co-conspirators for life

The rest of the story has already been written.

Things did NOT go as planned.

No SD card. Never met Nisha. Lost all contact with Myke. The Web feed was cut off.

Got rid of the goons, but by then it didn't matter. The Coachella 5 had already been labeled as traitors.

Trust is a funny thing. I like face-to-face contact for building trust. Same-space interaction. But we never got to see Nisha or Ian, never stood in the same room as them, never looked each other in the eye. So it makes sense that they didn't trust us... at least, not as much as we trusted each other.

*

Were we just chasing windmills in Coachella?

Nah.

Nisha may have a few regrets about aborting the mission. But I don't regret going down to Coachella at all.

SMG3er, HitsHerMark, Laura, Kiyash and I... well, we are co-conspirators for life.

We know we have an indefatigable ally in Diandra, who was our lifeline throughout the day and night, our only reliable souce of info during the botched heist, and who was the only Op on the mission who stayed with us until the bittersweet end.

We know we have real friends who fought for us when we were under suspicion, who got mad and loud for us when we were left hanging during the heist, who cared enough to stay awake all night watching out for us, who were online at 4 AM when I came home deflated and wanted to talk, who were online again at 9 AM the next day when I woke up wanting to talk some more about what had happened, who offered to buy two rounds of commiseratory drinks (see you at Spat's, Ariock and Ranger D), and who right now are busy getting ready to make the next mission go down the right way.

Stay tuned. They're on the case.

And you may just see the Coachella 5 rise again.