Run: 2026-09-02-01M1H5MANQZPZCSGP7Y7T17GP5

The van sat parked across from the community center, engine idling. "Okay, walk me through it one more time," Bill said, adjusting his ski mask. "Because the plan sounds insane when I say it out loud." "Bill, it's a birthday party. There will be maybe ten adults, forty sugar-high children, and one bouncy castle. We go in as the pizza delivery guy and the... whatever you are." "I'm the balloon animal guy." "Right. The balloon animal guy who cannot make balloon animals." "I watched a tutorial, Molly. I can make a snake. Possibly a worm." "Those are the same thing." "See? Twice the inventory." Molly pinched the bridge of her nose. "The presents will be on a gift table near the coat rack. We grab them during the piñata, because every child at that party will be blindly swinging a stick at a donkey. Nobody watches a gift table during a piñata. It's the safest twenty seconds in America." "Unless they do the cake first." "They're not doing the cake first." "How do you know?" "Because I cased the venue, Bill. I talked to the mascot. I know the schedule." "You talked to the mascot? Which one?" "A guy in a dinosaur suit named Carl. He's union, he's bitter, and he hates the birthday boy's father for tipping him four dollars last year." Bill stared at her. "You bought an inside man at a children's party." "I bought a disgruntled dinosaur, yes." "Okay, but real talk. Stealing presents from kids. Are we the villains? Because I've been feeling a way about it since Tuesday." "It's not villainous, it's opportunistic. Kids get too many presents anyway. Little Timmy gets forty gifts, he'll unwrap thirty-nine and cry about the one we took. That's called building character." "That's Timmy's name? Timmy?" "Why?" "Nothing. I just don't love that I'm stealing from a specific child named Timmy. It felt abstract before." "Bill, do you want the cut or not?" "I want the cut AND a clear conscience. Can't I have both?" "No." "Fine. What's the cut?" "Presents are listed on the invite registry. Three gaming consoles, a bike, and something called a LEGO set that's apparently worth eight hundred dollars because it's 'retired.'" "Retired from what? LEGOs retire?" "Everything retires, Bill. Even plastic bricks." He was quiet for a moment, then said, "The piñata starts at three?" "Three fifteen. Carl dangles it early to soften the crowd." "So we're in and out in twenty seconds?" "Eighteen if you don't stop to make a snake for anyone." "That's cold. What if a kid asks nicely?" "Bill." "What if it's a really nice kid, Molly?" "Bill, if you make one balloon animal during the heist, I am leaving you at that party and taking the LEGO money." "Understood. One snake. For morale." "That's not—fine. One snake. But it has to look bad. It has to look like a snake a man would make who watched one tutorial." "Oh, it will. Molly? Thanks for not making me be the pizza guy." "You can't be the pizza guy. The pizza guy has to carry pizzas." "Right. The pizzas we didn't order." "The pizzas we did not order," she agreed, and pulled the van out into traffic.