The Case of the Mangled Millionaire or 
The Case of the Maligned Margrave

     It's raining in Crystal Tokyo this morning. Not a cold, hard
thunderstorm that forces everyone to find shelter and wonder to
themselves if the sun is ever going to come out again. No, we get
a gentle, soft drizzle that will gently soak the ground and be
gone before noon.

     Sheesh. Even the weather around here is sweet and good
natured. It's not bad enough that I have to put up with clean
streets, well-maintained buildings, happy citizens, and a very
helpful police force. No poverty, very few homeless vagrants, and
in this Burg, the term `Organized Crime' can only be used in the
loosest sense of the term. It's a good thing Beryl never saw this
- I think all the sweetness and light would have killed her in
minutes.

     And who am I to say such wonderful things about Crystal
Tokyo? Name's Magnesite. I'm the best PI in Crystal Tokyo. All
right, the only PI in Crystal Tokyo, but I'm still the best. Just
your average former Youma-now-a-phychoplasmic-ghost-turned-PI....

     It's a living, considering the alternative. I spent 700
years locked up inside a crystal, and when I was freed on
Serenity's orders, I was given three choices. I could try to fit
into this squeaky clean society, go back into the crystal, or
fight the combined might of the Renegades and the Senshi and die.
I wasn't ready to die, I sure wasn't about to go back into that
crystal, so I chose the first option.

     The problem is I need human energy to stay in a corporeal
form. Without it, I fade away like a bad TV signal. I can't go
around taking it at will, as that would certainly piss off all the
Senshi, which I have found is not a bright idea. So, I have to
work for a living, just like anyone else in CT. Only instead of
being paid money, I get paid in life force. Lucky for me, because
if I was a human PI dependent on money, I would have starved in
this job a long time ago.

     I deal mostly with divorce cases, suspicious spouses,
missing property, with the occasional juicy case every so often
to liven things up. I thank the Abyss that there's still some
darkness in the human soul, even in a place like CT. I'm never
going to be the Youma I used to be, but I'm not doing too bad,
considering the alternatives. 

     It had been a good couple of weeks for business. I had
finished a nice messy divorce case involving a woman, her
husband, his mistress and her hairdresser. I'm still not sure how
that will turn out in court. I did think the wife's attempt to
drown the mistress by sticking her head into a large bowl of
fruit punch during the husband's birthday party was amusing. Sort
of restores my lack of faith in most of the human race. I also
had a couple of tailing jobs that weren't worth the lifeforce
energy I took for payment.

     From my window, I was watching the people walking on the
street several stories below my office, and waiting for the rain
to end when I saw her. She was on this side of the street, coming
towards the building I'm in. Every so often, she looked up in my
direction, as if she's trying to see if I'm in.

     She was tall, with a figure that would give most men a
serious case of whiplash as they did a double take. A big black
hat with a wide brim covered her face most of the time, but when
she did look up, the face matched the figure. She wore a funeral
outfit - a tight black dress, elbow long black gloves, black
shoes, and a black purse.

     Just as I started to turn away from the window, the woman's
form blured for a fraction of a second, then adjusted itself again.
Well, well, well. The person below is using a glamour, which
means trouble for somebody in one form or another. I waited until
the woman climbed the stairs leading into the building before I
turned, sat down behind my desk and poured a large shot of scotch
into my glass. 

     I picked up my glass and look at it. As I did so, my mind
started listing people who can and do use glamours. Despite
contrary opinion, glamour magic is still too new to be widely
used. Only a few people in CT have good glamour magic, and most
don't want to be seen anywhere near me.

     The Senshi don't bother - they run the city after all, and
don't need to sneak around. That includes my old nemesis, Rei,
who is still convinced that letting me out of the crystal was a
bad idea. Not that Sailor Mars - sorry, LADY Mars - needs any
help in being pissed off at me. 

     The Renegades? More likely, but whom? Calcite? He's not even
in the city right now. There have been rumors floating around
that him and Minako had another one of their knock down, drag out
fight a couple of months ago. That supposely resulted in several 
rooms having to be condemned and having to be completely rebuilt. 
If those two split again, it would really break my heart, if I had
one - either physically or metaphorically.

     Pyrite? Assuming you can drag him out of his lab, and that
would take something serious, say the end of the world. Also, I
doubt he'd go for the Man-eater look - the Mr. Spock or Bones
McCoy look maybe, but not the femme fatale.

     How about Pyrite other half, Azurite? Not likely. Sure,
she'd go for the hourglass figure glamour in a heartbeat, but
there's no way she'd voluntarily get with screaming distance of
me. Besides which, she's got more than enough natural firepower
to eliminate most problems that would arise, including me.

     And while Azurite isn't willing to come near me, Titanite is
more then willing to blast me on sight, no matter how far away I
was at the time. When we were in the last days of the Dark
Kingdom, she and I had a small misunderstanding - I was trying to
kill her, and she didn't want to die. She wouldn't use a glamour
to see me - she'd just come blasting in and turn me into a teddy
bear, just like the one I have stuffed into a desk drawer.

     That just leaves one person who could, or would, use a
glamour - Margrave. She's the only one in this merry municipality
I have any respect for. When I was released from the crystal, she
took it upon herself to explain the new facts of life to me.
Of course, she took great pleasure in informing me that I had
gone from being an up-and-comer in the Dark Kingdom to a
semicorpreal has-been, in only seven hundred years. Still, she's
the one that pulled the strings that got me this office,
position, and chance to stay clean in this asylum for the
terminally happy.

     I heard footsteps walking down the hall, and I could see a
shadow in the frosted window of my door. I downed the scotch in one
shot and placed the glass on the desk. It's times like this I
wish I could feel the alcohol run down my throat, and settle into
my stomach, but I don't have a real throat or a stomach. One of
the items on the downside of being a psychoplasmic ghost.

     I then put my feet on the desk, crossed my arms, and said,
"Come on in, the door's unlocked."

     The bombshell from the street walks in, looking scared. She
glanced around the room, sniffing the air. Lucky for her that I
ran out of cigarettes yesterday, so the air in here is somewhat
breathable. Another blurring of the dame's form happened, but this
time, it's more then a fraction of a second before it firms up
again.

     "Have a seat, Margrave," I said, waving to the chair in front
of the desk. "And can you turn off that glamour? It's a major
distraction."

     "Only if you loose the fedora and trenchcoat."

     "Sorry, no can do. Union regulations." That and that they
are literally a part of me. Being a psychoplasmic ghost has some
advantages.

     She sat down, and the glamour faded, leaving CT's leading
courtesan sitting in my client's chair, looking like a long
tailed white Persian cat in a room full of rocking chairs. She
suddenly glared at me, and I realized I've been narrating out
loud again. It's a side effect of spending seven hundred years
reliving every Bogie movie ever made. I still can't break the
habit.

     "What can I do for you today?" I asked, watching her. "Got
another husband looking for dirt on his unfaithful wife?"

     She shook her head. "Worse. I have a murder case for you to
solve."

     "Oh?" Now I'm really interested. Murder in CT is rare, very
rare. I remembered a couple of years ago there was a shakeup in the
city's police department because the number of murders for the
year before had actually reached double figures. The press really
ate that one up. "Who is the victim?"

     "Quinton Kallion."

     I let out a low whistle. "The millionaire? The head of
KallionCo?"

     "The same."

     "Then why bring it to me? I'm sure there's a bunch of bright
and eager police detectives down at the station waiting to handle
this for you." 
     
     She leaned forward and stared at me angrily. "Because," she
hisses at me, "he died in my place of business, while he was with
me!"

     Now, it's beginning to make sense. While I'm a PI to earn my
energy, Margrave earns hers the old fashioned way, practicing the
world's oldest profession. She enjoys what she's doing for a
living, and she has more then enough eager clients for her
services. I knew she had some high powered patrons, but I hadn't
realized how high powered. "Was it a heart attack?"

     "There isn't enough of the heart left to find out!"

     I blinked twice. "Come again?"

     "He was torn apart." Her words had the cold stillness of
someone in shock. "One minute I'm leading him into the bedroom,
the next, I'm looking down at my hands wondering where the blood
came from."

     Suddenly, other things click into place. Margrave's looking
a lot twitchier than usual. Still, finding you just turned a
client into hamburger is the sort of thing that can really upset
dames. Definitely ruins the mood.

     "If you're done with the brooding monologues can we get back
to my little problem?"

     "Sure doll, but what do you expect me to do about it? Open
and shut case, you got a little excited and tore him apart. 
Maybe you can get away with manslaughter but ..."

     "Dammit, I didn't kill him!  I ..."

     "Not on purpose, sure. Bad for business. But while my
memories of the Kingdom are a little hazy, I seem to remember
when Calcite worked for me he'd sometimes show up with your marks
on him. Nothing he couldn't handle but humans are a lot more
fragile."

     "Idiot! I've been in business for centuries. Have you ever 
heard of any of my clients turning up dead?"

     "No. For that matter if they did you'd never have lasted
this long."

     "Right. Nobody gets hurt...well not unless that's what they
want and even there I know where to draw the line."  
     
     Makes sense but I'm wondering how she manages that. Like I
said humans break easily and loss of control is something of a
given. "So how...?"

     "How do I manage it?" I nod and she tells me, "There's what
I call a suppresser reflex...well, reflex is the wrong word as
you have to consciously engage it. I think it's a leftover from
Metallia's engineered evolution. Keep the breeding stock from 
tearing each other apart. Result is part of my mind stays in
control and minimizes the biting and clawing. Accessing it is
almost second nature to clawed types like me. I learned how to
engage it pretty young but I had to teach Titanite..."

    "Titanite?  What's this got to do with her."

    "Think it through, dolt. She's a Youma, her partners are
human. Someone had to teach her how not to injure them and it
never occurred to her relatives. Azzie and Pyrite never had the
problem and while Calcite's self control kept him from injuring
his human partners it never occurred to him that his sister was
in the same boat. Idiot kept thinking of her as the sweet and
innocent kid he watched over and didn't notice she'd grown up. 
So I taught her a few things."

     That creates a few interesting mental pictures.  "What
exactly did you teach her ..."

     "Get your mind out of the gutter! She got theoretical 
instruction not practical demos. Don't ever suggest otherwise!"  

     Hmmm, definitely a little twitchy about Titanite. Still,
Polaris is her major defender so she can't get stories
circulating that might alienate Titanite. Not after all this time
conning her into thinking she's got a heart of gold.  

     "Okay so you've got some mental switch that keeps you from 
injuring a weaker lover.  I take it you didn't have to worry
about this with Calcite."

      "Right. No more than he has to worry about Minako. Or vice
versa."

      "So you've been stuck leaving the switch on for centuries
which must be aggravating. So last night you finally hit your
limit, got fed up and switched it off. End result was you turned
that poor slob into..."

     "Dammit, I didn't!  I've been framed.  Someone used me to
kill him!"

     "How's that?"

     "Someone shut down the suppresser. Maybe a psychic, maybe
they used magic but they did it. They wanted to get rid of
Quinton Kallion and turned me into their murder weapon."

     "Interesting theory. So why not go to Rei and have her read
your mind. That would establish you're innocent...relatively
speaking."

     She shakes her head. "Two problems. That'll only prove I
believe that's what happened. If I've gone loopy then my sense of
reality is gone and my memories can't be trusted. Besides I 
really don't want her in my head again."

     "Could mean life or death."

     "Yeah but not in the way you mean. That's the other problem. 
The reading would have to be done at a public inquest. Publicity
is the last thing I need! Even if I get found innocent it's the
charge that'll be remembered. How many clients am I going to get
if rumors start that I might kill them? This could ruin me. I'm
not ready to start getting old!" She's getting a little
hysterical but stops and takes a deep breath. 

     When she resumes she's under control again. "Now, if I can
prove I was manipulated and produce the real killer then this
need not come to trial. I've got enough connections to get this
quietly swept under the rug, same as that Adamite mess."

     "That what?"

     "Before your time and not important. That's where you come
in."

     "Why not tell your story to the police?"

     "Because I have zero proof and can't trust them to
investigate seriously. On the other hand, you owe me quite a bit
which should motivate you."

      I have to smile. "Except that if you get Flame Snipered..."

      "...All your IOUs pass to Ti according to my will." She's
smiling but I'm not anymore. I really don't want to be in debt to
Titanite. She'd love an excuse to ruin me! Aren't they supposed
to forgive and forget?

      "I get the point. Okay, so if I find the killer..."

      "I'll cancel all your debts for the 28th century."

      "I was thinking more like all of them." I owe her quite a
bit from when they brought me back plus a few favors this
century.

      "Not a chance." I study her and realize she's not bluffing. 
Her life's on the line and she's not going to give and inch. 
Hell of a dame. Makes me wish I was still flesh and blood.

      "You're a real hardcase, lady."

      "Takes one to know one, Maggie."

      "However that crack just cost you another 25 years. Take 
it or leave it."  

     She glares at me before muttering, "Fine, solve this and
we're clear 2700 to 2825." 

     I figure that's the best I'm going to get so I tell her,
"Congratulations, you just hired the best PI in Crystal Tokyo."

      "I just hired the only PI in Crystal Tokyo."

      "Details. Now I'll just revise my contract, you can sign it
and I'll get to work. While I'm doing that you can tell me about
the late Mr. Quinton Kallion."

      Time to get my brain in gear. So far, I'd say there are
three possibilities. First, Margrave slipped up and is either
trying to set up a good story or has suppressed the memory. 
Second, she's telling the truth and someone had it in for Quinton
Kallion. Or, something that hasn't occurred to her yet, she's the
real target and Quinton Kallion is just the innocent bystander. 
She's made to rip the guy apart and the Senshi fry her for it. 
Margrave is dead, the killer has what they wanted and no one is
any the wiser. Question is who hates her that much...apart from
many jealous wives and girlfriends. 

     Could be trickier than I thought. Whoever did it I'd better
find an answer fast. The clock is ticking.

*******

     It takes me thirty minutes, and what was left of the bottle
of scotch, to get all the details of the victim and the crime out
of Margrave. She's less twitchy now, though I'm not sure if it's
from the liquor or the fact someone's listening to her story.
Margrave was hesitant about explaining her relationship with
Kallion, until I gently reminded her that I didn't need to know
ALL the details, just the important ones. With a little prodding
from me, she lays it out for me, chapter and verse.

     Quinton Kallion, age fifty-five, but the pictures I have
seen of him in the newspapers made him look ten years younger. He
had been CEO and president of KallionCo, one of CT's largest
corporations, and a major business leader in the city. Wife's
been dead for five years, so there's no jealous spouse hanging
around to make my number one suspect. He has one daughter, age
sixteen, who's away in Europe right now. 

      He'd been a regular of hers for the last three years, the
first Monday of each month at ten o'clock in the morning, just
like clockwork. Sometimes, he stayed and talked to her afterwards
about things on his mind, and other times they never got past the
talking stage. As I listened, I got the feeling that she really
like this guy, and not just as a client.   

     Today was the same as every other visit. He showed up on
time, and met Margrave in her reception room. She remembered
leading him into her "Office," and him sitting on the bed,
talking about a minor problem he'd been having with a department
head. The next thing she remembered is she's kneeling next to the
bed, staring at her blood covered claws, while what was left of
poor Quinton was splattered across much of the bedroom. She only
stopped long enough to tell her receptionist to call the police,
then came it hightailing over here to spill her story before Rei
and CT's finest could grab her.

     I sat on the edge of the desk and looked at her. She looked
calmer then when she'd come in here, but she still had an air of
fear and confusion about her that I had never seen before. Unlike
the others, Margrave's never really fit into the city's society,
and she never will. Until now, she's used that incompatibility
like a cloak of honor to thumb her nose at the city's high and
mighty. But now, she realizes that cloak is full of holes, and
the winter wind is coming.

     She looked down at the glass of scotch in her hands and then
up at me, frowning. "You've said some real stupid things in the
past, but that has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard you
say."

     I groaned. "I was narrating out loud again, wasn't I?"

     "You got it." She downed the rest of the scotch in one go,
and placed the glass on the desk.

     "How much this time?"

     "The entire cloak business. That's tacky, even for you."

     "I'll keep it in mind." I picked up the now empty scotch
bottle, and drop it into the trash can. The thud of the bottle
hitting the bottom of the can was the only sound in the room for
several seconds. "What exactly did Kallion talk to you about?"

     She shrugged. "Business mostly. Plans the corporation was
making, finances, some problems with a couple of projects the
company was having, and deals he was working on. Sometimes, he
talked about his wife and daughter, and how he missed them both."

     "What about the last month or so? Anything unusual?"

     She thought for a minute, then nodded. "He seemed a bit
tense about a month ago. After I relaxed him, I asked him about
it, seeing as he wasn't usually that tense. He told me he thought
there was a spy inside his company."

     "Oh?" That had some possibilities. "What made him think
that?"

     "He said that over the last couple of months, he thought
that sensitive information had been obtained from KallionCo.
Important project papers would disappear for a day or two, and
turn up misfiled. Computer crystals containing important
information would appear and disappear almost at will. Personnel
would vanish for a couple of days, then turn up with no memory of
where they were."

