Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files 8)

"It'll be like hanging a steak around his neck and throwing him to the lions," I said, grinning.

"Hail Caesar," Bob confirmed. "The phages will go right after him."

"And once he's out of the game, I veil the hotel from the phages. No more convention attendees get hurt. Bad guy gets a lethal dose of dramatic irony."

"The good guys win!" Bob cheered. "Or at least you do. You're still a good guy, right? You know how confusing the whole good-evil concept is for me."

"I'm thinking about changing it to 'them' and 'us,' for simplicity's sake," I said. "I like this plan. So there's got to be a catch to it somewhere."

"True," Bob admitted. "It's gonna be a little tricky when it comes to the timing. You won't be able to sense the beacon until the phages actually step through from the Nevernever and take material form. If you haven't redirected them by then, it'll be too late."

I nodded, frowning. "That gives me what? Maybe twenty seconds?"

"Only if they're really lame," Bob said. "Probably ten seconds. Maybe even less."

I frowned. "Dammit, that's a small window." I thought of another problem. "Not only that, but I'll be shooting blind. There won't be any way to tell who I'm setting the phages after. What if he's standing in a crowd?"

"He's going to be summoning fiends from the netherworld to wreak horror and death on the populace," Bob pointed out in a patient voice. "That won't lend itself to blending into a crowd."

"Good point. He'll probably be somewhere private, quiet." I shook my head. "Even so, I'd be a lot happier if this was a little less dicey. But I don't see any other way to stop these things from hurting anyone else."

"Until we have more information, I don't see what else you could do, boss."

I grunted. "I'd better get this web up and running, then."

Mouse's collar tag clinked against the buckle, and I looked over my shoulder. The dog had lifted his head from the floor, staring intently at the door. A second later, someone knocked.

Mouse hadn't started growling, and his tail thumped the wall a few times as I went to the door, sounding the all-clear. "That was fast," I said, opening the door. "I thought you were going to be half an hour, Murph-"

Molly stood in the hallway, an overnight bag hung over her shoulder. She drooped, the way my house plants always used to when I was still optimistic enough to keep buying new ones. Her pink-and-blue hair hung down listlessly, and her cheeks were marked with the remains of several mascara-laden tear tracks. She looked rumpled, tired, uncertain, and lonely-

"Hi," she said. Her voice wasn't much more than a whisper.

"Hey," I told her. "I thought you were waiting for your mom."

"I was," she said. "I am. But... I'm kind of messed up." She waved her hand gingerly at herself. "I wanted to clean up a little, but they won't let me use the bathroom in Nelson's room. I was hoping I could borrow yours. Just for a minute."

It would have been easier to dropkick a puppy than to turn the kid away. "Sure," I said. "Just keep it quiet. Okay?"

I stepped back into the room, and Molly followed me, pausing to scratch Mouse behind the ears. She looked past me, to the open floor space and the things I had sat out.

"What are you doing?" she asked me.

"Magic," I said. "What's it look like I'm doing?"

She smiled a little. "Oh. Right."

I waved a hand at my materials. "I'm going to try to prevent another attack from hurting anyone."

"Can you do that?" she asked.

"Maybe," I said. "I hope so."

"I can't believe... I mean, I knew there were things out there, but my friends... Rosie." Her lower lip quivered and her eyes filled with tears that didn't quite fall.

I didn't have much I could say to comfort her. "I'm going to stop it from happening again," I said quietly. "I'm sorry I didn't move fast enough the first time."

She looked down again, and nodded without speaking. She swallowed several times.

"Listen," I told her quietly. "This is serious stuff. You need to talk about it. Not with me," I added, as she looked up at me. "With your mom."

Molly shook her head. "She isn't-"

"Molly," I sighed. "Life can be short. And cruel. You saw that last night. You got a look at the kind of thing your dad deals with all the time."

She didn't respond.

I said quietly, "Even Knights can die, Molly. Shiro did. It could happen to Michael, too."

She lifted her head abruptly, staring at me as if in shock.

"How does that make you feel?" I asked.

She chewed on her lip. "Scared."

"It scares your mom, too. It scares her a lot. She deals with it by holding on hard to the people around her. Maybe too hard, sometimes. That's why you feel like she's trying to keep you a little kid. She probably is. But it isn't because she's a control freak. It's because she loves you all so much-you, your dad, your family-and she's frightened that something bad could happen. She's desperate to do everything she can to keep you all safe."

Molly didn't look up or respond.

"Life is short," I said. "Too short to waste it on stupid arguments. I'm not saying your mom is perfect, because God knows she isn't. But my God, Molly, you've got the kind of family people like me would kill for. You think they'll always be there later-but they might not be. Life doesn't give you any guarantees."

I let that sink in for a minute, and then said, "I promised your dad that I'd ask you to talk to her. I told him I'd do my best to get the two of you to work things out."

She looked up at me, crying now, silently. More dark makeup trailed down her cheeks.

"Will you sit down with her, Molly? Talk?"

She took a shaking breath and said, "I don't know if it will do any good. We've said so much..."

"I can't force you to do it. No one can do that but you."

She sniffled for a moment. "It won't do any good."

"I don't expect miracles. Just try to talk to her. Please."

She took a breath, and then nodded, once.

"Thank you," I said.

She tried to smile once, and hovered outside the bathroom door for a moment more.

"Molly?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, but she didn't move, either.

I frowned. "Something you want to say?"

She looked up at me for just a second. "No," she said then, and shook her head. "No, it's nothing, really. Thank you. I won't be long." She stepped into the bathroom, shut the door, and locked it. The shower started a moment later.