Its claws held what the Chumash called the Great Eagle. I will admit, a golden eagle with a body the size of a Siberian tiger's is pretty Great - under other circumstances, as Michael had put it Up against the Garuda Bird, the Chumash Eagle might as well have been a sparrow.

The Eagle, unlike the Lizard, didn't try to fight. It wriggled, twisted, broke free, and streaked for the sky. I feared it would get away: it seemed so much more graceful in the air than the ponderous Garuda Bird. But the contest wasn't only, or even mostly, bird body against bird body. It was magic against magic, too, and the Garuda Bird had not only its native Indian potency but also all the souping up the Loki Kobold Works had given its sorcerous systems. It didn't just fly - it was destined for space. It shot after the Eagle faster than the eye could follow.

High in the sky, the Eagle tried to dodge - if it couldn't flee the Garuda Bird, maybe it could outjink it But no. One of those immense feet closed on it, and this time there was no escape. I heard a despairing shriek fade and the. Hovering above the dump, the Garuda Bird devoured its prey. A couple of big feathers came spiraling down into the containment area - all that was left of the Chumash Eagle.

"We'll have to decontaminate those," Yolanda said.

"As soon as you do, there's another Chumash Power that won't show up in the Barony of Angels again," I said. As an EPA inspector, I felt bad about that. As somebody who was wondering whether he'd still be alive five minutes from now, I figured I'd worry about the long-term consequences of the Great Eagle's demise later, if there was a later.

High overhead, the Garuda Bird let out a roar that made all its earlier cries seem like whispers. It folded its wings and stooped like a hawk onto the Nothing. I braced myself - uselessly, I knew. When that bulk hit, the earth wouldn't just shake, it would quake, San Andreas notwithstanding.

A split second before the Bird's talons seized the Nothing, another psychic pop sounded in my head, this one bigger than the other two put together. The talons closed on empty air - the Nothing was gone. Somehow - sorcerously, of course, but don't ask me about the Kobold Works' proximity spells, because I don't know from nothin' - the Bird stopped in midair without touching the ground.

I looked out at the far wall of the Devonshire dump, and it seemed only as far away as it should have. The sense of the imminent immanence of something eminently dreadful's becoming dreadfully evident was gone, too. I looked over at Tony Sudakis. "I think you can tell the cacodemons to shut up," I yelled at him.

He flipped me a salute-casual but, I thought, not faked - and trotted back toward his office. As he did so, the Garuda Bird rose into the air (without a single flap) and headed east, back toward Burbank. That took more weight off my mind: my guess was that the Bird would have stayed around had it sensed any remaining trouble.

Just the same, I walked over to the spot on the path from which I'd first noticed the Nothing, a million years ago: that's what it felt like, anyhow. I wasn't quite there yet when the cacodemons closed their mouths. Sudden silence hit me as hard as the squalls of alarm had before.

I knew just where that spot was now. I looked out across the weed-strewn dirt toward the Nothing and saw - nothing.

I was never so glad not to capitalize an °n" in my whole life. ' "I think they're gone," I said, words which ranked right up there with the first dme I told Judy, I love you.

"I believe you are correct," Michael said. "What we sensed, in my opinion, was the Chumash Powers abandoning any contact with This Side to keep the Garuda Bird from reaching into their encystment, dragging them out one by one, and destroying them. Thaumaturgic analysis will eventually confirm or refute this, but it is a tenable working hypothesis."

"I'm with you," Yolanda said. "If they went away like that, they won't be back." She wiped her forehead with a sleeve.

I'm not sure she really grasped just how bad a hazmat she'd helped hold at bay, but none of what her team did for a living was easy.

"Perkunas and the Nine Suns, I hope not." Tony Sudakis clutched his amber amulet in one beefy fist.

"Let me use your phone one more time?" I asked him.

"I'll call Professor Blank at UCAC; he's been running a study for me to find out whether the Chumash Powers really have become extinct. I think we can safely say two of them have, but he'd be the best fellow to evaluate what's become of the others."

"Be my guest." Sudakis waved me toward the blockhouse.

It wouldn't have done a bit of good against what had almost come forth from the dump, but suddenly it looked strong and secure again.

I got hold of Blank. He was still in his office, wondering, I suppose, whether the building was going to collapse around him. When I told him what had happened at the dump, he let out a sigh of relief so heartfelt even phone imps couldn't spoil it, then promised to send his research team out as fast as carpets could get from UCAC to Chatsworth. Since it was heading into late afternoon, that wouldn't be any too fast, but the urgency level had gone down, too.

Then I called Legate Kawaguchi to see how the constables were doing at Chocolate Weasel. Him I didn't get; instead, some other constable bawled in my ear, "You can't talk to him, bud, whoever you are. He's down at the war, and I'm headin' that way myself." He hung up with a crash that that phone imps did an uncanny job of reproducing.

That sent me out of Tony's office on the run. I filled him in on what Blank had said, then passed on the rest of the word to Michael. The only thing that can mean is Chocolate Weasel, I think," I said. "We'd better get over there as fast as we can."

"I concur," Michael said.

Yolanda - her last name, I finally had the chance to notice on her badge, was Simmons - said, "Where's this Chocolate Weasel place? Sounds like we might do some good there, too."

"Your team is welcome to follow my carpet," Michael said.

"Will the health of the gentleman who collapsed suffice for the venture?"

"I'm okay," the gentleman said, and sat up to try to prove it. He still didn't look okay, but he was game, anyhow. "All the stuff in here just overloaded my protective systems for a minute there."

"It's liable to be worse at Chocolate Weasel," I said, but he shook his head - he didn't think it was possible. I envied him his innocence.

The security guard put down the footbridge for us, and we trooped out. Then the fellow took off his uniform cap and bowed, which made me feel great. The guard might not have know who'd done what, but summoning the Garuda Bird wasn't something you could ignore.

Thanks to the cacodemons' announcing an emergency evacuation, traffic around the dump was unbelievably snarled. We passed Chocolate Weasel's address on to the hazmat team and followed them instead of the other way round: they had constabulary lanterns on their carpets, which helped move people out of their way.

About halfway to Chocolate Weasel, we met head-on a rush away from that area. I gulped, remembering what the constable who'd answered Kawaguchi's phone had said about a war. Maybe he hadn't been exaggerating.

A constable in full combat gear, material and thaumaturgic, was turning back traffic heading in Chocolate Weasel's direction. The hazmat team's lanterns got them through;

Yolanda's shouted encouragement and our EPA sigils did the job for us.

"You know, Michael," I said, "just once today, I'd like to fly away from the scene of a disaster."

"I have considerable sympathy for this point of view," he answered. "However-"

"Yeah," I said. When duty calls, you'd better do it. Doing it and liking it, though, were not the same critter.

When Yolanda asked another constable exactly where we were going, he directed her to a command post at the comer of Nordhoff and Soto's. The reason that was the command post, I discovered when we followed her there, was that it was as close to Chocolate Weasel as you could get without being in immediate danger of getting yourself messily lolled.