Timmy leaned back as he put mental finishing touches to his plan. He had to be careful, otherwise failure would be certain. He ran over the main points over and over again until he was satisfied that it was fool-proof. Then he jumped off his chair and left his office, locking the door behind him. He had not moved five paces away from his office door when he heard a familiar voice say, "Okay. Bye bye."

His first instinct was to hide, but there was nowhere to take cover in the vicinity. ...