The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump

Tell them I'm Jewish," I said. His face cleared. I was sure he didn't care much for my beliefs, but that's okay: I wasn't fond of all of his, either. But we acknowledged each others sincerity. He spoke way too rapidly for me to follow what he said to the Corderos, but they nodded when he was through.

Lupe said, "You go, you look, you find out. We trus' you, the padre say we can trus' you. He better be right"

"He is," I said, and let it go at that. If I'd taken another oath, the Corderos might have thought the first one wasn't to be trusted. Father Flanagan nodded slowly, understanding what I'd done.

Susan Kuznetsov said, "Besides, Jesus there is a nativeborn citizen of the Confederation, and entitled to all the protection of our laws." When she turned that into Spainish, the Corderos beamed; they liked the idea. The woman from the Bureau of Physical and Spiritual Health quietly added, "I just wish our laws could do more for the poor little guy." Neither she nor Father Flanagan translated that.

I said my goodbyes, collected Mistress Kuznetsov's carte de vistte, and flew back to the office. The elves hadn't magically cleaned up my desk while I was gone. I didn't care. It could stay dirty a while longer. I picked up the phone and called Charlie Kelly.

The yammering at the other end went on for so long that I wondered if he was back from lunch yet. It was well past two back m D.StC.; where the demons did those confounded Confederal bureaucrats get the nerve to keep swilling at the public sty like that? All I needed was a minute of no answer on the phone to swell up and bellow like an enraged buB taxpayer, when after all I was a confounded Confederal bureaucrat my very own self.

"Environmental Perfection Agency, Charles Kelly speaking." Finally!

"Charlie, this is Dave Fisher in Angels City. We just had another apsychic birth close by the Devonshire dump. That makes four in a little more than a year. This isn't going to be a quiet investigation any more, Charlie. I'm going to find out what's leaking and why, no matter how noisy I have to get."

He kind of grunted. "Do what you think necessaiy."

"Shit, Charlie, you're the one who sicced me onto this."

I'm not usually vulgar on the phone and I'm not usually vulgar in the office, but I was steaming. "Now you're making it a lot harder than it has to be."

"In what way?" he asked, as if he hadn't the slightest idea.

When Charlie Kelly goes all innocent on you, check how many fingers and toes you're wearing. The odds are real good they'll add up to a number smaller than twenty. I can't imagine how I kept from screaming at him. "You know perfectly well. Tell me about the bloody bird that keeps singing in your ear."

"I'm sorry, David, but I can't," he said. "I never should have mentioned that to you in the first place."

"Well, you did and now you're stuck with it," I said savagely. "There's something rotten in the area of that dump.

People are being born without souls. People are dying, too, if you'll remember the Thomas Brothers fire. You started me on this and now you won't give with what you know?

That's - damnable."

"I have to pray you're wrong," Charlie answered. "But whether you are or not, I can't give you what you're asking.

This whole matter is bigger than what you seem to grasp - bigger than I thought, too. If I could, I'd shut down your whole investigation."

This, from a high-powered EPA man? "Good God, Charlie? What are we talking about here, the Third Soreerous War?"

"If we were, I couldn't tell you so," Kelly said. "Goodbye, David. I'm afraid you're on your own in this one." My imp stopped reproducing his imp's breathing; he'd hung up on I don't know how long I stared at my own phone before I hung up, too. Jose Franco walked past my office door. I think he was just going to nod at me, the way he usually does, but he stopped in his tracks when he Saw my face.

"What's the matter, Dave?" he asked, real concern in his voice. He's a good guy, Jose is. "You look like you just saw your own ghost"

"Maybe I did," I said, which left him shaking his head.

Why in God's name was Charlie Kelly acting altogether too serious about a Third Sorcerous War? The first two were disasters beyond anything imaginable even in nightmares before this century. A third one? If mankind was stupid enough to start a Third Sorcerous War, we'd probably never have to worry about a fourth one, because nobody'd be left to fight it And Charlie wouldn't even tell me who the enemy was liable to be. You ever look back on your life and notice just how many sins you've committed to get where you are, how everything that always seemed solid all at once starts to crumble under your feet until you're peering straight down into Ae Pit? That was what I felt like after I got off the phone with KeBy. The hair stood up on the back of my neck, No wonder I'd alarmed Jose.