For a moment the lounge was still, a human lay motionless and spreadeagled on the sofa, and the door was wide open. Then the lamp illuminating the room flickered and with a flurry of motion five rats darted across the room, originally together in a wave, but spreading out as they all headed for their designated locations.

One of the older rats, Thecheez, took position in the middle of the floor directly where the human's eyes would point to if they were open. The other four rats got to the bottom of the sofa, the two buff rats going left to the side of the human with the gun, and the two smaller rats going right.

Ucol carefully tossed Itsbuffa onto the armrest of the sofa, then with a monstrously powerful jump cleared the air and managed to alight on the edge. The other two rats however had a bit more of a struggle getting up, Sunder grabbed the fabric in his little hands and slowly climbed up step by step, prompting Rho to follow suit.

Eventually Rho and her uncle got onto the sofa, she took position by the small bulge in the pocket and her uncle approached the head of the human. Then they all turned their heads to look at Thecheez below.

Thecheez carefully looked at the rats, ensuring they were all good to go, then motioned for the operation to begin by whipping the ground softly with his tail, making a faint slap noise. Rho Dent dived into the pocket, squirming deeper to find the key.

Like a furry torpedo she wormed in until she reached the bulge. Her nose was immediately assaulted by an intense minty smell and she realised this pocket only held a packet of gum, no key. Rho Dent turned around, but the human felt that and there was a great shuddering as the fabric around her began moving.

Hasted by a sense of urgency, she shot out of the pocket and spied a large hand coming towards her. Having only a few seconds, Rho Dent followed her uncle's escape plan, diving and squirming into the gap between the cushions under the human.

After getting her whole body into the narrow gap, she poked her nose out to look at what was happening. The human had begun standing and was patting the pocket Rho Dent had been in, as if trying to check it was empty.

Rho Dent noticed the human no longer had the gun, and spied Itsbuffa on the other side of the room pulling the large shiny object under one of the cupboards, unnoticed. She looked around to check for her family, her father, uncle and Ucol were nowhere to be seen.

In fact they seem to have lucked out as the human hadn’t spotted any of them. Rho watched them put their hand in the pocket and take out the packet of gum, before popping one of the white pellets in their mouth. The small rat breathed a sigh of relief, they had completed half of the plan, but the objective was out of reach, maybe that would change though. The Who Man might provide other opportunities.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The human seemed to scratch their head absentmindedly, then went off into the kitchen. As it passed through the door Rho Dent noticed a small shiny keyring glint, half hanging out of its back pocket.

The small rat grimaced, a pretty universal expression. That pocket is under the Who Man when it sits. She racked her tiny and surprisingly intelligent brain for a solution to the predicament. Whatever she tried was gonna be risky, because it would have to be performed while the human was awake and likely still walking around or standing up.

Rho squiggled out from the cushions, hopping to the floor and following the humans path into the kitchen. As she passed through the lounge doorway into the hallway towards the adjacent kitchen door she noticed her two brothers pressed against the wall in a shadow.

“Go find uncle, Itsbuffa and Ucol, they should be in the lounge somewhere, it should be safe for a few minutes,” she whispered to them. They nodded and vanished off behind her. Leaving her alone to continue on into the kitchen.

The kitchen was cavernous (relative to Rho Dent) and the human was attending a steaming device on the opposite work surface which was rumbling ominously and producing a heavy coffee musk. She scanned the room and quickly spotted her father poking his head out from under the fridge.

She skirted round the wall to the fridge and walked up beside her father. “The key wasn’t in the Who Man’s pocket.”

“What?” Her father asked.

“The bulge was a treat, the keys in the back pocket.”

Her father focused on the human and spied the small silver glint poking out. ”I have an idea.”

Rho Dent attentively listened to the old rat, “If you climbed up on top of the cupboards mounted to the wall, you might be able to jump down behind the human and grab the key as you fall.”

“Can a rat survive such a drop?” She asked curiously.

“Young rats can survive a drop from almost any height, so long as it isn’t head or back first.”

Rho Dent stared at him, “Really?”

“Yes trust me, you’ll be fine, you can get on the cupboards by climbing that curtain over there.”

Rho made sure the human was busy enough to not turn around suddenly, then snuck across the room and carefully climbed the curtain, making sure to be as quiet as possible. The curtain was still swaying, but the human seemed engrossed in measuring out some brown powder into a cup.

Then she hopped across to the wall cupboards and after waiting a moment to make sure her landing hadn’t been heard, she crawled on her belly along the tops of the cupboards, making her way round to the area above the human.

A quick poking her head over the edge proved the human was staring down into the cup tiredly, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

Rho Dent readied herself.

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