Dead Beat Page 13

Chapter 17~18

  Chapter Seventeen

  You," I snarled, gesturing at Bock with the end of my staff. "You little weasel. You were gonna sell me out. I ought to kill you right here. "

  From his vantage point above Alicia's curly-haired head, Bock blinked at me in confusion. I stared at him, hard, not daring to leave anything in my expression that the girl would see. If I'd tried to protect Bock, it would only have made it more likely that she would do something to him. By appearing to threaten him, it would make him seem more unimportant to the necromancer and her henchman. It was the best thing I could do to protect him.

  Bock got it. His expression flickered through several subtle shades of comprehension, fear, and guilt. He twitched his head at me in a nod of thanks.

  "Well, well," Alicia said. She hadn't moved, other than to turn toward me. "I've never heard of you, but I must admit that you know how to make an entrance, Harry Dresden. "

  "I took lessons," I said.

  "Give me the book," she said.

  "Ha," I said. "Why?"

  "Because I want it," she said.

  "Sorry. It's the hot Christmas present this year," I said. "Maybe you can find a scalper in a parking lot or something. "

  She tilted her head, the fingers of her hand still flickering with little shimmers, like heat rising from asphalt. "You refuse?"

  "Yes, moppet," I told her. "I refuse. I deny thee. No, already. "

  Her eyes narrowed in anger and. . . well, something happened that I hadn't ever seen before. The store got darker. I don't mean that the lights went out. I mean everything got darker. There was a low, trembling sensation that seemed to make my eyeballs jiggle a little, and the shadows simply expanded up out of the corners and dim areas of the store like time-lapse photography of growing molds. As they slid over portions of the store, that nasty, greasy sensation of cold came with them. When the shadows washed over an outlet that housed the power cords to a pair of table lamps, the lamps themselves went dim and then died out. They covered the old radio, and Aretha Franklin's voice faded away to a whisper and vanished. The shadows got to the register and its lights went out, and when they brushed the old ceiling fan it began to whirl down to a stop. The shadows crept over Bock and he went pale and started shaking. He thrust one hand down onto the counter as if he had to do it to keep himself upright.

  The only place the darkness didn't spread was over me. The shadows stopped in a circle all around me, maybe six inches away from me and the things I was carrying. The Hellfire smoldering in the runes of my staff glowed more brightly in the darkness, and the tiny sparks falling in a steady rain from my damaged shield bracelet seemed to burn away tiny pockets of the darkness where they fell, only to have it slide back in once they had burned away.

  This was a kind of power I hadn't felt before. Normally when someone who can sling major mojo around draws their stuff up around them, it's something violent and active. I'd seen wizards who charged the air around them with so much electricity it made their hair stand on end, wizards whose power would gather light into nearly solid gem-shaped clouds that orbited around them, wizards whose mastery of earth magic literally made the ground shake, wizards who could shroud themselves in dark fire that burned anyone near them with the raw, emotional rage of their magic.

  This was different. Alicia's power, whatever it was, didn't fill the store. It emptied it in a way that I didn't think I fully understood. Utter stillness spread out from her-not peace, for that would have been something tranquil, accepting. This stillness was a horrible, hungry emptiness, something that took its power from being not. It was made of the emptiness at the loss of a loved one, of the silence between the beats of a heart, and of the inevitability of the empty void that waited patiently for the stars to grow cold and burn out. It was power wholly different from the burning fires of life that formed the magic I knew-and it was strong. God, it was so strong.

  I began to tremble as I realized that everything I had wasn't enough to go up against this.

  "I don't like your answer," Alicia said. She smiled at me, a slow and evil expression. She had a dimple on one cheek. Hell's bells, an evil dimple.

  My mouth felt dry, but my voice sounded steady when I spoke. "That's too bad. If you're so upset about not getting a copy, I suggest you take it up with Cowl. "

  She stared at me with no expression for a moment and then said, "You are with Cowl?"

