That left just, well, keeping an eye on things. Clara had worked out a way to track all demonic activity in DC.

Which we promptly regretted. So far we’d established that two senators, five congressmen, about ten K street lobbyists, and the President’s primary chauffeur were all actually demons. The last one worried me the most, but I was pretty sure we couldn’t clear them all out.

Well, maybe I could drop appropriate word to certain people. Or maybe they already knew and had decided the devil they knew was even more literal than usual in this particular case.

It wouldn’t surprise me.

But we were able to pick her out. During the day she was at the Red Flowers office building, unlabeled and unmarked as it was. In the evening, she was somewhere. The British embassy one night, the Dutch another, the White House for a function on the third.

It was exactly what you would expect for a high class escort. She was doing paperwork during the day and servicing clients at night. Nothing suspicious at all.

Maybe Tonya could get that client list. Senators. Foreign dignitaries. But mostly senators. I asked Clara to call me if the number of senators that were really demons changed and headed out to meet Kanesha.

We settled into a corner booth at an excellent pizza place near Chinatown.

“So, progress on the succubus?” she asked.

“Not sure you want to know how many demons there are on Capitol Hill.”

“Who’d know the difference?”

I laughed a bit. “Hey, they aren’t all like that.”

“No, but it would explain why none of them get on.”

She had a point, but I thought that needed no supernatural explanation and was simply in the nature of putting together a bunch of people who had basically fought for their jobs. They weren’t going to get on.

“Eh. Anyway. This isn’t going to be a problem we can solve with swords.”

“Words.”

“Embarrassment,” I mused. “Of course, everyone uses escorts, don’t they.”

“Everyone who isn’t married…and I’d imagine half of the ones who are.”

I sighed. “Why can’t people find the right person and be happy with them?”
“Because they aren’t as lucky as we are?”

Then I heard a shot. I knew it wasn’t a car backfiring. Kanesha was on the ground before I was, then we picked ourselves up. It hadn’t been that close. I moved to the pizzeria’s door to peek outside.

Probably gangsters shooting at random.