"Christ," said Loomis. "That doesn't give us much time. And we haven't got any damn leads at all.

There's no way we'll be able to investigate all the adepts in this town before Friday. And the goddamn

Bureaustill hasn't responded to Paul's report. What the hell are those people doing? You'd think they'd

send in an army of agents to deal with something like this!"

"Christ," said Loomis. "That doesn't give us much time. And we haven't got any damn leads at all.

There's no way we'll be able to investigate all the adepts in this town before Friday. And the goddamn

Bureaustill hasn't responded to Paul's report. What the hell are those people doing? You'd think they'd

send in an army of agents to deal with something like this!"

"

"So where the hell are they? We're running out of time."

"There's a possibility that they may be here already," Modred said, "operating undercover."

"And they haven't bothered to contact me?" Loomis asked.

"I don't know," said Modred, improvising. "For obvious reasons, the open arrival of a group of Bureau

field agents would be undesirable. They would attract attention. So it's possible that the Bureau has

already responded to Paul's report. On the other hand, something may have gone wrong. The Bureau's

been known to drop the ball. That report might have been misplaced."

"Terrific," Loomis said sourly. "So what the hell are we supposed to do meanwhile?"

"I have contacts in the Bureau," Modred said. "I'll look into it and find out what the situation is."

"Do that," said Loomis. "In the meantime, I'm not going to wait around to see what the Bureau's going to

do. I'm putting every man I've got out in the streets tonight. And I'm going to interrogate every adept in

town."

"You'll never get to them all by Friday," Paul said.

"I'll get to as many of them as I can," Loomis replied. "How long does it take for you to use that

sensitivity of yours to check somebody out?"

Paul hesitated. "Only a matter of seconds, usually. Only I really don't know if that would be wise. I don't

think it would be legal, for one thing, for you to act on information I might pick up telepathically."

"Dammit, Paul, we've got no choice!" said Loomis. "I haven't got anything else to go on. You're it, you're

all I've got. If we start now, we might get lucky."

Paul glanced at Modred uncertainly. "I suppose you're right," he said. "There doesn't seem to be any

other way . . ."

"Then it's settled," Loomis said. "Mike, if you can get through to your contacts at the Bureau and find out

what the hell is going on, get on it. I'm going to go and set up a task force to cover the streets tonight and

every night from now on. I'll have a car drop you off at your place, then I'll pick you up myself in one

hour and we'll get started." He glanced at Modred. "Have you got a piece?"

"I have no permit to carry in the States," said Modred.

"Come on, Cornwall, don't rattle my chain. Have you got one or not?"

"A 10-mm Colt semiautomatic," Modred replied.