Run: 2026-07-01-01KWE93RHW59V4ST57B63GSFZ1

Molly slid into the booth across from Bill, dropping a manila folder on the table like she was starting a poker game with a straight flush. "Tell me you didn't," Bill said, not even looking up from his coffee. "I didn't what?" "You didn't case a six-year-old's birthday party." "Timmy Radcliffe turns seven, actually, and I resent the implication that this is some kind of low-brow operation." Molly flipped open the folder. "Forty-three presents. Forty-three, Bill. His grandmother alone sent six boxes and one of them is the size of a mini-fridge." Bill finally looked up. "We're stealing birthday presents from a seven-year-old." "We're liberating consumer goods from a household that clearly has more money than sense." "That's not liberating, that's just stealing." "Semantics." She tapped the folder. "Security is a father who thinks a Ring doorbell makes him Fort Knox, and a bouncy castle rental company that leaves the generator unattended for twenty-minute stretches." "A bouncy castle." "A big one. Dinosaur themed." Bill rubbed his temples. "How do we even get in? You can't exactly waltz into a kid's party wearing a ski mask." "Obviously not. I already ordered a clown costume." "You're going to be the clown." "I'm going to be the entertainment, Bill. Nobody questions the guy with the balloon animals. I'll do a set, keep the kids distracted in the backyard, and you slip in through the side door disguised as party staff." "Disguised as what staff? There's no staff." "There's a caterer. I saw the van. You're going to be the caterer's assistant who got sent to grab extra folding chairs from the garage, except the garage is actually where they're stashing the gift table until the cake." Bill stared at her. "You've thought about this way too much." "I think about everything too much, that's why we're not in prison." "We were in prison. Twice." "Once was a misunderstanding and once was your fault." Molly slid a photo across the table — a wide shot of a backyard, a table groaning under wrapped boxes, streamers, the whole suburban circus. "Look at that. Look at it, Bill. That's a Nintendo Switch box right there, corner of the table. Somebody's getting a Switch." "He's seven, he doesn't need our professional attention." "He doesn't need forty-three presents either but here we are, righting the balance of the universe." Bill exhaled slowly, already knowing he'd lost. "If I get arrested in a hairnet, I swear to God, Molly." "You won't. In and out in eleven minutes, load it into the van before the pin the tail on the donkey game even wraps up." "It's pin the tail on the *dinosaur*, apparently, given the theme." "See, you're already invested." She snapped the folder shut, grinning. "Wear something with pockets. Big ones. For the Switch." "I hate you." "You love me. Now go find a hairnet."