     Better and better. I now have something I can work with.
"What type of information did he think was getting out?"

     "That's what had him worried. He thought that the leaks
involved several defense related projects KallionCo is doing for
the Queen."

     "Any suspects?"

     Margrave shook her head. "If he did suspect someone, he
never told me."

     Before I could ask anything else, I sensed the oncoming
presence of a Senshi. And only one of them would bother to come
down here. I stood up. "Trouble."

     She looked startled. "What?"

     She found out several seconds later when Rei flung the door
open and stormed in. She dressed in her Sailor Fuku, red high
heels that combined impracticability with awkwardness, and a
scowl that matched some of Beryl's better attempts. She looks at
me, then at Margrave, then back at me again.

     Rei relationship with me can best be described as caustic.
She is convinced I'm responsible for everything that has gone
wrong in the city in the last hundred years, no matter what it
is. Every day I walk free and unblasted makes her just a little
bit madder. Of course, since I'm not allowed to leave the city,
she just gets madder and madder. Just the way I like it.

     "Hello, Rei," I said mildly. "Come to hire me to find you a
boyfriend with his own asbestos underwear?"

     The look on her face gets even more impressive. "Don't press
your luck, Youma," she hissed.

     "Sorry," I replied. "I'm an ex-Youma." I looked at Margrave.
"See what I mean? She's getting testy with no one to use for
target practice - "

     "SHUT UP!" Rei yells, loud enough to rattle the windows. It
does have the desired effect though. I shut up. It takes several
seconds for her to get her temper under control again, long
enough for me to notice that Rei didn't come alone this time.
There were half a dozen Special Security types standing outside
my office, armed to the teeth, and ready to swarm in at the first
sign of trouble. 

     When Rei did get her temper under control, her words were
glacier cold. "If you say one more word to me, I'll haul you in
with your friend here, and keep you locked up until you fade
away. Understood?"

     I opened my mouth to say something scathing, take one look at
Rei's expression, and closed it again. That wasn't a threat from
her, but a promise. I sat down slowly, leaned back, and put my
feet up on the desk.

     "I thought I would find you here," she continued, glaring
down at Margrave, who's beginning to look twitchy again. I find
that Rei does have that effect on people anyway. "I arrest you on
suspicion of Murder," the Senshi continued formally. She placed a
hand on Margrave's shoulder. "In the death of Mr. Quinton
Kallion. Are you going to come along peaceably?" The way she said
the last sentence sounded to me like she expected Margrave to say
no.

     Margrave looked at me for help, but I shook my head. "Go with
her, doll," I said. "Right now you're safer in a jail cell then
out running the street." She still doesn't look sure, so I said,
"Remember what you said to me once about how we have limits
inside the law, and so do the Senshi? Rei may not like you, but
she won't do anything against the law to hurt you."

     She nodded, though she's not thrilled with the idea. Neither
am I, but she is really safer in a cell. All it would take is for
her to turn up dead for the case to be quickly closed by Rei and
the police department.

     Margrave stood slowly, and turned towards Rei, arms held out
in front of her. Rei quickly placed a pair of heavy duty
handcuffs around Margrave's wrists, and signaled two of the squad
outside the office to come in and take charge of the prisoner.
The last I see of Margrave is her look of pleading in her eyes as
the two police officers escorted her out of my office.

     Her prisoner safely away, she turns her glare back at me.
"All right," she said. "I want to know everything Margrave told
you since she arrived, and I want to know it now."

     I reached into a desk drawer, pulled out an unopened bottle
of Scotch and a fresh glass. I placed the glass on the desk, open
the bottle, poured a full glass, and finally looked up at Rei.
"Sorry, I can't."

     "Can't? Or won't?"

     I picked up the glass and down the contents in one gulp.
"Margrave's my client," I replied slowly, using my best Bogie
sneer. "When she hired me, whatever she said to me became
confidential."

     Rei's face starts getting puffy. "She hired you?"

     "Yep."

     "I want to see that contract!"

     I waved to the contract, still sitting on the desk. "I
shouldn't let you see it, but I know you won't believe me until
you do see it with your own eyes."

     I had time for another glass while Rei read the contract,
but she doesn't look any happier about it. I thought for a minute
she was going to tear it up, but reason ruled, and she slammed
the still intact contract back down on the desk.

     "All right," she growled. "You win this round, but your time
is coming, sooner or later. And when it does, I'm going to nail
your hide to the wall." With that as her parting shot, she turned
and stalked out of my office, not bothering to close my office
door behind her. The rest of the Special Security goons followed
her like baby ducks after their mother. 

     I listened to the entire group stomp down the hall to the
elevator, before I went to the window and looked out. Two long
back crysticars stood idling in front of my building. There were
no sign of Margrave, or her escorts. A minute later, Rei came
storming out of the building, surrounded by the goon quartet that
had been standing outside my office. They all climbed into the
first car, and both cars drove off into the rain and traffic.

     I stood at the window for several minutes, deciding my next
move. I knew, with a case this important, Rei was going to handle
the investigation herself. Which meant she wasn't about to give
me any assistance on this case. With Margrave in jail, one of my
prime sources of information and string pulling went with her.

     Have I ever mentioned I hate Mondays?

     After some brooding, I realized that I was going to need
someone's help. Someone with many high level connections, and was
willing to help me clear Margrave. My list was very short to
begin with, but there was only one person that fit the bill on
both accounts. 

     And she wasn't going to be thrilled to see me.

     Tough. The client comes first. Personal problems come later.
All I have to do is get close enough to talk to her without getting
pulverized.

     I looked up into the cloudy sky. I'd like to think Bogie would
be proud.

*******

     An hour later, I'm stalking through the offices of the
Crystal Palace, watching people scurry here and there like rats
in a maze. I was ignored by most of the office types, but one or
two would watch me walk by them, and I could see the question in
their eyes. Who is that fat man?

     The few other times I've been in this place, I was always in
disguise, and today's no different. I didn't want people to
remember I'd been here. With my luck, word would get back to Rei
that I'd been seen around this joint, and she would close me down
before I even started. I didn't need her breathing down my neck
while I tried to get Margrave out of this jam.

     So, I went with the Sidney Greenstreet look for this run
into giggles central, down to the Panama hat and white suit. Of
course, most of the people today don't know who Bogie was, let
alone Sidney. I wonder what the response would have been If I'd
shown up as Cary Grant....

     I found a directory near a pair of elevators, and scanned it
until I found what I was looking for. Tenth floor. Seems she's 
moved up since the last time I saw her. Let's hope she's in a 
pleasant mood. But that elevator music has got to go - You would 
have thought Barry Manalow would have gone out of style by now....

     I reformed myself in the elevator, so by the time I reach the
tenth floor, I'm back to my old self, sneer and all. No one saw
me as I strolled down the corridor, looking for the right door. 

     A large double door at the end of the hall pointed me in the
right direction. LADY TITANITE: PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MEDIA
LIAISON, it read in large and bold letters on the door. So, I'm
now in the right place.

     I straightened up my appearance, deciding the shabby look
would freak out Titanite quicker then a more upscale look. I
started by reforming the trenchcoat and suit so both were a bit
darker and more stylish. Next, I made sure the fedora looked
sharp. I thought of having a small card in the hatbrim that said
PRESS, but I doubt anyone in this century would have understood.
Finally, I went as far as absorbing the five O'clock shadow so I
looked clean shaven. The things I have to do for a client....

     I opened the door and stroll in. There's two desks flanking 
an inner door that said LADY TITANITE: PRIVATE. The room was
decorated in modern pizzazz, with strong bold colors and accents.
I think they did it up this way to impress the media types that
meander in every so often from outside the city. All it did for
me was make me ill, a neat trick considering my condition. 

     The desk on the right was occupied by a well-stacked red
head who looked up as I walked in. "Can I help you?" she asked
politely.

     "Is the Boss lady in?" I asked in my best Spade growl. My
senses had already supplied the answer, but I thought I should 
ask anyway.

     "Yes, but - HEY!"

     As soon as she said yes, I started for the inner door. She
managed to move quick enough to place herself between me and the
door. She stared up at me, her green eyes showing nothing but
politeness. "I'm sorry, but Lady Titanite is busy right now. If
you care to make an appointment -"

     "I don't have the time, sweetheart," I replied, picking her
up and placing her off to one side. "I need to see the lady now."
Before she could say another word, I opened the door and walked
in.

     I had half hoped to catch the lady playing desk tennis with
a young stud, but she was sitting behind the desk, shuffling
papers, in prim and proper business suit. She looked up as I
entered. "What is...." Her eyes opened wide as she realized who I
was. "Magnesite!"

     "I'm glad you remembered my name, Doll."

     She stood slowly, and glared at me. "You've got five seconds
to explain why you're here, or I'm going to -"

     "Turn me into a teddy bear?" I finished for her, as I sat
down in a chair in front of her desk. It's been her promise to me
since I was released from the crystal, should I step out of line.
"Relax, babe. I've got a very good reason to be here."

     "Which is?" She's mad, REALLY mad. Power is crackling around
her like a runaway generator. She isn't the girl I'd tried to
kill a long time ago.

     "You can say that again, Mags."

     Damm, Narrating out loud again! I ignored the Mags crack,
and say, "I here because Margrave's my client, and she is in a
mess of trouble."

     Titanite relaxed slightly, but she still glaring at me.
"What kind of trouble?"

     "She sitting in one of Rei's air-conditioned, richly
furnished dungeon cells, on a charge of murdering one of her
clients."

     "Who?"

     "Quinton Kallion."

     I couldn't have provoked a better response if I slapped her.
The energy around her vanished like the content's of a wino's
bottle. She sat down slowly, and didn't look at me. "I don't
believe you."

     "Call Rei," I replied. "Better yet, call Margrave's place."

     She duly called both places, finishing the second call just
as a pair of overbred security types came barging through the
door and bore down on me. I felt a hand come down on each
shoulder just as Titanite said, "Leave him. Wait outside in case
I need you." 

     The hands released me, and I watched the pair barge out of 
the office with the same energy as they came in with. They're
probably upset they couldn't pound me some before they tossed me
out. My metaphoric heart bleeds for them.

     Meanwhile, Titanite is pulling herself together, so by the
time I turned back to her, she's looking more sober. "Rei and
Margrave's receptionist confirm your story. Why are you here?"

     I relaxed slightly. "I need someone with connections on this
one. Rei's going to do everything in her power to shut me out of
this investigation. I need someone to counter her long enough to
allow me to find out what really happened. You're the logical
choice. None of the Renegades can or will help Margrave out of
this mess."

     She simply nodded. She saw my logic. "What do you want me
to do?"

     "For starters, I need to get into Margrave's office without
Rei finding out. View the scene of the crime, and all that."

     "I think I can arrange that. What else?"

     "I need the autopsy report on Kallion."

     "That's going to be tougher."

     "I know. But Rei has her office wired six ways to Sunday
against the off chance I'd drop in for a visit. I can't simply
sneak in and look at it myself." I know, I tried sneaking into
her office on another case years ago, and nearly got fried for my
trouble. Rei's getting paranoid in her dotage.

     "I'll try. Anything else?"

     "Depends. How well did you know Mr. Kallion?"

     "We met several times." 

     "Did he seem to be the type to jump at shadows?"

     "No." She seemed edgy. "Why do you ask?"

     "According to Margrave, Kallion thought there was someone
inside his company who was sniffing around several special
projects."

     She became even more tense. "Did she said what projects?"

     I shrugged and slouched in my chair. "Several defense
related projects KallionCo is doing for the Queen."

     If Titanite became any more stiff, I'd could use her as a
doorstop. Well, well, well. I think I hit a nerve there. "Look,
I'm not interested in what exactly what the Queen's got up her
sleeve should someone big and ugly come knocking on the city's
door. I just need to get inside KallionCo, and dig around. It's
the only lead I've got."

     She nodded slowly, but she looks far from happy. I don't
blame her. Helping someone who's tried to kill you in the past
isn't something she's really happy about. Then again, I not
exactly thrilled about coming in here with my hat in my hand
asking for her help.

     "All right," she finally said. "I'll help you get into
KallionCo. But if you nose around anywhere else looking for
information on those projects, I'll turn you -"

     "Into a teddy bear, yea. I get the picture. Your Brother was
rather graphic about that when he gave me that stupid teddy
bear." Talk about one track mind....

     She looked calmer now. "OK, now that I've agreed to help you,
tell me something."

     "If I can."

     "Why are you helping Margrave? She's not exactly a friend of
yours."

     "She's closer to being a friend then you Renegades."

     She let that slide by. "What are you getting out of this?"

     "Cancellation of all my debts with Margrave for a hundred
and twenty five years." I looked at her. "And if Margrave ends up
deceased, you inherit my debts, and there's no way that'll happen
if I can avoid it."

     Her eyes glowed, and I realized I may have just made a
mistake telling her about Margrave's will. But she snaped out of
it quickly enough. "That's fair enough."

     "There's more."

     She raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

     I hold up a finger. "First, there's a certain self interest
here. If Margrave buys it, Rei will be all over me like a cheap
suit. She does that, and I might as well pack it in for good."

     "And the second?"

     I gave her my best Bogie smile, and hold up a second finger.
"I think she's innocent, sweetheart. Margrave's become too
civilized to do something that stupid."

     She nodded and stood up. "Alright, let's go so the scene of
the crime."

     That was unexpected. "Who's we?"

     "You and I."

     "Now wait, Kid -"

     She slammed her hand on the desktop, and I heard something
in the desk crack. She may look human, but she's Youma to the
core. She's angry again, and she radiating power just like
before. Touchy, isn't she?

     "Let's get something straight, Magnesite," she ground out
between clenched teeth. "I hate your psychoplasmic guts. That's
not going to change anytime soon. The only reason I don't blast
you out of my office is that won't help Margrave. So, I suggest
that you refrain from calling me sweetheart, Kid, doll, dollface,
babe, or any other archaic form of address. If you have to
address me at all, I prefer Titanite, lady Titanite, or Polaris.
I am also not about to let you out of my sight, if I can help it.
Do I make myself clear?"

     Great, I just picked up a partner, one that wouldn't mind if
I ended on a slab with a tag on my toe. Of course, I'd fade away
long before that stage, but the image is still there. If I'd know
this, I would have held out for more. It's times like this I
wonder if maybe I should get out of the PI business, and open a
nice quiet cafe somewhere. I sort of like the name `Rick's Dark
Kingdom Cafe'. Well, someone said hindsight's twenty-twenty....

     I sighed. Time to lay it out for her. "Will you do both of
us a favor, and lay off the anger for a while? I once tried to
kill you, and you can't forgive me, right? You hate me, despise
me, wish I would melt away into the sewers. If I step out of
line, I get teddy beared. I know all that, all right?"

     This caught her off guard. "Er...yes -"

     "Look, kid. I'm only going to say this once. I am not the
same nasty overboss who bossed around Calcite, Pyrite, and
Azurite back in the good old days. These days, I don't have much
power. Hell, I don't even have a real body anymore! I am not much
of a threat to anyone in the current power structure, except to
that paranoid part of Rei's mind. The weakest Senshi can blow me
away without working up a sweat, and you aren't the weakest
Senshi by a large margin. Clear enough?"

     "But -"

     I cut her off again. "But nothing." I was on a roll now, the
anger and frustration that had been building up in me since I
been released finally finding a target. I stood up and leaned on
her desk, and looked down at her. She returned my stare, and my
estimates of her went up several notches. 

     "In order to get the life energy I do need to stay
corporeal," I continued, "I have to work for it. By The Abyss, I
have to actually work for it! I can't go around feeding on human
life energy at will, not without having every Senshi in the city
come down on me like a ton of bricks." 

     I think she tried to interrupt me again at that point, but I
didn't give her a chance. "I'm not cut out for Margrave's line of
work, so I'm stuck finding lost pets or spying on husbands
stepping out on their wives. The closest thing I have to a social
life is watching `The Maltese Falcon'. If our positions were
reversed, I'd be ecstatic at your fall from power. I wouldn't
waste anything more on you then the occasional gloat. I'm not
worth your hate these days."

     My words seemed to have an effect. She managed to get out a
weak "I see."

     "Look, Titanite, There's no way we're ever become anything
more but life long enemies. But, right now, a mutual acquaintance
is in a serious jam, and it's going to take both of us working
together. It's time to act like an adult, and not a child. The
first thing you can do is remember my name's Magnesite, not
`Mags' or `Maggie'."

     She stood slowly and glared at me. "I'll keep it in mind."

     "Good." Add two more notches to my opinion of her. "When do
you want to leave?"

     "In a minute." I slouch back into my chair while Ti tells
her secretary to hold all her calls, and cancel her appointments
for the rest of the morning. She smoothed out the skirt she's
wearing and glares at me. "Ready?"

     I got up slowly. "You want me to lead the way?"

     The smile she gave me wasn't pleasant. "You read my mind."

