"Go ahead," I said. Nobody I'd talked to would even entertain the idea that he could be responsible for the leaks.

Well, I didn't find the idea entertaining, either.

"Thanks." Arnold steepled his fingers, more a thoughtful gesture, I judged, than a prayerful one. He went on. "I gather this toxic spell leak is believed to be through the dump's containment system rather than airborne."

"Yes, I believe that's true." I said cautiously. "So?"

He nodded as if he'd scored a point "Thought as much.

I'm not breaking security to tell you that Space Division spells are universally volatile in nature, with byproducts to match. That's not surprising, is it, considering - what we do?"

"I suppose not," I said. "What exactly is your consortium's role in getting the Garuda Bird out of the atmosphere?"

That did it He started rolling like the Juggernaut's car, which, considering the project we were talking about, isn't the worst of comparisons. Loki was in charge of two project phases, the second of which (presumably because it dealt with air elementals) had been split into two elements.

"First, we handle the new spells pertaining to the Garuda Bird itself." Arnold pointed to a picture tacked onto the watt behind him: an artisfs conception of the Bird lifting a cargo into low orbit, with the curve of the Earth and the black of space behind it Even in a painting, the Bird is something to see. Think of a roc squared and then square that again - well, the Bird could turn a roc into a pebble. For a second, I forgot about being an investigator and felt like a kid with a new kite.

"The Bird is magic-intensive anyway," Arnold went on.

"Has to be, or else that big bulk would never get off the ground. But we've had to upgrade all the speB systems and develop a whole new set for upper-atmospheric and exatmospheric work. They do fine in similarity modeling; pretty soon we'll get to see what the models are worth. You with me so far?"

"Pretty much so, yeah," I answered. "What's this other phase you were talking about? Something to do with sylphs?"

"That's right Turns out our models show that max-Q-"

"What?"

"Maximum dynamic pressure on the Bird," he explained grudgingly, and then, because I still didn't get if added more grudgingly still, "Maximum air buffeting."

"Oh."

I'd distracted him. He gave me a dirty look, as if he were a wizard who'd forgotten the key word of an invocation just as his demon was about to appear in the pentacle. When I didn't rip off his head or swallow him whole, he pulled himself together. "As I was saying, max-Q on the Garuda Bird occurs relatively low in the atmosphere, due to sylphic action on the traveler through the aery realm."

"Sylphs are like that," I agreed. "Always have been. How do you propose to get them to act any different?"

"As I said before, we have a two-element approach to the problem-"

He pulled a chart out of his top desk drawer and showed me what he meant. If he hadn't been an aerospace thaumaturge, he would have called it the carrot-and-stick approach. As it was, he talked about sylph-esteem and sylph-discipline.

Sylph-esteem, I gathered, involved making the sylphs above the Garuda Bird launch site so happy they wouldn't think about blowing the Bird around as it flew past them.

Like a lot of half-smart plans, it looked good on parchment.

Trouble is, sylphs by their very nature are happy-go-lucky already, and also changeable as the weather. How do you go about not only making them even more cheerful than they were already but also making them stay that way?

If you ask me (which Magister Arnold didn't), sylph-discipline is a better way to go. Putting the fear of higher Powers into the sylphs might well make the air elementals behave themselves long enough to let the Garuda Bird get through.

True, you couldn't keep it up long, sylphs being as they are, but then, you wouldn't need to.

"Tor sylph-discipline to be effective, timing is of the essence," Arnold said. "Implement your deterrence activity too soon and the elementals forget the brief intimidation; implement it too late and it is useless. We are still in the process of developing the sorcerous systems that will enable us to ensure minimal sylphic disturbance as the Garuda Bird proceeds on its mission."

"If you're still developing them, am I correct in assuming that no byproducts from that element of your project would appear on my list of contaminants from Loki?"

"Let me check, if I may," he said. He looked at my chart, just as I'd looked at his. "No, that's not correct Some of this activity with Beelzebub comes from our shop."

I remembered the patch of flies at the Devonshire dump and shivered a little. Dealing with Beelzebub involves some of the most potent, most dangerous sorcery there is. I said,

"Sounds like overkill to me. Why pick such a mighty potentate of the Descending Hierarchy to overawe the air elementals?"

My guess was that asking the question would prove a waste of time, that Arnold would baffle me with technical jargon till I gave up and went away. But he fooled me, saying, It's really quite straightforward, at least in broad outline. We shall require the Lord of the Flies to inflict a plague of his creatures on the sylphs to distract them from the passage of the Garuda Bird."

"You don't think small," I said. "Then something else occurred to me: "But what's to keep the flies from tormenting the Garuda Bird along with the air elementals?"

Magister Arnold smiled dimly. "As I said, it's straightforward in broad outline. Details of the negotiations with the demon are anything but simple, as you may imagine. He is, if you will forgive me, hellishly clever."

"Yes." I let it go at that; if it were up to me, I'd have come up with some other way of distracting the sylphs. After a couple of seconds, I said, "Don't byproducts from a conjuration involving Beelzebub have a chance of sliding through the underground containment scheme at the dump? They aren't all volatile, as you claimed before." °I suppose that's true." Arnold sounded anything but happy about supposing that was true, but he did it anyhow. I give him credit for that He tried to put the best face on ifc "You haven't alluded to these particular byproducts as being the ones which are leaking, however, Inspector Fisher. Until you show me evidence that they are, I hope you will forgive my doubts."

"Okay, fair enough," I said. Going around the edges of the dump with a sensitive spellchecker, checking air and earth, fire and water for sorcerous pollutants would blow Charlie Kelly's request for discretion further into space than the Garuda Bird could cany it, but that couldn't be helped, not now.

I got up and started to leave. I'd just about made it to the door when I remembered the demon imprisoned in my visitor's talisman. I turned around and headed right back toward Magister Arnold. He was coming after me.

Thanks," I said "Don't mention it." His voice was dry. "My own peace of mind is involved in keeping you healthy till you get out the door, you know. Just think of all the parchmentwork I'd have to fill out if an Environmental Perfection Agency inspector got stung to death by the Loki security system. I wouldn't get any real work done for weeks."

Knowing the EPA bureaucratic procedures as I do, I was sure he was right about that. Then a couple of casually uttered words sank in. "Stung to death, Magister Arnold?" I said, gulping. The security guard didn't mention that little detail."

"Well, he should have," Arnold answered testily. He must have noticed my face chance expression. "Before you ask. Inspector, we do have a permit to incorporate deadly force into our security setup because of the sensitive nature of so much of what we do here. If you like, I will be happy to show you a copy, complete with chrysobull, of that permit."