There. Now the situation made some sense. Advance Guard had been invited. It wasn’t by us. Someone looking to screw us up or throw a wrench into the works.

Sveta and I exchanged glances.

“What?” Spright asked.

“You may have been played,” I said. I had to keep in mind that the clairvoyants could be watching. “Maybe you should walk us through your side of the story.”

“Any minute now, people could come after me. They’ll figure out we’re in here,” Spright said.

“Fast version,” I said.

He moved, taking two quick steps to one side, before slapping his hand down on the table. “It wouldn’t be out of the question for you to be working with the bad guys. Stalling me, throwing a wrench into our plan. It’d even be a good cover, for a team like Prancer’s B-listers to try to corner or confuse the hero jurisdiction too.”

“Completely out of the question,” I said.

“Not a moment’s hesitation?” he asked. “No outrage or indignation?”

“It makes sense for you to say it. But not if you do any digging. I’m a cape from a cape family. Every surviving relative I have is a hero or ex-hero. If I pulled something like that, I’d get caught and I’d lose my entire family and their respect.”

“I’m dating and living with Weld from the Wardens,” Sveta said. “He’d lose everything, and I wouldn’t do that to him.”

Spright’s head turned. He analyzed Sveta, then me, peering through the lens of his future-elfin mask. “Straight to talking about your relationship to other people. Nothing about yourselves. Good cops have crooked cop kids and girlfriends.”

“References and connections matter,” I said. “I could say any number of things about myself, but that’s my words out of my mouth. Talk to my dad? My cousin? They’ll give you a clearer picture of who I am.”

“I remember her. I’ve talked to Weld,” Spright said.

“And?”

“Fuck,” Spright said. “Alright. Fast version? We caught wind of what was going on here when someone was commenting on the stupid cape names here. We asked around. Teams building bonds, taking turns to help out in a place that needed help.”

“People talked about stuff that they needed to keep their mouths shut about,” I said.

“They didn’t talk,” Spright said. “Not as far as I know. But secrets are hard to keep when powers are in play. They didn’t talk Cedar Point, but they were psyched about working together on a level outside of what the Wardens are negotiating. On a lower level, I mean. We have the meetings at the Wardens headquarters, and people were stopping in at the same place.”

“And you asked Foresight?”

“Not me. Mayday. He said we were clear to go.”

Who the hell had Kenzie’s old boss talked to, that we weren’t roped in?