*******

     In the time it took us to go from Titanite's office to
Margrave's lair, I was busy morphing from one form to another. I
went from my usual appearance to Sidney Greenstreet in the
elevator down, back to my own form in Titanite's car, and on the
way up to Margrave's penthouse suite, I became Peter Lorre.
Titanite watched it all without saying a word until I finished
the last metamorphosis. "Your selection of disguises seems a bit
old fashion."

     I shrugged. "You should see my Claude Rains."

     "I'll pass. How do you want to do this?"

     "First, we'll see if Rei left some of her people to keep an
eye on the place. If not, no problem, I'll just walk in and look
the place over."

     "And if she did leave a reception committee?"

     "Then we go to plan B."

     "I see your planing skills haven't improved any."

     The elevator doors opened at that point, cutting off my
snappy comeback. There were three people in the lobby, all of 
who turned to look at us as we walk out of the elevator. Two 
were CTPD uniformed type, looking big, tough, and bored out 
of their skulls. 

     They're trying to make time with Margrave's receptionist, a
statuesque blond by the name of Veronica. Which is sort of like
me trying to seduce Serenity - it's possible in theory, but a
snowball's chance in hell in reality. What these two don't know
is that Veronica is a lot smarter then they thinks she is.
Margrave likes the people Calcite hires for her to be both
intelligent and beautiful, and this girl fits the bill on both
accounts.

     She proceeded to show it immediately. "Lady Polaris!" she
breathed in a voice that combines sweetness with a hint of empty
headiness. "I'm glad you could come, and so soon!" Which is
pretty good, considering Veronica was no more expecting us then
she was expecting a brass band.
     
     "Thank you, Veronica," Titanite replied with ease, as if
meeting people standing outside a murder scene is something she
does every day. She gave CTPD's finest a quick nod. "Good
morning, Officers."

     Both of the boys in blue suddenly look very uncomfortable,
and I think I see a large sweatdrop form on each of their
foreheads. Being in the presence of a Senshi seems to have that
effect on people. It's almost as bad as groveling. After several
seconds of uncomfortable silence, one of them said, "Good
afternoon, Lady Polaris. Can we help you with something?"

     Ti ignored the question by looking around the lobby, and
nodding to herself. "Very...stylish. Make a note of that, Peter."

     I'm a little slow on the uptake, and it takes several
seconds to realize she's talking to me. I quickly pulled out 
what looked like a pad and pencil, but are really just a small
part of me and started scribbling into it. "Yes, Lady Polaris," I
replied in my best Lorre voice. "Excellent idea, Lady Polaris."

     The two flatfeet still weren't sure what's going on, and
neither wants to be the first to ask Ti. I guess hanging around
Rei has cured them of curiosity. But Ti solved that problem easily
enough.

     "I am here," she said with a wave of her hand. "To pick up
some items for Margrave." She turned and strode towards the door
leading to Margrave's inner sanctum, with me trailing after her
like any good syncopate would.

     The cops now looked really nervous. The spokesman for the
pair stepped forward. "But, Lady Polaris!" he said quickly. "Lady
Mars has declared the Penthouse off limits to everyone."

     Ti looked at the officer, and he started to squirm under her
gaze. "Everyone?" she replied coldly.

     "Yes Lady Polaris. There are several people in the city who
might want to tamper with evidence at the murder scene."

     "Did Lady Mars tell who these people were?"

     "She just mentioned one - the Private Investigator calling
himself Magnesite."

     "Oh?" She placed both hands on her waist, stuck out a hip to
show a bit more leg and stared at the cops. "Do I look ANYTHING
like that dried up refugee from an old time movie?" she said in a
low voice full of venom. "Or has the police department recently
dropped their vision requirements?"

     The poor cops start to sweat. Ti can be overbearing when she
puts her mind to it, and she's not faking her anger. Of course, I
have to stand there and take Ti's insult in silence.

     "But this Magnesite can change his shape -"

     Uh-oh. Wrong move. If Ti was angry before, she's now moved
into towering rage territory now. The air suddenly became
charged and Ti seemed to gain a couple of centimeters in
height. As for me, I'm trying hard not to look amused at the
entire event. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Veronica
quietly slip out from behind her desk, and head for the elevator.
Like I said, Margrave likes her people to be smart, and
Veronica's taking the opportunity and getting out of Dodge as
quickly as she can. 

     The cops are wishing they could the same thing themselves.
They're backing away from Ti now, looking like a pair of animals
caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Ti's not letting
them off the hook, though. She advanced slowly, her words coming
out in short, angry bursts.

     "My name is Titanite...Lady Polaris to you...My brother is
LORD Calcite, adviser to the Queen...I am a Sailor Senshi...I am
here on official business...I am not that jackass, Magnesite...."

     If the cops weren't convinced before she's the real article,
they are now. The spokesmen nodded like his head was about to
fall off. "Official business, Lady?"

     "Yes," Ti hisses. "Now are you going to allow me and my
assistant into the penthouse, or will I have to make my own
entrance?"

     "If you're here on official business....For the Queen,
right?"

     "Who do you think?" A nice Youma-like answer. Maybe she's
isn't as civilized as she pretends to be.

     "I think we can make an exception for the Lady...right,
Joe?"

     His partner nodded vigorously. "Sure, Mike," he croaked.
"She's here on official business, right?"

     "I'm so glad I convinced you gentlemen," replied Ti slowly
and politely. She turned down the power levels and the charged air
in the room dropped like a stone. Five seconds later, there's no
evidence of Ti's outburst. "Now," she said calmly, "can you let
us in?"

     The cops fell all over themselves to reach the door first.
Ti followed them, and I continued to trail behind Ti, forgotten
by everyone. The spokesmen started punching in a short
combination into a small device attached to the door.

     "What's that?" asked Ti, keeping a slight edge in her voice.

     "A device that detects certain types of matter entering the
room. Lady Mars borrowed it from Lord Pyrite." 

     "I see," replied Ti thoughtfully. "What type of matter?"

     "Er...psycho...phyc...."

     "Psychoplasmic?"

     "Yes, Lady Polaris. That's the term that Lady Mars used."

     Ti shot me a look of triumph, as to say `Aren't you glad I
came along?' I gave her a shrug in return, as if to say, `I would
have found a way in anyway.' But I'm thinking, as we pass through
the doors, that Rei's isn't taking any chances with me tracking
through her open-and-shut case. Well, ain't that too bad....

     We found ourselves in Margrave's inner sanctum. Margrave
once told me that she'd modeled this room on the one Beryl was
rumored to have in her private quarters in the Dark Kingdom. As
she explained it to me, Beryl had more then her share of
paramours, and she had a special room she used to `entertain'
those she decided were worthy of her attentions. Personally, I
think Margrave just feeding me a line. Beryl never struck me as
the type to worry about foreplay, as it wasn't her style. But,
it's the type of thing her customers would accept without a qualm.

     I think her real source of inspiration is Earth's history,
namely that time historians call Greco-Roman. The room is
circular with twelve Doric columns evenly spaced around the
perimeter, with doors leading off to other rooms of the
penthouse, hidden behind long purple drapes. On the far side of
the room, opposite the door, there's a red velvet couch that
Margrave used to greet her customers. Here and there, Margrave
has these life sized nude statues of humans. I guess is supposed
to be erotic, but all it does for me is make me wonder how the
human race managed to survive for so long.

     As the four of us walk in, I started looking around for any
clues. The bedroom Margrave used for her business is on the
right, and that's where the murder took place. I saw the curtain
had been pushed aside, and there's a couple of strips of bright
yellow tape across the door. There were some bloody footprints on
the carpet leading away from the door. They're just the right
size and shape to be Margrave's.

     Ti strode over to the other side of the room, and flung
the curtain aside to reveal another door. If I remembered
correctly, that door leads to the other bedroom, dining room, and
kitchen, none of which gets much use. "Have you completely search
this place?" she asked authoritatively.

     "No Lady Polaris," replied Mike, eager to keep that glare of
Ti's off him and his partner. "We were just told to guard the
entrance."
 
     "Then I think it's time we did a through search of the rest
of the penthouse, right? In case Lady Mars missed something?"

     The sweatdrops come back again, as both cops tried to figure
out a way to say no without incurring Ti's wrath again. They're
still thinking when Ti takes the matter into her own hands again.
"Very well then," she said. "Peter?"

     "Yes, Lady Polaris?" I replied, adding some maniac to
Lorre's voice. Both Mike and Joe turn to look at me, and I gave
them both my best Lorre creepy smile. They turned away quickly,
but I could see both now are tense and uneasy. Good.

     "Stay here with the officers, and make sure no one else
comes in."

     I started nodding eagerly. "Yes, Lady Polaris. As you command,
Lady Polaris."

     Mike stepped forward. "Lady Polaris. If your assistant is
willing to stay here, and not allow anyone else in these rooms, I
think both Joe and myself should accompany you on this search of
yours." And to get away from your creepy assistant, his expression
added silently.

     Ti considered for a few seconds, then nodded and said, "Very
well." She looks at me. "Peter, if anyone comes into the lobby,
let us know immediately."

     I nodded my head again. "Yes, Lady Polaris. As you command,
Lady Polaris." I saw both cops shudder at the sound of my voice,
and I shook my head in contempt. If this was Bogie's era, the
cops would have belted me over the head and tossed out of the
penthouse on my ear, if I was lucky. But today's cops....If you
gave them a madly giggling psychopath, they would have no idea 
what to do with him besides drive him to the nearest mental health 
center and drop him off with a smile and a lollipop.

     "Don't mind Peter," said Ti, with a touch of suffering in
her voice.  "He's the first test case in a project to bring those
recovering from mental breakdowns back into the mainstream again.
Since I'm the one pushing the idea, I had to have one of these
poor people in my office to show the world what were doing." I
think she's been hanging around Azurite too much.

     "I see," replied Joe. "Is he going to be all right out here
by himself?"

     "I should think so," she replied in a whisper, "as long as
there's no cats about." She narrowed her eyes. "There are no cats
about, right?" 

     "No, Lady Polaris. There are no cats about...but isn't
Margrave a...catwoman?"  

     "Don't tell him that," whispered Ti. "He had an unpleasant
experience with being thrown into a pit filled with cats when he
was younger. Anytime he sees a cat, he freaks out. I mean, He
REALLY freaks out."

     As she's laying it on thick about my `condition', I started
edging my way towards the door leading to the murder scene. I
managed to look like I was examining a statue when the two cops
glanced in my direction again. I can't read minds, but with the
way these two were acting, you didn't have to be. Something to
the effect of `please don't let the guy freak out on my shift, I
couldn't handle it.' was plain on their faces. I though about
giggling, then decided not to. No telling what that would do to
the cop's self control.

     "As you can see, he also talks to himself," continued Ti,
pitching her voice to carry to me. "Would any reasonable person
decide out loud if he's going to giggle or not?"

     I was narrating out loud again! Sweet Metallia! I muttered to
myself and wrote frantically in the notebook: Keep mouth shut
when cops present!!!

     Without waiting for the two nervous officers to give her an
answer, Ti led them through the door and out of sight. As soon
as the door closed, I reabsorbed the notebook and pencil, and
moved quickly to the door of the murder room. The door's locked,
but that doesn't stop me. I just make myself intangible and step
through. On the other side, I became myself again. 
     
     Whoever was in here last was kind enough to leave the lights
on, so it's not hard to see what happened here. The room is
almost as large as the chamber outside, and done in the same
style. The floor is covered by a white plush shag carpet, and
I wondered if Margrave put it in to match her fur. There's a lot of
splattered blood about, most of it on and around the only
furniture in the room. A large, four poster bed standing in the
center of the chamber.

     That's my first stop. I glided over to the bed, careful not
to step on any of the still slightly wet bloodstains flecking the
carpet. Rei's people have removed the body, and most of the
bedsheets, but not the mattress or the surrounding lace and
curtains. Sloppy work. They're already convinced they have their
Youma, and they're just going through the motions. Bad for them,
good for me.

     Most of the blood is on this side of the bed, meaning that
Kallion was sitting here when he was hacked up. The mattress had
been shredded with several long sets of claws marks. Most are
lost in the overlapping blood soaked mess in the middle, but one
set near the headboard caught my attention. A set of four evenly
spaced claws about the length of my hand had cut deeply into the
mattress. Something about them set off alarms in my head, and I
looked closer at them. After several seconds, I realized what's
wrong with them.

     Margrave has five claws on each hand, not four.

     Now that I realized that, other things about the claw marks
became clear. Each gash was exactly the same length as the
others, an impossibility with the way Margrave's hands are
shaped. Also, the gashes are too deep to made by my client's
claws.

     My brain is now working in overdrive. Unless Kallion had
very long fingernails, was missing a thumb, and had four equally
long fingers, someone else had been in the room. But whom? And
how did they get in?

     I scaned the bed for other claw marks, but no dice. The rest
of the bed is a mess, too much so to hold any other clue.
Muttering a few choice Dark Kingdom curses, I quickly searched the
room for any other signs that Margrave was the patsy for this
crime. Near the far wall, I found more evidence, in the shape of a
cluster of blood droplets half hidden by one of the wall
curtains. 

     I glanced at where the bed is. That's a good three meters
away, with no sign of blood on the carpet between it and the
small grouping I've just found. Add to the fact that I'm on the
opposite side of the area that's soaked in blood, and I don't
think this small collection of Kallion's hemoglobin flew here all
by it's lonesome. I checked the bottom of the curtain. There's some
blood there, at the bottom of the hem, but the rest of the
curtain is clean as a Nun's conscious. Sensing that I'm on to
something, I pushed the curtain aside, and find another door.

     The door is unlocked, and I find myself in Margrave's "Props
room". The place is filled with racks of clothes, from all
different times and places, along with accompanying props. Some
of her customers aren't satisfied with a simple noontime quickie
with an oversexed feline humanoid, even if she's using a glamour.
No, they want to play dress up, feel the clothing as they take it
off and imaging they're making it with a high school cheerleader,
nurse, or.... 

     I stifled a grin as I noticed that Margrave has a large
number of Sailor Senshi Fukus neatly hanging on a rack, with tags
attached listing the right glamours to use with each costume. In
fact, there's a complete set for almost every Senshi...including
Sailor Arcturus. I wonder how Azurite would react if she found
out Margrave's been using Sailor Arcturus to fulfill some guy's
fantasy.

     The only Senshi that's missing from the group is Sailor
Polaris. Interesting. Maybe Margrave isn't soft soaping Titanite
after all. Or, what's more likely, Margrave's getting soft in her
old age....

     As I idly fingered the costumes, I wondered how many favors
Margrave would forgive if I was to mention this to her....Forget
that! You've got to get her out of this rap first, than you can
wheedle your way out of some more of your debts to Margrave.

     Looking down at the carpet, I'm rewarded with seeing several
more drops of blood lying there. Interesting. Our voyeur came
through here after the murder. I passed through the racks of
clothes, until I came to a dressing table tucked in a corner of
the room. There's a large bureau next to the table, with each
drawer labeled in neat handwriting. The second drawer from the
top, marked "IMAGES", has several drops of dried blood clinging
to it - human blood. I doubt that's a coincidence.

     I strode over and open the drawer. Inside, there's a large
assortment of pictures of all types. They are all about the size
of a passport photo, each is in it's own little compartment,
neatly labeled so Margrave doesn't have to scramble to find the
right one to complete her disguise. Each photograph is of a
beautiful woman, of every type and description. I casually picked
up a couple and glanced at them. Margrave sure knows what her
customers like.

     Margrave must keep this large a selection of pictures to
perfect and improve her glamours. By using this setup, all she
has to do is stare at a photo, memorized the face, then invokes
the glamour. And in Margrave's profession, she invokes many
glamours.

     And that can lead to problems. Unless a glamour is used on a
regular basis, it will have a tendency to break up. That's what 
happened to Margrave's glamour when she visited me - that, and 
the fact she was in deep shock at the time. 

     I pulled the drawer all the way out and placeed it on the 
table. I spot the bloodstained picture at once, sitting in the 
back of the drawer. Labeled "Prim school teacher - # 5234F", the 
woman in the picture looked like she was sucking on a lemon. Her 
dark hair was pulled back in tight bun, and she had on large 
pair of glasses. Still, her picture was far from ugly - she 
looked like the type of woman who would loosen up considerably 
after a few stiff drinks. 

     After mooning over the picture for a few seconds, I checked
the rest of the drawer. Several other pictures had drops of
blood on them. Only "Prim school teacher - # 5234F", had smears
of blood on it, like someone with bloody hands had picked up the
photo, stared at it, then tried to wipe the blood off it. 

     I memorized the title and number of the photo, then replaced
the photo in its place, then slid the drawer back into its place.
I might have found some more stuff, but I couldn't waste any more 
time looking. Ti and the officers must be on their way back to 
the main room by now. I've seen enough to convince me that 
someone's gone through a lot of trouble to put Margrave in CT's 
version of a hot seat - or more likely in this city, a nice warm 
and comfortable seat.

