At 1030 Madame Administrator received a telephone call from the Director of the London Branch.

"Madame, I have just learned that a demon was captured by two of our Reapers in the Pretoria Pit this morning. They turned it over to Judicial for questioning at or around 0930. It displayed knowledge of a demonic directive to kill or capture Assistant Director Humphries."

"On what authority do we have this information, sir?"

"I was there. I heard the command, which was simply "That's him. Get him." That could mean either capture or kill. I saw two Reapers take it down. One of them was too Junior to be participating, so I questioned him just now. His Seniors were unaware that he'd been involved. He was unwilling to name the people he'd been working with. He did divulge the purpose of the exercise. He also admitted the demon was bound with restraints that kept it from porting away, and the implication is that those are an unapproved invention of his roommate in Scythes."

"Now that is very interesting. Let us follow up that invention without getting the Scythes Junior in trouble, if possible. I want that sort of thinking encouraged. Continue."

"Madame, my Junior suggested that those restraints would be approved quickly if the bound demon was presented to Engineering's Device Approval Board. My Junior implies that there is a group of Juniors and younger Seniors who have been trying to protect Humphries. Humphries is unhappy in his current situation and has developed a dangerous habit of venturing alone into the human realm. They did not come to me, or involve any of the older Seniors. His mentors are the first to learn of this."

"Are they the sort to gossip?"

"No."

"See that they don't. Why is Humphries engaging in such foolish behavior?"

"I believe the situation was not fully explained to him. He has come to believe that he has been classed as physically and mentally incompetent to Reap. Unfortunately he realized today that his partner was behind it. They are having a discussion in a soundproof meeting room as we speak. I believe Slingby will tell him as little of the truth as he can get away with, and that Humphries will know perfectly well that Slingby is holding back. He will need to know everything, Madame, and he will not get that from his partner. We will have to explain fully if we wish his cooperation in the future. It has been pointed out to me that his, ah, productivity has diminished over the last year or so due to his reaction to his changed circumstances."

"Mr. Slingby has a history of keeping secrets. I should have allowed for that. I will correct the situation. What else do I need to know?"

"It was implied that the recent attacks on Slingby were attempts to damage or kill both through their bond. Is that possible?"

"Quite possible. Anything else?"

"Only an assumption, Madame. Humphries has already applied for transfer once. I was able to persuade Belfast to reject him. If we cannot bring him to trust us and his partner, he will secede into the human realm. Or possibly flee to a foreign Branch which will accept him as a Reaper regardless of our demands for his return. That would end badly for everyone."

"Indeed. Congratulations, Mr. Spears. Your understanding of your employees is improving. Earlier this morning I received a call from Agent Goodfellow in Auditing, informing me that a demon was being transported to Judicial and asking for backup if I did not hear from her in one hour. That time has expired. I will now call Judicial and ask why she has not called me. Good day, sir. I shall inform you when I am ready for our meeting with Agents Slingby and Humphries."

Judicial was not used to uninvited visitors. Indeed they were not used to any visitor who was not dragged in shaking with fear. They did not want any high-ranking official visitors at all, and brushed off any requests for information from outsiders.

They were unprepared for Madame Administrator, whom they could nevertheless threaten.

They were entirely unprepared for her escort, three veiled Angelic beings who could not be treated with any less than the utmost courtesy. If, of course, there was any time for courtesy.

"You have Senior Auditor Sarah Goodfellow here. Produce her at once, sirs!"

They could prevaricate to the citizens of the Reaper Realm. Disobeying the Angels was forbidden. With a politeness grown rusty from long disuse, Senior Goodfellow was immediately released and presented.

"Are you well, Sarah?"

"Yes, Madame."

"And where is our demon?"

"Unknown, Madame."

"Well, gentlemen? Where is it, and what have you learned from it?"

There was a bit of nervous shuffling. An Angel spoke. "Answer the question." The furniture rattled with his displeasure.

"Sir! It is in one of our holding areas, being questioned."

An Angel fixed a skeptical eye on the speaker. "It has not shifted form, nor ported away? Holding one for any length of time is not one of your capabilities."

The speaker flushed an angry red. "It is bound with a device of Reaper make. We intend to make considerable use of this in the future."

"Will you, indeed?" asked Madame. "You are not combatants. Do you intend to use these on Reapers who have displeased you? This is not for Judicial's use, nor may you seize its inventor. What, if anything, have you learned from the demon?"

"Very little, Madame, it may have nothing to tell. It has given us a tale of an effort to slay a Reaper, which we find unlikely. The Reaper in question has a poor record and would be no loss in any case."

"The name, sir!"

