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The place was a warehouse at some point. Or a workshop, maybe. A drone hive? Who knows. But right now it's a hangout, and a party spot. The music is bone-rattlingly loud bass thumping with distorted voices and screeching guitar over the top. It smells like spilled booze and sweat and smoke. People are making out or passed out on the ratty couches, and the catwalk overhead creaks ominously as those atop it stomp in time. Strobe lights and lasers play over the shouting punk crowd, and a woman with a metal jaw and elaborate goth outfit is using black spray paint to cover the graffiti-covered walls and floor with vaguely demonic words and symbols- Satan, sacrifice, pentagrams, summoning, circles, devil heads, and more.
Demon Cam in Cinci
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He can catch it. The battery sparks as a wire melts out of its contact points, and it dies.
Nothing interesting happens for the next half hour or so until Roland pulls up on a battered looking orange dirt bike. He parks it, nods to a stall owner, and heads up to Cam with another polite nod.
"Let's see it, then."
Roland pokes around and investigates, concluding that it's a nice truck and in real good shape.
"Fourteen thou for the truck, another eight grand if it's full at the time. How's that sound? As for the garage, I said fifteen grand at the time. Thinking about it more, I could let it go for fourteen."
"Sure, but what about the gas? Even better if it's proper diesel. That, I'll give you fifteen grand for."
from_scratch
"That's a chunk better than what I've been getting, why's it worth that much to you full?"
"Well, that's for diesel. Better stuff than fuel ethanol, and what my gas station sells to Badlands caravans."
"And I can grab the cash in a couple hours. Looking forward to it. Have you thought about what I said about soup kitchens? Also, if you need reliable heads I can try to point a couple to you, but that kind of thing is slow."
from_scratch
"I haven't beaten feet to such a soup kitchen yet but it's not a bad idea. Do you have a favorite in the area? And I'm looking for more contacts, employees, that kinda thing, yeah."
"There's a couple around- They have to move sometimes, for one reason or another. Try the red brick building two blocks that way, and there's an old church that's been pretty consistent about it at the edge of the park, over towards the highway there. And I'll keep you in mind as far as contacts go. A lot of them aren't the kind of people you'd get along with, I think."
"Off the top of my head, Chives, Davy, and Marty basically just want someone to watch their back and earn a few bucks. If they want to jump ship with me later, I'll point 'em at you. You might like Ann, but she might not like you. Or she might love you. I really can't predict her sometimes. She volunteers at the red brick soup kitchen a lot. She's also a whore, if that bothers you."
from_scratch
"It's not my industry but I'm not going to turn up my nose at her. Is she recognizable from a description, if she's in when I go over?"
"Maybe. Short, shoulder-length black hair, usually in a ponytail, purple highlights. Wide smile. Wiry, slim. Typically wears a black tank top, and usually has heavy makeup on."
"No problem. Shall I go get my cash, and you go get the tank filled up? Just bring it to the garage, I'll meet you there later and hand over the keys and everything.
from_scratch
"Sure, I'll meet you in a few."
He gets into the truck. Drives off. Checks, as an afterthought, for bugs.
The truck is not bugged!
from_scratch
Oh good. He takes a scenic route, for a value of scenic that mostly means informative, and swings back with the tank full of diesel.
He can observe a group of Modes collecting their daily tax from one of the street level drug pushers, and a pimp with aggressive body language and a cigar lecturing at a man and a woman both dressed in not-much and the two food banks previously mentioned- They seem to be doing fine and feeding people- And a Green Dragon Express having a FIRE SALE of GENUINE SUBSTITUTE CHEDDAR-THEMED DAIRY PRODUCT and a pickup football game going down in one of the empty lots, among other signs of life in the city.
from_scratch
Cheddar themed. Wow. They can't even claim it has a flavor.
Back he comes.
The people at the little gate of the garage open it for him.
Roland is there with a duffle full'a cash. He waves, then starts detailing the security systems. A bunch of different kinds of sensors, padlocks, and a pair of redundant data links sending information off to... Somewhere down the street, apparently.
"Water and power coming from the city grid. They don't bother to meter or charge for it, fusion plants make it too cheap to bother inside the city like this, but you'll have to get someone to hook it back up to mains for you if it ever goes out. Want me to pull all my stuff- Random parts and shelves, the current set of cameras and the like?"