I felt a presence to my left. “Looks like you got off easy.”

I looked up. It was a man, medium height and heavyset. The flickering blue light showed brown hair and a sour expression. A Keeper, one I’d met before . . . What was his name? Oh yeah, Slate. The one who’d goaded Caldera into that fight with me at Red’s a couple of nights ago. Just what I need.

“So the kid’s gone,” Slate said when I didn’t respond. “Only witness, from our case, and you lost him. Fucked it up right and proper, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s not as if Caldera called you guys for backup as soon as we found out who the kid really was.” I was tired, bruised, still working through the aftereffects of an adrenaline rush, and not in the mood to be diplomatic. “Oh wait, she did. You know what? Maybe if you’d pulled your finger out of your fat arse and come to help, your witness’d still be here.”

I’d expected Slate to lose his temper, but he just looked at me with a twist of his mouth, as though I were something a dog had produced from its rear end. “Don’t see any blood.”

“And?”

“Kid got taken,” Slate said. “Caldera got hurt. You look like you got off pretty okay.” He studied me. “So what were you doing while Caldera was dealing with the golem?”

“Busy.”

“With what?”

“With one of the icecats.”

“That’s convenient.”

I didn’t answer. “How about you run through that fight for me,” Slate said.

“How about I don’t?”

“I wasn’t asking.”

“Well, that’s great, because I’m not answering, so I guess we’re all happy, aren’t we?”

“You think you’re pretty special, don’t you?” Slate said. “Rules don’t apply to you, right?”

I just stared him. “Don’t think that card you’ve got makes you a Keeper,” Slate said. “You’re not even an auxiliary. I could arrest you and take you down to the station right now and no one’d look twice.” He leant in close, eyes staring into mine. “What happened in that house?”

I looked up at Slate. I could have looked down on him if I stood up, but I didn’t. “Let’s get something straight,” I said. “Taking crap from Caldera is one thing. But I’m not going to fold to every Council mage who strolls up. You want to be my supervisor, you can go ahead and fight Caldera over it. But you might want to bear in mind that the last time you tried duelling her she kicked your balls up your arsehole, so if I were you I’d think twice before going back for a rematch.”

I saw Slate flush. That one had finally managed to piss him off. “You can—” he began, then stopped as a hand fell on his shoulder.

Slate turned. Haken was standing there. “Captain wants you,” Haken said. He was watching Slate steadily.

Slate narrowed his eyes. I saw futures of him choosing to stand and argue; they flickered and disappeared. He gave me an ugly look and left.