'Has this some special importance, so far as we're concerned?' Jessie asked the demon.
'Yes,' Kanastorous said. 'When you called me, you said you wanted some supernatural creature with access to the maseni embassy compound, that you wanted an informer who could obtain certain restricted information — not a sort restricted by law but by bureaucratic perogative.'
'That's right,' Jessie said.
'Well, Gayla is under contract to Willard Aimes, a human attache to the maseni embassy in Los Angeles. She sleeps with him most every night. And because she is a one-way succubus, she is just perverse enough to double- cross him. You see, one-way succubi are, for some reason, perhaps because they feel inferior or inadequate, far more perverse than their two-way brothers. Or sisters. Or whatever.'
Just as Kanastorous finished, a stunningly beautiful child-woman, in her mid-teens, stepped up and said, 'Hi, Zeke!' She patted the demon on his scaly head and slid into the booth beside him, directly across from Brutus and Jessie. She was perhaps five-two without heels, and a hundred pounds. Her hair was red and plaited in two pigtails that hung to the middle of her back. Her face was childish, cherubic and sensuous all at once: full lips but braces on her teeth, round cheeks, enormous blue eyes and thick lashes but no make-up, a sprinkle of freckles on flawless, creamy skin…. She wore a pair of tight yellow shorts with her name embroidered on each back pocket, and a thin, white tee-shirt against which her budding breasts pressed insistently. Her nipples were sharp little, teasing points that moved as the flesh beneath them bounced and jiggled.
'Arf, arf!' Brutus said, grinning.
Gayla giggled and said, 'You're cute.'
'Arf, arf,' Brutus said, again.
Kanastorous introduced everybody, finished his drink in one gulp, dropped the plastic glass, excused himself, cursed his missing thumbs, and ordered a new round for everyone — a malted milkshake for Gayla.
The wolfwoman brought the order, but no one paid much attention this time.
'Are you two going to take out a contract on me?' Gayla asked, smiling so all her braces showed.
'We might,' Brutus said.
'And we might not,' Jessie said. 'Chiefly, we're interested in information.'
Gayla lifted her milkshake and took a long, cold drink. When she put the glass down, she had a white ring around her mouth, which was the most obscene thing Jessie had ever looked at. 'Information, you said?' She seemed oblivious of the milky circle.
'You're contracted to a man named Aimes,' the detective said. 'He works at the L.A. maseni embassy.'
'Willard!' she said, giggling. 'Oh, Willard is a naughty boy.'
The detective sipped his drink.
'Arf, arf,' Brutus said, grinning.
Gayla giggled again.
'Does Willard talk to you much, about his work?' Jessie asked.
'Oh, my, yes,' Gayla said. 'He puts his woolly head right here every night, and pours out all his troubles to his big sister Gayla.' She patted her small, round breasts.
'Good, good,' Jessie said. 'Now, do you recall if he's mentioned a maseni named Tesserax any time within the last couple weeks?'
'Tesserax?' she asked, puckering her lips.
'Tesserax,' Jessie said.
'The name's not familiar.'
'They both work at the embassy — Aimes and the maseni,' Jessie said. 'Lately, there's been some trouble with this Tesserax. Are you sure Willard never mentioned him?'
She put a finger to her lips, in thought, discovered the ring of milk, wiped it off with the finger and licked her hand clean. 'I'm sure he hasn't said anything about a maseni named Tesserax,' she said at last.
'Do you think you could keep an ear open, in case he does?' Jessie asked. 'In fact, could you prod him about this Tesserax, subtly of course, and then report back to me on his reaction?'
She turned her head quickly and looked at the demon Kanastorous, her red pigtails bouncing on her back. 'Can I do that, Zeke?'
'If you're contracted to do it, and if you want to do it,' Zeke said.
'Oh, I'd very much like to,' she said. She looked at Jessie and grinned winningly. 'It sounds like fun, spying on the embassy, snitching on old Willard. It appeals to me. I'm really sort of perverse.'
'I've heard,' Jessie said.
'How much you willing to pay?' Zeke asked.
Jessie said, 'That depends on how soon she can get back to me with Aimes' reaction.'
'I'm supposed to see him in a little while,' Gayla said. 'I can bring it up then, when he's in the right mood, and be back to you by dawn or a little after.' A succubus could come and go in both darkness and daylight.
'That would be fine,' Jessie said.
'How much?' Kanastorous asked again.
'A hundred credits?'
'Impossible. Five hundred as a minimum.'
The detective looked at the hell hound and said, 'Well?'
'I know this greasy little fiend,' Brutus said. 'We spent half a century together, corrupting virgins. He'll settle for the hundred, but he'll be pissed off. Give him a hundred and fifty to soothe him.'
'A hundred and fifty,' Jessie told the demon.
Kanastorous sighed, reached for his drink, knocked it over, grabbed for it and, in his clumsiness, knocked over Gayla's milkshake as well. As the succubus giggled and Kanastorous cursed his missing thumbs, a waitress mopped up the mess and brought them fresh drinks, with a warning to the demon to use both hands in lifting his glass.
'Where were we?' Kanastorous asked, warily lifting his glass to take a sip of his martini.
'A hundred and fifty credits,' Jessie said.
'Five hundred,' the demon insisted.
'You heard Brutus.'
Kanastorous looked at the hound and made a face, his pointy teeth biting into his hard lips and drawing no blood. 'It is a damnable thing to have to do business with old friends.'
'A hundred and fifty credits,' Brutus said.
'When I take my commission,' Kanastorous said, 'the girl is left with only a hundred and five credits — and me with only forty-five.'
'A hundred and fifty,' Brutus insisted.
'I'm sure that Gayla, here, makes out quite well from Willard Aimes. And other contractees, I wouldn't doubt.'
'She has eight contracts to fulfill,' Kanastorous admitted, rather like a proud father.
Gayla giggled and drank more of her milkshake.
'Then it's settled at a hundred and fifty?'
'Okay,' the demon said. 'For you, my licensed snoop, a special price — but the whole hundred and a half up front, now.'
Jessie dialed for an open, public channel on the booth's computer keyboard, made the transaction.
'Well, I better be off to see Willard,' Gayla said, finishing the last of her new milkshake, wiping at her mouth and getting up. She did a modified curtsy, her little breasts jiggling, and said, 'I'll see you after dawn, Mr. Blake.'
Then she was gone, pigtails bouncing, tight little behind twitching.
'She isn't what I think of when I think of a succubus,' Jessie said.
'Well, most of my girls are the voluptuous types,' Kanastorous said. 'But not all my customers have the same tastes.'
Brutus said, 'Arf, arf!'
