The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump

Space travel has fascinated me ever since the first magic mirror let us see the far side of the moon back when I was a kid.

The girl carried our plates over to us just then. Thanks," I said as she set them down. Because she looked as if she'd understand it better, I added, "Grocias."

"De nada, senor," she answered, smiling. She hardly seemed old enough to be working fall time. Maybe she wasn't People who come up to Angels City to get away from Azteca find out soon enough that the sidewalks aren't paved with gold here, either. They do what they can to get by, same as my great - grandparents did a hundred years ago. Most of them will.

It was a pleasant lunch. Any time with Judy was pleasant, but the good food and the chance to be out and about in the middle of the day (she'd been right about that the night before) just added to it. I hated to leave, but she had to get back to work and I needed to be at the Loki plant early enough - in the afternoon to do some useful work.

I parked my carpet in the loading zone in front of Handof-Glorys office, kissed Judy goodbye before I took off. It was a pretty thorough kiss, if I say say myself. This ten-year old who should have been in school made disgusted noises as he walked by. I didn't care. Give him a few more years and he'd find out about the sweet magic between man and woman.

I waited there till I saw Judy safe indoors, then headed up the Golden Province Freeway to Burbank. The Loki works weren't far from the tede airport there. They were big and sprawled-out enough to have separate buildings and lots for each of the consortium's many projects; I flew around till I found a skin that said SPACE DIVISION and had a stylized Garuda bird under it. I parked my carpet as dose to the skin as I could, then walked off some of my lunch hiking toward the entrance.

Inside, where they didn't show from the parking lot, were guards armed with pistols and holy water sprayers. I presented my EPA sigil. Even though I'd phoned ahead in the morning, I could see how little ice it cut here. The guards were ready to take on major foes, from This Side or the Other. One bureaucrat wasn't worth getting excited about.

Which is not to say they weren't diorough. They turned a spellchecker on my sigil, to make sure it wasn't forged and hadn't been tampered with. One of them carefully compared the image on my flying license to my face. The other waited tffl the first was done, then called my office to confirm I really did work there. He didn't ask me for the number; he looked it up himself.

Only when they were satisfied did they phone deeper into the building. "Magister Arnold will come to escort you shortly, sir," one of them said. "Here is your visitors talisman." He pinned it on me, then added, "Once you pass through that door, the demon in the talisman will be roused and will sting you if you get more than fifteen feet away from Magister Arnold. Just so you know, sir"

"What happens if I need to use a toilet?" I asked.

"Magister Arnold must accompany you to the facility, sir," he answered, unsmiling. The guy outside the Devonshire dump had billed himself as a security guard. This Loki fellow reallywas one.

I found another question: "Suppose I ditch the talisman once I go inside?"

"First, sir, any attempt to do so would rouse the demon.

Second, once inside the door there, the talisman will weld itself to your dodiing and remain bonded to it until you emerge. If you're a good enough sorcerer, sir, you can beat the talisman, but you'll set off a great many alarms in the process, and will be apprehended in short order." I don't want to beat it and I don't want to be apprehended," I said. "I was just curious." The guard nodded, polite but unconvinced. His job was being unconvinced, and he was real good at it Magister Arnold came out a couple of minutes later. He was a big, rangy fellow in his mid-fifties, in a lab robe almost as fancy as Ramzan Durani's. "Call me Matt," he said after we shook hands. "Come along with me now."

I came along. The door closed behind us. I gave the talisman a surreptitious yank. Sure enough, it was stuck to the front of my shirt. I'd figured it would be. Loki took security seriously.

I found out just how seriously when we got to the door of Arnold's office: it was hermetically sealed. Now I grant you that Hermes is a good choice of protector for an aerospace office - in his wingfoot aspect, he's naturally related to flight sciences, and who better to propitiate in a security system than the patron deity of thieves?