I'm floating in the background, watching to help orchestrate everything, when Kitroe slips into the house. The window lays along the side of the house, pane set at the perfect angle to reflect light from the street lamp in a front yard down the street. Kitroe's gotten so good at these window uninstallations that it hardly takes her thirty seconds from getting up to a window before it's out and she's in the house, no one the wiser but the lot of us. Even locked windows take her no time to jimmy.
     "Evekeni, you in position?"
     As I'm saying this, Vikvask and Yoshiban pick up the pane of glass from where Kitroe left it, and move it off to one side where it's less likely to be bashed about if she needs to make a quicker exit than usual. They reposition all her tools near the window pane so she can reinstall it if everything goes to plan. Vikvask stands by to roll the whole thing up if Kitroe comes flying through the window at warp speed, at which point he'll roll the tools, run after her, grab her and hoist her, then run both of them back to the safe point. Kitroe is fast, but so is Vikvask, and he can still run faster than she can, even carrying her slight body weight.
     Evekeni answers. "In position. Adalove, stand by to cut power." His voice is tinny and huge, reverberating through my head. I don't know where Adalove and Yoshiban got these mics and pickups, but they're amazing.
     "Standing by."
     "Sound off," I say. "Sector A?"
     "Ready," says Vikvask.
     「了解」 says Yoshiban.
     No word from Kitroe, which means she's ready too.
     "Sector A check. Sector B?"
     "Fuck!" mutters Evekeni, which means "Ready!"
     "j0," says Adalove.
     "Sector B check," says Marsade.
     "Then let's go," I say, and keep my eye on that back window.
     About thirty seconds later I hear an explosion of glass and I know that Evekeni has broken the front window.
     Let me explain to you how all of this is supposed to work.
     We've been looking at this house for a long time. It's in a residential part of town, one floor, middle class, not the best security system. Quiet neighborhood, the kind of place where people would leave their doors unlocked at night if only anyone in America actually did that anymore. There's a long street in front of it, and a couple street lamps, all of them further down the road.
     In front of the house are the Adalove, Marsade, and Evekeni. Adalove is hunkered down in the bushes across the street, leaching internet from the neighbors and connected to the power matrix. Evekeni is walking slowly past the front of the house, having walked here from a pub more than two miles back. He had been drinking, and pretending to be drunk, and waiting to be thrown out at two in the morning, which is eventually what happened. Marsade is sitting in a car a bit further down the street, keeping an eye on the whole situation in the front yard.
     In the back yard, Kitroe has just taken the window out of its casing. We give Evekeni thirty minutes to walk from the pub to the house, so Kitroe has plenty of time to prep or abort if need be. Waiting with her are Vivkask, who helps take out the window, and Yoshiban, waiting in the shadows pooled around the house, connected to the network through her heads-up set. She monitors the police dispatches for us, and helps Kitroe put the window back into its casing when she's out the house. Right now she's probably monitoring the current police dispatches in the neighborhood, being our watchdog. I can see her waving her hands in the air like a magician, typing away on her virtual keyboard. I'm in a completely different back yard, sitting up in some kid's tree house, keeping an eye on events in the back.
     Now here's how it goes:
     Evekeni is walking past the house at not quite two thirty in the morning. He's been weaving since he left the pub -- not because he's drunk; Evikeni doesn't get drunk in any perceptible way. He's been weaving since he left the pub, mumbling and growling. He comes into range and we can hear him mumbling over the intercom, and Marsade tells him to keep it down, he's hurting her ears.
     "Fuck you," he says, but we all know it's half act, half tease. He turns off audio once she has visual confirmation of him.
     He keeps weaving along, and now we can hear his mumbling and grumbling even without the intercom: his voice is rising through the registers of volume, from what had been quiet mumbling to everyday volumes used for talking, then shouting, which is bad enough during the day, and sounds like a nuclear explosion in the dead of night in a suburban neighborhood.
     "Keep it down just a little," Marsade tells him. "You're going to wake them early."
     "Fuck, fuck, you fucking slut," he says in response, just to the general world, but at a decreased volume.
     "Thanks," Marsade says through the com.
     Evekeni keeps raving, and we run through the checks.
     "Sound off," I say. "Sector A?"
     "Ready," says Vikvask.
     「了解」 says Yoshiban.
