“Boy, have you seen this place?” the broom said, swishing into the

room and carrying a tray with coffee cups. “Not a speck of dust!

And this is a bachelor, no less, living by himself! The kitchen is

clean, no dirty dishes in the sink, everything is put away, the

clothes are neatly folded, he doesn’t just toss them on the floor like

some people I could mention…”

“Not now, Broom, ” Wyrdrune said. “We’re tryng to talk. This is

important.”

“Well, excuse me, Mr. Big Shot. Everything’s always so

important, far be it from me to interfere.”

“Broom…”

“I know, I know, you’re busy saving the world. I’m just along to

fold your underwear. Who cares about me? I don’t count for

anything. I should just stay in the broom closet, where I belong.”

The broom sniffed and swept out of the room. Wyrdrune covered

his eyes and sighed. “I’m getting a migraine.”

Fugisawa chuckled.

“I think we should go and confront Kobayashi, ” Kira said. “Make

the bastard cooperate. He can put a lot of people on the streets. We

stand a much better chance of finding Kanno with him than

without him. And wherever Kanno is, Leila can’t be far away.

They’ve got to be holed up somewhere.”

“In a city the size of Tokyo, that could be anywhere, ” said

Wyrdrune. “But she’s got a point. It’ll be hard enough trying to find

them without having both the police and the Yakuza out looking for

us.”

“And the I. T. C. as well, ” said Fugisawa. “I’ve heard they’re

sending in a field agent to oversee the Bureau task force.”

The phone rang. Fugisawa went to answer it. The conversation

was brief.

“That was headquarters, ” he said. “They’ve been trying to track

me down. They’ve found the chauffeur and the bodies in the

basement. They haven’t discovered the entrance to the underground

mall yet. If any trace emanations are detected from the warding

spell that conceals the entrance, they’ll probably be attributed to