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Chapter Thirty-Four

I let Mister back in after hisramble, which happened to fall between three and four PM that day - Mister has a coes on a basis sothat I have never been able to predict it - and took Mouse out for a stroll to the area of the boardinghouse&039;s little backyard set aside for him

Tick, tock, tick, tock

I took a bit of sandpaper to unk on the botto the haft I put on allI&039;d hung in the corner Half an hour&039;s worth of pounding on the bag wouldn&039;t bring the

Tick, tock

I showered after un and loaded it I pushed aside my coffee table and couch to lay outcareful not to disrupt the protective spells I&039;d scored in the hide with tattoo needles and black ink

In short, I did everything I could to avoid thinking about Anna Ash&039;s corpse in that cheap, clean little hotel room shohile the time crawled by

Tick, tock

At a quarter to six, there was a rapping sound outside my door I checked out the peephole Ra red basketball-type tank top, black shorts, and flip-flops He had a big gy over one shoulder and carried his staff, nearly as battle-scarred as ht hand He rapped the end of the staff down on the concrete outside again, instead of touching my door

I took down the wards and opened the steel security door It didn&039;t takeall the way open

"I thought you were going to get that fixed," Ramirez said to me He peered around the doorway before he eased forward through it, where I knew the presence of all the warding spells would be buzzing against his senses like a locoh they were temporarily deactivated "Jesus Christ, Harry You beefed them up even more"

"Got to exercise the apprentice&039;s talent soave me an affable leer "I&039;ll bet"

"Don&039;t even joke about that, man," I told him, without any heat in the words "I&039;ve known her since she was in pigtails"

Raed and said, "Sorry"

"No problem," I said

"But since I&039;m not an old man whose sex drive has withered fro I like Carlos But there are ti, that I want to punch him in the head until all his teeth fall out)

" - I&039;ll be the first to adirl is fine" He frowned and glanced around - a little nervously, I thought "Um Molly&039;s not here, is she?"

"Nope," I said "I didn&039;t ask her on this operation"

"Oh," he said His voice see of both approval and disappoint caing tail Ramirez produced a little cloth sack and tossed it up to Mister, where he lay in his favored spot atop one ofthe sack doith one paw and rubbing his whiskers all over it

"I disapprove of recreational drug use," I told Ramirez sternly

He rolled his eyes "Okay, Dad But since we all knoho really runs this house" - Raer behind one of Mister&039;s ears - "I&039;ll just keep on paying tribute lest I incur His Nibs&039;s imperial displeasure"

I reached up to rub Mister&039;s ears when Ramirez was done "So, any questions?"

"We&039;re going to sto of the White Court, call a couple of theht in front of all of their friends and relatives, right?"

"Right," I said

"It has the advantage of si onDesert Eagle, one of the most powerful semiautomatic sidearms in the world "Call the with that ?"

"We&039;re officially in a cease-fire," I said "And as we&039;ve announced ourselves as parties arriving to deliver challenge, they&039;d be in violation of the Accords to kill us"

Raun, and slapped a azine into it "Or we show up, they kill us, and then play like we left in good shape and vanished, and oh, dear, what a sha wo Ramirez doith him when he went"

I snorted "No In the first place, the Council would find out what happened one way or another"

"If any of them looked," Ramirez drawled

"Ebenezar would," I stated with perfect confidence

"How do you know?" Ramirez asked

I knew because my old mentor was the Blackstaff of the Council, their coal, immoral, unethical, and secret assassin, free to break the Laws of Magic whenever he deemed it fit - such as the First Law, "Thou shalt not kill" When Duke Ortega of the Red Court had challenged me to a formal duel and cheated, Ebenezar had taken it personally He&039;d pulled an old Soviet satellite down onto the vaa and his whole crew But I couldn&039;t tell Carlos that

"I know the old man," I said "He would"

"You know that," Ramirez said "What if the Whites don&039;t?"

"We count on our second safety net King Raith doesn&039;t want to get his finely accoutred ass deposed Our challenge is going to remove a couple of potential deposers He&039;ll want us to succeed After that, I figure quid pro quo should be enough to get us out in one piece"

Ra, our enerasp on the throne"

"Yeah"

"Why are we doing that again?"

