Sender: Cambridge
Reciever: CitizenFritz
Subject: The Aztlán Piñata Affair
>>>>>[Tir Tairngire is getting interesting. Not quite to the point of dropping the act and showing up at the UCAS Embassy, but the notion is becoming more and more attractive. Details surrounding the riots are vague, but I happened to be watching at just the right time - I've included the footage here just in case it wasn't aired in the UCAS. (See? I told you that the Amateur Press Association was good for something.)
You'll see vid of Hestaby trying to calm the population in Salem only to have an 'Urban Pacification Unit' open fire on the rioters...she consumed the camera (and most likely the cameraman as well) soon thereafter as one last stab at damage control. I just adore that the Tir nobility are carrying on as though nothing is out of the ordinary. It shouldn't surprise me after all these years.
But all is not well in the Land of Promise.
I could have just laid low, but trigger fingers in the Tir are becoming especially twitchy, and they aren't loading stick and shock. Even meeting up with one other Dwarf in public was enough to warrant a virtual frisking for both of us.
The job. Oh god the job. Normally I'd turn this kind of drek down, but I was desperate. Johnson played it fast and loose, could tell he was in a bit of a bind. He used the proper channels, but it was pretty clear that going through my regular was just a formality - did his legwork though. Should have remembered Jersey in 2058 and called the whole thing off. In return for bailing this team out of the drek, he's contracting them to get me out of the Tir. Something still feels a little off about it, but it beats the fuck out of laying low until the pogrom shows up at my quaint little student's hostel in Portland and says 'hand over your non-elves.'
The crew looks pretty standard at first glance, but they're so young. A lovely face, some equally pretty bullets [manufactured in the Tir, *might* still be on their payroll], a big damned wildcat, some drones, a little wiz [sounds like the kid's straight from the BosWash & I'm old enough to be his 'maaahm'], and an oldtimer who's still Awake somehow. Their hacker? Some burnout calling himself 'Quicksilver', but if that's actually Ryan-Fucking-Mercury, I'll retire. I'll finally fucking do it. I'll be on suborbital to DeeCee and spend the rest of my godforsaken life attending state dinners and ignoring questions by the press about our 'drastic differences in stature.'
So grep this: These infanta aren't even his crew. Someone else Operates them...so I'm not sure if this Johnson actually (as he claims) has their best interests in mind, or if he's a shill, or if I'm being hired as part of a shell game. What is totally clear at this point is that I should have asked for more fucking nuyen. I knew this was a dark market run when I agreed to it, but only tonight did it become clear how dark:
Running against a Tir Prince, with at least one other in attendance. Peach-snatch run with a strong home court advantage, probably a run better left to heisters, but much like the Johnson, the crew is playing it fast and loose. Could turn into an Aztlán Piñata scenario quick fast, but let's hope everyone is pragmatic enough to salvage it. Last thing we need is to be stranded in the Tir without an exit strategy.
It's not impossible, but it looks like this crew is going to die without a little extra backup, and I was hired to round them out, so I'm going with the express understanding that if anything goes wrong, I'm out. Granted, you and I both know that once I sign on with these bright young things, I'm not going to ditch them, although I'll probably threaten to. Repeatedly. The pay isn't good enough, but that's all right, I just needed some forward motion, wounds can be mended, assets can be re-acquired, and bail can be paid. If all goes well, you'll hear from me within the next seventy-two hours from sunny CalFree.
Though - A quote from old Shadowland keeps coming back to me, a comment that annoying ass-wagon LaughingMan once made just after the 2056 election. He said, "Sometimes when you pursue the beast, it eats you."
Let's hope this time I don't get eaten.]<<<<<
- Luminaughty
