“Meaning what?” I asked.
He smiled and shook his head. “Meaning, mostly, that I have faith that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. I meant what I said about you.”
I snorted gently and shook my head. “Harry Dresden. I’m on a mission from God.”
“Seems an awfully unlikely coincidence, does it not? That the one person Michael knows on the Council should be the one in the position to best help his daughter, just when he was called away?”
I shrugged. “Coincidences happen,” I said. “And I don’t think God’s got me warming up in the bullpen to be one of his champions.”
“Perhaps not,” Forthill said. “But I think that you are being prepared, nonetheless.”
“Prepared?” I asked. “For what? By whom?”
Forthill shook his head. “It’s an old man’s hunch, that’s all. That the things you’re facing now are there to prepare you for something greater. Something more.”
“God,” I said. “I hope not. I’ve got problems enough without working up to bigger ones.”
He chuckled and nodded. “Perhaps you’re right.”
I frowned over a thought. “Padre. Tell me something. Why in the world would the Almighty send Michael off on a mission just when his family most needed him to protect them?”
Forthill arched an eyebrow. “My son,” he said, “God knows all things at all times. By His very nature, his omniscience enables Him to know what has happened, is happening, and will happen. Though we might not be able to see His reasons, or to agree with them from our perspectives, they are yet there.”
“So what you’re saying is that the Almighty knows best, and we just have to trust Him.”
Forthill blinked. “Well. Yes.”
“Is there any reason that the Almighty couldn’t do something blatantly obvious?”
Poor Forthill. He’d been preparing himself for years for a theological duel with the shadowy wizard Dresden, and when the moment came, I wasn’t even giving him a real fight. “Well. No. What do you mean?”
“Like maybe the Almighty didn’t send Michael away right when he was needed to protect his daughter. Maybe He sent Michael away because that’s exactly what He wanted him to do.” I let out a short laugh. “If I’m wrong, it would be one hell of a coincidence…” I frowned for a moment, then said, “Do me a favor. Go get Molly for me. Council procedure says that I can’t leave her alone. I’ve got to keep her with me until it’s done.”
He rose and nodded, agreeable if still slightly baffled. “Very well.”
“And I need to know something, Father. Do you know where Michael is right now?”
Forthill shook his head.
“Could you get word to him?” I asked. “I mean, if you really had to?”
He tilted his head, frowning, and asked, “Why?”
“Because I’ve had an idea,” I said. “Can you get in touch with him?”
Forthill smiled.
Chapter Forty-four
My mechanic’s skills bordered on the supernatural. He left word with me that the Beetle was ready to resume active duty, and that while it didn’t look like much, the car would roll when I pushed the pedals-which was all I really needed it to do. So Molly and I rolled up to the lakeside warehouse where I’d met with the Council at the start of this mess.
When I shut down the engine, the Beetle rattled and shuddered hard enough to click my teeth together before it died. It continued wheezing and clicking for several seconds afterward.
Molly stared out ahead of her, her face pale. “Is this the place?”
The rundown old warehouse looked different in the orange evening light than it had at high noon. Shadows were longer and darker, and emphasized the flaws and dents in the building, giving the place a much more rundown, abandoned appearance than I had remembered. There were fewer cars there, as well, and it gave the place an even more abandoned atmosphere.
“That’s the place,” I said quietly. “You ready?”
She swallowed. “Sure,” she said, but she looked frightened and very, very young. “What comes next?”
I got out of the car as an answer, and Molly followed suit. I squinted around, but no one was in sight until the air shimmered about twenty feet away and Ramirez stepped out of the veil that had hidden him.
Carlos Ramirez was the youngest wizard ever given the post of regional commander in the Wardens. He was average height, his skin glowing with bronze health, and he wore both the grey cloak of the Wardens and one of their-or rather, our, except that I don’t have one-silver swords at his left hip. At his right he wore a heavy semiautomatic in a holster, and his military-style web belt also bore several hand grenades.
“Good veil,” I said. “Way better than the other day.”
“I wasn’t here the other day,” he assured me with bland confidence.
“Your work?” I asked.
“I make it look easy,” he said without a trace of modesty. “It’s a curse to be so damned talented when I’m already obscenely good-looking, but I try to soldier on as best I can.”
I laughed and offered him my hand. He shook it. “Dresden,” he said.
“Ramirez.” I nodded to my right. “This is Molly Carpenter.”
He glanced at the girl, looking her up and down. “Miss,” he said, without a polite bow of his head. He glanced at me, indicated a direction with his hand, and said, “They’re ready for you. But walk with me for a minute? I need to talk with you.” He glanced at Molly. “Privately.”
I arched a brow at him. “Molly, I’ll be right back.”
She bit her lip and nodded. “O-okay.”
“Miss,” Ramirez said with a somewhat apologetic smile. “I need you to remain exactly where you’re standing now. All right?”
“Hell’s bells,” I muttered. “You think she’s that dangerous?”
“I think it’s security protocol,” Ramirez said. “If you didn’t want me doing it, you shouldn’t have asked me.”
I started to snarl an answer, but I choked it down and said, “Fine. Molly, just stand there for now. I won’t go out of sight of you.”
She nodded, and I turned with Ramirez. We walked several paces away over the gravel before he asked, “That the kid?”
Ramirez wasn’t old enough to get good car insurance rates himself, much less to refer to someone as “kid,” though he’d had to grow up awfully swiftly. He’d been an apprentice when the war with the Red Court erupted, and he’d done good service for the Council upon attaining status as a full wizard, fighting in several nasty engagements with the vampires. It was the kind of thing that made a man age in a hurry.
“That’s her,” I confirmed. “Did you get a chance to examine the victims?”
“Yeah.” He frowned and watched me for a moment before he said, “She’s someone you know.”
I nodded.
He glanced back at her. “Crud.”
I frowned at him. “Why?”
“I don’t think today is going to go well for her,” Ramirez said.
My stomach suddenly felt cold. “Why not?”
“Because of how the battle in Oregon played out,” he said. “Once the forces from Summer attacked their rear, we gave the vamps one hell of a beating. Morgan got within about twenty feet of the Red King himself.”
“Morgan killed him?”
“No. But it wasn’t for a lack of trying. He cut down a Duke and a pair of Counts before the Red King got away.”
“Damn,” I said, impressed. “But what does that have to do with Molly?”
“We had the Reds by the balls,” Ramirez said. “Sunrise was coming in the real world, and when they tried to retreat into the Nevernever the faeries were on them like a school of piranha. The Reds had to find a way to draw off some of our heavies and they found it. Luccio’s boot camp.”