I looked back at Cerulean’s expression, polite and indifferent, then as Slate and Trask reappeared I headed upstairs. I could feel Cerulean right behind me.

| | | | | | | | |

We cleared the rest of the building, and the remaining White Rose personnel surrendered without a fight. The clients in the process of using White Rose’s facilities were slightly more troublesome, and I got shouted at and threatened by a few men in various states of undress, but once they saw the guns and warrant cards they shut up. Cerulean and Slate told each of them in turn not to use their mobile phones, but funnily enough none of them seemed all that keen to get in touch with their friends and family. The girls (and the one boy) didn’t give any trouble—they’d obviously learnt when not to put up a fight. There were no traps, and more to the point, no mages.

The top floor attic hadn’t been converted into individual bedrooms. It was a studio, with some desks over to one side, but the main point of interest was the arch mounted against the far wall. I’d been using my magesight, searching for wards, and I recognised the thing instantly. Gate magic focus, and . . . password locked? Interesting. The only other person with me was one of the Council security men, and he was helpfully staying just outside the door. I focused on the archway, eyes narrowed. Cracking the password took about a minute. After that, I started path-walking to see what would happen if I stepped through.

I’d been at it for ten minutes when I heard footsteps from behind. Lizbeth and Abeyance’s futures intersected with mine, breaking the path-walk. I stirred and looked around just as the two of them came in. “Is that what I think it is?” Abeyance said as she saw the arch.

“Gate focus to White Rose’s base,” I said.

“Perfect.” Abeyance stood against the wall and narrowed her eyes.

“Anything downstairs?” I asked.

“Several hundred scenes of illicit sex. Per day.”

“That must have been fun to watch.”

“I’ve seen it before.”

“I always wondered how that worked,” I said. “So when you go into some random bedroom and use your timesight . . . ?”

“Yes. That’s exactly how it works.” She shrugged. “You stop paying attention after a while.”

“You two done perving?” Lizbeth said. “How about you get us something useful?”

Abeyance gave Lizbeth an unemotional look and turned to the archway, concentrating. “Your raid worked, didn’t it?” I said.

“Are you stupid?” Lizbeth said. “Did you look at those girls? They’re not even underage. No flesh work, no kids—we haven’t got shit. Probably can’t even make a slavery charge stick.”

“The mage clients aren’t going to be somewhere like this,” I said. “They’ll have the incriminating stuff in their main base.”

Lizbeth gave me a withering look. “Well, that’s not much fucking help, is it?”

I shrugged. “You could go through the arch.”