It wasn't hard for Immaru to find candy to steal, and it was even easier for Archie to find marks willing to hand it over, for him to transmat it into his stomach cavity. The complicated part, they quickly discovered, was what to do with it after.

Immaru's room was too conspicuous, too close to his minder. Instead, he searched for hidden niches throughout the Tower. But the longer it took to find the next one, the longer Archie remained filled with candy. The extra weight slowed him significantly, and the effort to keep the candy from melting resulted in higher-function latency.

"We gotta think smarter, not harder," Immaru finally admitted to Archie. "We need to broaden this operation."

Archie responded by rolling on the floor, his belly in the air, the candy wrappers crinkling inside him.