Inspector Hamelin sat at his desk. He opened the envelope from the oracle with a letter knife. He read the short poem and sat back in his chair. He didn't see how it was relevant right now.

Unabated fury

can only be stopped under

the gaze of an owl.

He put the prediction aside. It didn't help because he didn't know where the owl could be. Events would give him an idea if he chased things long enough.

It might be a good idea to get a list of every owl related place in the city. He could narrow his search down from there with foot patrols.

“See you later, Hurry,” said Sergeant Chamberlain Butts. He waved as he headed for the elevator. “Got a body in a car.”

“Exploded?,” asked Hamelin.

“Nah,” said Butts. “Report said cut throat. I'll know more when I look at it.”

“Hold the door, Chamberlain,” called Detective Usagi Weller. She pulled on her jacket as she crossed the room.

Hamelin sighed. He got a threat against the city, and the two of them got regular murders to investigate.

He would like to horn in, but his detectives would resent it and remind him that he should be working on the Mayor's job. He couldn't pull rank on something like that.

So he had three courses of action he could do.

The first was to call every ingredient shop in the city and ask them to report any unusual sales of spell materials for demon summonings.

He could call people he knew that were underground and ask them to keep an eye out.

He could wait until the owl presented itself since he couldn't stop the summoner until they were being watched by an owl.

He decided to take advantage of the manpower offered by the Mayor. It was the only way he could think of to kill two birds with one stone. He picked up his land line and called his boss, Captain Munich.

“Munich,” said the gruff vet. “Talk.”

“I need you to start up a notification team, and a search team,” said Hamelin as he watched his detectives step into the elevator and let the doors close.

Butts was a good swordsman, a better monster and chemical guy, and had taken some hits in his life from the look of it. Weller had a catalog of animal simulation spells and wandered the aether on her on her down time. They were a better team than when they worked alone.

“Who am I notifying and what am I looking for?,” asked Munich.

“I need notifications sent to all the ingredient shops in town,” said Hamelin. “Some of them won't report, but if one does, that will get us closer to our guy. The search is for any place that is related to owls no matter how small. The oracle gave me a wide search area to take in on my own. I need a list of places I can mark down when I get closer.”

“I'll ask the Academy to send over some boots,” said Munich. “I'll set up a call center and get them started.”

“Thanks,” said Hamelin. “I have to talk to a couple of guys and see if I can get the more illegal people looking for this guy for me. The extra eyes will help us find him faster.”

“We had a break-in at an arsenal last night,” said Munich. “The Ministry is looking into their end. It might be our guy, or it might be a new problem. Our liaison gave me the report just before you called. I'm waiting for any unclassified information they'll give me.”

“A month of quiet Sundays and now we have three murders, a break-in at a government site, and a threat to kill dozens with demons,” said Hamelin. “What's next?”

“Stay on task,” said Munich. “I'll get the boots working on their calls.”

“Let me see what I can do,” said Hamelin. He hung up the phone.

Hamelin looked at the aether floating through the room. He saw something that reminded him of a case. He tried to draw the memory to the front of his mind. It refused to become clearer.

He decided that he would remember what it meant when he needed to remember. Trying to force it in the open wouldn't do anything.

He stood up. He had to start asking his questions. Alerting the ingredient sellers may give him the break he needed. It also might be a waste of time if everything had already been secured for use.

He didn't know because he didn't know anything. He needed to change that if he wanted to close the case he had been given. Then he could move in and help the others with their cases.

He wondered about the arsenal. He admitted that it wouldn't be worth his time to call and find out what had been taken. The Ministry would tell him to mind his own business and deal with his own cases.

The implied or else would be left to the imagination.

Hamelin pulled on his jacket as he walked to the elevator. He pushed the button to call the cab to the squad floor to pick him up. Once he was out of the building, he could grab a ride in the aether,

What was his perp doing? Was he already scoping out his targets? Was he going around and checking security.

Hamelin wanted an easy win so he could deal with real criminals. Demon summoning was a pain in the neck.

The inspector boarded the elevator and headed down. There was a chance he could spot the summoning circle if he was close enough. The problem was the city was full of magic being flung around. Legitimate circles could cover a bootleg easily enough.

Hamelin walked across the lobby. He wished he could dump this off in someone else's hands. The Lord Mayor would have his badge if he did that and something happened.