"Because it ive the Council a chance to catch its breath, at least, if we can recover while Raith hosts peace talks" I narrowedsons of bitches have to pay for killing a lot of innocent people, and this is the only way to get to therenades frole "I like that second one better It&039;s a fight I can get behind Do we have any backup?"

"Maybe," I said

He paused and blinked up at me "Maybe?"

"Most of the Wardens are in India," I told hi daddy rakshasa started attacking some monasteries friendly to us while ere distracted with the va theuys, and Luccio&039;s trainees are the only Wardens in North Arunted "And uys haven&039;t had their cloaks for a year yet They are not up for so like this yet Half a dozen vamps in an alley, sure, but there&039;s only the three of theer in, look confident, kick ass You dealt with White Court before?"

"Not much They stay clear of our people on the coast"

"They&039;re predators like the rest of thee that tells theot some major mental influence skills, so keep focused and make sure your head is clear"

Ramirez produced a eb belt of black nylon He clipped a holster to it and then fixed the grenades in place "What&039;s going to stop the us the second in this duel?"

That&039;s one of the things I love about working with Ra the duel simply didn&039;t enter into his calculations "Their nature," I said "They like to play civilized, and do their ork through cat&039;s-paws They are not fond of direct methods and direct confrontation"

Raht, double-edged blade of a type he called a ord fro, and laid it on the table, too The tassel on the hilt had been torn off by a zoether He had replaced it, over the last few years, with a little chain strung with fangs taken froainst one another and the steel and leather of the hilt "I get it We&039;re the White King&039;s cat&039;s-paws"

I walked to the icebox "Bingo And we can&039;t hang around as potential threats to his rebellious courtiers if he kills us outright after we help hie his credibility with his allies, too"

"Ah," Ramirez said "Politicians"

I returned with two opened beers I gave one to hiainst his, and we said, in unison, "Fuck &039;em," and drank

Ramirez lowered the bottle, squinted at it, and said, "Can we do this?"

I snorted "Can&039;t be any harder than Halloween"

"We had a dinosaur then," Raue pants and a black Offspring T-shirt out of his bag He gave me an up-and-down look "Of course, we still do"

I kicked the coffee table into his shins He let out a yelp and hobbled off to change clothes inunder his breath the whole way

When he caot suited up Swords and guns and grey cloaks and staves and ht, yeehaw One of these days, I swear, as long as I&039; allon hat

I got out a yellow legal pad and a pen, and Ra is at the Raith family estate north of town I&039;ve been in the house, but only part of it Here&039;s what I re it out for Ramirez, who asked plenty of smart questions about both the house and exterior, so that I had to go to a new page to rounds "Not sure where the va to be in the Deeps It&039;s a cave outside the house, somewhere out here" I circled an area of the reat place to dispose of bodies, and no chance of being seen or heard"

"Very tidy," Ramirez noted "Especially if we&039;re the ones who need disposing of"

The doorknob twisted and began to open

Raun and had it out al rod pointed at the door So it five or six inches I flickedrod I put a hand on Raer It&039;s a friendly"

Raun, while I watched Mouse rise to his feet and pad toward the door, tail wagging

"Who is it?" he asked

"That backup we ed open by inches and Molly slipped inside

She&039;d ditched the Goth-wear als - nose rings are great fashion stateood idea Her clothing wasn&039;t all ripped up, either She wore heavy, loose jeans, and not slung so low on the hips that they&039;d threaten to fall off and trip her if she twitched her spine just right Her cohtly colored laces She wore a black shirt with a Metallica logo on it, and a web belt that bore a sheathed knife and the small first-aid kit I&039;d seen her reen baseball cap, with her hair gathered into a tail and tucked up under it, where it wouldn&039;t provide an easy handle for anyone wanting to grab it

Molly didn&039;t look up at us She greeted the big dog first, kneeling to give hi me, and looked up "Um Hi, Harry Hello, Warden Ra my voice neutral "Is this the third or fourth time in the last two days I&039;ve told you to stay honore ain "But I&039;d like to talk to you"

"I&039;m busy"

"I know But I really need to talk to you, sir Please"