Three o’clock rolled around. The gathering took place in what I called “the alleyway,” even though it wasn’t really an alley. It was a dead-end side-street parallel to Bellow Street, and it was where Caleb parked his trailer when he wasn’t driving it around the country.

Caleb was already here, as were Mae and Scott. A few seconds before three oh-one, Samuel rounded the corner and briskly walked down the alleyway to join the group.

“Right on time,” I said. “Welcome, welcome.”

“Are we waiting on anyone else?” Samuel asked.

“Not for this meeting, no. I can’t pull everyone out of their day job.”

“Not with that attitude,” Scott supplied.

“Sure,” I said. “Most of you are cordially invited to Santa Clara for a hands-on tour of… can anybody guess?”

“You already told us,” Scott pointed out.

“Right. Yes, I did. Now, the plan to hit Pishon relies on the unique talents of almost every single person here, and given the caliber of our target, that means each of you will need to bring your A-game. Sound good?”

“What does almost refer to, here, specifically?” Mae asked.

“Well, I’m not actually planning to bring Scott. He’s here to provide more of a, uh. Backup plan, in case of a problem with the main plan.”

“Your backup plan is coming from Scott?” Sam asked, with polite disapproval in his voice.

“Plan, let’s say, C,” I amended. “At best. Worst, I mean. Plan C if the delay between Plan B and the other Plan C would cost us the mission. Plan D or later otherwise.”

“And what does Plan C, D, or Otherwise call for, exactly?” Scott asked.

I glanced around the circle.

“Bombs,” Mae said.

“No,” I was barely a beat behind her answer.

“Like, one bomb? Just as a threat, even.”

I shook my head. “We’re not doing a bomb threat, Mae. Not with a real bomb, at least. Come on, we’re supposed to be a low-profile group.”

“Supposed to be boring group,” Mae mumbled. “Never get to see anything blow up around here. Lame-ass Nevada capes and their subversion and strategy.”

“Okay!” I said. “How about a different suggestion, to Scott, huh?”

“How about you tell me what you want, boss?”

“Yeah, I still really don’t know anything about weapons, man. I- That’s why I hired you.”

“Call dealer’s choice, then.”

“No, I can’t just say ‘dealer’s choice’ on every job. You charge for your ‘creative input’ and I’m not saying that’s invalid or anything but I have to keep the budget around here in some kind of an equilibrium state.”

“What if we took, like, just a really big rifle?” Caleb asked. “Not even a sniper rifle, I mean some kind of proper beast of a firearm. I want to almost need a crew of two to shoot the fuckin’ thing, you know?”

“Why is- The level this meeting started at, is just,” I gestured, searching for answers I didn’t expect to glean from my staff. “You’re all at an eleven already, for no reason.”

“I’m at more of a three,” Sam said.

“Yes, I didn’t mean you.”

“It’s Pishon Industries, Lucas,” Mae complained. “You want to charge headfirst into that tech giant with something rinky-dink instead of an anti-tank rifle?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them to have a tank,” Caleb mused.

“See? I don’t think your master plan involves Pishon’s tank, does it?”

“There is no good reason for us to make them bring a tank out,” I stressed. “Whatever weapons we bring are strictly for the sake of contingency plans!”

“Well then I’d like to hear your anti-tank contingency before I sign up to ship out to this fight,” Mae said.

“It’s not supposed to be a fight! We are going over there to steal an object. I am going to pick it up and then leave. That doesn’t require an anti-tank measure.”

“You really are an optimist, boss,” Caleb said. “It’s inspiring.”

“I don’t- Okay, this meeting is not accomplishing anything, right now. I’m getting us back on track. We are back on track now.”

“I’ll pencil you in for the anti-tank rifle,” Scott said.

“Fuck.”

Samuel cleared his throat. “What was Plan A, then? I don’t think it was laid out yet.”

“Thank you. On track.” I nodded. “So. Can anyone not come to California? Because I already had to plan around not having Buridan, and if I’m going to rewrite any other facets of this operation, I want to do it while we pack, not while we drive.”

“I can’t go to California,” Scott said.

“Right. I wasn’t going to bring you, either way, Scott, but the heads-up is noted.”

“It’s because I don’t want to, to be clear. I hate California.”

“I take it everyone else is on board with the road trip?”

Nobody disagreed.

“Good. Mae, I need you to do some techie wizardy shit on the keycards for the building.”

“Um. RFID cloning?” she asked.

“Yeah, that. Sam, you’ll print the badges that Mae programs.”

“I’ll need help loading up my equipment,” Sam answered. “Should I let Ryan help with that?”

“Oh. Hm. I’m not going to go as far as saying you should, no, but I’d be fine with it if you did.”

“Got it.”

“Caleb, you are the only person I know who can drive a trailer truck without every lane change being a life-or-death situation.”

“I really hope that’s speculation, boss, that’s a very worrying thing for you to say in any context and I’m not sure I want to consider it a compliment, really.”

“Excellent. Mister Spot will be aiding with the covert side of the operation, which should buy us a lot of wiggle room.”

“Is there a non-covert side?” Mae asked. “Does it inv-“

“Does not involve bombs, no,” I said. “Why do I let you work at a childrens’ entertainment facility, again?”

“Because I would not at gunpoint act like my authentic self in a public space full of strangers, remember?”

“You know, every time we go a while without one of these meetings,” Caleb said, “it just fully slips my mind that if I expect any of us to snap and take the whole gang down with them, it’s Mae.”

“I’d think the doctor,” Scott countered. “Did you know she told me, flat out, that she didn’t think the Hippocratic Oath ‘counted’ for Congress? I don’t even know why she said that. I did not ask.”

“What?” Caleb asked.

“Guys, can we just-” I sighed. “How about we schedule the departure, okay? We decide when we’re going to leave, sooner the better, and then if you want to speculate about which of your coworkers is going to go postal on us, you can do it on your own time. I guess.”

“Let’s just go,” Mae said. “Hey, if we’re not going to bring the heavy weapons, then at least maybe showing up unarmed will make ’em go easy on us.”

“Yeah, we do need to pack, still,” I said. “This isn’t a day trip, this is kind of going to take some time.”

“Just shoot down allll Mae’s ideas, huh? That’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Your ideas will get everyone on a terror watchlist, Mae.”

“One day to pack up, and then we ship?” Caleb suggested.

“Works,” Scott said.

“You aren’t going,” Caleb said.

“I can pack in a day,” Sam agreed.

“I can wait a day,” Mae conceded.

“I’ll get Spot on board. With the time, I mean. She’s on board with the mission.”

“Are you allowed to call Mister Spot ‘she’?” Mae asked.

“I’m allowed to call Spot a stuck-up fuck-up who only made it through police academy by planting drugs and getting enough people kicked out that the staffing crisis in the emergency response sector demanded she take a job that nobody in their right mind would give her, if I want to. But I’m a little more polite than she tends to be, so I try to keep that to subtext.”

Mae blinked. “Um.”

“Also, the Mister thing is just to throw off the investigation. She doesn’t actually do the villainous theatrics, remember. She’ll just be Liv, when she comes on the road trip with us.”

“Oh. Right.”

I leaned against the trailer.

“Okay, sensing a bit, just a bit, of tension after that,” I said. “It’s been a stressful week, if I’m honest and upfront about it. I don’t want to take that shit out on you guys. Really, I don’t.”

Caleb and Mae glanced at each other.

“So don’t screw me over on this job, okay? Warn me if anyone is rusty, because I expect anyone who’s not to get this right. It’s the biggest job of our careers, here. So band together, buckle down, and let’s pull off a perfect heist.”

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