  "No," I told her. "I was, in fact, forced to drop a car on him last night when he tried to take the book from me. "

  "Liar," she said. "Had you truly fought Cowl, you'd be dead. "

  "Whatever," I replied, my tone bored. "I'll tell you what I told him. My book. You can't have it. "

  She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Wait a moment. You were at the mortuary. In the entryway. "

  "We call it the Forensic Institute now. "

  Her eyes glittered. "You found it. You succeeded where Grevane failed, didn't you?"

  I turned up one corner of my mouth, and said nothing.

  Alicia took in a deep breath. "Perhaps we can reach an understanding. "

  "Funny," I said. "Grevane said the very same thing. "

  Alicia took an eager step toward me. "You denied him?"

  "I didn't like his hat. "

  "You have wisdom for one so young," she said. "In the end he is nothing but a dog mourning his fallen master. He would turn on you in a moment. The gratitude of the Capiorcorpus, by contrast, is an eternal asset. "

  Capiorcorpus. Roughly translated, the taker of corpses, or bodies. I suddenly had a better idea of why Li Xian had referred to Alicia as "my lord. "

  "Assuming I want that gratitude," I said, "what price would it carry?"

  "Give me the book," she said. "Give me the Word. Stand with me at the Darkhallow. In exchange I will grant you autonomy and the principality of your choice when the new order arises. "

  I didn't want her to know that I had no freaking clue what she was talking about, so I said, "That's a tempting offer. "

  "It should be," she said. She lifted her chin, and her eyes glittered with something bright and utterly confident. "The new order will change many things in this world. You have the opportunity to help shape it to your liking. "

  "And if I turn you down?" I asked.

  She met my eyes directly. "You are young, Harry Dresden. It is a great tragedy when a man with your potential dies before his time. "

  I shied away from her gaze at once. When a wizard looks into another person's eyes for an instant too long, he sees into them in a profound and unsettling kind of vision called a soulgaze. If I'd left my gaze on Alicia's eyes, I would get an up-close and personal look at her soul- and she at mine. I didn't want to see what was going on behind that dimpled smile. I recognized that perfect surety in her manner and expression as something more than rampant ego or fanatic conviction.

  It was pure madness. Whatever else Alicia was, she was calmly and horribly insane.

  My mouth felt a lot drier. My legs were shaking, and my feet were advising the rest of me to let them run away. "I'll have to think about it. "

  "By all means," Alicia said. Her face took on an ugly expression and her voice hardened. "Consider it. But take a single step from where you stand and it will be your last. "

  "Killing me might get you a copy of the book, but it won't get you the Word," I said. "Or did you think I was carrying both of them around with me?"

  Her right hand clenched into a slow fist and the room got a couple of degrees colder. "Where is the Word?"

  Wouldn't I like to know? I thought.

  "Wouldn't you like to know," I said. "Kill me now and there's no Word. No new order. "

  She uncurled her hand. "I can make you tell me," she said.

  "If you could do that, you'd have done it by now, instead of standing there looking stupid. "

  She started taking slow steps toward me, smiling. "I prefer to attempt reason before I destroy a
mind. It is a somewhat taxing activity. Are you sure you wouldn't rather work with me?"

  Gulp. Mental magic is a dark, dark, dark grey area of the art. Every wizard who makes it to the White Council has received training in how to defend against mental assaults, but that was perfunctory at best. After all, the Council made it a special point to wipe out wizards who violated the sanctuary of another's mind. It's one of the Laws of Magic, and if the Wardens caught someone doing it, they killed them, end of story. There was no such thing as an expert at that kind of magic on the White Council, and as a result the defense training was devised by relative amateurs.

  Something told me that Alicia the Corpsetaker wasn't an amateur.

  "That's close enough," I said in a cold voice.

  She kept walking, very slowly, a sort of sinuous enjoyment in her stride. "Last chance. "

  "I mean it," I said. "Stay ba-"

  Before I could finish the word, she made a rippling gesture with the shimmering fingers of her left hand.

  There was a whirling sensation, and I was suddenly caught in a gale, a whirlwind that tried to carry me toward the girl. My feet started sliding across the floor. I leaned back with a cry, lifting my shield bracelet, and it blazed into a dome of solid blue light before me. It did nothing- nothing at all. The vicious vortex continued to draw me to her outstretched hand.