And he liked chasing bad guys too much to allow one to get away when he could stumble over the one thing he needed to locate the guy any time.

He grabbed the aether and pulled himself across town. He landed outside a strip club down at the Point. Magic barriers sparked as he approached the door. That was for people who wanted to enter and their minds could be changed.

It would take something stronger to keep him from entering if he wanted.

He decided to ring the bell. That was easier than ripping the barrier down and dealing with security if they rushed him.

They might take him, but some of them would be fried beyond belief. A lot of his defensive array cooked the target to ash.

And he didn't have a problem with that beyond having to answer use of force questions and filing the paperwork.

Someone looked at him. He felt the pressure for a second. They knew he was a mage, and he knew they had at least one talent inside.

The door opened. A crowd looked at him. He looked back. Some of the guys had hands close to firearms. He made sure his defenses targeted them first, before moving on to new targets. Magicians would have shields and be turtles that needed a lot of force to crack. The pistoleros would be burned up before they could draw their weapons unless they had some kind of magic defense working for them.

And he rated pretty high in cracking magic shields in his annual testing.

“What you want?,” asked one of the doormen.

“Is Shalom around?,” asked Hamelin. “I would like to talk to him.”

“He don't want to talk to you,” said the speaker. “Go away, or we'll make you go away.”

“I'm the police,” said Hamelin. “The first person who thinks about moving without my say so will be turned into a cloud of used cigarette smoke. Tell Shalom that I want to talk to him. It's only five minutes of his time, and then I will be on my way.”

The speaker gestured at one of his juniors to get the boss. His hand never strayed from the firearm concealed in his coat.

Hurry was fine with that as long as he didn't try to draw the weapon. Drawing it would trigger a blood bath that he would have to explain to his superiors.

“Hamelin?,” said Shalom. “What are you doing standing on my doorstep? What is this about?”

“I'm looking for a demon summoner and you're the best connected black magician I know,” said the inspector. He smiled. “I was wondering if you could get the word out for me.”

“Why would I do that?,” asked Shalom. Thin fingers stroked the ends of a mustache that wasn't quite growing in.

“If something happens, there will be a crackdown,” said Hamelin. “I don't have to tell you who will be cracked down the hardest.”

“I will ask some of the people I know if they have heard of someone attracting police attention,” said Shalom. “That is all I can do for you.”

“Thanks, Shalom,” said Hamelin. “If you get something, call the office and leave a message.”

“Why are you involved in this, Hamelin?,” asked Shalom. “I thought you only handled murders.”

“The guy threatened the Mayor, the Mayor called the Chief Constable, the Chief Constable called the Chief of Detective Constables, the Chief of Detectives called my captain, the captain called me,” said Hamelin. “And now I am calling you.”

“No one I know would threaten the Lord Mayor,” said Shalom. “Half of our businesses depend on him to do what we expect. I will see if someone has heard something.”

“Thanks, Shalom,” said Hamelin.

“Don't thank me yet,” said the club owner. “This has all the makings of a new force in town.”

Hamelin nodded. That made sense. It meant finding a newcomer with no connection to the city's infrastructure. That would make it harder to find him if no one knew who he could be.

He might have all the things he needed to build a circle and start calling demons since he wouldn't know who to buy from if he was new in town.

“Call me if you hear anything,” said Hamelin. “This might be a bluff, or it might be serious. If it's serious, he has already claimed that he can kill a building full of people a day.”

“That's not something to brag about to the law,” said Shalom. “If I hear something, I will call.”

Hamelin stepped away from the club and headed down the sidewalk. He reached into the aether and pulled himself to his next destination. There were other people he knew that operated on the wrong side of the law. He would keep asking around until he found something he could use.

It was the opposite of how he usually worked but he couldn't let the threat happen without trying to stop it. And exorcising demons operating at random would tax the police and clerics on hand. It would be a major disaster for the city if things spiraled out of control.

The underworld had an interest in not letting that happen.

Their businesses depended on a certain amount of keeping things moving and quiet. Someone wrecking the status quo would put all of them under scrutiny. No one wanted that.

The more the law looked at your illegal business, the more likely you had to go to court to answer some questions. The loss of graft would compound until the original problem went away and the police settled down.

Hamelin smiled at the thought that he and his fellow coppers were hornets of justice.

He looked at the gated grounds that was his next stop. Hopefully the don was taking visitors.