The Criminals' Wealth

6 - The Genius

"Hey!" she said. "Quit being nosy! Those feathers are none of your business!" Maddie took a step back in surprise. She didn't know why Ruby didn't want her looking at some feathers. They were practically useless to a rabbit and a man. Unless... they were extremely valuable feathers. She remembered an essay she had to write about when she was in her freshman year. While researching, she had found an article about rare birds, and she recalled seeing a picture of a white bird that was the third rarest in the world. It's feathers were worth millions of dollars. It only made sense.

Ruby whipped out another shiny star from her pocket. "Hey! I said, quit being nosy!" She said louder. Lenny looked at his sister. "Oh, she's doing that thing again." "Doing what, exactly?" asked Jenzi. "When she gets into really deep thinking, she just stands there and stares at something random." answered Lenny. "And she's doing that now, looking at those feathers... why are they all over the floor? Did you have a pillow fight or something?"

"Don't be silly, Lenny," said Roy. "Criminals don't do pillow fights. They do weapon fights!" He held an imaginary sword in his hands and slashed the air with it. Jenzi gave a small laugh. "Yes, that's true for some criminals," he said. "but not all of us are violent. Take me for example, I don't have any weapons."

"Then... What criminal things do you do?" Roy asked. "Oh, nothing much," said Jenzi. "I just rob banks."

"Whhhoooaaa," said Lenny. "I was never really for violence. How much money do you have?" Jenzi motioned for them to follow him to a corner with large sacks. Roy and Lenny followed, but Maddie stayed by the large door, still staring at the feathers.

"Should we do something with her...?" Ruby asked the teenage boys. "No, leave her be," said Lenny. "Whenever this happens, something amazingly genius comes out of it. She helped me and Roy get straight A's when our teachers and tutors said that we were hopeless!"

Roy nodded in agreement, then added, "She also helped my mom fix her laptop when it stopped working. Maddie is like a nerd queen! She doesn't mind us calling her that by the way. Says that it suits her."

"Alright," said Jenzi. He opened one of the sacks to reveal a whole lot of loose 100 dollar bills. Lenny and Roy stared at the cash in awe. "How'd you get so much?" Roy asked Jenzi. "Oh this was from last night." replied the young man. "I went to the Bank of Anualor and stole it."

Roy's eyes widened. "The Bank of Anualor?" he said. "Isn't that one of the most secure banks in the world?" "Not one of the most secure," corrected Ruby. "the most secure."