     No word from Kitroe, which means she's ready too.
     "Sector A check. Sector B?"
     "Fuck!" mutters Evekeni, which means "Roger!"
     "j0," says Adalove.
     "Sector B check," says Marsade.
     "Then let's go," I say, and keep my eye on that back window.
     Then Evekeni begins to scream obscenities.
     "YOU MOTHERFUCKING CUNT WHORESON SHITEATER I'LL KILL YOU AND YOUR FUCKING CHILDREN YOU BITCH!"
     Then he runs up the front door of our house which no longer has glass in the kitchen window, and kicks the door, driving his heel uselessly into the center of the door.
     Marsade says, "Adalove, cut power."
     "Power cut," he says.
     Then Evekeni drives his fist through one of the small windows next to the door, shattering the night first with the sound of breaking glass, then with the sound of the alarm.
     "Yoshiban," I say. "Signals going out, or just noise?"
     "Checking," she says, and Evekeni keeps kicking the door.
     "Signals," she says after a moment. "Dispatching to all units within range. Closest can arrive in three minutes."
     "Good. Evekeni, give ‘em hell. You know what to do."
     "GO FUCK YOURSELF!" he shouts. By that he means, "No problem."
     "Kitroe, as soon as you're good, go for it."
     No response. Everything's still go with her.
     The whole night is silent but for Evekeni's shouting. He's careful to never enter the house, just beat on the door and freak out the occupants. Even now, after I've heard Adalove's cut the power to the neighborhood, I still can't believe there aren't any lights coming on so that people can investigate the violent drunk that's shown up. A few doors open tentatively in the houses across the street, and a few white faces behind the black panes of windows, and Evekeni keeps beating the house and cursing.
     "Police are almost here. I'd give them one full minute," Yoshiban says, and at this point Evekeni walks off to terrorize other houses. He doesn't beat on these or break their windows, instead he runs around in the lawns and kicks holes in the grass and beats the rose bushes.
     A skinny guy like that, I can't believe that he can keep going after punching his hand through a window. But we all have our unique talents.
     About forty-five seconds later a police car skids around the corner like they're chasing down jewel thieves instead of an annoying, destructive drunk, and make a beeline for the house in question.
     "Kitroe, the police are here. Get ready."
     Still no response.
     Then the headlights hit Evekeni a couple houses down and, rather than swinging into the driveway of the house in question, they go straight for him. At this point, he begins to run like he's got a Rottweiler on his ass.
     "FUCK YOU, COPPERS!" he screams. There's a little pause, then "GOOD FUCKING LUCK!" That was for us.
     Another squad car comes around the bend, more slowly than the first, and heads into the driveway of the house in question.
     "Homeowner's coming out," Marsade says. "Wife's with him. Kid's alone. Kitroe, do your thing."
     There's about one full minute where nothing happens that we can see: the homeowner puts his arm around his wife, they talk to the cop, and far off in the distance we can still hear Evekeni running and screaming through the neighborhood, in the opposite direction of all our escape routes. Then Kitroe appears in the window with another person, a teenage girl. Kitroe signals to Vikvask, and he moves over to the empty window pane. It comes open, and Vikvask draws the girl out toward him.
     I can't tell from here, but Vikvask has told me that the kid's almost always shaking, boy or girl, regardless of the age. Kitroe plays Bad Cop for us, and by the time we get them she's managed to scare the shit out of them with a Glock in the face and a "Keep your fucking mouth shut, or I'll blow it wide open."
     When the girl comes out of the house she's quiet as a lamb. Vikvask hoists her over his shoulder and runs with her through a predetermined route that will spit him out about ten blocks the opposite direction that Evekeni went. When he's out of sight, Kitroe slips out the window. At this point Yoshiban pulls herself out of the shadows and helps Kitroe put the window back in.
     "Cop's leaving," Marsade says.
     "Not yet," Kitroe hisses over the com.
     "Evekeni?" It's Yoshiban.
     There's a little pause, then a breathless voice says, "Still running."
     "Can you make it back here?"
     "Not fast enough."
     "Adalove? Anything you can do?"
     "I can turn the lights back on."
     "Fuck you."
     "I've got nothing else right now."
     "Set off another burglar alarm!"
     "I'll see what I can do."
