Harry Turtledove - The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump

Then he called up their scriptorium spirit to take down my words. I repeated everything I’d said in Judy’s flat, and added detail to go with it. After a while, I paused and said,

“What time is it, anyhow?”

Johnson asked his watch. It said, “Nine forty-one.”

“Could you get me a sandwich or something?” I asked. “I came down here for a dinner date with Judy, and I haven’t eaten since lunch. We were going to try that new Numidian place—”

“Oh, Bocchus and Bacchus?” Johnson said. “Yeah, I’ve seen it advertised. I wouldn’t mind trying it myself. Hang on a minute, Mr. Fisher; I’ll find out what I can round up for you.”

Instead of couscous and Iamb, I had a greasy burger, greasier fries, and coffee I drank only because it would have been an environmental hazard if I’d poured it down the commode. Then I finished giving my statement, and then I said, “What do I do now?” This time I was asking the plainclothesman.

“By to live as normally as you can,” he said. I’d heard that advice before; I was sick of it. How are you supposed to live nomially when people are trying to kill you and they’ve abducted the person who matters most to you in the world?

Johnson must have understood that He raised a lightpalmed hand and went on, “I know it’s a taH order. What we’re going to have to do now is wait for contact—wait for either your fiancee or the people holding her to get in touch with you. Whatever their demands are, say you’ll comply and then let us know immediately.”

“But what if they-?” I couldn’t say it—absit omen and all that—but he knew what I meant “Mr. Fisher, the only consolation I can give you is that if they’d intended to commit homicide, they could have done it They must have some reason for wanting Mistress Ather alive.”

“Thanks,” I said from the bottom of my heart. It made sense. Now all I had to do was pray the kidnappers were sensible people. But if they were sensible people, would they have been kidnappers?

Johnson came around his desk, set a big hand on my ^ shoulder. “You just go on home now, Mr. Fisher. Try and get some rest Do you want one of our black-and-whites to fly up with you, make sure you’re not walking into a trap yourself?”

After a couple of seconds, I shook my head. He looked relieved, as if he’d regretted the offer as soon as he made it I suspected the Long Beach constables were stretched as thin as any other force. It’s an ugly world out there. I’d just had my nose rubbed in how ugly it can be.

He walked out to my carpet with me. “We’ll be in touch, sir. And we’ll also get in touch with that Legate Kawaguchi of yours, and with Central Intelligence, and with the CBI, too, because it’s a kidnapping… What’s funny, sir?”

“I can get in touch with the CBI,” I said. “I work two floors under their Angels City office.” I wondered if Saul Klein would get involved in the case. Nice to have one landsman around, anyhow. He’d certainly be more comfortable to work with than the CI spook; Henry Legion was unnerving.

Johnson patted me on the shoulder again, sent me on my way. I remember very little about flying back to Hawthorne—too much else on my mind, too little of it good. I propitiated the Watcher for my block of flats, glided into the garage, got off my carpet, and headed for the stairway. Once I was inside the building, I didn’t worry about how late it was, or how dark. Stupid, I know, especially after what had happened to Judy. I suppose you’ve never done anything stupid, eh?

A vampire stood grinning at the bottom of the stairs.

Modem medicine can do a lot for vampires: periodic blood impplants to stifle their hunting urge, heliotrope badis to let them go abroad between dawn and dusk (never on Sunday; the correspondence between real and symbolic sun is too strong then), sun-spectacles to keep them from being blinded when they do fare forth by day. Those who choose to—and, I admit, those who can afford to—take advantage of such techniques can lead largely normal lives.

Not all do. Some would sooner follow their instincts and prowl. I hadn’t heard of vampires in Hawdiome, but I wasn’t shocked to encounter one. For one tiling, I dunk I was beyond shock; for another, as I’ve said, this is a pretty rough little town.

Just for an instant, I wondered if he was connected with the bastards who’d taken Judy. I had my doubts. Vampires, if I can mix a metaphor, are usually lone wolves. Odds are, this one was just trying to keep himself fed. Random street crime, however, is just as dangerous to its victim as one that targets him in particular.

The vampire’s eyes glittered. I knew that if I looked into them for very long I’d be fascinated, and then the bloodsucker could do whatever it wanted with me. I reached under my shirt, pulled out something on a chain round my neck.

The vampire must have drought it was going to be a crucifix. Its fanged mouth opened in a scornful laugh. A lot of vampires, especially the ones that survive for very long in Christian countries, are of Balkan Muslim blood, and so immune to the skin of the cross.

But I didn’t pull out a cross. What I wore instead was a mystic Jewish amulet, a seven-by-seven acrostic prepared by the same Mage Abramelin Works that made my blasting rod.

I yanked it off over my head and direw the kaballistic missile at the vampire.

He had quick reflexes—he caught it before it hit him in the face. But that didn’t do him any good. His cry of pain turned to an anguished howl. The Hebrew term for vampires is kepiloth—“empty ones”—and it’s a good description.

Because they’ve lost so much humanity, they’re extremely vulnerable to magical countermeasures. When the acrostic based on the Hebrew word for “dog” hit this one, he had no choice but to transform.

“Get out of here, you son of a bitch!” I yelled, and drew back my foot to give him a good lack. He fled, yelping, tail between his legs.

I picked up the amulet, hung it back around my neck, and trudged upstairs to my flat. Only later, when I was lying down and trying to sleep, did it occur to me that if I hadn’t been emotionally drained from what had happened to Judy, the vampire might have made me panic and drained me in the literal sense before I thought of the amulet. As it was, I just took him in stride and did the right thing without even thinking about it Every so often, lying there, I’d ask my watch what time it was. The last answer I remember getting was 2:48.

Going to work on three hours’ sleep is one of those nightmares everybody has once or twice. A lot of the time, a new baby in the house is the reason. Not for me. Thinking about a baby made me think about Judy. We’d had so many plans—I didn’t want to think about throwing them all away.

A cup of coffee with breakfast. Another cup of cafeteria mud the minute I got in, and another one right after that One more half an hour later. I felt myself wind tighter and tighter. By God, I’d get through the day. If tonight ever came, I’d probably be too buzzed to sleep then. One things at a time, though. Get through the day first. That meant more phone calls. I didn’t feel the least bit guflty about using my office; my personal affairs and those of the toxic spell dump case had become inextricably intertwined. First I called Saul Klein upstairs.

“Saul, this is David Fisher down in the EPA again,” I said. “I want—no, I don’t want to, but I have to—report a kidnapping.”

“This is the report that we received from the Long Beach constabulary last night?” he asked. When I said yes, he went on, “Is dus connected with the minisingers case you were telling me about a little while ago?”

I’d forgotten the minisingers. I discovered that, along with tired and worried, I could be embarrassed, too. “No, it doesn’t have anything to do with dial. If you’ve received that Long Beach report, Saul, does that mean you’ll be on the case?”