Run: 2026-10-08-01M4DZYEWCE98QQKXAMQQRMMBT

Bill squinted at the greasy pizza box balanced on the dashboard, where Molly had drawn the entire heist in red marker. "Why is there a bouncy castle in the middle of it?" "Because every kid under ten wants to be in it, and every parent is watching the magician." Molly tapped a crooked X by the hall doors. "Side door, two-fifteen. Pick the lock, grab the presents, and nobody looks up." "And if somebody does?" "Then it's Plan B." "What's Plan B?" "Plan A, but louder." "Where are the presents?" "Under the banner, next to the cake table. All forty-two gifts, mostly Lego. Bring the big sack, Bill. Lego is heavier than it looks." "How do we tell the good ones from the rubbish?" "We don't. We take the lot, Bill." "Even the jumpers?" "Especially the jumpers. Nobody deserves a jumper on their birthday." "What about the kids? There's a girl called Ruby who bit a policeman through his trousers." "Ruby's six. She'll be in the castle until she throws up, then in the loos, then asleep by the sausage rolls." "That's a lot of sugar for one little girl." "It's a children's party. Sugar is the whole point." "What if the kids cry?" "They'll cry for twenty minutes, then someone gives them a balloon dog and they forget their own names." Bill nodded slowly, then pointed through the windscreen. "And the getaway?" Across the road sat a rusty ice cream van, its speaker warbling a broken version of "Greensleeves." "Why's it playing Greensleeves?" "It's the only tune it's got." "We're escaping in an ice cream van?" "Nobody checks an ice cream van. People just wave at it." "That's two very different reasons to be nervous." "Stop being nervous, Bill. You're the one going in as the clown." Bill went very quiet. Reluctantly, he lifted a carrier bag and pulled out a rainbow wig, a squeaky red nose and a pair of enormous yellow shoes. "Molly, I have to tell you something about the clown." "Don't." "The real clown called in sick, so I rang the mum and said we were from an agency." "We?" "Me and my cousin Dennis." "Where's Dennis now?" Bill winced. "Dennis is the ice cream man." They both looked across the road. The van door swung open, and a large man in a paper hat waved at them cheerfully. "Oh, Bill." "He's very good at it." "He's terrifying at it." Bill pulled on the shoes. They squeaked. He squeezed the red nose experimentally, and it honked. Molly closed her eyes. "Right," she said. "Once you're inside, you do not, under any circumstances, juggle." "I can juggle." "You can juggle two satsumas and a sock." "That's still juggling." "And when we're out, it's four minutes, tops." "Four minutes?" "Six, if the cake's still on the table." "Why would the cake matter?" Molly grabbed the red marker and underlined the word CAKE on the pizza box, twice. "Because, Bill, I'm not leaving a party without a slice."