A young woman stepped into the light, her o blue eyes standing out like beas between the dark clothing c most of her body, save for her fad hands.

  “What are you doing here?!” she said, looking at the crab with surprise.

  “Who’s that?” asked Suze.

  “That’s Olivia, the mayor’s niece. I met her earlier when she beat the ctose out of a mugger,” Balthazar told the younger girl, before turning his attention back to the older one. “Your aunt asked me to look into the missing mangoes problem. We’re following a lead.”

  The noblewoman frowned. “You’re looking for Onion Jake too?”

  It was Balthazar’s turn to frown. “What do you mean? Why are you looking for him? Did the baroness send you as well?”

  Olivia’s frown was quickly repced with a rise of her eyebrows and a shifty gnce away.

  “Well, no, ly,” she said. “I followed my own leads to get here.”

  “So she doesn’t know you’re chasing the mango thieves too?” the mert asked.

  “I’m sure she does, or will soon,” the young woman said. “She has informants and spies everywhere. I don’t care. Nobody is doing anything to stop these bandits. They’re embarrassing our family, and damaging the city’s business. Someone o step up! I told her I could help, but she wouldn’t let me, so I did what any good Marquessa member would do: I did things my own way.”

  Balthazar sighed.

  “That’s great that yoing through your rebellious phase and all, but we were trying to du iigation discreetly over here.”

  “A big crab and a little girl?” Olivia said with some disdain. “Why are ying a street beggar along anyway?”

  “Hey! I’m not a beggar,” Suze piped up. “My name’s Suze and I’m a tuide who earns her fair and square. I even pay taxes!”

  The mert turo her with a surprised look. “You do?!”

  “Not really, but don’t tell her that,” the little girl whispered back.

  “Point is,” said Olivia, “I followed my own trail leading to the Onion Crew, and I’m not leaving until I see this through.”

  “Wait,” said the crab. “So the Onion Crew might also be the Mango Thieves? These guys really o hire a publicist…”

  “We got here first!” the defiant street ur said to the baroness’s niece.

  Balthazar raised both pincers. “Alright, alright, let’s calm down. Maybe we could work together, eh? We’re all in this with the same objective anyway, right?”

  “I’m only in it for the pie,” Suze said with a shrug.

  “Very retable,” the crusta said with a nod.

  “I’m here to protect my family’s name,” Olivia decred.

  The traveling mert nodded again. “Sure, and totally not because you feel you have to prove yourself to your auher way, we’ll achieve more by figuring out how to reach this Jake fel together than by bickering in an alley all night.”

  Approag the fence quietly, eae of them found a slit in the wood to look through.

  “He doesn’t look that tough,” said the Marquessa girl. “I bet I could go in there and knock him out before he calls anyone.”

  “Geez, what’s with you and wanting to beat up bandits?” Balthazar whispered.

  “They deserve it.”

  “That’s silly,” said the street ur. “If one of you boosts me over the fence, I could just sneak past him a in through a window.”

  “Nonsense. I’m no thief to be breaking aering into pces,” Olivia retorted.

  “Yeah? And starting a fight with the guard is a better idea?” Suze shot back.

  “Will you two shush?” Balthazar said. “Someone’s gonna hear us if you two don’t quiet down.”

  A shuffling sound nearby made the crab jump in pce, worried they were about to be caught by a ruffian. As the trio turo the source of the hey saw a bck feline figure against the warm light shining from the nearby window, walking along the edge of a roof.

  “It’s just a cat,” Olivia said with a small sigh of relief.

  “Pretty kitty!” said Suze, grinning at the creature.

  The bck cat stopped for a moment, its big blue eyes the sneaky trio below before jumping off the roof and disappearing into the darkness of the alley.

  His feeling of unease subsiding, Balthazar turo the two girls.

  “How about we try it my way?”

  “Your way?” the two girls said in unison.

  “Yes. We talk our way in.”

  Suze and Olivia exged a gnce before they both covered their mouths in a giggling fit.

  “He wants to talk to the bandit,” the smaller one said between stifled ughter.

  “I knht?” said the other. “He thinks they’ll just let him in!”

  Scowling, Balthazar exhaled sharply.

  “You two wait here.”

  Leaving them no time to say anything, or more likely, ugh at him again, the mert made his way around the feil he found the way through.

  The house oher side was small and looked like it could do with some maintehe front door stood out for being thid reinforced with iron, something that didn’t seem to match other simir buildings around that neighborhood.

  Seeing the approag crab, the man standing guard by it bounced forward from the wall he was leaning against and quickly pocketed his knife.

  “Oi, you lost or somethin’?” he barked.

  “Evening, good sir!” the traveler said, with a wave of his cw.

  The bandit looked left and right, as if unsure what “sir” the crusta was talking to.

  “Yes, it’s you I was looking for,” said Balthazar.

  “Me?” the man said with a heavy frown. “What you want with me?”

