Francis Wilkerson opened the e-mail from his brother Reese. He was amused by the subject line: Turd. He was mildly surprised Reese was even using the computer he shared with Malcolm and Dewey. He had always been adverse to anything that resembled schoolwork and sending an e-mail instead of making a phone call involved spelling, something he hated worse than reading.

"Hi Francis! Look at me, I'm using tech! Woo-Hoo! I love the spell checker, don't even have to think, it just spells for me if I get a word even half right. I'm writing 2 you about Malcolm. He's really turned into a turd lately and I think we should bring him down some and get his giant brain to help us instead of being an uppity shit. What do you think?"

Francis paused before hitting reply. He knew Reese was an unsophisticated computer user to say the least. He thought that he would not cover his tracks and Malcolm would see the e-mails between them. He decided to call instead. Francis glanced at his watch, it was 3:30 in the afternoon back home and he knew both his parents would still be at work. Since Reese was on the computer, he surmised that Malcolm wasn't home, he probably was working on a school assignment with Stevie or some other nerd. Francis shut down his laptop and went down to the shabby Marlin Academy rec room to use the phone.

Dewey answered.

"I have a collect call from Francis do you accept the charges?"

"What?"

"A collect call from Francis, do you accept the charges?"

"A what?"

Francis blurted out, "Dewey! Just say yes!"

"Yes!"

"Go ahead, sir."

"Hi, buddy! How you doin? Go get Reese, I need to talk to him."

Thirty seconds later Reese picked up the phone.

"Hello, Francis?"

"Hey. I got your e-mail. Now listen carefully."

Over the next 10 minutes Francis carefully laid out his plan to bring Malcolm back into the band of brothers, and as Reese had so eloquently put it, stop him from being an uppity shit.

As instructed by Francis, Reese deleted the original e-mail he had sent, emptied the deleted mail folder, then he wrote another one. He left this one in the sent folder where snoopy Malcolm would surely find it. In it, he asked his older brother for money, as much as he could come up with, because he owed it to "some big scary guys." Francis sent a reply saying he was sorry but he didn't have any money and he should ask Malcolm for help. He told Reese to delete his reply but to leave it in the deleted folder so Malcolm could find it.

Malcolm walked into the bedroom. He had told Reese he would be back around 4:30 after working on his science project with Stevie. Reese was ready. As soon as he heard him open the door to their bedroom, he acted guilty and tried to shut down the computer but was apparently too flustered to do it properly, just like Francis had instructed. Malcolm laughed and was convinced he had caught his brother looking at porn. He pushed Reese aside and sat down.

"You are so busted!" Malcolm was disappointed there wasn't a browser open and only the e-mail program was running.

Reese started to yell. "Don't look at that! It's private! Stop it!" He half-heartedly tried to shove his brother out of the way and grab the mouse but the younger boy was too quick. Malcolm clicked on the sent folder and saw the message to Francis.

Reese pretended to sulk. "I hate you!" He screamed at his brother and threw himself face down on his bed.

Malcolm read Reese's plea for money and quickly found the reply from Francis in the deleted folder. He smirked as he thought Reese was too dumb to empty it out. After reading both e-mails he sat there for a few seconds pondering the situation. He looked over at Reese.

"Dude, what the heck is all this about? What do you need money for and who are these big scary guys?"

"What do you care? You don't even want to be my brother anymore, all you want to do is be with your nerdy friends and do school work. Leave me alone." Reese Wilkerson was a born actor. He gave his brother a heart breaking look of sadness mixed with fear. He sniffed a few times then turned his face to the wall.

Malcolm was more annoyed than sympathetic. Reese was always getting himself into trouble and expected everyone else to bail him out. "Look man, I'm sorry but I don't have any money. You're just going to have to figure this one out for yourself." Malcolm opened his backpack and took out his assignments and began doing his homework. Reese smiled. He knew Malcolm was lying. His brother had exactly $575 saved up. The cash was in a large envelope duct taped to the underside of Dewey's underwear drawer, a place Malcolm was convinced Reese would never look. He was wrong. Reese may not be book smart but when it comes to being devious and sneaky, he was a genius. He had found the money the same day Malcolm had hidden it.

That night, Reese snuck out of the house via the bedroom window as soon as Malcolm was asleep. He ran down to the corner convenience store and looked at his watch. Perfect! It was 11:15. Reese went into the store and bought a giant grape Slurpee, two Slim Jims, and a phone card. He paid with a twenty he had lifted from Malcolm's stash. He went back outside and waited by the pay phone until the pre-arranged time of 11:30. He used the phone card to call the rec room number at Marlin Academy and Francis immediately picked up.

"Agent Sly Fox reporting!" Reese loved play acting and making up secret identities for himself.

Francis laughed. "Ok, Sly Fox, how did it go?"

Reese reported that Phase One had gone down perfectly, just as Francis said it would. The older boy was disappointed Malcolm had not even tried to help Reese out of what appeared to be a serious jam. He wasn't really surprised though, Malcolm had always been the most selfish of the brothers and taking into consideration everything Reese had told him about his recent behavior, his reaction was entirely predictable.

"Listen up, buddy. Here's what we are going to do." Francis laid out the final part of what he had named Operation Turd, in honor of Reese's original e-mail. The younger boy paid close attention, promised to follow instructions to the letter, then laughed at the way Francis concluded the conversation.

"You have your assignment Sly Fox, Big Dog out!" Reese loved Francis and considered him to be his evil mentor. To be fair, he loved Malcolm too but he just didn't like him very much lately. Operation Turd was about to kick into high gear.