Related Clues:

• It may change with a promotion
• Connive
• Part of a spine, usually
• Cabal's plans
• It sometimes thickens
• Identification
• See 13-Across
• Fighter's goal
• Royal address
• 'The ___ thickens'
• Novelist's concern
• Paranoiac's worry
• Part of a pitch
• Novelist's thread
• Boxer's dream