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Polo’s head jerked up, and she leaned back to look up at the grate. “Marco?” She stood on her hind legs and waved excitedly. “MARCO!” she screamed. “I’m okay! It’s me!”

“What are you doing?” Madison said, staring at Polo like she’d sprouted an extra head. It was one thing to have a rat quietly comforting you. It was something entirely different when that rat started to scream and wave at someone you couldn’t see.

Madison peered up at the grate.

If she squinted, she thought she could just make out eyes staring back at her from the darkness. Three pairs of eyes.

She blinked. The eyes were still there. And was that a tiny arm waving through the grate? That didn’t seem possible.

Madison scrambled to her feet and climbed up onto the sink to get a closer look, carefully putting Polo on the counter first.

“No way,” Madison breathed. “No way.”

Those were definitely eyes. And they were looking right back at her. If she didn’t know better, she’d say they looked just like the cat and bird and rat that she’d been taking care of. But that was ridiculous.

“Do you have a plan?” Polo squeaked from her new perch on the soap dish. “We have an hour.”

“Um. Maybe?” Marco didn’t sound like he had a plan.

“Don’t worry—we’ve got a rescue all planned out,” Walt said. Her voice was much more reassuring. “Just wait there. We’ll be back soon.”

Polo cheered and did a little dance on the soap dish. Carefully, so she didn’t slip. But this was the best news she’d had all day, and a small celebration was in order.

Madison watched Polo’s dance number and then sat down on the cabinet with a thump. That had definitely sounded like a cat. And now the rat was dancing. She was losing it.

“We’ll be back! Just hold on,” Marco squeaked. “Bye!”

As Polo and Madison watched, the three faces disappeared from the grate.

Madison stared at the empty grate until a small pattering on her hand caught her attention. It was the rat, and it looked like it was patting her on the hand to console her.

“It’ll be okay, Madison!” Polo squeaked.

Madison gave a small smile. Even if she was crazy, the rat looked so optimistic. She hoped it knew something she didn’t.

“Okay, Walt, what’s up?” Oscar said after they’d slipped back down to the eighth-floor vents. “That all sounded good, but do you really have a plan?” He tried his best not to sound disapproving, but he couldn’t see how Walt could possibly have a plan. “I don’t want to give Polo false hope.”

Walt sat down with a sigh.“I do have a plan, and I think it could work. But you’re not going to like it. You’re not going to like it one bit.”

Oscar puffed his feathers out indignantly. If the plan saved Polo, how could he not like it?“Well, what is it?”

“I can only think of one thing that will work.” Walt’s face was grim. “We need to pull off another heist. An anti-heist. We need to give the coins back.”

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16

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“YOU WANT TO DO WHAT?” Butterbean sat up abruptly, gold coins sliding off her tummy. “Give it back?Back back? Are you crazy?”

They’d found Butterbean in the office, rolling in the bag of gold coins. She was obviously taking her guard duty very seriously. She hadn’t let them out of her sight. Butterbean stood up, slipping on the pile as she trotted out of the office and over to Oscar. “But we can’t give it back, can we, Oscar? We’re independently wealthy now. We need them.” She blinked with her best puppy dog eyes.

Oscar cleared his throat and looked away.“I think we have to,” he said reluctantly. He couldn’t believe he was saying it. The whole heist had been such a success. It was his greatest achievement. And now it was all going down the drain, just because of one little slip up.

Oscar had seen heist shows on the Television before, so he thought he’d known all the possible pitfalls. But he’d never once seen an organized crime gang have to pull an anti-heist and return the money.

But they were going to do it. It was already in the works.

Walt had run the plan by Chad, who had agreed to help out, as long as there were no more comments about his butt. Oscar wasn’t sure what that was about, but he was happy to agree. He’d never even noticed Chad’s butt. (Although now he felt like he needed to take a look.) Once they’d all solemnly sworn not to say a single word about his backside, Chad was in.

Now all they had to do was get Butterbean on board.

Luckily, Marco knew just what to say. He stepped forward and took Butterbean by the paw.“Butterbean, we have to do this. For Polo. And for Madison. We can’t let those men win. Don’t think of it as giving the coins back. This is a rescue mission.”

Butterbean’s ears perked up. She’d always wanted to go on a rescue mission. It was practically her dog destiny.

Butterbean licked Marco’s paw in excitement (along with half of his middle section. Marco pretended not to notice).