"A Mr. Humphries, Madame. A disobedient Reaper who was demoted to administrative duties after a work-related illness. Even though he is in a quiet desk position, he had a breakdown recently. There have been complaints that he slipped his partner an illegal defensive weapon. He has recently been accused of illegal use of Angelic property at the London Lab. There are mentions of unexcused absences from duty. Hell has no reason to target such a person. In any case we intend to remove him soon as useless to the Realm. We believe this all to be a screen for some other plot."

"Sir, I wish to know who filed these complaints."

"Quite impossible, Madame! That is confidential."

An Angel manifested his wings, just enough to be visible. They very nearly filled the office. "You will tell Madame what she wants to know."

The speaker looked at Madame with deep dislike. "The charges against Humphries were submitted anonymously. They show great animosity but not the jealousy we usually see in such letters."

"Present the demon," suggested the Angel. One of Judicial slipped away. He returned with a rather scruffy demon which showed signs of wear. Its wrists were bound before it. A strap connected its ankles, allowing it to take short steps. It was not happy to see the Angels, a much more powerful predator than the Reapers.

Major Artois looked at its bonds. "Interesting. Very interesting. I want a set. Madame, shall we accompany Senior Goodfellow to the Engineering Laboratories? I should like to meet the Reaper who contrived these."

"Certainly, Major. Sarah?"

"Of course, Madame. Will you port Major Artois if I take our demon?" With a zip they were gone.

Uriel dropped his veil of anonymity. He glowed with the light of the heavens. Judicial cowered.

"I am very displeased with you all. It is apparent that your Group has assumed powers far beyond those assigned you. You were formed to ensure justice. You have interpreted that to mean you are entitled to punish at will. You have restrained an Auditor from completing her duties. You have threatened the innocent. You have forgotten that all Reapers are under Azrael's protection.

"This Group is suspended for investigation. A team of my assistants will take over as of now, until this service is re-staffed with Reapers I trust. Allow me to present my representative, Raguel, Archangel of Justice, who will remind you that exoneration of the innocent is as much your duty as punishment of the guilty. You will all make yourselves immediately available to the takeover crew. Do not try to excuse yourselves to them; they are of sufficient rank to detect and punish lies. When they are done I will consider what to do with you, according to their findings and recommendations."

Judicial submitted. They were not particularly good at it. But they would have considerable practice in the coming days.

Engineer Crawford spent the first hours of the morning in the Stinks and Booms Lab. Upon his return, Smitty had steeled himself to confess building an unapproved contrivance outside of Senior oversight. Before he could begin, an unexpected visit exposed everything. A Senior Auditor. A ranking Angel of the Forces Militant. The legendary Madame Administrator. All with Dutch's dinged-up demon, still held in Smitty's illegally fabricated bonds.

All asking for Engineer Crawford's apprentice, who had no option but to face the searchlight of his Mentor's gaze.

Quietly he explained the underlying theory, how the demonic detectors recognized the demons' portal frequencies. How he had set a transmitter to disrupt that particular frequency. How it was powered by the demon's own ambient aura. How the materials were common, inexpensive wrapping straps for scythe handles with a quick-release closure added. He demonstrated with scraps from his worktable.

All listened with interest. Even the demon. They all conferred on how to get the work approved without having Smitty expelled from the training program. Even the demon.

Engineer Crawford coldly requested his Junior produce the design specs. Upon the document's retrieval, he backdated and signed it. It was countersigned by Madame Administrator, Major Artois and Senior Goodfellow. Which would tell anybody that the document was fishy, but that there was no point in investigating it. There was probably a whole separate filing cabinet labelled 'Fishy Specs (Non-Exploding, Non-Fatal, Unexpectedly Useful, Approved by People Who Outrank You)'.

Then the Engineer took his apprentice and his apprentice's invention before the Board of Approvals.

The demon loved being the center of attention. It modelled its bonds like fashionable accessories. Smitty's Board reviewed the design and materials, asked a few technical questions and approved the bonds for pre-production testing. But everyone knew the date was a lie, and that his Mentor had signed his name to a lie. The demon saw their shame and grinned with malice.

They returned to his workstation. Engineer Crawford gave the standard go-get-clean visitors' lecture. The ladies left for their offices. The Angel took charge of the demon and went wherever Angels went with demons. Smitty bowed his head and waited for the sky to fall.

Crawford was silent for a moment. "For your roommate, I assume."

Smitty nodded.

"Paying a debt? To whom?"

"Mr. Humphries, sir. Targeted by the demons for death, because of the knife blades. This knowledge is now verified and public, so steps can be taken."

"I see. Quiet little man, but truth gets out. It's not even the blades, so much, as the cooperation of the Divine and Reaper Realms. That's what's really hurting Hell's plans. Communication. Rapid response. Hah. He has an enemy, then. There's a malicious gossipmonger in London or the London Lab. Or could be the Academy; I know he teaches there. Tell your roommate."

Crawford paused. "You know the rules. You know the reasons for those rules. You know the fatality rates among those apprentices who ignore those rules."

