Haken let out a breath and turned to me. “Look. You’re coming into the middle of something that’s been going for a long while. White Rose controls a lot of secrets, and if they get out, there are Light mages who are going to lose big. Now, you’re not involved in the Rayfield case directly, but sooner or later someone’s going to connect the dots and when they do, you need to keep your shit wired tight. If they can save their careers by disappearing you, they aren’t going to think twice.”
“Does this happen with every case the Order of the Star gets?” I asked. “One faction wanting one result, another faction wanting another, both of them willing to stab if you get the wrong answer?”
“Not every case. But the high-profile ones? Yeah.”
I looked at Haken curiously. “How do you live with it? It’s bad enough having to watch the people you’re supposed to be policing without having to worry you’ll get shot in the back by the ones who are supposed to be on your side.”
Haken shrugged. “You survive. What else can you do?”
We sat in silence for a little while, listening to the murmurs and footsteps echoing around the Belfry. “Mind if I ask you something?” I said.
“Go for it.”
“You’ve worked with Caldera a while, right?”
“Since last year.”
“Does she have some kind of issues about this stuff that I should know about?” I said. “Because I was talking with her about this and it didn’t go so well.”
“What did you say?”
“I sort of implied that we might not be able to trust the people we were working for,” I said. “Kind of like what you just told me.”
“Ah.”
“Ah?”
“You know what rank Caldera is?”
“In the Keepers? Journeyman, right?”
“That’s right. Know how long she’s been there?”
I shook my head.
“A while.”
I looked at Haken. He looked back at me expectantly, as if he’d answered my question. “Maybe I’m being slow here,” I said. “Could you lay it out for me?”
“Caldera’s a bit of an idealist,” Haken said. “You want a mentor at the investigation side of the job, she’s great. Thing is, you want to get ahead, it takes a bit more than that. You have to play the game.” Haken shrugged. “Caldera’s good at what she does. But there’s a reason she hasn’t been promoted.”
“Does that have anything to do with why she seems to get assigned the really dangerous jobs?”
“Not the really dangerous ones . . .” I kept looking at Haken and he raised a hand. “She volunteers, all right? I keep telling her to pass them up.”
“You said she doesn’t play the game,” I said quietly. “Any chance she’s made a few enemies in the Order of the Star? Some people who’d be happy to get rid of her?”
“No.” Haken shook his head. “Caldera’s a good Keeper. The brass know that. They send her out, they know she’ll do a good job. But to get up the ranks, you need to do more than be good at your job. You need friends in higher places.” Haken paused. “You want to make a go of it in our Order, you might want to keep that in mind.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I’m not a Keeper.”
“Doesn’t matter as much as you think,” Haken said. “The Council can always use people who know how to be discreet.”
I gave Haken a sharp look. He held my eyes for a couple of seconds, then shrugged and the moment was gone. “Just something to remember.”
“. . . Sure.”
Something moved in the futures. I looked to the right out across the Belfry and saw a blond woman approaching us over the polished floor, heels tapping on the stone. She was dressed smartly, and as she came within earshot she addressed us with an upper-class accent. “Keeper Haken? You’re required in court.”
Haken nodded and put away his report. “See you when I get out.” Haken and the woman walked away towards the opposite doors. They didn’t look back.
As they disappeared behind the columns I went back to scanning futures. With Haken gone I could look further—it’s always easier when you don’t have someone nearby cluttering things up. After a moment, I spotted someone relatively close. He was going to approach me this time, and his name was . . . Huh. Where have I heard that before?
I sat for a few minutes, thinking. I didn’t react as the figure crossed the floor towards me and halted at the alcove. “Mage Verus?” a voice said.
“Mm-hm.” I looked up with a frown. I’d already seen the man in my future sight: English features, nice suit, brown hair, neutral expression. He looked like a Council functionary, and I’d definitely seen him before. Where had it been . . . ?
“If you’re not too busy, we’d like to speak to you concerning your investigation,” the man said. “My name is—”
“Barrayar.”
Barrayar didn’t react visibly. He obviously knew what I was. “If you’d come with me?”
I rose and let Barrayar lead the way across the floor. He didn’t speak, and I didn’t either. Looking at Barrayar reminded me of . . . dancing? Music? Something involving the Council . . .
We reached the doors that Haken had disappeared through. The men guarding the position were Council security; they gave Barrayar a glance but didn’t challenge him. We passed through into more corridors, branching left and right. There seemed to be fewer people around this time. Barrayar led me around a corner, towards a junction . . .
And suddenly I remembered where I’d met Barrayar before. I stopped dead. Barrayar paused, turned. “Is there a problem?”
I stared back at him for a second, then gave him a smile that didn’t touch my eyes. “No,” I said. “No problem.” I kept walking.
We turned right at the T junction. I was searching through the futures in which I tried to open the doors we were passing, making myself a mental map of the place. The door on the right led into the back rooms of a courtroom, maybe the same one Haken was in. That could be useful. The one on the left led to an interview room. The one behind was some sort of cell. Next left was locked. Next right . . .
There you are. Next question: how was Barrayar going to react to what I was about to do? He didn’t look physically imposing—he was shorter than average and on the slim side—but I’d already checked out the futures in which I attacked the guy, and I knew he was faster than he looked.
But then, so am I. Barrayar halted at the door on the right. “If you’d just . . .”
I walked past without slowing. “Excuse me,” Barrayar said to my retreating back. “It’s this way.”
“I know.”
Barrayar started to follow me. “Your meeting’s in here.”
I pointed forward. “Tell your boss I’ll be in the . . . conservatory? Whatever you call the room with the water feature and the plants.”
I kept walking. My back itched and I knew Barrayar was staring at me. Watching the futures, I caught a few fleeting glimpses of action, there and gone too fast to see, then they cleared away and there was nothing. I reached the end of the corridor and turned the corner. Barrayar didn’t follow.
You have to give the Council credit; they do build nice architecture. The conservatory was a large room with a high ceiling, structured as a kind of ceremonial garden. Small trees grew from carefully cultivated squares of earth, flowering bushes and shrubs grew up around raised sections of floor, and water bubbled up from a fountain into an indoor pool. There was enough greenery to provide concealment, and I had to scan through the futures to see whether I was alone in the room. I was, but I could tell that others were within earshot, close enough to hear a shout or scream. Good.
There was a stone bench by the pool and I took a seat. The only sound was the gentle splashing of the fountain. The air smelt sweet and flowery; there were rhododendrons and hydrangeas all around, blooming in red and violet. I breathed in and out slowly, forcing myself to relax. The things I said and did in the next few minutes were going to have very long-term consequences, and I needed to be calm.