way. This isn't just a corporate take-over she'd proposing, she plans to kill us all. Or hasn't that penetrated your thick skulls yet?"

My voice must have got a little sharp, because that was when the Authorities' bodyguards decided to make themselves known to me. They manifested abruptly, one on each side of the room, and I studied them warily. Two basically humanoid forms, large and overpowering, one made of pure light, one of pure darkness. It would be hard to say which was more unpleasant to the eye. They were presences rather than physical forms, and I could feel power radiating off them. It was like standing in front of a furnace when someone unexpectedly opened the door.

"They used to be angels," said Harper, with more than a hint of smugness. "From Above, and Below. Now they work for us."

"How are the mighty fallen," I said, just to be saying something. Never let the other side know when you've been seriously impressed. "I suppose that's why they don't have wings any more. Or halos."

"You cannot conceive how much we have lost," said the figure of light, its voice like cracking ice floes.

"But we have also gained much," said the figure of darkness, in a voice like a burning orphanage. "We are here because we developed… appetites. Tastes for things that can only be found in the material world. Our new masters… indulge us."

"We take our comforts here," said the light. "To our eternal shame."

"To our endless satisfaction," said the dark.

"But why serve the Authorities?" I said. "Even as diminished as you are, you must know they're not worthy of you."

"We have to serve someone," said the light.

"It's in our nature," said the dark.

"Enough," said Harper, and immediately both figures fell silent. Harper glared at me, and I glared right back. He raised his voice a little, to convince both of us who was really in charge here. "Normally, we run the Nightside from outside. We live in London proper, in the sane world. We're only here now because Walker summoned us with your name. What do you want with us, John Taylor?"

"Answers, to start with," I said, meeting his gaze unflinchingly. "Why haven't you sent your armies to support Walker? Don't you know how bad things are here?"

"We know," said Harper. "But what help could we send that could hope to stand against Lilith and her followers? We're not in the business of throwing good lives away after bad."

Walker stirred for the first time. "Bad? Those were my people!"

Harper didn't even look at him. "Not now, Walker. I'm talking."

"If not now, then when?" said Walker, and his voice was colder than I'd ever heard it before. "How many years have I and my people served you here, protecting your interests in the Nightside? Is this how you reward us—by throwing us to the wolves?"

Harper finally looked at him, but only to smile condescendingly. "You mustn't take it personally, Walker. It's just business."

"You look nervous," I said suddenly. "All of you. Uncomfortable. Sweating. You don't like being here, do you?"

"As you said, the Nightside has become a dangerous place." Harper took a long draw on his cigar. "Before Walker contacted us with your name, we had been preparing to seal off the Nightside, closing every entrance and exit until all this… unpleasantness has run its course."

"You're abandoning us?" I said.

"Why not? You're only a business interest. A cash cow, from which we squeeze every penny we can. We are aware of the powerful men and women who come to your little freak show, to indulge in the pleasures and excitements they can't find anywhere else, but we… We have only ever cared about the profit they made us. For us, the Nightside is simply a commodity, that we exploit. Correct, Walker?"

"Don't look at me," said Walker, surprisingly. "I see things differently, these days."

I looked at him for a moment. There was something in his voice… but that would have to wait. I turned back to Harper.

"If the Nightside falls to Lilith, then so does the rest of the world. You can't hope to contain a Power like her. She will break out, then there'll be nowhere far enough or safe enough for you to hide."

"So we have come to believe," said Harper, reluctantly. He glared at his cigar, as though it had failed him in some way, and stubbed it out in an ashtray with quick, angry movements. "So, it seems we have no choice but to make a deal with