He nodded. “Poisoning the utensils. Make it harder to figure out who did it.”

“Just . . . just go, please,” Emily said.

Alea Iacta snapped a salute and took off jogging toward the end of the alleyway. In a moment, he was off and heading out of sight.

Teddy figured her time as a bear was up, so she untransformed and returned to being just Teddy the girl. “That was well done, Boss,” Teddy said. It felt a bit weird to go from taller than the Boss to a bunch shorter.

“Thanks, Teddy,” the Boss said. She knelt over and picked up the bucket she’d used for the dirty water. “We should get back to work, I guess.”

Teddy nodded and picked up the cash she’d successfully mugged. She didn’t have much use for it, so she gave it to the Boss, who stared before pocketing it. “Cool. Are we gonna grab some food after? Maybe we can eat here?”

The Boss nodded. “I’ll ask if they can set aside a pair of plates for us,” she said. “They won’t be impressed if we take any longer though.”

Teddy nodded along. This little diversion had been fun, but her work drying utensils and plates for her comrades inside was just as important. She was glad that the Boss was conscious of the needs of the proletariat. Her book said that that was very important.

“Yeah,” Teddy said. “Let’s get back to work. We can continue plotting after we’ve had lunch.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A Cryptic Request

You girls did good work today,” Mister Landcaster said.

Emily looked up from her plate of mac and cheese and mashed potatoes to take in the larger-than-life man standing above her, then she looked back down. Meeting his eyes for any amount of time was hard enough already, more so when she had a great excuse not to.

“Th-thank you, sir,” she said.

“Yeah, thanks,” Teddy said.

Mister Landcaster harrumphed. “I wish I had more to give you girls than a pair of warm meals as thanks, but that’s what it’s like in our line of work, isn’t it?”

“It’s okay,” Emily said. “The, uh, work is its own reward? Would it be okay if we returned?”

He grinned at her, huge and proud. “Of course! Take one of the fliers by the door. They have our opening hours. Show up a bit before that and you’ll be more than welcome to help.”

“Thank you,” Emily said.

“No, thank you,” he replied. “Now, I’ll be off. We need to get everything sorted out for tomorrow morning. You girls keep safe on the way back home.”

“Yes, sir,” Emily said.

“Sure thing, Comrade Landcaster,” Teddy replied.