“Wait,” Anne said. “What’s going on?”

“And why are you running off?” Luna said. “Can’t you explain why—?”

“I don’t know if I’m right yet,” I said. “But if I am . . . I think I know who’s doing this. Meet me back at the shop. Arachne, thanks again.” I turned and headed up the tunnel.

| | | | | | | | |

Once I was outside Arachne’s lair, I used a gate stone to go home. Then I started making calls.

Most of the mages I tried to get in touch with weren’t much help. Mages tend not to make themselves easily available via phone, and the ones I did get through to didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. But after an hour, I finally managed to find the mage I’d wanted to speak to.

“It’s the middle of the night,” Lensman said peevishly. He sounded a lot more irritable than he had been when I’d spoken to him on Friday. I’d probably caught him about to go to bed. “Can’t it wait?”

“No, this is important. I need to know if you’ve heard anything about a new method of breaking the signature lock on a data focus.”

“A what?”

“A data focus. You know, the old Keeper model.”

“How did you hear about that?”

I snapped my fingers with my free hand. Yes. “Then it’s real?”

“Well, I haven’t confirmed it. But I just heard the same thing. Used almost those exact same words actually—”

“Where did you hear it from?”

“From Verde . . . he wasn’t sure where it had come from. Is it true?”

“Not a clue.”

“Because if it is, it’ll have huge implications for data security. You know how many old Council records are on those things? The whole reason anyone used them was that they were supposed to be unbreakable, but if there’s a way of getting round it—”

“Did you just hear about it today?”

“Yes, this morning. Look, Verus, what’s this about?”

“I don’t know yet,” I said honestly. All right, half-honestly. I didn’t know for sure, but I had a really strong suspicion. “But I should know whether that rumour’s true or not soon. I’ll tell you when I do.”

“All right.” Lensman didn’t sound entirely convinced, but I had the feeling he was keen to get off the line. “I’ll talk to you then.”

I hung up the phone, opened a notebook, and started writing. I kept going for a couple of minutes, then leant back and tapped the base of the pen against my teeth, looking down at what I’d written.

At least one group and probably more had tried to get this focus, in a manner that suggested that it contained important information involving White Rose. There were rumours going around that there was a new technique to break this focus’s encryption. Arachne was convinced that that was impossible.

Put that together with what was happening right now—the indictment against White Rose. Talisid had explained that the reason White Rose had stayed safe for so long was through mutually assured destruction. As long as everyone believed that White Rose’s data was secure, no one would move against them. But if you managed to convince enough people that it wasn’t secure . . . and acted in such a way as to make them believe that the data being released was only a matter of time . . .