     I ran back through the rooms, closed the door to the prop
room, and made sure I left everything the way I'd found it. I
quickly phased my way through the bedroom door into the inner
sanctum, changed back to Peter Lorre, and reformed my notebook
ten seconds before Ti and the two still jittery patrolman came
strolling into the room. Ti had a small satchel slung over her
shoulder, and a questioning look in her eye. "Miss us, Peter?"

     "Yes, Lady Polaris." I waved at a statue. "But I found
something to look at until you came back."

     "Very good, Peter." She unslung the satchel and handed it to
me. "Will you please take this and wait for me out in the lobby?"

     I took the satchel and slung it over my shoulder. "Yes Lady
Polaris."

     I only had to wait a couple of minutes before Ti and the
cops come into the lobby. We watched them lock the doors again,
and reset Pyrite's sensor. Once they did that, Ti spoke to them
again. "Remember what I said. Do not mention my visit here to
anyone, including Lady Mars. You know how she feels about
Margrave." She gave each a warm and dazzling smile straight out
of Azurite's book of man-eating. "Good day gentlemen. Come along,
Peter."

     I follow her to the elevator, and neither one of us said a
thing until the doors closed, and we were on the way down.
"Well?" demanded Ti. "Find anything?"

     "Enough to convince me that someone is out to frame our
favorite feline Youma like a cheap oil painting," I replied in my
normal growl. I outline what I'd found in several quick sentences. 

     "Now what?" she asked me.

     "What's in here?" I asked, holding up the satchel and
ignoring her question for the moment.

     "Extra clothes for Margrave. That's my next stop - visit her
in prison."

     I nodded. "You best do that solo. If I go there, Rei may not
let me out again."

     "All right." She doesn't sound pleased. "Do you want me to
pass along anything?"

     "Ask her if she's used the 'Prim school teacher - # 5234F'
image for any of her clients lately."
     
     "I can do that. What are you going to do?"

     "I'm going to do what every good private detective does at
this point of the case," I replied loftily. "I'm going to talk to
my snitch."

****** 

     Every PI has their "confidential sources", or snitches. Most
PI's have to rely on some half boozed rat faced lowlife for his
information. But since I'm in this happy go lucky metropolis, my
snitch is a tea toddler - literally.

     So, after leaving Ti at the front door of Margrave's
building, I didn't head for a nice seedy bar to meet my snitch. To
tell you the truth, even the worst bar I've been in this city
would get at least two stars from any entertainment critic. No, I
head for the Sailing Star Tea Room, one of the more upscale
places in the city.

     I waited until I'm out of sight of Margrave's building before
I become myself again. A twenty minute walk later, I'm heading in
the front door of the tea room, looking for my snitch. I spotted 
him in his favorite booth, sipping some herbal concoction that he
calls tea, but I call a waste of herbs and water. I threaded my 
way through the tables, ignoring the startled looks of the other
patrons as I brushed past them.

     He looked up from his newspaper as I slid into the booth
across from him. "Magnesite," he said calmly, as if he's been
expecting me. He's tall, slim, with blue eyes behind a pair of
thin framed glasses, and short blond hair. I don't know a hell a
lot about him, since it was Margrave who introduced us several
years ago, but his information has been dead on every time I've
needed it. Not that I've need it much....

     "Comyn," I replied with a growl. 

     He returned to his paper. "What can I help you with today?"

     "Background on KallionCo. Key people, any problems the
outfit's been having lately, and I need it as quick as possible."

     He nodded. Without looking up from his paper, he pulled out a
fat envelope from inside his suit coat and dropped it on the table
in front of me. "That should be everything you need."

     I came very close to looking like some stupid cartoon
character right then and there. I caught my jaw before it can hit
the table, and quickly slot it back into place. Comyn watched the
entire process with some amusement. "I take it you are surprised," 
he said in the same tone he'd used before.

     "You could say that," I replied coldly.

     "Margrave got word to me that she'd hired you, and mentioned
your interest in KallionCo. It wasn't hard to deduce you'd come to
talk to me."

     I opened the envelope, and skimed the contents. The 
information I wanted is there, and more. One item catches my eye. 
"Quinton was looking to hire a couple of telepaths?"

     Comyn nodded. "He was keeping it quiet, but my sources are
certain he was within several days of hiring two strong B class
telepaths to look into his security problem."

     Interesting, very interesting. There are very few telepaths
in the world, but a large number of them currently live in and
around Crystal Tokyo, as Serenity doesn't persecute them. They
mostly make their living as security consultants, intelligence
operatives, police investigators, and mediators.

     There are five classes telepaths fall into, ranging from the
paranormal weak Class E to the powerful and scary Class A. Class
B telepaths are rare, and could command hefty sums for their
services. Only Class A telepaths could command more money and
respect, not to mention a larger dose of fear. "So there is
something to Quinton's worries?"

     "Oh yes. I suspect another two weeks, and Lady Mars will be
involved, and she has all the subtlety of an enraged elephant."

     "Rei certainly throws herself into her work," I replied. "I
just wish work would throw her back every so often." I repackaged
the envelope and pocket it. "What do I owe you?"

     Comyn shook his head. "Nothing. You're not the only one that
owes Margrave favors." He caught my expression. "Not those type
of favors, Magnesite."

     I shrugged "I didn't say a thing."

     "By the way, were you aware you were followed?"

     That caught me by surprise, and I remembered why I hate to
come to this guy. He would make a great spy.

     "Thank you," he replied, and I slapped my forehead in
irritation. If I don't watch it, that stupid habit of mine is
going to kill me.

     "Who?" I asked, ignoring my irritation for now.

     "Two men at the booth near the door, dressed like a couple
of cheap salesmen. They came in here right after you did, and at
least one of them has watch the table like a hawk every single
second."

     I nodded. Damn! How in the hell did they follow me? "You
think they're Rei's boys?"

     "I doubt it. I don't think these guys have seen a shave in a
couple of days, and you know how Lady Mars like to enforce
grooming requirements."

     "It gives her something to do when she's not out terrifying
innocent hard working PIs like me." 

     "Do you want me to take care of them for you?"

     "I'll do it." I stood up. "I need the exercise."

     "Are you sure?"

     "No, but that hasn't stopped me before. Later, Comyn." 

     I turned and walked away, making it a point to ignore the
pair of goons sitting by the table. Once outside, I turned left 
and head back towards my office. Now that I know what I'm looking
for, I spotted the pair tailing me easily enough when they come
stumbling out of the Tea room. They looked around for several
seconds until they spotted me, and started following. 

     Amateurs! They're thirty meters behind me now, and are being
as subtle as an avalanche. They could pass for twins in a bad light. 
Both are about the same height, and build. One had a fawn colored 
suit, while the other one's suit was dark blue in color. Both the 
suits, and the guys in them, looked like they've been slept in for 
a couple of days, and they looked twitchy. Is everyone twitchy today, 
or something? Despite the cloudy weather, both of them are wearing 
sunglasses. I can't believe I missed these guys before.

     Now that I've spotted the obvious tail, time to look for the
sneaky tail. With a tail this conspicuous, there had to be
someone else more subtle somewhere. It took several minutes of 
walking and looking into store windows to finally spot the other 
tail. He was standing on the other side of the street, thirty meters 
behind the twitch twins. His suit was a somber blue, and he had long 
white hair, but he stayed well back. He sort of reminded me of 
Kunzite, but Kunzite wouldn't let anyone else do his trailing. I 
can't ID him at this distance, and I don't want to spook him now.

     An alley came up on my left. Time to get some answers.
I waited until I'm passed the alley, before I turned suddenly, and
duck into its neat and clean opening. I quickly stand against the
wall, shift into the form of a trash can, and waited. Ten seconds
later, both of them came tearing around the corner, skidding to a
stop less then a meter from where I'm sitting. The alley is a
dead end, and they're looking around, wondering where I went.

     "Where did he go, Krikor?" the one in the Fawn suit asked.
He's had a funny accent that I couldn't place.

     "Maybe he climbed a fire escape?" replied the other.

     "Mr. Winter isn't going to be pleased if we loose him.
Check the trash cans over there," the first guy directs. "He's
got to be around here somewhere. He couldn't have just walked
through a wall, or flown away."

     Huh? These guys didn't know what I can do?

     "Wait!" said Krikor. "Did you just hear someone speaking?"

     "Yes," replied the other guy. "It came from that trash -
ULK!"

     Fawn suit didn't finish his sentence because I sprang at
him, becoming myself just before I nailed him a right cross Bogie
would have been proud to thrown. Fawn suit goes down like a sack
of rocks, and out like a light. 

     Before Krikor can recover his wits, I put him onto his knees
with a hard shot in the stomach. As Krikor lies there on his hand 
and knees, trying to reclaim air, I lean down and grabbed him 
by his lapels and slamed him up against the alley wall, next to a 
trash dumpster. "All right, Krikor," I said, giving him my best 
Sam Spade glare. "You and I are going to play a game. I ask
questions, you answer them. If not...." I slammed him against the
wall again.

     Krikor's in a bit of a bind, and he knows it. It's hard to
looked scared out of your wits while trying to get you breath
back at the same time, but he's doing it. "I can't!" he manages
to get out. "He'll kill me!"

     "And I'll kill you if you don't tell me," I snarled back.
He's not one of Rei's boys - she wouldn't send anyone to trail me
that was this stupid, without having several backup teams nearby
in case things go sour. In fact, from this guy's accent, I don't
think he's a CT native.

     No police have shown up yet, so I doubt Rei's people are
around here right now. But, that will change quickly. Already
several people have passed by the alley, and a couple have
stopped to watch the action. I didn't have time to mess around
with these two.

     A get a sudden stroke of genius. Since Krikor doesn't
know what I am, let's see if I can scare him some, at least scare
him enough to talk. I'm no fan of vampire movies, but I think
something along this line might be my best shot. 

      By reforming my features a little bit, I now had fangs and
vertical pupils. I also made the face more drawn to look like I'd
been dead for a while. The trenchcoat became a cape, and the
fedora got a wider hatbrim. I must have been doing something right,
because Krikor's eyes bulged out of his head at the sight of
me. 

     "I'll feed on your life force until you tell me what I want
to know," I hissed. I heard a couple of screams from the people on
the street watching, and I glanceed in that direction to see my
audience is now into double digits. Luckily, the dumpster shields
most of my body from the crowd, so they're not exactly sure
what's happening.

     I also spotted the white haired guy lurking on the edges,
but he doesn't seem too concerned. In fact, he looks pleased for
some reason. If these two don't have the answers, I'm sure he
will.

     Ignoring white hair for now, I fixed my glare back on the goon
I've got pinned to the wall. If Krikor was scared before, he's
far beyond it now. His eyes bulged out, and sweat is pouring off
his face. "I-I doo-don't believe you," he gasped. "You can't be-b-
be a Vampire."

     I slamed him up against the wall again, and put one hand on
his throat, and began to feed, just enough so he can feel it. His
life force is stale, bland, and not too pleasant. It isn't hard
to stop. "Not bad," I lied.

     I released him, and he collapsed in a huddle, rapidly
whispering something that sounded like prayers. While he's trying
to pull himself together, I checked on fawn suit. He's still
breathing, so I take the opportunity to glare at the audience
again before I turned back towards Krikor. "Ready to talk?"

     "I don't know anything!" the guy wailed, scrambling to his
knees. "I work for a guy called Winter. He told us to follow you
when you left the catwoman's building. That's all I kn-"

     He stopped in mid sentence, and clutched at his head,
screaming in pain. He started shaking violently, and his scream is
hair raising, becoming more shrill every second. Blood suddenly
poured out of his ears and nose, and he fell on his face. I don't
have to be hit with a blackjack to know he's already dead. I
glanced at Fawn suit. He's also bleeding from the nose and ears,
and he is clearly deader then a doornail. What in the Abyss is 
going on here?

     I heard sirens in the distance, getting closer. I couldn't stop
to try and explain this. With Rei's current mood, I'd be sitting
in the cell next to Margrave before I could say "Saint Chandler".
I kept the eyes and fangs, turned and ran straight at the half
a dozen people standing at the mouth of the alley, waving my
hands above my head like I coming to get one of them for my next
meal.

     I have to give CT's citizens credit. They took one look at
me, and scattered to the four winds. One guy did try to grab me,
but I tossed him aside, and charged off down the street. I saw
the white haired guy half a block away, and I thought he looked
pleased for some reason, but I didn't stop running.

     I slipped into another alley, changed to the form of an
elderly man, and continued on my way. Several police crysticars
roared past me, sirens screaming. I felt a Senshi nearby, just
before another police car came into view. It shot past me, and I
saw Rei in the back seat, scowling. Then the car made a hard
right, and was gone from view.

     Just what I needed. Hells, if she's involved, I'd better
disappear for a while. I don't know how good a description Rei's
people will get from the onlookers, but it won't take her long to
find a way to pin it on me. So, the office is out, as are the
other few places I haunt with any regularity. I needed someplace to
hole up for a while and think.

*****

     Two hours later, I'm strolling in one of the several hundred
parks scattered across this city. Now, I looked like a civil
servant, paunchy, balding, and none too bright. The park is
almost deserted, but I didn't relax my guard any. No signs of
either the white haired guy, or Rei's bloodhounds, but I had to
keep moving.

     Still, the parks weren't high on Rei's `Places to look
for Magnesite when I want to nail his hide to the wall' list. She
knew I hate the sun, trees, lakes, grass, and all the happy
people in and about these wastes of good building space. She would
get around to scouring every park, but not before I had a chance
to think things over. 

     I found an empty bench and sat down. Several pigeons came
swooping in, expecting a meal from me. After several minutes of
poking around on the path in front of me, they went flapping off
in search of easier prey. I ignoreed them, and concentrate on 
my own problems.

     I started with the deaths of Krikor and his friend. The
chances of them dying naturally at that same minute, apparently 
from the same cause aren't worth trying to figure out. So, someone 
killed them. Made sense. But how?

     Poison gas? Possible, but not probable. Since I don't
breathe, gas wouldn't have an affect on me. But only the two
hoods died, while several people standing less then three meters
away weren't harmed. How about simple poison? The old false tooth
with cyanide bit? Definitely not. Fawn suit was unconscious, and
Krikor was too busy blabbing to remember a tooth. Cyberware?
Doubtful, considering those two weren't worth the air they
breathed, let alone the cost of implanting such equipment. 

     One other method came to mind. I leaned back and consider it
carefully. A very strong telepath can induce a cerebral hemorrhage 
in a person to kill them quickly. A very strong telepath could 
also....

     I remembered something Margrave said to me that morning.
"Someone shut down the suppresser," she had said. "Maybe a
psychic, maybe they used magic but they did it. They wanted to
get rid of Quinton Kallion and turned me into their murder
weapon."

     *Maybe a psychic....*

     Of course! So many things clicked together in that minute, I
almost got dizzy. The trouble Kallion was having at his company!
Somewhere inside KallionCo, a telepath was working as a spy. Who
else could influence people to leave important project papers 
and data crystals lying around so they could be picked up and
copied? The personnel who would vanish for a couple of days, then
turn up with no memory - deep scanned for data, unless I was a
complete idiot.

     Of course, Kallion went looking for telepaths of his own -
and the telepathic spy found out. Having a couple of class B
telepaths nosing around the company would expose the spy very
quickly. So, the spy (or spies) had to eliminate Kallion, but do
it in such a way that didn't bring Rei and her goons down on
KallionCo. At that point, there wouldn't be any way for the spy
to avoid the scans of the Internal security telepaths.

     So, our mental madman found out about Kallion's weekly
little get together with Margrave, and decides to use Margrave as
the fall cat in this scheme. He gets into Margrave's rooms
early, blanking Veronica's memory just long enough to slip past
her. He holds up in Margrave's "prop room", and waited until
Kallion and Margrave are engaged in business. 

     Then, he project himself into Margrave's mind right when her 
mental defenses are at their lowest, and shut off the suppresser. 
Margrave goes berserk, Kallion is tuned into lousy sushi, and 
our happy little telepath waited until Margrave came running to me, 
blanking Veronica's memory again on the way out. After that, he 
strolled out of the building, projecting the Prim school teacher 
image to anyone he met.

     Now that I had a theory, I attacked it mentally, looking for
holes. But why the two different sets of claw marks? Maybe
Margrave wasn't as vicious as our friend thought she was - maybe
our spy had to lend Margrave a claw, so to speak. It wouldn't be
too hard to blank Margrave's memory for the few minutes he (or
she) needed to finish off Kallion. And an up close and personal
murder like that would leave the murderer somewhat noticeable.
That would explain why the Prim school teacher image was used -
Even a blind man would be suspicious of someone with blood all
over their clothes.
     
     The more I wrestled around with the theory, the more it made
sense. With Margrave's background, it would be a perfect
frame-up. Kallion's dead, Margrave in jail, and nothing to
connect the event to our spy inside KallionCo. Nothing except a
nosy PI by the name of Magnesite....

     Suddenly, I gave myself another mental kick. Of course!
Krikor and friend! They weren't trailing me, they were the bait
in a trap to take me out of this case! And I fell for it!

     A sudden flash of understanding exploded across my thought
patterns. The white hair guy wasn't a tail, he was a telepath!
The sudden thought of becoming a vampire, he must have planted
the idea in my mind. 

