When I heard that, I wanted to bang my head on the desk. Protests about environmental issues are hard enough to deal with when they come from This Side.

What was going on down on the sidewalk showed how much more complicated they could get when Powers started playing what had at first been a human game.

Absurdly, I wondered whether the Chumash First People and Sky Coyote had gotten the idea from the parading succubi. After a moment, I realized that was impossible: the Chumash Powers had disappeared before the sexual demons went on the march.

"Hunger strike," I murmured, as much to myself as to Professor Blank.

"I pray your pardon?" he said.

"Maybe the Powers are starving themselves of recognition to force us to notice them and give them the veneration they require."

Thank you, Inspector Fisher; that will go onto the list.

And let me thank you again for involving me and my graduate students"-I presume that was what he'd meant when he talkedabout his research team before-"in this project I am confident we shall eventually learn a great deal from it.".

I didn't like the sound of that eventually. "When do you hope to have some results I can use to help plan policy, Professor? I think I ought to remind you that this isn't just a research project, but one where the answers will be put to practical use."

"I understand that, of course," he said, a little sulkily. He might have understood it, but he didn't like it one bit. A professor indeed, I thought. He went on, "We shall endeavor to be as expeditious as possible, provided that we remain consistent with appropriate experimental protocols." "That's fine, sir, but I think I ought to warn you that if I don't have harder data than you've given by, hmm, three weeks from today, I can't guarantee that your report will become part of the decision-making process."

Was I playing fair? Of course not, not even slightly. Professors always claim they go into the university or take holy orders or whatever so they can devote their full attention to whatever they're interested in; Roman epigraphy or beekeeping or the thaumaturgical arts of a vanished Indian tribe. Sometimes they even mean it But a lot more often, I've found that professors who see a chance to influence events outside academe will leap at it in spite of their alleged lack of interest Truth to tell, I don't know if a savant of Roman epigraphy ever got that kind of chance (at least since the days when the Empire was a going concern), but my guess is that he'd grab it, too.

And so now Professor Blank said, "Three weeks, eh?"

Even with two phone imps between his mouth and my ear, he sounded distinctly unhappy. Another phone pause followed. I understood the reason for this one: he was giving me a chance to say I'd made a mistake and the real deadline was three months - or three years - away. I didn't say any such thing. Blank sighed. "Very well, Inspector Fisher, I will attempt to meet the challenging timeframe you have outlined. God give you good day, sir."

The same to you, Professor, and I'm grateful for your help. I look forward to seeing your detailed report; it will be most valuable both to me and to the Environmental Perfection Agency as a whole." As long as he was going to do what I wanted, I had no problem with letting him down easy.

It worked, too; he seemed a lot happier by the time he got off the phone.

I spent the next several minutes making notes on the conversation, both as an aide-memoire for me and to let me have something to show Bea so she'd know I really and truly was working on all the cases that crowded my desk. In an ideal world, I wouldn't have had to waste my time with worries like that, but no one has ever claimed Plato would recognize the Confederal bureaucracy as an ideal world.

I asked my watch what time it was, found out it was almost half past four. A busy day. I was getting tired of not having the chance to get up to Bakhtiars Precision Burins, but I had made one trip to St. Ferdinand's Valley. Maybe tomorrow, I told myself. I wrote a note reminding me to call Tony Sudakis tomorrow, too; the investigation had gone so many different ways lately that I hadn't done much with the Devonshire dump itself in quite a while. Sudakis probably figured I'd fallen off the edge of the world, not that he'd miss me if I did.

Instead of finding something constructive to do with the last half hour of my work day, I looked out the window to see if the succubi were still marching down below. They were, and traffic in the building rush hour on Wilshire Boulevard, always heavy, was becoming downright elephantine. Maybe I could duck south down side flyways to St Monica's Boulevard and get on the freeway there.

It was a good plan. It should have worked, too; Veteran was crowded heading north because people couldn't turn onto Wilshire from it, but southbound traffic didn't look too bad. I felt pretty smug sliding down to the parking lot - this once, I figured, I had a fighting chance of beating the system.

Thaumaturgy hasn't found them yet, but there must be gremlins who sit around listening for thoughts like that. I was just strapping on my safety belt when a priest happened to fly down Veteran. In an instant, all the succubi who had been on Wilshire started running after his carpet, shaking everything they had (and believe me, they had plenty) and calling out blandishments that made my ears turn red - and they weren't even directed at me.

Succubi, of course, delight in tormenting priests: that's been obvious ever since Christianity began. And priests, being mortal, have been known to yield to temptation. Some of the temptation here was pretty tempting, too.

A normal rule in Westwood is that you can't find a parking space to save your soul. The priest, though, must have had the power of the Lord behind him, because he managed to slide his carpet into one. The succubi squealed with delight and jounced after him, sure they'd found another sinner in clerical collar.

They got a rude surprise. The priest hadn't stopped to dally with them, he'd stopped to give them a load of fire and brimstone to take the place of the sweet scents they were wearing: bitch wolves was the nicest thing he called them, and went on to things like haughty, vainglorious, lecherous betrayers, ready for every wickedness, and fickle in love (which, when applied to a succubus, is about like calling the ocean damp). He roasted them on both sides. Meanwhile, though, half the males on Wilshire tried to turn onto Veteran so they could keep ogling the succubi, which meant the traffic jam spread with them.

At first the succubi didn't believe the priest was serious.

They had a thorough understanding of the way people work, and knew too many folks like to condemn in public what they do in private. So they kept on pressing themselves against the priest, rubbing their hands over him, kissing his cheek and his ear and the bare circle of his tonsure, paying no heed to his outraged bellows.

Then he pulled out an ampule of holy water. The suo cubi's squeals turned to screams. They ran, you'll pardon the expression, like hell. And the priest, his virtue intact even if his clothes were mussed, got back onto his carpet and flew away.

He flew away slowly. By then, that was the only way it was possible to fly on Veteran. Everyone else flew slowly, too, including me. I shouldn't have been thinking such uncharitable thoughts abut a man of the cloth, especially one who had just proved his faith against a challenge to which many would have succumbed… but I was. If he'd flown by five minutes later, I'd have had an easy trip to the freeway. Getting snarled in traffic instead would have tried the patience of a saint.

I made it home much later than I'd intended, and in a much fouler mood. These things happen. After a bottle of ale and a steak, my attitude improved a good deal. I know what would improve it more, too: I called Judy.