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Chapter Eighteen

The handy part about riding with a cop was that she has the cool toys to ointo the street fro lot next to ht on the roof and started a siren That part was pretty neat

The rest of the ride wasn&039;t nearly as fun Moving "fast" through a crowded city is a relative tero itWe went through half a dozen alleys, hopped one bad intersection by driving up over the curb through a parking lot, and swerved through traffic at such a rate thatand sloshing around in a distinctly unpleasant fashion

"Kill the noise and light," I said a couple of blocks fro, "Why?"

"Because whatever is there, there are several of them and Thomas didn&039;t think he could handle them" I drew &039;s on fire So let&039;s hope that nothing&039;s gone down yet and we&039;ll be all sneaky-like until we knohat&039;s happening"

"Still with the revolvers," Murphy said, shaking her head She drove past the street leading to the storage units and went one block past it instead before she turned and parked "When are you going to get a serious gun?"

"Look," I said, "just because you&039;ve got twice as many bullets as me-"

"Three times as many," Murphy said "The SIG holds twenty"

"Twenty!? Look the point is that-"

"And it reloads a lot faster You&039;ve just got soht? No speed loader?"

I stuck the gun back in my pocket and tried to ot out of the car "That&039;s not the point"

Murphy shook her head "Da to work," I said, starting toward the storage park "I&039;ve seen automatics jam before"

"New ones?"

"Well, no"

Murphy had placed her own gun in the pocket of her light sports jacket "It&039;s a good thing you&039;ve got options That&039;s all I&039;h for Indiana Jones," I said, "it&039;s good enough for me"

"He was a fictional character, Harry" Her mouth curved up in a small smile "And he had a whip"

I eyed her

Her eyes sparkled "Do you have a whip, Dresden?"

I eyed her evenon to hed, her smile white and fierce, as we rounded a corner and found the white rental van where Thoe park

Twononchalantly in the su sunshine on the sidewalk next to the van

On second glance, they earing the exact sarey hat, in fact

"Feds?" I asked Murphy quietly as we turned down the sidewalk

"Even feds shop at different stores," she said "I&039; a weird vibe here, Harry"

I turned h the ten-foot-high blackthat surrounded it

I saw another pair of e units Two more pairs were on the next And two more on the one after that

"That makes twelve," Murphy murmured to me She hadn&039;t even turned her head Murphy has cop powers of observation "All in the same suit"

"Yeah, they&039;re fros froo with it" I thought about it for a couple of steps "The fact that they all picked the sa for the I&039;d only have to go on a date with one of the that you need a sense of self to have a sense of self-preservation"

Murphy exhaled slowly "That&039;s just great" She moved a hand toward her other pocket, where I knew she kept her cell "More ht set the, if the et soft and shoot so"

"You&039;ve seen too er, it&039;s because they intend to kill someone We leave the trick shots to SWAT snipers and Indiana Jones"

I looked at the booth beside the entrance to the storage park There was nor the day But there was no one in the booth-or in sight on the street, for that matter

"Where is your unit?" Murphy asked

I waggled ht where it&039;s always been, dollface"

She made a noise that sounded like someone about to throw up

"First row past the middle," I said "Down at the far end of the park"

"We have to walk past those two jokers by the van to see it"

"Yeah," I said "But I don&039;t think these suits have found it yet They&039;re still here, and still looking If they had located Morgan, they&039;d be gone already" As we approached, I noticed that the two tires next to the curb on the white rental van were flat "They&039;re worried about a getaway"

"Are you sure they aren&039;t human?" Murphy asked

"Uood enough Are they froht not be able to tell until we get closer," I said "Might even need to touch one of them"

She took a slow, deep breath "As soon as you&039;re certain," she said, "tell me Shake your head if you&039;re sure they aren&039;t human Nod if you can&039;t tell or if they are"

We were less than twenty feet away froue or ask questions "Okay"

I took a few y so thick and heavy that it iveaway of a hostile supernatural presence I twitched rey suits spun around at precisely the same time at precisely the same speed to face me Both of them opened their mouths

Before any sound could come out, Murphy produced her sidearm and shot them both in the head

Twice

Double-tapping the target like that is a professional killer&039;s policy There&039;s a set at an oblique angle and caroe possibility-but a double tap drops the odds from "very unlikely" to "virtually impossible"

Murphy was a cop and a coets She did the whole thing in one s harey suits didn&039;t have ti to avoid their fate Clear liquid exploded from the backs of their skulls, and bothdolls, their bodies and outfits defor but ectoplasel that was the matter of the Nevernever

