Page 51 of Fanning the Flames

“I spoke to some of our associates.” Greta paused. “Well, my associates. You should hear what Ether and Prowl have promised them. Carte blanche on the city as soon as the last piece of the puzzle is in place.”

“What about Squawk?” Joan asked.

“No one gets that close to him.”

“The screeching?” Sadie guessed.

“Yeah. But also, he’s a dickwad.”

Joan leaned against Sadie’s barstool. “What’s the last piece of the puzzle?”

Greta shifted her weight. “Did you hear about the gas line explosion yesterday?”

Sadie nodded. Her mother had called about the accident at a construction site on the south end of the business district. It’d almost leveled the building. Thank god no one had been injured since it was a Saturday and the crew hadn’t been working.

“It wasn’t a gas line.”

Joan stiffened.

Greta shifted again, uncharacteristically uncomfortable. “It was Big Quake.”

“What?” Sadie and Joan said together.

“Big Quake is back in Vector City.”

“He’s still alive?” Joan said.

“I thought he died after that last battle,” Sadie said.

“No one ever confirmed that,” said Greta. “I heard rumblings for years that he was doing illegal diamond mining in South Africa. Turns out, that’s true. He’s come back for vengeance. And I guess he’s just Quake now.”

“Why is no one reporting this?” Sadie grabbed her phone to check SuperWatch.

“The Supers and Mayor Thorpe are trying to suppress it. They don’t want to cause a panic.”

Joan hesitated, then said, “This is serious.”

“Very,” Greta said.

There was nothing important on SuperWatch. Big Quake was in Vector City?Big Quake?The idea chilled Sadie to the bone.

“No one says his name,” Joan said. “No one in villainy. Perry told me never to mention him because we never wanted to be associated with him in any way, shape or form.”

“Well, this new world order wants to be.” Greta crossed her arms, silver rings glinting. “Quake is going to disrupt our infrastructure, and the others are going to create chaos. There’ll be too much mayhem for the Supers to handle.”

Joan began to pace. “How is this staying quiet? People need to know about it.”

“This was a test run. They’re doing a big reveal soon.”

“We need to te—” Joan met Sadie’s eyes. “Someone should tell the Supers.”

“They already know,” Greta said.

“Then they should be warning people. The civilians they claim to be protecting.”

Sadie stood, too keyed up to sit anymore. “They don’t want people freaking out.”

“What’s worse, though?” Joan paced back and forth. “Finding out because of a warning, or because he brings down a building with people in it next time?”

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