"I recognize you." Cantabile glared at the girl. "You're in Team C."

"Uzala's team?" Caenor scratched his head. "Why would someone from Team C be here?"

"You and I both know why." Cantabile hauled the girl to her feet, grabbing her arm roughly as she tried to prise herself free. "She's a green member of Laughing Coffin. I'm sure of it."

The girl's eyes widened. "No, I…"

"Save your breath. Caenor, get Uzala here ASAP. He needs to know what his team members have been up to behind his back."

"You're… you're wrong," the girl spluttered. "I'm… I'm not a spy. I… I just…"

"Oh really?" Cantabile thrust her hand into the girl's armor pouch, withdrawing a familiar document. "Then what the hell is this?"

Caenor gasped. It was creased and crumpled, but the collection of coordinates marked on the paper were unmistakable. Now that he had a good look at the girl, everything seemed to fall into place. The ponytail. The brown armor. The copy of the list. All the pieces of the puzzle were there.

There could be no doubt.

"You're the intruder," he breathed, allowing himself a moment to digest his surprise. Then, he gathered himself and gestured to his office. "Hold her there, Cantabile. I'll fetch Uzala."

He ran off down the corridor as fast as he could without making a din. He did not want to attract too much undue attention for now – only those who needed to know ought to know. If it was true that Laughing Coffin had infiltrated the guild, all the more reason to keep his circle of confidentiality as small as practicable.

Before long, he had reached the western annex, where, at the end of the hallway, Uzala's quarters were located. He rapped on the door hurriedly.

"Vice-commander Uzala," he called. "There's an urgent issue I need to speak with you about."

A weary, pajama-clad man appeared as the door was pulled open. "What is it?" asked the vice-commander, whose untidy navy-blue hair covered his tired eyes. Evidently he had been sound asleep just before his rude awakening.

"I need you to come with me – I suspect one of your subordinates is a spy for Laughing Coffin. We currently have her detained at our office."

Uzala's brow furrowed as he cleared the strands blocking his vision. "That's a very severe allegation to make. Do you have any substantial proof?"

"We found her with a copy of the Laughing Coffin safehouse coordinates that we stored in our office. She also matches the description of someone who broke into the office several nights ago."

"I see." Uzala nodded. "Take me to her. If what you say is true, then we will have much to discuss."

Uzala folded his arms as he stared down at the girl, who was currently sat in the guest chair in Caenor's office, hands tucked under her thighs, eyes downcast. Cantabile stood guard behind her, breathing down her neck as Uzala began to speak.

"If Vice-commander Caenor's accusations are to be believed, then you cannot be allowed to remain here. You will be exiled from Granzam, and all members of the guild will be ordered to cease dealings with you. Do you have any answer to these claims, Wing?"

"I… I'm not a spy," Wing replied hastily. "I just wanted… to help."

"Help Laughing Coffin, you mean," Cantabile spat. "Tell the truth, or we'll hand you over to the Aincrad Liberation Force. They'll be happy to deal with you themselves."

"It's… the truth. I swear it…" Wing covered her face with her hands. "I just… wanted to assist your team."

"If that's true, then why steal the hideout list?" Caenor asked disbelievingly. "Why sneak into our office? Why not just come to us directly?"

"Because… back then, I was…"

"Was what?"

"I was… a spy. I was one. But I don't want to be one… anymore."

"What does that mean?"

Wing took a deep breath, composing herself. "They have… my brother hostage," she said.

"Who do?"

"Laughing Coffin. They… keep him imprisoned in one of their largest hideouts, one of their headquarters. They told me that as long as I helped them to spy on the Knights of the Blood, they would keep him alive. I… had no choice but to sneak into your office… and find documents that might be useful to bring back to them. They ordered me to. I gave them the blueprints, but… I didn't give them the hideout list. I tried to return it the night after I stole it, but your office was locked, so I kept it in my personal armor pouch. They… don't know that you know where they are."

Caenor frowned. "But how did they know that our team existed in the first place?"

"The reach of Laughing Coffin is far larger… far deeper… than you think." Wing looked up and stared back at Caenor, willing him to believe her. "They have other spies here, in the guild. I don't know… how many. But they know almost everything."