"Hell&039;s bells," I choked, as my adrenaline spiked after the fact

Murphy kept the gun on the two until it was obvious that they weren&039;t going to take up a second career as headless horsemen Then she looked up and down the street, her cold blue eyes scanning for more threats as she popped the almost-full clip from the SIG and slapped a fully loaded one back in

She may look like somebody&039;s favorite aunt, but Murph can play hardball

A couple of seconds later, what sounded like the howls of a gang of rabid band saws filled the air There were a lot more than twelve of them

"Corey suits weren&039;t individualists It wasn&039;t unthinkable that they would possess so the look-outs had obviously both alerted and enraged the others, and I figured that they would respond the way any colony-consciousness does when one of itsto kill us

We couldn&039;t afford to run, not when they were this close to Morgan and Molly, but if the grey suits caught us on the open street, ere hosed Our only chance was to e park while they went screah, we an and coh the portal in the floor and into the Nevernever

I pounded across the street and through the entrance, with Murphy on rew louder, and made it into the center row just asout of the other rows Soravel with their expensive shoes, putting up a new tone of howl The others belatedly began to turn as well, and then ere all the way into the center row of storage units, still rey suits rushed after us, but Murphy and I had a good forty-yard lead, and they didn&039;t appear to be superhu to make it

Then I ree bay was locked shut

I fu to pull it out of the front pocket of ured that if I didn&039;t get the door unlocked and open on the first try, the grey suits would catch up to us and kill us both

So naturally I dropped the da on the gravel I looked around wildly for the dropped key, horribly aware of thetoward us, now in eerie silence

"Harry!" Murphy said

"I know!"

She appeared beside rey suit "Harry!"

"I know!"

Metal glearavel and I swooped down on it as Murphy opened fire with precise,sprawl The others just vaulted over hi

I&039;d found the key, but it was already too late

Neither of us was going to make it to the shelter of my hideaway

Chapter Nineteen

"Stay close!" I shouted I thrust the end ofa line in the dust and stones I swiftly inscribed a quick, rough circlebetween her gun and the grey suits for a second

"Daet down!" she shouted

I did so, reaching out to touch the line in the gravel, slan Murphy&039;s gun barked twice I felt the energy gather in the circle and coalesce in a rush, snapping into place in a sudden and invisible wall

The nearest of the grey suits staggered, and then flung itself into a forward dive Murphy flinched back, and I grabbed her, hard, before she could cross the circle and disrupt it

The grey suit sla froht that described a phantorey suits did exactly the sa off the circle&039;s field

"Easy!" I said to Murphy, still holding her against le against being held in place "It&039;s okay," I said "As long as we don&039;t break the circle, they can&039;t get through"

We were both shaking Murphy took a pair of gulping breaths We just stood there for a rey suits spread out around the circle, reaching out with their hands to find its edges I had tiet a better look at theht and weight Their features were unremarkable and similar, if not quite identical They looked as if they could have all been from the sareen, and there was no expression, none whatsoever, on their faces

One of them reached out as if to try to touch ainst the circle&039;s field As it did, a freaking ers It was lined with serrated sharklike teeth, and a slithering, coiling purple-black tongue e a way through Yellowish ue as it did

"Okay," Murphy said in a s"

"And it&039;s gonna get better," I rey suits started doing the sa Within seconds, ere coues, and dripping slih"

"Tellkeep thes," I said "As long as the circle&039;s here, they&039;re staying outside it"

"Couldn&039;t they just scuff dirt on it or so the circle isn&039;t just a physical process It&039;s an act of choice, of will-and these things don&039;t have that"

Murphy frowned "Then why are they doing anything at all?"

I had to restrainmy forehead with the heel of my hand "Because someone summoned them from the Nevernever," I said "Their su them orders"

"Could he break the circle?" Murphy asked

"Yeah," I said "Easily"

"Which is an excellent note upon which to begin our conversation," said a man&039;s voice with a heavy Cockney accent "Make a hole, lads"

The suits on one side of the circle lowered their hands and stood back, revealing a blocky bulldog of a ht, but heavy and solid with muscle, and he wore a few too many extra beers around his middle His features were blunt and rounded, like water-worn stone His hair was graying and cut into the shortest buzz you could get without going bald, and his eyes were srey suits, a distinctive grey-green

"Ah, love," said the"I think it&039;s quite fine to see couples who aren&039;t afraid to express their affection for each other"

I blinked at hi her loosely against me By the expression on her face, Murph hadn&039;t really taken note of the fact, either She cleared her throat and took a s careful not to step on the circle in the gravel

He nodded at us, still grinning " &039;Allo, Dresden Why not make this easy for all of us and tellin?"

I suddenly realized that I recognized this jerk from the profile the Wardens had on him "Binder," I said "That&039;s what they call you, isn&039;t it?"

Binder&039;s shtly at the waist "The same"