"The Powers are indeed encysted; new regression analysis establishes that beyond any statistical or theological doubt," he said. "But it's a topologlcally unusual spherical encystment Are you aware. Inspector, that the surface of a sphere can be continuously deformed until it is inside out?"

"Well, no," I said. "What does that have to do with the Chumash Powers?"

"It's a good approximation of what those Powers seem to have done on the Other Side," he answered. "As I said in our earlier conversation, they seem to Taawe taken a hole and pulled it in afterward, apparently leaving nothing behind."

Something he said there made a bell toll in my mind, but before I could figure out what It was, he went on, "The problem, from our point of view, is that the Powers, if my calculations are correct, can reverse their encystment and burst out violently at any time they choose."

"Violently?" I echoed. "How violently?"

"Crystal-ball prognostications vary; the scenario is unique and so many of my parameters are uncertain," he said. "If, however, they release maximum magical energy, the effects on the surrounding area will be somewhere between those of a megasalamander ignition just above it and an earthquake, oh, approximately on the order of magnitude of the one that hit the city of St. Francis in the early years of this century. The effects will be different, you understand, because they'll be primarily thaumaturgic rather than physical, but the size of the event will be more or less in that range."

"Jesus," I said, which shows how acculturated I am. Foolishly, I added, "No wonder they didn't want to bother making rain."

"No wonder at all. Inspector," Professor Blank said. "Neither I nor my staff have been able to determine where the interface between the Chumash powers' encystment and This Side is presently located. We would have expected it to be in the extreme northwest of the Barony of Angels, for that was formerly Chumash territory, but, as I say, we have not succeeded in detecting it I hope that, with your greater resources, the Environmental Perfection Agency will do what we have not accomplished. Good day."

He hung up on me. I wanted to loll him. "Hello. Here comes a catastrophe. I've found out it's on the way, but I can't deal with it All up to you, Dave. Good luck, pal." That's what was left at the bottom of the alembic. In my nose, it smelled like old catbox.

Instead of committing murder, I called Tony Sudakis. He didn't sound as if I'd caught him at lunch, but he had something in common with Professor Blank anyhow: he sounded scared. "Dave? It's you? Perkunas and the Nine Suns, I'm glad to hear from you! You know that thing - I mean, that Nothing - you spotted in the containment area? It's going through some changes, and I don't like 'em even a little bit"

"Changes? What land of changes?" I asked, thinking I didn't need one more thing to worry about on top of everything Professor Blank had just dumped on me.

"Well, for one thing, you can notice the effect from anywhere along the safety walk now, and I can see it from the roof of my office, too. Eerie, if you ask me. But there's worse.

I can feel something starting to build over there, even through the wardspells, like the world's gonna turn inside out any minute now. It's bad. I don't even know if the outer containment wall will hold this one. And if it doesn't-"

He let it hang there. I gulped. I didn't like the way it sounded, not even slightly. "What have you done so far?" I asked.

"I've called for a SWAT team, but a lot of those are busy somewhere else," he answered. I had a hunch I knew where, too: theywere taking down Chocolate Weasel. Tony went on,

"I called you for two reasons. You were the guy who spotted the Nothing in the first place, and the wizard you had with you seems pretty sharp. Man, I tell you, I think I need all the help I can get on this one."

"I'll get Michael. We'll be there as fast as we can fly," I promised. Then something Sudakis had said really hit me. I echoed it "Inside out."

"What's that?' Tony said. "Listen, if you and your buddy Manstein don't get here in a hurry, there may not be any here to get to, you know what I mean?"

Inside out," I repeated. "Tony, didn't you say the stuff in that zone came from the beach up in Malibu?"

"Yeah," he said. "So?"

"Way up at the northwest edge of the Barony of Angels, right?"

"Yeah," he said again. "What are you flying at, Dave?"

"Get a hazmat team there right now," I said, fear knotting my belly: I thought I knew why Professor Blank's grad students hadn't found the Chumash Powers' encystment site where they thought it was supposed to be.

"I've been Hying to," Tony protested. "They won't listen to me."

Tell 'em the guy who tipped 'em to Chocolate Weasel says this is liable to be a thousand times worse. Tell 'em that Use my name. They'll come, all right"

"You know what's going on." Even through the phone imps, he sounded accusing.

"I'm afraid I do. I'm coming anyway." I hung up on him for a change. Then I ran down the hall, yelling for Michael like a man possessed. He listened to me for fifteen seconds, tops, grabbed his black bag, and sprinted for the slide, me right behind him. We piled onto his carpet and hightailed it back to St. Ferdinand's Valley. Knowing what we were heading for, I wished we were flying the other way. When he was good and ready, he delivered his verdict.

I mean it just like that - he really sounded magisterial:

There is, I believe, much truth in the view you express.

The great European theological and economic expansion of the past five hundred years, coupled with the enormous growth of thaumaturgic knowledge that spearheaded, among other things, the Industrial Revolution, has indeed had a profound impact on both the politics and thecology of the rest of the world. I can hardly be surprised to learn that long-established Powers, chafing under the pressure of European-imposed belief structures imposed by superior military and magical force, are actively seeking to overwhelm that force."

"You mean you approve?" I stared at him.

"That is not what I said," he answered, more sharply than usual. "I said I am not surprised that the Powers and, presumably, the peoples who reverence them, seek to regain their former prominence. I did not say I wished them success in that effort. Such success would be the greatest disaster the world has ever known, or so I believe, at any rate."

"You get no argument from me," I said.

"I had not expected you to disagree," he said. 'You have a reasonable amount of sense, by all appearances."

I wanted to reach over and pat him on the knee. "Why, Michael, I didn't know you cared," I said. From his point of view, he'd just given me the accolade, and I knew it "Facetiousness aside," he amended. I just grinned. He ignored that and went on, "Let us take the Americas, for instance, they being the most dearcut examples of a massive human and thecological transformation in the past semimillenium."

"Okay, take the Americas," I said agreeably, gesturing to show he was welcome to them. Truth was, as long as I was schmoozing with Michael, I didn't have to think (as much) about either Judy or the likelihood that Armageddon was liable to come bubbling out of a toxic spells dump.

Michael gave me a severe look. "Facetiousness aside, I said."

"Sorry," I told him. "You were saying?"

"Nothing of great complexity; nothing, in fact, that should not be obvious to any reasonably objective observer: that we immigrants have done more and better with this land in the past five hundred years than its native peoples would have accomplished during the same period."

"Nothing that isn't obvious, eh?" I said, grinning wickedly.

"Plenty of people, natives and immigrants both - I'd use your phrase: why not? - would say you've just committed blasphemy, that we've done nothing but slaughter and pollute in what was, for all practical purposes, paradise on earth."