Small Favor

"Yes," she said. "They’ll be here as soon as possible-which is about nine hours from now."

"Not fast enough," I said, and narrowed my eyes in thought. "So we call in some favors."

"Favors?" Luccio asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I know a guy with a boat."

Chapter Forty

I rushed around setting up details for the next half an hour. Everyone left to get into position except for me, Molly, and Kincaid. And Mouse.

My dog was clearly upset that I wasn’t going to be bringing him along, and though he dutifully settled down on the floor near Molly’s feet, he looked absolutely miserable.

"Sorry, boy," I told him. "I want you here to help Molly and warn her about any danger."

He sighed.

"I got along just fine without you for quite a while," I told him. "Don’t you worry about me."

He rolled onto his back and gave me another pathetic look.

"Hah. Just trying to cadge a tummy rub. I knew it." I leaned down and obliged him.

A minute later the back door opened, and Thomas came in. "Finally," he said. "I’ve been sitting in my car so long, I think I left a dent in the seat."

"Sorry."

"I’ll live. What can I do to help?"

"Get back in your car and give me a ride to my place."

Thomas gave me a level look. Then he muttered something under his breath, pulled his keys out of his pocket, and stalked back out into the snow.

"You’re horrible," Molly said, grinning.

"What?" I said. "I’m expressing my brotherly affection."

I shrugged into my coat and picked up my staff. "Remember the plan?"

"Man the phone," Molly said, ticking off each point on her fingers. "Keep my eyes open. Make sure Mouse stays in the same room as me. Check on Kincaid every fifteen minutes."

At one time she would have been sullen about the prospect of being forced to sit at home when something exciting was under way-but she had grown up enough to realize just how dangerous things could be out there, and to respect her own limitations. Molly was extraordinarily sensitive when it came to the various energies of magic. It was one of the things that made her so good at psycho-mancy and neuromancy. It also meant that when violent personal or supernatural events started happening, she experienced them in such agonizing clarity that it would often incapacitate her altogether, at least for a few minutes. Combat magic was never going to be her strong suit, and in a real conflict she could prove to be a lethal liability to her own allies.

But at least the kid knew it. She might not like it very much, but she’d applied herself diligently to finding other ways to help fight the good fight. I was proud of her.

"And don’t forget your homework," I said.

She frowned. "I still don’t understand why you want to know about our family tree."

"Humor me, grasshopper. I’ll buy you a snow cone."

She glanced out the window at the world of white outside. "Goody." She looked back at me and gave me a small, worried smile. "Be careful."

"Hey, there were almost twenty of these losers at the Shedd. Now we’re down to six."

"The six smartest, strongest, and oldest," Molly said. "The ones who really matter."

"Thank you for your optimism," I said, and turned to go. "Lock up behind me."

Molly bit her lip. "Harry?"

I paused.

Her voice was very small. "Look out for my dad. Okay?"

I turned and met her eyes. I drew an X over my heart and nodded.

She blinked her eyes quickly several times and gave me another smile. "All right."

"Lock the door," I told her again, and trudged out into the snow. The lock clicked shut behind me, and Molly watched me slog through the snow to the street. Thomas’s military moving van came rumbling through the snow, tires crunching, and I got in.

He turned the heater up a little while I stomped snow off of my shoes.

"So," he said, starting down the street. "What’s the plan?"

I told him.

"That is a bad plan," he said.

"There wasn’t time for a good one."

He grunted. "November is not a good time to be sailing on Lake Michigan, Harry."

"The aftermath of a nuclear holocaust isn’t a good time to be sailing there, either."

Thomas frowned. "You aren’t just running your mouth, here, are you? You’re serious?"

"It’s a worst-case scenario," I said. "But Nicodemus could do it, so we’ve got to proceed under the presumption that his intentions are in that category. The Denarians want to disrupt civilization, and with the Archive under their control, they could do it. Maybe they’d use biological or chemical weapons instead. Maybe they’d crash the world economy. Maybe they’d turn every program on television into one of those reality shows."

"That’s mostly done already, Harry."

"Oh. Well. I’ve got to believe that the world is worth saving anyway." We traded forced grins. "Regardless of what they do, the potential for Really Bad Things is just too damned high to ignore, and we need all the help we can get."

"Even help from one of those dastardly White Court fiends?" Thomas asked.

"Exactly."

"Good. I was getting tired of dodging Luccio. There’s a limited amount of help I can give you if I have to stay out of sight all the time."

"It’s necessary. If the Council knew that you and I were related…"

"I know, I know," Thomas said, scowling. "Outcast leper unclean."

I sighed and shook my head. Given that the White Court’s modus operandi generally consisted of twisting people’s minds around in one of several ways, I didn’t dare let anyone on the Council know that Thomas was my friend, let alone my half brother. Everyone would immediately assume the worst-that the White Court had gotten to me and was controlling my head through Thomas. And even if I convinced them that it wasn’t the case, it would look suspicious as hell. The Council would demand I demonstrate loyalty, attempt to use Thomas as a spy against the White Court, and in general behave like the pompous, overbearing assholes that they are.

It wasn’t easy for either of us to live with-but it wasn’t going to change, either.

We got to my apartment and I rushed inside. It was cold. The fire had burned down to nothing in the time I’d been gone. I lifted my hand and murmured under my breath, the spell lighting half a dozen candles at the same time. I grabbed everything I was going to need, waved the candles out again, and hurried back out to Thomas’s car.