Lathan Devers

Lathan Devers was a trader and espionage agent of the First Foundation. 
Devers was one of the first traders to encounter the advancing military force of Bel Riose of the Galactic Empire into Foundation space. He deliberately allowed himself to be captured to act as a spy and source of misinformation for Riose on behalf of the Foundation. While in captivity he struck up a friendship with Ducem Barr, also a political prisoner of the Empire, and the two began working together as co-conspirators to undermine the war effort to ensure a Foundation victory.
Devers would eventually be questioned directly by Ammel Brodrig, secretary to the current Emperor who had been sent officially as an Imperial envoy and unofficially to keep a watch on Riose for signs of disloyalty. Devers would make false statements to Brodrig to indicate Riose's conquest of the Foundation was part of a larger scheme to supplant the current Emperor.
Bel Riose growing experience with the Foundation would eventually make him suspicious of both the ease with which Devers was caught and the limited information he had so far provided. His suspicions would precipitate the hasty escape of Devers and Barr from Imperial captivity.
After making their escape, the two would concoct a plan to visit the Imperial capital of Trantor in an effort to falsely implicate both Brodrig and Riose of planning to stage a coup against the current Emperor. After spending a month slowly moving through Imperial bureaucracy in an effort to gain an audience with the emperor the two would once again attract too much suspicion and be forced to flee after Imperial authorities attempted to put them under arrest.
Despite the seeming failure of their task, the two would discover that their scheme was rendered redundant by the Empire's own conspiratorial nature. Brodrig and Riose's actions had made the two of them successful and popular enough to be a conceivable threat to the Emperor's dominion, and their distant war with the Foundation was regarded as a ploy to amass military power to turn against the capital. As a result they were framed and arrested to pre-empt their rebellion. Devers and Barr's infiltration to bring about this result themselves was interpreted by Imperial authorities to be an assassination attempt masterminded by Riose.
Devers would return to a hero's welcome on Trantor due to the active role he played in the war. Despite this, he was unreceptive to the festivities and took the opportunity to voice his disdain for the Foundation's increasing consolidation of wealth to the upper classes. This would earn them the ire of Sennett Forell.
Devers continued outspoken hostility to the Foundation's oligarchy would result in him eventually dying as a political prisoner in the slave mines of the Foundation's mayor.
Category:Foundation Universe
Category:Characters