gratitude in their voice.  If I'm pegging it right, they probably think Mauger stole it, himself.  I'll have to warn him to not pull that particular con more than once with any one mark.

So that was done, with more spent on the affair than was earned, and I guess time will tell whether it was worth the investment.  I wouldn't mind being wrong -- but I don't think I am.

So back to that shopping list...

Mauger's text was a request for meat.  But not just any meat, oh no, that would be too simple.  Ms
. Peach Chef wants bug meat, from a giant acid-spitting bug which Katrya identified as an Antkeg.  She tells us that they occasionally swarm around the gates and have to be driven back with flamethrowers, and that, once in a while, they explode when they are killed, splattering their acid-tainted blood in a large splash zone.  

Well.  What Peaches wants, Peaches gets, I suppose.  My rent savings suffered another dent, as I'm buying a set of throwaway armor, and a much, much bigger gun.

Tally-ho.