The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump

"As soon as you do, there's another Chumash Power that won't show up in the Barony of Angels again," I said. As an EPA inspector, I felt bad about that. As somebody who was wondering whether he'd still be alive five minutes from now, I figured I'd worry about the long-term consequences of the Great Eagle's demise later, if there was a later.

High overhead, the Garuda Bird let out a roar that made all its earlier cries seem like whispers. It folded its wings and stooped like a hawk onto the Nothing. I braced myself - uselessly, I knew. When that bulk hit, the earth wouldn't just shake, it would quake, San Andreas notwithstanding.

A split second before the Bird's talons seized the Nothing, another psychic pop sounded in my head, this one bigger than the other two put together. The talons closed on empty air - the Nothing was gone. Somehow - sorcerously, of course, but don't ask me about the Kobold Works' proximity spells, because I don't know from nothin' - the Bird stopped in midair without touching the ground.

I looked out at the far wall of the Devonshire dump, and it seemed only as far away as it should have. The sense of the imminent immanence of something eminently dreadful's becoming dreadfully evident was gone, too. I looked over at Tony Sudakis. "I think you can tell the cacodemons to shut up," I yelled at him.

He flipped me a salute-casual but, I thought, not faked - and trotted back toward his office. As he did so, the Garuda Bird rose into the air (without a single flap) and headed east, back toward Burbank. That took more weight off my mind: my guess was that the Bird would have stayed around had it sensed any remaining trouble.

Just the same, I walked over to the spot on the path from which I'd first noticed the Nothing, a million years ago: that's what it felt like, anyhow. I wasn't quite there yet when the cacodemons closed their mouths. Sudden silence hit me as hard as the squalls of alarm had before.

I knew just where that spot was now. I looked out across the weed-strewn dirt toward the Nothing and saw - nothing.

I was never so glad not to capitalize an °n" in my whole life. ' "I think they're gone," I said, words which ranked right up there with the first dme I told Judy, I love you.

"I believe you are correct," Michael said. "What we sensed, in my opinion, was the Chumash Powers abandoning any contact with This Side to keep the Garuda Bird from reaching into their encystment, dragging them out one by one, and destroying them. Thaumaturgic analysis will eventually confirm or refute this, but it is a tenable working hypothesis."

"I'm with you," Yolanda said. "If they went away like that, they won't be back." She wiped her forehead with a sleeve.

I'm not sure she really grasped just how bad a hazmat she'd helped hold at bay, but none of what her team did for a living was easy.

"Perkunas and the Nine Suns, I hope not." Tony Sudakis clutched his amber amulet in one beefy fist.

"Let me use your phone one more time?" I asked him.

"I'll call Professor Blank at UCAC; he's been running a study for me to find out whether the Chumash Powers really have become extinct. I think we can safely say two of them have, but he'd be the best fellow to evaluate what's become of the others."

"Be my guest." Sudakis waved me toward the blockhouse.

It wouldn't have done a bit of good against what had almost come forth from the dump, but suddenly it looked strong and secure again.

I got hold of Blank. He was still in his office, wondering, I suppose, whether the building was going to collapse around him. When I told him what had happened at the dump, he let out a sigh of relief so heartfelt even phone imps couldn't spoil it, then promised to send his research team out as fast as carpets could get from UCAC to Chatsworth. Since it was heading into late afternoon, that wouldn't be any too fast, but the urgency level had gone down, too.

Then I called Legate Kawaguchi to see how the constables were doing at Chocolate Weasel. Him I didn't get; instead, some other constable bawled in my ear, "You can't talk to him, bud, whoever you are. He's down at the war, and I'm headin' that way myself." He hung up with a crash that that phone imps did an uncanny job of reproducing.

That sent me out of Tony's office on the run. I filled him in on what Blank had said, then passed on the rest of the word to Michael. The only thing that can mean is Chocolate Weasel, I think," I said. "We'd better get over there as fast as we can."

"I concur," Michael said.

Yolanda - her last name, I finally had the chance to notice on her badge, was Simmons - said, "Where's this Chocolate Weasel place? Sounds like we might do some good there, too."

"Your team is welcome to follow my carpet," Michael said.

"Will the health of the gentleman who collapsed suffice for the venture?"

"I'm okay," the gentleman said, and sat up to try to prove it. He still didn't look okay, but he was game, anyhow. "All the stuff in here just overloaded my protective systems for a minute there."