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“I thought the convention didn’t start until tomorrow.” “JUST THOUGHT I’D SCOUT THE LAY OF THE LAND A LITTLE. “Where are you, anyway? It sounds noisy at your end.” Pass the word around the team that I’ve got Briar Patch established. Reminding himself to keep his unit recharged, he flipped open his cell phone and cued up a number from his memory file. While today’s computerized switchboards made it harder to listen in on conversations, there was no sense in getting careless. It would be better to get in the habit of using the cell phones. He started to reach for the phone, then changed his mind. While they had worked bigger events before, they should be able to turn a tidy profit here.

This DragonCon was supposed to draw somewhere between thirty and thirty-five thousand people. While they had never worked a science fiction/fantasy media convention before, how different could it be? A crowd was a crowd, and the people that make up a crowd are notoriously careless with their money when away from home.

To be more exact, he was part of a team that toured the country, following the crowds and the money they brought to sports events, conventions, and festivals. Max was a professional thief and scam artist. He was planning to make it all back, and then some, by the end of the long Labor Day weekend. Max knew exactly why he was willing to eat the expense. Either that or they were willing to pay premium prices just to get away from wherever it was they called home. The only answer he had come up with was that the situation was pretty much the same all across the country, so people became blind to how much they were paying for how little. Max spent most of his time on the road, and often wondered exactly why it was that his fellow travelers, businessmen and vacationers, would be willing to pay such high prices for impersonal rooms, short pour drinks, and mediocre food. Especially at times like now when they were hosting a large convention. Not so much better, though, as to justify the inflated room, room service, and drink prices the hotel charged.

Perhaps a bit larger and better decorated than most, but after all, this was the Hyatt in downtown Atlanta. DRAGONCON: TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS, Todd McCaffrey