He tapped the whiteboard and a bunch of words appeared on it, including a map of the city with a red line running through it.

“This is the city, yes?” he asked. No one answered for a moment. “Well, yes. This is your route. You will be given phones. Don’t lose them, please. A bit fragile.” He gestured to the side and a box appeared in midair. And then it fell to the ground with a crash. He stared at the box, which had opened to spill out a few phones.

Teddy snorted.

“Hmm, yes,” he said.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Hoo You Are Deep Inside

The nice biker guys took Athena into the pub and one of them helped her up and onto a tall stool by the bar. “There you go, little miss,” he said.

The lady behind the bar looked at Athena, then at all the guys in their big leather jackets. She gestured at Athena. “Where the hell did you guys find her?” she asked.

One of them rubbed Athena’s head. “Ah, we found her in the alley out front. The little miss is a bit lost. You got a phone she can use?”

The bar lady raised an eyebrow and her lips—painted red with a smear of makeup—twisted to one side. “Give me a minute,” she said.

Athena took that minute to look around the bar.

It was a strange place. Everything was made of old wood, and the lighting was rather poor. An old jukebox off in one corner was playing a raspy country sound that was crooning out of some speakers linked together by trailing wires. It wasn’t loud enough to drown out all the talking and laughing.

There were posters, here and there, for beers and bikes, most of them with very chesty women with blond hair and big lips on them. There were a lot of guys in the room too. Sitting at tables, standing together in little circles, almost all of them with a big mug in hand or sometimes a brown glass bottle.

An enticing smell caught Athena’s attention and she turned to see what the guy sitting a few stools over was eating. It was some sort of slab of meat, with a brown sauce over it and a handful of fries on the side. It looked disgusting and smelled heavenly.

“Hey, Su!” the nice biker who’d helped her called toward the kitchen. “Get the girl something to eat while you’re at it. She looks hungry.”

Athena felt her cheeks warming up, but that soon subsided. She had no reason to be embarrassed. It was only food. “So do you guys just hang out here all day?” she asked.

The big guy laughed, and some of his friends joined in. “Nah, of course not. We’ve got work and jobs. But once in a while it’s nice to step back and have a drink with the boys.”