Athens

Harlow’s eyes go to Billie-Faye’s legs at the mention of finding pants. They stay there a while, and then go to Richard’s hand. He smirks a little, as the man recoils from the woman and tucks his hand back in, looking like a kicked puppy.

"Billie’s been working her ass off since you all got here, haven’t you, B? But you’re right… I’ve… Excuse me... The Council have got some work for you people. Just as soon as our boy here is up and about! You steady on your feet, Rich? Can you stand straight? We don’t want to send you out there if you can’t walk!"

"Nah! Not walking work! Not this time!" he starts off, letting you wait on his every word as he fills you in on what’s to come.

"Loucilla wants you on, what we call… community outreach! Wants you out hunting down a group one of her cowboys…" the word is dripping with apparent disdain for the Athenian riders. The very same folk who had come across you in your time of need… "has marked out on the map! She hopin’ for more mouths to feed!" he says, and there’s little doubt what a man like Kane thinks of the Council.

"Heck, we’ll even give you a set of wheel! Hope they won’t be too noisy for you, son!" he shoots at Owen.

---

"Woah, woah, woah! Check out Regis Philbin over here! I don’t remember applying for ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’!" the man says, with a cruel edge to the words.

"Too many questions, people! All shall be revealed in time! Consider it ‘Need to Know’, alright?"

Then he laughs:

"Sounds like Richard’s got his eyes on my ride."

Was he referring to the car you’d get, or something else?…

"You won’t get the big girl outside, that’s for damn certain. We’ll fix you up with something real nice, though. Sweet little first-time car for the boy here!" he says, pointing out Owen!

The man pats the doorframe, signaling that he would be getting ready to leave! You hear someone enter the building behind Harlow, and the man turns to look at who it is.

"Joshua! Just the guy! Ms. Shayna here wants her vehicle shined up real nice before she heads out! Be a sport, would ya?" he says, stepping out of the door, turning to leave and clapping Joshua had on the shoulder as he does so!

"We’ll be in touch!" he calls back into the room, before the door goes again! He’s gone.

Joshua stands where Harlow had stood a moment earlier, rubbing his shoulder and looking a little crestfallen.

"Kane’s such an asshole." Joshua says, though quiet enough for fear of being overheard by the wrong person. His face is one that says ‘He’ll know if I don’t…’

"You guys should talk to Loucilla! Don’t take his word for it!" the young man offers weakly, as he watches Richard take his first steps.

---

Harlow Kane doesn’t come calling on you that day or the day after. You begin to think that whatever group you were preparing to intercept would surely have moved on by the time you got out to give them the sales pitch.

A car is sitting outside your place that next morning however. An old police cruiser, it had surely seen better days. Someone had had to do a lot of work on the thing. Getting out of Atlanta had been rough on the vehicle, and it had been put to good use here in Athens since it was brought in by god-knows-who.