You guys are right! The mech isn't part of the cover, there's a couple of metal inserts under the bezel assembly. They shifted out of place and were blocking the key from turning. I smacked it a few times and the metal parts fell out thus exposing the key insert and now it works just fine.
Still seems like a little bit of design improvement could be made. I suspect their engineers recessed the tumbler to make it harder to access with locksmith tools (slowing down any professional thief that might have such tools).
And, the plastic covering probably made to just keep out rain and dirt and possibly even made with breakage in mind (as in, owner returns to a bike, notices the plastic is damaged by a thief who was thwarted, leaving the only cosmetically-damaged lock and of course, the bike).
I had purchased the lock because PopSci (or PopMech, I forget which magazine) rated it well in their theft tests so I was grumpy when I thought it was ruined by a simple drop. Now that it's working again, I'm not crabby anymore.
Thanks!
Al