If they could get to one of the North Hills malls, then they could take the bus to the gate. It was easy to see why April had ignored the option; the parking lot was in the middle of nowhere. Still, they could conceivably walk to Orville’s. “Why the mice?”
“We need something to distract the guards,” Jillian said. “It probably should be something small enough that they don’t call for reinforcements, but unwieldy so that it can’t be easily dealt with it. Even a dozen people would be overwhelmed by a tidal wave of mice.”
“Why do they have to be robotic? Real mice would work just as well.”
“Real mice would probably just run and hide. Robotic mice could be program to ‘play’ and thus actively seek out humans and attempt to be chased.”
“And exploding?”
“Well—they don’t all have to explode. Just in case the EIA decided to ignore them, one or two should be able to blow up.”
It had the benefit that no one had probably tried it before; thus the EIA probably had no standard protocol for a mischief of exploding robotic mice. The biggest problem with the plan, however, was sheer lack of time.
“Where are we going to get that many robotic mice in twenty-six days? And have them modified to explode?”
“It’s a work in progress.” Jillian thud-thunk the baseball and caught it in her glove. “Maybe they could just have tasers.”
Louise had her doubts about the entire plan but she kept them to herself. Jillian was starting to sound like herself; there was no reason to poke holes in her plan.
* * *
They ate at the dinner table alone—if “alone” meant they had an army of servants watching their every move. Said servants could not be coaxed into giving up any useful information on where Ming and Anna were beyond “not currently home.” Was Ming even on the planet? Yves had been at the mansion to take the call about the explosion. So far, though, they had not met him face to face. Where was Yves? Was he personally going to oversee dealing with the disaster? Or was he in some computer center, chasing down bank transactions? According to Louise’s last check, they had stolen over nine hundred million from the secret elves. Getting caught now would be very, very bad.
Unlike the breakfast they’d eaten “alone” with Anna, the menu hadn’t been altered.
The “meat” was something that Louise chose to pretend were small lobsters. (They looked more like insects than crustaceans.) She also pretended to eat it by breaking it into tiny little bits with her fork and knife. No wonder Esme had stashed so much freeze-dried food in the secret room; she must have known that they would be in danger of starving to death on the elves’ weird diet. Louise comforted herself with knowing that they could have lukewarm mac and cheese back in their room later.
Jillian had taken the baseball and peaked cap with her. She spent the meal arranging accidents with the ball. Louise was glad for the little acts of courage and rebellion but she could feel Celine slipping toward breaking. They were speeding toward a vast array of possibilities, none of them leading to happy endings. Louise kicked Jillian before Celine could start down any of the paths. Jillian gave Louise an innocent look but stopped.
* * *
Nine hundred million dollars bought a lot of robotic mice. The twins could download modified schematics straight to the Indonesian manufacturer which used a mixture of high end 3D printers and cheap hand laborers to create the “toys.” While the factory could quickly mass-produce a limited run of robotic rodents, US Customs, however, took a dim view on all things that went boom. While there probably were ways around import laws, the red tape would delay shipments to Monroeville.
So they went with mice armed with tasers. They needed a working prototype prior to the start of production. Luckily they had ordered lots of exotic printing supplies while working on the museum heist and Aunt Kitty had dutifully packed it. The design work seemed to help keep Jillian distracted from her grief; the ball and glove sat idle until she sent the job to their 3D printer. Louise had created a pattern for the mice “skin” and started to deconstruct the rabbit fur muffs that Anna had gotten with the winter coats that she insisted on buying for them. (Really, it was the middle of July! What was Anna thinking? Hopefully nothing to do with a mischief of mice…)
Nine hundred million dollars also rented a warehouse and hired on a small staff that believed they worked for a Belizean importing company. They would take delivery of the mice and whatever else the twins needed for crossing the border.
“With all this money, we could just buy a small island and hire someone to be the babies’ mother,” Jillian pointed out. “It would simpler.”