     The line goes dead and I'm wondering what the hell is going on.
     I say, "Marsade, what are you doing?"
      "I'm just gonna grease the gears a little. Talk to them, see if I can't keep the cop around for at least another couple minutes while Adalove gets things straightened out with that other alarm."
     "Fuck the cop," Kitroe says. "Keep the homeowners from interrupting me."
     "Kitroe," I say, "how are you and Yoshiban doing?"
     "We're having a little trouble getting the window back in. Shoot the homeowners for all I care, but don't let them back in the house. The floorplan has the front door right across from this window. If turn around they'll see me and Yoshiban."
     "Got it," I say. "Evekeni, come back around this direction quick as you can."
     "Fuck you," he pants after a moment. Then, "I'll be right back around. Fucking cops," then his connection cuts off again.
     In the mean time, I hear Marsade starting to talk. "Hey, what's going on?"
     I can hear voices in the background, but can only make out the words of one.
     "Just a drunk and disorderly."
     "What? Two squad cars for that?"
     "He broke a window."
     "Oh, so you guys thought it was a burglary or something?"
     "Ma'am, I'm afraid you're just--"
     "And I thought this was such a quiet neighborhood! I was so lost, I was back there in my car -- you see my younger sister lives here, and I--"
     "Ma'am--"
     "--Just couldn't find my way to her house. I've been driving around for about forever now, and I was getting so sleepy, I thought I should pull over and look at my map instead of reading those damn MapQuest directions. You know, people tell me that's an amazing website, but I've yet to find a single place I'm aiming at when I go to there. Now, you tell me, if--"
     "Would you like some help finding it?"
     "Oh, would I! That would be so wonderful!"
     "It's no problem, ma'am." Here the voice becomes slightly more muffled. "You folks can go ahead and go back into your home now--"
     "Coming now!" Evekeni pants into the mic, then we hear, without the benefit of the com, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"
     "Oh!" Marsade says, and it sounds comically fake.
     There's another moment where I can't tell what's happening, then Adalove mutters, "What a sly bitch."
     "What?" I say. "What's going on?"
     "Marsade ran for the homeowners as soon as the cop came. She's kind of hiding with them right now."
     "In the house?" Kitroe asks.
     "No, just in the doorway."
     "Fuck," she says.
     "The second cop is chasing Evekeni right now."
     "YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME!" Evekeni screams, then begins to cackle.
     "Where's the first cop?" I ask.
     "Nowhere to be seen up here," Adalove says.
     "Girls, hold still," I say, and look around the neighborhood. From my vantage point, I can see he's not in the back yards anywhere, then suddenly I see him, running for the fence of the back yard with the girls in it.
     "Girls, don't move. The cop's coming toward you, but he won't see you if you don't move. Hold still."
     The cop goes crashing through the backyard, and as I thought, totally misses the two small figures huddling in the shadows by the house. Instead he jumps over the fence and through to the front yard.
     "Keep going, girls," I say. "Adalove, how's Evekeni doing?"
     "Managing," he says.
     "How about those alarm systems?"
     "Almost there. Hey, Yoshiban, how many cops would respond to further alarms?"
     "Depends on the number. How many you thinking?"
     "The whole neighborhood."
     She snorts. "You'll set off half the car alarms at that rate, too."
     "Sounds good to me," Kitroe says, "as long as the homeowners stay away!"
     "How much longer on that window, girls?"
     "Just another minute!"
     "Rush it if possible. I want you guys out of that backyard now. Vikvask, how's it going?"
     "The young lady and I are still running," he pants. We'll be out soon." Then, "Sounds like you guys are having a hell of a time."
     "Fuck you," Kitroe says.
     "Yes ma'am," he says, and she groans.
     "So will someone be available to pick us up anytime soon?"
     "Don't bet on it," Adalove says.
     "Fine. We'll go grab a bite, then," he says. "Grab a bite" means we have to look in every restaurant in the vicinity to find him.
     "Whatever," I say. "Just don't let her out of your sight. Call a fucking cab if you have to. You have cash, right?"
     "Yeah."
     "Good. Get her something to eat and call a cab to get home. Do you have enough for that?"
     "Yeah."
     "Good. Go get food and we'll see you back at the house."
     "See you there."
     "Girls? The window?"
