The Storm hunter found him the next morning at the entry station.
Kai had arrived early again. The permit check queue was short and the guards were still doing their first rotation. He was standing off to one side reading the zone layout card a second time when he heard the footsteps stop beside him.
"I watched you come out yesterday," the Storm hunter said.
He was a compact man in his late twenties, with the close-cut hair of someone who had learned early that anything longer got grabbed in a fight. His badge was D-Rank, same as Kai's, but his coat had the worn-in quality of someone who had worn it through more than a few dozen missions. He held himself with the particular stillness of a Storm Path hunter—slightly forward, weight on the balls of his feet, always ready to move.
Kai looked at him. "I know."
The Storm hunter nodded as if he had expected that answer. "Thirty-one minutes. Three cores." He paused. "Solo."
"Yes."
