The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump

A cup of coffee with breakfast. Another cup of cafeteria mud the minute I got in, and another one right after that One more half an hour later. I felt myself wind tighter and tighter. By God, I'd get through the day. If tonight ever came, I'd probably be too buzzed to sleep then. One things at a time, though. Get through the day first. That meant more phone calls. I didn't feel the least bit guflty about using my office; my personal affairs and those of the toxic spell dump case had become inextricably intertwined. First I called Saul Klein upstairs.

"Saul, this is David Fisher down in the EPA again," I said. "I want - no, I don't want to, but I have to - report a kidnapping."

"This is the report that we received from the Long Beach constabulary last night?" he asked. When I said yes, he went on, "Is dus connected with the minisingers case you were telling me about a little while ago?"

I'd forgotten the minisingers. I discovered that, along with tired and worried, I could be embarrassed, too. "No, it doesn't have anything to do with dial. If you've received that Long Beach report, Saul, does that mean you'll be on the case?"

"I'll be involved, yes," he answered. "Is it convenient for you that I come down and discuss matters now? You're on the sevendi floor, is that right?"

"Yes, and sure, come on down. Can you stop at the cafeteria and bring a couple of cups of coffee? I'll pay for them."

He came; we drank coffee; he asked all the same questions Johnson had the night before. Numbly, I gave the same answers. He scribbled notes. When I was done, he said,

"We'll do everything we can for you, David, and for Mistress Ather. I promise you that" I noticed he didn't promise they'd get her back alive and unhurt; he must have known belter than to make promises he might not be able to keep.

When he left, I called Henry Legion. The spook said, "I shall be there directly." He was, too, faster crosscountry than Saul Klein had been from two floors up. Of course, Henry Legion hadn't had to stop for coffee.

I told my story for the third time. Repetition made it feel almost as if it had happened to someone else - almost but not quite. The CI spook said, "This is disturbing. Events are moving faster than crystal-ball projections had indicated. My opinion is that your scanning around the toxic spell dump may well have been the precipitating factor."

"But except for a little stardust, we didn't find anything," I said, nearly wailing, as if I were I kid who got caught and walloped for peeking in a bedroom window witthout even seeing anything interesting.

"You may know third " the spook said. "I would doubt the perpetrators do." Then he disappeared on me. I hate that. It always gives him the last word.

Two down. My next call was to Legate Kawaguchi. I wondered if he'd still be off on his other case, but no, I got him. "This is in relation to the kidnapping of Mistress Ather whom I met at the Thomas Brothers fire?" he asked when he heard it was me, so the Long Beach constables must have already talked with him.

That's what this is in relation to, all right," I said heavily.

"I can't imagine any other reason for kidnapping Judy, especially when whoever did it also tried to kill me a few days ago."

"I can imagine other reasons," Kawaguchi said. Before I could start screaming at him, he went on, "I admit however, that your scenario appears to be of the highest probability. As you will have surmised"-and as I had surmised-"I have discussed this matter with the Long Beach force. I would, however, also be grateful for your firsthand account" I gave it to him. One more repetition, I thought one more movement out of the realm of reality and into that of discourse. In a way, it was a sort of anti-magic. Magic uses words to realize what had only been imagined. I was using them to turn tragedy and horror into memory, which is ever so much easier to handle.

When I was through, Kawaguchi said, "Did you learn from the forensics man what sort of sleep spell he detected at your fiancee's flat?"

"You know, I didn't," I answered. "His plainclothesman - Johnson - and I went down to the Long Beach station so I could make my sworn statement there, and the forensics fellow didn't stick his head into Johnson's office while I was giving it."

"I shall inquire," Kawaguchi said. His words were spaced a little too far apart, as if he was writing and talking at the same time.

I said, "I wanted to check with you, too, Legate, to see if you have any new answers that would help dear up who did this to Judy." Whoever it was had also undoubtedly arranged to have the earth elemental dropped on my flying carpet. At the moment, that seemed utterly unimportant to me.

"New answers, no," he said. "I have some new questions, however: there has been vandalism relating to the Garuda Bird project at the Loki plant in Burbank, vandalism behind a hermetic seal."

"That is supposed to be impossible," I said, now speaking slowly myself - I was scrawling a note to call Matt Arnold.