Chapter 2

The car couldn't hold that many people, and the police station was close by anyways, so they walked. Paperweight and Halcyon led the way, and they spent the entire walk making one phone call after another. Goose and Pumpkin took up the rear, sandwiching the kids in the middle. Goose was spinning her baton again.

"This is so cool," Pumpkin said to Goose. He didn't mean for anyone else to hear, but Firecrackers did anyways. "What did the nuke look like?"

"Like a nuke," Goose threw her baton into the air, where it spun like a ferris wheel. "Like a big version of the small nukes. Like a small version of the big nukes." She caught the baton in her other hand.

"Is it… still in that basement? Shouldn't we, you know, move it somewhere else?"

"Of course. We'll do that tomorrow. It's getting late."

"Ugh," Pumpkin scraped the ground with his boots, "I just messed up a really simple information form. Halcyon's gonna be mad."

"Totally," Goose sneered, "I'm bringing popcorn."

Pumpkin poked her in the side, earning himself a gentle kick to the leg.

"Where do you think the nuke came from?" Sparky asked her friends.

"Moreland, duh," Sky said, "I told you already."

"Shh," Goose leaned forward and tapped Sky's shoulders. "No talking."

"Why the fuck not?" Sparky frowned at Goose.

"They wanna make sure you don't —" Pumpkin started, but Goose interrupted him.

"Officers Paperweight and Halcyon are making phone calls," she said. "We don't want you making too much noise." She tapped Sparky's head with her baton, and Sparky glared at her.

Qibli put her right hand into her pocket and grasped the stalk of her magic wand, which poked out of the pocket while the purple star nestled comfortably inside.

The doors to the police station were automatic, sliding open as they approached. The cop at the desk lifted her head.

"Paperweight, Ministry of State Security," Paperweight made his introduction, showing his badge to the cop.

"Oh, it's you," the cop said, "this way, please."

"You guys don't have your own fucking place?" Sparky had her arms crossed in front of her chest. She had been in that position the entire walk, if Firecrackers remembered correctly.

"It's too far away," Halcyon said.

"What about my parents?" Sky asked.

"I had called them already. I told all of your parents that you would be late. Sparky's dad is going to pick you all up."

Sparky sighed audibly.

She was led by Paperweight to a small room with a single table. Her friends went in separate rooms with separate officers, and she assumed the rooms were identical. On the ceiling hung a bright light and a camera. The walls had once been white and smooth. Two chairs were on either side of the table. Paperweight took a seat on one chair and gestured for her to sit down on the one opposite. Sparky obliged, but not without making a face.

Paperweight had a form in front of him. So did Halcyon, facing Firecrackers. Goose uncapped her pen, and Qibli noticed that it was covered in cartoon cats — they did not come with the pen; Goose sticked them on it herself. In Sky's room, Pumpkin somehow produced a bottle of boba tea from his pocket, poked a straw in it, and started slurping.

"Name?"

"I told that green motherfucker already," Sparky snapped.

"I need a confirmation," Paperweight said calmly.

"Ugh. Sparky Amber Jack — Peacock."

"Jack-Peacock?"

"Sparky Amber Peacock!" She slammed her hands on the table.

"Did you change names?"

"Why does that matter?" Sparky avoided his gaze.

"What was your original name?"

"Jackal. Sparky Amber Jackal."

Scribble, scribble.

"What were you doing near the house?"

"How's that any of your fucking business?" Sparky said.

"There must be a reason you're there," Paperweight had not lost his calm.

"We were looking for a cat," Qibli kept her hand held on her wand. The other three said things along the same line.

"What cat?" Goose pressed on.

"A gray tabby. It belonged to my neighbor," Qibli said.

"You have a picture?"

"I don't have my phone with me."

"Fine," Goose sounded disappointed.

"Why were you looking for the cat in that particular place?"

Cats like hanging around in those places. Enough humans to feed them occasionally, but not too many that they get annoyed. Random sacks lying around for nests. Sunlight. Trust me, Firecrackers said.

"Firecrackers brought us there," said the other three.

"Why did he bring you there?" Paperweight asked.

"How do I know? He was batshit crazy."

"It doesn't sound like you had much success in finding the cat."

"It did appear. Mr. Pumpkin was petting it," Qibli said. "And then Mr. Halcyon wouldn't let me get to it."

"Because Firecrackers is a fucking dumbass," Sparky said.

"But we found the nuke! Isn't that way better than a cat?" Sky was making a funny face, like a gloating kid who took the last piece of cake.

What's that even supposed to mean? Can you make sure you succeed in everything you do? Recount all the failures in your life; are all of them really unavoidable? Did that girl really have a boyfriend already or did she just hate you because you were a stupid, good-for-nothing —

"Alright, alright! Fine!" Halcyon squeezed his eyes shut and Firecrackers stopped signing.

"What was the name of the neighbor, the owner of the cat?"

"How the fuck am I supposed to know?"

"Well, I don't know that. Qibli just told us it was a gray tabby."

Ask Qibli.

"I didn't know… I mean, I knew the husband was a man, the wife was a woman, and they had a son…"

"Do you know their address then?" Goose asked.

"They were… my neighbors?"

"Yes. So do you know their address?"

"They were literally my neighbors. They lived next to me."

"I'd like their address please."

Qibli said out that same long-winded address of hers, except off by a single number.