Uzala, deep in thought, stroked his chin slowly. "This is a deeply serious matter. We may have to convene a meeting with Heathcliff and the other vice-commanders. You will have to give them your testimony directly."

Wing shook her head. "I… cannot do that."

"Why's that?"

"Because…" Wing gulped. "One of the vice-commanders… is also working for them."

"Surely not," Caenor muttered. "And what evidence do you have of that?"

"I… overheard one of Laughing Coffin's officers talking about it. He said… one of their spies is a team leader. They have Heathcliff's ear."

Cantabile snorted. "Now I'm pretty sure she's lying."

"I don't know if she is, but we need proof either way." Caenor took a step closer to Wing, bending down so he was face-to-face with her. "Wing, if you want to show us that you're serious about helping us, you'll need to give us a bit more than that. Maybe a name of one of the spies, or some other useful information."

Wing clasped her hands together, clearly considering what to say next. Then, finally, she said, "Are you… aware of the hideout on the outskirts of Granzam? On this floor?"

"Yes, we are," Caenor replied.

"That safehouse… is a front. The list that you have, that I took from you… has many false hideouts. The list is circulated amongst Laughing Coffin's members. They… use the fake locations to find out if the list has been compromised. If one of the fake locations has been broken in… they will know."

"So what you're saying is, if we raid a fake hideout and they find out about it, then it's game over," Caenor said. "They'll move to different places, and we'll never find them again."

Wing nodded vigorously. "Yeah… yeah. That's it."

"That doesn't help us very much, though," Cantabile interjected. "We don't know which ones are fake, other than the 55th floor one."

"I know… which ones are definitely false," Wing said quickly. "But the other ones… may either be false or true. I don't know."

Caenor pulled out a pen from his inventory, handing it to Wing along with his copy of the hideout coordinates. "Here. Cross out all the coordinates that you know are dead ends."

"Please tell me you don't actually believe her," Cantabile murmured.

"We won't know what's real and what isn't until we find out for ourselves." Caenor nodded at Wing. "Go on."

Wing immediately began crossing out rows of numbers, moving rapidly down the list. The more options she ruled out, the greater the look of distrust on Cantabile's face grew. Caenor remained emotionless, staring intently at the paper in Wing's hands.

Finally, Wing reached the end of the page and handed it back to Caenor, who scrutinized what remained.

"Five in the left column, three in the right. Eight out of twenty-two hideouts that may or may not be fake." He sighed. "Well, this would certainly cut our work down by a lot, if only we could trust you. We'll discuss this with our other team members in the morning – I think we should leave it at this for today. Uzala, she's your subordinate, so I leave her fate to you."

"I don't really have a choice, but…" Uzala puffed out his cheeks. "Wing, I'm hereby dismissing you from Team C. You will no longer participate in our activities or our raids, and you will have to find another team to join."

Wing nodded, though she was patently upset. "It's… the least I deserve."

"Thankfully, we have another team leader right here, and a team that happens to need new members." Uzala clapped Caenor's shoulder as he turned to leave. "She's all yours."

"She's… what?" Caenor stuttered.

"I'm going back to sleep. Do what you want with her," Uzala called cheerily as he left the room, snapping the door shut behind him.

"What an absolute…" Caenor rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Well, we can't exactly have you running around – I don't want to wake up to find that you've absconded. So, I'm going to take you to one of the cells in the basement. You'll spend the night there, then I'll let you out tomorrow morning. Fair enough?"

Wing nodded again, this time a lot more eagerly.

"How on earth do you have access to the cells?" Cantabile had to ask.

Caenor materialized a pair of bronze keys in his hand, dangling them up for Cantabile to see. "Vice-commander's privileges. Let's go, Wing."

He ushered the other two out of the office, then exited the room himself, making doubly sure that the lock was working before leading Wing down the corridors and towards the guild headquarters' private dungeon. There was much to think about, but if what Wing had told them was true, then they did not need to rush things quite so much. Let Laughing Coffin believe they were safe in their caves for now. Retribution would come, and that right soon.

One problem at a time, Caenor silently told himself. One problem at a time.