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change?”
    “The cash wasn’t the point of robbing the bank,” Jack says. “Our real objective is all that matters.”

    The day before, all five of Jack’s team were gathered in a burnt out pizza shack in Crab Town, sharing a cold can of beans and going over the plan. They used paint buckets as chairs and a piece of an old billboard as a table.
    “So the point of robbing the bank isn’t to get money?” Nine asked.
    “The money is just an added bonus,” Jack said.
    “So what’s the real plan then?”
    “Can’t tell you yet,” he said. “I’ll let you know when the time comes.”
    Little Sister had her bike on the table, the sail lying on the floor next to them. Her tiny hands were greasy from tightening bolts and screws. She was short and bony, but her flesh was knotty with muscle. When she looked up at Jack, her face lit up.
    “Does the plan involve my bikes?” asked Little Sister. “Is that why you had me fix up these bikes for you?”
    Jack’s squad usually made their getaways on foot, but this time Jack had requested they do it on bikes. And when it comes to bicycles, Little Sister is the authority.
    “Yeah, that’s right,” Jack said. “We’ll need to be able to move quickly after we hit the bank.”
    “What’s with the secrets?” Sailboat asked. “You’ve never needed to keep anything from us before.”
    “This time’s different. If you knew what I had planned beforehand you would never want to go through with it.”
    Sailboat groans at him. “Great…”
    “Trust me, if we want the world to hear us out then this is the best shot we’ve got. They’re not going to be able to ignore us anymore after this.”
    “Can’t you tell us anything?” Nine asked.
    “All I can say is Miss Doomsday is the key.”
    Doomsday choked on her beans. “Me?”
    “We can’t do this without you.”
    The Italian girl didn’t like the sound of that.
    “It’s a bad idea not letting us in on the plan,” Sailboat said. “What if something happens to you? What then?”
    Jack leaned back on his paint bucket. “Then I guess you’ll just have to make sure nothing happens to me.”

    Jack of Spades opens one of the duffel bags.
    “How much do they owe you?” he asks Johnny Balloon.
    The balloon says, “Almost sixteen hundred, but fifteen hundred would be fine.”
    Jack tosses him some stacks of bills. “Take two thousand. Thanks for helping us out.”
    “You’re giving him two thousand?” Sailboat goes for the balloon, but Jack gets between them. “That’s probably half of the take.”
    “Forget about it, let’s go.” Jack pushes him away. Nine and Miss Doomsday go for the door.
    Sailboat shakes his head, and goes back for Johnny Balloon. “I can’t just give the money to a fucking balloon.”
    Johnny backs away.
    Jack catches up to Sailboat and gets in front of him again. “What’s gotten into you, man? This isn’t the same Sailboat I used to know. This isn’t the Sailboat who spent half his time in the melt zone, trying to exterminate sewer crabs for the sake of getting our people off of the shit.”
    “I’m still the same Sailboat. I just don’t think we should waste money on a goddamn balloon when we’ve got real people back home in need of food and medicine.”
    “He’s a living person, too.”
    “But he doesn’t need food or medicine. He doesn’t need money like we do.”
    “He gets what is owed to him and that’s final,” Jack says. “Now let’s go.”
    The two men go for the door, but when they get halfway across the room Sailboat turns and runs for the balloon man. When Johnny sees him coming, he raises his revolver.
    A gun shot rings through the room.
    Jack looks down at the stream of red draining from the hole his chest. Sailboat turns around. The Jack of Spades opens his mouth to speak, to tell Sailboat something he really needs to know, but only blood spills through his lips.

Sam watches as the leader of the bank robbers tosses the balloon man some stacks of