  I started to panic, and then realized what was happening. There was no wind-not physically, anyway. The books on the shelves were not stirring, nor was my long leather duster. My shield offered me no protection from a wholly nonphysical threat, and I released it, saving my strength.

  The hideous vacuum wasn't meant for my body. It was targeting my thoughts.

  "That's right," Alicia said.

  Holy crap. She'd heard me thinking.

  "Of course, young man. Give me what I want now and I may leave you enough of your mind to feed yourself. "

  I gritted my teeth, marshaling my thoughts, my defenses.

  "It's too late for that, boy. "

  Like hell it was. My thoughts coalesced into a unified whole, an absolute image of a wall of smooth, grey granite. I built the image of the wall in my mind and then filled it with the power I'd been holding at the ready. I felt a nauseating confusion for a second, and then the mental gale ceased as abruptly as it had begun.

  Alicia's head jerked as if she'd been slapped across the cheek.

  I glared at her, teeth gritted, and asked, "Is that all you got?"

  Corpsetaker snarled out a spiteful curse, lifted her left arm, and twisted her fingers into a raking claw.

  There was a hideous pressure against the image of the granite wall in my mind. It wasn't a single, resounding blow, as I had expected from my training, a kind of psychic battering ram. Instead it was an enormous, steady weight, as if a sudden tide had flooded in to wash the wall away completely.

  I thought that pressure would ease in a moment, but it only became more and more difficult to bear. I struggled to hold the image of the wall in place, but despite everything I could do, dark and empty cracks began to appear and spread through it. My defenses were crumbling.

  "Delicious," Corpsetaker said, and her voice didn't sound strained at all. "After a century, they're still teaching the young ones the same tripe. "

  I saw movement beyond Corpsetaker, and Li Xian appeared in the shattered plywood doorway. Half of his face was lumpy and purpled with bruising, and one shoulder had been smashed grossly out of shape. He was bleeding a thin, greenish-brown fluid, and moved as if in great pain, but he came in on his own power, and his eyes were alert.

  "My lord," Xian said. "Are you well?"

  "Perfectly," Corpsetaker purred. "Once I have his mind, the rest is yours. "

  His misshapen face twisted into a smile that spread too wide for human features. "Thank you, lord. "

  Holy crap. It was time to leave.

  But my feet wouldn't move.

  "You needn't bother, young wizard," Corpsetaker said. "If you take the attention you would need to free your feet, your wall will fail. Just open to me, boy. You will feel less pain. "

  I ignored the necromancer and tried to think of other options. My mental defenses were indeed crumbling, but any strength of will I spent to move my legs would collapse the defenses entirely. I had to get the pressure off of me for a moment-only time enough to distract Corpsetaker, to give me time to get the hell away. But given that I could barely move at all, my options were severely limited.

  Part of the wall began to crumble. I felt Corpsetaker's will begin pouring in, the first trickle from a dark sea.

  If I wanted to live, I had little choice.

  I reached my thoughts down into the smoldering Hellfire burning in the runes of my staff, and sent it flooding into my mind, into the failing wall that protected me. The cracks in the cold grey granite filled with crimson flame, and where the dark sea of Corpsetaker's will pressed against it there was a screaming hiss of freezing water boiling into a cloud of steam.

  Corpsetaker let out a sudden, hollow gasp, and the pressure on my thoughts vanished.

  I spun, wobbled, got my balance, and then ran for the back door.

  "Take him!" Corpsetaker snarled behind me. "He has the book and the Word!"

  There was a sickly ripping, crackling sound, and Li Xian let out a bestial and inhuman howl.

  I dashed through the back room of the bookstore, and to the back door. I slammed its opening bar and sprinted through it, out into the alley behind the shop. I heard two sets of feet following me, and Corpsetaker began chanting in a low, growling voice. That hideous pressure began to surge against my thoughts again, but this time I was ready for it, and my defenses fell into place more quickly, more surely. I was able to keep running.

  I ran down the alley, and made it maybe thirty yards before a sudden fire exploded through my right calf. I crashed down to the ground, barely holding on to my mental defenses. I dropped my staff and reached down to my calf, to feel something metal and sharp protruding from it. I cut my fingers on an edge and jerked them back. I couldn't get a good look, but I saw a flash of steel and a lot of blood-and Corpsetaker and the ghoul were still coming.

