The A-rank's name was Harkan Vell. Cael learned it from the Foundation's intelligence file three days after he cleared the southern cluster. Harkan Vell, age thirty-eight, A-rank combat class, fifteen years of guild service, no disciplinary record, no political affiliations, no visible connection to the second A-rank group until he'd walked into a sealed Fracture with a case of rift crystals and a woman who gave orders like she expected to be obeyed.
The file was thin. Cael had read thicker incident reports from porters who'd tripped over loose grating. The second A-rank group had spent years burying their people inside the guild's administrative structure, and the Foundation had spent years trying to dig them out without triggering the alarms that would expose their own operation. It was
