"There will be," Modred said. "The appearance of a demon can be fairly noisy, usually accompanied by

a sound of rushing wind, sometimes even a small thunderclap, and the sound of the demon itself. It might

not be loud enough to be heard outside the house, but a thaumagene's senses will easily pick it up."

"There will be," Modred said. "The appearance of a demon can be fairly noisy, usually accompanied by

a sound of rushing wind, sometimes even a small thunderclap, and the sound of the demon itself. It might

not be loud enough to be heard outside the house, but a thaumagene's senses will easily pick it up."

"It's possible," said Kira. "There are a lot of ways this whole thing could go wrong. But think positive.

Maybe we'll get lucky."

Loomis sighed. "We sure as hell could use some luck."

"You might as well try to relax," said Modred. "This could take a while."

"I don't know what the worst part is," said Loomis, "the waiting or knowing that you'll zap out of here

the moment it goes down and I won't know what the hell is going on. Look, if it comes down, why can't

you take me with you?"

"We've already discussed that," Modred interrupted him. "Teleporting you along with us is out of the

question. It would be too risky for you."

"That's what I'm paid for," Loomis said.

"I understand that," Modred said, "but the truth is, you'd only be in the way. Now we've studied the map

of the city as well as possible and we're reasonably certain by now that we can teleport to almost any

location with a minimum of risk, but there will still be risk and that risk will only be magnified by bringing

you along. To some extent, an adept can 'feel' his way through a teleportation, but only to some extent.

Teleporting someone else along with you always increases the risk unless you're exactly sure of where

you're going and what's there. Suppose we teleported and you wound up being materialized in a spot that

was already occupied by someone or something else?"

"Oh," said Loomis uneasily. "I hadn't thought of that."

"The most important part that you can play comes after," said Modred, "in devising a reasonably

plausible story for what happened."

"Oh, don't worry, I'll manage that okay," said Loomis. "It's the 'before' part that worries me. And I don't

like that we haven't been able to locate any of those Bureau agents." He snorted. "To think that I was

looking forward to the Bureau taking over this case! Instead of being helpful, they've turned into a wild

card. That Leary is a real piece of work."

"You like her, too, huh?" Kira said wryly.

"I know the type," said Loomis sourly. "I've known a few cops like her in my time. They're so convinced

they're right that they develop tunnel vision and just plain don't see anything that doesn't go along with

their preconceived notions or their interpretation of the evidence. Someone like that can foul up a case

something terrible. Right now, they're probably sitting around here somewhere, monitoring the police

band and just waiting to see what comes down so they can waltz in and tromp all over it."

"When it happens, it will happen very quickly," Modred said. "With any luck, they won't be in time to