  There was no way I could have whipped up any magic to stop them-not with all of my power focused on keeping Corpsetaker from invading my mind. I wouldn't be able to overcome the ghoul physically- even wounded, Xian was quick on its feet, and closing the distance fast.

  I drew the. 44 and sent three shots back down the alley. Corpsetaker darted to one side, but the ghoul never even slowed down. It flung one too-long arm through an arc, and there was a glitter of steel in the gloomy alley. Something hit me in the ribs nearly hard enough to knock me down, but the spell-covered leather of my duster stopped it from piercing through. A triangle of steel fell to the ground, each point sharpened and given a razor's edge.

  "All I needed," I muttered. "Ninja ghouls. " I emptied the revolver at Xian. He wasn't ten feet from me on the last shot, and I must have hit him. He jerked, careened off a wall, and stumbled, but he was a long way from down.

  Corpsetaker's will continued to erode my defenses. I had to get away from her, or she'd open up my brains like a tin of sardines-and then Xian would eat them.

  The three-pointed shuriken still in my calf, I forced myself to my feet through the screaming pain. I seized my staff, hobbling in earnest this time, and struggled toward the end of the alley. My only chance was to make it to the street, to flag down a cab, somehow beg a ride from a passing car, or maybe get some help. I knew there wasn't much hope of any of those things happening, but it was all I had.

  I almost got to the end of the alley, the pain in my leg growing steadily worse-and then I abruptly lost track of what was going on.

  One moment I'd been busy, I knew. I was doing something important. The next I was just standing there, sort of floundering. Whatever I'd been doing, it was right on the tip of my tongue. I knew that if I co
uld just focus for a second, I'd be able to remember it and get back on track. My leg hurt. I knew that. And my head felt jumbled, the thoughts there, but in disarray, as if I'd gone through a drawer of folded laundry, pulled out something from the bottom, and then slapped the drawer shut again without straightening anything up.

  I heard a snarl behind me, and realized that whatever I'd been doing, it was too late to get back on track now. I tried to turn around, but for some reason I couldn't remember how.

  "I have it," panted a woman's voice behind me. "Numbers. It's only. . . He only has numbers. "

  "My lord," snarled a thick, deformed voice. "What is your command?"

  "He doesn't know where the Word is. He is useless to me. The book is in the right pocket of his coat. Take it, Xian. Then kill him. "

  Chapter Eighteen

  I was pretty sure that Corpsetaker was talking about me, and I knew for sure that getting killed was a bad thing. I just couldn't figure out how to go about doing something to stop it. Something about my mind. That it wasn't working right.

  A battered-looking man entered my field of view, and I was able to turn my head enough to watch him. Oh, crap, it was Li Xian, the ghoul. I had a bad feeling that he was going to do something unpleasant, but he just stuck his hand in my coat pocket and pulled out the slender copy of Erlking.

  The ghoul turned away from me and offered the book to someone out of my field of view.

  There was the sound of flipping pages. "Excellent," Corpsetaker said. "Take him back from the street and finish him. Hurry. He's stronger than most. I'd rather not hold him all day. "

  Oh, right. Corpsetaker was holding my mind captive. That meant that she was in my head. That meant she had beaten my defenses down. Just pulling those thoughts together made me feel stronger. My head started clearing, and as it did the pain in my wounded leg grew more intense.

  "Hurry," she said, her voice now strained.

  Rough hands seized the back of my coat. I wanted to run, but I still couldn't get everything to respond together. An inspiration seized me. If Corpsetaker was in my head, it meant that she could feel everything I was feeling-such as the burning pain in my leg.

  When the ghoul started pulling me backward, I couldn't struggle, but I managed to twist my hips a little and bend my good knee. I fell over sideways, onto the wounded leg. The fall drove the shuriken a little harder into my calf, and the world went white with pain.

  Corpsetaker shrieked. I heard a metallic clatter, as if she had stumbled into a trash can, and I felt my arms and legs come all the way back under my command. The ghoul stumbled on his mangled leg. He pushed off the wall and came at me. I spun on the small of my back and kicked out hard and straight at his good knee.

