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“There’s a demon in the White House?” yelled Sam.
“If you shout a bit louder the New York Times will be able to hear you,” suggested Josh. “In New York.”
“But what do you mean, there’s a demon in the White House?” demanded Sam in a very angry whisper.
“I mean that there’s a – *thing*. Here.” Josh elaborated.
“But…”
“A demon.”
“But there’s no such thing.”
“Toby says there is,” said Josh, with the air of one who has had the final word.
“There is,” grunted Toby, without looking up.
“How do you know?” croaked Sam.
“Because Leo said,” was the only reply. Toby returned to his newspaper.
“But…what….how…..what is it? It’s not just a really big rat? Huuuge rat?” Sam demonstrated the dimensions of a giant, possibly demon rat, using his hands.
“Not rat,” clarified Toby, glancing up. “Dee-mon.”
“Demons aren’t real,” insisted Sam, calmly. “You’re just winding me up.”
“I told you this should be on a need-to-know basis,” sighed Toby, throwing a look at Josh.
“And Leo thinks the senior staff need to be aware of the presence of a *demon* *now*!”
“It’s not a big deal. There’s security posted in the area. As long as no one goes past the lower corridors, there won’t be any problems.”
“There’s a demon?” said Sam, almost to himself. “Like a Frankenstein thing?”
“Like a - Big – Thing,” clarified Josh, looking at Toby helplessly. “He made it, ask him!”
“I didn’t – make – it!” argued Toby. “I was looking for some papers and suddenly there was a – thing.” His eyes dropped back to the newspaper.
“What does it look like?” squeaked Sam.
“It looked as though it was big and not human,” sighed Toby. “I ran away rather than ask it for a life-history.”
“Very species-ist of you,” commented Josh. “Hope you checked it didn’t have a vote before you ran.”
“It looked like a Republican,” quipped Toby. “I thought it was best to leave it alone.”
“Republican!” shouted Sam abruptly. “Where? Where did you say the thing was?”
“Down in the bowels of the building,” said a surprised Toby. “The lower corridors – South wing. No one ever goes there.”
“Ainsley!” yelped Sam. “That’s where Ainsley works!”
“Takin’ my name in vain, Sam?” drawled Southern tones, Ainsley’s head peering around the door.
“No!” he yelped, defensively. “I was just…nothing.”
“Apparently there’s a monster beside my office so I thought I’d come see what was going on up here,” she elaborated.
“What?” yelled Josh.
“A thing,” she explained. “A big – thing.”
“Great, the Republicans know,” groaned Toby.
“That’s okay. It will be of little surprise to us that there are demons in the White House at the moment,” she smiled sweetly, settling herself in the most comfortable chair.
Sam glared.
“Who else knows about this?” wailed Josh. “This is ridiculous! What ever happened to security?”
“You’re the one who wanted to tell Sam,” Toby pointed out.
“Hey!” protested Sam. “I’m senior staff. And a Democrat! I should too know!”
“Hey guys,” CJ greeted the room cheerfully. “How’s our non-Republican Demon?” She noted the presence of Ainsley and winced. “That wasn’t meant in a partisan way,” she added.
“We have the Freak-people called in,” said Toby with a grimace. “They should be here by evening.”
“Hang on,” said Josh. “CJ knows? Why does CJ know?”
“Hey, sometimes I actually get told what’s going on around this place,” said CJ dryly.
“She’s senior staff,” said Toby sheepishly. “She should know.”
“You ran crying to CJ when you saw the big bad monster!” Josh accused, falling back into his chair.
“Well, that’s very unlikely,” replied Toby, avoiding his look. “I felt CJ should know in case any of the press caught wind of the story.”
This version of events was greeted with snorts of derision from both Josh and CJ.
“Last time you hear about *anything*,” said Toby under his breath.
“That would be first and last,” returned CJ, caustically.
“There’s a pile of books on demonology you could be reading up on?” Toby pointed to the table. CJ raised one eyebrow and he gave up.
“We have books? About demons?” said Josh, his voice climbing moment by moment.
“Lot of strange stuff in this building.”
“Oh, yeah!” commented Ainsley quietly.
“Who are the - freaks? You said ‘freaks’ were coming?” said Sam suddenly.
“Professional demon hunters,” explained Toby. “There’s a thing called a – Slayer. A girl who is chosen to kill demons – special powers, great strength, etc.”
“How do we know about this?” asked CJ.
“It’s a *girl*?” asked Josh.
“A couple of years back, the military put considerable resources into demon – related - issues. I don’t know any more than that. All I do know is that this girl was involved. She kills demons. We have a demon…..”
“Excellent. Death to the demon,” cheered Josh. “And the girl? She’s quiet? Discrete?”
“Something like that,” said Toby, and returned to his paper.