"I don't have qualms about stealing," Ethan puts in. "Ax, do you have qualms about teaching me to steal?"

<...I am not sure to what extent I can. I would be relying on a large body of education that you do not have.>

"And stealing from Yeerks is preferable anyway, so."

"But you don't mind if I watch, do you?" he coaxes.

<...I will allow you to watch if Princess Bella prefers,> says Ax uncomfortably.

"Princess Bella thinks that having more than one person with the skill would be a decent idea but isn't sure that it won't be used inadvisably by the particular volunteer in question."

Ethan puts on his most innocent face.

"How about I watch," says Robin.

"Go for it."

"Brilliant." She pats Ethan on the arm. "Try being less openly sketchy next time."

"I have a strong background assumption of Ethan being sketchy. Improving his acting skills will only help so far."

"My acting skills are spectacular," Ethan says loftily. "I wasn't using them."

"What's this morning's homework?"

"Options that may open up with bonus hacking skills. Also plans for fetching the movable objects from the Dome after dark. Ax, how heavy are the things? The morphing box weighs six pounds."

<The shredders are about two and a half pounds each,> Ax estimates after a moment, <the thoughtspeak amplifier might be as many as ten but I don't know how much of what it's attached to is part of the device, and the personal computer is about a pound.>

"So kind of hard to carry in bird forms, at least ones we have. We could make another Seattle trip to acquire everything in the zoo, or make a few trips with a bag we can share the load of, or we could get the stuff, hide it on the shore, and get Renée to drive us there and back and smuggle it away that way."

"I vote zoo," says Ethan.

"Me too," says Robin.

"Only the big animals are in the open-air cages. How are we going to get, like, birds - morph bugs and go in through the wire and demorph there?"

"Yes. Which means it'll be kind of a long night and we won't be able to grab literally everything we see, but we should be able to get in and out of everything in bug shapes."

"Sounds good to me," says Robin.

"Definitely," says Trouble.

"Pity about the lack of computer, but we should be able to swipe park maps or something and get shopping lists of sorts when we arrive at the zoo, and I do know roughly where it is."

"We found the orcas just fine!"