  That's a nasty defensive technique Murphy taught me, and one that doesn't rely upon raw physical power. The ghoul's weight was all on that leg, and the kick connected hard. There was a grinding pop, and he let out a spitting snarl of pain.

  I scrambled away from him on one leg and the heels of my hands. I could see my blood on the floor of the alley, smeared in a trail from my wounded leg. There were little stars fluttering through my vision, and I felt as weak as a starved kitten. Everything was spinning around so much that I didn't even bother to get to my feet. I crawled out of the cold shadows of the alley, onto the sidewalk, and into broad daylight.

  I heard someone shout something. There were police sirens a block or two away. They were doubtless heading for Bock's place, after someone had seen me throw the ghoul out through the plywood-covered door. Give them two minutes to sort out what was going on, and I'd have men with silver shields and a strong desire to speak to the dead professor's missing assistants all around me.

  Of course, by then I'd probably have been dead for a minute and a half.

  The wounded ghoul, his face twisted, jaws lolling open wide to show yellowed fangs, came shambling out of the alley after me.

  I heard a woman shout, the sound high and furious and totally unafraid. There was a whooshing sound, a spinning shape, and then an ax- a freaking double-bladed ax-buried itself to the eye in the ghoul's flank. Just as it hit, there was a flash of light from a spot on the blade, so bright that it left a red mark in the shape of a single rune burned into my vision. There was a loud bark of sound as the ax hit the ghoul. The creature was thrown forcefully to the sidewalk, and thin, greenish-brown fluid sprayed everywhere in a disgusting shower.

  A woman in a dark business suit stepped into my line of sight. She was better than six feet tall, blond, and coldly beautiful. Her blue eyes burned with battle-lust and excitement as she drew a sword with a straight, three-foot blade from the scabbard at her side. As I watched, she took several smooth steps to place herself between the ghoul and me. Then she pointed the tip of the sword at him and snarled, "Avaunt, carrion. "

  The ghoul tore the ax from his side and staggered into a crouch, holding the weapon in both hands with a panicked desperation. He took a pair of awkward, shuffling steps back.

  An engine roared and a grey sedan swerved up onto the sidewalk.

  "Avaunt!" cried the woman; then she raised the sword and glided toward the ghoul.

  Li Xian didn't want any part of it. His inhuman face twisted in recognizable fear. He dropped the ax and fled back down the alley.

  "Coward. " The woman sighed, clearly disappointed. She snatched up the ax, then said to me, "Get in. "

  "I know you," I said. "Miss Gard. You work for Marcone. "

  "I work for Monoc Securities," the woman corrected me. Her hand clamped down on my arm like a slender steel vise, and she hauled me to my feet without effort. My wounded calf clenched into a nasty cramp, and I could feel the steel blades continuing to cut at my muscles. I clenched my teeth, snarling my defiance at the pain. Gard gave me a quick glance of approval and tugged me toward the grey sedan. I still had to hobble on my staff, but with her help I made it to the car and fumbled my way into the backseat. More hands pulled me in.

  The whole time Gard kept her sharp, cold blue gaze on the alley and the street around us. Once I was in, she shut the door, sheathed the sword, and undipped the scabbard from her belt before getting into the passenger's seat. The grey sedan pulled out into the street again, and started away from the scene.

  The driver turned his head just enough to catch me in his peripheral vision. His neck was too thick for any more movement than that. He had red hair clipped into a close buzz, shoulders wide enough to build a deck on, and he'd had to get his business suit at the big-and-tall store.

  "Hendricks," I greeted him.

  He looked up into the rearview mirror with his beady eyes and glowered.

  "Nice to see you again, too," I said. I settled back into the seat as much as I could, trying to ignore my leg, and refusing to look at the man sitting beside me.

  I didn't really need to look at him. He was a man a little over average height, somewhere in the late prime of his life, his dark hair flecked with grey. He had skin that had seen a lot of time out in the weather, leaving him with a perpetual boater's tan, and eyes the color of wrinkled old dollars. He'd be wearing a suit that cost more than some cars, and making it look good. He looked handsome and wholesome, more like the coach of a successful sports team than a gangster. But John Marcone was the most powerful figure in Chicago's criminal underworld.

