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I woke up in the back of Michael&039;s pickup staring up at the stars and the moon and in considerable pain Sanya sat at the back of the truck, facingbeside me
"He&039;s awake," Sanya said when he saw
Murphy&039;s voice came from the front of the truck "Harry, be still, okay? We don&039;t kno badly you&039;ve been shot"
"Okay," I said "Hi, Murph It should have torn"
"What?" Murphy asked
"Shroud It should have torn like wet tissue That just ht?"
"Shhhhh, Harry Be still and don&039;t talk"
That sounded fine to ue
This, all by itself, is enough to really ruin your day
I was lying on the exaown and his tray of autopsy instruments, stood over me
"I&039;m not dead!" I sputtered "I&039;m not dead!"
Murphy appeared in my field of vision, her hand on et the bullet out of you We can&039;t take you to the eunshot wounds"
"I don&039;t know," Butters said "This X ray is all screwed up I&039; ht, I could s worse"
"You can do it," Murphy said "The technical stuff always s spun around
Michael stood over me at one point, his hand on my head "Easy, Harry It&039;s al to require an aret to hell
When I woke up again, I was in a small bedroom Stacks and boxes and shelves of fabric filled the place nearly to the ceiling, and I suest room
On the floor next to the bed was Michael&039;s breastplate There were four neat holes in it where the bullets had gone through I sat up My shoulder screa
There was a sound by the door A small pair of eyes peeked around the corner, and little Harry Carpenter stared at rey eyes
"Hi," I said to hiers and waved them at me
"I&039;htfully and then said, "Hay"
"Good enough, kid"
He ran off Away up over his head to hold on to his daddy&039;s fingers Michael ca jeans, a clean white T-shirt, and bandages over one ar, and he looked rested and relaxed "Good afternoon," he said
I smiled tiredly at him "Your faith protects you, eh?"
Michael reached down and turned the breastplate around There was a crea in the inside of the breastplate, with several deep dents in it He peeled it back to showceraainst the front of the breastplate "My faith protects hed a little "Charity made you put it in?"
Michael picked up little Harry and put him on his shoulders "She did it herself Said she wasn&039;t going to spend all that trouble un"
"She made the breastplate?" I asked
Michael nodded "All of my armor She used to work on h to make me miss the next sentence "Sorry What did you say?"
"I said you&039;ll need to take your medicine Can you handle some food first?"
"I&039;ll try"
I had soup It was exhausting I took a Vicodin and slept without dreaed to piece together what had happened fro to Michael and, on the second day, to Sanya
The big Russian had co me and Michael out of the water, had called Murphy and told her where to find us She had already been on the way, and got there in only a couple of minutes
The crew of the train, it turned out, had been killed The three goons that had been trussed up on the train had bitten down on suicide pills and were dead when the cops found theency roounshot wound was reported, Rudolph and company could have made my life hell
"I must be out of my mind," Murphy told me when she visited "I swear, Dresden, if this co it out on your hide"
"We&039;re fighting the good fight, Murph," I said
She rolled her eyes at me, but said, "I saw the body at the airport concourse, Harry Did you know him?"
I looked out the , at Michael&039;s three youngest playing in the yard, watched over by a tolerant Molly "He was a friend It could have been me instead"
Murphy shivered "I&039;et away froot away from them I don&039;t think I did much more than annoy them"
"What happens when they come back?"
"I don&039;t know," I said
"Wrong," Murphy said "The answer to that question is that you don&039;t know exactly but that you will certainly call Murphy froet less busted up when I&039;m around"
"That&039;s true" I covered her hand with onna make me puke, Dresden," she said "Oh, so you know Rudolph is out of SI The assistant DA he orking for liked his toadying style"
"Rudolph the Brownnosed Reindeer," I said
Murphy grinned "At least he&039;s not my problem anymore Internal Affairs has to worry now"
"Rudolph in Internal Affairs That can&039;t be good"
"One monster at a time"
On the fourth day, Charity inspected my wound and told Michael that I could leave She never actually spoke to me, which I considered an improvement over most visits That afternoon, Michael and Sanya ca Shiro&039;s battered old cane
"We got the swords back," Michael said "This is for you"
"You&039;ll have a better idea what to do with that than me," I told him
"Shiro wanted you to have it," Michael said "Oh, and you got some mail"
"I what?"
Michael offered me an envelope and the cane as a unit I took the was in black calligraphy, and flowed beautifully across the envelope
"To Harry Dresden And it&039;s your address, Michael Posted
I opened the envelope and found two pages inside One was a copy of a medical report The other was ornately handwritten, like the envelope It read:
Dear Mr Dresden,
By the tiiven the details, but I know a few things that will happen over the next few days I write you now to say what I ht not have the chance to in the flesh
Your path is often a dark one You do not always have the luxury that we do as Knights of the Cross We struggle against powers of darkness We live in black and white, while you reys It is never easy to know the path in such a place
Trust your heart You are a decent man God lives in such hearts
Enclosed is a h I have not shared it with Michael or Sanyo It is ive you a measure of comfort in the face of my choice Do not waste tears on me I love my work We all must die There is no better way to do so than in the pursuit of so you love
Walk in mercy and truth,
Shiro
I read over theat several tears
"What is it?" Sanya asked
"It&039;s fro"
Michael frowned at me
I held up the medical report "Cancer Terminal He knehen he ca breath "Now I understand"
"I don&039;t"
Michael passed the report to Sanya and smiled "Shiro must have known that ould need you to stop the Denarians It&039;s why he traded himself for your freedom And why he accepted the curse in your place"
"Why?"
Michael shrugged "You were the one we needed You had all of the infor as Father Vincent You had contacts within the local authorities to give you access to more information, to help us e needed the concourse emptied You were the one who could call in Marcone for his help"
"I&039;lowering
"It says that you were the right ht time," Michael said "What of the Shroud? Does Marcone have it?"
"I think so"
"How should we handle it?"
"We don&039;t I do"
Michael regarded ht" He stood up and then said, "Oh The dry cleaners called They said they&039;re going to charge you a late fee if you don&039;t swing by and pick up your laundry today I&039;roceries I can take you"
"I don&039;t have anything that goes to a dry cleaners," I muttered But I ith Michael
The dry cleaners had my leather duster It had been cleaned up and covered with a protective treat with a bill to a parking garage On the back of the bill, written in flowing letters, were the words thank you
So I guess Anna Valmont wasn&039;t all that horrible a person after all
But then, I&039;ve always been a sucker for a pretty face
When I got back to my house, I found a postcard with a picture of Rio and no return address with my mail There was a nus, Susan asked, "Harry?"
"Harry," I said
"Are you all right?"
"Shot," I said "It&039;ll heal"
"Did you beat Nicodeot away froue But he killed Shiro"
"Oh," she said quietly "I&039;otmail as I spoke
Susan asked, "What about the Shroud?"
"Jury&039;s not out yet Marcone got involved"
"What happened?" she said
"He saved my life," I said "Michael&039;s too He didn&039;t have to do it"
"Wow"
"Yeah Soet, the hed "Harry I&039;m sorry I wasn&039;t around By the time I was conscious, ere already over Central America"
"It&039;s okay," I said
"I didn&039;t knohat Martin had in mind," she said "Honestly I wanted to talk to you and to Trish and pick up a few ofto help I didn&039;t know that he had coa He used me to cover his movements"