said Wyrdrune. "How do you think he's going to feel about being kidnapped and

magically induced to drink himself into a stupor?"

"Yes, well, I think he may listen to reason," Makepeace said. "Nothing like a

hangover to make one more receptive. After all, we did try our best to

explain

things to him, and he simply wasn't listening, so something had to be done."

"Wouldn't we be better off looking for Modred on our own?" said Kira. "If we

get

the police involved, we're only going to have problems."

"They can probably save us a great deal of work," said Merlin, causing

Wyrdrune,

sitting right across from him, to do a double take. It was hard to get used

to

the way that Merlin and Billy kept switching personalities back and forth

without any warning.

"Maybe," Kira said, "but assuming that we could even get them to believe us

about the Dark Ones, they'd immediately want to notify the B.O.T. and turn it

over to their agents. And when you have that many people who know about it,

there's no way you'll be able to keep it from the public. They'll panic.

They'll

suspect every magic user they see of being a necromancer.

"Besides," she continued, "we can't afford to have anyone check us out too

closely. After you died, Professor..." She paused, shaking her head. "Man,

that

sounds weird! Well, let's put it this way, since the last time we saw you,

Modred got some of his people to cut a deal with the Annendale Corporation

and

Boston Mutual. He paid them off to drop the charges against us. The United

Semitic Republics were so happy to get rid of Al'Hassan that they went along

and

dropped all charges too. But that simply means that there aren't any

outstanding

warrants against us. We're no longer wanted for stealing the milestones, but

we're not quite home free, not by a long shot.

"The N.Y.P.D. and the Boston Police still have files on us," she explained,

"and

by now so does the B.O.T. I'll bet the Bureau is just dying to bring us in

for

questioning. Morgana was one of their agents, remember? And so far as the

Bureau

knows, she simply disappeared while working on our case. We know she died,

and

we know how it happened, but we can't explain it to the Bureau without

telling

them about the Dark Ones, or that Agent Fay Morgan was actually an immortal

sorceress named Morgan Le Fay. And that means we can't talk to the Bureau at

all, which means we can't talk to the police." She jerked a thumb at the

bedroom

door. "Chief Inspector Blood has just become a liability. If you want my,

advice, I'd give him a good case of amnesia and send him home."

"I can see your point," said Merlin, "but I'm not convinced that it would be

the

wisest choice. I still think we'd be better off having the police working