  "Isn't that a little childish?" he asked me, his voice amused. "Refusing to look at me like that?"

  "Indulge me," I said. "It's been a long day. "

  "How serious is your injury?" he asked.

  "Do I look like a doctor to you?" I asked.

  "You look more like a corpse," he answered.

  I squinted at him. He sat calmly in his seat, mirroring me. "Is that a threat?" I asked.

  "If I wanted you dead," Marcone said, "I would hardly have come to your aid just now. You must admit, Dresden, that I have just saved your life. Again. "

  I closed my eye again and sco
wled. "Your timing is improbable. "

  He sounded amused. "In what way?"

  "Coming to my rescue just as someone was about to punch my ticket. You must admit, Marcone, that it smells like a setup. "

  "Even I occasionally enjoy good fortune," he replied.

  I shook my head. "I called you less than an hour ago. If it wasn't a setup then how did you find me?"

  "He didn't," said Gard. "I did. " She looked over her shoulder at Marcone and frowned. "This is a mistake. It was his fate to die in that alley. "

  "What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?" Marcone asked.

  "There will be consequences," she insisted.

  Marcone shrugged. "When aren't there?"

  Gard turned her face back to the front and shook her head. "Hubris. Mortals never understand. "

  "Tell me about it," I said. "Everyone makes that mistake but me. "

  Marcone glanced at me, and his eyes wrinkled at the corners. It was very nearly a smile. Gard turned her head slowly and gave me a cold glare that wasn't anywhere close to smiling.

  "Let's get to the part of the conversation where you tell me what you want," I said. "I don't have time for any more banter. "

  "Ah," Marcone said. "I suspected you would somehow become involved in the events at hand. "

  "What events would those be?" I asked.

  "The situation concerning the death of Tony Mendoza. "

  I scowled at him. "What do you want?"

  "Unless I miss my guess," Marcone said, "I want to help you. "

  "Yeah," I said. "Right. "

  "I'm quite serious, Dresden," he told me. "I allow no one to harm those in my employ. Whoever murdered Mendoza must be chastised immediately-whether or not they happen to be necromancers. "

  I blinked. "How did you know what they were?"

  "Miss Gard," he replied serenely. "She and her colleagues have outstanding resources. "

  I shrugged. "Good for you. But I'm not interested in helping you maintain your empire. "

  "Naturally. But you are interested in stopping these men and women before they accomplish whatever goal it is that they are pursuing. "

  I shrugged. "You don't know that. "

  "Yes, I do," he said, his tone growing distant and cool. He met my eyes and said, "Because I know you. I know that you would oppose them. Just as you know that I will not permit them to take one of mine from me without punishment. "

  I glared back at him. I wasn't worried about a soulgaze. Those happened only once between any two people, and Marcone had already gotten a look at me. When he said that he knew me, that's what he was talking about. I'd seen his soul in return, and it had been a cold and barren place-but one of order, as well. If Marcone gave his word, he kept it. And if someone came for one of his people, he would go after them without hesitation, fear, or pity.

  That didn't make him noble. Marcone had the soul of a tiger, of a predator protecting his territory. It only made him more resolved and more dangerous.

  "I'm not a hit man," I told him. "And I don't work for you. "

  "Nor am I asking you to," he said. "I simply want to give you information that might help you in your efforts. "

  "You aren't listening. I am not going to kill anyone for you. "

  His teeth suddenly showed, very white against the tan. "But you will go up against them. "

  "Yes. "

  He settled back in his seat. "I've seen what you do to the people who get in your way. I'm willing to take my chances. "

  That thought, that attitude, was a little creepier than I was comfortable with. I wasn't a killer. I mean, sure, sometimes I fought. Sometimes people and not-people got killed. But it wasn't as though I was some kind of Jack the Ripper. From time to time matters got desperately dangerous between me and various denizens of the preternatural world, but I had only killed. . .

  I thought about it for a minute.

  I'd killed more of them than I hadn't.

  Quite a few more.

