Con Quest!

“Yes.” Cat nodded. She rubbed at the finger she’d used to tap him. Oil. Go figure. “I need you to … distract those two people in spandex for a minute. Just for a minute.”

“How? And why?” the cosplayer asked, hoisting his ax onto the holster strapped to his back.

“The how is entirely up to you,” Cat said quickly. “And the why is entirely on us. But I will give you an autographed copy of the first season of Ducky McFowl if you can do this for us.”

His eyes went wide. Cat knew she’d struck gold. “Autographed?”

“Yep!” Cat was getting anxious now. The Star-Troopers had been Dancercizing for a while. She was running out of time!

The cosplayers only hesitated for a second before nodding in unison. “We will do this for you, small hero. Here is a card with our social media information on it. Please send us a telegram of the future.”

“You got it,” said Cat, tucking the card into her purse. “Now get out there!”

“I don’t know about this—” Alex sounded anxious. Cat already knew where Alex was going with this as she watched the two buff cosplayers head off toward Malik and Dahlia.

“I do,” Cat said forcefully, jerking her head toward the front of the Star-Trooper squad. “You tape, I’ll take over. It’ll just be for a second. It’s all we need!”

“But it’s not our item,” Alex protested, following his sister anyway. “We’ll get disqualified if someone finds out we piggybacked on someone else’s work!”

“No one’s going to notice. Come on!” she urged, getting him into place. “We gotta be fast!”

Alex shook his head but didn’t say anything else. Cat knew she had him. They were going to do this!

From the shadows near the front of the troop, Cat watched as her two new oily cosplay friends stepped in between Malik and the Star-Troopers. They said something to Malik that Cat couldn’t hear. Malik signaled Dahlia to stop filming. The four of them walked over to the side of the atrium for a second, their heads together.

Whatever they were talking about, it had worked! The music was still blaring—the Star-Troopers were still dancing!

Cat bolted from her hiding spot and took up position in front of them. She waved at Alex, who already had his phone up, filming. Cat did a couple of jazzy moves—arm here! Leg there! High kick! Twirl! This was it—they were going to get the item! And—

“Hey!” Cat almost felt the angry yell before she heard it. She winced and started to make a run toward Alex. An arm grabbed Cat from behind, stopping her in her tracks. She had time to mouth Run! at Alex before she was spun around—and found herself face-to-face with Dahlia.

Dang.

“That was our item!” Dahlia said, anger contorting their face. They shifted their pink hair out of their face with the hand that wasn’t on Cat’s arm. “You were trying to steal credit!”

“No—I swear—” Cat protested weakly. She knew she’d been caught.

“We literally saw you doing it!” Dahlia looked like they couldn’t believe what was happening. “That’s totally not in the spirit of the Quest, man!”

Cat shook Dahlia’s hand off her arm and stepped back, hands raised. This wasn’t going anywhere good. “Okay. I’m sorry. I won’t post it. I promise.”

“Your teammate probably already did!” Dahlia protested.

Cat swallowed. They were more than likely right; Alex was nothing if not practical.

Cat’s heart was pounding. It felt like it was going to slam out of her chest. Her head was hot; she might puke at, like, any second. She’d been caught cheating. And it had been all her idea. She couldn’t let Team DoubleTrouble be disqualified—Alex would never forgive her. Heck, she would never forgive herself!

An idea just as bad as the one that had gotten Cat into this situation settled around her shoulders like Alex’s antianxiety gravity blanket.

She couldn’t. She just couldn’t.

But she had no other choice.

“Okay, look—here,” Cat said, fishing around in her purse. Cell phone charger … wallet … gum … Sharpie for emergency autograph moments … there. Cat pulled two pieces of paper out of her purse and held them up to Dahlia’s face. “Two passes for Hall M later today. Impossible to get. So … so you can complete the hundred-point item.”

Dahlia just stared at Cat for a second, totally shocked. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m serious,” Cat said. “Don’t report us, and you can have the tickets.”