This seems to be caused by some sort of lag (perhaps server related). If you stay still and wait, it’ll spawn.
To add to the gripe though, choosing a briefcase and loading something into it should be part of the Safehouse experience and is an incredibly obvious missed opportunity.
Nah sometimes it just doesn’t spawn, doesn’t matter how long you wait.
Not sure if that could be the reason, but the last time something like that happened to me, that was when I grabbed an item as as soon as I could move, at the very beginning of a level. Seeing how your inventory seems to take a few seconds to “load”, maybe doing something like that “interrupts” the process somehow?
You said that happened to you in Berlin. Was it at the spawn point in the bar? Did you grab that one coin as soon as you could, maybe?
For the “no witnesses” objective the witnesses counter seems to randomly increment by one without any reason. You don’t see any orange outlines in instinct and you don’t get compromised. Killing people doesn’t reduce the counter. Maybe it’s God or an ancient spirit.
I’ve had a lot of luck with the witness thing - sometimes people will see me do something, panic, alert guards, but it won’t count against the witnesses count.
The spawn point it happened at was the roof. I think your theory on what causes it is correct as one of the first things I did was pick up a brick that was near my spawn point so I’d have an extra distraction/melee on me because I typically don’t keep my briefcase.
That would actually be really nice. You’re right, missed opportunity. Maybe it could be like the Wardrobe where you can pick your unlocked suits - just be able to pick whatever Briefcase you want.
It would also give Freelancer players a reason to go for Challenges in the main game/featured contracts that reward Briefcases they want.
Maybe just to have all Briefcases available in Freelancer, they can add a challenge that unlocks the Military Briefcase to your starting inventory in the main game and Freelancer. Because there are no ICA Stashes in Freelancer, that would be the only Briefcase not available in the mode if they ever did add customize for the Briefcases.
My favorite Briefcases that I have unlocked are the Sieger 300 Sniper Case and the Aluminum Travel Briefcase.
That might be it, then, yeah. At the very least, I know I haven’t encountered that bug since I’ve started waiting a few seconds just to make sure my entire loadout (briefcase included) spawns before doing anything (aside from walking / running, anyway). A bit annoying, but ah well.
Well, I’d like to see footage of that. The only way I have been able to cause a failure for my inventory to load is by not waiting and doing some sort of interaction like picking up an item in the map.
Well, now we’re onto something else: Paying for dead drops/stashes. This would give Merces a continual purpose beyond the point of having collected all weapons - either as a fixed-cost per drop, %age of your mission payout or hybrid of the two where completing more objectives lowers the price by giving you some sort of rebate against the up-front cost you paid at the safehouse when leaving.
The only caveat is that if you’re allowed to use this to bring in > 2 large weapons, it should be bi-directional so that you can take the item back home again. Though instead of being literal drops, it could also be implemented via the weapons merchant.
Just because 47 is currently Freelance, he’ll still have plenty of usable ICA equipment handy, such as previously used ICA briefcases I reckon.
I hope we eventually get the option to equip the Briefcase in the Safehouse. After all, that Collectors briefcase on the bench in the Safehouse is just there for the taking 
I suggested a while ago for suppliers to carry anything you want present in the field. Hopefully IOI can nick this idea.
Has anyone else noticed that Berlin Showdowns have now gotten super buggy? More likely than not, when I do one the Leader will spawn inside the environment and only come out if you throw a distraction and it will cause them to “teleport” to where they were meant to spawn.
At least it makes identifying them super easy I guess…
I’ve done an entire play through - all I need is the ancestral pistol, but it is not showing up in the suppliers or crates. Really annoying.
Another Freelancer oddity that I’ve not seen mentioned anywhere - why does none of Diana’s dialogue get paused when you pause the game? Unlike the rest of the game, it just continues to play…
I thought that was strange too, but I never mentioned it because I thought it was intentional.
When you’re using a suit that has a larger head than 47’s (flamingo and devil’s own for example, maybe some others), and you’re leaving the safehouse by car, the head will clip through the car in a very ugly fashion 
I don’t know if this is a bug, just a “miswording”, or would qualify as a “wishlist” item, so I have no idea where to post this - but for the “Burning Man” Challenge in Freelancer (Eliminate 25 Suspects using fire), the actual Syndicate Leaders count towards the challenge, in addition to the regular suspects that aren’t the Leader.
I just tested it now and got my first bit of progress by killing a Leader randomly with the Oil Canister by shooting the oil puddle.
If this is not a bug and actually is just a miswording, I would suggest IOI change the wording of the Challenge to “Eliminate 25 Suspects or Leaders using Fire” just to make it more clear on what actually counts for the Challenge.
Leaders are suspects. You enter a level with, say, four suspects, one of whom is the Leader.
I understand that, especially now after getting progress. I just think the wording for the challenge should be more clear. Every other Challenge involving Synicate Leaders or Members explicitly specifies Leaders or Members in the Challenge description. This is the only Challenge that I’m aware of that mentions just Suspects.
The way the Challenge is currently worded, I was under the impression it had to be non-Leader, Suspect kills before I randomly got a fire kill on a Leader and got progress.