"Right," said Hyphen-Smythe. "Now men—"

"And that includes you, too, Hyphen-Smythe!" Blood thundered.

The astonished inspector simply gaped at him in disbelief.

"All right," said Blood through gritted teeth, "you"—he pointed at Kira—"sit

down!" He pointed to a chair. Kira sat. "You"—he pointed at Wyrdrune—"over

there." He indicated another chair. "You, young Slade, stand right over there

in

the corner where I can see you, and don't you move a muscle, hear me? You"—he

pointed at Hyphen-Smythe—"out!"

"But—"

"Out!"

With his lips tightly compressed, Hyphen-Smythe drew himself up and stiffly

left

the office.

"Danny," Blood said, "if one more person comes barging into this office—"

"Where the hell is everybody?" Makepeace said, sweeping into the room.

"What's

going on? Are we under arrest or what? This is an outrage! I demand to speak

with the American embassy!"

Blood sank down into his chair with a groan and put his head in his hands.

"Oh,

sod all!" he said. He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and took out a

bottle

of Scotch and a water glass. He filled the glass, kicked back in his chair,

put

his feet up on the desk, and toasted them all. "Cheers," he said, and tossed

back the whole glass.

CHAPTER SIX

V ery well, let me see if I have all this straight," said Blood, wearily

rubbing the bridge of his nose. It was about half an hour later, and the

bottle

of Scotch was half empty. He glanced at Wyrdrune and consulted his notepad.

"Your legal name is Melvin Katpinski, but you go by the magename of Wyrdrune,

this despite the fact that you are not certified as an adept."

"There's no law that says I have to be certified as an adept to use a

magename,"

Wyrdrune protested. "I'm free to call myself by any name I choose."

"Indeed you are, but unless you are a certified adept or enrolled in an

accredited program of thaumaturgical study, you are not free to practice

magic.

And, according to this arrest report, a number of witnesses saw you use a

spell

of teleportation. Aside from that, you seem to have no visible means of

support,

and yet you are staying in the Dorchester, one of the finest hotels in