     "Don't rush me," Kitroe says, but she doesn't sound like she's having trouble with it.
     "Marsade, I know you can't respond, but keep up the good work. Pull the homeowners off to coffee if you have to, but don't let them near that window."
     There's silence over the line, then I hear Marsade say, to the homeowners, "Always this much fun in your neighborhood?"
     They don't make any response that I can hear.
     "Got the alarms," the Adalove says, and Evekeni lets out a howl of a laugh.
     "They've got him," Marsade says, then all the alarm systems in the neighborhood shriek to life.
     Adalove laughs. "I love this job!" he shouts over the din.
     "Cops?" I say.
     "Just a second," Yoshiban says, then, "They're sending two extra units. Nothing we can't handle. It'll keep everyone out of their backyards, too. We're golden."
     "How long?"
     "Don't rush me!" Kitroe says.
     "Not you, the cops."
     "About two minutes again," Yoshiban says, but by now I can see almost all the homeowners stepping into the street and looking at one another with confusion.
     "I'd tell you to take your time, Kitroe," I say, "but I don't want you to be back there any longer than you have to be. Get that window back in, then get out."
     "Fine," she says, and then flashes me the finger.

---

Part B

     Kitroe reinstalls the window, then all of us that are left make our escapes.
     Kitroe and Yoshiban go through backyards, running fast as they can perpendicular to the street we just set off. They pick up the tools and bolt across three streets, until they're only just within earshot of the alarms. After this they walk, trying not to look suspicious.
     Evekeni gets nabbed, and the cops drag him into a squad car kicking and screaming.
     Marsade gets back to her car after buttering up the homeowners just a little more, and doesn't leave until the cops have driven away with Evekeni. She asks the homeowners if they'd be so good as to show her on her map where she is versus where she's going, and somehow manages to get both to her car for that. They give her directions and she thanks them a million times, then she drives off and tries to hurry without looking it, because there'll be hell once they get back in the house to find that their daughter isn't there. Once she's out of sight, she lays low, keeping three under the limit and obeying the traffic laws even more carefully than normal.
     Adalove packs up his computer and runs like Kitroe and Yoshiban, through backyards until he's out of range. Then, like the girls, he walks back home.
     Once everyone else is out, I follow. The neighborhood's full of cops, which is why everyone else left fast as they could, and once Evekeni is gone they're out in force, searching to be sure they haven't missed anyone. I move from the tree house to a roof, and wait in the shadows. When all the cops congregate back at the house to take the missing person report, I slip down and mosey on out of the neighborhood. About three blocks out I give Marsade a call, and she picks me up.
     We head back to our house in silence, and once we're there we grab the second car. Vikvask is waiting on the couch with our little girl, who's crying and shaking.
     "She okay?" I ask.
     He shrugs. "She's been this way since we picked her up."
     "Hey, angel?" I say to her. "Honey, are you okay?"
     "please mister i really just wanna go back to my house now please i think you got the wrong girl or something coz i never done nothing and i don't want to get hurt or my mom and dad to get hurt so please mister just please let me go home--"
     "Hey sweetie, we're not going to hurt you. Think of this as a vacation, okay? I know you're thinking we're going to tie you up in the basement or something--"
     Her breath speeds up, and Marsade elbows me. "You never did have any charm, did you?" Then she looks at the girl and smiles that beautiful smile of hers and says, "Hey kid, you like Coke or Pepsi?"
     She's quiet, like she's not sure if that's a trick question, then says, "I like P-Pepsi, I guess."
     "Fine," she says, and grins. "We're going out for a couple minutes. I'll grab you a Pepsi on the way back. That sound okay to you?"
     The girl nods, and Marsade smacks me in the stomach.
     "That," she says, "is how you treat a young lady. Stick to predicting meteors." Vikvask snorts and the girl jumps and Marsade walks away without me, muttering about tying people up in the basement.
     Once I have the second car, we split up and I go after everyone in my sector, and she goes after everyone in hers.
     I've got Kitroe and Yoshiban to grab. I don't feel like trolling around the neighborhood when it's probably crawling with cops looking for a thirteen year-old, so I call the Yoshiban on her long range com.
     "Where are you guys?"
     "We're at Mickey D's, chilling out eating fries."
     "Which one?"
     "The one on Market."
