"It was only the American Express Gold that stopped it," said Wethered.
They looked in mute horror at the spectacle of a credit card wallet with a bullet hole nearly all the way through it.
"Why'd they do it?" said a wages officer.
The head of Internal Audit opened his mouth to say something reasonable, and didn't. Everyone had a point where they crack, and his had just been hit with a spoon. Twenty years in the job. He'd wanted to be a graphic designer but the careers master hadn't heard of that. Twenty years of double-checking Form BF 18. Twenty years of cranking the bloody hand calculator, when even the people in Forward Planning had computers. And now for reasons unknown, but possibly to do with reorganization and a desire to do away with all the expense of early retirement, they were shooting at him with bullets.
The armies of paranoia marched behind his eyes.
He looked down at his own gun. Through the mists of rage and bewilderment he saw that it was bigger and blacker than it had been when it was issued to him. It felt heavier, too.
He aimed it at a bush nearby and watched a stream of bullets blow the bush into oblivion.
Oh. So that was their game. Well, someone had to win.
He looked at his men.
"Okay, guys," he said, "let's get the bastards!"
"The way I see it," said Crowley, "no one has to pull the trigger." He gave Aziraphale a bright and brittle grin.
"Come on," he said. "Let's have a look around while everyone's busy."
Bullets streaked across the night.
Jonathan Parker, Purchasing Section, was wriggling through the bushes when one of them put an arm around his neck.
Nigel Tompkins spat a cluster of rhododendron leaves out of his mouth.
"Down there it's company law," he hissed, through mud-encrusted features, "but up here it's me…"
"That was a pretty low trick," said Aziraphale, as they strolled along the empty corridors.
"What'd I do? What'd I do?" said Crowley, pushing open doors at random.
"There are people out there shooting one another!"
"Well, that's just it, isn't it? They're doing it themselves. It's what they really want to do. I just assisted them. Think of it as a microcosm of the universe. Free will for everyone. Ineffable, right?"
Aziraphale glared.
"Oh, all right," said Crowley wretchedly. "No one's actually going to get killed. They're all going to have miraculous escapes. It wouldn't be any fun otherwise."
Aziraphale relaxed. "You know, Crowley," he said, beaming, "I've always said that, deep down inside, you're really quite a—"
"All right, all right," Crowley snapped. "Tell the whole blessed world, why don't you?"
After a while, loose alliances began to emerge. Most of the financial departments found they had interests in common, settled their differences, and ganged up on Forward Planning.
When the first police car arrived, sixteen bullets from a variety of directions had hit it in the radiator before it had got halfway up the drive. Two more took out its radio antenna, but they were too late, too late.
Mary Hodges was just putting down the phone when Crowley opened her office door.
"It must be terrorists," she snapped. "Or poachers." She peered at the pair of them. "You are the police, aren't you?" she said.
Crowley saw her eyes begin to widen.
Like all demons, he had a good memory for faces, even after ten years, the loss of a wimple, and the addition of some rather severe makeup. He snapped his fingers. She settled back in her chair, her face becoming a blank and amiable mask.
"There was no need for that," said Aziraphale.
"Good"—Crowley glanced at his watch—"morning, ma'am," he said, in a sing-song voice. "We're just a couple of supernatural entities and we were just wondering if you might help us with the whereabouts of the notorious Son of Satan." He smiled coldly at the angel. "I'll wake her up again, shall I? And you can say it."
"Well. Since you put it like that…" said the angel slowly.
"Sometimes the old ways are best," said Crowley. He turned to the impassive woman.
"Were you a nun here eleven years ago?" he said.
"Yes," said Mary.
"There!" said Crowley to Aziraphale. "See? I knew I wasn't wrong."
"Luck of the devil," muttered the angel.
"Your name then was Sister Talkative. Or something."
"Loquacious," said Mary Hodges in a hollow voice.
"And do you recall an incident involving the switching of newborn babies?" said Crowley.
Mary Hodges hesitated. When she did speak, it was as though memories that had been scabbed over were being disturbed for the first time in years.
"Yes," she said.
"Is there any possibility that the switch could have gone wrong in some way?"
"I do not know."
Crowley thought for a bit. "You must have had records," he said. "There are always records. Everyone has records these days." He glanced proudly at Aziraphale. "It was one of my better ideas."
"Oh, yes," said Mary Hodges.
"And where are they?" said Aziraphale sweetly.
"There was a fire just after the birth."
Crowley groaned and threw his hands in the air. "That was Hastur, probably," he said. "It's his style. Can you believe those guys? I bet he thought he was being really clever."
"Do you recall any details about the other child?" said Aziraphale.
"Yes."
"Please tell me."
"He had lovely little toesie-wosies."
"Oh."
"And he was very sweet," said Mary Hodges wistfully.
There was the sound of a siren outside, abruptly broken off as a bullet hit it. Aziraphale nudged Crowley.
"Get a move on," he said. "We're going to be knee-deep in police at any moment and I will of course be morally obliged to assist them in their enquiries." He thought for a moment. "Perhaps she can remember if there were any other women giving birth that night, and—"
There was the sound of running feet downstairs.
"Stop them," said Crowley. "We need more time!"
"Any more miracles and we'll really start getting noticed by Up There," said Aziraphale. "If you really want Gabriel or someone wondering why forty policemen have gone to sleep—"
"Okay," said Crowley. "That's it. That's it. It was worth a try. Let's get out of here."
"In thirty seconds you will wake up," said Aziraphale, to the entranced ex-nun. "And you will have had a lovely dream about whatever you like best, and—"
"Yes, yes, fine," sighed Crowley. "Now can we go?"
No one noticed them leaving. The police were too busy herding in forty adrenaline-drunk, fighting-mad management trainees. Three police vans had gouged tracks in the lawn, and Aziraphale made Crowley back up for the first of the ambulances, but then the Bentley swished into the night. Behind them the summerhouse and gazebo were already ablaze.