EP 12 – The Art of the Steal

As the crew return from their earlier expedition to the library in the Country Club, they debate on what to do next. Rez accesses a computer terminal, and confirms the library they scouted earlier is open to guests 24/7, so they decide to wait until late at night before going back to check out the wall-safe. They navigate to the dining hall, spending a short time there before moving on. As the crew enter back in, they notice a man sleeping away on a couch just near the door. Rama approaches the desk he saw Aaron Mitchell was working at earlier. He finds a secret lever in the back drawer of the desk and pulls it. On the far wall, they notice a painting cracks open slightly. As they open the false-wall, they find a large mechanical safe.

The crew attempting to leave, after stealing the drugs from the safe

Unable to crack it, they navigate back to the desk, and Rez decides to physically hack into the computer terminal placed on the desk. Logged in, she runs a system-wide scan and finds a file that looks to be the safe combination. They walk back to the safe, and the sleeping man begins to wake up. Rez rolls a persuasion check, and pushes the man back into the couch. Moments later, the man begins snoring again and Rez approaches the safe. As it opens, they find the assortment of drugs they had hoped to find, including an abundance of Blue Glass & Synthcoke. As Rez packs the drugs away, she also finds an encrypted data shard, which she pockets.

Fennec notices a group approaching down the hallway toward the Library. The crew converse on how to act casual as they enter, but to their luck find that these people are friends of the sleeping man, who collect him and return to their rooms. The crew exit and prepare to leave the estate. As they enter up to the entrance, they speak with two guards stationed at the door. Rama attempts to persuade the guards that he needs to leave on urgent business, but the guard insists they remain for their safety. Rama pushes further, and the guards eventually permit them to leave.

They leave and travel back to the Medical Clinic currently occupied by the Endolphin gang. They speak with Versa, who is surprised they came back. Rez hands over the supply, and Versa welcomes them to take what they need from the remains of the clinic. The crew dig through several rooms and eventually find the components they are looking for, along with a small assortment of other supplies they take as payment for their hard work. As they arrive back at Bakersfield University, they crash in their provided rooms within the old student housing complex and sleep off the day’s events.

Daniel Simmons in the Medical Lab

The next day, they return to the medical lab and meet up with Daniel Simmons. He thanks them for their hard work, and begins working away to set up a viable medical lab for future use. The crew decide to grab a quick breakfast, then head into the Computer Science lab to speak with Kave about the encrypted data shard. Kave works with Gunhead to crack it, and they review its contents: An audio recording and a text file.

As they listen to the audio recording, they determine this was taken from a planned meeting between the owners of the Country Club estate (Lavish Entertainment) and an undisclosed individual representing the Oildale gangers. The corporation has agreed to make periodic payments to the gangers to instil a state of unrest, to keep their clientele happy with a ‘wasteland experience’. The file on the data shard appears to be initial plans to demolish and rebuild an old abandoned shopping mall located in Bakersfield, with requests for tender sent out to several large construction agencies.