     To cause the deaths of two people by cerebral hemorrhage by
telepathy that quickly requires a lot of mental energy and being
near the victims. Despite the lurid tabloid tales, no telepath
can kill someone who's across town with a simple thought, not
even the really scary Class As. If that was true, we'd have a
murder rate like the rest of the world's, and there would
actually be something for people to argue about....

     No, these murders had to have been committed by our telepath
up close and personal. 

     I was really angry now. I had been played far a sap! Our
white haired friend had set me up to take a rap as good as the
one Margrave was facing. Eliminate the one chance Margrave's got by
setting me up for a couple of murders in broad daylight. Rei
can toss me into the slammer, pop me for good, or have me on
the run. No matter what happened, I couldn't go to the police 
with my theory. Which meant I'm left with Titanite as my only 
ally.

     I might as well be dead.

     That's what I think until I spotted one of the free use phones
not too far away from the bench. These phones are scattered
across the city, usable by anyone. Each phone has a small box
attached for donations, but payment is not a requirement to use
the phone. I don't know why Serenity insisted on this idea of
free phone service, but I'm not complaining any. I need to get
ahold of Ti, and I didn't have any cash to use a regular pay
phone.

     I picked up the phone, and ask the operator for Lady Polaris's
office. Without delay, the operator put me through. The Redhead
answered the phone. /Lady Polaris's office./

     I used my Lorre voice so the receptionist won't recognize my
voice. "Is Lady Polaris in?"

     /Who's calling, please?/

     "Peter. We met on the elevator today. She left something in
the elevator, and I'm calling to tell her I have it."

     /One moment please./

     Ten seconds later, Ti picked up the phone, and I can hear
power cracking through the line. /All right, Asshole,/ she
snarls. /What the hell happened in that alley? Rei's got people
scouring the city for you, and unless you have a hell of a good
answer, I'll make sure she knows everything that happen this
afternoon, including this phone call./

     "Nice to hear from you too, Kid," I replied in my normal
voice. "Now, are you going to accept Rei's story, or are you
going to listen to mine first?"

     She's calmer now, but there's still plenty of anger there.
/Go ahead./

     I tell her everything that happened from the time I left
her to right now, leaving out only my small snack of Krikor's
life force. She wouldn't understand, and I've got enough problems
right now without having my only ally gunning for me. There's
nothing worse then a Youma with a strong sense of morality....

     Ti said nothing until I finished. /I see./ she said. /It
makes more sense then Rei's report./

     "Rei can be inventive at times. Did you get the autopsy
report on Kallion?"

     /I did. You were right, there were two different sets of
claw marks on the body. One set's definitely Margrave's, but the
other..../

     "No identification, right?"

     /Right. And Margrave said she hasn't used the `Prim school
teacher' image in months./

     "That's how the murderer walked out of the building."

     /Huh?/

     "We're dealing with a Class A telepath. I've got a theory to
run past you. A theory on what really happen in Margrave's rooms
this morning." I outlined my theory, including the setup against
me, taking time to point out where it fit the few facts I did
know. 

     After I finished, she said grudgingly, /Makes sense, Too much
sense for my taste. Now what? You're up to your eyebrows in
trouble. Rei wants your head on a platter./

     "That's nothing new. Rei has always wanted my head on a
platter."

     /Be serious. If you're in jail, Margrave's chances of
getting out of this take a nosedive./

     "I know. Listen, I need you to do some things for me."

     She sounded exasperated. /If I can fit them in my very busy
schedule, and doesn't violate the law./

     "Relax Doll, violating the law's my department. I need you
to check on the names and whereabouts of all class A and B
telepaths currently in the city, especially anyone named Winter."

     /Can you tell me why?/

     "Because if my theory is right, and those two new additions
to CT's morgue died of induced cerebral hemorrhaging. It would
take at least a strong class B telepath to effect such an event
twice within seconds. And people that strong are few and far
between."

     /I can do that. Why are you looking for someone named
Winter?/

     "Because that's the only name Krikor managed to spit out
before his brain developed a continual leak."

     /Any idea what this Winter person looks like?/

     "I spotted a guy hanging around that alley that could be a
good candidate. Reminded me of a younger Kunzite, but without the
ego." 

     There's silence on the other end. I sighed and shook my head
slowly. Still haunting nightmares despite being dead and dust for
nearly a thousand years. "Relax, Kunzite's deader then last
week's news. I said the guy reminded me of him. I didn't say it
was him, OK?"

     /OK,/ she replies tightly. It's strange that a guy who's
been dead for nearly a thousand years still has the power to make
people quake. Hell, I was him for a time, long ago, and I'm still
not sure what the secret of his power was. I kinda wish I had
that power, but with the way I am today, I doubt that anyone a
thousand years down the road from now is going to fearfully
twitch at the name of Magnesite. Laugh themselves silly maybe,
but cause people to become silent and fearful? No.

     While I'm pondering, she regained her complete self control.
/I can get that list of telepaths. What else?/

     "The autopsy report on the two stiffs in the alley. I'm
betting two bottles of CT's finest Scotch that they each died of
a cerebral hemorrhage."

     /I'm not betting with you on anything, but I should be able
to get ahold of the report./

     "Fine. I still need to get inside KallionCo. That's where
the mastermind of this plot works."

     /Assuming that you're right about the theory of yours. You
have little proof, and a lot of speculation right now./

     "I know, I know. But it's the only thing that fits the few
facts we do have. Unless, you think Margrave actually did it."

     /You know I don't./ She managed to sound insulted. From the
rustle of papers, she sorting through a stack of them for
something. /I think I've found a way to get you inside KallionCo.
Is tomorrow morning too late?/

     "Perfect." That gave me time to do some serious reading of
the stuff Comyn gave me. "How are you going to get me in?"

     /There's a group of overseas investors due in late tonight.
They're supposed to tour KallionCo tomorrow. I've been tapped to
be their tour leader. I'm sure I can slip you in with them./

     "Where overseas?"

     /All over. With the right look, you'll pass as a
businessman./   

     I liked her thinking. "Look, I'd better go. When and where
should we meet tomorrow morning?"

     /My office, nine O'clock. And don't you dare show up in a
trenchcoat and Fedora./

     "Sounds like a plan. Until then, Dollface."

     /I'm not Dollface!/

     "You are in my book. Bye." I hung up before she could reply,
and strolled off into the cheerful sunny afternoon.

******

     The next morning, I arrived at Titanite's office ten minutes
before 9AM, using my Sydney Greenstreet form to get into the
building. As before, I was ignored by the scurrying packs of
bureaucrats all around me. But when I reached the elevators, the
first hint that this wasn't going to be a good day when I felt
the familiar presence of an oncoming Senshi. 

     "Not now," I muttered, glancing up at the floor indicator
above the elevator's doors. Only one was descending, and that one
just starting down from the tenth floor. I jabbed the up button
harder then I had to, and hoped my Senshi sense was wrong for once.
Something told me I wasn't going to be that lucky. My mental money 
was on Rei being her usual grouchy self. Knowing her, she found out 
about Ti's little trip to Margrave's place yesterday. 

     One thing about Rei that makes her charming is her
determination to nail me to the wall for something, no matter how
small. She's gone so far as to watch every Bogie movie she could
find, just so she knew the appearance of every actor and
character I could disguise myself as. While nearly everyone else,
with the exception of the few real Bogart fans that do survive in
this merry megalopolis, wouldn't know Sydney Greenstreet from
Mary Astor, Rei could ID me easily.

     The doors opened on another car across the hallway from
where I was standing. Moving as quickly as I could, I plowed into
the elevator car, finding myself with several other passengers
who were surprised as how fast I could move my bulk. Muttering a
few apologies, I moved all the way to the back of the car, and
pulled my hat low over my eyes.

     Just as the doors started to closed on this car, the car
across the hall opened its doors, and Rei popped out, followed by
two uniformed goons. Her eyes gleamed dangerously, a sure sign
she was in her usual unpleasant mood. I just managed to see her
made a hard right turn and stalk away, before the doors closed
completely. She never looked in my direction. I patted my
forehead with what appeared to be a silk handkerchief, and made a
remark about the weather. The other people gave reserved, but
friendly replies, and that exhausted all conversation for the few
seconds we were onboard.

     Because I had company, I had to stay as Sydney for the
entire ride up. Because I'd seen Rei, I decided to get off on the
ninth floor. After exiting the elevator, I causally walked down
the corridor, found the stairwell, reformed myself into Caesar
Romero (Let's see Rei try to ID me now), and climbed the stairs
to the tenth.

     The stacked redhead was behind her desk again, but there
were a pair of suits quietly sitting in the corners of the room,
trying to look like they were reading, and doing a poor job of
it. The only thing these two were missing was PROPERTY OF REI
HINO stamped on their foreheads. They gave me the once over, but
since Caesar never did a film with Saint Humphry, I doubted they
would recognize me.

     I strolled over to the desk, smiled at the redhead, and
said, "Excuse me Miss," I said in a fair imitation of Caesar's
voice. "My name is Luis Samuel Falcone. Could I please speak with
Lady Polaris?"

     I must have caught her flat footed, because she actually
giggled. "One moment please," she replied huskily, and dialed
into Ti's office. The two flatfeet not hiding their suspicions as
they glare at me, either because they think I'm a threat, or
because I was making more headway with the redhead then they had.

     Ten seconds after the redhead hung up the phone, Ti came
stalking out of the office, a look of curiosity on her face. Her
eyes widen slightly as she saw me, but she recovered quickly.
"Mr. Falcone," she said pleasantly, stretching out a hand to
greet me.

     On a flash of inspiration, I took Ti's offered hand and
kissed it. I felt her hand and her arm tightened, and waited for
a second to see if she'd blast me. She didn't, and I released the
hand. I stepped back, and winked at her.

     "I must apologize for this intrusion," I said smoothly. "But
my transport was late getting me here to this wonderful city. Not
knowing your schedule for the day, I needed to see you on an
important matter."

     "Of course," replied Ti, just as smoothly, but I could see
she was slightly annoyed. "I can spare you a few minutes." She
turned and walked back into her office, with me trailing behind
her.

     She waited until she'd closed the door before she turned and
looked at me. "You idiot!" she said in a low voice. "Those are
Rei's men out there!"

     I went back to my normal form. "I know. I spotted Rei on the
way up."

     "She doesn't know you and I are working together - yet. But
she did find out about our little trip to Margrave's penthouse
yesterday, as well as my interest in Kallion's autopsy report."
She gave me a half frown. "She's also looking for `Peter,' so I'd
advised you not to use that form for a century or two."

     I nodded. "Rei may be in a constant state of PMS, but she is
smart and efficient at her job - just don't tell her I said that,
OK?" I occupied one of Ti's chairs. "What did she talk to you
about?"

     "She said I was interfering with her investigation of
Kallion's murder. I told her she wasn't investigating, she was
railroading Margrave." She stopped for a second. "It got abusive
after that."

     "Wish I'd been here to see that." I would have PAID to see
two Senshis get into a good old argument. That's something that
would warm my...well, you know.

     She gave me a glare that was on a par with one of Rei's
better glowers. I didn't know if it was because it was the crack
about missing the argument, or I was narrating out loud again.
After several seconds of basking in that glare, Ti stalked over
to her desk, and sat behind it. "What happened to you after our
conversation yesterday?"

     "I spent the rest of the afternoon on the move, switching
forms ever so often to confuse any possible tails. Being my old
self was out. By now, Rei probably had my description out to
every doughnut eating member of CT's finest, down to the
individual hairs of my five O'clock shadow."

     "You're right." She picked up a sheaf of paper off her desk,
and gave it to me. I glanced at them. Yep, every actor or
character I'd used over the last several decades was there, as
well as several that I hadn't used yet. Caesar wasn't among them.

     I looked up at Ti. "How did you know that was me out there?"

     She gave me a long suffering look. "Your not the only one
who's watched black and white movies before. I recognized you as
Caesar Romero as soon as I saw you."

     Made sense. Ti had spent some time watching other things on
TV besides Anime. Never thought of her as an old time movie buff.

     "I'm not," she said suddenly, and I shook my head. Thinking
out loud again. "Where did you spend the night?" 

     I smirked. "The last place Rei would look for me, but that's
need to know, and you don't need to know."

     Her eyes narrowed. "You don't trust me, do you?"

     "As much as you trust me, sweetheart." That made her flinch.
"Which means if you put all that trust between us into a thimble,
you'd still have room left over for the thumb."

     She was silent for a moment, with gave me time to think. As
long as I could help Margrave, Ti would work with me. The second
I couldn't, Rei would sweep down on me like a vulture wearing red
high heels. So, I wasn't about to tell an old enemy where I'd
spent the night.

     The floor below Margrave's penthouse was a nice place to
hold up for several hours. Margrave had told me once that the
entire floor was empty because everyone had moved out within six
months after she'd set up her new business. Seems the people
working on that floor became more concerned about listening to
her and her clients testing the mattress upstairs then they were
putting into work. After a couple of weeks of intense discussion
(read much yelling and screaming on everyone's part), Margrave
agreed to pay the rent on the entire floor below hers, and the
companies who were there agreed to move. 

      The result was there was an empty floor with plenty of
furnished offices I could hide in until the morning. Building
security doesn't bother patrolling this floor, and the cleaning
crew comes in only once a week, so I figured I was safe for a
while. I spent most of the night reading over the large amount of
information Comyn had put together.

     Ti shrugged and looked at me again. "You mentioned yesterday
that you had gone to see your snitch. Did he give you anything
useful?" 

     "Plenty. I just don't know how useful it'll be."

     She glanced at her watch. "You have fifteen minutes before
the rest of the tour group arrives. Start talking."

     I pulled out the package of cigarettes I'd picked up
earlier, but a stern glare from Ti forced me to put them away
again. I started with a financial report Comyn had somehow
obtained, showing that Kallion was in sound shape in the area of
money. And considering the size of the outfit, a well-run
operation. There were several large sums of money put into
special projects that were nothing more then codenames, but it
all seemed to be above board and straight forward. 

     Next was a summary of Quinton Kallion's contacts with the
two Class B telepaths he wanted to hire. Ti nodded. "Another
reason why you wanted the list of class A and B telepaths in the
city."

     "In part. What did you turn up?"

     "There are four Class A and seven Class B telepaths
registered in Crystal Tokyo that are currently in the city. None
of them match the description of the white haired guy you saw
yesterday, and all eleven had perfect, air tight alibis. None
were within five kilometers of the alley during the time you were
playing Dracula."

     "I doubted our boy would send up a flag reading Here I am -
murdering telepath." I thought for a minute. "Speaking of which,
what about any telepaths with the name Winter?"

     Ti gave me a small smile. "On that, you may have something."

     "Oh?" I tossed the papers back onto her desk. I got up, went
over to the small liquor cabinet on across the office from Ti,
and pour myself a drink. "Spit it out."

     "I checked with CT's Intelligence Division. They have a file
on a telepath called Winter. And he's a bad boy."

     "You have contacts within ID?" I asked surprised. CT's
Intelligence Division is the ones tasked with spying on everyone
outside the city. Unlike Rei, the head of that outfit keeps a low
profile, and his people take the cue. Officially, ID doesn't
exist, but there are stories and rumors floating around that if
half of them were true, they could have work for Beryl with no
problems, and done a better job of invading the Earth then the
Four Horsemen of the Incompetent did. 

     She ignored my question, so I returned to my seat, glass in
hand, and slouched into it. "I'll bite. How bad a boy is this guy
Winter?"

     "Depends how you define bad." Ti flipped through a folder on
her desk. "Let's see...multiple counts each of Industrial
espionage, sabotage, murder...." She paused, and without looking
up, passed over another folder to me. "Speaking of which, that's
the autopsy report on your playmates from the alley. You were
right on the money with the cause of death - both died of a
massive cerebral hemorrhage."

     I glanced over the report, confirming Ti's words. "Rei's
seen this?"

     "She has. But it hasn't changed her opinion of you. She
thinks you're guilty of something."   

     "She thinks that every time I exhale, I should be cited for
air pollution. And I don't even breathe."

     "Poor guy," replied Ti, with no trace of sympathy. She went
back to her papers. "Where was I? Ah, here we go...forcible
removal of confidential information by telepathy, and those are
the crimes he's known to have committed. He's on the top ten most
wanted list in eight countries, and has been sentenced to death in
abstaintia in four others. Even the StarHunters are looking for
him."

     I took a swallow from my drink. This had the makings of
being a classic needle in a haystack. "Any pictures?"

     "Nope. He's also camera shy."

     "Known associates?"

     "Two. Both telepaths. And yes, these two have pictures to go
along with the name." She passed over some more papers, and I
glanced over them.

     The first was Modron Anderson. The picture showed a striking
blonde with green eyes and a dazzling smile. She looked like the
type of dame that attracted danger like a magnet. I glanced at
the rest of the file, and she definitely attracted trouble. Her
list of crimes was nearly as long as Winter's. "Nice girl," was
my only comment.

