“He never stopped looking at her, not once. Polo, that was him. The Coin Man,” Butterbean whined under her breath. “It was bad, Polo.”
“I saw.” Polo shuddered. She was glad that she had Butterbean’s hair to hide her.
Butterbean kept her eyes on the door. She hardly even noticed the rat hanging from her underside.
“We’ll tell Oscar. He’ll know what to do.” Polo tightened her grip on Butterbean’s hair. “We did our part. Oscar will know what to do.”
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8
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THERE WAS ANOTHER BIG FLAW in their plan, one that they didn’t figure out until they were back in the apartment. They had to keep acting like normal pets until Madison left.
This was harder than it seemed. Oscar didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone take so long to clean a litter box.
“Did you have to poop so much, Walt?” Butterbean grumbled, watching Madison hard at work with the litter sifter.
“Can it, Bean,” Walt said, not looking at her. “I know you used it too.”
“It was an emergency!” Butterbean started to wail, lowering her voice just in time.
Marco and Polo tried desperately to cover up the soiled corner of their cage with clean cedar chips so Madison wouldn’t feel the need to change their bedding too. It didn’t work.
“Doesn’t she need to be somewhere? Talk on the phone to someone? Eat dinner? Do ANYTHING?” Marco said, hiding behind the water bottle and clutching his rat-head corn. “Why is she hanging out with us?”
Polo peered at the girl from behind the food dish.“Something’s not right here. It’s like she doesn’t want to leave.” Polo frowned and crouched lower behind the dish. The last thing she wanted was to end up in a tub of sudsy water.
By the time everyone’s food and water had been refreshed, the animals were practically twitching with anxiety.
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you later, guys,” Madison said, watching them with narrowed eyes. They seemed awfully edgy. She could’ve sworn one of the rats was wringing its paws. She just hoped they wouldn’t destroy the apartment.
As soon as the door closed behind her, the dam burst.
“Finally!” Butterbean squealed.
“You’re not going to believe what happened!” Polo said, launching herself out of the aquarium. The two blurted out the whole story so quickly that at one point Polo started hyperventilating and had to put her head between her knees.
But it was all worth it. The Coin Man was real. The mission was a success.
“Bravo! Excellent work!” Oscar crowed. “Your plan didn’t have the elegance and subtlety of my original plan, but I have to admit, it was effective. So we have a target—Apartment B on the top floor.”
“That’s the one,” Butterbean said, nodding her head. “It was definitely him. He smelled just right.”
“Oh boy was he creepy, though,” Polo said, shivering. “I didn’t like the way he was looking at that girl.”
“I didn’t like the way he was looking at me!” Butterbean said. “I’m glad we won’t be seeing him ever again.”
“Yeah, we’ll just steer clear of that guy,” Polo agreed.
“Um, yes.” Oscar frowned. He was having a creeping feeling that the others weren’t as clear on the “heist” concept as he’d thought. “We will definitely steer clear of him. After the heist, that is.”
“Wait, what?” Butterbean said, cocking her head.
“About that,” Marco said. “How does this heisting work, exactly?” He shifted uncomfortably. He hadn’t seen a lot of the crime-type shows that Oscar had seen. He was feeling like he and Polo were at a severe disadvantage, heist-wise.
“Well, he’s got the coins, so he’s the target of our heist,” Oscar explained.
Butterbean’s head cocked ever farther to the right.
“This is how it works. Now that we’ve identified the Coin Man, we’ll do some surveillance,” Oscar said, pacing back and forth across the coffee table like he was teaching Heisting 101. “We’ll locate his coins, and then we’ll set the heist in motion. Don’t worry, I’ll plan all that. Right now, you’ll just need to do some legwork.”
“Oh, okay,” Marco said uncertainly. He’d heard of legwork. Mrs. Food did legwork every Wednesday and Friday. He thought his legs were in decent shape already, but he was willing to put in a couple of workouts for the cause. He was pretty good on the wheel.
Polo still wasn’t convinced. “But me and Butterbean, we already did our part, right? So we’re done?”
“You did excellent work, yes,” Oscar said, shifting his wings. He didn’t like how suspicious Polo was looking. He definitely should’ve explained heisting earlier. “But this is just the beginning. We need more information to plan the heist. And then we’ll need everyone to pitch in on heist day.”
Walt rolled her eyes. The last thing they needed was a rat mutiny. And Walt didn’t think that anyone in the history of heists had ever called it “heist day.”
She nudged Oscar to the side.“What Oscar’s trying to say is that we can’t get the information without you. How many coins there are, where they’re hidden—that kind of thing. You follow?”
“Sure,” Polo said uncertainly. She absolutely did not follow.
“Follow where?” Marco asked.
Walt sighed.“We need a couple of inside men. Rats. A couple of inside rats.”
“Well, yeah, we’re inside rats,” Marco said. He hadn’t met any outside rats. He’d heard about them, though.
“They want you to go in, I think,” Butterbean explained. “Inside that creepy guy’s apartment. Right, Walt?”
“Right.” Walt twitched her tail impatiently.
Polo’s nose turned bright pink. “You want us to do WHAT? Are you kidding me? You didn’t SEE that guy!”
“I know, he’s creepy. We don’t want you around that guy,” Walt said, holding up her paws defensively. She hadn’t realized rats could get so jumpy. “Just scope out the apartment, okay? That’s all we want you to do. Just take a look around.”
“We can do that,” Marco said. “Right, Polo?”
“That guy eats rats like me for LUNCH!” Polo gasped.
“He won’t even know you’re there!” Walt promised.
“We’ll make sure he’s gone. Just a quick look. That’s all we’re asking,” Oscar said. “I’d do it myself, but you’re the only ones who can fit under the door.”
Polo stared at the carpet. That was true. Oscar would never be able to fit under a door. Rats were made for that kind of thing. It was practically the reason they’d been invented.
“We can do this, Polo,” Marco said, patting her on the shoulder. “You didn’t see yourself on TV. You were amazing! Once you hid under that plant, nobody even knew you were there!”
“Really?” Polo looked up. “You watched me on TV?”
Marco blushed.“Yeah, you looked really good, too. Plus with that button, you looked all glamorous, like a star! Next time we’ll tape it.” He shot Oscar a look. “We didn’t have it set up right this time.”
“Well. If he won’t be there…” Polo looked at Oscar. “What do we have to do?”
“We’ll watch on the surveillance cameras until the man leaves the building. That’ll be your cue,” Oscar said.
Walt nodded.“I’ve got the door set up so we can come and go. I’ll carry you up on my back. Then just sneak inside, find the coins, and get out of there. If he comes back before you’re done, forget the coins and skedaddle. Then report back.”
Marco bobbed up and down on the balls of his feet.“Got it. Go, scope, skedaddle!”
“Got it.” Polo let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “We don’t go until he’s gone.” She turned to Marco. “You didn’t see him. He was scary.”
Marco nodded as he bobbed.“We’ll be careful. We’ll be totally invisible, like ghosts, or superspies.” He turned to Oscar. “I like this plan. It’ll give me a chance to get some more legwork done.” He jogged off, doing a lap around the sofa, punching the air as he went.