Run: 2026-10-13-01M4TBRDH6DC4D69F3GR4GD1MH

Molly unrolled the blueprint across the hood of the Civic. It was a crayon drawing she'd bribed off the birthday boy's sister for two dollars and a hair tie. "Okay. Party starts at two. Presents go on the picnic table, here, by the fence. That's our vault." "What's this squiggle?" Bill asked. "Bouncy castle." "And the angry sun?" "That's Marjorie. The clown. Do not engage Marjorie." Bill nodded. He had been told not to engage clowns before. "What's our cover?" "Balloon animal people." "I don't know how to make balloon animals." "Can you make a snake?" "...Yes." "Then you can make balloon animals. Everything else is just a snake with anxiety." Bill studied the map like it might confess something. "Walk me through it." "One forty-five, we arrive. I case the gift table, you inflate decoys. Two-thirty, they cut the cake, and every eye in that yard is on a six-year-old holding a knife. That's our window." "A six-year-old with a knife." "Butter knife. Stay focused. I load, you drive. Pull the van around to the side gate." "The Civic." "Pull the Civic around. Thirty seconds. We take everything with ribbons. Ribbon means quality." "What about the piñata?" Molly looked at him for a long moment. "Leave the piñata." "It's full of candy. That's cash with a wrapper on it." "The piñata is structural. You take it, the kids riot. Kids are chaos agents, Bill. No loyalty, no fear. One of them spots us loading presents, what then?" Bill had once been outrun by a toddler at the mall job, so this was not a hypothetical. "Bribe him." "With what?" Bill patted his pockets. "Balloon snake." "Now you're thinking." Bill puffed up a little. "What's the take, realistically?" Molly flipped open a small notebook. "Rich neighborhood. Trampoline money. Two Lego sets, a scooter, one of those robots that judges you, four gift cards to the frozen yogurt place." "Fro-Yo-Mania?" "Fro-Yo-Mania." "That's good eatin'." "That's thirty percent of our retirement." Bill frowned at the crayon sun. "One problem. Marjorie." "Don't engage her." "You said that about the magician at the Henderson job, and he made my watch disappear." "It turned up." "In his pocket, Molly." She tapped the crayon sun with one finger. "Focus. If she comes at you, hit her with the snake." "That's assault with a reptile." "It's latex." Bill was quiet for a moment. "You ever feel bad? The kids?" Molly rolled up the blueprint. "These kids have a bouncy castle. They'll survive the greatest heist of their young lives. Someday Tyler tells this story at a bar and drinks free forever. We're giving him a gift." "We're taking his gifts." "A gift of narrative. Get in the car. Balloon shift starts in twenty." Bill climbed in, cradling a grocery bag of uninflated snakes. "For the record, I can also do a worm." "Astonishing. Save it for the encore."