  Ah, crap, I didn’t think this far…

  “You’re… a bandit, right?” the crab asked.

  “Yeah,” the thug said. “I mean… no. Ya ’t prove nothin’. I’m just hanging out by a door. Ain’t nothin’ bandit-like or illegal ‘bout that.”

  “Rex,” Balthazar said, trying to chuckle in a friendly manner. “I’m not here t you trouble. I was hoping to talk with you about, uh… yhts.”

  The ruffian appeared increasingly fused, and looked at his right fist with a frown.

  “What’s wrong with my right hook?” he said. “Someorash talking the way I punch again?!”

  “No, no, not thhts!” the crusta hurriedly assured him. “I mean yhts as a hard-w bandit. I’m with the… hmm… Bandit Rights Association!”

  “The what now?!”

  “We’re all about providing support and making you more fortable!”

  The guard’s scowl was growing armingly hostile. “Ya messin’ with me or somethin’?”

  “No, not at all! Lots of fine bandits like yourself are starting tanize and demandier w ditions from their greedy bandit chiefs.”

  “What ya just call my boss, ya little punk?!”

  Balthazar waved his pincers apologetically. “Nothing! I don’t even know your boss! In fact, I was hoping you could let me inside and introduce me to him.”

  The bandit pulled the switchbde out of his pocket again.

  “How do you know the boss is here? Who you been talkin’ to?!”

  The crab gulped quietly.

  Get it together, Balthazar. You’ve dealt with far smarter idiots than this guy.

  He gnced down at the shiny steel bde ihug’s hand.

  Although they usually don’t have a knife in their hand while iating…

  “Your fellow Onion Crew bandits, of course,” the mert replied, deg being bold was the way to go.

  “Who’s been snit’?!” the guard angrily barked, his bde now held higher.

  “See, that’s one of the problems with the bandit w css,” Balthazar calmly said while shaking his shell. “Your bosses vince you that talking and sharing the details about how big your cut is, rivileges you get, and so on, is snitg. Sowing suspi and discord among you guys.”

  “My cut?” the criminal said, raising one eyebrow in sudden i. “What are you talkin’ ‘bout?”

  “You o keep up with the news, friend,” the fident crab stated. “Every day more and more bandits are standing up for themselves aing the proper fair share from their hard bor of stealing, pilging, and ransag. Some are eveing job insurance!”

  The puzzled thug scratched above his ear with the tip of the switchbde as he thought long and hard about the barrage of overwhelming words the crusta was unloading on him.

  “Does that mean, like… more money?”

  “Yes! Exactly!” replied the mert. “Among many other things. That’s what the Bandit Rights Association is all about. More profits for you! Now, if you invite me in, we could discuss yhts with your boss and see about improving your work ditions.”

  The goon scratched his . “I dunno. This whole thing sounds fishy.”

  “Of course it does, I am a crab after all!” Balthazar said with a wide grin. “But look at me, you tell I’m a trustworthy crab, ’t you?”

  [The Gift of the Crab: success]

  “Oh, alright,” the guard said, waving the switchbde around as he prepared to put it ba his pocket. “Ain’t no way they’d send a crab to attack our py—”

  With a dry “bonk” ing from the back of his head, the thug fell forward onto the ground, knocked out.

  Dumbfounded, Balthazar looked up to where he stood a moment before, and found Olivia standing there, with a long pnk of wood in her hands.

  “What did you do?!” the crab excimed.

  “I took him out,” she said. “You’re wele.”

  “I was about to vince him to let me in!”

  “Oh please, he was about to gut you with that knife,” said the young woman. “I could see it in his eyes.”

  “How?! You were behind him!” the exasperated crab said, waving his tensed up arms around.

  “It was implied!”

  “You have some aggression issues, you know that, right?!”

  “And you must have a loose screw in that shell! Seriously, Bandit Rights Association?!”

  “Why is that so funny?! It’s a great name!”

  A dry cough came from nearby and they both turo look at Suze, standihe reinforced door.

  “No guard,” she said, pointing her hands towards the entrance. “Are we gonna go in, or are you two gonna keep fighting like little children?”

  Grumbling, the crab and the human headed to the door.

  “That must be embarrassing for you, ing from a kid,” Olivia said, as she threw the piece of wood aside and opehe unlocked door.

  “What do you mean?!” said Balthazar. “She was clearly looking at you when she said little children!”

  The two of them tinued bickering as the trio ehe house, stepping through a small corridor and arriving at a rge open hall.

  “What matters is that I got us inside, didn’t I?” the baroness’s niece said.

  “What do you mean, you got us inside?! I’m the one who…”

  The crab’s words trailed off as he saw Olivia’s gaze turn to the room around them and widen with realization.

  Finally remembering where they were, Balthazar slowly turned his eyestalks too.

  All around the hall, sitting on tables and frozen ih their tankards of ale in hand, were about twenty bandits, all staring in disbelief at the two girls and one crab who just came strolling into their hideout.

  “Oh…”