Sitting behind her desk in the office she shared with Aaron, Cadence had been discussing some of the new weapons her dad was working on with her husband when she’d gotten a strange call from one of the Guardians at the front gate, the barrier visitors came to on the rare occasion they had any. An older “gentleman” was asking to see her--alone, without Aaron. He claimed to be a Hunter, but he didn’t have any identification, no IAC, and he wanted to talk to Cadence by herself, saying he had valuable information about, “her enemy.”

Aaron hadn’t wanted to let her speak with him, even though he admitted he...