mindset for us guys, though.”
T-Bone emerged from the brush a short while later, holding up three dead pheasants like they were trophies. “Dinner time!”
Each person had plenty to eat with half a bird. Grudge set up a spit and turned them over the fire with careful precision, while T-Bone informed us of his plan for tomorrow.
“We should leave the bikes hidden just outside the territory border and go in on foot. Ah, thanks, man.” He accepted a drink from Shadow. “Their big thing is cheap or free labor, so one of us should pose as a foreman and the rest as laborers.”
“You mean an overseer with slaves?” I asked.
“If you want to be technical, yes.” He looked over at Shadow. “You could play the role well. All those scars, avoiding eye contact while staying observant. It’ll keep people from messing with us.”
“I don’t know.” I wrinkled my nose, feeling defensive for him. Shadow had been exploited enough. “This feels…gross.”
“It’s fine,” Shadow shrugged. “I’ll do it if it helps the plan.”
“Right, thanks.” T-Bone nodded appreciatively. “So we know the area roughly, but none of us have actually been in the territory. We’re just going off what Josh told us. We have to get the lay of the land. Find the right people to talk to.”
“How likely are we to really do this in one day?” I asked. “They’re probably not keeping her out in the open, right? And how big is this territory?”
“Right now, the bulk of the action is in the one big city right on the border.” Dyno unfolded a map and laid it out on a rock. “They’re in the process of making it into a shiny metropolis. The rest of it is open land for drilling oil. If we go through the heart of the city, act like we’re looking for work, we should be able to see where the governor and his family hang out. If we can capture him, the son, or someone close to them, we might be able to find out where the girl is. If we’re really lucky,” he looked up at all of us, “she’ll be out in the open with them. But that’s only if it’s public knowledge that she and the governor’s son are betrothed.”
“According to Josh, the governor takes daily strolls through his square,” T-Bone picked up in a mocking, posh accent. “To survey the blood, sweat, and beatings that build the foundation of his great territory.”
“Sounds like a piece of fuckin’ work,” Larkan observed. “But potentially easy to grab, which is good for us.”
“Mari, as a woman,” T-Bone looked at me apologetically, “your role to play should be someone’s whore or wife. I’ll let you pick, but it’s essentially the same—”
“Don’t speak unless spoken to, and do so quietly. Smile sweetly. Dress modestly, but not in a way that hides my femininity. Don’t invite ogling from men. Don’t try to act smarter than men.” I rolled my eyes while rattling off the list.
“I guess you’d know it better than any of us,” Dyno said sheepishly.
“We got pamphlets handed to us constantly while I was in nursing school,” I explained. “The new governors had been working on getting women out of medicine for years, telling us what our roles should be instead. They couldn’t even be original. It was all straight out of the 1950s.”
All the guys, except for Shadow, gave me guilty looks. He appeared curious, if even confused.
“Sorry,” T-Bone offered. “If you’re not comfortable—”
“It’s fine, I’ll do it,” I said with a wave of my hand. “It’s all about getting the girl out. And you’re right, we should play convincing roles to not bring suspicion. It’s a good plan.”
Grudge stood up to check on the cooking food while T-Bone scrubbed a hand over his beard. “If no one has any objections to this, then eat up and sleep well. We ride out early for another couple hours before we reach the border.”
Shadow and I returned to our spots with bowls of roasted pheasant and rice, while Larkan remained chatting with the Sons across the fire.
“I didn’t know that, about how they tried to control women back then,” he muttered, digging into his food. “It’s not in any of the history books I’ve read.”
I washed a mouthful down with more of his deliciously bubbly vodka tonic. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they cut it out of the books published in the last decade or so. They burned and deleted all the ones about feminism itself. Wouldn’t want