  I felt a little sick to my stomach.

  Marcone watched me from behind hooded eyes and waited.

  "What do you want to tell me?" I asked him.

  "I don't want to waste your time," he said. "Ask me questions. I'll answer whichever I can. "

  "How much do you know about the deal that got Mendoza killed?"

  He drummed the fingers of his right hand on his thigh for a moment. "Mendoza was getting ready to retire," Marcone said. "He had a final scheme to complete. I owed the man for loyalties past, and at his request I allowed him certain liberties. "

  "He was selling something independently?"

  Marcone nodded. "The contents of an old storage locker. Mendoza had come across the key to it in an estate sale. "

  That was criminal-speak for purchasing hot merchandise from a mugger or burglar. "Go on. "

  "The key opened a storage locker that had been sealed since 1945. It contained a number of works of art, jewelry, and similar cultural artifacts. "

  I arched an eyebrow. "Loot from World War Two?"

  "So Mendoza presumed," Marcone said. "He offered me my selection of the contents, and in return I allowed him to dispose of the rest in whatever manner he saw fit. "

  "What did you get out of it?" I asked.

  "Two Monets and a Van Gogh. "

  "Holy crap. " I shook my head. "What happened then?"

  "Mendoza went about liquidating his cache. It had been in process for several weeks when he reported that one of the people he had approached regarding an antique book seemed to have access to resources that were well beyond the ordinary. "

  "Did he give you a name?" I asked.

  "A man named Grevane," Marcone said. "Mendoza asked for my advice on the matter. "

  "And you told him about how wizards are technologically challenged. "

  "Among other things," he said, nodding.

  "But the deal went south. "

  "So it would seem," Marcone said. "Since Mendoza's death, I have asked Miss Gard to collect information on recent events in the local supernatural community. "

  I glanced at the woman and nodded. "And she told you there were necromancers running around. "

  "Once that had been established, we attempted to narrow down the location of these individuals, particularly Grevane, but met with very limited success. "

  "I'm able to find where they've been," Gard said without turning around. "Or at least where they've been weaving their spells. "

  "And there are a number of hot spots of necromantic energy around town," I said. "I know that already. "

  Marcone placed his fingers in a steeple before him. "But what I suspect you do not know is that last night at the location on Wacker, a member of my organization had an altercation with representatives of a rival interest from out of town. There was a gunfight. My man was mortally wounded and left for dead. "

  "That doesn't add up to necromancy," I said, frowning. "What caused the hot spot?"

  "That is the question," Marcone said. He took a folded piece of paper from his breast pocket and passed it to me. "These are the names of the responding EMTs," he said. "According to my man, they were the first on the scene. "

  "Did he talk to you before he died?" I asked.

  "He did," Marcone replied. "In point of fact, he did not die. "

  "Thought you said he was mortally wounded. "

  "He was, Mister Dresden," Marcone said, his features remote. "He was. "

  "He survived. "

  "The surgeons at Cook County thought it a bona fide miracle. Naturally I thought of you at once. "

  I rubbed at my chin. "What else has he said?"

  "Nothing," Marcone said. "He has no memory of the events after he saw the ambulance arriving. "

  "So you want me to talk to the EMTs. Why haven't you done it yourself?" I asked.

  He arched his brows. "Dresden. Try to keep in
mind that I am a criminal. For some reason it's quite difficult to get people in uniforms to open their hearts to me. "

  I gritted my teeth at another agonizing twinge from my leg. "Right. "

  "So," he said, "we're back to my original question. How serious is your injury?"

  "I'll make it," I said.

  "Do you think you'll need to see a doctor? If it's too mild a wound, I'll be glad to have Miss Gard make it look more authentic. "

  I looked at him for a moment. "I'm heading for an emergency room whether I need it or not, eh?"

  "As luck would have it, we are near a hospital. Cook County, in fact. "

  "Yeah. The cut's pretty deep. " I looked at the piece of paper and then stuck it in my pocket. "There's bound to be an EMT or two there. Maybe you should drop me off at the emergency room. "

  Marcone smiled, and it didn't touch his eyes. "Very well, Dresden. You have my deepest sympathies for your pain. "