"Yes, sir."

"You will tell me the next time you are asked to break those rules."

"Sir."

"Because, once you have told me, those rules will not apply. I will keep your secrets. I will help if I think it necessary. But I will not lie for you again. You have talent and promise, but if you go behind my back for any reason, for anyone, your career in this Division is over. Even if you don't kill yourself playing with things you don't yet fully understand. Now shower, change and get out. You are banned from this facility for a fortnight. Attend your classes as always, but your bench and your tools are forbidden you. Go."

Smitty was in his room, sitting on his bed, his head in his hands, when his roommate staggered in. Dutch hung up his coat and vest, removed knives from various sheaths and pockets, placed his detector in its charger, and sat on his own bed. "You got caught, too, Smitty?"

"Sure did. Knew I would. A little bad luck in that I didn't have time to confess before it all came out. You okay, Dutch?"

"I'll live. I think. My Seniors are not pleased with me. Spears had me on the carpet an hour after we got back. He consigned me to my Seniors for correction. After a dose of their disapproval, I was barely a wet spot on the floor.

"Then D'Acres got a call from his wife. She, God help us, happens to be the Auditor who took over the demon from Iris. Judicial confined her when she insisted on being present at its questioning. Madame Administrator and three Angels made Judicial let her go, but the very idea of his wife in Judicial's hands nailed D'Acres to the ceiling. Fitz sent me away before Roland could cancel my apprenticeship and file a petition to transfer me to Antarctica. I'm not to return until tomorrow."

"Well, Senior Goodfellow's okay," said Smitty. "She showed up in the workshop today. With your demon, an Angel, and Madame Administrator. They arrived before I got the chance to tell Engineer Crawford what I'd done and apologize. I'm banned from the workshop for two weeks, for forcing my Mentor to cover up a major infraction of the safety rules by signing a backdated design."

"Smitty, I'm sorry. But your bonds worked perfectly, no problems at all."

"Crawford's angry; fudging data is despicable, no matter how minor the data point is, and he had to do it in front of a Board of his peers. But he also told me to come to him before I decide to break the rules again. He says you should know there's somebody giving out information about Humphries to the demons. But, Dutch, the demon verified the plot against Mr. Humphries; Madame and the Angels know about it. We've done what we wanted to do."

"Yes, and good news; Humphries and Slingby took the soundproof meeting room for a discussion today. Senior Sutcliff saw them entering and leaving and declared it an unresolved standoff. Maybe they'll be able to establish an agreement like Iris says they should. So when they sneak out they'll go together without needing any protection from us."

"I didn't name any of the Thursday Nighters."

"Me either. Can you imagine what Spears would do to a conniving Senior who left two Juniors holding the bag?"

Both winced at the mental image.

"Spears may well suspect Harmon," continued Dutch, "but Harmon was a Jacobs trainee. Jacobs is known for intense loyalty to his friends and a 'death before snitching' attitude towards management. So are his apprentices. Randy would simply stand silent and invite Spears to do his worst. I doubt the Director will bother. Randy may find himself on Thames retrieval for a while. It's ugly duty, especially in winter. Your shoes and underthings never quite dry out. One of Spears' favorite punishments."

"The Angel wants some of my restraints when they go into production."

"That should compensate for the blot on your record."

"I think it will. My Engineer likes Humphries and considers us to be in his debt. The standard penalty for unapproved construction is a month's setdown and expulsion from classes. It would end most apprenticeships. The junior would fall so far behind he'd never catch up. But Crawford, bless his heart and mustache, gave me half that and expressly instructed me to attend my classes. I can do design anywhere. It's just going to be an utter misery to be denied my tools and his teaching. Will everything be okay for you, Dutch?"

"Sure. Fitz is my primary Mentor. He'll recommend me for promotion in June. It's the least scandalous way for my Mentors to be rid of me, you see, and D'Acres cares about that sort of thing. With a new partner, on a different shift, I'll be able to stay in London. Even if Roland wants to slice me into fiddlestrings. And your Senior rating is automatic on the acceptance of your first Scythe, right? I know you've been working ahead of schedule. Engineer Crawford will keep you on and sponsor your elevation to Engineer at the end of your decade. You're too good to lose, and it's not like you were setting up a still or frying drop scones on an engine housing or plotting world domination."

Smitty grinned. "True. World domination is overrated. All that paperwork. I also don't meet the delusional-crazy requirements for the job. I've already started my revised prototype scythe. Not being able to work on my mockup is going to drive me nuts, but I can put some more thought into the design and maybe avoid a few mistakes. I'll be okay, Dutch, and so will you. D'Acres' wife will calm him down. She was obviously pleased with the situation."

"Hey, Smitty."

"Hey, Dutch!"

"We did it!"

"We did it."