     I looked at the second folder. Josep Herwin was the exact
opposite of Modron in looks. His picture showed an ugly puss that
looked like twenty miles of bad roads. His record was even worst
than Winter's - this goon liked to inflict pain. From what was
there, Winter used this guy as his muscle. Talk about beauty and
the beast.

     I tossed the files back onto Ti's table. "Who do they work
for?"

     "Anyone who can afford them. Winter's a freelancer
industrial spy, one of the best in the world."

     "That defiantly added weight to my theory about a telepath
working inside KallionCo."

     "But not enough to convince Rei." 

     I took another sip from my drink. "Most of the products
KallionCo makes might interest a rival, but not to the point of
hiring this guy Winter. He's expensive, right?"

     "Very."

     "Not worth the time and effort to hire for a simple case of
industrial espionage." I finished the drink and looked at Ti.
"But those several defense related projects KallionCo was doing
for the Queen...." I let it hang for several seconds.

     Ti looked grim. "That has to be the reason for all this." 

     "But why?" I asked. "Serenity isn't an aggressive type of
leader. Those defense related projects would really be defensive
in nature, plus anything like that would probably be geared to be
used in conjunction with the Senshi's powers."

     "Which wouldn't make them too useful to those power mad
types outside the city," remarked Ti dryly. 

     Several thoughts suddenly reformed into a theory, and I
voiced it. "But suppose Winter was stealing the data from the
projects because someone wants to duplicate the work. Not for
their own use, but to study and figure out a way to neutralize
these new defenses?"

     Ti closed her eyes for a minute, and she looked troubled.
"You know what you're suggesting?"

     "A future invasion by someone whose decided CT will look
good with their flag flying over the Crystal Palace." That was a
scary thought to the CT citizens, one they lived with every day.
There were too many countries, large and small, near and far, who
would love to claim CT as their own. The only things barring them
from realizing that goal was the combined firepower of the
Senshi, that honking great crystal that turned the Dark Kingdom
in memories, and magical defenses that could shake off 20 megaton
nukes like a dog shaking off water. The city may be soft in the
middle, but that's a very hard shell surrounding it.

     I stood up. I was wandering too far from my main purpose
now, namely getting Margrave out of the slammer, and back to her
nypho self. "Leave politics to those who enjoy them, I have a
client to rescue."

     She looked up me. "Wrong, Psychoplasmic breath. WE have a
friend to rescue."

     I sighed. This was defiently going to be a long day....

     By the time the tour group showed up, Ti and I had hammered
together a plan of sorts about our trip to KallionCo. We decided
that I'd go as Caesar, go in with the tour group, then slip away
at the right time and look around. Ti was prepared for this part
of the operation. She passed over several pictures to me.

     I looked over them slowly. They looked like a hardened band
of thieves. "Who are these clowns?"

     The smile on her face was almost gleeful. "Trusted employees
of KallionCo. I figured that you might want a face less obvious
there your own mug when you go wandering around the building."
She glanced down at her watch. "Time to leave, Mags. Change back
to Caesar and let's go."

******

     The bus trip out to this place was like most things in CT -
quick, clean and efficient. I sat all the way in the back and
waited for the bus to have a flat tire, run out of gas, have an
accident, or SOMETHING unpleasant to happen. The rest of our
merry little group of corporate sharks talked amongst themselves,
oblivious to the rest of the world around them. Ti sat all the
way in front with a couple of fresh faced kids from Public
Relations who'd been dragooned into the role of chaperons. At
least they didn't play Barry Manlow on the radio on the way
there....

     Forty minutes later, we pulled up to a ten story tall 
building was part of an enormous business complex in a suburb of
the city. To me, the building itself looked like a clash of old
world charm and modern design in which both sides had lost. A
large sign in front of the building stated in big bold words:
KALLIONCO. HELPING PEOPLE BY BRING MAGITECH TO THEIR LIVES. I
think we found the right place. 

     I was the last one out of the bus. Ti stood by the door with
an honest to Metallia clipboard in her hands. She glanced at her
two aides who had the task of keeping the group together going up
to the front door before she looked at me.

     "Nice place," I remarked to Ti as I walked by her. "Where's
the rest of the company?"

     "This entire complex IS the rest of the company," she
replied tartly.

     "Oh," I shot back. "How are we going to play this, sweet-
cheeks?"

     I saw her jaw tighten, the steel clipboard began to buckle
in her hands, and her face became red. "One more remark like
that," she said in a low voice, "and Margrave or no Margrave, I
will use the biggest mallet I can create to squash you, then take
your liquefied remains and fabricate as many teddy bears as I can
out of them. I will then mail most of them to every corner of the
earth, plus shoot a couple into space just for the hell of it. Do
I make myself clear?"  

     I gave her a smile. "Has anyone told you you're beautiful
when you're angry?"

     At that point, the clipboard crumpled in her hands like a
piece of paper. I walked away quickly, hoping she'd control her
temper before she'd carry out her threat. One of her aides stood
by the door, looking puzzled as I approached. "Is anything
wrong?" he asked.

     I gave him a smile. "She wanted to have dinner with me," I
said, putting as much of Caesar as I could into my voice. "But I
declined her invitation, and she is not pleased. I suggest we do
not mention this small incident to anyone. It would be
embarrassing to both myself and her."

     The kid nodded solemnly and opened the door for me. By the
time Ti regained her temper, I was mixed in with the other suits.

     So, there I was, part of a flock of suits that came bustling
through the front door of the KallionCo building on that Tuesday
morning. Ti and her people were running around the suits like
dogs herding sheep. The suits were talking amongst themselves in
half a dozen languages, while Ti strode over to the front desk
and quietly chatted with the security guards posted there. I hung
around the edges and took in the lobby.

     Ti was right about me not standing out amongst the suits.
There was upwards of thirty people in the group, with women
making up a third. They were from all the world, so me as Caesar
Romero looked like a South American. I just hoped that no one
tried to have a conversation with me in Spanish - the only words
I know of the language aren't uttered in polite company.

     The lobby was large and impressive, if you like your lobbies
clean and sterile. The place was big enough to play a pro
baseball game in. Besides the occasional potted tree, stiff back
chairs here and there, and the sporadic wandering employee, this
place had all the life of an undertaker's convention that had
just been told someone had discovered the secret of eternal
life.

     It all reminded me of the Dark Kingdom, and I felt homesick
for about five seconds. Then reality stalked across the lobby in
the form of a gorgeous brunette. Long legged and well proportioned, 
the somber business suit she wore did nothing but accentuate her 
figure. The type of girl that would move monks to question their 
vows and married men to question their commitments to their wives.

     "Yes, Yes. I agree with you," whispered a guy standing next
to me. "But not so loud, the sounds carry in such a large lobby."

     My jaw snapped shut with an audible click. This habit of
speaking my thoughts out loud was becoming annoying. "Sorry," I
muttered. "But such beauty is hard not to commented on."

     The guy, a short rotund man with thinning hair and plump
cheeks gave me a wistful smile. "True. But I find most women do
not like being discussed like they are a slab of meat."

     I nodded absently, watching Ti and the brunette become
involved in a quiet discussion. From the expression the brunette
was giving Ti, there looked like there was a problem. She was
frowning and her body language was all wrong. This could be
trouble.

     I made a polite excuse to my fellow admirer of womanhood,
and drifted close enough to hear the conversation between these
two women. Yep, the brunette was defiantly unhappy. 

     "I'm sorry Lady Polaris," the brunette was saying on a low
voice that could have raised the interest of a eunuch. "But, with
the Mr. Kallion's death yesterday, I afraid things are a bit
chaotic around here right now."

     "I understand," replied Ti smoothly. "But this tour took
months to scheduled, and it maybe years before these people can
assemble again. I'm sure you can see the importance of going
through with this tour, not only to KallionCo, but to Crystal
Tokyo and to the Queen herself."

     The brunette flinched at the mention of Serenity. "I-I'm not
sure," she replied unsteadily. "Most of the senior management is
in a state of shock, and I'm sure there's not much business being
conducted today."

     "I'm sure we can adjust our itinerary to take in account the
sudden disruption that has occurred."

     The brunette still looked undecided. Time to cut in on this
dance, for a couple of reasons. "Lady Polaris?" I said politely,
stepping forward.

     I found two pairs of beautiful eyes, one pair soft brown,
the other a brilliant blue, looking at me. "Yes, Mr. Falcone?"
replied Ti, a hint of a very large mallet in my near future clear
in her tone of voice.

     "Forgive my intrusion, Ladies," I said, flashing both of
them a dazzling smile. "But Lady Polaris is right. I myself had
to shuffle my schedule a great deal in order to attend this tour.
To say that this has been an upheaval in my time and trouble is
an understatement."

     The brunette stared at me like I was a talking dog. "I-I'm
sorry, Mr....."

     "Falcone," I replied with an even bigger smile. "Luis Samuel
Falcone, from Casablanca."

     I heard Ti suck in her breath at my introduction. If the
brunette heard it, she didn't acknowledge it. "Lois Seiland," she
replied, a slight flush coming to her cheeks. "I am - er, was, Mr
Kallion's executive assistant."

     And Quinton was going to Margrave's when he had this woman
working with him? I don't think I'll ever understand Humans....

     A not so polite cough snapped the mood like a dry twig. Ti
looked annoyed, which didn't bother me any. "Mr. Falcone, please
join the rest of the group while Miss Seiland and I continue our
discussion."

     I smiled at her, turned, and went back to the group. Several
of the men in the group gave me the "ataboy" smile, while I got
some really vicious glares from several of the women in the
group. I didn't care either way. Despite my drooling reflex, I
had a real reason to get close to Miss Lois Seiland.

     I still had a few aces up my sleeves, which I kept secret
from Ti just on general purposes. One of the papers I'd gotten in
Comyn's envelope of KallionCo goodies was a complete list of
everyone who was in daily contact with Kallion and the rest of
the upper management. I'd just gotten a good look at one of the
few people who was close enough to Quinton and the others to read
their mind on a regular basis. The fact she was a looker only
made my decision to get close easier. At least, that was what I
would tell Ti later on....

     I went back to stand next to my comrade in the art of
watching womankind. His smile was friendly, if a little wistful.
"Amazing, sir," he murmured. "Another ten seconds, and you would
have her phone number and an open invitation to visit her
anytime."

     "It's a family curse," I replied smoothly. "Beautiful women
have always flocked to the Falcone men."

     He sighed. "I wish I had your curse."

     Just then, Ti turned around and said in a loud voice.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. We will be able to tour KallionCo today as
planned." This caused a polite round of clapping until Ti held up
her hand for silence. "However, due to the sudden death of
Quinton Kallion yesterday, I afraid the extended meetings with
senior management will not take place as planned."

     I didn't expect a reaction from that statement from the
suits, and I got exactly what I expected. You would have to be
blind, deaf, dumb as a post, and living in a cave in Freezone in
order not to know what had happened in the last twenty-four
hours. The press of Crystal Tokyo, in all it's forms, was having
a field day with the story, and they even got some of the story
right. Some newspaper writer had even come up with a headline
that read, "MADAM MARGRAVE MESSILY MANGLES MILLIONAIRE!". Try
saying that three times fast....

     Ti gave the suits a minute to accept the fact they weren't
going to get their extended meetings before she continued.
"However, we will be able to arrange a short meeting with several
of KallionCo's Board of Directors later in the day."

     That cheered up some of the more glum looking suits. With Ti
and Miss Seiland leading the way, we started our tour.

     It was an hour and forty minutes before I could slip away
from the tour. The two sheepdogs in suits Ti had brought along
were well versed in keeping the group together. Every time I
drifted close to slipping away, either one or the other was there
to prevent me. I caught Ti's eye a couple of times in attempt to
get these two called off, but each time she shook her head
slightly and turned away.

     During the time I was waiting for my chance to break loose
from Farmer Ti's flock, the tour passed through a gaggle of
departments. Product Design, Research and Development, Advertising, 
and Human Relations, and several others that made no sense to me. 
Leave it to humans to create something so complex. I think maybe 
Beryl would have been better off using a pack of lawyers to 
spearhead her takeover bid of the Earth than Kunzite and the 
Generals.

      Throughout this, I tried to keep the same glazed look of
fascination all the others had. I followed the tour spiel Lois
was giving the entire group, more because I liked the sound of
her voice than any interest in business. I avoided her glances 
though. The last thing I needed was her to realize I'd slipped 
away from the tour until I had a chance to change forms and get 
out of the area.  

     My chance finally came when we entered one of the assembly
areas of the complex. There were a dozen workers in the area,
mostly supervising the robotic assembly stations. Lois stopped
the group and began a long winded explanation of what exactly was
being made. I started looking around for a way to sneak away, but
sure enough, one of Ti's people was standing several meters away.

     Damn. This was beginning to get ridiculous. I glanced over
at Ti, and caught her eye. I motioned to the nearby chaperon with
my eyes, as if to say `Can you do something about him?'

     She gave me a slight nod, and motioned to the guy to come
over to her. He gave her a puzzled look, but he strolled over
like an obedient lapdog. As soon as he reached Ti and they
started talking, I quietly stepped into the shadow of a nearby 
support beam and became a shadow. 

     Three minutes later, the tour continued without me. No big
loss to me - I had enough of corporate life anyway. Once the
voices had faded, I became a squat, hard faced man by the name of
Phil Fiong, KallionCo's Senior Janitorial Supervisor. I then went
back the way I came. My target was the offices of Quinton
Kallion, and several of the suspects on Comyn's list.
     
     My plan was simple. I would search the suspect's office's
for clues that they were involved in spying, and they were doing
it for Winter. Other than that, I would be playing it by ear. I
didn't bother telling Ti this part of my plan - she already
thinks I'm a lousy planner.

     My first stop was Lois Seiland's office, as I knew she
wasn't going to be in it. A handy directory pointed me in the
right direction. I waited until I was in the elevator on the way
up to her office before I took Lois's form.

     I strode purposely into the office. A hatchet faced woman
manning the desk looked up in surprise. "You're back early," she
said. "I thought you'd be tied up with that tour group for the
rest of the afternoon."

     "I forgot some papers," I replied matter of factly, using
Lois's voice. "Lady Polaris wanted a few items to give our
guests, and with everything going on...."

     She nodded in an understanding way. "I quite understand."
She stood up. "I'd better get these items over to Mr. Katsuke
before the board meeting this afternoon. Be back in a couple of
minutes." 

     I didn't watch her leave, but strode into Lois's office like
it was mine, and closed the door. I waited a few seconds, then
open the door slowly, and looked out. The outer office was empty.
I closed the office door and started searching.

     I will say this for Lois Seiland's office - it fitted the lady
perfectly. Perfectly decorated and tastily furnished, it made my
own office look twice as worse as it actually is. Expensive rug,
wood paneled walls, a desk big enough to sit two people behind,
and a magnificent view of downtown Crystal Tokyo really impressed
me.

     It took three seconds to get over being impressed, and start
getting down to business. I started searching, looking for
anything that might be useful to me - say, a written confession
in Lois's Seiland's own hand that she committed the murder of
Quinton Kallion.

     After ten minutes, I found nothing of use in her desk, or on
her computer. It took me five more minutes to check out the rest
of the office. Nothing, nada, zilch, zero. Either Lois wasn't a
spy, or she was a real good spy.

     Time to move on.

     I walked out of the office, still looking like Lois. The
Battle Ax hadn't made it back yet, but I decided not to hang
around and wait for her. I walked out, turned left, and walked
down the hall. I looked up and down the hall quickly to make sure
I was alone, then changed my form back to Phil Fiong.

     My changing back to Fiong's form wasn't by accident. He was
another name on my list of possible suspects, and the next office
on my list to search. I just hoped he wasn't in his office when I
showed up.

     It was about this time Dame Fortune decided she needed a
good laugh at my expense. So, when I turn into the hall that had
Fiong's office in it, I found the next to last thing I expected
to find....

     The hall was empty, with the exception of some guy mopping
the floor. He looked up as I came into view, and I found myself
looking at the ugly mug of Winter's male henchman, Josep Herwin.
The photos didn't do him justice - He had the type of face that
mothers got slapped for.

     At the same time the recognition dawned on me, he realized I
wasn't Phil Fiong, though if it was by mind reading, or me
narrating out loud again, I wasn't sure. With a snarl that would
have done a grizzly bear proud, he threw the mop at me, followed
by the mop bucket, then took off running in the opposite
direction.

     I dodged the mop with no problem, but the bucket caught me
shin high, and I hit the floor with my kisser leading the way. I
hauled myself to my feet, slipped on the soapy water, and went
down again. I climbed to my feet more carefully the second time,
made sure I was clear of the soapy water, and charged off after
Herwin, changing back into my own form on the fly.

     I've been involved in the occasional chase over the years,
so I had some idea of what to do. He had the advantage of a lead,
and knowledge of the layout. All I had was a body that didn't
need air, or get tired. So all I had to do was run our friendly
Telepathic spy into the ground, and pick him up after he
collapsed, right?

     Wrong.

