Run: 2026-07-25-01KYD4QPCGDMAFQYFXHW8JVRX2

Molly spread the crayon drawing across the kitchen table. "Right. Operation Birthday Bonanza. The Hendersons' garden, Saturday, two o'clock." Bill squinted at the map. "Is that a dog or a cloud?" "It's the bouncy castle, Bill." "It's got a tail." "I can't draw castles. Focus. There will be thirty presents on a table by the patio. All we need is the distraction, the grab, and the exit." "And why," Bill said, "are we stealing from a five-year-old?" "Because little Henderson's dad collects watches. Expensive ones. You know what a five-year-old gets when Dad's rich? Watch-adjacent gifts. Vintage ones. Trust me, that pile is worth more than the bank job we botched." "We didn't botch it." "You asked the teller for a pen." "I needed to write the note!" Molly rolled her eyes. "Saturday. You come dressed as the entertainer." "The entertainer?" "Magic Mike the Magnificent. I already told them Mike's regular assistant is sick." "There's a real Magic Mike?" "There was. He's doing a christening in Dorking. I checked. That's called research." Bill folded his arms. "I'm not doing magic. I don't know any magic." "You know the thumb trick." "The thumb trick is not magic, it's a deformity." "Then learn three card tricks off the internet. You've got four days." "And what are you doing while I'm making a fool of myself in front of thirty toddlers?" "Catering." Molly pointed to a corner of the crayon map. "I'll wheel in the cake trolley, which conveniently rolls straight past the present table. Presents go under the cake cloth. Trolley goes out to the van. Done." Bill studied the plan. "What if a kid wants cake?" "There's a real cake on top." "What if a kid looks under the cloth?" "Kids don't look under cloths." "My nephew looks under cloths." "Your nephew is an anomaly, Bill." "What if the real Magic Mike finishes the christening early?" Molly paused. "He won't." "You don't know that." "Bill. It's Dorking. Nobody leaves Dorking early." Bill sighed and picked up a sausage roll from the plate between them. "What do I wear?" "I got you a costume. Purple cape, top hat, a wand." "A wand." "Wave it around. Say 'abracadabra.' Children are idiots." "My niece is four and she caught me lying about Santa." "Your family has trust issues, Bill. It's not my problem." He chewed thoughtfully. "You know what bothers me? The moral dimension." "Oh, here we go." "We're robbing a birthday party. There'll be balloons. There'll be a little girl in a party dress watching us take her presents." "She's five. She won't even notice. She'll be too busy eating your cake." "She'll notice when she goes to open them!" "And by then we'll be in Margate with forty grand in vintage watches, and her dad will buy her forty new presents because he's rich, and everyone wins." Bill considered this. "Everyone wins," he repeated. "Everyone wins." "That's actually a nice way to look at it." "It is a victimless crime, morally speaking." "Philosophically speaking, we should probably get paid for the party entertainment too." "Bill." "What? A job's a job." "Fine. We'll invoice them for Magic Mike." "Now that's a heist."