The lobby was divided up with a booth by the front, presumably for ticketing, and some passages off to the side to get to the bathrooms and such.

Teddy shrugged again and walked past the unmanned ticket booth and into a large hall where a few dozen rows of seats laid out in big arcs descended down to the base of a raised stage. The curtains were drawn up to the sides, revealing a platform with some discarded props lit from above by a gantry of pale lights.

There was a distinct lack of anyone around, but that didn’t deter Teddy, especially not when she heard someone talking from the back of the stage.

She got to the edge, looked for a way up, and when she didn’t find one, she grabbed the edge and pulled herself high enough to fling a leg over and roll up onto the stage.

“Jacob, you can’t keep doing this,” someone was saying. A guy’s voice, deep and serious.

Someone chuckled in response. “Hey, you know how it is. The show must go on!”

Teddy grinned. She recognized the voice.

The Boss would be so proud of her once she rallied her fellow minion into helping!

CHAPTER TWENTY

Backstage Bear

Teddy swished a curtain aside and stepped backstage.

The area wasn’t what she expected from the rear of a theater. There were big closets on wheels, and dozens of thick ropes coiled on the ground, reaching up to a bunch of pulleys mounted to the ceiling.

The floor went from a nice polished hardwood on one side of the curtains to rough plywood covered in colored tape on the other. Even the air smelled different; from clean and dull to the mixed odor of too-full trash cans and popcorn.

In the middle of all that were two guys. One was a tall, well-muscled Black guy and the other a reedy pale person who Teddy immediately labeled as Alea Iacta out of costume. They both paused to stare at Teddy.

“You don’t need to stop arguing because of me,” she said. “I can wait.”

“Who are you?” the not–Alea Iacta guy asked.

“I’m . . .” Teddy stopped herself from saying any more. The Boss had been going on about secret identities for a while. “I’m Not-A-Bear-Girl.”

“Oh, shit,” Alea Iacta said. He took a long step back and away from Teddy, only for her to freeze him on the spot with a glare.

“You know this kid?” the guy asked.

“Yeah,” Alea Iacta said. “I mean . . . no.”

Alea’s friend shook his head. “Kid, how did you get in here?”

“Through the curtains,” Teddy replied.

“No, I mean in this building.”

“Oh,” she said. “I asked directions from some communist comrades.”

Alea stepped up and tried a smile on. It was a weird-looking one, though, all nervous and uncertain. The Boss smiled like that sometimes too. “Are you, uh, here for me?” he asked.