Tiger slips past them easily on her way to her final co-conspirator and hopefully victim.

Along the way, she'll bump into Bun, unmasked, who'll quickly swap identical bags with her.

And then Bun darts away.

Somewhere in an anonymous office building, an officer of the Inquisition receives an alert from the bank's alarm, and is on the case.

He does not possess a weapon, or any capacity for violence, but he does have some powers that officers of the Guard do not. The bank's cameras show the mask, clothing, and build of the person responsible. The outdoor cameras show her murder of another child, presumed an accomplice. Masks have been tried before, in many crimes, including masks that match those of others nearby, but the children do not all have identical build, nor identical clothing.

Her shirt and dress are found again moments later by a camera overlooking the water park entrance.

Tiger is stopped at the point of a paintball gun at the entrance to the water park. "Have you recently robbed a bank?" is the only question asked.

Tiger knows that no child ever, as far as she has been able to see, has successfully lied to a member of the Guard. It is common knowledge that they simply categorically know whether you are lying.

It does not occur to her, even at the age of ten, that a reason might be not any power of truth-detection, but simply a policy kept secret by all adults: A Guard will never ask a question of a child to which he does not already know the answer. How can he always know the answer? Because such children are not yet exposed to the many ways of gaining such information available to a Guard, or the earpiece in their helmets with an officer of the Inquisition behind it.

Objection! If that’s true, you wouldn't know it, and wouldn't be allowed to tell us.

Are you objecting to my saying it, or to it being true?

… What?

"I might be a bank robber", attempts Tiger, in her best impression of a child not entirely sure whether the payment taken earlier that day was strictly legal, but for having seen many adults participate in it as well.

Many a child has tried refusing to properly answer, that this might be a loophole in the apparent truth-detection powers of the Guard. The Guard's policy, with such clever children as to attempt this, is to pretend that it in fact works, because it cultivates even more valuable beliefs amongst the children of society, and because a supermajority of adults think it's funny.

"Well then I can't be entirely sure either way, but, ..." the guard pauses, for dramatic effect, "I am hereby willing to offer you the required 1000 token bet that, were I to search your person now, I would find material evidence of a crime."

"I do not accept this bet", mutters Tiger, knowing that at this point she is caught either way, and may as well save herself some of the cost of losing.

And then Toffee, waiting inside the water park and armed with the second paintball gun, shoots them both in the back.

Why's he shooting his ally? They could escape together.

He wants to keep all the money.

But Tiger doesn't even have the money any more. Bun took it.

There's no way he's going to escape after killing a guard.
There's only one way out now.

Zero witnesses.

Toffee shoots himself in the chest, and collapses, pretend dead.

What?

I can't testify against myself later, if I'm already dead.

Then this is still all the Harms Commission’s fault.

There's no way he'd have been willing to kill himself for real with an actual gun, just to stop himself from being forced to testify against himself and his friends, all of whom are also dead.

But we're not all dead, are we?

I'm twenty blocks away in the other direction with all the money. And there's nobody who knows I have it or can prove my involvement.

The guards are gonna look hard enough to figure every suspect is dead, and they won't be able to pick me out of the crowd, making my escape out of the chaos.

After my allies are back alive, I’ll offer to buy potato chips off of them at inflated prices until I’m broke, and then turn myself in and claim adolescence myself.

It's the perfect crime.

You're doing a really good job with the voices.

Thanks!

But don't they still get punished?

When they stop pretending to be dead, I mean.

With all the harm-reduction, Tiger's punishment is reduced to the predictable: confinement in a childhood detention facility until she starts claiming to not be a child any more and can pass a test about it.

She'd normally be expected to repay the costs to the bank, but children can't be in debt, including to the courts, so it gets waved.

The children who took her money get to keep it. The adults who took her money are held to have only broken civil law and forced to give it back, if the guard can be bothered tracking them down.

I would like to start claiming I'm not a child any more. Can you give me the test?

Oh wow I passed that was easy.