IT COMES BACK TO ME! *preens*
Itโs not too long laterโState Farm will occasionally loan out their teleportation trick, though Heaven help anyone who tries to use it to compete with themโand the man they call Mayhem is squatting next to a demonic circle with tacky half-dried blood under the leather soles of his shoes. Whoever dispelled the circle didnโt do a good job of it; the ring is still faintly smoldering and Mayhem has already singed his fingers on the air above it. Heโs in the basement of a house with a State Farm homeownerโs policy, waiting for his partner in, erm, crime, to show up.
โOh, good heavens.โ He smiles at the sound of someone hopping delicately back, then carefully tiptoeing through the mess. Demons are messy eaters, and Floโs wearing all white.
She steps gingerly over what might be most of a femur, looks from circle to Mayhem toโis that half a skull on the floor? โFreaky. Whaddaya need?โ
โTech,โ he says. โState Farm knows the homeowner summoned them, but the Agent reported at least five people present. Maybe six. She isnโt sure, what with being busy evading a demon inside a very small space with zappy walls.โ
Floโs already got aโwhere does she get those from anyway? a cardboard box in her hands. Mayhem watches as she unfolds it, refolds it, and ends up with something significantly bigger, shaped like a satellite dish. He tries to watch how she does it; they may be working together, but theyโre still rivals and his own higher-ups will be very interested in the latest whatever-it-does that Progressive has come up with.
A blue glow lights up the concave side. Mayhem is pretty sure cardboard doesnโt work that way. Flo makes a pleased sound, and starts rattling off names, addresses, policy numbers.
Impressed, Mayhem asks, โHow the fuck?โ If Progressive is developing some sort of superspy technology, well, thatโs kind of ominous.
Flo grins and looks embarrassed. โI, ah, have occasional dealings with a couple guys from That Other Insurance Company. One of them knows someone who knows someone who works in quality control for the Infernal Realms, and it turns out Hell monitors all their summoned manifestations for safety purposes. His contact got me the list of who was there.โ
Mayhem nods. Heโs had occasional encounters That Other Insurance Company himself. Bland, grey-suited, timid men who are even worse spies than they are insurance agents. โWait, Hell has a quality control department?โ
โAnd all other forms of administration,โ Flo says. โI understand itโs to generate maximum paperwork. It is a place of punishment, after all.โ
Mayhem actually winces. โThatโs definitely hellish. All right. The Agent who called me in is flying back from Italy and should meet us in a few hours. Should give us plenty of time to plan an attack. Are they all State Farm customers?โ
โJust the one,โ Flo replies, folding her toy up, and Mayhem watches with vague envy as it becomes a giant sword. โOne Allstate, one Progressive, one Geico, two Farmers. We gonna invite anyone else to the party?โ She hopes so. Mayhemโs precision strikes on any sort of insurance fraud perpetrators are the stuff of legend, and the Farmers guys would bring in enough absurdity to make it a work of art.
Mayhemโs grin is something that ought to haunt her nightmares. Instead, she finds herself matching it. โYes,โ he says. โLetโs.โ
