Page 7 (1/2)

I followed Michael&039;s white pickup truck in the Blue Beetle to Saint Mary of the Angels Cathedral It&039;s a big, big church, a city landothic architecture, you can find it somewhere on Saint Mary&039;s We parked near the back of the cathedral, and went to the delivery entrance, a plain oak door fraly tended rose vines

Michael knocked at the door, and I heard the sound ofundone before the door opened

Father Anthony Forthill opened the door He was in his late fifties, balding, and carried a coht of years He wore black slacks and a black shirt, the stark white square of his clerical collar sharply delineated He was taller than Shiro, but a lot shorter than everyone else there, and beneath his glasses his eyes looked strained

"Success?" he asked Michael

"In part," Michael responded He held up the folded cloth and said, "Put this in the cask, please And we&039;ll need to splint an arm"

Forthill winced, and accepted the folded cloth with the kind of ginger reverence paid only to explosives and sa, Mister Dresden Come in, all of you"

"Father," I answered "You look like my day so far"

Forthill tried to s hallway Michael led us deeper into the church, up a flight of stairs to a storage roo tothe view of any s A old

"I&039;ll get food, so to drink," Michael said quietly He headed back out of the room "And I need to call Charity Sanya, you&039;d better sit down until we can see to your arm"

"I&039;ll be fine," Sanya said "I will help with food"

Shiro snorted and said, "Sit, boy" He headed for the door, catching up to Michael, and said, "Call your wife I will do the rest" The two left together, their voices lowering to bare lowered at the door for a moment and then settled down on one of the bunks He looked around at the rooic, I take it"

I folded ave it away?"

He bared his teeth, white against his dark skin "How long have you been a Wiccan?"

"A what?"

"A pagan A witch"

"I&039; out the door "I&039;m a wizard"

Sanya frowned "What is the difference?"

"Wizard has a Z"

He looked at me blankly

"No one appreciates ion It&039;s a little ion"

"And?"

"And I&039;ic, sure, but it&039;s like - being a ineer There are forces that behave a certain way If you knohat you&039;re doing, you can get theoddess or a whatever to get involved"

Sanya&039;s expression becaious man, then"

"I wouldn&039;t burden any decent syste in it"

The tall Russian regarded me for a moment and then nodded slowly "I feel the same way"

I felt ht?"

He shook his head "It is not I have been an atheist since childhood"

"You&039;ve got to be kidding ht of the Cross"

"Da," he said

"So if you&039;re not religious, you risk your life to help other people because -?"

"Because it ood of the people, soe their courage and their lives to protect the community"

"Just a ht of the Cross because you were a communist?"

Sanya&039;s face twisted with revulsion "Certainly not Trotsky Very different"

I stopped"How did you get your sword?"

He ood hand to rest on the hilt of the blade, where it lay beside hiave it tooff to Russia?"

"Not that Michael," Sanya said He pointed a finger up "That Michael"

I stared at hiet handed a holy sword by an archangel, told to go fight the forces of evil, and you so?"

Sanya&039;s scowl returned

"Doesn&039;t that strike you as lare darkened for maybe a minute before he took a deep breath and nodded "Perhaps sonostic?"

"One who does not commit himself to the certain belief in a divine power," he said

"I knohat it means," I said "What shocks me is that you think it applies to you You&039;ve met more than one divine power Hell, one of theo"

"Many things can break an aroddess to define your beliefs about the supernatural"

"Yeah, but I&039;ical Switzerland, that&039;s me"

Sanya said, "Semantics I do not understand your point"

I took a deep breath, still holding back the threat of giggles, and said, "Sanya My point is that you have got to beseen what you&039;ve seen, and claim that you aren&039;t sure whether or not there&039;s a God"

He lifted his chin and said, "Not necessarily It is possible that I am mad, and all of this is a hallucination"

That&039;s when I started laughing I just couldn&039;t help it I was too tired and too stressed to do anything else I laughed and enjoyed it thoroughly while Sanya sat on his cot and scowled at me, careful not to move his wounded ar a platter of sandwiches and deli vegetables He blinked through his owlish glasses at Sanya and then atto Sanya in what I took to be Russian The younger Knight transferred his scowl to Shiro, but nodded his head in a gesture deep enough to be part bow, before he rose, claie hand, and walked out

Shiro waited until Sanya was gone before he set the platter down on a card table My stoht of the sandwiches Heavy exertion coupled with insane fear does that to estured at the plate and pulled up a couple of folding chairs I sat down, nabbed a sandwich ofTurkey and cheese Heaven

The old Knight took a sandwich of his own, and ate hat appeared to be a similar appetite We munched for a while in contented silence before he said, "Sanya told you about his beliefs"

I felt the corners of e as another smile threatened "Yeah"

Shiro let out a pleased snort "Sanya is a good et why he&039;d be recruited as a Knight of the Cross"

Shiro looked atAfter a while, he said, "Man sees faces Sees skin Flags Mee bite, ate it, and said, "God sees hearts"

"If you say so," I said

He didn&039;t answer Right about the ti for the Shroud"

"That&039;s confidential," I said

"If you say so," he said, using my own inflection on the words The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you looking for it?" he asked, chewing

"If I a it because I&039;ve been hired to look for it"

"Your job," he said