Hot Commodities

 is a quest in Wasteland 3: Battle of Steeltown.

Background
''Carla Asphalt-Runner has asked us to look into a suspicious crate that was loaded on her truck but which isn't on the shipping manifest. Until the issue is cleared up, she can't start her delivery run.''

Walkthrough

 * Talking to Carla will result in her mentioning that there's an unregistered war-bot, disassembled, in the back of her truck. Rather than go out with improper paperwork and risk embarrassing the Arapaho, she decided to stay back and clear the issue. However, with the lockdown caused by the computation engine, she has no recourse - and asks the Rangers to investigate.
 * After gaining access to the Steeltown admin level and meeting Bennie Bianchi, the Rangers can talk to her and inquire about the note. After presenting it to her, Bennie will immediately deflect and produce another note from J to B, which suggests that B was setting Carla up to get ambushed and robbed. With Perception 9, your Ranger will realize that the writing in Bianchi's organizer matches the writing of the note from B. Bennie will point to Bernice, her assistant, as the possible culprit.
 * You can counter with the Perception 9 option, pointing out that she is the person who smuggled the war-bot out. After a brief attempt to feign innocence, she will admit it, but claim that "Jay", hey boyfriend, forced her to do it, then ask the Rangers to frame Bernice while offering a substantial reward in Tellurium steel and a custom crafting recipe. With Hard Ass 10, you can intimidate her into forking over the reward in return for your silence.
 * You can frame Bernice when talking to Markham regardless, but you can also just out Bennie regardless of the above after the quest completes.

Rewards

 * If framing Bernice
 * 10 Tellurium steel and recipe for Elite auro 'Fireball' rifle
 * If turning Bennie in
 * 10 Tellurium steel and recipe for disruption trap

Raw strings
"Hot Commodities", "Carla Asphalt-Runner needs to know who smuggled a warbot into her shipment.", "Investigate the connection to the Ghost Gang", "Return to Carla and report the cargo", "Ask Bennie Bianchi in Steeltown Administration about the war-bot crate and the note inside it.", "Interrogate Bernice.", "Talk to Markham about the smuggled war-bot.", "Talk to Markham about the smuggled war-bot.", "Return to Bennie for a reward.", " Extra quest objective node, if we need one. Creating this here so we don't end up with out-of-order objectives in the quest log.", "Reported the fallguy/fallgal to Markham after failing to get the truth out of Bennie.(End Node 10)", " (End Node 11) We told Markham that Bennie was responsible for the smuggling.", " (End Node 12) Bennie's secret is safe from Markham, and we received our payoff. The fallguy/fallgal took the blame.", "Mission failed b/c we attacked Steeltown or killed a critical NPC.", "Dropped the investigation at Bennie's request.", " Gang raid started", "Interrogate Bernice for Bennie.", "Talk to Markham about the smuggled war-bot.", "Carla Asphalt-Runner has asked us to look into a suspicious crate that was loaded on her truck but which isn't on the shipping manifest. Until the issue is cleared up, she can't start her delivery run.", "",       " Description (Node 2) - Maybe there's a clue in the ghost gang's hideout?\nPotential addendum when we locate the Ghost Garage: The Ghost Gang has a secret garage to the west of Steeltown. Its entrance is in the scrapyard.", " Description (Node 3) - We've found the cargo. Time to talk to Carla. ", "Carla found a strange note inside the suspicious crate on her truck, and asked us to talk to Bennie Bianchi in Steeltown about both the crate and the note. ", "Bennie Bianchi says her assistant, Bernice, is the one who is smuggling war-bots out of Steeltown. She wants us to get her to confess.\\n\\n[Reward: [Dropset: DRP_DLC1_d2001_HotCommodities_Reward_SidedWithBennie]]", "We got a confession out of Bernice. Time to let Markham know who the culprit is.", "We know the truth about who is behind the smuggled war-bot. Time to go tell Abigail Markham.", "We lied to Markham to cover for Bennie. Now to get our reward. ", " Description (Node 9) - ", "We reported Bernice's crimes to Markham. Looks like she'll be getting the sack soon. ", "We told Markham that Bennie was the culprit who tried to smuggle the war-bot out of Steeltown. Soulds like she'll be getting the sack, eventually.", "Bennie's secret is safe from Markham, and we received our payoff. Looks like Bernice will be getting the sack. ", "We're not going to be able to find out about Carla's suspicious crate because all of Steeltown hates us now. ", "Bennie asked us to drop the investigation, so we did.", "With Steeltown under attack by Liberty's gangs, we won't be able to complete this mission.", "Bennie says her assistant, Bernice, is the one who is smuggling war-bots out of Steeltown. She wants us to get Bernice to confess.\\n\\n[Reward: [Dropset: DRP_DLC1_d2001_HotCommodities_Reward_SidedWithBennie]]", "We got Bernice to confess. Time to let Markham know who the culprit is."