Red hair flashed through the White House. Her diversion had worked; President Marsopa had taken her giant robot out to a remote location in the Appalachian Mountains, following the missive of Zeke the carrier pigeon. And although the White House was never technically “unguarded,” the woman had enough memory from her time as a maid to know the ins and outs and secrets paths.

The woman, who still wasn’t sure if she was Gemma or Olivia, watched through finely trimmed hedges as six, the gardener, cheerily watered the vegetable garden, her short brown hair glittering in the sunlight and her uniform as blue as the sky above. Watering, she knew, took exactly seven minutes and fifty-three seconds; six would have her back turned for four minutes and sixteen seconds of that period. Starting… now.

Gemma or Olivia darted through the open door into the sunroom and through the halls. She knew these halls like the back of her hand – even when she was zero, the floor plan of the house had been permanently soaked into her brain. There was the framed portrait of President Marsopa, posed elegantly with Bob the Cat resting on her lap. There was the recreation of Washington Crossing the Delaware with AF-1 replacing the titular general. And there was--- shit.

She dove around the corner, seeing three’s yellow apron just in time. The shifts must have adjusted slightly after her exile. But she was in too deep to back out now. She pushed herself flat against the wall, holding her breath as she crept down the hallway, away from the wet, gentle sounds of three’s mop on tile. Just another few doors, and…

There. The laundry room. And just as she had expected, a spare green uniform. A bit wrinkled, yes, but it would do. Gemma or Olivia silently closed herself inside, stripped, and clad herself in that familiar verdant color. Despite herself, she shuddered a bit; the cloth felt soft against her skin, an almost electric thrill running down her spine. Service had felt good; though her mind was clear enough now to understand what President Marsopa had done to her, her body still yearned to serve. She took a deep breath to center herself. She had a mission.

She emerged from the laundry room and made her way to the stairs. She saw, with a pang of fear, one – today a leggy blonde – descending. One smiled at her, red lipstick matching her red uniform.

“Don’t spend too long in there!” the maid giggled. “You wouldn’t want to miss shower time again.”

Gemma or Olivia forced a matching smile. “Of course not,” she said, stepping aside to let the maid pass. “I learned my lesson last time.” One blew her a kiss before going on her way; she mimed catching the kiss and pocketing it before ascending the steps and making her way to the presidential bedroom.

She tried the door; locked, of course, but she wouldn’t have come this far without learning how to pick locks. She quickly checked the adjacent halls for witnesses before kneeling at the door. Nice click out of one… two was binding… nothing on three… Within moments, the door was open. But that, of course, was the easy one. Gemma or Olivia darted into the room, closing the door behind her.

She had been in this room plenty of times, of course. The enormous bed with the pink comforter looked the same as ever; the pink gamer chair with matching cat ear headphones still sat in the same corner. President Marsopa had insisted on streaming from her bedroom, despite the dozens of other rooms available in the house. And there – the desk. And inside, her prize. She could already see a faint pink light bleeding out from the seams in the wood.

The once again kneeled and began to pick the lock. It was a harder one, for sure. Nothing on one; nice click out of two, dropped into a false set; nothing on three, four, five, six… Starting again… ah, a deeper false set… a bit of counter-rotation on three… Eventually, after a few minutes of trying, she felt the lock give. She opened the drawer.

The Amulet was inside, indeed; Gemma or Olivia felt her pounding heart soften in the moment she looked at it. But It was not alone. Bob the Cat was inside, standing guard. Without so much as being touched, the plush cat let loose a massive MEOW~!!!

And then the walls meowed. And the halls. Instantly, her heart jumped back into overdrive. Shit shit shit shit shit shit. She grabbed The Amulet, slipped it into her pocket, and ran. No chance for subtlety anymore. She just had to move.

MEOW

Out the door

MEOW

down the hall

MEOW

down the stairs

MEOW

back to the-

A woman stood in her way. Brilliant red hair. Green uniform. It was four. It was either Olivia or Gemma.