The object on the desk was a small silver signet, with a stylised flame and coat of arms. With my magesight, I could sense a faint magical trace. It was a focus, and as I looked at it, I realised I knew what it did. Keepers carried focuses like these as identification symbols. This one was smaller, with a different pattern, but it was recognisable as the same basic design. It was an official Council signet.

“Congrats,” Caldera said. “Welcome to the auxiliary corps of the Order of the Star.”

I blinked at her.

“No smart-arse comments?” Caldera asked.

“I’m, uh . . . just surprised.”

“About what?”

“Honestly?” I said. “I had the feeling you were going to blame me for what happened with Haken.”

“You followed the orders you were given,” Caldera said. “You did your job.”

I looked at Caldera for a second. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” I said, “but you don’t exactly seem happy.”

“About what? That Haken was the one who set us up in Uxbridge?”

I didn’t answer.

“I’m not a fucking idiot, okay?” Caldera said. “I put it together. And yes, we’ve noticed how you kept quiet about it instead of laying another charge against the order. Sure Rain’ll appreciate it.” She gave me a look. “Picking up our politics fast, aren’t you?”

I raised my eyebrows.

Caldera stared at me for a second, then passed a hand across her eyes. “Fuck.” She paused. “Forget it.”

“The thing with Haken’s getting to you, isn’t it?”

“He was my partner for a year,” Caldera said. “I knew him when we were apprentices. Yeah, it’s getting to me.”

“If it’s any consolation, he did try to help,” I said, then shrugged. “A little. I don’t know. Maybe give it some time, talk to him. You might be able to work something out.”

“Yeah.” Caldera pushed a set of stapled sheets of paper across to me. “All right. Take a look at these.”

I flipped the report around, started reading it, blinked, skipped to the end. “Smuggling?”

“Yeah, looks like there’s a new source of meld. We had a handle on it for a while, but seems like a new supplier’s got into the market. Best guess is it’s coming from Thailand.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with White Rose?”

“Not really.”

“So . . . we just go on to the next job?”

“What were you expecting?” Caldera said. “Victory parade?”

“Would have been nice.”

Caldera snorted. “How’d you think this was going to go? It was just a case. They come and they go. Some are easy, some are hard. But you know what they’ve all got in common?”

I looked at Caldera, interested. “What?”

“They end,” Caldera said. “And you go back to your desk and start the next one.” She shook her head. “You still think like an independent, Verus. There’s trouble, you fix it, and everything goes back to normal. But that’s not how it works now you’re in the Keepers. For us, this is normal.”