     For someone that ugly, he sure could run. By the time I
started in pursuit, he'd managed to get a twenty meter lead on
me. He turned right at the next intersection, plowed into a guy
carrying a load of papers, and kept going. I made the turn in
time to charge through the man made blizzard, and knock the poor
guy down again. After that, everyone who saw us coming prudently
stepped aside to let us pass.

     As Herwin charged down the halls, people stuck their heads
out of the office to see what all the ruckus was about. They saw
Herwin fly by, a space of five seconds, then me charging after
him. Several were dumb enough to step all the way out of the
offices and try and stop me, no doubt in an attempt to find out
what was going on. A shoulder block or two was sufficient to
knock them out of the way.

     Three hallways, four flights of stairs down, two
intersections, and a pair of skybridges later, I realized I was
slowly closing the distance between us. He realized it too, and
stopped long enough to pull a small red lever located on the
wall. A bell started ringing rapidly, and the hall began to fill
with people.

     Fire alarm. Crude, but effective, as the sudden influx of
people slowed me down. In seconds, I was buffeted by the morass
of people who were calmly and quietly trying to get out of the
building. I was, in effect, trying to swim upstream against a
river of humanity. I spotted Herwin scrambling up a flight of
stairs, making good on his escape.

     Okay, desperate measures. My mind raced to figure out a way
to get these people out of my way, and I needed it now. Something
that would clear the way, something more fearful then a possible
fire...wait, that could work.... 

     I transformed myself into Mr. Vampire from the day before
and bellowed in a graveyard voice, "OUT OF THE WAY!"

     Now, Crystal Tokyo is a modern city. These people live with
science and magic, and are highly educated. Inside this city,
they live in a cocoon that protects them from the reality outside
the city. In short, they wouldn't know a real Youma if one came
up and bit them.

     Yet, the sudden appearance of a creature among them had the
effect I wanted - everyone scattered to the four winds as fast as
they could run. No matter that it was midday on a bright sunny
day, vampires aren't real, and this was the `age of reason', to
quote Serenity. They disappeared quicker then a bunch of snowmen 
in a blast furnace. I found out later that KallionCo's staff shrink
was booked solid for six months after my little trick. Served them
right.

     Now that the way was clear again, I again roared off in
pursuit of Herwin. I didn't bother to change back to normal, as I
found the sight of a six foot tall, fanged nightmare was a great 
way to keep the hallway clear.

     Herwin flung himself through an emergency exit door, and 
I followed. We were outside now, running through a small park 
that some yahoo thought would go perfect here. It did allow me 
to keep the guy in sight though. Now that there wasn't any 
obstacles between him and me, I was gaining ground fast.

     Herwin shot around the corner of a building, with me right
at his heels. I heard shouts and screams as my quarry crashed on
through a group of people who made the mistake of being in our
path at the wrong time. I turned the corner and plowed right into
the group after him.  

     Several of the women in the group fainted at the sight of
me, while several of the men looked ready to join them. Out of
the corner of my eye, I saw both Ti and Lois standing there, a
look of stunned disbelief on their faces. Dame Fortune, not
satisfied to simple have a simple laugh at my expense, decided to
bring Ti and her tour group in on the joke.

     While I was taking in the view, Herwin grabbed a random body
and flung them at me. The poor slob plowed into me knee high, and
I took another header into the concrete. Unlike last time, I shot
to my feet, shifting back into my own persona in the process. I
ignored the gasps from the audience as I made a grab for short
and ugly.

     Herwin slithered out of my grasp, and broke clear of the
gaggle of suits. I glared at Ti for a full second before I
continued after my only lead, who was putting as much distance as
he could between him and me. As I dashed away, I heard Ti shout
"James, Kiko, get these people out of here! I'll handle this!
Polaris Power, Make up!"

     I didn't bother to turn around and watch her transform, but
continued to race after the telepathic troll while thinking nasty
thoughts. Great, just great. Ti had decided to give me a hand.
And knowing her, she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

     "You're damm right!" said a voice at my elbow. I glanced
over, and found Ti - in full Sailor Polaris get-up - keeping pace
with me, a look of determination on her face. "I didn't get a
look at him when he blew by," she continued. "Who is he?"

     "Winter's man, Herwin," I replied, watching the object of
our pursuit duck into a door leading into a warehouse.

     "Are you sure?" she asked archly. She wasn't even breathing
hard, despite the fact we were probably breaking several world
records at the speed we were covering these distances. Senshi
powers take most of the fun out of competing. "Looking the way
you did several seconds ago, anyone with half a brain would head
for the hills."

     I didn't bother answering her barb, but continued to cover
the distance to the warehouse as fast as I could. I reached the
door and darted through, Ti at my heels.

     Inside it was what you would expect to find in a warehouse -
crates and crates of stuff piled almost to the ceiling, with dark
and narrow lanes between the pallets. The lighting consisted of
small islands of light surrounded by a sea of darkness. No one
was in sight, and I didn't hear any convenient footsteps to give
me a direction. I strained my hearing for any sound that might
give me a hand.

     "Now what, Sherlock?" Ti asks me in a loud voice.

     I jumped three feet in the air, as that was the last thing I
was expecting, especially from her. I glared at her, but as Sailor
Polaris, she's immune to it. "The first thing, Polaris," I said
in a low snarl, "is drop the noise level. In case you've
forgotten, noise carries."

     "Oh."

     I continued to glare at her. Of course, it never occurred to
her that Senshi might need to subtle at times. Most Senshi,
including Ti, was about a subtle as an avalanche. After all,
wearing an outfit like that, blending into the background is not
high on the list of things Senshi does well. Of course, that
outfit is a hella distraction at times....

     "Stop drooling, Spade," said Ti in a low hiss, "and start
walking."

     I pointed down one of the narrow aisles. "Take that one," I
said in a whisper. "I'll take this one. If you see him, call
out."

     "Right." 

     We split up, and started down the aisles. I moved quickly
and carefully down the passage, looking and listening for signs
of the mind reading moron. But there was an oppressive silence
throughout that warehouse, so silent you could have heard a pin
drop into a pillow. After a while, it became down right annoying.

     Ti and I emerged into a cross aisle at the same time. Both
of us had the same look on our faces, which could be quickly
summed up as `No Luck'. I pointed down the next aisle, Ti nodded,
and we continued to search.

     Fifteen minutes later, Ti and I met up again, and each had
the same thing to tell the other: nothing. Of course, Herwin was
probably halfway out of the country by now.

     "Hello!" someone yelled from behind us. "Anyone here?"
Despite the echo, I recognized the liquid tones of Lois Seiland.

	I sighed. We had a desperate criminal loose somewhere in 
this warehouse, and now we had a civilian who might as well hold 
up a sign reading 'Possible Hostiage - Please Accost'. If Herwin 
was still hanging around, he didn't need a helpless bargining 
chip.

     I looked at Ti. "Just what we needed. Do you want to escort
her out of her, or shall I?"

     Ti looked irritated. "I'll do it. You do...whatever." 
She stalked off in the direction we'd come, leaving me
standing in the middle of the aisle.

     My mind whirled as it tried to fit the pieces together.
Herwin's job as the janitor gave him access to most of the
offices. That allowed him to pick up and replace the important
data left out for him. But where was Modron Anderson? If Herwin
was the bagman, she had to be the one who planted the suggestions
in the employee's minds. Which meant someone who had access to a
large part of the KallionCo management....

     My mind drifted back to the picture of Modron Anderson. A
striking blonde with green eyes and a dazzling smile. But suppose
you replaced the long blonde hair with short brunette hair, and
the green eyes with soft brown....

     As soon as the new image took hold, I heard Ti yell,
"Polaris Miss-". The cry was cut off by a solid thud, the 
type that indicates someone got thumped on the head, followed
by something hitting the floor not far away.

     "Magnesite!" yelled Seiland, or more accurately, Modron
Anderson. "We have your partner!"

     Well, I now found two out of the three. They had Ti. And
they knew who I was. Now what?

     Anderson yelled again. "You've got to the count of ten to
surrender, or she dies!"

     At one time, I would have turned and walked away. I didn't
like Ti, and she hated me. 

     "One!"

     I had no affection for Calcite or any of the others
Renegades.

     "Two!"

     It was Ti's fault she'd gotten involved with chasing Herwin.
I hadn't asked her to give me a hand.

     "Three!"  

     Ti was a big girl, she knew what she was getting into.

     "Four!"

     But, Margrave would never forgive if anything happened to
Ti.

     "Five!"

     I remembered what Calcite did to the Youma boss who'd
murdered his mother. And it wasn't pretty....

     "Six!"

     And both Pyrite and Azurite would be there to cheer on
Calcite.

     "Seven!"

     Of course, Rei and the rest of the Senshi would react the
same way as the Renegades. They'll be standing in line. Ready to
pick up where Calcite left off.

     "Eight!"

     Besides, invited or not, wanted or not, Ti was my partner on
this case. 

     "Nine!"

     And if a man can't count on his partner, who can he count
on?

     "Ten!" 

     I put my hands in the air. "All right!" I shouted. "I give
up!" 

     There was silence for a minute, then Anderson yelled, "Walk
towards the sound of my voice. You try anything, and your partner
is dead!"

     I did as she said, and after about a minute of walking, I
found myself facing Herwin and Anderson.

     They were standing in a middle of empty patch of real
estate, looking like a couple of tomcats that had just swallowed
a five kilogram canary each. Anderson was standing off to one
side, A large and ugly looking pistol in her right hand. Herwin
was in front of me, holding an unconscious Ti in front of him
like a shield with one burly arm. He was waving around a long and
ugly looking blade in the other hand like a mad conductor.

     "Stop right there, Mags," Anderson said sharply. "And keep
your hands up."

     I did as she said, looking at both of them. "Modron Anderson
and Josep Herwin, I presume?"

     "Right first time, gumshoe," replied Anderson. "And I
presume you're Magnesite, this city's only Private
Investigator."

     "You got that right Doll-face." I gauged the distance
between them and me, and realized that they were out of my reach
by a good two meters.

     Anderson gave me a lazy smile. "Of course you're too far
away to jump us. I'm not a fool."

     I looked at her. "Was I narrating out loud again?"

     She gave me a puzzled look. "No, genius, I read your mind. I
am a telepath, after all." She gave me another lazy smile that
would have sent my heart into overdrive, if I had one. "And those
thoughts about your partner here. I'd keep them buried if I was
you."

     With my hands still in the air, I pointed at Herwin with one
finger. "Speaking of buried. Where did you dig up short, dark,
and repulsive there?"

     Herwin pointed the knife at me. "Very funny, freak. You're
next!"

     "Put a sock in it you missing link."

     "Cut it out, Josep," Anderson said sharply. "Magnesite's
only delaying the end as long as he can." She looked at Ti.
"Careful, she's coming around now." 

     Ti opened her eyes slowly. Before she could move, Herwin
placed the edge of the blade against her throat. "Don't move,
Missy," the toad faced telepath said in a low voice. "Or the
Senshi are going to be one Sailor short - A head short." He
chuckled at his own joke.

     "So glad you could join us, Sailor Polaris," Anderson
purred, pointing the pistol at me. "Though my friend does so want
to play with your partner here."

     I shrugged. "What's the matter? This the only way Ugly there
can get a date?"

     Herwin hissed at me like a tire going flat. "Modron, let me
cut him up a bit before you kill him, Please?"

     Anderson shook her head. "We don't have time for this,
Josep. Slit her throat, and I'll take care of Mags here. We'll
make it look like they had a falling out, and killed each other.
Winter said he'll meet us outside in ten minutes."

     "Now I know why Quinton went to Margrave for relaxation," I
said, the glimmering of a plan forming deep in my mind. "You
really are a cold-hearted bitch, aren't you?"

     Anderson's face clouded up in anger. "I did everything but
strip in front of that bastard! And instead of coming to me, he
goes to that - that...."

     "Youma?" I supplied.

     "Creature!" She tightened her grip on the pistol. "I never
knew what he saw in her."

     I shrugged. "Margrave may have her faults, but she comes by
them honestly, and she makes no effort to hide them. On the other
hand, you and Igor there aren't as lucky."

     The missing link started making noises again, and he
continued the maestro act with the blade. Ti was still glassy
eyed, looking at me like I was declaring my undying love for
Queen Serenity and Rei, in that order. Anderson was looking
really angry. Perfect.

     "Could I put my hands down, please?" I asked, trying to look
innocent. "I would like a last cigarette before you plug me."

     "I don't trust him!" shouted Herwin, the knife hovering
around Ti's face like an interested bee. "It's a trick of some
type!"

     I had to act now. Not for me, because Anderson couldn't kill
me with that weapon of hers. But it would slow me down long
enough for Herwin to finish off Ti. That pigsticker could open
Titanite's veins and arteries just as easily as a human's, and
Ti was too foggy right then to throw up her force shield. Neither
she or I had time for her brian cells to sort themselves out.
Which meant trying something that was dangerous, foolhardy, and
risky. Which meant it was right up my alley.

     One of the abilities I have that I don't use much is my
energy blast. Because it takes a lot of my precious energy to
use, I only use it in emergencies. In the current situation, I
decided this qualified as an emergency.

     I started gathering energy in my hands. Over a period of
several seconds, I had managed this little trick without Beauty
and the Beast noticing. I adjusted my hands slightly so each one
was angled towards the target.

     Anderson placed her other hand on the pistol. "No dice,
Magnesite," she said angrily. "You and the Senshi die right here,
right now." She cocked the pistol's hammer. "I'm going to enjoy
this so much -"

     My first blast shot over Ti's shoulder, and caught Ugly
right in the face. While it didn't have the full power of the old
days, it had more then enough punch to knock Herwin off his feet,
and out for the count. At almost the same instant, the second
blast caught Anderson in the midsection, and she folded over like
a wet cardboard.

     I did my own collapsing then. I felt weak and dizzy, and a
glance at my hand told me I was a bit on the faded side. After
several seconds, I managed to stabilize myself.

     While I was recovering, Ti, still a bit loopy from the conk
on the noggin she'd taken, somehown managed to finished the job 
I started. By the time I looked up, both Herwin and Anderson were 
trussed up like Christmas Turkeys. She managed to look over at 
me, her expression somewhere between netural and strained. "W-why 
didn't they see th-that coming?" she asked, her voice sluring 
slightly. "Couldn't th-they read what passes for yo-your mind?"

     I looked up at her. "You don't hang around telepaths alot,
do you?"

     "No. Why?"

     "Because the easiest was to screw up a telepath's ability to
read your mind is to provoke a strong emotion in them." I waved a
hand in the direction of the Ice Queen and Igor. "In their case,
they were so angry at me, they couldn't read my mind clearly.
     
     "I see," she replied, she voice becoming steadier. "Are
you going to be OK?" 

     "Kid," I said slowly. "I haven't been OK since Serenity
sprung me from the crystal." I stood up and nodded in approval at
Ti's handy work. "Good going. All we need is the headman himself."

     Just then, I heard someone slowly clap their hands together.
"Very nice," said a strong, clear voice from the darkness off to
my left. "An excellent performance."

     Ti spun to face the darkness. "Who's th-"

     I figured she must have been still suffering some from the
crack on the head, or maybe because she's not the combat vetrean
her brother or Azurite is. Anyhow, she'd forgotten her force
shield, and it cost her.

     She staggered as something struck her hard and fast in the
head. The inert body of Herwin was in the perfect place to trip
Ti, and she fell back. There was a solid crack as the back of her
head struck the concrete. I looked at her for several seconds,
then quickly moved over to where she laid.  

     It wasn't good. Her eyes had gone out of focus, and her jaw
hung slightly open. If she had been a nomal human, she'd probably 
be well on her way to a coma. But she's not human, and she would 
recover a lot faster then any human would. Right now, however, 
she couldn't even remembered her name, let alone face a very 
smart Class A telepath.

     "Is that the best your partner can do?" said the mocking
voice from the darkness.

     I didn't bother to look. I pulled out a cigarette. "Unless I
miss my guess, the elusive Mr. Winter has arrived."

     "Very good guess, Magnesite," replied the voice. "I may have
underestimated the opposition in this city."

     I lit the cigarette, inhaled deeply, then blew a smoke ring.
"Don't feel bad," I said, watching the smoke dissipate. "You've
joined a long list of people who've made the exact same mistake."

      "Indeed?"

     I turned to look at the direction the voice was coming from,
the cigarette still dangling from my mouth. I couldn't take him
alone. I needed Ti's help, but she was still in ga-ga land. She 
needed time to recover, and I was the only one who could give that 
time. "Come out into the light, Winter," I said in my best sneer, 
moving away from Ti, who was trying to sit up. "I've never met a 
man who's on the most wanted list in eight countries, and has 
been sentenced to death in abstaintia in four others."

     Someone stepped out of the shadows. He was the guy I'd seen
at the alley yesterday. Tall and lean, his face had more angles
then the late lamented Kunzite, but he didn't have the General's
swagger.

     Winter's face looked puzzled. "Who's Kunzite? Wait a
second...." He stared at me for several seconds before he smiled
again. "Of course, one of Queen Beryl's generals. You didn't have
a high opinion of him, did you?"

