All eleven of us crammed into the closed fondue restaurant after dark. The place smelled like regret and melted gruyere. Marv unrolled a piece of paper with a big flourish. It was a placemat. "Behold," he said, "the layout of Fromagerie Sublime." Lola squinted at it. "Marv, that's a kids' maze. There's a cartoon mouse in the corner." Marv folded his arms. "The mouse knows where the safe is."

A flashlight beam swept past the front window. Everyone froze. "That's a guard," whispered Priya. "Marv, you said this place had no guard." Marv looked at his placemat. "The mouse didn't mention a guard." The doorknob started to rattle.

Priya shoved everyone behind the salad bar. The door swung open and a tired man in a uniform stepped in, holding a flashlight and a sandwich. He flicked on the lights, saw eleven adults crouched behind the lettuce, and froze mid-bite.

Theo, trying to help, stood up and offered the guard a tiny cube of cheese on a toothpick. "Free sample?" The guard stared at it, then at all of us, then took the cube. "This is really good," he admitted. "Okay. You have two minutes. Go." Everyone scrambled at once.

We grabbed everything we could in two minutes: a wheel of cheddar, a fancy ham, and somehow a single fork. Out on the sidewalk, panting, we realized we'd left all the actually valuable stuff behind. Theo held up the fork proudly. "Teamwork," he said. Nobody had the heart to argue.