Emily shook herself and pulled Athena closer to her drawers. She tapped one near the bottom with a foot. “Can you check through your clothes for something simple to wear? I think in this case it might be best if you just go unnoticed.”

“I can do unnoticed,” Athena said. “And if someone does notice me, then I’ll make them notice all sorts of other things instead.”

“Yeah,” Emily said. She tried on a smile and looked around her room, memorizing where everything was, just in case. “All right. Let’s get everything ready. We have some shady guy to meet before we head out.”

“And lunch,” Teddy said.

“And we need to grab lunch,” Emily agreed.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Questing for a Bear

The Boss hadn’t told Teddy what was up yet, which was kind of annoying, but also okay. It was the Boss’s prerogative to tell her little sisters the things she thought they had to know.

Still, Teddy was real curious, even if she was distracted by munching through her second lunch wrap.

The Boss, Teddy, and Athena were all sitting in a corner booth of the Im Orton’s nearest the campus. It was a quiet enough spot even if there were lots of people sitting at other tables. Most of them were either talking to each other or staring into their phones anyway.

“So, Boss, what’re we up to tonight?” Teddy asked.

The Boss, who was a real slow eater, paused in the act of blowing over a spoonful of soup. “Oh, right,” she said. “We’re, ah.”

She looked around, as if to make sure that no one was snooping.

“It’s all right,” Athena said. “If they snoop, I’ll scare them off.” She puffed out her chest and sat up taller.

Teddy wasn’t sure if she liked it when Athena acted all tough. That was Teddy’s job.

“Right. So, we’re going with Handshake to meet Cement.”

“Handshake? That limp guy? And Cement . . . that’s the other guy’s boss, right?” Teddy asked.

“Can someone fill me in, please?” Athena asked. “I think it would be best if all of us were on the same page.”

The Boss nodded. “Handshake’s an information broker. We . . . did some things for him after he did some dumb stuff. Now we’re going to help him out because we want to track down the . . . Clowns.”

“Clowns?” Teddy asked.

What did clowns have to do with anything?

“I’ll explain that bit later,” the Boss said. “It’s enough to say that we’re going to be meeting Cement to learn what he has to say about the Clowns, and then Handshake will tell us more. After that . . . after that I don’t know. We’ll have to see from there.”

“I’m sure Big Sister will figure it out,” Athena said as she patted Emily’s shoulder.