     "You walked all the way to Market?"
     " Fear lent speed to our egress."
     "Okay, fine. You'll be there when I come, then? I'm here to pick you guys up."
     "Yeah, we'll be waiting." I hear a tiny click as the connection cuts.
     When I find them, they're sitting in the harsh white light of the restaurant, talking and laughing, Kitroe with her triple thick straw between her teeth, chewing it, and Yoshiban feeding fries into her mouth with slim little fingers. Her hair is short now, almost buzzed -- it had been down around her shoulders when she first came to us, stuffed into a suit and stilettos. When she chopped her hair I thought for sure it would look terrible, a sin against Womanly Beauty, but in her tight jeans and her bomber jacket, hair short and soft, lips full and soft, aviators down because she hates not having her heads-up in front of her eyes all the time, she looks like some beautiful cyborg from a William Gibson novel. I think it's an improvement.
     They see me and stand up.
     "Marsade already back?" It's Yoshiban.
     "Yeah. We're getting ready to leave now."
     They nod and follow me out. We drive home in silence, and when we get there, Marsade's already brought Adalove back.
     "Is she packed?" I ask, and Vikvask nods. The girl's sipping on a Pepsi now, and hanging on Vikvask's arm like he's the only thing keeping her anchored.
     Her name is Joanna Honeywell, and she's already got a bag and a passport upstairs. When we first started this, I was astonished at how easy it was to get a fake passport for someone we couldn't present anything but a picture for, but it only cost a grand. Honestly, the better investment in my opinion was the French passport with a different name. Three times the price, but infinitely more useful in the end.
     We already know everything about this girl -- we've been arranging passports and buying new clothes and sizing new shoes for her for the past month. I could tell you anything about her. But I can't have her panicking right now.
     "What's your name, honey?"
     She glances up at Vikvask, and he nods. "Joanna."
     I smile at her. "Hi Joanna, my name's Elitudo. We're getting ready to go on a trip. Would you like to come with us?"
     She looks up at Vikvask.
     "It's fine, Joanna, honey. Elitudo won't hurt you."
     I'm wondering how she could even think a scrawny guy like me could hurt to her when she's hanging on Vikvask's burly arms.
     "I -- I dunno," she says.
     "Well, we'll pack you up and bring you along. We've already got things for you all packed up, but if there's anything else you need, Vikvask can help you. Okay?"
     She looks up at Vikvask again, like he has to approve every sentence I say.
     "I'm Vikvask," he says.
     Okay, so I didn't think about the necessity of introductions on our side.
     "Get her ready, okay?" I tell him. "We're leaving as soon as we've got all the bags together."
     I go upstairs and grab my passport and bag. The bag is just a backpack, and the ticket is already tucked in the front pocket. I unzip it and look just to be sure, and there it is. I walk downstairs and out to the car. Marsade is already there, putting her bag in the trunk.
     "Ready to go?" I ask.
     "Yeah, I'll get Yoshiban."
     She runs upstairs to grab Yoshiban, and about that time Adalove comes down the stairs with his bag. He, Yoshiban, Marsade, and I are all going in one car, Vikvask and Joanna in the other. Evekeni and Kitroe are coming behind tomorrow, after Kitroe bails Evekeni out of jail.
     Adalove tosses his bag in behind mine, and I hear the laptop chunck. I wince.
     "Don't even start with me," he says. "Of all the things you've paid for, this isn't one of them. This is property of Adalove, not the Brothers. I can toss it around all I want."
     I nod, and let him be. Marsade comes down with Yoshiban, and we all pile into the car.
     "I'm driving!" Adalove says, and hops in front.
     "Shotgun!" Yoshiban and Marsade shout in unison, then Marsade screams "Double barrel!" and Yoshiban sticks her tongue out and climbs in the back with her arms crossed like a pouting child.
     I climb in next to her. "Are Vikvask and Joanna ready?" I ask Marsade as she climbs in.
     "Yeah. They'll be out in a sec."
     I nod, and Adalove looks at me in the rearview mirror.
     "Ready to go, boss?"
     I nod, and he pulls out the driveway.

---

     Seventeen hours later we all stumble off the plane in a daze. "Bienvenue au Paris," a woman's voice says from all around us. As we head through the customs line even Joanna looks too tired to be scared.