Page 134 - What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

But Flor did have something good for them after all. She’d followed Barney

Chaskel to Bettencourt Society headquarters and had seen him punch in the code
that let him into the building. That was why she was late: She’d seen the
sequence, but not its exact components. So she’d cased the joint, observed that
the Bettencourters left through another door, and given herself three chances to
repeat the code Barney had punched in.
“Babe,” Willa said. “BABE. Third time lucky?”
Flor laughed and said: “Second.”

Grainne and Willa hooted and jumped on her, but Hilde, Ed, and Theo were
unmoved.
“There’s no need for us to enter Bettencourt premises,” Hilde declared.
Theo agreed: “The Wenches made the ultimate gesture years ago.”
“No, come on, come on, we’ve got this so it’d basically be folly and sin not to

use it!” Grainne said.
But Ed backed up Hilde and Theo: “Yeah, it’d be nice to fuck with the
Bettencourters’ heads a bit more, but I’d rather we move on, concentrate on
building ourselves up. We need more pieces for The Wench . . . weren’t we just
about to hear an idea from you, Day?”
“I think we should go in,” Day said. Everybody went quiet, but her words
were mainly for Marie, who hadn’t expressed an opinion either way. “I think we

should go in and do a book swap.”
“A book swap?” Marie echoed.
“Yup. I’m betting the Bettencourters don’t have many, or maybe even any,
books by female authors on their bookshelves. And speaking collectively we
don’t have that many male authors on our own shelves—”
“Yes, but that’s personal preference and our desire to honor what’s ours,

Day,” Hilde said.
“I know,” said Day. “And I do. But I want to read everything. When it comes
to books and who can put things in them and get things out of them, it’s all ours.
And all theirs too. So we go in, see what books they have, take a few and replace
them with a few of ours.”
“No muss, no fuss,” Theo said, grudgingly.
“I’d have voted to trash the place but I don’t care what we do as long as we

do something,” Willa said. “I suppose that would’ve wrecked Flor’s budding
romance, though.”
Flor covered her face but didn’t deny being keen on Barney Chaskel.