     I don't know which made me angrier, the fact I'd narrated
out loud again, or Winter reading my mind so easily. "He's dead,
and I'm alive. You tell me who came out ahead."

     "O-okay, Mags," said Ti angrily. She managed to get on her
feet and was swaying there, hands on hips, looking like a Senshi
recruiting poster caught in a high wind. Why couldn't she just
blast him without the speechmaking? "E-enough with the small
talk. W-W-Winter, anything to say before I arrest you?"

     Winter looked at her. "Is she serious?" he asked in an
amused tone of voice.

     I finished the cigarette. I needed to give Ti more time to
recover, which meant I needed Winter looking at me. "Yep.
Margrave's a friend of hers."

     "Of course." said Winter causally. He looked at me. "And
what about you? Is the Catwomen a friend of yours also?"

     "It's much more than that. Margrave's my client. I know she
didn't kill Quinton Kallion. You did."

     Winter's laugh wasn't pleasant. "I have underestimated the
opposition in this city." He gave me a little bow. "You are
right, of course. I killed Quinton Kallion."

     I heard Ti suck in a ragged breath, but I ignored her. I was
playing for time. "You found out that Quinton Kallion was hiring
two telepaths to close down your operation here. You also knew
about Kallion's weekly little get together with Margrave. So, you
decided that Margrave becomes the fall cat in this scheme of
yours." 

     "Continue. I find this extremely interesting."

     "You get in Margrave's rooms early, blanking Veronica's
memory just long enough to slip past her. Then, you hold up in
Margrave's "prop room", and wait until Kallion and Margrave are
engaged in business." 

     "Is that what she calls it? She looked like she was enjoying
herself."

     I ignored the comment. "Then, you entered Margrave's mind at
the right time, and turns off the mental suppresser. Margrave
goes berserk, and starts slashing at Kallion. Kallion takes some
damage, but he's not dead, and he manages to fend off Margrave.
You can't allow him to leave the room alive."

     "Of course," replied Winter with a shrug. "If he'd had time
to think, he would have taken precautions, which would have
interfered with our activities." 

     "You had to lend Margrave a claw, so to speak."

     "Nice turn of phrase."

     This guy was beginning to irritate me. He was too calm, too
controlled. There was an alarm bell going off in the back of my
mind. I pulled out another cigarette, and lit it up. "It wouldn't
be too hard to blank Margrave's memory for the few minutes you
needed to finish off Kallion. But it wasn't a clean murder, was
it?"

     "Kallion still had some fight left in when I used that
gardening claw on him." Winter tilted his head to show an ugly
looking scar on his neck. "As you can see, even unarmed and
injured, Kallion put up a hell of a fight."

     "I-I don't believe this!" shouted Ti. From the look she was
giving Winter and myself, she was ready to pound both of us into
the ground. She turned and glared at me. "Y-Y-You are s-so right,
Mags!"

     "Relax, Kid," I said, trying to ignore the fact I'd been
thinking out loud again. I looked at Winter again. "As I was
saying, killing Kallion must have left you looking like a butcher
at a slaughterhouse. You couldn't leave the way you were, so you
needed a disguise - In your case, a telepathic disguise. You must
of gotten a chuckle out of using one of Margrave's own Glamour
images to build your disguise around."

     "Amazing," replied Winter. "You're a regular Sherlock
Holmes."

     I ignored his barb, and continued. "You waited until
Margrave recovered from your little manipulation, and left the
room. Then you left yourself, blanking Veronica's memory again on
the way out. After that, you simply strolled out of the building,
projecting the Prim school teacher image to anyone you met."

     Winter gave me a mocking bow. "How did you figure it out?"

     "It wasn't hard," I replied. I gave him the same set of
facts I'd given Ti the day before.

     Winter listened calmly, and after I finished, he shrugged.
"I am impressed," he said. "A very accurate account of what
happened. I'm surprised that the CTPD fell for it so easily."

     "I'm not." I sucked on my cigarette, and blew a big cloud of
smoke at him. "They're not used to actually having to go looking 
for murderers."

     "I see." He shrugged. "And Anderson and Herwin thought I was
wasting my time setting you up for those two murders yesterday."

     "You were the one who planted the idea about the vampire in
my mind, weren't you?"

     "Of course," the telepath responded modestly. "I thought you
might have been trouble, and decided that I shouldn't take any
chances. I found of couple of useless scum the world wouldn't
miss, sent them after you, and when you tried to interrogate
them, I killed them." He grinned at me. "And you fell right into
it."

     "T-That's it!" Ti bellowed at that point. "Polaris Mis -"

     This really wasn't Ti's day. Before she could launch her
attack, Winter pointed an arm at her. A small golden ball formed
at his fingertips, then shot across the distance between himself
and Sailor Polaris, and hit Ti hard in the stomach. She doubled
over and collapsed, trying desperately to force a breath into her
lungs.

     I closed my eyes and muttered every single Dark Kingdom
curse I could remember. She'd forgotten her stupid forcefield
again! Hanging around the other Senshi must have dulled her sense
of survival. Calcite or Azurite would not only had had their
force shields up before saying a peep, but Winter would have been
a small pile of ashes before he'd realize it. Now, I was stuck
with coming up with a plan B, and fast. 

     And what was this thing about Senshi yelling out their
attacks? So any bad guy who gets wacked by one can tell their
doctor what exactly happen to them? Or is it in their Senshi
contracts?

     "Pitiful," said Winter, contempt clearly in his voice. "Like
the others." He looked at me. "A fair attempt to stall me, but
doomed to failure. Your mind is like an open book to me."

     I shrugged, trying to look calm. "I hope it's a good read." 

     "Now, what am I going to do with you?"

     "I don't suppose you'd be willing to surrender peaceably?"

     He chuckled and shook his head. "I leant a lot about you
yesterday when I read your mind. I know all about you. Your time
in the crystal, your need for human energy to survive, and the
disgusting way you are forced to get that energy."

     I blew another large smoke cloud in his direction. "Then,
you know that anything you try won't kill me. You may slow me up,
but there's no way you'll stop me from nailing you for Kallion's
murder."

     "True. But I doubt anyone will believe anything you say, not
after the CTPD find you leaning over the very dead body of a
Senshi, feeding off her life force."

     Before I could come back with a snappy reply, he was inside
my mind. I tried to fight him, but he was well versed in slipping
past my defenses. As I felt him slither around in my mind, I knew
the bastard was doing this on purpose - he wanted me to know what
he was doing, and that I couldn't do anything to stop him.

     He touched a part of my mind, and I fell to my knees, the 
cigarette falling from my mouth. I could feel his smugness as he
withdrew from my mind, replaced by a gnawing need for energy. It
slowly got worse, and the hunger grew and grew. I hadn't felt
this hungry since I was released from the crystal.

     Winter stood there, arms crossed, watching me curl up into a
ball. "I've planted the hunger in your mind. It shouldn't take
too long for it to overwhelm your other senses."

     He was right, damn it. As it was, I could barely think about
anything else right now. I managed to get onto my feet, but I was
still bent over, my mind being consumed by the hunger. Looking
up, I saw Winter back up until he was just about in the shadows.

     "All you have to do to relieve the hunger is feed on her,"
he said, pointing towards Ti, who was still out of it. All that
wonderful Senshi energy, just waiting for you...."

     I managed to let out a short laugh that sounded like a hyena
with a head cold. Winter looked at me in puzzlement. "What's so
funny?" he asked.

     "Sailor...Polaris...is a Youma. She...isn't...HUMAN!" I
cried out the last word as I jumped at him. His eyes widen as I
covered the distance between us in a single bound. I saw a look of
horror on his face, as my words sunk in. He'd just tuned me into
a starving animal, and left himself as the only upright food
source within my sight. Not very bright of him, was it?

     Before he could move, I was on him. He screamed as I grabbed
his head in my hands and began feeding. I didn't take the time to
saver his life force, but drank it down like a thirsty man
swallowing water. He struggled frantically, but I was gripped in
a powerful hunger of his own creation.

     I looked into his terror filled eyes and said in a hissing
voice, "You want me to stop? Turn off my hunger, bright eyes...."

     I felt him inside my mind again. Gone was the contempt and
arrogance of a few seconds ago. Instead, I felt the desperation
and panic as he tried to turn off the monster he'd created. He
stumbled around, trying urgently to turn off my hunger before I
consumed all his life force.

     He found the spot, and frantically shut off my hunger
reflex. I felt the overwhelming hunger fade quickly, but I still
fed on him. His eyes got as big as dinner plates as I continued 
to drain him. "W-why?" he managed to stammer in a whisper.

     "Call it collecting with interest, Winter," I replied.

     Just before he was ready to pass out, I released him, and
stepped back. Without me to hold him up, he dropped on to his
face like a rock. I causally rolled him onto his back with my foot,
and looked down at him. His eyes were closed, and I didn't have
to be a Doctor to see that he wasn't going anywhere soon. He was
still breathing, but he looked like someone dipped him into
bleach and left him in too long.

     I heard a groan from behind me. Ti had managed to get back
up, holding her stomach tenderly. She looked at me in confusion. 
"Are you all right?"

     I pulled out another cigarette, stuck it into my mouth, lit
it, and inhaled. I gave her a smile. "I haven't felt this good in
years, Kid."

     She glanced at Winter, then at me, then back at Winter.
"What happened?"

     Before I could reply, The sounds of heavy footsteps echoed
throughout the building. In seconds we were surrounded by heavily
armed Special Security types, all of them pointing their rifles
at me. Rei and her posse, as usual - a day late, and a dollar
short.

     Just then, the fire lady herself stalked out of the shadows,
looking madder then a cop missing his doughnut break. She looked
at me, then Ti, the three bodies, then glared at me. "Will
someone explain what in the name of Serenity is going on here?"

     "It's a long story, Rei," I replied slowly. "It started
yesterday when Margrave walked into my office...." 

*****

     Two days later, I stood at the window of my office
again, watching the rain fall softly against the window. Like I
told Ti, I haven't felt this good in years.

     It took twelve hours, five retellings of my story to a very
unhappy Rei, and a voluntary telepathic reading of both Ti's and
my minds before our story was accepted. 

     Rei wanted to lock me up for taking Winter's life force
without his permission, but Ti forcefully explained that it was
Winter's fault that I'd had my best feeding in years. That set
off one of most entertaining arguments I've ever watched. I'm
beginning to wonder if maybe the Dark Kingdom didn't choose the
right time to go poof. I shudder to think about how the place
would be with Calcite and Titanite running things....

     Early the next day, Margrave was sprung from her cell, a
free Youma. In her place went Winter and his cohorts. I heard
Rei is spending most of her time these days fielding extradition 
requests from half the world's countries. I'm happy she's doing 
something useful for once.

     I turned and looked at the box sitting on my desk. Now, that
was a surprise. The last person I expected to hear from was
Calcite, but I suspect he distrusts me as much as Rei does.
Still, he knows me better then he should.

     I went over to my desk, and opened the box again. It'd been
delivered to me that morning, with a note from Calcite. I stared
long and hard at the contents of the box, then picked up the note
and read it again.

	  Magnesite,

	       It seems I owe you my gratitude for saving Ti, and
	  getting Margrave out of a very difficult situation. I
	  don't know why you did it, and I don't care. But I
	  always repay debts, even from someone like you.

	       Enclose with this note is an item I think you will
	  treasure in your own warped way. As far as I'm
	  concerned, this squares everything between us. Ti has
	  also agreed that this is an adequate repayment of the
	  debt we owe you, so I don't want you anywhere near her
	  ever again. 

	       I came across this item a while back. I have
	  authenticated it, and the paperwork is in the box with
	  the item. It is the real thing.

	       It is the actual prop gun Rick uses in Casablanca
	  to shoot the German so Ilsa can leave with another
	  man and he'll never see her again. I hope you
	  understand the message I'm sending.     

	       I have already informed Rei about it, and she told
	  me to inform you that you can't carry it under any
	  circumstances. Just put it next to the Falcon, and
	  remember.

					Calcite


     I looked at the paperwork again, noting that it's all on
moleculer lock paper, which is impossible to forge. I reached
into the box and stroked the automatic pistol lying on the dark
red satin with all the reverence I could muster. Calcite need not
worry about me showing up anywhere near his sister anytime soon.

     I heard a knock at the door. "Come in," I said, not looking
up from Calcite's gift.

     I heard the door opened, and the sound of high heels
clacking across the wooden floor. I looked up slowly, and found
myself looking at Ingrid Bergman. Not only Ingrid Bergman, but
Ingrid Bergman dressed as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca's last scenes
at the airport. The only things missing were the fog and the
airport.

     My jaw hit the top of my desk with an audible thump. Ingrid
gave me a big smile, and said in a very familiar voice, "Now I
know how effective this glamour is."

     I grabbed my jaw, reslotted it into place, and sat down.
"Very funny, Margrave."

     She slinked over to my client chair in a way poor Ingrid
could never have even attempted, let alone copied. The way she sat
down would have broken many a man's heart, and made most women
reach for the closest sharp instrument. "I see you got Cal's
little thank you gift."

     I nodded, and closed the box. "How's business the last
couple of days?"

     She shrugged. "Slow, but I expected that. I expect it'll
pick up once the trial is over."

     I managed to look confused. "Trial? What trial?"

     She gave me a look of distaste. "Unfortunately, with Winter
and his people trying to steal secrets from KallionCo, it became
a matter of state. And because Quinton's death is part of this matter, 
it can't be swept under the rug. There'll have to be a trial, not 
only to convict Winter and his people, but to clear me." 

     "Great," I muttered. "Will I have to testify?"

     Margrave shook her head. "Rei's got enough on them just
involving the spying to lock them away for this lifetime and the
next. Ti's releasing the official story that Winter blanked my
mind, then killed Kallion and framed me while the two of us were
in a 'Business Meeting'." 

     It made sense. The truth wasn't that far off the mark. I put
the box with Cal's gift into a desk drawer. Later, it'll go into
the safe behind the Casablanca poster. "So much for being able to
sweep it under the rug." 

     "Can't be helped, but it's better than sitting in a jail
cell."

     "That's true." I studied her for a minute. "What brings you
down to these neck of the woods? You have another body lying
around?"

     "No, dim bulb. I came down to thank you personally for what
you did for me, and Titanite."

     I leaned back and lazily waved a hand in the air. "All the
thanks I needed was the clearing of my debts from 2700 to 2825,
which you did with great speed and efficiency."

     Margrave chuckled deeply. "You're getting soft in your old
age, Magnesite. I think this city is finally getting to you."

     "I hope not. This place needs someone to keep it from being
too squeaky clean."

     "Never the less, I'm taking you out to dinner."

     I raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what place do you have lined
up for the two of us, sweetheart?"

     "The Renegade's Haven, of course. It's about time you had
some Youma style home cooking."

     I suppose I could say no. I also suppose I could tell her I 
was waiting for an important client. Then again, Margrave knows 
I'd have a hard time saying no to Ingrid Bergman.

     "I know, Rick," she said, a lazy smile crossing her lips.
She even managed to sound like Ingrid. "That's why I chose this
Glamour. And before you ask, you were narrating out loud again."

     I leaned back, and crossed my arms. "I suppose you won't
take a rain check?"

     The smile got bigger. "Not unless you want to owe me another
favor."

     I sighed. "You win. I'll go."

     "I knew you'd see it my way."

     "You drive a hard bargain, lady."

     She stood. "I know. Just change that trenchcoat and fedora,
and we'll go."

     "I'll wait until we reach the Haven," I replied, "but will
this suit your taste?" I stood, reformed the trenchcoat into a
white tuxedo and lost the fedora. I now was dressed as Rick from
Casablanca, red carnation in the lapel and all. 

     Margrave's eyes narrowed at my new appearance. "Very
appropriate. I like it."

     I returned to my old form. "Ready?"

     She held out an arm. "Magnesite, this could be the start of
a beautiful friendship."

     "I think that's my line." I took her arm, and we walked out
of my office.
     

**************************************************************
AUTHOR'S NOTES
**************************************************************

Rei Hino (Sailor Mars), Queen Serenity, and other canonical
Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon characters are the creation of
TAKEUCHI Naoko and are copyright jointly to her, Koudansha, Touei
Animation, and either TV Asahi or Fuji TV, depending on which
season. I hereby blame A friend of mine for force feeding me
enough eps of Sailor Moon to overload my brain, and turn me into
a fanfic writer. B-) 

Magnesite, Titanite, Calcite, and Margrave are the creation of
Mark Latus, whom I now thank for allowing myself and others to
write stories about one of the really interesting characters in
the Sailor Moon Extended Universe. Mark also wrote part of the
first scene with Margrave and Magnesite, which I have
incorporated into my story. I also thank Mark for pointing me in
the right direction when I started to wandered off the beaten
path a bit.

Now, Why did I write this? In part, for the challenge. Another
reason is to have something else to write instead of BGC fanfics,
(Of which I'm writing three now, with another ten or so stories
possible!) But mostly, because I think Magnesite is a great
character to write for. 

I can be reached at Trboturtle@aol.com. Drop me a line, and let me 
know how you liked this story.