"Thank you." Goose scribbled it down on her form with her cartoon kitty pen.

"How far was the house from where you live?"

"Just a short walk. It was pretty close. We figured the cat couldn't have run that far," Qibli said.

"Four subway stops and a short walk."

Eleven bus stops.

"A little far, but not far at all," Sparky said.

"Could you please be a little more specific?" Paperweight asked Sparky.

"How the fuck do I get 'more specific'?"

"For example, you could say how many kilometers there are from your home to the house."

"How the fuck do I know that?"

"If you don't know, the time you spent going there would be helpful too."

"Fine. Around ten minutes taxi."

"How much did the taxi ride cost?"

"Why the fuck do you wanna know?"

"It may be helpful information."

"I don't remember," Sparky crossed her arms behind her head and leaned back into the chair.

"That's okay," Paperweight did not appear the slightest bit affected by Sparky's attitude.

"Which one of you found the bomb first?"

Qibli thought about lying, but knew better. "Sky."

Sky.

"I did," Sky said. "In the basement."

"Why does it matter? Why do any of these stupid questions matter?" Sparky and Paperweight sat in silence for a while. Finally Sparky broke it. "It was Sky! Satisfied? We looked around the house and in the first floor and not a single fucking thing was there, and Sky went into the basement, and Crackers and I went upstairs, and that fucking pussy Qibli stayed on the first floor doing nothing, and suddenly Sky was all dragging us into the basement where there was a fucking nuke! You like this answer?"

"I like it very much indeed. Thank you."

"If you were the first to find it, could you tell me about what you saw?" Pumpkin asked Sky between sips of his boba.

"Well, it was a nuke. In the basement," Sky tried to recall. "It was dark. I saw the nuclear symbol and thought it might be a nuke. And oh! There's this detail. Everything else in that basement was really dusty, but the nuke wasn't."

"We actually know all of that already," Pumpkin said, "but alright." He took another sip.

After more absurd questions, awkward silences, and convoluted details, the interview was finally over. The other officers went into a room with the forms they had filled; Halcyon took the kids outside. The sun was setting.

Peacock came to the police station, carrying some snacks with him. The other kids accepted the treats happily, and Sparky accepted with a face.

"Thank you for your patience, Mr. Peacock," Halcyon said with a well-practiced diplomatic smile, "and we apologize for the trouble."

"It's alright," Peacock said with a smile just as tactful. "Your work is certainly most important. I should be apologizing to you for the trouble my daughter caused."

Sparky wrinkled her nose and said "stepdaughter" while munching on her chips, but no one was paying attention.

"No, we should be thanking you," Halcyon said. "Without her and her friends, we wouldn't have known of the bomb's existence."

"Yeah, yeah," Sparky licked her fingers and wiped the drool on her shirt. "Are we going to go get the nuke now?"

"You're going home," Halcyon said.

"What?" Sparky yelled, "what about the nuke? I need the nuke!"

"No you don't, dear," Peacock said.

"I found the nuke!" Sparky was waving her arms around. Sky coughed. She looked at him and said, "we found the nuke! It belongs to us!"

"No." Halcyon replied curtly.

Sparky stared straight into his eyes. "According to the Bauhinian Civil Code, Article Four Hundred and Thirteen, 'if you find something and no one else was around you get to keep it.' That means the nuke is legally ours."

Peacock laughed. "Nice try, but Article 413 of the Civil Code actually states 'Expressing loyalty and/or sympathy towards either one of the following entities is punishable by imprisonment at a minimum of three years: the Bauhinian monarch, the Bauhinian Empire, the Bauhinian Dynasty, and the Bauhinian Imperial Army.' In fact, 'finders-keepers' has never been a legal concept in Bauhinia."

"Shut up, nobody asked!" Sparky was stomping her foot on the ground.

"The Civil Code in Atlasia does feature a finders-keepers rule, though," Peacock continued talking. "Article Nine or something, I'm not really sure."

"Arrrgh!" Sparky let out an exasperated sigh.

"Again, thank you for coming," Halcyon said. "And we will come to you should more questions regarding the bomb arise."

"My pleasure," Peacock shook Halcyon's hand once more and led the kids to his car.

He took the seven-seat one this time. He rode shotgun. The girls sat in the middle, and the boys were at the back. The driver was unfamiliar to Sparky.

I've never seen a car this big! Firecrackers said, bouncing up and down in his seat.

"Yeah, because Peacock has six bastards and every time he takes them out he would drive this car and they would all fit," Sparky said. Peacock rolled his eyes.

"Ugh," Sparky buried her face in her hands. "We should've gotten the nuke. It's your fault for calling the police!"

"C'mon. What were you going to do with a nuke?" Qibli was staring out the window.

"Collect it! Put it in my room!"

"Excuse me," Sky leaned in from the back. "I found it first."

"Doesn't matter," Sparky sighed. "They have it now. They're taking it away. We're never gonna see it again. Ever."

Firecrackers tapped her shoulder and she turned to face him. Actually, it's still in that basement.

"What?"

I heard them on the way to the police station. The nuke is still there. They're going to move it tomorrow.

Sparky's eyes lit up. "Really? This is amazing! Guys, do you know what that means?"

"Don't get any ideas," Peacock warned. But there was a hint of resignation in his voice, as if he knew he couldn't stop what was coming.

"Midnight tonight. Bring flashlights."